SICKENING - REALLY - AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  Human Rights Watch was nobly founded as a human rights watchdog group.  But in recent years it's deteriorated into an appendage of the international left.  It's outrages are many, but this new one takes the prize.  HRW is raising funds.  And where are they raising said fund?  In Saudi Arabia, one of the worst dictatorships on Earth.  And how are they raising the money?  By bragging about HRW's anti-Israel record.  In other words, a "human rights" organization is raising money in a dictatorship by bragging about its assault on a democracy.  Great, huh?  Wonder if the mainstream media will continue to take HRW seriously.  From The Wall Street Journal:

A delegation from Human Rights Watch was recently in Saudi Arabia. To investigate the mistreatment of women under Saudi Law? To campaign for the rights of homosexuals, subject to the death penalty in Saudi Arabia? To protest the lack of religious freedom in the Saudi Kingdom? To issue a report on Saudi political prisoners?

No, no, no, and no. The delegation arrived to raise money from wealthy Saudis by highlighting HRW's demonization of Israel. An HRW spokesperson, Sarah Leah Whitson, highlighted HRW's battles with "pro-Israel pressure groups in the US, the European Union and the United Nations." (Was Ms. Whitson required to wear a burkha, or are exceptions made for visiting anti-Israel "human rights activists"? Driving a car, no doubt, was out of the question.)

Apparently, Ms. Whitson found no time to criticize Saudi Arabia's abysmal human rights record. But never fear, HRW recently called on the Kingdom to do more to protect the human rights of domestic workers.

COMMENT:  Sadly, this is a common story.  During the Cold War the Marxist left appropriated the language of human rights, but we were sharper in those days in countering it.  Today, after a generation of leftist control of our colleges, our resistance to the false rhetoric seems to be weakening  Barack Obama's often vague attitudes toward democracy are not helping at bit.

July 14, 2009