From: Godenas-AT-aol.com
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:01:32 -0500
Subject: Fwd: Mr. Proyect & Amnesty In...



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Forwarded message:
Subj:    Mr. Proyect & Amnesty Internatio
Date:    96-02-12 11:29:21 EST
From:    Godenas

To:      marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu

It is not surprising to see our own Louis Proyect rush to the defense of AI.
 He, like them, is "above class," walking along the top of the workers'
movement, occasionally pausing, and, briefly suspending a respectable
professorial demeanor, deigns to deliver a tired shibboleth or two, recoiling
in horror at revolutionary "violence", but maintaining an inscrutable, though
deafening, silence in the face of atrocities heaped upon the "offending"
revolutionaries.
Those of us who were part of the Vietnam War (Khe Sanh, RVN, Korat, KOT,
1969-71) recall a "human rights" organization arising from murky beginnings
suddenly appearing in the late 1960s to "investigate" "human rights" abuses
in "South" Vietnam.  This was the era of "tiger cages," "pacifications,"
etc., and the Nixon administration was desperate for "damage control."  Other
rights organizations had been denied entry to the "Republic" of "South"
Vietnam, and, of those few actually admitted, none were able to work without
constant harassment (confiscation of equipment, visas, etc., failure to
produce "documentation," witholding of prisoner interviews, etc.).  Suddenly,
a relatively obscure organization, of allegedly "British" origins appears in
the "Republic", flown in on AIR AMERICA, and lands at Ton Son Nhut Air Base
("Saigon").  They are accorded every courtesy, given voluminous help, even
allowed to interview "victims" of torture, etc.  Yes, it is none other than
Mr. Proyect's Amnesty International, arriving not only to save the day for
General Ky and RMN, but to issue what would become a series of reports
essentially whitewashing the "human rights" record of the "Government" of the
"Republic" of "South" Vietnam.  Our own US Government is scarcely mentioned,
although the former was our wholly-owned subsidiary at the time.  At about
the same time, the "issue" of the "MIA-POWs" is starting to emerge in our
wonderfully compliant media, and among "human rights" organizations like
Amnesty International.  By mid-1970, village massacres (My Lai and Song Mai
were, in the words of my commanding officer, merely "a dime a dozen"--in
other words, one or two of many), "tiger cages," helipcopter "jumps", etc.
were a thing of the past.  The public's imagination had been thorougly
corraled by the "human rights" of the "POW-MIA".
Now before I am put on "trial" by Mr. Proyect, the editor of "Shiny Shit" and
his ONE HUNDRED members of the now-defunct, now-"relaunched" "IWP", let me
hasten to add that I am NOT accusing Mr. Proyect's beloved Amnesty
International of being a willing conduit of CIA disinformation.  In light of
its actions in Peru, however, (and elsewhere on the globe where armed marxist
revolutions have occurred), one can certainly aloud wonder about the paucity
of outcries emitting from Mr.`Proyect's lofty and high-minded clients.   I
think it is safe to assume, Mr.`Proyect's lamentings aside,  that our Amnesty
International bears a significant bias on behalf of "official" governments
(as long as they do not fancy themselves "communist") as against armed
revolutionaries, or, for that matter, even unarmed revolutionaries.
If we, in the spirit of Louis Proyect, can at least agree on that much, I
will, in my next post, examine more closely our beloved organization's record
vis a vis armed struggle, especially in Peru.
                              Louis Godena


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