A SENIOR military analyst with the international watchdog Human Rights Watch has been suspended by the organisation following controversy surrounding his collection of Nazi wartime medals and memorabilia.
Marc Garlasco, a former intelligence officer for the Pentagon, has in recent days become the subject of pro-Israeli bloggers who have claimed that he is an avid collector of Nazi second World War memorabilia. The bloggers have questioned whether this is an appropriate hobby for someone who has led Human Rights Watch’s investigations into the two Israeli wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
The watchdog said it had suspended Mr Garlasco from research work on full pay pending an inquiry. The group stressed this was not a disciplinary move, but its associate director, Carroll Bogert, told Associated Press that “we do know he collects German and American World War Two memorabilia, but we have questions as to whether we’ve learned everything we need to know”.
The suspension marks an abrupt change of tack for Human Rights Watch, which has until now dismissed all discussion of Mr Garlasco’s collection as absurd and “an affront to serious military historians”. On Saturday, the group criticised coverage of the controversy in the Guardian, saying it repeated “defamatory nonsense unworthy of this newspaper”.
It is not clear why the watchdog has decided to overturn its previous position. The body has declined to comment on what new information about Mr Garlasco, if any, has come to light to explain its change of heart. In previous comments, the group has depicted the internet-fuelled controversy surrounding Mr Garlasco as an Israeli government campaign to discredit the organisation.
Israel has certainly stepped up its criticism of Human Rights Watch. In July, Ron Dermer, policy director to the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, threatened to “dedicate time and manpower to combating these groups; we are not going to be sitting ducks in a pond for the human rights groups to shoot at us with impunity”.
Mr Garlasco’s hobby involves collection and chronicling of hundreds of medals handed out by anti-aircraft flak units of the Wehrmacht, in which his German grandfather was a conscript. He is the author of a book on the medals.
Some HRW staff privately expressed dismay over the handling of the affair. “It’s been a disaster,” said a senior employee. “We’re not some multinational corporation and we shouldn’t behave like one. We should have been completely straightforward and said there is a legitimate issue here.” – (Guardian service)