Global Rights Group Assailed for Analyst’s Nazi Collection

[Mosby]

A leading human rights group has suspended its senior military analyst following revelations that he is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.

The group, Human Rights Watch, had initially thrown its full support behind the analyst, Marc Garlasco, when the news of his hobby came out last week. On Monday night, the group shifted course and suspended him with pay, “pending an investigation,” said Carroll Bogert, the group’s associate director.

“We have questions about whether we have learned everything we need to know,” she said.

The suspension comes at a time of heightened tension between, on one side, the new Israeli government and its allies on the right, and the other side, human rights organizations that have been critical of Israel. In recent months, the government has pledged an aggressive approach toward the groups to discredit what they argue is bias and error.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/world/middleeast/15nazi.html?_r=1&ref=world

[azurnoir]

1. From the article

Yaron Ezrahi, a professor of political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said he did not believe that Mr. Garlasco’s interest in memorabilia could support allegations of “premeditated bias.” He said, however, that Human Rights Watch’s credibility might have been wounded because Mr. Garlasco’s hobby “has armed the right-wing fanatics” who “work day and night to demonize any individual or organization that raises questions about the military practices of Israel when they end up even with unintended civilian casualties.”

And that is one thing that seems to especially trouble Ms. Cobban, who said in an interview that the controversy played into the hands of the government and its helpers in the fight.

“They have been given this deus ex machina gift,” she said, “about the discovery of Garlasco and his out-of-hours hobby

[Violet_Crumble]

2. That's a misleading headline...

If the guy collected solely Nazi Germany military stuff, then that's a very different matter from collecting military stuff from both sides. While I think Garlasco was pretty dumb for using his real name anywhere on the net that didn't have to do with his work, I disagree with HRW suspending him with pay...

[Kurska]

3. Does anyone know how much of the stuff he collected was Nazi and how much ally?

If it was something along the line of 90/10 germany/american with no soviet gear or something, would you be more hesitant about it?

[Violet_Crumble]

4. I don't know...all I know is he collected both...

While I don't see anything to be hesitant about if someone doesn't collect soviet war stuff, all I know is that I get a bit suss if someone's only collecting Nazi Germany stuff.

[pelsar]

5. such a waste of writing and bandwidth....

the guy likes military stuff, gets excited over it, which is probably why he knows a lot about what he researches...or at least I assume he knows a lot about it and its pretty good when your job and hobby intersect.

and hes likes german/nazi stuff which if i recall had a pretty big effect on WWII with a pretty sophisticated military machine.....

Personally i think this is going way way way too far, so hes not PC.....i don't see if affecting his job, nor do i like the concept of people having to hide their hobbies and interests just because others may not approve (excluding pedophiles etc)

[shira]

6. not at all - if HRW is looking for Israel to take them seriously then they shouldn't give Israel

....the middle finger by being so insensitive about the obsession that one of their creepy major analysts has of Nazi periphanalia.

Of course, if HRW doesn't give a rip about influencing Israeli policy and they just want to demonize Israel, that's another story.

[pelsar]

7. its that slippery slope thing...

of course its insensitive on HRW part.....but i weight his hobby against his professionalism, which may or may not be biased. That said, I've never been impressed with HRW reports.....betsalem has a better understanding of the environment-a bit more realistic of what urban combat is and what it isn't, what hamas does and what we used to call - fatah during the day and hamasnik at night, and what they actually do. Of course Betsalem is not in gaza and doesn't have to worry about their own skin when in gaza...

[shira]

8. never thought of that - betselem not in Gaza - so from whom do they rely on their info?

[pelsar]

9. their reports...

are partially from the soldiers who were actually there (something i believe HRW doesn't do) and from Palestinian reports...

so what we have in general are two HR groups each getting direct info from one side of the conflict an secondary info from "the other side"..... and then making conclusions from that....

[azurnoir]

10. that is about the most sensible comment on the subject

I have read thank you

[LeftishBrit]

11. I agree