Collector of Nazi medals suspended as human rights researcher
Source: blogs.mcclatchydc.com
For years, former Pentagon intelligence analyst Marc Garlasco has been a go-to source for reporters around the world on military issues from Iraq and Israel to Georgia and Afghanistan.
His role as chief of high-value targeting for the Pentagon (which meant that he decided which sites in Iraq the US military should hit) gave him solid credibility when he transformed into a dogged senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch.
Now Garlasco is at the center of a damaging controversy over revelations that he is a collector of Nazi memorabilia.
The news, unearthed and released by staunch supporters of Israel who have been doing extensive research on Human Rights Watch, has now prompted the group to suspend Garlasco while it examines the allegations.
While HRW says the suspension is not a disciplinary step, the group has been buffeted by a prolonged attack that has included a scathing critique of Joe Stork, the deputy director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division.
Garlasco sought to defuse the controversy with a piece for The Huffington Post in which he described himself as a "military geek" whose interest in Nazi medals grew out of his family history: His German grandfather was a conscript who served in the Nazi anti-aircraft battery during World War II.
"The Second World War turned my grandfather, who was conscripted and served on an anti-aircraft battery, into a staunch pacifist," Garlasco wrote. "He couldn't understand why I went to work at the Pentagon, where I was on 9/11, of learning from his experiences - the horrific stories he told me late in life of seeing the bodies he shot down fall out of the sky. It wasn't until he died that I really took his lessons to heart, and decided to use my military expertise to try to lessen the horrors of war. So I left my government career and joined Human Rights Watch to use my expertise in weapons systems and targeting to push soldiers to protect civilians, to uphold the laws born in the ashes of the Second World War."
Garlasco, backed by HRW, has stated plainly that he has never expressed pro-Nazi or anti-Semitic views.
But HRW's critics have scoured thousands of Garlasco's postings on memorabilia Web sites and unearthed selected comments, including one in which he said a "leather SS jacket makes my blood run cold it is so COOL!"
Other bloggers posted a photo of Garlasco wearing a sweatshirt with an Iron Cross on it and questioned Garlasco's defense. (Garlasco, left)"It is extraordinarily bad taste and truly offensive that the same person who habitually castigates the Jewish state to a worldwide audience has a creepy obsession with the symbols of those who tried to destroy all Jews," wrote the Elder of Ziyon blog.
The criticism hasn't only come from conservatives and staunch supporters of Israel. Helena Cobban, a member of an HRW Middle East advisory committee, called Garlasco's hobby "bizarre and disturbing."
Cobban said the controversy was overshadowing the work HRW has done in documenting possible war crimes by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam criticized Cobban for lashing out at Garlasco, who also wrote a 400-page book, long publicly available on Amazon, about Nazi medals.
"I don’t really understand why you would suspend someone from his professional assignment when his only fault is having a hobby that few outsiders can comprehend as meaningful or interesting," Silverstein wrote. "Garlasco has made no statement either supporting Nazism or condemning Israel or Jews. In fact, he has harshly criticized the Nazis in the introduction to a book he wrote on collecting such historical artifacts."
The issue has even garnered the attention of Gawker, the gossip Web site that questioned Garlasco's defense.
"There's more going on there than just fanboy enthusiasm for historical artifacts," Gawker opined. "It's a fascination with the remnants of an evil regime, and it seems to us that the fascination bears some relationship to the magnitude of the evil."
As Garlasco noted, he has never hidden his hobby. HRW officials apparently knew long ago about Garlasco's book and never raised any concerns until the Israeli government and its staunch supporters made the issue public.
"My hope is that HRW is suspending Garlasco with the intent on resolving this matter quickly and reinstating him," Silverstein wrote. "The ostensible reason for suspending him is to investigate the matter more fully. I presume someone will want to go over his 8,000 posts contributed to a few collectors discussion forums, to ensure he never said anything that might be further damaging to HRW. Thus far, nothing I have read is in the least incriminating."
Article from: Checkpoint Jerusalem
