Free Republic

People Not PlacardsThe real cost of Obama-style -diplomacy.by Elliott Abrams 12/07/2009, Volume 015, Issue 12 The Obama approach to world politics--engage, apologize, avoid friction, be humble, reach out to previously scorned tyrannical regimes--is being criticized nowadays on pragmatic grounds. A record of 10 months shows this modest approach has brought modest if any returns. Low costs, the president's defenders argue, and low risks, so it has been worth trying, even if the gains have been small.But the Obama approach has a moral cost that is usually overlooked and that is very high for our country and for embattled fighters for...

A Reason to Rally Malcolm A. Kline, November 13, 2009 One piece of hope and change on the campuses that voted overwhelmingly for the party in power is that anti-war rallies centered on the American occupation of Iraq have virtually disappeared. Ironically, there are developments worth protesting in the nascent democracy. For example, the plight of Iraq’s Christian population should be of concern to anyone who claims to be energized by human rights concerns. By all accounts, Iraqi Christians account for less than 10 percent of the country’s population but a much greater proportion of its refugees and internally displaced...

China continues to operate a network of "black jails" to detain poor people who attempt to go to Beijing to complain about injustices at the hands of corrupt local officials, according to Human Rights Watch. The unofficial jails, which have been found in the basements of hotels, hospitals and even government ministries, are guarded by privately-hired thugs and "retrievers" who are paid to abduct complainants before they reach senior officials in Beijing. The New York-based rights group's 53-page report , "An Alleyway in Hell", is based on interviews with former black jail inmates, Chinese journalists, lawyers and academics, and has...

Looks like the notorious UN Human Rights Council has taken a break from its constant bashing of Israel and is focusing on (ready for this?) housing violations in US cities, including New York. You didn't know that "adequate housing" (whether you pay for it or not) was universal human birthright? Neither did we. Nonetheless, the panel sent its "special rapporteur on adequate housing," Raquel Rolnik, on a whirlwind tour to sniff out these "violations" -- not to say, crimes -- against humanity. Rolnik launched her US visit last week in the city and is also traveling to places like Chicago,...

UNITED NATIONS — A Canadian-led bid to focus attention on Iran's human rights record says United Nations special investigators should turn their gaze on the Islamic republic, according to a draft resolution that's expected to be unveiled Thursday. The move by Canada and the measure's co-sponsoring governments comes amid criticism that many of UN human rights investigators spend a disproportionate amount of time probing alleged abuses in advanced democracies, while ignoring countries where the worst abuse takes place. The draft resolution calls on investigators of torture, extra-judicial executions, free speech suppression, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and persecution of human rights...

Sri Lanka is joining Israel as a country facing a war crimes investigation for effectively fighting back against terrorism.

For those of you who have never even heard of a “Special Rapporteur,” you may be surprised to find out that one has been appointed by the United Nations (UN), under a special mandate from the UN Human Rights Council (the successor to the corrupt and anti-Israel UN Commission on Human Rights), to open a probe—for the first time ever— into human rights violations by the United States because of a perception that there isn’t enough affordable public housing in urban areas.

"...what is wrong with a continent of people who support the rape of 13 year old girls. Does that continent have something in common, morally, with Somalia where a 13 year old girl was recently stoned to death for being raped?" Next up: "...Black African women in 1800 had good enough sense to run from the slavers in West Africa who desired to take them in chains to the new world. But white women born today in Moscow, London or New York..." And, finally, "Freeing ourselves from Europeanism: How is it that the committers of the Holocaust are the ones...

Peace has been an almost fleeting dream since the beginning of history, many died defending it, far more died pursuing it. Perhaps, it would be fitting for Obama to go Norway and accept the Nobel Prize in the name of the over one million American GIs who died during WWI, WWII and other conflicts throughout the world fighting tyranny. Yes, it would be most fitting for President Obama to accept the Nobel Prize in the name of those Americans who gave their lives so the world would enjoy freedom. But, he won't! Such emotions, such admiration, such pride, form no...

In Massachusetts not long ago, I found myself driving behind a car with "Free Tibet," "Save Darfur," and "Obama 08" bumper stickers. I wonder if it will ever dawn on the owner of that car that at least one of those stickers doesn't belong.

The world thinks better of the United States, we are told, because Barack Obama is in the White House. Maybe the world is wrong. It’s fanciful, of course, to speak of what “the world” thinks about anything. It’s safe to say that among Norwegian prize-givers and Canadian avant-garde filmmakers, Obama is extremely popular. And certainly among bien pensant Americans, the advent of Obama is viewed as the moral pinnacle of American history. It has always been a particular vanity of the Left to believe itself morally superior to others. But the claims for this presidency have been beyond extravagant. Global...

President Barack Obama is putting the finishing touches on making a mockery out of the unsupportable claim that Democrats care about women's rights by his signal to the Afghan Taliban, warlords, strongmen, militias, and tribal leaders that he's ready to negotiate with anyone there in order to smooth his efforts in that troubled region. President Obama is letting it be known that he's prepared to cut deals with the Taliban in order for Afghan warlords to cut ties with al Qaeda. Obama thinks he can work with the supposedly "moderate" Taliban groups in Afghanistan in a bid to oust al...

snip Also problematic is the resolution’s attempt to make the restriction of free speech a human right. In fact, it is free speech that constitutes a human right and not its restriction. Ideologies, ideas and religions do not, and should not be afforded “human rights." They should be fair game for criticism, analysis, open debate and discussion. Religions and ideologies cannot be “defamed." Once ideologies are afforded protection from criticism, it is in direct contradiction to individual human rights.snip

Islamic Groups Shut Down Worship of Church in Indonesia The Rev. Bedali Hulu (photo: Compass) Under pressure from Islamists, local officials order halt to services in home. JAKARTA, Indonesia, October 5 (CDN) — Several Islamic organizations have pressed officials in a sub-district near Indonesia’s capital city to forbid Jakarta Christian Baptist Church to worship in a house, resulting in an order to cease services. The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the Betawi Forum Group, and political party Hizbut Tahrir have told officials in Sepatan sub-district, Tangerang district, near Jakarta that worship activities cannot be conducted in a residence. The house belongs...

Christian Arrested for Distributing Tracts in Egypt Protestant Copt, 61, illegally detained then released without charges after four days. ISTANBUL, October 6 (CDN) — An Egyptian Christian arrested in Cairo for handing out gospel leaflets and held in prison illegally for four days has been released, the freed Protestant Copt told Compass. Abdel Kamel, 61, was arrested on Sept. 23 in downtown Cairo for handing out copies of a Christian leaflet. As they arrested him, police told Kamel it was “unlawful” to hand out religious information on public roads. When Kamel countered that Muslims commonly hand out Islamic literature, police...

[There are no graphic images in the article proper. They are accessed through a slide show only.]The photographs are graphic and detailed, showing the fingers or toes of aborted fetuses whose entire frames are no bigger than a cellphone. Since the mid-1990s, they have appeared all over the country — carried as posters by protesters, handed out with pamphlets or, in some cases, mounted like billboards on the sides of trucks. Like many others, I often wondered about the source of these images. Who took the pictures? Where did the fetuses come from? I had a chance to find some...

President Barack Obama's adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, has provoked controversy by appearing on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Sharia Law. The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party. The group believes in the non-violent destruction of Western democracy and the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia Law across the world.

A plumber whose arm was left twisted grotesquely out of shape in an accident ten months ago has had an operation to correct it 'cancelled four times'. Torron Eeles, 50, has been left unable to work since falling down the stairs and now fears he may lose his home after being denied incapacity benefit. The father-of-three today hit out at the NHS for the 'unacceptable delays', but East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust said Mr Eeles had his operation cancelled on 'only' two occasions on clinical safety grounds. His left arm has hung limply by his side since he fractured...

I've got to say, even for the Obama administration, this is a real shocker. The Clinton State Department has decided to cut off all funding for the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), which was compiling lists of protestors imprisoned in this summer's unrest, as well as those who were killed in the crackdown. IHRDC is what human-rights advocates should be: methodical, precise, and apolitical in their work. And yet, the Obama administration has, without explanation, cut off all federal funding to the group which has consistently fulfilled its mandate. Anyone, across the political spectrum who has any interest in...

An important Boston Globe story by Farah Stockman on the State Department's defunding of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) has been noted at Hot Air, the Corner, and Instapundit.

The Iran Human Rights Watch Documentation Center can be excused for thinking that this year might make them more indispensable than ever. After all, the Iranian mullahcracy rigged a presidential election and brutally suppressed widespread protests and demonstrations against the ruling elite. Their Basiji irregulars murdered and maimed people in the street. The State Department’s agency for documenting such human-rights abuses in that country would have to work overtime in the next several weeks just to catch up on all of the data they need to review from the last eleven weeks. Instead, they’re going to pack their bags and...

Good grief. You begin to wonder if the man has a list of Friendly Leaders I Still Need to Offend. The Washington Post is reporting that the Dalai Lama went to Washington this week – apparently expecting to be received at the White House – only to find that his meeting with the president has been “postponed… until after Obama’s summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month.” According to the Post, this is the “first time since 1991, the Tibetan spiritual leader will visit Washington this week and not meet with the president.” The snub could...

GENEVA (AFP) – Members of the UN Human Rights Council on Friday postponed a decision on a damning report on Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip that raised evidence of war crimes by both sides and possible crimes against humanity. The 47 member Council decided to delay until March 2010 a vote on the report by an independent international fact-finding mission headed by former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone. Goldstone last month recommended that the UN Security Council should ask the International Criminal Court to examine possible charges, unless progress was made in investigations in Israel and the...

Iran Exposed by: Allie Winegar Duzett, October 01, 2009 While activists in New York City got attention for opposing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United Nations last week, the New York City protesters were not the only ones to make their voices heard. Another protest in Washington, D.C., also featured those concerned about Iran. Among the protesters at the event were 65 school children from Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community High School. They had driven over an hour to get to the event. Principal and Rabbi Aaron Frank said that they were there to “stand up against Ahmadinejad’s intolerant human rights...

(09-29) 23:08 PDT BERKELEY, CALIF. -- Berkeley became the first city in the United States, and possibly the world, to agree to international human rights treaties on Tuesday night, after the City Council approved a measure usually reserved for countries. After a brief but spirited debate, the City Council voted unanimously to allow unpaid interns to report to the United Nations on how, or whether, Berkeley complies with treaties on civil liberties, racial discrimination and torture. The council also agreed to take the first step in raising parking revenue by voting unanimously to add 420 meters and increase the parking...

The Ten Biggest Lies of My Lifetime by J. Neil Schulman This is my short list of “Big Lies� — propaganda which is promoted by major movements, and which denying often gets one tagged as a lunatic, denier, hatemonger, or simply irrelevant.If you’re looking for me to put the Holocaust of European Jewry or Jihadis being responsible for 9/11 on this list, look elsewhere. I’m 56 years old, born in April 1953. So I’m limiting myself to Big Lies present in my own lifetime.Here we go, not in any chronological order. 1. The biggest threat to the human race...

After threatening to kill every homosexual, the Gambia’s leader threatens rights groups Human Rights groups in Africa are demanding that the African Union human rights commission Headquarters be removed from Gambia following a fierce threat made by the Gambian president on opposition leaders and human right workers. "If you are affiliated with any human rights group, be rest assured that your security is not guaranteed... we are ready to kill saboteurs. I will kill anyone who wants to destabilize this country. If you think that you can collaborate with so-called human rights defenders, and get away with it, you...

Pushing the issue of “Human Rights” in China has long been driven by misinformation and bitter rhetoric of which the Liberal left has long been happy to furnish Americans. This problem had been so dramatic in the past that even many Republicans have made the mistake of jumping on the liberal bandwagon when it comes to this issue. The left’s manipulation on Conservatives begins by using these facts: 1. It is natural for conservatives to have a distaste for “Communism” and “Socialism.” 2. The Chinese government is a Communist one. 3. Many Americans have long hated China because of that...

One can measure the failures of the film American Beauty in so many ways, but perhaps the best is to realize that the screenwriter was so unsure of his audience’s ability to spot a creep that he had to make Kevin Spacey’s next-door neighbor not just a sadist and a closet case but also a collector of Nazi memorabilia. I bring this up because a fetish for the baubles of fascism is generally thought to be a good way of alienating civilized company. The auction house Christie’s refuses to sell the stuff. And whatever the interpretative fallacies of the late...

Military will let Afghan detainees challenge their detentionPresident Obama is readying plans that will allow hundreds of prisoners in Afghanistan to begin challenging their detention, possibly as soon as this week, according to reports. The new system will assign a military official to each of about 600 prisoners, most of whom are being held at Bagram Air Base. The official could then gather exculpatory evidence and call witnesses before a board that has the power to decide whether the detainees should be held by U.S. or Afghan officials or be released, according to reports by The New York Times and...

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, Obama sides with IslamistsAlthough you would never know it from the mainstream media, many Americans never bought the ridiculous argument that Barack Obama was some sort of human rights activist. In fact, for some of us, he was just the opposite. As reported in an earlier Canada Free Press article (“Obama Sides with Islamists in Choudhury Case”), Obama was the only Washingtonian asked who did not take any action to support Muslim Zionist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. In 2003, Shoaib was arrested by Bangladeshi officials after he exposed the rise of radical Islam in his country,...

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that Section 13, Canada's much-criticized human rights hate speech law, is an unconstitutional violation of the Charter right to free expression because of its penalty provisions. The decision released Wednesday morning by tribunal chair Athanasios Hadjis appears to strip the Canadian Human Rights Commission of its controversial legal mandate to pursue hate on the Internet, which it has strenuously defended against complaints of censorship. It also marks the first major failure of Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, an anti-hate law that was conceived in the 1960s to target racist telephone...

Human rights group Amnesty International has argued that Sweden is taking part in torture after the country handed over its first prisoner in Afghanistan to local authorities, according to a report by Sveriges Radio news programme Ekot. "There is an absolute ban on torture and thus also a ban on handing over prisoners to countries in which there is a risk of torture," Lisa Bergh, Amnesty Sweden's Secretary-General, told Ekot. "It is patently clear that prisoners risk torture if they are handed over to the authorities in Afghanistan," Bergh explained. The prisoner was captured by Swedish forces in July after...

By Elliott Abrams At the height of the Cold War, when Ronald Reagan was president, the Soviets and their allies and satellites did not shirk human-rights debates with the West. They had their arguments ready. When American officials denounced the lack of freedom of speech or press or religion, or the absence of free elections, they did not whimper. Their replies went something like this: “It’s important to look at human rights more broadly than it has been defined. Human rights are also the right to a good job and shelter over your head and a chance to send your...

Before you try to line up this insanity with the old Inquisition garbage on destroying the sinner's body to save the soul - that's not what's happening here. This isn't a theocratic justification for torture, which would almost be too clean and honest for these cretins. That's the kind of spectacle that, for better or worse, you still have to own.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is trying to restore Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as the U.S. ace-in-the-hole in its decades-long effort to forge an elusive peace among Israel and the Arabs. After a serious falling out over Bush administration pressure on human rights and democracy in Egypt, Mubarak is back in the U.S. capital for the first time in more than five years to meet with Obama on Tuesday. The relationship is far from healed, despite Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton having eased back on those touchy issues and Egypt showing greater willingness to help with the...

China has in recent weeks resorted to unusually heavy-handed tactics to crack down on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), prominent lawyers and human-rights activists, sparking concern that a new round of persecution has begun on the nation's nascent civil society. Last month, authorities closed down the Open Constitution Initiative (locally known as Gongmeng), a NGO that provides free legal assistance, accusing it of tax evasion. Two weeks ago, its founder Xu Zhiyong, a respected law professor, was taken away by police and no one has been able to contact him since. About the same time Xu, 36, was arrested, police raided the...

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- An appeals court commuted the death sentences for four men convicted of killing an American diplomat and his Sudanese driver after the driver's family decided to pardon the murderers, a news agency reported Thursday. Sudanese law stipulates that if a victim's family chooses to pardon the murderer, the person cannot be sentenced to death and the prison term cannot exceed 10 years. The case will be referred back to the initial court for a new sentence, said the Sudan Media Center.

Prominent Russian human rights activist Natalya Estemirova was abducted outside her home in the Chechen capital, Grozny, last month. Hours later, her body was discovered in a forest in the neighboring region of Ingushetia. Estemirova, who'd investigated abductions, torture and other rights abuses in Chechnya, had been shot in the head. Estemirova's colleagues blame Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. They accuse him of fostering an atmosphere of impunity in which the abductions and killings of his critics take place. But in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, Kadyrov denies the accusations. He says his only concern is the welfare of Chechnya's residents,...

"Something's wrong with this baby," my ultrasound technician told me. She had just scanned Mrs. Jones (a fictitious name) at 20 weeks and went on to describe her findings, findings that surely meant little chance of survival for that baby. As I later spoke with Mrs. Jones to relay the findings, she wept. I arranged an appointment with a maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) specialist. The next day I received an urgent call from my patient. Through more tears, she described her visit in which the MFM doctor confirmed the grim prognosis. The baby would die, probably within a week or two....

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _______________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 24, 2009 ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Today we celebrate the 19th anniversary of the enactment of the historic Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Signed into law on July 26, 1990, this landmark legislation established a clear mandate against discrimination on the basis of disability so that people with disabilities would have an equal opportunity to...

Here’s an interesting epilogue on the Human Rights Watch funding scandal I mentioned earlier this week. Just a few weeks after it was first revealed that HRW has been raising funds from the Saudi regime and advertising itself as overtly anti-Israel, and just a few days after this burst into the public awareness, its biggest competitor, Amnesty International, has distanced itself from HRW by releasing a blistering 65-page report on the practice of torture and other severe human-rights abuses taking place in Saudi Arabia. According to Amnesty’s press release:

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband." "I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.

A few days ago an article appeared in which human rights organizations responded to the question of why they did not demand the launch of an investigation regarding human rights violations by Hamas. The answer that they provided was that the firing of rockets constituted such a clear violation that it left nothing to investigate. On the other hand, Israel's actions are more subject to interpretation. If the objective of the organizations is to promote taking responsibility for unsavory actions, they should focus on clear violations and not on cases that can provoke scholarly research at the universities.

...they were upset that their 14-month-old brother Trig, who has Down Syndrome, was "mocked and ridiculed by some pretty mean spirited adults." I'd like to know the names of those mean-spirited adults who mocked and ridiculed her special needs child. I don't believe it for a second. I think what she is talking about is that she was criticized for the way she dealt with her pregnancy with Trig and her caregiving of him after his birth. Remember, Sarah Palin is a right-wing, evangelical Christian for whom "family values" and the role of the mother are paramount. Many right-wing Christians...

BOSTON, Mass, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - General Electric has announced that it will use embryonic stem cells provided by Geron Corporation for the purpose of testing toxic effects of drug treatments.GE issued a statement, attempting to preempt criticism over the decision, saying, "We acknowledge the considerable debate and take very seriously the ethical and societal issues associated with research using stem cells derived from embryonic or fetal tissue.""We conduct our research in an ethically and scientifically responsible manner," the statement said.However, embryonic stem cells have been the center of heated controversy since harvesting the cells requires the destruction...

Amnesty International’s annual report condemns Israel for its treatment of Palestinian Authority Arabs while only briefly noting atrocities attributed to the Hamas terrorist organization. Both the IDF and a watchdog on fair media research called the report findings biased and unethical. Amnesty International issued Thursday its annual report, condemning Israel and PA Arabs for disproportional violence during Operation Cast Lead. The human rights watchdog blames Israel for killing over 1,400 PA Arabs in Gaza and wounding 5,000 others. The report blames the IDF for repeatedly breaching the laws of war by “by carrying out direct attacks on civilians and civilian...

CAP’s Constitutional Treasure Hunt by: Alana Goodman, June 26, 2009 During a panel discussion on domestic human rights at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on June 17th, audience members learned that they had quite a few inalienable rights that they might have missed in the U.S. Constitution. The evidence that supports those claims is even less tangible. Among these endowments were the right to health care, the right to housing, the right to food, the right to marry, the right to privacy, reproductive rights, the right to be free from torture, the right to education, the right to not...

JOHANNESBURG – Human Rights Watch said Friday that Zimbabwe's armed forces have taken over diamond fields in the east and killed more than 200 people, forcing children to search for the precious gems and beating villagers who get in the way.

Haaretz found [video clips] which Palestinians are seen being abused and humiliated by Border Police troops. The faces of the tormenters are rarely seen, and it's also not clear where the clips were filmed - but what is clear is the atmosphere in which this cruel theater is played out.