International Olympic Committee corrupt and clueless -- no change

Dutch IOC member Hein Verbruggen has criticised Amnesty International for "abusing" the Beijing Olympics to campaign for human rights.

I swear to fucking God I am not making this up. I quote from a statement in Dutch in De Morgen newspaper in Flanders, in which Verbuggen comments on Amnesty's claim that the IOC had tried to make China's award of the Games conditional on an improvement in human rights:

"That is a lie. The IOC never asked any such thing of the Chinese," he comments. But they did, he goes on, insist that the Chinese allow the press to report on the Games freely.

So, naughty Amnesty, then. To imagine that an international organisation might bring some pressure to bear on a totalitarian regime to bring about an improvement in human rights. What a shameful and shocking idea.

Sour Grapes says: Clearly, the only ones who should be opportunistically using the Games as a political campaign are the Chinese themselves. And anyone who thinks the IOC should be interfering in humanitarian matters instead of merely filling their pockets with bribes deserves all the opprobrium Mr. Verbruggen can heap on them.

Let Mr. Verbruggen's national committee know here that you understand who the bad guy is in this story. [Opens email message]