High Official Quits Over Amnesty International's Pro-Jihad Stance

Enough is enough.

A senior official at Amnesty International quit the human rights group this month after raising an alarm over its ties to a former Guantanamo Bay detainee and what she describes as his pro-jihad group.

Gita Sahgal, who headed the gender unit at Amnesty's office in London, said she was especially worried about Moazzam Begg and Cageprisoners' support for "jihad in self-defense" and radicals such as Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Yemeni cleric who is suspected of having ties to al Qaeda.

The Obama administration has taken the unusual step of approving the targeted killing of Mr. al-Awlaki.

Ms. Sahgal said the views of Mr. Begg and Cageprisoners do not trouble Amnesty's senior leadership. "They have stated that the idea of jihad in self-defense is not antithetical to human rights; and have explained that they meant only the specific form of violent jihad that Moazzam Begg and others in Cageprisoners assert is the individual obligation of every Muslim," she said in a statement on leaving Amnesty.