Bizarre, Media, Politics

Ex-Nobel Secretary Admits Obama’s Prize Was A Mistake

Nobel_PrizePresident_Barack_ObamaLike many people, I was highly critical of the awarding of the Nobel Award to President Barack Obama in 2009 before he had done anything as president.  Now the ex-Secretary for the Nobel Prize Geir Lundestad has admitted that Obama did not deserve the prize but rather they thought the award would strengthen Obama.  It is a maddening admission that the committee bypassed a list of worthy candidates with proven contributions to humanity to give a boost to someone that the Committee simply liked. That would seem grossly unethical but Lundestad merely acknowledged that it did not seem to work.

 

As I discussed at the time, Obama beat out various more worthy candidates including Dr. Sima Samar who is an amazingly brave Afghan woman who has risked her life to fight for the rights of women and girls in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The chairwomen of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, Samar was the first Hazara woman to obtain a medical degree from Kabul University. She has had to repeatedly flee for her life but has insisted on returning time and time again to treat the poor and fight for women’s rights — in an area where feminists are routinely killed or sprayed with acid by extremists.

Samar also opposed the rise of Sharia law and religious radicals. Extremists forced her out as Deputy President and later Minister of Women’s Affairs.

For civil libertarians, the comparison of Samar and Obama could not be more striking. Where Obama has repeatedly refused to fight for principle and yielded to politics (in areas like torture, privacy, and detainee rights), Samar has refused to yield on principle — even at the risk of her own life. While Obama was in office less than two weeks before his nomination, Samar has spent a lifetime fighting for oppressed women in Afghanistan.

Obama was given an award after a short (and rather unremarkable stint) as a junior Senator and before doing anything as president — the same award given to the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Jane Addams, Elie Wiesel, Nelson Mandela, and Desmond Tutu.

Geir Lundestad and his colleagues rejected Samar and others because they wanted to boost Obama.  In his memoir entitled Secretary of Peace, Lundestad admits “No Nobel Peace Prize ever elicited more attention than the 2009 prize to Barack Obama . . . Even many of Obama’s supporters believed that the prize was a mistake. In that sense the committee didn’t achieve what it had hoped for.”

That is Lundestad’s way of explaining a decision that openly ignored the premise of the prize, ignored humanitarians with inspiring records, and gave the leading humanitarian award to someone without single credible claim to that prize.

Lundestad’s book is lacking any evidence of an ethical commitment to the history of the Nobel or its underling principles.

 

150 thoughts on “Ex-Nobel Secretary Admits Obama’s Prize Was A Mistake”

  1. Pingback: Former Secretary Of Nobel Committee Says Obama's Peace Prize Was A Mistake

  2. The notion that Obama was deserving of this award was laughable from the start. What was more comical was listening to the blathering idiots defending the choice, as though they were the serious people, and it was us who were not. The entire exercise provided great insight to the minds and principals of the globalist crowd – shallow and non-existent.

    1. It would make more sense to talk about Gina Haspel becoming CIA director than whining about Obama’s undeserved Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe Turley will post something on the Haspel topic tomorrow. That’ll give us a whole day to dust off our rubber hoses. My time’s up for today. Wait a second. Did Obama close Guantanamo? I can’t remember.

      1. From Wikipedia.org:

        “The camp was established by President George W. Bush’s administration in 2002 during the War on Terror. His successor, President Barack Obama, promised that he would close it, but met strong bipartisan opposition, with Congress passing laws to prohibit detainees from Guantanamo being imprisoned in the U.S. During Obama’s administration, the number of inmates was reduced from about 245[3] to 41;[4] most former detainees were freed and transferred to other countries.[5] In January 2018, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the prison camp open indefinitely.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp

  4. Let’s not forget Obama, very strategically gave away his prize money to various “charities.” Fisher House was a very good choice and in my opinion intended to make all the other choices seem unquestionable. What a peach.

    Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
    Posse Foundation
    United Negro College Fund
    Hispanic Scholarship Fund
    Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation
    American Indian College Fund
    Africare
    Central Asia Institute

      1. If you like 1.2% annual GDP, race baiting, Fast and Furious scandal and the destabilisation of Libya and Syria

      2. If you like a weaponized, administrative state and loathe the rule of law and separation of powers, then I would agree with you.

    2. I can almost assure you if you were not complacent and were to follow the money to all these Charities you would come back to either the Clintons or someone very close to Obama. It was sounding ok until you put Bush/ Clinton Haiti I dont belive Bush had his hand in that ,but im not sure. What i do know is Haiti was raped by the Clinton’s.Of the Billons raised for Haiti I belive it is said they recived less than 1%. Surely you know this? Im sure you kniw Laura Silsby who was caught stealing haiti children and HRC ran to her defence and got her time served. There is so much more ,but im sure you think I love to make up stuff and shes a peach? Of course they come out looking like saints to some ,but if you continue on theres just to much to overlook.

  5. There were many more worthy individuals that had performed valid actions before being awarded the Nobel Prize. I would recognize Dr. Samar as one of them.

    I have a general disdain of special recognition being awarded to most politicians. Winning an election is not a qualifying factor in doing something good, as there have been many who have won elections on their way to performing hideous and evil deeds. The nations on Africa are replete with examples of humanitarian disasters caused by the rise to the top of various political opportunists.

    The idea of paying it forward with a major international prize, in the hopes of boosting that politician’s career, is an example that should be avoided in the future. And with the way views of certain individuals are being reshaped by changing historical perspectives shows the folly of that year’s prize.

  6. I guess they decided if you less than 28,000 pounds of bombs on the world, you’re good to go. If you drop more than 28,001 pounds, you don’t get a medal. Must have done a recount at some time.

  7. Let those not forget the ” hands outreach” by the Notre Dame bunch-also a mistake .

  8. From the Wikipedia article on the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize:

    Obama said he was “surprised” and “deeply humbled” by the award. In remarks given at the White House Rose Garden on the day of the announcement, Obama stated, “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.”

    “Throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes,” Obama said. “And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action — a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.” He said those common challenges included the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons (which he said might not occur in his lifetime), nuclear proliferation, climate change, tolerance “among people of different faiths and races and religions”, peace between and security for Israelis and Palestinians, better social conditions for the world’s poor, including “the ability to get an education and make a decent living; the security that you won’t have to live in fear of disease or violence without hope for the future.” The United States, he said, is “a country that’s responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies.”

    The award, he said, “must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity — for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometime their lives for the cause of peace.”

    It is evident from Obama’s remarks quoted above that Obama accepted the award as a “call to action” and that the award “must be shared” . . . “to give momentum to a set of causes” . . . which included “ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary . . .” Obama clearly knew that the Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to him “as a recognition of [his] own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.” It takes little effort to interpret Obama’s remarks as accepting the Peace Prize on behalf of the American people. And with just a little extra effort one might conclude that we the people of The United States of America were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because we elected Barack Hussein Obama President of the United States.

    Turley’s right. We didn’t deserve it. We’re ingrates.

    1. It takes a BS artist to admire another BS artist. Plain and simple. This prize should never have been bestowed upon this interloper. Never. Ever. He didn’t deserve it. You know that. The former Secretary of the Nobel Prize knows it and, finally, had the b@lls to admit it. I’m guessing that he must be dying. . .it sounds like a deathbed confession, to me, where the former Secretary is trying to reveal the truth before he meets his Maker. Go ahead. Admit it. It was a farce. A sham. Even Bathhouse Barry’s own words acknowledge that he is unworthy of this award. He reveals just how guilty that he is to accept an award for which he is unworthy and undeserving. Aspirational? The bestowing of this award was meant to be, aspirational? You mean, it was supposed to be bestowed upon a man who gleefully conducted and engagef in worldwide apology tours, across the globe, apologizing for American exceptionalism, every time he opened his mouth? Tell us, some more, how this disgrace of a human being, wants to share this award with the American people? Laughable. Ply your foolishness somewhere else. Those on this thread won’t fall for your falsehoods.

      1. bam bam, if you seek to refute an argument, then, at a minimum, you have to assert something other than the argument you seek to refute. A paraphrase won’t cut it. No matter how much emotionally laden content you pack into that paraphrase, it’s still just a paraphrase. And therefore not a refutation.

        1. Yes, from the Queen of Lucidity. Please, tell us again, how the prize was meant to be aspirational and shared with the American people.

          1. When we elected the first half-Black President of the United States the Nobel committee decided to reward us by awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. Obviously we did not deserve the wishful thinking in the Nobel committee engaged. Because we are ingrates. And damned proud of our ingratitude, to boot.

            1. One of the most confused and irrational attempts at explaining away a prestigious, rare and cherished prize being unfairly awarded to one so undeserving of such a prize. Really, you think that Nobel Prizes are doled out because they are nods to the people inhabiting the countries of the various recipients? That is not the case. Never has been. Never will be. The prize, like all prizes, is supposed to denote accomplishment. Success. Bravery. Fortitude. But you, along with the other Kool-aid drinkers, so blinded by your passions for this community organizer, see accomplishment, success, bravery and fortitude in Obama’s very being. He need not accomplish anything–which was the case at the time that this prize was presented–for you to fawn over this being’s mere existence. How sad and truly pathetic that you can’t even be, for one moment, honest enough to claim that it was a gross mistake and error to award someone, like Obama, this coveted award. Even one of the individuals, who presides over the manner in which such recipients are selected, has had a sudden bout of guilt, and now admits that Obama was undeserving of said award. Yes. One of the deciding individuals, who knows, precisely, how the process is supposed to work, in no uncertain terms, to relieve, what I suppose was a guilty conscience, gnawing away at him all of these years, admits that the decision to bestow this award to Barry was not based upon the proper principles, yet, you still dig in your heels and decry that the award was to be shared with the American people. Baffling. Truly, baffling.

              1. “Baffling. Truly, baffling.”

                Bam Bam, you are very much on target. Such ignorance as demonstrated by Diane is baffling but expected. Obama represents her dreams.

        2. L4D:
          Here’s a summary of the argument of bam bam: the recipient of an award honoring profound public achievement didn’t deserve it because he had no profound public achievements when the award was bestowed. Doesn’t that help?

          1. The recipient of the award knew that and said so at the time the award was bestowed. Does that help?

            1. Sure, it shows an acknowledgment of the chicanery political correctness always engenders to cheapen formerly prestigious awards even extending to the recipients. It’s also demostrates how corruption and atrophy sets in when institutions forget their original purpose. Bam Bam is one thought provoking guy!

              1. Downstream from her bam bam said, “The ego-driven Barry would rather hold onto an award, which he doesn’t deserve, than act like a man, of true character and grace, admitting that he was unworthy–either then or now–of this prize.”

                In remarks given at the White House Rose Garden on the day of the announcement, Obama stated, “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.”

                Mespo727272 said, “Bam Bam is one thought provoking guy!”

                Well how then, Mespo, can a thought-provoking guy like bam bam remain utterly impervious to the provocation of his own thought for nine years already???

                1. L4D:
                  “Well how then, Mespo, can a thought-provoking guy like bam bam remain utterly impervious to the provocation of his own thought for nine years already???”
                  *********************
                  It’s a talent! Seriously, bam bam simply wants the deserving to get the desserts. Nothing wrong with that sentiment. As you know, I’m not an Obama hater even defending his domestic policies on these very pages. And as you note, Obama was indeed dutifully modest … but … as Churchill said about Clement Attlee, “[H]e has a lot to be modest about.”

            2. bam bam said, “Even [Obama’s] own words acknowledge that he is unworthy of this award. He reveals just how guilty that he is to accept an award for which he is unworthy and undeserving.”

              L4D said, “And with just a little extra effort one might conclude that we the people of The United States of America were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because we elected Barack Hussein Obama President of the United States.”

              What really sticks in bam bam’s craw is the notion that a bunch of “foreigners” would deign to congratulate America for having elected a half-Black man to be our President coupled with the extreme improbably that those same “foreigners” will ever extend the same congratulations to America for having elected Trump. And that just so happens to be the most likely explanation for Turley’s rant on this topic, to boot.

              1. What a bunch of bullsh!t from Diane. According to Diane, Obama is the opposite of self-centered. Why are those managing the teleprompter always complaining they are running out of “I’s”.

                “‘I,’ ‘Me,’ ‘My’—Obama Uses First Person Singular 199 Times”

    2. You nailed it. Obama was all rhetoric and narrative. No ability to understand how to make positive policy. Just a suit. An empty chair. He could speak from a script, just like an actor in a movie or TV show. It’s just he had no ability to actually make what he said work. But nice speech. Anybody could have said it and many already have. Speechmakers don’t deserve awards – people with character do.

    3. And with just a little extra effort one might conclude that we the people of The United States of America were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because we elected Barack Hussein Obama President of the United States….We didn’t deserve it. We’re ingrates.

      Yes you are. You had one job to do and you fuc*ed up bigly; you chose personality over principle.

    4. Obama was awarded the Nobel for the same reason he was awarded the presidency in the first place: he was half-black, half-white and thus represented the aspirations of a country tired of racial divisions. Affirmative action brought to its natural conclusion.

    1. Because of awarding such a prestigious award to “do-nothing” Barack Obama, this award has lost significance. Shamefully sad. Can it be revoked?

      1. suMarieB – they have several prizes they need to get back besides Barry’s. Plus, they need to get the money back. Yassar Arafat’s is one that needs to come back.

      1. Given the timelines by which candidates are chosen and submitted he was put forth on nothing more than being the front runner for the democratic primary.

        He hadnt even beat Clinton by the time he was on the short list

        Plus they have literally given the peace prize to terrorists, murderers, & organizations that endorse child rape, so by the time Obama got it it was already worthless

      2. David, I note the repetitive nature of your comments that miss the target. Are you in a nursing home?

  11. Nobel “Peace” Prize is not a real prize. It’s a BS prize awarded to political stooges. The REAL Nobel prizes are those awarded for science, medicine, technology, and economics. Everybody know that.

    2. The economics one is not a *real* Nobel Prize. The ones for peace and literature are.

      1. David Benson – the economic prize is real as is the literature prize, which is usually exceptional. However, the Peace Prize is hit or really miss. The entire Peace committee is composed of potheads.

      2. I respect the Nobel Economic prize, especially compared to the Peace prize.
        Not the lease of which is because the Peace prize has been sullied by ridiculous choices, made for dubious reasons.

      3. Old school Peace Prize: Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa

        New School “Peace” Prize: Yasser Arafat, Jimmy Carter, Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama, Desmond Tutu

        ‘Nuff said.

    1. Great catch, Andrew Coyne. Now why would Turley choose March 13th, 2018, to post his commentary on an article published on September 17th, 2015? There are still four days left to go before the 18-month anniversary of that article’s publication. And six months left to go before the two-year anniversary. What’s Turley up to? Spring cleaning?

        1. I must learn about this principle of parsimony–the so-called simplest solution. You make it look too easy, swarthmoremom.

    2. Himmm.
      That is strange. A three year old article posted here as if it is new news?
      May be the suck up theory is correct.
      In that case:
      Jonathan Turley for US Supreme Court justice.

  15. Barack HUSSEIN Obama was greatest president of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces since Harry Truman. Moreover, prior to his marriage, he undoubtedly had “access” to the white women.

    1. In the down low club…..the access was for other married men. Don’t you read? The time when he did cocaine while getting a blow job in Chicago was interesting in that all the phone records to known clients have “disappeared”. A big blank means a big cover up.Two of his gay lovers were murdered right before he entered the race; coincidence? (can’t blame Killary for that one). Hate to tell you people but we were all victims of the biggest political scam of all time…..and that is a travesty.The people behind this scam should be charged with treason for attempting to overthrow our constitution and defrauding the American people. It will come out with docs someday and then you too will have that wrenching nausea and know that we all were taken on a deep state horsie ride. While records disappeared in Chicago, records miraculously appeared in Hawaii; a “birth certificate” that couldn’t be found by any medical facility in Hawaii suddenly surfaced. If you think that’s normal….maybe America is not for you.

      1. You can’t imagine how Many people do NOT KNOW what you’ve posted on Obama-The Fraud. Now we see they didn’t think he deserved the Nobel….Geez, Ya Think?

        Since Obama has Hidden his past, his college and everything else-including his long time association w/Rev. Wright, who “Also Hated GD America” just like the Obama’s…that GIGANTIC “LIE-BARRY HE WANTS BUILT IN CHICAGO TO HONOR HIMSELF, WILL BE SHORT ON ‘FACTUAL PAPERS WON’T IT?”

      2. This “deep state” entity which you have identified is intriguing. It seem that through your dogged sleuthing, you have uncovered a well-hidden cabal of ne’er-do-wells, hell-bent on eradicating our ‘Merican way of life, our love of apple pie and mom, or fluoridating our precious bodily fluid, or some such other nefarious, dastardly deed.

        this is to “Inspector Clouseau” alan housie

        1. Marky Mark Mark – again you repeat yourself. Have you completely run out of original material? Not even an original insult? This is tragic.

    2. So, the obvious question must be–will your messiah. . .you know, the greatest human being that ever lived. . .now, upon learning, in no uncertain terms, in a confession from the former Secretary for the Nobel Prize, that his prize was presented to him based upon a bogus premise, finally do the right thing? That’s right. Will Bathhouse Barry courageously declare that, given the dissemination of the facts, surrounding this farce, step up to the plate and return the prize, given the revelation that his receipt of said prize was based upon nothing more than an attempt to bolster and strengthen the messiah’s image? Will he truthfully acknowledge, at last, that he was not worthy of said prize, that he had done nothing to deserve said prize–either at the time when it was distributed or subsequent to that time? Will he finally admit that his skin color, and not the content of his character, garnered him a prestigious and impressive prize–a prize he never truly deserved. . .a prize to which he was never truthfully entitled? Yeah. That’s what your messiah SHOULD do. . .that is what a man, of character and integrity, WOULD do. Return an award which was, quite unfairly, given to the community organizer based solely upon his popularity. Return an award which, quite unfairly, was given to him based upon his racial identity. Answer? Never, in a million years. The ego-driven Barry would rather hold onto an award, which he doesn’t deserve, than act like a man, of true character and grace, admitting that he was unworthy–either then or now–of this prize.

      1. Excellent. The “white women” comment always brings out at least one of the droolers. Thanks for your participation. Drive home safely.

        this is to “I need to wipe off my monitor again” bammie

  16. Quite the opposite the Finlanders fought long and hard against the Rooskies losing only Karelia home of the second most beautiful women in the world along with Columbia. As for the races west that is of course when the Norwegians were the first to reach the Western Hemisphere lands (followed by Irish, Portuguese and ship and crews of one Giovanni Come Lately who boasted only a better PR department.

    To the South The Swedes took most of West Russia and Ukraine which means ‘The Edge’ of the Empire but i was river sailing so didn’t count.

    Come to think of it were it not for 9/11 NYC would have no history worth a parade……. ah well such is life.

    UFTA.

    1. The man may have been, and probably, still is, a sick, demented and dangerous sexual predator; however, this montage proves what? That those in Hollywood, who garnered their big breaks in film, via Weinstein, had no business thanking and fawning over the man who made their careers? That those, whose careers were put on certain trajectories, had no right to thank and show appreciation for the man who was largely responsible for their stardom? Even this individual’s most ardent detractors would acknowledge the films and work for which he was actively responsible. He was a powerful and immense force in Hollywood. These accolades just prove how much of a creative and powerful force that he was for decades. . .his penchant, for sexually pursuing woman, doesn’t negate the films and work for which he was largely responsible. Two very separate issues.

  18. I cannot imagine a greater or more public insult to hurl, especially after every shred and speck of legacy has already disappeared or been scheduled for replacement, than to have the last vestigial reason for eight years of one’s life exposed as – nought. Somehow I can’t imagine that type of individual, so exposed, as being of much value on the campaign of another or asking for funds and expecting to receive them.

    Worse and we’ll leave out of the equation the embarrassment of Michelle Antoinette but….

    worse yet the life long forced politeness awaiting the daughters

    and grand children

    and…..

    No Elizabeth Warren to claim 1/16th.

    Hmmmm

    That may be the highest accomplishment of all.

  19. I suppose it is refreshing to see the Scandinavians are finally realizing what so many of us knew years ago.

    1. Scandihoovians please… UFTA. did you know the Norwegians were challenged to a great race by the Swedes to see who would be the butt of all UFTA jokes from race day to forever?

      The Norwegians who had won all the races to the west and none of the races to the South thought about it and said No.

      Why No?

      Swedes are closer to the Finnish line.

      1. Finns are not Scandinavians. No connection, whether racially, linguistically or culturally. All Finnish males have an Asian gene, and those who study such matters believe that the Finns migrated from somewhere in the Far East a million or so years ago, whereas the Scandinavians (Swedes, Norwegians and Danes) migrated north from Europe.

        1. What languages is Finnish related to?
          Finnish language is Finno-Ugric languages, the largest group of the Uralic languages of the Ural Area. . The closest relatives of Finnish are the other Baltic-Finnish languages: Karelian, Estonian, Votic, Vepsian and Livonian; more distant relatives include Hungarian, for example.

          Norwegian is a Germanic language Texts are today often presented in three versions: Finnish, Icelandic, and one of the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. … During centuries of interaction, Finnish and Sami have imported many more loanwords from North Germanic languages than vice versa.

          Therefore Finnish is often mistaken as a norske based language.

          US Standard English (minus California) developed from the British version which evolved from Germanic and Latin plus others. Since then, American English has developed into new dialects, in some cases under the influence of West African and Native American languages, German, Dutch, Irish, Spanish, and other languages of successive waves of immigrants to the United States.

          There is no point of evolvement in North America as to accent and in many cases word meanings as that occured as the expansion went west and at the same time absorbed waves of immigrants.

          In the Western hemisphere Spanish predominates followed by English then Portuguese with some other both European and native. But in the USA English will soak up languages from anywhere and everywhere.

          There fore some spell uffda and some ufta but in Northern Minnesota are found the best Ole and Lena Jokes.

          1. mights well get some good use out of this once in a while Uffda!

  20. Nine years later the ninney admits (sort of) the mistake.

    Typical Pinko, no moral compass.

    1. Norwegians, having Russia as a neighbor with a common border, are never “Pinkos”.

      1. DBB

        Why can’t Mr. Lundestadt be a Pinko just because his country shares a border with Russia?

        Didn’t get your logic, but Mr. Lundestadt’s actions certainly confirm that he is a Pinko.

      2. Except when it’s really really cold. My family came from the Sangfjord the little hamlet of Aarethungaard as a sailing departure point we are not quite sure from where else in the Lardahl area

        1. My father’s mother came from the southern of the two farms in Norway named Rodahl.

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