Yeah, of course he published his response on HuffPo. Second rule of damage control: do it in front of a friendly audience so you can remind your allies who they’re supposed to be rooting for:
Now I’ve achieved some blogosphere fame… for my hobby (unusual and disturbing to some, I realize) of collecting Second World War memorabilia associated with my German grandfather and my American great-uncle… I’m now in the bizarre and painful situation of having to deny accusations that I’m a Nazi…
I’ve never hidden my hobby, because there’s nothing shameful in it… Precisely because it’s so obvious that the Nazis were evil, I never realized that other people, including friends and colleagues, might wonder why I care about these things. Thousands of military history buffs collect war paraphernalia because we want to learn from the past. But I should have realized that images of the Second World War German military are hurtful to many. I deeply regret causing pain and offense with a handful of juvenile and tasteless postings I made on two websites that study Second World War artifacts… Other comments there might seem strange and even distasteful.
Four times he acknowledges that his obsession with the color and pageantry of Nazism might be “disturbing” or “painful” or “hurtful” or “distasteful.” You can almost imagine the “let’s make this go away” emails HRW sent him: “you have to make it clear that you understand why people might be upset by this.” The classic non-apology apology.
I’m pretty sure those blase “other comments” allusions are to forum posts about his SS chic and his Iron Cross hoodie. Neither line up particularly well with his “I’m just a misunderstood historian” ethos. And per Israellycool, his Bambiesque “I never realized” shtick is the opposite of true:
Garlasco also blatantly lies in his response. His contentions… do not compare well with this comment to him by a fellow Nazi memorabilia aficionado on one of the forums (no longer accessible without a login): “I remember you asking about using a psydonym before your book was published.” The pretense that he studies “Second World War artifacts” is [also] just that – a pretense – given that his focus is clearly on Nazi memorabilia.
I think Dave goes too far in talking about those objectively disprovable “I never suspected” fibs the same breath as Garlasco’s weasely “Second World War artifacts” descriptions. The descriptions are merely intellectually dishonest. Yes he’s obsessed with WWII memorabilia. But the type of WWII memorabilia he’s obsessed with is the Nazi type. For all his great-uncle’s service for America, Garlasco hasn’t written a detailed 430 page tome on US badges.
And speaking of intellectual dishonesty: at no point does Garlasco provide any link to anybody. At first I thought he was just being impolite – I was nice enough to link to his gushing forum posts about swastika-engraved paraphernalia – but now I’m thinking there might have been a more deliberate purpose. If he linked to his critics then he’d have to answer their real arguments instead of the arguments he’s made up in his head.
Nobody serious has accused Garlasco of being a Nazi, though I guess it’s heartening to have him on the record denying it (baby steps!) The criticism is that someone obsessively fascinated by Nazism is suspicious in the context of repeated apologism for Hamas and demonization of Israel. It’s not one or the other, it’s the convergence of the two. I know that’s the criticism because I wrote it up myself in that first post and then people sympathetically linked to it:
I’ve gotten specific emails accusing Garlasco of being a Stormfront.org contributor (100% not true) and because there’s a general risk that this controversy is becoming one about him personally (misses the point). He’s a guy who has a lot of inchoate sensibilities when it comes to Jews and the Jewish State, and there’s obviously something going on that’s consistently tilting his reports in an anti-Israel direction. If he was just incompetent then 50% of his mistakes would favor Israel. He should never have been tasked with producing reports about the Middle East, if for no other reason than there’s something moving him other than level-headed analysis. It’s not straightforward and its not vulgar, but it’s obviously doing work.
As for this predictable “I’m just a history buff” defense, lots of people – myself included – have gone out of their way to be equivocal on this point. But honestly it’s really kind of asinine. You can tell that it’s asinine because otherwise defense attorneys would be using it in court: “it’s not fair to imply that my client’s creepy because he collects women’s fingernails; he’s just passionate about physiology.” Now of course you occasionally do run into passionate physiologists. But if someone’s already on trial because he’s stalking women and then it turns out that he also collects their fingernails in a jar – well, then we’re on somewhat less compelling territory.
The very first questions I started out with are still the questions that need to be answered: how much did HRW know about Garlasco’s obsession and when did they know it? If Garlasco’s telling the truth about never hiding his hobby then HRW has to answer for repeatedly sending him to publish debunked anti-Israel report after debunked anti-Israel report. If he never told them then he’s lying but they couldn’t tell because his anti-Israel posing- for all that it’s the result of inchoate obsessions and personal tics – was indistinguishable from HRW’s institutionalized dogmas.
References:
* Responding to Accusations [Garlasco / HuffPo]
* Marc Garlasco and SS Chic [Pollak / Commentary]
* Human Rights Watch Responds to Garlasco Revelations [Solomonia]
* Garlasco Responds [Israellycool]
* Marc Garlasco – Is HRW’s Anti-Israel Investigator A Nazi-Obsessed Collector? [MR]
* No, The Stormfront.org Flak88 Guy Is Not Marc Garlasco [MR]
Previously:
* Human Rights Watch Earns Their Saudi Pay, Publishes Another Thinly-Sourced Report Demonizing Israel (UPDATE: Video Of Hamas Soldiers Hiding Behind White Flags)
* Human Rights Watch Shill Has Meltdown – Rants About “Sharanskys Of The World,” Dares Critics To Find “One Incident” Of HRW Bias (UPDATED: Nasrallah Bragged About Using Human Shields)
* Human Rights Watch Holds Saudi Fundraiser, Promises To Demonize Israel
