Who is William F Schulz?

Schulz is the Executive Director of Amnesty International who has created the “Gulag of Today” talking points for CNN and MSNBC. Just as they were running out of excuses to play and replay the bought-and-paid-for “testimony” of Gorgeous George Galloway, Schulz comes along with his denunciation of US “torture” of head-chopping terrorist prisoners.

From his bio on the AI USA website:

“Dr. William F. Schulz was appointed Executive Director of Amnesty International (USA) in March, 1994. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, he came to Amnesty after serving for fifteen years with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), the last eight (1985-93) as President of the Association.

“Dr. Schulz has served on the boards of People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Communitarian Network and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, among others. He is currently a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.”

(try looking those up on DTN--no wonder he is calling on foreign countries to arrest Bush and Rumsfeld. It is well known amongst leftists -- and ex-leftists -- that the Unitarian Church usually follows the political line of the Communist Party, USA )

The following is from a 2003 speech by Schulz to a Unitarian “summit”, it shows that his announcement is nothing but the substitution of his “surrender-and-accept-the-mercy-of-our-enemies” viewpoint for a fact-based analysis of the treatment of detainees at GITMO and a comparison of the conditions faced by detainees in the REAL Gulags extant in several countries around the world.

“The war on terror will ultimately not be won on the battlefield; it will be won by encouraging allies around the world to stand with us in the struggle and moderates in the Muslim and Arab communities around the world to reject the terrorist ethic.

“Contrary to ill-informed right-wing opinion in the United States, the vast majority of Muslims did not applaud when the planes hit their targets on 9/11. But the vast majority of Muslims are keenly acquainted with poverty and corruption. One in five Arabs lives on less than $2 a day. Arab unemployment averages around 60 percent for males under the age of 25. Moreover, responsibility for the lack of Arab development lies squarely at the feet of Arab governments. It is the absence of democracy, lack of good governance, denial of human rights and lowly status of women (with its attendant waste of human resources) that account for the backwardness of these societies.

“Unemployment, economic stagnation and widespread looting of the public treasury would be difficult enough for Muslim populations to bear even if they had access to mechanisms through which to regularly replace regimes or voice dissent. But of the 57 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, only Bangladesh and Turkey have managed to sustain democracy over an extended period of time. Absent nonviolent, democratic ways through which people can express frustration, where do they turn to seek political change? It is hardly surprising that they sometimes look with sympathy upon political and religious extremists who offer that most rare of commodities -- an alternative vision."

Sounds like a good argument for Bush’s strategy of liberating Afghanistan and Iraq--thus creating beacons of liberty in the midst of dictatorial repression--but he's not going our way with this...

. “The best way to persuade the "three guys who are undecided" about extremism to reject that option is for the United States to champion an end to Arab autocracy and to model respect for human rights ourselves. But every time we cozy up to the Saudi royal family, every time we overlook Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's repressive ways, every time we allow the Chinese to get away with persecuting Tibetan Buddhists or Uighur Muslims in the name of "fighting terrorism," we put the lie to President Bush's contention that the war on terror is being fought in defense of freedom and the rule of law.

(This 'peacenik' wants us to take on China over Tibet and the Uighurs and pins their treatment on US inaction--even al-Qaeda hasn't come up with a way to blame America for Chinese repression. And why would Islamic extremists who blew up the Bamiyan Buddahs in Afghanistan and are currently atacking Thai Buddhists in Southern Thailand suddenly care about Tibetan Buddhists? Schulz casual insertion of this item shows he is a shallow propagandist repeating slogans rather than making an effort to appear as a genuine human rights campaigner.)

“And, similarly, every time we violate rights here at home, we make it harder for moderate Muslims, to say nothing of our European allies, to stand with us.”

...so according to Schulz all the terrorism is America’s fault. It has nothing to do with liars, propagandists and power hungry terrorist gangs--if they use any real or imagined US action as justification for their actions--THE FAULT LIES WITH AMERICA.

His evaluation of the detainment of terrorists by the US as the Gulag of Today is based not on analysis of the conditions or legality of the detainment but on a POLITICAL ASSESSMENT of the role of the US in the world.

The AI statement is only differentiated from a typical Michael Moore blast by the fact that some people may still be gulled by the AI name. Not for long. Clearly Schulz has elected to burn whatever remains of AI’s credibility in an effort to undermine the war on terror.