The control of Amnesty International

The control of Amnesty International

Βy: Francis Anthony Boyle
(professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Between 1988 and 1992 he was a member of the board of Amnesty International USA).

The israel lobby uses bribes and threats to control Amnesty-USA. And, since Amnesty-USA pays about 20% of the budget for Amnesty-England, the israeli lobby controls London too. I don't know about direct zionist lobbying in England, but I do know that Amnesty supports the israeli party line on all issues, whether by commission or omission.
I got involved in Amnesty in 1982 while the israelis were invading Lebanon. Twenty thousand Lebanese people were being exterminated, but Amnesty-USA refused to do anything, because of its pro-israel bias. In fact, the only organization that protested the israelis was the American Friends Service Committee.
Because of my efforts to publicize israeli crimes in Lebanon, I was asked to attend the first meeting of what later became the Amnesty-USA Middle East coordination group. (This was before I got on general board.) The Middle East group is supposed to coordinate human rights work on the Middle East. I was one of its founders. When I gave a speech condemning israeli crimes in Lebanon, I made it clear that I wasn't speaking on behalf of Amnesty. Nonetheless, the israelis were so furious that they ordered the chair of the Amnesty board to have everyone to shun me, which they did completely. The main board didn't talk to me until late when I got elected to the board myself.
That election wasn't easy. Amnesty board members are supposed to be democratically elected, but a small clique of pro-israel people (who have held power for twenty years) controls the nominating process. There is, however, a kind of grassroots petition process to have other voices get nominated. Many of the general members were disgusted with Amnesty’s support of Israeli atrocities, so they nominated me for the board. This nominating petition process is difficult. You must get at least a hundred signatures that are all very carefully scrutinized, and the pro-israel clique throws up many hurdles. I fulfilled all requirements, but the pro-israel clique disqualified me anyway. Therefore I went to New York to file a lawsuit against Amnesty. On the day before I was to file the suit, Amnesty backed down and said I could run for the board. That's how I got in.
In April 2002, israelis massacred 60 Palestinians in Jenin. The United Nations tried to investigate, but both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said there had been no massacre. This allowed Bush and Ariel Sharon to prevent any investigation.
According to the Marine Corps Times (May 31, 2002) U.S. Marines were in Jenin to watch the massacre. The Marines wanted to study how israelis do urban cleansing. Hence the USA was directly complicit in the Jenin nightmare.
Amnesty also refused to investigate the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon. Philip Habib (then U.S. Envoy to the Middle East) personally promised Arafat that if the PLO fighters abandoned the camps, then the U.S. would guarantee the protection of Palestinians. When the killing began, the U.S. embassy knew about it, but did nothing for 48 hours so the Phalangists, working for the israelis, could complete their massacre. The USA had a CIA agent at Sabra and Shatila. I'm not sure who it was. Anyway the USA knew the massacre was happening, and allowed it to continue. Then Amnesty said there had been no massacre.
Amnesty International is so big and so influential that its reports and investigations are cited everywhere, including the halls of Congress. For example, in the run-up to Bush Senior's invasion of Kuwait (1990) there was going to be a debate in the U.S. Congress, and a vote. To support the invasion and the killing, Amnesty-London published the Hill & Knowlton lie that Iraqi soldiers were pulling Kuwaiti infants from incubators and throwing the infants on the floor. Amnesty-London knew it was a lie, but spread it anyway. Of the six votes in the U.S, Senate that passed the resolution to go to war, several of those senators said they were influenced by the Amnesty-London report.
Despite my best efforts while I was on the board, Amnesty International was the only human rights organization that refused to condemn apartheid in South Africa. No matter how hard we tried, no matter what we did, Amnesty would not condemn apartheid in South Africa, since the South African government was so closely tied to the israeli governmrnt.
In 1986, Amnesty supported right-wing death squads in Nicaragua. Amnesty issued a report that criticized the Sandinista government, and helped Reagan push another Contra Aid appropriation through a reluctant congress.
Today, Amnesty International-Venezuela supports Bush. When Bush's attempted coup against Chavez failed in April 2002, Amnesty-Venezuela charged Chavez with ''crimes against humanity''.
Amnesty has a separate chapter in Puerto Rico. Its members came to our USA convention. At a general meeting, I helped get the Amnesty-USA to adopt two resolutions dealing with the human rights abuses in Puerto Rico, plus the deplorable condition of Puerto Rican political prisoners in U.S. jails. Amnesty-Puerto Rico asked me to come to Puerto Rico and give the keynote address on the right of Puerto Rican political prisoners to be treated as prisoners of war. However, Amnesty-London and Amnesty-USA did everything possible to sabotage my trip to Puerto Rico, and my ability to give that keynote address.
What motivates Amnesty is not human rights, but turf battles, plus the quest for publicity, money, and new members. Amnesty only discusses human rights violations when the publicity helps the USA or israel.
The people who control the Amnesty board are extremely arrogant. ''We are Amnesty International, the world's largest and most powerful human rights organization! We won the Nobel Peace Prize for our work! Therefore we do whatever we want''. Search your Lexis-Nexis database and see if Amnesty has ever issued a single apology for spreading the Kuwaiti dead babies lie. Amnesty knows it lied in order to help Bush Senior go to war, but the Amnesty board members don't care.