A good question for Amnesty...

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for pointing this out. It seems that many of Amnesty's directors are contributors to the Democratic Party. Here's an excerpt from a letter from Michael Petrelis to Amnesty.

Dear Amnesty International:

It's my understanding that Amnesty bylaws strictly prohibit directors and board of director members from making donations to political candidates and parties, so I can't fathom why William F. Schultz, the executive director, and Joe "Chip" Pitts, chair of the board, contributed money last year to Sen. John Kerry's run for the White House.

According to Federal Election Commission files, both Schultz and Pitts gave the maximum amount allowed by law to Kerry. (Source: PoliticalMoneyLine )

FEC files also show that of all contributions from Schultz, Pitts and other Amnesty directors, the money overwhelmingly went to Democrats and their political action committees. I have appended information from FEC records about the donations at the end of this letter.

My questions for you about these donations are as follows. Did Amnesty recently amend its rules of governance to allow political donations from its directors and board? If the group hasn't made such changes, aren't these donations then in violation of Amnesty's charter?