Debate, and discuss, just dont Bore me.
Irrelevant?
Published on June 6, 2005 By Dr Guy In Politics

I know you can google it, but to be fair, guess who said the following first before Googling it:

I draw the line at Amnesty's use of the word "gulag" to describe these policies, as well as the implication that the United States has somehow become the modern equivalent of Stalin's Soviet Union. Guantanamo Bay was a flawed response to an unprecedented situation: A war in which the enemy were not soldiers, but stateless terrorists. Early abuses there have been investigated and discussed by the FBI, the press and, to a still limited extent, the military. There is evidence that the situation is changing.

The Soviet gulag, by contrast, was a massive forced labor complex consisting of thousands of concentration camps and hundreds of exile villages. More than 18 million prisoners, and some 6 million exiles pass through the system during Stalin's lifetime, although their fate was never publicly acknowledged during his lifetime, and only limited information was ever published by Soviet authorities after his death. Soviet camps and political prisons were in existence from the time of the revolution to the time of Gorbachev, more than eighty years. They were a major part of the Soviet economy, and helped create the atmosphere of generalized terror and fear of state authorities which persists in Russia today.

Their true modern equivalent is not Guantanamo Bay, but the prisons of Cuba, where Amnesty itself says a new generation of prisoners of conscience reside; or the labor camps of North Korea, which were set up on Stalinist lines; or China's laogai , the true size of which isn't even known; or, until recently, the prisons of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Hint it is not Dick Chenney, George W Bush or Don Rumsfeld.  And they are correct!


Comments (Page 3)
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on Jun 08, 2005

My, don't you all have your panties in a bunch?

Meh. I just reply to a bunch of articles. It's not a big deal to me, really.

on Jun 08, 2005

Meh. I just reply to a bunch of articles. It's not a big deal to me, really.

I got to start wearing boxers so my panties dont bunch!

on Jun 08, 2005

As guy said, when has AI implied people like Saddam were as a bad as Hitler or the Soviet Union? Of all of the countries in the world who really abuse people, who really torture people, they say the U.S. is the leader.

Actually, that's misinformation. Previous AI reports, from when Saddam was in power, ranked Iraq VERY high in human rights violations. AI is not usually in the business of making subjective judgements, such as comparing Saddam to Hitler, or even of Gitmo to "Gulag", so you won't find those quotes.

I haven't perused the 2004 report yet, but in defense of AI, I will say that previous reports have been VERY fair. When you consider AI's reports, however, you must consider that AI considers the death penalty to be a human rights violation, so the US has been pegged on that in reports in the past. But the US has never been near the top of the list of human rights violators in the past; instead, "the usual suspects" fill the bill (South Africa, for instance, during apartheid, more recently countries like Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan have topped the list). I would definitely take caution in discrediting an entire organization based on a subjective judgement of one of its members.

on Jun 08, 2005

AI is not usually in the business of making subjective judgements, such as comparing Saddam to Hitler, or even of Gitmo to "Gulag", so you won't find those quotes.

But they did this time, and that is why it is both news and outrageous.

on Jun 08, 2005
Dr Guy ... why are you deleting my posts?
What about it scares you?
on Jun 08, 2005

Dr Guy ... why are you deleting my posts?
What about it scares you?

And for the first and last and only time, answer the question of the article, or be gone.

guess who said the following first before Googling it:

on Jun 09, 2005
Is the fact that this is in the photography section a hint? ( Sneaks away to cheat... )

Hrm... Anne Applebaum?
on Jun 09, 2005
Apparently, to the Amnasty Intertrashional apologist, the fact the they stand by the statement, even after Director (or is that Sergeant) Schulz stated he has no idea if it's true or not should mean something.

I don't know if all spouse abusers are Amnasty Intertrashional members, so I'll just call their members spouse abusers anyway. ;~D
on Jun 13, 2005
Is the fact that this is in the photography section a hint? ( Sneaks away to cheat... )

Hrm... Anne Applebaum?


It should be politics. I just noticed the same! Oops!
on Jun 13, 2005
I don't know if all spouse abusers are Amnasty Intertrashional members, so I'll just call their members spouse abusers anyway. ;~D


Herr Schultz, when did you stop beating your wife?
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