Barack Obama’s coterminous policies of apologetic weakness abroad and guilt-riddled self-loathing at home have just made the United States the victim of a baseless lawsuit filed by a foreign government — one that seems destined to further drain the wallets of the shrinking number of Americans still working.
For decades, the Left has claimed that if America atoned for our past sins, the “international community” would in turn respect us and treat us kindly. More realistic analysts warned the world would interpret this as weakness and pounce like tigers on a wounded hyena. Obama’s international apology has just proven us right. On October 1, Obama apologized to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom for medical experiments conducted in the 1940s and approved by both governments. To be sure no nation missed the spectacle, Obama had the moment immortalized in a PR photo. Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Sebelius, and then-White House spokesman Robert Gibbs beat their breasts and begged pardon. This author was the only conservative who reported on it at the time, forecasting Guatemalans would demand reparations and that the money “will probably be forthcoming.”
The Associated Press reported yesterday, “Attorneys representing potentially thousands of Guatemalans who were affected by U.S. syphilis experiments decades ago said Tuesday they will sue top federal health officials unless a system is created out of court to settle claims by the victims or their survivors.”
What do you think inspired these foreigners to demand your tax dollars? “The administration’s apologetic tone led the Guatemalans’ attorneys to seek the unusual out-of-court settlement before a lawsuit is filed,” according to the AP. (Emphasis added.) Guatemalan shakedown artists are demanding Obama “waive any sovereign immunity defenses to block the Guatemalan claims or, as an alternative, they want a claims process similar to those set up in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the 9/11 terror attacks.”
Or more to the point Pigford, Pigford II, and the whole constellation of stealth reparations payments this administration has made to black, American Indian, Hispanic, and female “farmers.”
The Central American lawsuit/shakedown “would include not only those directly involved in the research but also their relatives and survivors.” Guatemalan lawyers gave the president until Friday to comply with their demands.
The absurdity of this litigation can scarcely be overstated. From 1946-48, the U.S. Public Health Service oversaw a medical experiment designed to “test the effectiveness of penicillin” in treating syphilis by infecting nearly 700 Guatemalan prisoners, soldiers, and mental patients with the disease, then treating them.
Such experiments were genuinely inhumane, vicious, and reprehensible. And the Guatemalan government authorized them completely.
Jake Tapper of ABC News reported, “The study also was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, a forerunner of the Pan American Health Organization, and the Guatemalan government.” (Emphases added.) Susan Reverby, the Wellesley College professor who discovered the experiments last January, wrote, “Permissions were gained from the [Guatemalan] authorities but not individuals, not an uncommon practice at the time.”
Even the AP points out: “The American team convinced officials at orphanages and prisons to cooperate by giving them other supplies such as refrigerators and difficult-to-get medications for malaria and epilepsy. Sometimes, individual subjects were paid with cigarettes and, in the case of prisoners, infected prostitutes were used to expose them to the disease, according to court documents.” (Emphases added.)
Not only did the Guatemalan government sponsor the experiments, but it apparently did not treat those it knew to be infected. As I noted last fall, the Guatemalan guinea pigs would have been covered by the national health care system created by self-described “spiritual socialist” Juan José Arévalo Bermejo and expanded by his Marxist successor, Jácobo Árbenz Guzmán — a system not altogether unlike the collectivist system our present leaders would like to impose upon us against our will. Although the government knew whom had been infected, it allowed them to suffer without treatment.
This is perhaps the most totalitarian danger of a national health care program. Many of us have argued that a government that can deny its subjects medical care can decide, in Robert Reich’s clarifying words, “We’re going to let you die.” We may point out: that death need not be quick, painless, or naturally contracted. Could Americans be used as human test subjects under a government health care system? The question is frightening.
So, too, is the president’s weakness. Barack Obama chose to grovel before his Guatemalan counterpart and apologize for experiments both their governments approved long before either man was born. That mea culpa has earned the United States an ultimatum from a Third World country (which should be suing Obama for trying to reinstate Marxist narcoterrorist Manuel Zelaya as president of neighboring Honduras). It could easily result in another fraud-ridden shakedown, this time benefiting people who are not American citizens, were not the subjects of these tests, and whose family members were betrayed by the very government now petitioning us for redress of grievances.
One could expect nothing else from a president obsessed with “our tragic history.” But we should expect much more of our leaders.
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Isn’t that great!! What are we waiting for? All other business, after
defunding this administration, should be demanding his birth
certificate and impeachment!!!
this attitude is a Natioanl disgrace. We have a man as prez who doesn't love this country and he shows it everyday. I really think he is too afraid to be the strong leader he was elected to be. afraidto step on too many toes. he even has the audacity to think he is going to be re-elected. i don't think so. this person has one thing on this mind and one thing only. how quick can I turn this country into a third world or would it fourth world country.
personally I think Sarah Palin could have done a better job.
If they're going to impeach him. They better get a move on. it may already too late.
America, you wanted him…now choke on him!!!!!!!
Sounds like this is on Barry's nickel. Hand that jerk the bill!
sue the US after 50-60 yrs, are they stupid, or is the taxpayer going to put up with this and pay that too. Remember, anything the Gov't spends comes from the "TAXPAYERS" pocket. When are we going to tell them that enough is enough. When do we stop paying for the "Sins of Our Fathers"
They sue us…we sue them for their government participation and lack of medical treatment after the fact. Then we sue Dumbo in OUR White House. Let his puppet-master, Georgie Soros, pay the bill.
WHEN IS CONGRESS GOING TO GET OFF THEIR FAT A$$E$ AND FILE FOR IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS? The longer this idiot stays in office the worse our country becomes. Out with the whole bunch of them, including Clinton. Take Biden down at the same time; clean house while the broom is still intact.
Get it straight in your heads: Obama is NOT "afraid" to be a strong leader or to step on too many toes. He knows exactly what he's doing, as do those who give him his orders every day. Liberals want control and power, and they're finally getting it. They've been working for this day for over a century, don't kid yourselves. We can't depend on our Republican leaders because MOST of them are RINOs (Republican In Name Only), although only a few have shown their true colors so far, such as McCain and Snowe. But give them time. They will eventually! Most Americans keep voting for Dems or Repubs. This is exactly what those in power want us to do. Either way, one of "theirs" gets elected. Get away from the 2-party system and start voting independent! It's our only hope.
Since obama saw fit to unload this burden of remorse, let him really unload by paying for his “guilt”. I am not sorry, it happened before my time, why should I be sorry for something that THEIR government was at fault for. If they KNEW, which it is clear they did, THEY should have treated them. Let obama, personally, and the guatemalan government take care of it! Those of us, today, have “no skin”(as obama is so fond of saying)in this!
I am thoroughly disgusted with Obama. I remember when he first went on the campaign trail, he removed the American flag off the tail of his jet and put his own logo there. I knew right then, this is not good for America. He has done nothing but denigrate the U.S. and bring her down. The man is a blight in our country – on our country – he's done nothing good, he doesn't know anything and the people in his corner are idiots. I was an art teacher and I could have done better than him because I l ove the U.S.A.
Not only is Obama not a natural born American citizen there is nothing natural about him. He a splice. Do your homework ladies and gentlemen. Know your foe.
Can someone PLEASE tell me why a story that was run back in Oct. 2010 is being rerun as if it were a NEW story? I really don't understand the reasoning behind it, un-LESS there just isn't ANY thing to write about that is current (something I find impossible to believe). Don't we have ENOUGH grievances against this poor excuse of a president ALREADY? Isn't there already enough disgusting news, enough to KEEP us up in arms and aggravated constantly?
This story was run back in '10 with much more detail. But the POINT is that it is OLD NEWS. By the way, this isn't the 1st time I've run across this same type of 'reporting'. It's at least the 2nd time and if I were to really research I imagine I could find more examples.
The LAST thing I want to do is be a ‘complainer’ but I don’t like feeling ‘jerked around’ either. And I personally feel it INJURES the public image of THIS or any other web site for old articles to be RE-run as current news.
Please read:
Obama Apologizes to Guatemala for Guatemalan Govt Experiment
Posted on October 4, 2010 by Ben Johnson http://floydreports.com/obama-apologizes-to-guate…