Nobel Peace Prize Controversy: A Look Back At The Most Disputed Winners (PHOTOS)

With jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and his family barred from accepting his Nobel Peace Prize at the Dec. 10 ceremony in Oslo, the Nobel Prize committee once again finds itself in the international headlines.

Xiaobo is hardly the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to generate controversy. U.S. President Barack Obama's 2009 victory was slammed as being both premature and undeserved, while Jimmy Carter's 2002 win was viewed as a slap in the face to the Bush administration. Indigenous Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú's 1992 win came under fire when it was revealed details included in her famed memoirs may have been fabricated, while radical German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky's 1935 victory sparked the ire of Adolf Hitler, who forbade all German nationals from accepting further awards.

In honor of the upcoming award ceremony, take a look back at some of the most controversial Nobel Peace Prize Award winners, and let us know who we've left out:

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Comments

[ForAmericaAndRoosevelt]

07:04 AM on 12/13/2010

Mother Teresa.

[jo smith456]

08:52 AM on 12/12/2010

We abhor China for supressing free speech; we abhor WikiLeaks for doing free speech. Hmmmmm.. something wrong here???????

[BraveWarrior]

06:33 PM on 12/11/2010

Well they gave the award to Obama, who immediately sent phosphorus munitions and cluster bombs to Israel, who had used up their supply murdering Gazans. No doubt they find his drone wars humane and necessary. Even if we have to break some eggs (innocent civilians) to make our point. They sure have a ton of credibility picking peace makers.

[booki]

12:09 PM on 12/11/2010

to think of the billions of dollars we owe to China....
we are at their mercy......tis sad.

[BraveWarrior]

06:39 PM on 12/11/2010

You don't really think we ever intend to pay it back?

[mike72]

01:50 AM on 12/10/2010

A Chinese political analyst made the following observatio­n recently:

Nobel Peace Prize is for two categories of people. One is for those who instigate troubles abroad. The other is for those who instigate troubles at home.

There is nothing peaceful about Nobel Peace Prize. It is a biased political apparatus and we should treat it as is.

[Bike Commuter]

10:01 AM on 12/10/2010

Your comment is no less ironic than when you used it as a reply to me below.  You cite the opinion of political analyst (Chinese no less) to argue that the prize is political and goes to troublemakers.
 
Of course people who are working peacefully to resist oppression are going to be cast as "troublemakers". I would be surprised if it were any different. If it had been given throughout the 18th century, it would have likely gone to those troublemakers, the Underground Railroad (people who were steaIing the "property" of American plantation owners).
 
Yeah, sure the prize is politcal. Political struggles are the most peaceful way to resolve confIicts. I guess you could also call it "biased" too. It is biased toward persons who work to resolve real world problems using peaceful means.

[dmjk]

11:52 AM on 12/10/2010

The key point is that the peace prize committee have cheated the people all over the world. It is a peace prize, not "human right" award. They should change the principles publicly first, with legal approval. Follow their way, any extinct volcano can be awarded Nobel Peace Prize. Principle does not allow speculative reason! Any conclusion will be obtained by speculative reason! They are clowns!

[mike72]

01:40 AM on 12/10/2010

I think the Chinese should nominate Julian Assange for Confucius Peace Prize. I bet they can get a laughing kick out of it.

[Jeff Forsythe]

09:58 AM on 12/09/2010

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a brutal regime that offers its people no human rights whatsoever. Anything that they put out to the media are just convenient lies to promote their own cruel existence. They practice slavery, torture and even organ harvesting on their own people. To learn more facts about the CCP one may go on line and read The Nine Commentaries. All the governments of the world are aware of these heinous crimes against humanity but do business as usual because of corporate greed. Thank you for your consideration.

[bjdarkblue]

08:54 PM on 12/09/2010

Such typical Fa Lun Gong Anti-Chinese propaganda. Both the CCP AND you guys do nothing but bvllshit.

[grange]

03:55 AM on 12/09/2010

Kissenger is pure evil and has formented many wars , he was the worst choice.

[mike72]

01:38 AM on 12/10/2010

Well at least Kissinger brokered the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. I just can't put my finger on exactly what Obama and this Liu dude did for world peace.

[hidenout2]

10:49 AM on 12/10/2010

Obama is right up there at the top of the list....
As a matter of fact, giving O the prize made it very clear the prize means absolutely nothing most of the time.

[xdiesp]

03:00 AM on 12/09/2010

Bradley Manning & Julian Assange for Nobel Peace Prize 2010.

Or just take Obama's, he's never used it anyway.

[mike72]

11:12 PM on 12/08/2010

London Stock Exchange and NY Stock Exchange used to be the platform of economic air supply. Yet over the course of last couple decades, they have transformed into a tightly controlled platform for legally robbing the general public.

The same can be said about Nobel Peace Prize. It is transformed itself from a open platform of promoting PEACE into a tightly controlled platform of biased agenda INSTIGATION. Instead of focusing on acomplished peaceful activities, it is INSTIGATING future riots and unrest.

Any platform is as good as the people who run it. Once it is at the wrong hand, you might as well abandon the platform. It has been corrupted beyond repair. Nobel Peace Prize has been corrupted beyond repair.

Wake up!

[mike72]

10:56 PM on 12/08/2010

Julian Assange is out there actively expose the war crime. And he is arrested in Europe for what?

You people are so hypocritcal. Get a life!

[wereeverywhere]

02:51 AM on 12/09/2010

Yet another Chinese government apologist who dares to cite Assange AND use the word 'hypocritical' in a nonironic way. Are you for people who challenge governments, or simply those who challenge governments you don't like? Do you want a free press and muckraking in some places, but on a thread about a cheap imitation Nobel by a country with a horrible record on journalistic and blogging freedom, you not only turn a blind eye but somehow try to exploit Assange's daring work to cover for that repressive government?

[mike72]

01:36 AM on 12/10/2010

I don't know, Indian dude. If you repeat your masters' lines long enough, maybe I will join in for the glorious free press and enjoy the fantastic street life in India.

If you repeat your masters' lines long enough ...

[JerryLevy]

10:24 PM on 12/08/2010

Only on the HP would Yassir Arafat's Nobel prize be seen as non controversial.

[TheRock Barkat]

07:53 AM on 12/09/2010

Yeah I know and they forgot to put that joke Shimon Peres too thats even funnier an Israeli racist/supremacist winning a nobel peace prize lmao

[Pauline Jaing]

07:05 PM on 12/08/2010

I find it hilarious to witness these people squawking about some nobody they hand picked in China and want to dream is their next Solshenitzen, considering what they are doing to Julian Assange! It is truly the most astonishing hypocrisy!

I say leave the Chinese alone, ubermeisters, and build some bridges in the USA! I hate ALL your ideologies, you can eat them all for breakfast for all I care, yours, theirs, everyones!

[wereeverywhere]

08:56 PM on 12/08/2010

What blatant hypocrisy- how far do you think wikilinks would get in China? Is transparency good when it suits your purposes only? Are you that clueless about Chinese censorship (or think that we are gullible enough to fall for your line)?

"I hate ALL your ideologies­."
Great, except that you're lying because there's a warped ideology in your head that has you apologize for Chinese repression and attack Liu as "some nobody."

[Bystander]

06:16 PM on 12/08/2010

If Alfred Nobel had known that the peace award that bears his name would become such a farse, he would have spent his money somewhere else.

[MrSkye]

05:59 PM on 12/08/2010

Menachem Begin was a terrorist. Yassir Arafat was an even bigger terrorist. Osama Bin Laden hasn't won a Nobel peace prize ... yet.