This story just keeps getting better. As noted here earlier this week, another member of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division has found himself in a compromising situation. This isn’t the HRW staffer who praised “the achievement of the Munich action” in which Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes. It’s also not the HRW staffer who went to Saudi Arabia to fund-raise off the group’s battles with “pro-Israel pressure groups in the US, the European Union and the United Nations.” This is the staffer who sits in judgment over Israeli military actions and decides which are war crimes. His name is Marc Garlasco. It was recently revealed that, apparently in homage to his German grandfather, Garlasco is a collector of Nazi medals and memorabilia. This would seem like a creepy hobby for a man who emerges every six months or so to declare Jews guilty of war crimes for having the temerity to defend themselves against those who seek their annihilation. Human Rights Watch responded to those charges — as they have to every damaging revelation over the past few weeks — by blaming the Jews and their “campaign to deflect attention from Human Rights Watch’s rigorous and detailed reporting on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the Israeli government.” The group also claimed that Garlasco collects “military items related to both sides, including American 8th Air Force memorabilia and German Air Force medals and other objects (not from the Nazi Party or the SS, as falsely alleged).” [emphasis added] Well, it turns out that’s not really true at all. The blog Harry’s Place posts this exchange between Flak88, Garlasco’s handle on these Nazi collector websites, and another collector:
Garlasco had nearly 8,000 such posts in his first year as a member of the site. And by the way, the handle Flak88 refers to a German artillery piece from WWII. As it happens, 88 is also widely recognized as neo-Nazi code for Heil Hitler, as H is the eight letter of the alphabet. But that’s just an unfortunate coincidence for fans of Nazi artillery and should in no way reflect on the professionalism of Human Rights Watch.
