HRW suspends Garlasco
The Nazi-memorabilia obsessive and Human Rights Watch investigator has been suspended with pay “pending an investigation,” The New York Times reports.
The suspension comes at a time of heightened tension between, on one side, the new Israeli government and its allies on the right, and the other side, human rights organizations that have been critical of Israel. In recent months, the government has pledged an aggressive approach toward the groups to discredit what they argue is bias and error.
Injected suddenly into that heated conflict, word of Mr. Garlasco’s interest seemed startling to many. The disclosure ricocheted across the Internet: Mr. Garlasco, an American, was not only a collector, he has written a book, more than 400 pages long, about Nazi-era medals. His hobby, inspired he said by a German grandfather conscripted into Hitler’s army, was revealed on a pro-Israel blog, Mere Rhetoric Mere Rhetoric, which quoted his enthusiastic postings on collector sites under the pseudonym “Flak88” — including, “That is so cool! The leather SS jacket makes my blood go cold it is so COOL!”
It was a Rorschach moment in the conflict between Israel and its critics. The revelations were, depending on who is talking, either incontrovertible proof of bias or an irrelevant smear.
This analysis doesn’t seem to leave any room for those of us who are critical of the current Israeli government but who still find Garlasco’s leisure-time activity– if not “incontrovertible proof of bias”– at least deeply troubling.
(Hat tip: Z Word)
Comments
| 15 September 2009, 5:48 pm |
Well highly polarised is the default setting for talking about things on the internet… Did you mean to type ‘with’ twice as if repeating the word in astonishment?
| 15 September 2009, 5:56 pm |
If anyone’s taking bets, he’ll probably be back at work by the beginning of the New Year when this has all died down.
| 15 September 2009, 6:08 pm |
Did you mean to type ‘with’ twice as if repeating the word in astonishment?
Nope. Thanks.
| 15 September 2009, 6:26 pm |
A Rorschach? Everything is relative huh? The NYT can really suck.
| 15 September 2009, 6:32 pm |
flak88: 88 is commonly used in pro-Nazi circles as a stand-in for Heil Hitler, HH, H being the 8th letter of the alphabet; as 18, A-H, is for Adolph Hitler. In his Nazi memorabilia circles, Mr. Garlasco was, I believe, covertly signaling his friends of his sentiments.
This is of a piece with HRW, since we have seen one of its members solicit funds from the Saudis on the basis of their shared enemy, Israel.
| 15 September 2009, 7:50 pm |
I suspect that Garlasco won’t be back.
The concern is that there will be something else that will come out: eg. what if there is a photo of Garlasco having a beer in a convention hall lobby with a fellow badge enthusiast who happens to be a holocaust denier? We already know that he was chummy with some nazi apologists online.
No one is interested in facts and integrity anymore, the only way to get people outraged about ACORN, HRW etc. is pictures and videos that illustrate what the people behind these organizations are actually about.
| 15 September 2009, 8:07 pm |
“No one is interested in facts and integrity anymore, the only way to get people outraged about ACORN, HRW etc. is pictures and videos that illustrate what the people behind these organizations are actually about.”
Well put, Ohad.
| 15 September 2009, 9:28 pm |
Note that Guardian, Independent etc are spinning it as an effort by ‘right-wing’ ‘pro-israeli’ blogs against a WW2 collector. No mention of the volume of postings, the people he was posting to, the significance of ‘88′, or the other problems in HRW (trip to saudi, pro-munich etc).
Its amazing how they manage to edit the story in such a way as to neuter its full effect.
| 15 September 2009, 9:28 pm |
Never put them out in your life, Fabian? You’ll be all the poorer for it.
| 15 September 2009, 9:36 pm |
Why did it take HRW a week to do this? What has changed since last week when they published their ‘hear no evil’ defence of him?
Who is going to ‘investigate’ Garlasco and according to what criteria?
| 15 September 2009, 9:53 pm |
Why did it take HRW a week to do this?
HRW behaved exactly like every government, local authority, organisation etc. in this situation once serious and well-supported accusations have been made against central member of the staff:
1. Shoot at the messenger, question his motives.
2. Defend “your” person against straw allegations, not the true ones.
3. Bluster it out: something will happen, the news will be taken over…
4. Suspend the person on full pay and institute internal enquiry.
5. Now you have three or more months to repeat point 3 at your leisure.
6. If the story didn’t die out, amicably part ways (with or without golden parachute) with Mr Embarrassment. Don’t issue press release.
7. Think wistfully how better had it been had you taken an immediate action once the allegations have surfaced.
These are the laws of physics. HRW is subject to them like every other outfit in this position. They are now in stage 4.
| 15 September 2009, 10:57 pm |
How convenient for HRW. Garlasco, after a time out, will be reinstated at his old job to great fanfare, or at least with aplomb and HRW’s partisan Arab and Palestinian nationalist ME section and Board of Directors will now be able to highlight their organization’s great “courage”, following in the footsteps of “courageous” “truth tellers” like Walt and Mearsheimer, Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu, in standing up to the “right wing” Zionist Entity Lobby™ in their fundraising appeals.
The Zionist Entity Lobby™ apparently thought they were addressing a shortcoming in HRW’s ME section that a broad spectrum of people would find troubling when considering the credibility of HRW ME section reports on Israel. But they were wrong, as The NY Times and The Guardian show: the issue was never about HRW’s ME section’s credibility, rather it was always about the suspect credibility of anyone who would agree with the machinations of a right wing transnational consortium of brazen and disproportionately powerful apologists and propagandists directed by a foreign government to smear both a keen WW2 military history student and memorabilia expert and Human Rights at large.
As for Garlasco, he’ll be crowing about this episode, the most stimulating and widest public exposure he’s experienced to date, for years to come.
But in the end, if it’s any consolation, the NY Times’ and The Guardian’s “right wing” Zionist Entity Lobby™ will have claimed if not a full pound of Saint Garlasco’s flesh, then at least a few ounces of it, in this issue-free war between what the NY Times and Guardian see instead as a battle between the good (Human Rights and keen students of WW2 military history and collectors and experts in the field of WW2 memorabilia and artifacts) against the bad (a disproportionately powerful right wing syndicate propagandizing for a foreign government).
That’s because Marc Garlasco will likely be instructed to desist from ever again posting online under his cherished screen name Flak88 and *gasp*, HRW’s PR and legal advisors might even insist that he remove the Flak88 plates from his automobile that he takes pride in.
I’m not consoled. It’s more like my eyes want to spit.
| 16 September 2009, 3:46 pm |
I’m afraid HP’s got this one terribly wrong. Lbnaz is right: the affair will simply make it even harder for serious criticism of HRW to get a hearing on the Left. But even that’s not the worst of it. Trying to get somebody sacked on the grounds that he thinks the SS had cool uniforms smacks of the worst kind of witchhunting. Is there one shred of hard evidence here of Nazi political sympathies? If so clearly the man has a case to answer; if not (and the more his hobby is talked up the more obvious it becomes that there is not) the whole business is a scandalous infringement of his civil liberties and you really should be ashamed of yourselves for joining in – however much and however justifiably you dislike his Israel-bashing.
| 16 September 2009, 5:22 pm |
Although ‘Flak88′ could be a reference to Hitler it is more likely to be inspired by the 88mm anti-aircraft gun – one of the most famous German weapons of WW2 and the staple of Third Reich air defences during the Allied bombing campaigns (’flak’ being slang for anti-aircraft fire)
| 16 September 2009, 5:26 pm |
Lbnaz and Grumpy: only time will tell, but I don’t think HRW will continue to employ Garlasco, as only idiots would fail to grasp that it’s not a good sign if a human rights investigator’s affection for his granddad’s memory manifests as in the form of wearing Iron Cross emblazoned hoodies, Nazi medals and using the name of an anti-aircraft gun clearly named in honor of Der Fuhrer.
| 16 September 2009, 10:29 pm |
Although ‘Flak88′ could be a reference to Hitler it is more likely to be inspired by the 88mm anti-aircraft gun
Sorry David B, you missed the point. The point is that expert Marc Garlasco knew damn well that Flak88 could be either a reference to Hitler or to a Wermacht anti-aircraft gun and yet still chose to post under a double entendre moniker leaving the double meaning behind his screen name (and car license plates) an open question when posting to Nazi memorabilia online forums.
Do you David B think it’s benign for a Human Rights NGO “expert” to choose to post to German WW2 memorabilia sites under a screen name which is deliberately left ambiguous as to whether or not he was referring to himself as one who fancies himself either a Hitler enthusiast, a Wermacht anti-aircraft gun enthusiast, or both?
Lynn T: As far as your faith that “only idiots would fail to grasp that it’s not a good sign if a human rights investigator …”, you will have to reconcile yourself with the fact that those you call “only idiots” will succeed not only in reinstating Garlasco, but also in painting him as a courageous truth teller, whereas I and Mr. Grumpy won’t have to reconcile ourselves at all, because HRW, its sockpuppeteers; its pro Munich Massacre report writer; its Saudi fundraisers; its ME Division head who was an avid activist for the pro Arab, American-Arab Antidiscrimination Committee, who counts ISM’s Adam Shapiro and Counterpunch contributor Alison Weir (Weir contributed a defence of the Aftonbladet blood libel there) as Facebook friends and who is rumored to have deep admiration for Norman F!@#$%klestein; its Nazi fetishist trinket expert; its director who slings ad hominem smears at Irwin Cotler for having the audacity to question the UN Human Rights Council’s impartiality; and the large community of apologists including the NY Times who see nothing amiss at HRW and instead see any criticism of the dubious impartiality and credibility of HRW personnel as an organized smear by a powerful cabal to deflect attention away from “criticism” of Israel, leave me no room to be disappointed any further.
| 17 September 2009, 9:18 am |
How convenient for HRW. Garlasco, after a time out, will be reinstated at his old job to great fanfare
Only if they were as stupid as you. Garlasco is damaged goods. He can never write anything again about Israel without this story being raised. In fact he can’t really occupy any politically sensitive role again and certainly not one that involves calling Israel to account for its military actions. If HRW has any sense, they will find some face-saving formula and allow him to resign to spend more time with his medals.
| 17 September 2009, 9:34 am |
Do you David B think it’s benign for a Human Rights NGO “expert” to choose to post to German WW2 memorabilia sites under a screen name which is deliberately left ambiguous as to whether or not he was referring to himself as one who fancies himself either a Hitler enthusiast, a Wermacht anti-aircraft gun enthusiast, or both?
And it is rhetoric like this that demonstrates why Garlasco cannot stay. In the future whenever Garlasco gets involved in a story, the story will soon become about him, about his judgement, whether he was naive or a secret Nazi sympathiser. A lot of the comment may be unfair but that’s beside the point. It will be said and it makes him a liability. That is why I am confident that he will leave HRW.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=garlasco