Rights Group Says Abuse Was U.S. Strategy

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has a deliberate strategy of abusing terror suspects during interrogations, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in its annual report on the treatment of people in more than 70 countries.

The human rights group based its conclusions mostly on statements by senior administration officials in the past year, and said President Bush's reassurances that the United States does not torture suspects were deceptive and rang hollow.

"In 2005 it became disturbingly clear that the abuse of detainees had become a deliberate, central part of the Bush administration's strategy of interrogating terrorist suspects," the report said.

On a trip to Europe last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told foreign leaders that cruel and degrading interrogation methods were forbidden for all U.S. personnel at home and abroad. She provided little detail, however, about which practices were banned and other specifics.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060118/ap_on_go_ot/human_rights_bush;_

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. President Bush's reassurances - blah blah blah

.
.
.

"President Bush's reassurances that the United States does not torture suspects were deceptive and rang hollow."

gee what a suprise

Son of the guy who helped finance Saddam

and HIS father, Prescott, helped finance Hitler

way to go USA!!

[rodeodance]

2. the nightmare is cast on ALL Americans because of BushCo!

[MasonJar]

3. As if anyone anywhere believes anything these monsters say.

[cal04]

4. Human rights group report slams US torture, abuses

A human rights group says torture and other abuses committed by the United States in its war on terrorism have damaged American credibility and hurt the global human rights cause. In a survey of world conditions, US-based Human Rights Watch said Washington should appoint a special prosecutor and Congress should set up an independent panel to investigate US abuses. The annual report covered rights developments in more than 70 countries.

"The US Government's use and defence of torture and inhumane treatment played the largest role in undermining Washington's ability to promote human rights," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
President George W Bush's administration has come under heavy criticism from rights groups at home and abroad, and from many foreign governments, over how it has has handled the interrogation and detention of suspects in the war on terrorism Washington launched after the September 11 attacks.

The 532-page report said efforts by US officials in 2005 to defend inhumane interrogation methods or seek exemptions from planned anti-torture legislation showed the "US government's embrace of torture and inhumane treatment began at the top." "Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," Mr Roth said in an introductory essay. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive."

Human Rights Watch said the United States faced accusations of hypocrisy as it tackled 2005 troubles such as the massacre of hundreds of demonstrators in Uzbekistan, ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Sudan and severe repression in countries such as Burma, North Korea, Turkmenistan, China and Zimbabwe. "Even when the administration spoke out in defence of human rights or acted commendably, its initiatives made less headway as a result of the credibility gap," the report said. It said the credibility gap was reflected in muted US criticism of abuses in Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1550635.htm

[WearyOne2]

5. of course it was

[Up2Late]

6. Here's a link to the actual study and the HRW Press release.

This is an official Human Rights Watch Press Release, which are usually expected to reprinted as complete as possible.)

<http://hrw.org/wr2k6/>

<http://hrw.org/wr2k6/wr2006.pdf>

Human Rights Watch World Report 2006

U.S. Policy of Abuse Undermines Rights Worldwide

(Washington, D.C, January 18, 2006) – New evidence demonstrated in 2005 that torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism strategy, undermining the global defense of human rights, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2006 World Report 2006: Audio Commentaries.

The evidence showed that abusive interrogation cannot be reduced to the misdeeds of a few low-ranking soldiers, but was a conscious policy choice by senior U.S. government officials. The policy has hampered Washington’s ability to cajole or pressure other states into respecting international law, said the 532-page volume’s introductory essay.

“Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive.”

Roth said the illegal tactics were fueling terrorist recruitment, discouraging public assistance of counterterrorism efforts and creating a pool of unprosecutable detainees.

U.S. partners such as Britain and Canada compounded the lack of human rights leadership by trying to undermine critical international protections. Britain sought to send suspects to governments likely to torture them based on meaningless assurances of good treatment. Canada sought to dilute a new treaty outlawing enforced disappearances. The European Union continued to subordinate human rights in its relationships with others deemed useful in fighting terrorism, such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.

Many countries – Uzbekistan, Russia and China among them – used the “war on terrorism” to attack their political opponents, branding them as “Islamic terrorists.”

Human Rights Watch documented many serious abuses outside the fight against terrorism. In May, the government of Uzbekistan massacred hundreds of demonstrators in Andijan, the Sudanese government consolidated “ethnic cleansing” in Darfur, western Sudan, and persistent atrocities were reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chechnya. Severe repression continued in Burma, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Tibet and Xinjiang in China, while Syria and Vietnam maintained tight restrictions on civil society and Zimbabwe conducted massive, politically motivated forced evictions.

There were bright spots in efforts to uphold human rights by the Western powers in Burma and North Korea. Developing nations also played a positive role: India suspended most military aid to Nepal after the king’s coup, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forced Burma to relinquish its 2006 chairmanship because of its appalling human rights record. Mexico took the lead in convincing the United Nations to maintain a special rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism. Kyrgyzstan withstood intense pressure from Uzbekistan to rescue all but four of 443 refugees from the Andijan massacre, and Romania gave them temporary refuge.

The lack of leadership by Western powers sometimes ceded the field to Russia and China, which built economic, social and political alliances without regard to human rights.

In his introductory essay to the World Report, Roth writes that it became clear in 2005 that U.S. mistreatment of detainees could not be reduced to a failure of training, discipline or oversight, or reduced to “a few bad apples,” but reflected a deliberate policy choice embraced by the top leadership.

Evidence of that deliberate policy included the threat by President George W. Bush to veto a bill opposing “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” Roth writes, and Vice President Dick Cheney’s attempt to exempt the Central Intelligence Agency from the law. In addition, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claimed that the United States can mistreat detainees so long as they are non-Americans held abroad, while CIA Director Porter Goss asserted that “waterboarding,” a torture method dating back to the Spanish Inquisition, was simply a “professional interrogation technique.”

“Responsibility for the use of torture and mistreatment can no longer credibly be passed off to misadventures by low-ranking soldiers on the nightshift,” said Roth. “The Bush administration must appoint a special prosecutor to examine these abuses, and Congress should set up an independent, bipartisan panel to investigate.”

The Human Rights Watch World Report 2006 contains survey information on human rights developments in more than 70 countries in 2005. In addition to the introductory essay on torture, the volume contains two essays: “Private Companies and the Public Interest: Why Corporations Should Welcome Global Human Rights Rules” and “Preventing the Further Spread of HIV/AIDS: The Essential Role of Human Rights.”

(More info and some audio links at the links below, they even have a PodCast link)

<http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/13/global12428.htm>

<http://hrw.org/wr2k6/>

<http://hrw.org/wr2k6/wr2006.pdf>

[Judi Lynn]

7. Human Rights Watch Says US Policy Undermines Global Human Rights

Human Rights Watch Says US Policy Undermines Global Human Rights
By Margaret Besheer
Washington
18 January 2006

A leading human rights organization has accused the Bush administration of using torture and inhuman treatment of detainees as a deliberate strategy in its war on terror. Human Rights Watch charges in a new report that the treatment of detainees has undermined the United States' ability to champion human rights around the world.

Human Rights Watch says policy decisions from senior Bush administration officials have created an atmosphere tolerant of abuse. The organization's executive director, Kenneth Roth, says it became clear this past year that torture and inhuman treatment are not simply the unintentional byproducts of these policy decisions.

"It's not simply a matter of neglect, or command failure," he said. "Rather the use of torture and inhuman treatment was the Bush policy. It was reflective of a deliberate decision by the most senior Bush administration officials to fight terrorism without regard to one of the most basic prohibitions there is in international human rights law."

The White House dismissed the report's criticism, saying the United States does not torture terror suspects. Spokesman Scott McClellan said Human Rights Watch's findings appear to be based on a political agenda rather than facts, and that the United States does more than any other country to advance human rights and freedom.

"I think when a group like this makes some of these assertions, it diminishes the effectiveness of that organization," he said. "The United States is a leader when it comes to advancing freedom and promoting democracy, and we will continue to be. We are the leader."
(snip/...)

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-18-voa78.cfm

[thecai]

8. Keep Up The Good Work, Human Rights Watch!

The Bush administration has been ignoring, denying, covering up inmate abuse/torture, even in America, for YEARS!

[applegrove]

9. Yeah - they say torture gives you the wrong information. Like that

guy who was tortured until he started talking about what they wanted. And it got into Powell's speech.