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Friday, April 29, 2011

A hundred corpses in Daraa. Where's Jimmy Carter? (updated)

From Now Lebanon:

Al-Jazeera television on Friday reported that more than 100 corpses were seen on the streets of Daraa.

“In Daraa, more than 100 bodies have been seen on the roads and more than 150 [people] are missing,” an eyewitness told the TV station.

“Electricity is still cut and there is lack of water supplies and baby milk,” he added.

The eyewitness called on humanitarian organizations to save the people of Daraa.

“People from the villages around Daraa came to support the city but they were shot at by security forces.”
Syria has imposed a siege on Daraa, stopping all travel, communication and humanitarian aid.

The last time Jimmy Carter was in Syria, he eerily predicted this crisis by saying "The blockade is one of the most serious human rights violations on Earth."

Oh, sorry, he was talking about another blockade, one that didn't involve any civilians being targeted. He hasn't said a word about what is going on in Syria for the past month.

In fact, the Carter Center website is curiously silent about all the things happening in the Arab world nowadays. Nothing on Bahrain, Syria, or Yemen, and the only recent mention of Egypt was to congratulate them on helping bring a terrorist group into the Palestinian Authority government.

Could it be because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has given over a million dollars to the Carter Center?

And so has the Saudi BinLadin Group?

And the The Saudi Fund for Development?

And the Government of The United Arab Emirates?

And the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development?

And the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation?

And the The OPEC Fund for International Development?

And the The Sultanate of Oman?

And His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said also of Oman?

No, perish the thought. No doubt Jimmy Carter is not swayed at all in his important humanitarian work by such considerations.

It is more likely that he would never have said a bad word about Arab repression anyway, and this is the reason that he gets so many Arab donors, rather than the other way around.

UPDATE:

In 2009, Jimmy wrote an article on behalf of his team of old busybodies called "The Elders' view of the Middle East." In it he says

During the past 16 months I have visited the Middle East four times and met with leaders in Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza.

Yet the entire article only talks about "Palestine." Apparently the Elders couldn't imagine that their gracious Arab hosts were anything but wonderful to their own people as well.