{"id":36202,"date":"2016-04-19T15:02:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T19:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=36202"},"modified":"2016-04-19T15:02:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T19:02:21","slug":"amnesty-international-george-clooney-and-the-bidding-of-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=36202","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty International, George Clooney and the Bidding of Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/span> JOHN VINCENT
\nCounterpunch<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In March this year Frank S. Jannuzi was named Washington DC office head at Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). Frank, a former staffer with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is Hitachi International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).<\/p>\n

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the most powerful foreign policy pressure group in the world. Over the years, CFR\u2019s membership has included 22 US secretaries of state.<\/p>\n

Those on CFR\u2019s Board of Directors today include\u00a0Robert E. Rubin, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton and special advisor to the Obama Administration;\u00a0Madeleine Albright,former Secretary of State who when on 60 Minutes was asked by\u00a0Lesley Stahl on the effects of U.S. sanctions against Iraq: \u201cWe have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that\u2019s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?\u201d \u00a0Secretary of State Madeleine Albright replied: \u201cI think this is a very hard choice, but the price\u2013we think the price is worth it\u201d;\u00a0Peter G. Peterson, of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, who has been pushing for the destruction of Social Security for over ten years; and\u00a0Penny Pritzker, Chairman and CEO of PSP Capital, who besides being one of Chicago\u2019s wealthiest woman is also on the Chicago School Board closing public schools in the poorest parts of the city.<\/p>\n

These are names not typically associated with humanitarian causes.<\/p>\n

In taking his new position Jannuzi is quoted on AIUSA\u2019s website as saying: \u201cI am thrilled to be joining Amnesty International and look forward to\u00a0connecting the passion and expertise of AIUSA with the policy-making community in Washington\u00a0that I know well.\u201d<\/p>\n

And how might that work?<\/p>\n

In a CFR moderated discussion George Clooney discussed the plight of the Sudanese in the Nuba Mountains who are caught up in the country\u2019s civil war.\u00a0\u00a0Not surprising the area includes a proposed pipeline route that will carry oil to a seaport in the north.<\/p>\n

So George gets arrested on Friday March 16th<\/sup>, and on Monday the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0AIUSA begins an email campaign calling for Sudanese President al-Bashir to be brought to justice with the banner:\u00a0What was actor George Clooney doing in jail, while Sudan\u2019s president and indicted war crimes suspect Omar al-Bashir runs free?<\/p>\n

Interestingly, March 16th<\/sup>\u00a0was the day AIUSA announced Jannuzi\u2019s new position with the organization.<\/p>\n

So is AIUSA, along with George Clooney and Hollywood in general, supporting the CFR in their effort to manage the American people\u2019s perceptions of Africa for the purpose of furthering their government\u2019s foreign policy objectives in the region?<\/p>\n

Why does AIUSA mount campaigns focused on Africa \u2013 Kony 2012, Sudan\u2019s al-Bashir, and the investigation of civilian deaths in Libya \u2013 but not promote similar campaigns within the borders of the US calling for the arrest of its known war criminals?<\/p>\n

And why doesn\u2019t AIUSA mount campaigns to stop US humanitarian crimes before they occur?\u00a0\u00a0The Iran war is the next human rights catastrophe that will be unleashed on the world, but AIUSA isn\u2019t trying to stop it.\u00a0\u00a0Why not?<\/p>\n

Are AIUSA\u2019s commendable humanitarian efforts being used as a screen for the organization\u2019s work in the service of the American empire?<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2012\/03\/21\/amnesty-international-george-clooney-and-the-interests-of-empire\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}