Nobel Peace Prize Jury Under Investigation. Obama's prize to be suspended?

[Karmadillo]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/02-1

Published on Thursday, February 2, 2012 by Common Dreams
Nobel Peace Prize Jury Under Investigation
Probe: Has Nobel Peace Prize Lost Its Way?
- Common Dreams staff

Today marks the 2012 deadline for nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, but as the prize committee meets this year to discuss what individual or group has "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace," they will be under heightened scrutiny to be sure their choice fulfills the original intent of its founder, Alfred Nobel.

The reason for the heightened pressure rests on an investigation by the Stockholm County Administrative Board of the committee's recent choices prompted by 'persistent complaints' by author and peace researcher, Fredrik Heffermehl, and roundly criticized choices by the committee in recent years -- most notably US President Barack Obama, a war commander governing over numerous military conflicts at the time he was awarded the auspicious "peace" prize in 2009.

<edit>

If the Stockholm County Administrative Board, which supervises foundations in Sweden's capital, finds that prize founder Alfred Nobel's will is not being honored, it has the authority to suspend award decisions going back three years — though that would be unlikely and unprecedented, said Mikael Wiman, a legal expert working for the county.

Obama won in 2009, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won in 2010, and last year the award was split between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.

more...

[MadHound]

1. It was a sham to award it to Obama,

Given that he had done nothing except give great speeches before receiving it, and has done nothing since to show he deserves it. Quite the opposite, given the body count that he has chalked up in the past three years.

[tabatha]

2. It was given for his work in halting nuclear proliferation -

which he has continued.

[MadHound]

8. Umm, no, not exactly

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened."
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/press.html

He was awarded the prize for his potential, and as many critics agreed at the time, for being the anti-Bush.

A shame he hasn't live up to that potential.

[tabatha]

10. Umm, miss the words?

The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations.

And I agree with what was stated in that synopsis -

He did try to reach out to people; he has negotiated where possible; he did ramp down in Iraq which he inherited; he will be getting out of Afghanistan ahead of time.

He is not a war monger. The opinion of the US is much higher around the world than it was under Bush.

[SunsetDreams]

12. umm no, not exactly

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/press.html

It says nothing about being awarded the prize for his potential, as you claim. It was awarded for his efforts. Nor does it say anything about being awarded the prize for being anti-Bush. What his critics may or may not have said at the time, doesn't have anything to do with the reason he was awarded the prize for Nobel Peace.

[mike_c]

3. Obama's award has certainly diminished the meaning of the prize....

Not only had he done little to deserve it when he got it, but in the years since he has unnecessarily prolonged two wars and escalated multiple conflicts elsewhere. Not to mention continuing the Bush tradition of making a mockery of the Geneva Conventions at Gitmo. He didn't deserve it then, and he certainly doesn't deserve it now.

[tabatha]

5. unnecessarily prolonged two wars ?

He got out of Iraq as promised.
The Nobel Committee knew very well that he promised to ramp up in Afghanistan.

[EFerrari]

11. And pursued three more in Pakistan, Yemen and Libya.

And continued funding to the Colombian military despite Colombia failing big on human rights requirements. Continued to fund the Egyptian junta, ditto. Yep.

[T S Justly]

4. The Prize for Peace for war mongering presidents goes to ...

[joeybee12]

6. Not gonna happen...sounds more like some administrative

yada-yada that will lead to nothing...that said, it was beyond a joke that Obama won.

[msongs]

7. is there a peace prize component for killing people with drone attacks? nt

[jody]

9. Are Gore's awards at risk given his personal financial venture with carbon tax? nt

[ProSense]

13. This

...sounds like something political motivated.

Geir Lundestad, the Norwegian committee's executive secretary, said "fraternity between nations" was broad enough to justify every winner in history.

"We reject the idea that we have no respect for the will," Lundestad told Reuters. "There is more than one answer to how the will should be interpreted."

<...>

Heffermehl said human rights campaigners like Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Chinese dissident who won in 2010, and advocates of the poor like Muhammad Yunus, who won in 2006 for popularizing micro-loans, were fine people but "wrong" for the prize.

Nor did he approve of the three 2011 winners: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni democracy advocate Tawakkol Karman.

"After last year you would think it's is a prize for democracy and women's rights," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/us-nobel-peace-idUSTRE8101U820120201

On the face of it, it's absurd. From the AP article:

"Do you see Obama as a promoter of abolishing the military as a tool of international affairs?" Heffermehl asked rhetorically.

http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-02-01-EU-Nobel-Peace-Prize/id-9ff8ef836ecb41e18d5653470a3cc6ec

The President won the prize for his efforts at nuclear disarmament.

[FSogol]

14. Unrec. More RW BS. n/t

[Journeyman]

15. As though that prize has any worth whatsoever since it was awarded to a war criminal in 1973 . . .

Forever tainted. May as well give it to an explosives manufacturer, for all the redemptive value it has for Alfred Nobel's soul.