Amnesty International – Gitmo gulag? We don’t know.
Instapundit has a priceless post on the “Guantanamo Gulag” meme:
LIKE LINDA FOLEY, Amnesty International is now saying that it isn’t really worth paying attention to:
Despite highly publicized charges of U.S. mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, the head of the Amnesty International USA said on Sunday the group doesn’t “know for sure” that the military is running a “gulag.” . . .
“It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea,” Schulz told “Fox News Sunday.”
I wonder what would happen if Donald Rumsfeld should charge Amnesty with being in the pay of Al Qaeda, and then later say that “It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea.”
Heh.
9 Responses to “Amnesty International – Gitmo gulag? We don’t know.”
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“It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea,†Schulz told “Fox News Sunday.â€
I LOVE IT! HA HA HA!
…I wonder what else they “don’t know.”
Sometimes all you have to do is follow the link to see how badly someone is spinning. In this case Instapundit & Co. is doing some pretty nasty distortion of what Shulz actually said.
Here’s what Shulz actually said about using the word “Gulag”:
Sounds downright reasonable, doesn’t it?
So why did he say “It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea”? Well, that was in answer to a question about whether or not Rumsfeld had actually approved certain severe torture tactics.
Once again, a very reasonable answer.
How about when he said “absolutely no idea”? Well, this time the question was whether or not the IRC had been given access to all prisoners.
Gee, that’s a good answer too.
At some point one begins to question the integrity of people of who intentionally remove context and doctor quotes to make a person look bad. Or at least I do.
Thank you, LaurenceB. Doug, do your homework, amigo.
Yes, very reasonable.
By the way everyone, the mother of LaurenceB is a whore.
Now…clearly this is not an exact or literal analogy. In fact, I don’t really know. But it would be interesting to find out.
You see how idiotic that sounds? The problem is he said out loud what he was thinking. And most people found it despicable.
Doug, do you have any idea how faulty your logic is? And who exactly are these “most people” you speak of?
And aren’t you concerned at all that you reprinted quotes from an story that were not only taken out of context, but placed in an entirely new context that changed their meaning to fit the agenda of the writer. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe that’s something you’re going to want to assoiciate with no matter how much you think it supports your opinions.
I believe that the majority of the people who heard the quote disregarded it as shameless. The reaction was so bad that Amnesty has to clarify it.
From what I understand the gulags were a:
Specifically, their purpose was to hold and oppress political prisoners. As history teaches us, it was all orchestrated from the highest levels of Soviet government (the precursor to the KGB ran them).
Hence, if Rumsfeld is not involved in orchestrating this “torture scandal,” which Amnesty now admits they have no clue (“I don’t know…it would be fascinating to know…”) then even if the torture is taking place, by the very historical definition it can hardly be comparable to the gulags.
It looks like Reuturs, that bastion of conservative thought, got this one right.
Doug,
Your posting was not about the “Gulag” comment. Therefore, my reply did not address the “Gulag” term – which I objected to, by the way. Instead my reply focused on your posting, which was about recent comments by Mr. Shulz. On that subject, the quotes were indeed taken out of context and manipulated, and you guys (meaning Instapundit & Co.) should have “done your homework” as Andrew suggests.
It’s always dificult to admit a mistake, but In my opinion, you would be better off to just admit the mistake this time than to look foolish trying to justify these misquotes. Just my two cents – take it or leave it.