Suzanne Trimel, the Media Relations Director of Amnesty International USA, writes to inform me that the organization did, in fact, view the arrest of Gillian Gibbons as "a mockery of justice and demanded her immediate and unconditional release from prison." Furthermore, the organization "considered the teacher a prisoner of conscience." This note, of course, was in response to my post yesterday.
That's good. I'm glad to hear that somewhere, somehow AI was in Gillian Gibbons corner.
Unfortunately, a search of several news stories about the Gibbons imprisonment did not show AI's protest nor was Gillian Gibbons found on a search of AI's own website. I therefore concluded that AI was completely silent on the matter. According to Ms. Trimel, and I'm sure she's right, I was incorrect and I'm pleased to post this and say so.
I just wish AI would have defended Gillian Gibbons a little more boldly, a little more loudly...more like the noise they've been making over their opposition to policemen using tasers or the new push to make legal abortion among their human rights demands.
