Amnesty slams U.S. on Human Rights

Amnesty slams U.S. on Human Rights

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Posted: 6:42 AM EDT (1042 GMT)
LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) -- Four years after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, human rights are in retreat worldwide and the United States bears most responsibility, rights watchdog Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe the picture is bleak. Governments are increasingly rolling back the rule of law, taking their cue from the U.S.-led war on terror, it said.

"The USA as the unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power sets the tone for governmental behavior worldwide," Secretary General Irene Khan said in the foreword to Amnesty International's 2005 annual report.

"When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a license to others to commit abuse with impunity," she said.

London-based Amnesty cited the pictures last year of abuse of detainees at Iraq's U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison, which it said were never adequately investigated, and the detention without trial of "enemy combatants" at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

"The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law," Khan said.
She also noted Washington's attempts to circumvent its own ban on the use of torture.

"The U.S. government has gone to great lengths to restrict the application of the Geneva Convention and to 're-define' torture," she said, citing the secret detention of suspects and the practice of handing some over to countries where torture was not outlawed.

U.S. President George W. Bush often said his country was founded on and dedicated to the cause of human dignity -- but there was a gulf between rhetoric and reality, Amnesty found.
"During his first term in office, the USA proved to be far from the global human rights champion it proclaimed itself to be," the report said, citing Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
'Blurred distinction'

But the United States was by no means the sole or even the worst offender as murder, mayhem and abuse of women and children spread to the four corners of the globe, Amnesty said.
"The human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan were far from being the only negative repercussions of the response to the terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Since that day, the framework of international human rights standards has been attacked and undermined by both governments and armed groups," Amnesty said.
The increasingly blurred distinction between the war on terror and the war on drugs prompted governments across Latin America to use troops to tackle crimes traditionally handled by police, the report said.

In Asia too, the war on terror was blamed for increasing state repression, adding to the woes of societies already worn down by poverty, discrimination against minorities, a string of low-intensity conflicts and politicization of aid, it added.

Africa too remained riven by regional wars and political repression, and the abject failure of the international community to take concerted action to end the slaughter in Sudan's vast Darfur region was a cause of shame.

Khan also condemned the United Nations Commission on Human Rights for failing to stand up for those supposedly in its care.

"The U.N. Commission of Human Rights has become a forum for horse-trading on human rights," she said. "Last year the Commission dropped Iraq from scrutiny, could not agree on action on Chechnya, Nepal or Zimbabwe and was silent on Guantanamo Bay."

It is fucking freezing here right now! I am shivering. Space heater is back out of the closet.
New York sucks. Sometimes. It sucks to live here. it is may 25th and everyone is walking around in winter coats still. it is raining and it is bitter cold. The subway was packed. Like sardines, some short fat lady with her elbow in my back. just nuts how everyone piles in there holding our breath and doing our best not to look each other in the eye. Shoved up against each other like cattle before the slaughter.

Went to check out loho studios in the lower east side. Cool vibe. Albert from the strokes was there. working on a solo album. Rufus just finished some work there. I will record M32 there as soon as I nail it.

Then later in a cab, I'm sitting in the back there and this thought comes to me ‘what if we get into an accident? Will I be quick enough to jump to the other side of the seat if someone smashes into us? just as I was thinking that, a minivan smashed into us, but time slowed down and I was quick enough to jump from one side of the car to the other to avoid getting smashed up. my body aches and my neck hurts now.

Within five minutes these guys are cutting a deal with each other. the guy who hit us gives the cab driver eighty bucks and they both bolt from the scene. New York.

The other thing is that you are always on edge here. if its not people screaming at all hours of the day and night in the 3000 sq ft townhouse you share with three to five other families, it’s the man with no legs dragging himself across the subway floor with a paper cup in his mouth asking for money. or some toothless old bag lady coming up to you on the street. Or some mad lunatic yelling at no one in the park scaring the shit out of everyone. My nerves are always on edge here.

One thing I notice is that if you are on your own, I mean if time is totally yours, to do with what you want, it is sometimes difficult to get yourself to do certain things, to get motivated to do stuff. I mean, its easy to do certain things you know. listen to music, write songs, write, watch DVDs, surf the Internet, read, use the bathroom, eat some food,