388 Comments

Oliver, free speech isn't just in danger in Brazil. It's in a great deal of danger here in the US. You guys used to write about this a lot. Not only has there been a drop-off of that, you've even quasi-supported certain censorship attempts, that is, if it concerns pro-Palestinian speech. What gives?

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Amnesty do often have rather warped and woke attitudes but I asked them for their comment on this and got the reply:

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Thank you for your email. We are sorry to hear about your concerns regarding our response to the death in custody of Walid Daqqah. I have logged your comments in line with our feedback policy.

Amnesty International's work centres on the protection and promotion of human rights for all individuals, including prisoners, irrespective of their actions or accusations against them.

Amnesty International condemned the killing of Moshe Tamam as a violation of the Geneva Conventions’ absolute prohibition on violence to the life and person of armed forces members who have laid down their arms, including those in captivity.

Last year, we called for the Israeli authorities to release Walid Daqqah as he'd already served his 37-year sentence and was terminally ill with bone marrow cancer. In jail, Daqqah was deprived of vital medical treatment and was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, part of a longstanding pattern where Palestinians in Israeli prisons are subjected to torture and inhumane conditions.

You will find more information about Walid Daqqah’s case and our position here - https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/08/israel-opt-israeli-authorities-should-release-walid-daqqah-immediately/

All prisoners, regardless of their background or the nature of their conviction are entitled to humane treatment, and their rights are guaranteed by international standards. We therefore stand by our position that Walid Daqqa should have been released on humanitarian grounds and allowed to access life-saving medical assistance.

Amnesty International has called for the release of other prisoners in Israel and globally on humanitarian grounds, irrespective of the prisoners' affiliations or charges against them. Our stance remains consistent: all prisoners, regardless of their background or the nature of their conviction, are entitled to humane treatment and the rights guaranteed by international standards.

I hope this is useful in explaining our work on this issue.

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Now asked how that fits with their, reported, withdrawal of support for Navalny.

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If you want a good civil war story, Kurt Schlicter wrote a series of books starting with “People’s Republic” that chronicles The Split between the blue and red from a former special forces operator’s perspective. Great caricatures of leftist figures, trans only units, Soviet style political commissars, etc. They’re fun reading.

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Glad to see info about inflation. But why is it reported by month, quarter and year only? Cumulative inflation is what hits home. There are calculators on the internet. (I just checked January 2021 to March 2024, and cumulative inflation is 19.4%. That's a big number that affects everything.) Maybe TheFP would want to look at cumulative inflation since Biden took office when addressing inflation. It helps explain why ordinary people don't feel great about an economy that has been beating them up despite some positive macro signals. Not griping, just commenting.

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Supposedly apolitical organizations such as the ACLU and Amnesty International have become crooked money garnering institutions. How pitiful!

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I read the NPR rebut. Palaver. I used to listen to NPR more than any other radio station. Terry Gross was appointment listening. Bob Edwards, No No Don't Tell Me. Then it all went to hell, even Terry. Full fledged TDS. I am one of those folks that don't think they should get federal funding unless its a balanced program. I don't mind reading counterfactual articles on TFP because I know there will be something that counterpoints it. Keep going Bari, you will get your million. I signed up immediately after your first Goodfellows show. Another great source of reasoned info.

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I have been a member of Amnesty International for years until 5 minutes ago. Not anymore.

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Congratulations! The Free Press story on NPR made it onto Fox News' Brett Baier show last night, with a good summary of the article. They also commented that they wondered how many other major media outlets would cover this story. They doubted not many.

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The response from NPR is priceless they are no longer to be trusted as they have become nothing but narrative enforcement for the DNC and the DC Swamp.

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So now, according to Amnesty International, the Israelis are to be blamed for the death of terrorists in captivity by... giving them cancer? Cool. Maybe they can shoot some of those cancer-causing rays over to the Hamas leadership lying around watching porn in Qatar. ;-)

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Supported Amnesty International for years. Once they ceased to support jailed people of conscious, somewhere in the 2000's I stopped. Was not interested in their new ventures, the latest release from them in your article, continues to support my position.

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Some thoughts as a No Labels supporter, and the coverage. I've found it to be superficial and patronizing, Romney's piece in the WSJ, the WaPo, and here. This piece seems to skip over the Unity idea, that there would be one R and one D on the ticket. NL supporters believe that excessive partisanship is a threat to our country and keeps us from moving forward together on important issues that most of the country agrees on. If you listen to the Honestly podcast with Batya Ungar-Sargon on her new book Second Class, you will get the same picture- that neither party now focuses on the things that working class people care about. No Labels actually developed positions first and tried to get candidates second.. the other way, you just have to accept whatever melange of policy positions the candidate (or his/her financial backers) come up with. So yes, the Unity ticket idea was very disruptive to the status quo. And for those folks worried about spoilage, for some (many) of us, both of the candidates are bad, in fact, the way the D machine has taken after No Labels makes me a never-Bidener (plus other concerns). So whatever spoilage analysis they did, it may be working opposite to the way they intended. If I were thinking what the mistake was, it was overestimating the courage of potential candidates. We can disagree, but I'm just as informed as the reporter.

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My wish re: Walid Daqqah: May 29 virgins gouge his eyeballs and castrate him every day for the rest of eternity in true Prometheusian fashion.

And may Amnesty International suffer the same fate.

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Because I believe in our capacity for improvement, I will point this out yet again:

You feature an essay by Uri Berliner about the monoculture at NPR, saying explicitly that it would benefit from viewpoint diversity. On the other hand, you have yet to have anyone mention Israel's government who doesn't hate it (at least not that I've noticed). Today's instance is that one of the few handpicked new items you follow is one about how badly the government is polling.

You're as aware as I am that the electorate overwhelmingly supports the war effort, the position on negotiating hostage release, the goal of destroying Hamas and the belief that the Palestinians are not prepared to accept Israel in any borders. The question of why Israelis would want a new government then becomes interesting, but you won't get an interesting take on it from people who've hated Netanyahu for years.

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Your story about Brazil's Supreme Court Justice hits the bull's eye. It seems freedom of speech in Brazil will be soon a thing of the past... Thank you TFP for your balanced article.

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Re. Russian honey pot traps, and France, the problem is that there is no adequate Russian translation for "Pfeh", the French response to everything (must be uttered with a Gauloise hanging loose from the corner of one's mouth, dripping ashes all over yours escargots and absinthe...).

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That makes me want to quit smoking, but I'll probably just give up escargot instead. Fortunately I never developed an absinthe habit (what the hell is that, anyway?)

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I think it makes the heart grow fonder, if I remember my old sayings...

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