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Suzanne Nossel | PEN America Hypocrisy

Jan 22, 2013 Amnesty International, Non-Profit Industrial Complex, The War on Libya - There Was No Evidence, Whiteness & Aversive Racism

Suzanne Nossel

Continuity – A Public Good Project Initiative

Jan 21, 2013

By Jay Taber

When I first joined PEN America ten years ago, I was happy to pay my membership fee to support its work in advancing literature and defending free expression. But over the years, I’ve become disillusioned with the organization–partly due to its selective human rights agenda, and more recently due to its profound lack of judgment in choosing its new executive director.

As with far too many NGOs, PEN America has elected to wear blinders when it comes to human rights violations by the United States and its militarism projected through institutions like NATO and militarily dependent states like Israel. While I was disheartened by PEN International’s former vice president Nadine Gordimer’s bias when it came to Israel, the recent choice by PEN America’s trustees to install the former U.S. State Department warmonger Suzanne Nossel as its new executive director is the final straw.

As an experienced advocate for neoliberal coercion to achieve American hegemony, Nossel has taken an aggressive pro-war stance over the last decade, including the US invasion of Iraq and the NATO bombing of Libya. When working as a Hillary wannabe at State, Nossel fought hard at the UN Human Rights Council as an apologist for Zionist crimes against humanity in Palestine. If this is the best PEN America can do, then they can do without my support.

5 Comments

  • Leah on Jun 18, 2019

    Suzanne Nossel is a fierce defender of Human rights. She had lead Pen America to become an amazing and effective organization over the past few years. This editorial is clearly not well-researched and not to mention contains blatant lies. Really stepped in it Taber.

    • Wrong Kind of Green on Jul 01, 2019

      Wrong Kind of Green stands solidly behind the work provided on this website. WKOG painstakingly vets both the work we do as a group and also the individuals, organizations and their work which we decide to post on this website. In regard to the specific post in support of Nossel, we will just point to the already provided report provided by Taber as well as the following blog post as to what and how Nossel truly is. All we can do is provide the information. It is up to the individual to make his or her decision on what is the truth and what is not.

      https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2013/04/03/an-appeal-to-pen-exec-director-suzanne-nossel-must-go/

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