European strategic intelligence and security center

The European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center (ESISC) is an think tank dealing with issues related to terrorism and security. The center is also providing lobbying services.

About ESISC

ESISC was founded in April 2002. Journalist Claude Moniquet is the head of the center.

In August 2007, the Belgian Ministry of the Interior renounced the advisory services of ESISC accusing Claude Moniquet of embezzlement and illegal possession of arms. [1].

Election Observers

Representatives of ESISC participated in 2013 Azerbaijani presidential elections and 2015 parliamentary elections as observers. They evaluated the elections positively and criticized the assessments of the OSCE/ODIHR mission, in which the elections were recognized as inappropriate to democratic norms.[2].

Criticism

According to the “Freedom Files Analytical Center”, ESISC lobbies for Azerbaijan’s interests and provides services of “false observers,” whose task is to participate in the elections of autocratic states as observers, inform on a democratic vote, and criticize the OSCE/ ODIHR observation mission[2].

According to Robert Coalson (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty), ESISC is a part of Baku's lobbying efforts to use analytical centers to change public opinion about Azerbaijan.[3].

Report on Western Sahara

In 2005, ESISC issued a report on Western Sahara and Polisario, which claimed the link between Polisario and “Al Qaeda”. The Moroccan opposition magazine “Le Journal Hebdomadaire” criticized this report writing that it reflects the official views of the Moroccan government and that the Moroccan authorities funded this report. Jacob Mundi[4] considers this report as a part of the Moroccan propaganda designed to discredit the Polisario Front.[5]. The magazine “Le Journal Hebdomadaire” described the authors of the report as “journalists of the royal court.” Claude Moniquet sued the journal on charges of defamation. “Le Journal Hebdomadaire” invited Moniquet to respond to the journal on charges, but she refused. As “Human Rights House” noted, Moniquet filed a lawsuit not in the Belgian court, where ESISC is based, and even not in France, where the center publishes its newsletter, but in Moroccan court. The court ordered “Le Journal Hebdomadaire” to pay Claude Moniquet 360 thousand dollars.[6] According to Moroccan journalists, this was the largest lawsuit against the media in Morocco. The lawyers of the magazine were not allowed to call expert witnesses; the court did not give any reasons of the amount of the fine.[7]

The organization “Reporters Without Borders” (RWB) described this trial as “politically motivated and unfair.”[8]

Social anthropologist of the Sahara Desert, Konstantina Isidoros, said that in both 2005 and 2008, ESISC issued two near-identical reports proclaiming distorted truths that Polisario is evolving to new fears terrorism, radical Islamism or international crime. According Isidoros "lies appear to play some peculiar importance in this report"[9]

Report “Republic of Azerbaijan: a model of good governance”

A month before the 2013 Azerbaijani presidential elections were held, ESISC issued a report entitled “The Republic of Azerbaijan: a model of good governance”. According to Robert Coalson, a correspondent of “Radio Free Europe”, in this “randomly compiled” report in illiterate English, “the stable social welfare of Azerbaijan” is lauded, it is said in the report that women's rights are “comparable to those of citizens of EU member states” and it is also mentioned that there is “full respect for religious minorities” in Azerbaijan.[3].

The report “The Armenian Connection”

On March 6 2017, ESISC published the report “The Armenian Connection,” which accused a number of NGOs specializing in human rights protection and research organizations, criticizing human rights abuses and corruption in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia. In this report, ESISC claimed that the report “Caviar diplomacy” contains misleading information and is aimed at creating a network of PACE deputies, who will participate in the political war against Azerbaijan.[10]

In the second part of the report, which was published on April 18, 2017, ESISC claimed that the anti-Azerbaijani network included a number of prime ministers of European countries, Armenian officials and public organizations: “Human Rights Watch”, “Amnesty International”, “Human Rights House Foundation”, “Open Dialog”, “European Stability Initiative”, “Helsinki Committee for Human Rights”, etc. According to the report, the Soros Foundation, which main human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, has been the key figure of the network since 2012, funds this anti-Azerbaijani network, which served the interests of George Soros and The Republic of Armenia.[11][12]

Criticism

As the “Freedom Files Analytical Center” notes, the report is written in the worst traditions of authoritarian propaganda, it contains absurd claims and tries to stop criticism of lobbying and corruption in PACE.[2]

The European Stability Initiative stated that “the ESISC report is full of lies” (for example, it was said in the report that PACE member Strasser had pro-Armenian views, because he visited Yerevan in 2015 in memory of the Armenian genocide, when Strasser has never been in the Republic of Armenia).[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ “Greenpeace accuse Electrabel d'espionnage”, RTBF Info, 20 mai 2009
  2. 1 2 3 AN EXPLORATION INTO AZERBAIJAN’S SOPHISTICATED SYSTEM OF PROJECTING ITS INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE, BUYING WESTERN POLITICIANS AND CAPTURING INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS // Freedom Files Analytical Centre (Civic Solidarity Platform), March 2017
  3. 1 2 Baku Smooths Over Its Rights Record With A Thick Layer Of Caviar // Radio Free Europe, November 08, 2013
  4. ↑ Jacob Mundy - Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate Universit
  5. ↑ Jacob Mundi. Failed States. Ungoverned Areas, and Safe Havens: The Terrorizaton of the Western Sahara Peace Process // Fonkem Achankeng. Nationalism and Intra-State Conflicts in the Postcolonial World. Lexington Books, 2015, ISBN 1498500269, 9781498500265. Pp.139-140. "Decades later, substitute "'Al-Qaeda" for "Communism" and the discourse is essentially the same. One of the first major salvos in the Moroccan offensive to link Polisario to Al-Qaeda was a series of think tank reports paid for by the royal palace (Moniquet, 2005, 2008). When a Moroccan newsmagazine, Le Journal hebdomadaire (December 9, 2005), dared expose the fact that the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Institute was being paid to tar and feather Polisario, thus began the regime's successful five-year campaign to drive one of the few independent media voices out of existence. Morocco even enlisted its academic voices to aid in the terrorization of the Western Sahara peace process by linking Al-Qaeda to Polisario. "
  6. ↑ "Morocco: Pioneer of independent press silenced amid censorship worries". Los Angeles Times. 16 February 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  7. ↑ Courts, press law undermine Moroccan press freedoms // Committee to Protet Journalists, April 6, 2007. "In April 2006, the Rabat Court of Appeals upheld record damages against the independent newsweekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire in a defamation suit brought by Claude Moniquet, head of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. A lower court had awarded 3 million dirhams (US$359,700) in damages to Moniquet, who said Le Journal Hebdomadaire had defamed him in a six-page critique questioning the independence of his think tank’s report on the disputed Western Sahara, which was annexed by Morocco three decades ago. The damages were the largest ever for a press defamation suit in Morocco, according to Moroccan journalists. Jamaï’s lawyers were prevented from calling expert witnesses, and the judge never provided an explanation for how he arrived at the extensive damages."
  8. ↑ Mise à mort du Journal Hebdomadaire : une semaine pour payer trois millions de dirhams de dommages et intérêts, Reporters sans frontières, 23 December 2006
  9. ↑ Konstantina Isidoros. Western Sahara and the United States’ geographical imaginings // ACAS Concerned Africa Scholars, BULLETIN N°85 - SPRING 2010
  10. ↑ "The Armenian Connection: How a secret caucus of MPs and NGOs, since 2012, created a network within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to hide violations of international law". www.esisc.org. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  11. ↑ "The Armenian Connection. Chapter 2: " Mr X ", Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights". www.esisc.org. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  12. ↑ Brussels Think Tank ESISC Report Unveils PACE Member Ties to Armenia or Soros-linked NGOs
  13. ↑ Merchants of Doubt or investigating Corruption // ESI, 21 April 2017
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.