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sterbo

Published 4 1/2 years ago,
one and a half months after the start of the Iraq War,
some might find Amnesty International's perception at the time rather prophetic...


LONDON (Reuters) -
"Washington's "war on terror" has made the world more dangerous by curbing human rights, undermining international law and shielding governments from scrutiny, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

Releasing its annual report into global human rights abuses in 2002, the London-based watchdog made one of its fiercest attacks yet on the policies pursued by the United States and Britain in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

If the war on terror was supposed to make the world safer, it has failed, and has given governments an excuse to abuse human rights in the name of state security, it said.

"What would have been unacceptable on September 10, 2001, is now becoming almost the norm," Amnesty's Secretary-General Irene Khan told a news conference, accusing Washington of adopting "a new doctrine of human rights a la carte."

"The United States continues to pick and choose which bits of its obligations under international law it will use, and when it will use them," she said, highlighting the detention without charge or trial of hundreds of prisoners in Afghanistan and in a U.S. military camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"By putting these detainees into a legal black hole, the U.S. administration appeared to continue to support a world where arbitrary unchallengeable detention becomes acceptable."

Amnesty urged the world to do more to sort out Iraq's problems now the Gulf War is over.

"There is a very real risk that Iraq will go the way of Afghanistan if no genuine effort is made to heed the call of the Iraqi people for law and order and full respect of human rights," Khan said.

"Afghanistan does not present a record of which the international community can be proud."

Amnesty's 311-page report was not concerned solely with the crises triggered by the attacks of September 11.

It said the intense media focus on Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002 meant human rights abuses in Ivory Coast, Colombia, Burundi, Chechnya and Nepal had gone largely unnoticed.

Amnesty said the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo remained "bleak, with continuing fighting and attacks on civilians."

"In Burundi, government forces carried out extrajudicial killings, 'disappearances', torture and other serious violations," it said.

Amnesty said the Colombian government had "exacerbated the spiraling cycle of political violence" by introducing new security measures.

It accused Israel of committing war crimes in the occupied territories and the Palestinians of committing crimes against humanity by targeting civilians in suicide bombings.

"At least 1,000 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army (in 2002), most of them unlawfully," it said. "Palestinian armed groups killed more than 420 Israelis, at least 265 of them civilians..."

Khan said it was vital that the world "resist the manipulation of fear and challenge the narrow focus of the security agenda."

"The definition of security must be broadened to encompass the security of people, as well as states," she said."*


Gideon Long
Amnesty: 'War on Terror' Has Made World Worse Wed May 28, 2003 07:43
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Trocisp

More and more those who were ostracized for dissenting after 9/11 are being looked at again. Their words of stunning foresight is amazing. (Dixie Chicks, Amnesty International and Bill Maher to name a few)

Hashishi

I dunno, I always thought the way it was going was pretty obvious.

Can anybody tell me whether or not Guantanamo has been addressed much in the US election campaigns and debates?

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SWP



"I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty." -- "If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly." -- "Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin's still learning." -- "As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns: the ones we don't know we don't know."

1tokeovertheline

There are more but here are a couple of times.

DURHAM, N.H. — The following is the complete transcript of the Sept. 5, 2007, Republican presidential primary debate at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore Center:
FOXNews.com - Transcript: Republican Presidential Primary Debate - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

The following is a transcript of the Republican presidential primary debate at the University of South Carolina on May 15, 2007, as recorded by the Federal News Service:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us...fkZEuycIaCezXA

Hashishi

^ Many thanks, 1toke. Instant gold!

I used FireFox`s 'search text' function and found this:

"We can't close Guantanamo because nobody will take the people there."

Fascinating! What wonderful incompetence, if it`s true. Moreso, what a wonderful argument to sidestep the international condemnation of placing people 'outside' of human rights laws.

You have to get down to basics to grasp this. This is 'Operation: War on Terror". People arrested in 'Operation: War on Terror" go to Guantanamo where- well, we`ll work that out when we get there.

I don`t believe there`s 'conspiracy' involved. ...At least not a competent conspiracy, but I do believe that an operation like this cannot be allowed to expand.

Guantanamo Bay was meant to be a transitional facility. Now we recognise that it is not, the operation should be dismantled. The only reason for not dismantling it is because they don`t know what to do with the fucking prisoners.

Another example of total and complete ineptitude.

 

xlz916

Excellently put, especially the bolded part.

sterbo

Not really. Guantanamo is perfect. This, and prior administrations have successfully argued that prisoners held there haven't the rights any human being ought to have because they are not in the U.S. The fact that such a claim is consistent with those we villanize day in, day out is of no matter. It works. The masquerade is complete what with our dehumanization of Fidel Castro who's vision we've subverted, who's county we've violated beyond measure.
Our sickness and perversion is no more evident. We preach our gospel of choice, lie without conscience, take sociopathic delight in the fact we can shit in the face of a great man, once our ally (sound familiar) and have our way in the line of fire.

Or not.
Only if you're one of the many millions on the outside looking in...


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Hashishi

Don`t worry, Sterbo - it`s significance isn`t lost on me.

For the sake of argument, however, we have to stick to what we know.