RUTHFULLY YOURS

Now one of Israel’s predictably inveterate critics, Amnesty International was founded in 1961 by barrister Peter Benenson (né Solomon; 1921-2005), the Catholic convert son of two Anglo-Jewish communal figures, Flora and Harold Solomon; Benenson was the name of his maternal grandfather.

On its website Amnesty UK declares:

“We’re a movement that produces extraordinary results. Prisoners of conscience are released. Death sentences are commuted. Torturers are brought to justice. Governments are persuaded to change unfair laws and practices.”

Er – not quite, it seems.

Under the heading “Saif Unsound” the current issue of the British magazine Private Eye exposes Amnesty International’s cosying up to the son of Colonel Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam (pictured). He, of course, is the ubiquitous spokesperson for the Libyan regime whose largesse to the London School of Economics has claimed the scalp of that institution’s director Sir Howard Davies.

Reports Private Eye:

“In recent years Amnesty has enjoyed friendly relations with Gaddafi Jnr, apparently overlooking the possibility that the chairman of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF) might be an accomplice to his dad’s demented regime.”

It transpires that in June 2010 Amnesty monitors paid a visit to Libya facilitated by Saif, and subsequently reported: “there is no doubt that the climate of fear and repression that prevailed in Libya for more than three decades is subsiding gradually”. The monitors, goes on Private Eye,

‘“credited [GICDF] for “pursuing several cases with the authorities”, bizarrely suggesting that [Saif] and his charity were somehow pure and separate from the authorities.

This is a shaky assertion, since GICDF acts as Libya’s agency for Lockerbie compensation payments. But the levers of power are obvious in Amnesty’s report, whose title – Libya of Tomorrow was inspired by a speech of Saif Gaddafi: Libya today is not Libya of tomorrow. God willing, will be even better.”’

Adds the magazine: ‘Now that Saif is accused of ordering air assaults on fellow citizens and has promised the regime will “keep fighting until the last man standing”, how much longer will Amnesty keep up the pretence?’