Sorry, We Thought "Gulag" Meant Ho-Hos....

Do you suppose that Amnesty International Executive Director William Schulz might need to take one of those "English as a second language" courses? It seems that etymology isn't the only subject about which his knowledge is woefully deficient.

Despite highly publicized charges of U.S. mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, the head of the Amnesty International USA said on Sunday the group doesn't "know for sure" that the military is running a "gulag."

Executive Director William Schulz said Amnesty, often cited worldwide for documenting human rights abuses, also had no information about whether Secretary Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved severe torture methods such as beatings and starvation.

Schulz recently dubbed Rumsfeld an "apparent high-level architect of torture" in asserting he approved interrogation methods that violated international law.

"It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea," Schulz told Fox News Sunday. [my emphases]

Not that the above is actually, you know, news. What I find curious is that Schulz can toss off such scurrilous accusations against the Bush Administration one weekend, and then just as offhandedly admit the utter ignorance underlying them the next. One would think that such a display would thoroughly nuke his professional credibility for all time.

Once upon a time, it would have. But these are not sane times. And people like William Schulz gain "street cred" not from knowing what they're talking about, but saying what the hard left and the Extreme Media want to hear.

Those of us in the real "reality-based community" never accorded people like Schulz much credibility to begin with. "Gulag-gate" is a very illustrative reason why.

[HT: B4B]