Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Saturday, October 27, 2018
​Ruggles’ Supposed Sovereignty “Expert” Has A Troubling Past
By Selected News Articles @ 3:45 PM :: 11425 Views :: Hawaii County , Ethics, Greenmail, Hawaii History, OHA

Ruggles’ Supposed Sovereignty “Expert” Has A Troubling Past

by Jacob Perry

Big Island councilwoman Jen Ruggles has caused quite the stir over the past couple of weeks. Back in August, she made the controversial decision to neglect her legislative duties and become a martyr of the alleged war crimes of 1893 and 1898. With the help of sovereignty activist Dr. David Sai, Ruggles has been making the rounds as a “whistleblower,” holding townhalls and issuing statements about her message that the U.S. government illegally occupies the Hawaiian Islands. This claim is not new; the Hawaiian sovereignty movement has been around for decades. But this time, the commotion has some new clout: the opinion of a U.N. independent expert, Dr. Alfred-Maurice de Zayas.

Earlier this year, Dr. Sai made the bombshell announcement “United Nations Acknowledges the Occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom,” and publicly released a memorandum written by Dr. de Zayas, a U.N. official in the Human Rights Council, in which he stated “the lawful political status of the Hawaiian Islands is that of a sovereign nation-state in continuity; but a nation-state that is under a strange form of occupation by the United States resulting from an illegal military occupation and a fraudulent annexation.”

In reality, Dr. de Zayas, in his former capacity as United Nations Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, was an outside volunteer consultant not even on the U.N.’s payroll. To say that his letter is an acknowledgement from the United Nations is both disingenuous and misleading. Regardless, Dr. Sai hailed the memo has ‘remarkable’ while Ms. Ruggles has used it as the centerpiece of her recent information campaign. But while Dr. de Zayas possesses all the trappings of a geopolitical expert and qualified academic (Ph.D. from Harvard, world-traveling law professor, Fulbright research fellow), there are more than a few cases from his professional past that raise eyebrows.

In late 2017, de Zayas became the first U.N. official in over two decades to visit Venezuela, which has been facing economic collapse and widespread famine for nearly ten years.

Immediately after the trip was announced, a coalition of 48 NGOs (non-governmental organizations, including dozens of humanitarian groups and human rights watchdogs) issued an open letter to de Zayas, urging him to set reasonable preconditions before his arrival. But he refused and instead, was welcomed warmly by Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. De Zayas also posted propaganda photos of packed supermarkets and grocery stores. And when he returned, he doubled down by explicitly denying the existence of any famine, violence, or any humanitarian crisis, and describing Maduro’s repressive socialist regime as a “capitalist system [with] a humane face.” The Caracas Chronicles, an independent national news organization in Venezuela, said de Zayas’ “ideological blindness” was “a triumph for Venezuelan state propaganda.”

As if that wasn’t enough, de Zayas is also a hero among anti-Semites and neo-Nazis. According to British journalist and international human rights advocate Tom Gross, writing on Huffington Post, “[de Zayas’] books on World War II portray Germans as victims and the Allies as perpetrators of “genocide”… while not denying the Holocaust himself, he has nonetheless become a hero to many Holocaust deniers, and his sayings are featured on many of their websites. He has called for Israel to be expelled from the UN, while he has defended the ruthless Iranian regime.”

Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review (a think tank dedicated to Holocaust denial) has cited de Zayas’ work extensively to support his effort of downplaying the Holocaust, in which over 10 million innocent civilians were killed. Weber and de Zayas also share the view that the Nuremberg Trials, which prosecuted Nazi war criminals, was an unjustified sham. In his own words, de Zayas said the post-war tribunal had “hardly any legitimacy.” Additionally, other prominent German historians have publicly derided de Zayas, describing his work as faulty, ignorant, and historically revisionist.

This is who Dr. Sai and Ms. Ruggles have chosen to place their faith in: an apologist for dictators, and a hero to Holocaust deniers. Despite these questionable episodes from de Zayas’ career, Ms. Ruggles has decided to base her claim of war crimes and illegal occupation on his one-and-a-half-page memo. In her recent letter to all of the circuit court judges in the state, Ms. Ruggles referred to the de Zayas memo, calling it an “accurate statement of the law” that “describes the legal obligations of the United States.”

If sovereignty activists wish to make progress, or wish to foster an open dialogue about Hawaiian history, their sources and experts must stand up to scrutiny. I’m not saying that Dr. de Zayas’ defense of Maduro or his minimization of the Holocaust is automatically disqualifying, but, at the very least, it should provoke some serious concerns. Not just for him, but also for those who have aligned themselves with him.

---30---

UNW: U.N. to Endorse Hero of Holocaust Deniers, Alfred De Zayas

UNW: U.N. chief must condemn own expert’s ‘fake investigation’ of Venezuela rights record

CC: Ideological Blindness of UN Expert is a Triumph for Venezuelan State Propaganda

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

808 Silent Majority

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federalist Society

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Homeschool Association

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Smokers Alliance

Hawaii State Data Lab

Hawaii Together

HIEC.Coop

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Moms for Liberty

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 4 in Hawaii

Kakaako Cares

Keep Hawaii's Heroes

Land and Power in Hawaii

Legislative Committee Analysis Tool

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

Malama Pregnancy Center of Maui

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Military Home Educators' Network Oahu

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Christian Foundation Hawaii

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

No GMO Means No Aloha

Not Dead Yet, Hawaii

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Oahu Alternative Transport

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

OurFutureHawaii.com

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

PEACE Hawaii

People vs Machine

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

P.U.E.O.

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

ReRoute the Rail

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

Robotics Organizing Committee

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Sink the Jones Act

Statehood for Guam

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

UCC Truths

US Tax Foundation Hawaii Info

VAREP Honolulu

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii

Yes2TMT