Respect for Amnesty International

I would probably join the American Civil Liberties Union if it were not for a few pet issues which I feel have become politically motivated and are counter-productive to the key principles of the organization. In conversation with people on the behaviors of the ACLU, I have often cited Amnesty International as having the kind of ideal apolitical atmosphere the ACLU should be striving for. That said, I find this Salon interview with Amnesty's US executive director William Schulz to be very interesting. Salon has chosen to sauce the tease (a term I made up and hope to use more frequently) to fire up its audience, but at its root the interview addresses the non-stance Amnesty International has taken on what the organization interprets to be political decisions. Some interesting implication of the ethics involved in such decisions raise some debatable questions; for instance, should Amnesty International take a lesser-of-two-evils approach in certain cases? Of course, the edges are glittered up with sparkles to get the "antiwar left" dazzled in one way or another.