| |||||||||||
| Homepage Articles Blog | |||||||||||
| You can follow Daniel Pipes and the Middle East Forum on their Facebook and Twitter pages. | |||||||||||
Please take a moment to visit and log in at the subscriber area, and submit your city & country location. We will use this information in future to invite you to any events that we organize in your area. Dear Reader: In addition, a second blog entry, "Defund the U.S. Institute of Peace?" follows below. Yours sincerely, Daniel Pipes Erdoğan and the "Al-Gaddafi Prize"by Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2011/02/erdogan-accepts-al-gaddafi-international-prize
  Be the first of your friends to like this.The slogan of the "Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights" is "As the sun shines for everyone, freedom is a right for everyone." Lovely, no, especially at a moment when Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi's war planes are raining down death and destruction on his own subject people and when foreign mercenaries are brutalizing the population? The prize description includes such gems as these:
Past recipients of the prize have included Nelson Mandela (1989), "The Red Indians" (1991), Louis Farrakhan (1996), Fidel Castro (1998), and Hugo Chavez (2004).
But it's the current recipient who is the most interesting: none other than the prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He accepted the prize in Tripoli, Libya, on Dec. 1, 2010, for his "distinguished service to humanity." In his acceptance speech, Erdoğan said that the award will further encourage him to fight for human rights and that "Islamophobia" is a crime against humanity.
The report on this event in the pro-Erdoğan Zaman newspaper goes on:
After receiving the award, Erdoğan reported on his meeting with Qaddafi, indicating that ties between the two countries are growing. Comment: Accepting "Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights" three months ago says all one needs to know about Erdoğan. (February 28, 2011) Related Topics: Libya, Turkey and Turks This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL. Defund the U.S. Institute of Peace?by Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2011/02/defund-the-us-institute-of-peace
Be the first of your friends to like this.In an article today ("Small Budget Cuts Add Up"), Reps. Jason Chaffetz (Republican of Utah) and Anthony Weiner (Democrat of New York) call the U.S. Institute of Peace a "case study in how government waste thrives" and calls its $54 million in public funding in 2011 a "misuse of taxpayer money." To which I respond:
As a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, I enthusiastically endorse the Chaffetz-Weiner initiative to defund the USIP. I became aware during my tenure on the board, 2003-05, that the organization performs little worthwhile service to the taxpayer but rather that it forwards a political agenda. Americans who wish to fund such an organization are free to do so, but it should not be a public burden. (February 16, 2011) Feb. 19, 2011 update: Bravo to the House for cutting off all funding to USIP. Feb. 24, 2011 update: Al Kamen reviews the bidding at "U.S. Institute of Peace loses all federal funds under House spending plan." Related Topics: USIP This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL. | |||||||||||
To subscribe to this list, go to http://www.danielpipes.org/list_subscribe.php Sign up for related (but non-duplicating) e-mail services: |
Send
Comment
RSS
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment