Free Republic

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An organization that is supposed to monitor international human rights abuses is instead furthering its pro-abortion agenda and has issued comments responding to a new report condemning various states in the U.S. for their pro-life laws that place sensible limits on abortion.Human Rights Watch condemned the laws in some states that it sways is infringing on the so-called right to an abortion."The mounting obstacles to abortion services include in some states a legal requirement to provide medically inaccurate information as part of obligatory pre-abortion counseling," Marianne Mollmann, of the group's women's rights division, told UPI.The group...

British Parliamentarian Andrew Turner of the Conservative Party was forced to apologize for equating Israel’s attacks on the Lebanese infrastructure and its citizens to the tactics carried out by the Nazis. During a panel of discussions dealing with the Palestinian problem and the recent war in Lebanon, Turner claimed that there was much condemnation of suicide bombers, but very little of Israeli attacks in Gaza against civilians. Turner slammed the British government for not calling for an immediate cease-fire during the summer conflict. He said even Human Rights Watch condemns Israel’s lawless attacks on south Lebanon that were followed by...

U.S. Troops Arrest Relative of Al-DouriBy CHRIS BRUMMITTASSOCIATED PRESS TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops arrested a relative of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, and believe he may help in the hunt for the most senior former regime figure still at large, a U.S. officer said Wednesday. The man, who was not identified, was arrested late Tuesday in a raid in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, said Lt. Col. Steven Russell, who led the operation. Russell described the suspect as a "close relative" of al-Douri, who was the vice chairman of the Baath Party's Revolutionary Command Council and a longtime confidant of Saddam....

A mass teachers' strike that is part of a growing Palestinian power struggle erupted in violence Sunday when masked militants trying to keep students away from school shot and moderately wounded a 12-year-old boy trying to go to class. Palestinian teachers began striking Saturday, the start of the school year, to demand full back pay and regular salaries from the Hamas-led government, which has been financially crippled by six months of international sanctions. The strike is being lead by leaders of the Fatah Party, a rival Palestinian group that was swept from power by Hamas earlier this year. Fatah, led...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi tribunal is incapable of fairly and effectively trying Saddam Hussein and six others on genocide charges stemming from an Iraqi campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds in the 1980s, a human rights group said Friday. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Iraqi High Tribunal must "improve its practices if it is to do justice" in the trial scheduled to start Monday. The case involves Saddam's alleged role in "Operation Anfal" — Arabic for "spoils of war." The 1987-88 operation intended to crush independence-minded Kurdish militias and clear Kurds from the sensitive Iranian frontier....

Aug 18, 2006 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi court which will hold Saddam Hussein's second trial next week, on charges of genocide against the Kurds, has proven it is incapable of holding fair hearings, a human rights group said on Friday. "Based on extensive observations of the tribunal's conduct of its first trial … Human Rights Watch believes that the Iraqi High Tribunal is presently incapable of fairly and effectively trying a genocide case," the group said.

Human rights groups are complicit in murder, says Trimble Giles Tremlett in Madrid Thursday January 29, 2004 The Guardian The Nobel Peace laureate and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble called human rights organisations a "great curse" yesterday and accused them of complicity in terrorist killings. "One of the great curses of this world is the human rights industry," he told the Associated Press news agency at an international conference of terrorism victims in Madrid. "They justify terrorist acts and end up being complicit in the murder of innocent victims." His words drew an angry reaction from Amnesty International and Human...

Clip and save] State Department seeks to delay supply of M-26 artillery rockets to Israel Israel Asks U.S. to Ship Rockets With Wide Blast By DAVID S. CLOUD The New York TImes August 11, 2006 www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/middleeast/11military.html?hp&ex=1155355200 &en=4887d0ebeb1cdf33&ei=5094&partner=homepage WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - Israel has asked the Bush administration to speed delivery of short-range antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster munitions, which it could use to strike Hezbollah missile sites in Lebanon, two American officials said Thursday. The request for M-26 artillery rockets, which are fired in barrages and carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area, is...

Fox's Brian Wilson just interviewed a representative from Human Rights Watch. The HRW guy immediately launched into a high-pitched tirade against "Israeli aggression," and Israel's alleged "random and excessive violence against civilians," and its "destruction of Lebanon." When Wilson asked this guy why he wasn't also condemning the Hezbollah savages, the spokestwerp replied that HRW was also unhappy with Hezbolla's rocketing Israeli civilians but that was understandable when considering Israel's actions... This continues the incoherent and suicidal actions of the US Left -- largely composed of my fellow Jews -- in its attempt to destroy Jews. Psychotic.

Hizbullah must immediately stop firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, Human Rights Watch said Saturday. "Lobbing rockets blindly into civilian areas is without doubt a war crime," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Nothing can justify this assault on the most fundamental standards for sparing civilians the hazards of war." "Most of the attacks appear to have been directed at civilian areas and have hit pedestrians, hospitals, schools, homes and businesses," the humanitarian organization's website stated. Since July 12, when Hizbullah captured two IDF soldiers and killed eight, Human Rights Watch researchers have been documenting the...

There were two kinds of people who reacted with instant condemnation to the news of Israel’s strike on the building at Qana. One kind consisted of Arabs and Muslims who grew up in authoritarian countries or social frameworks and mostly had been indoctrinated in hatred of Israel and Jews. The other kind consisted of people who grew up in free and tolerant frameworks in democratic countries and supposedly absorbed ideals regarding fairness and evidence.

During these tense times in the Middle East, at least Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can have a good laugh over the pathetic July 26 letter addressed to him by the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, Sarah Leah Whitson. “Dear President Ahmadinejad,” the letter solemnly begins, “We [at HRW] are aware that you have recently expressed great concern about the current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, citing in particular the large numbers of Lebanese civilian victims of this conflict.” Your eyes do not deceive you. HRW believes, at least publicly, that it is communicating...

"Such tunnel vision towards its political goal not only undermines HRW's credibility as a defender of human rights, but also feeds the process of anti-Israel demonisation. Until it relinquishes its extremist political program with respect to Israel, and recognises the difference between terrorists and sovereign democratic states, HRW will continue to fuel the conflict that it condemns with such vigour."

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch accused an Israeli army investigation on Wednesday of ignoring evidence that challenges its decision to clear the military of blame for a blast that killed seven Palestinians on a Gaza beach. The deaths on June 9, a day of heavy Israeli shelling designed to stop militants firing rockets from Gaza, drew international condemnation and prompted the ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to call off a 16-month-old truce. Major-General Meir Califi, who led the army investigation, dismissed the accusations by the U.S.-based rights watchdog, which has carried out its own inquiry into the explosion that...

Two American soldiers, missing since an insurgent ambush at the checkpoint they were manning last Friday, were found dead Monday night on a street just south of Baghdad. An Iraqi General confirmed to the Associated Press that the soldiers’ bodies showed “signs of torture,” and that the men appeared to have been killed in a particularly “barbaric” way. This assertion appears to be backed up both by the fact that DNA tests were required to positively identify the remains, and by the claim of responsibility made by the self-titled new leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, who posted on an Islamist...

AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan rebuked Human Rights Watch on Monday for criticizing the kingdom's arrest of four lawmakers after they paid condolences to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's family. Al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad on June 8. The four lawmakers — members of Jordan's largest opposition group, the Islamic Action Front — attended the al-Qaida in Iraq leader's wake in his native Jordan on June 9. One described al-Zarqawi as a "martyr." Two days later, they were arrested and charged with "instigating sectarian strife" and "fueling national discord" and jailed for 15 days. The New York-based rights...

While sticking to its demand for the establishment of an independent inquiry into a blast on a Gaza beach 10 days ago that killed seven Palestinian civilians, the Human Rights Watch conceded Monday night for the first time since the incident that it could not contradict the IDF's exonerating findings. On Monday, Maj.-Gen. Meir Klifi - head of the IDF inquiry commission that cleared the IDF of responsibility for the blast - met with Marc Garlasco, a military expert from the HRW who had last week claimed that the blast was caused by an IDF artillery shell. Following the three-hour...

AMMAN, Jordan, AP -Human Rights Watch criticized Jordan's arrest of four lawmakers who visited the family of slain terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, calling it a violation of freedom of expression. "Expressing condolences to the family of a dead man, however murderous he might be, is not a crime," Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, said in a statement Saturday. The lawmakers, members of Jordan's largest opposition group, visited al-Zarqawi's family home in Zarqa, 17 miles northeast of Amman, on June 9, two days after al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed in...

Human Rights Watch and Saeb Erekat lack objectivity The Israeli Defense Forces recently concluded a report on the tragic deaths of seven Palestinians on a Gaza Beach. As detailed yesterday in HR's special report "Gaza Beach Libel", the IDF has carefully analyzed all evidence and proven that it was not responsible for this tragedy. In the past 24 hours, our report has generated over 500 letters to the media. While some news organizations have reported the IDF findings, it certainly does not compensate for the highly emotive front page initial accusations.At the same time, many in the media have been...

US counter-terrorism policies, with their deliberate use of "torture and mistreatment," put the global defence of human rights on the back foot in 2005, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report released overnight. The New York-based monitor said the US strategy has fuelled terrorist recruitment and hampered Washington's ability to pressure other countries into respecting international law. "Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive." The watchdog also criticised US allies in the war on terror for...