Amnesty International Ignites Controversy in the American Anti-War Movement

Aug. 7, 2012 - PRLog -- Contact:  Tim Carpenter, tim@pdamerica.org (413) 320-2215
Marc Levin, marclevin1946@gmail.com 301-502-9175

"NATO: Keep The Progress Going!" was the slogan placed by Amnesty International USA on placards at bus shelters in Chicago during the time that the Anti-War movement was in the streets demonstrating as NATO had its summer meeting in July. The Amnesty ad pictured women wearing burkhas, strongly implying that it is the presence of NATO troops that is protecting the civil and human rights of women in Afghanistan.

But Progressive Democrats of America is calling out Amnesty Int’l with a new report issued this week. According to PDA, Amnesty International USA is wrong on its facts about the status of Women in Afghanistan. A letter with PDA’s own balanced view is on its way from PDA to Suzanne Nossel, the new Executive Director of AI-USA, and to A.I. Board Chair Shahram Hashami. The PDA Statement, signed by PDA National Director Tim Carpenter, is appended below.

Expressing their outrage at the position of Amnesty International were members of PDA’s End War & Occupation Team. “What a surprising turn of events this is.” said Carl Moos, “We expect Amnesty to be supporting ordinary folks impacted by war, not supporting our government’s war policies.” Sally Weiss agreed, “The peace and human rights organizations that speak truth to power need to keep a healthy separation from government policy.” Virginia Haulfaire declared, “It is shocking to hear A.I. saying that war promotes progress for women”. Nicholas J. S. Davies, author of “Blood on Our Hands” about the Iraq war, stated, “This astonishing promotion of NATO propaganda almost looks like U.S. State Dept. pre-emption of the humanitarian policy of this stalwart human rights organization."

Today, PDA is releasing a detailed analysis of the status of women in Afghanistan, which was written for PDA by Marc Levin, who has worked in the field of international development, women's health and human rights for 15 years. The PDA leadership hopes Amnesty International’s board of directors will reverse this recent wrong-headed turn of Amnesty’s formerly neutral humanitarian policies.

Link to the full text of the PDA report is here (http://www.pdacommunity.org/component/content/article/92-...)