‘Introducing the Human Rights
report, Secretary Rice said, "How a country treats its own people is a
strong indication of how it will behave toward its neighbors. The growing
demand for democratic governance reflects a recognition that the best guarantor
of human rights is a thriving democracy," with rights such as accountable
government and a free press.
The report, released in
Washington March 8, reviewed human rights achievements and setbacks in some 190
countries and regions around the world. It called the human rights records of
key Arab allies poor or problematic, citing flawed elections and torture of
prisoners in Egypt, beatings, arbitrary arrest and lack of religious freedom in
Saudi Arabia, and floggings as punishment for adultery or drug abuse in the
United Arab Emirates. Iraq's performance was "handicapped" by
insurgency and terrorism that affected every aspect of life, the State
Department said.
The response of Noah S. Leavitt,
an attorney who has worked with the International Law Commission of the United
Nations in Geneva and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, is
typical. Leavitt said, "The sad reality is that because of the Bush
Administration's haughty unilateralism and its mockery of international prohibitions
on torture, most of the rest of the world no longer takes the US seriously on
human rights matters."’
Experts Question
Credibility of US Human Rights Report
from the belly of the beast .....
‘As international calls grow for
the closure of the US-run prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, today we bring
you a voice rarely heard in the US media, that of a former Guantanamo prisoner.
In a Democracy Now broadcast exclusive, today we hear Moazzam Begg in his own
words.
Moazzam is a British citizen born
and raised in Birmingham. The story of his ordeal begins in mid-2001 when he
moved to Afghanistan with his wife and three young children to work as an aid
worker in education and water projects. After September 11th and the subsequent
U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, he relocated to Pakistan.
In February 2002, Moazzam was
seized by the CIA in Islamabad. No reasons were given for his arrest. He was
hooded, shackled and cuffed and flown to the U.S. detention facility at
Kandahar, then to Bagram airbase where he was held for approximately a year
before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. government labeled him an
"enemy combatant." He was never charged with a crime.
In all, Moazzam spent three years
in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. He was subjected to over three
hundred interrogations as well as death threats and torture. At Bagram, he
witnessed the killing of two fellow detainees.’
Moazzam Begg
Describes Abuse At Bagram & Guantanamo & Witnessing The Killing Of Two
Fellow Detainees
meanwhile, details of the individual cases of cruel
injustice continue to become more visible ….
Briton Feroz Ali Abassi
rejected "enemy combatant" status, which does not exist in law, and
wanted to be considered a "prisoner of war." During a hearing of the
Military Tribunal in Guantánamo, its President, a US Air Force colonel whose
name is not mentioned, refutes his argument: "You've announced that your
lawyer would come to declare that you are illegally detained in violation of
international law. This is a Military Tribunal, not a judicial procedure. Your
request for a lawyer is refused." Mr. Abassi wanted to have another
detainee testify. The tribunal president refused: "International law does
not apply here; the Geneva Convention does not apply. (...) I don't want to
hear the words 'international law.'"
Incoherencies,
Eponymies: Proofs Of Accusations Often Skimpy
and whilst the current face
of US foreign policy, “conning” condi rice, rode into town today, you can bet
your life savings that our government will say nothing about the continuing
abuse of the human & legal rights of Australian citizen, David Hicks, now
in his 4th year of false imprisonment & torture at Guantanamo
Bay …..
there's "human rights" & then, of course, there's "human rights"
American Progress reports …..
‘US Secretary of State, Condolleeza Rice, meets with brutal African
dictator & call him a “good friend” of the US.
Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema is a "somewhat unsavory and corrupt character who seized power in a
1979 coup" and "runs a regime regularly
condemned by the State Department for human rights violations, including
torture, beatings, abuse and deaths of prisoners and suspects." According
to one human rights official, he is "one of the most
brutal, most corrupt and unreconstructed dictators in the world." He's
also a "good
friend" of the United States, according to Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, who met with Nguema on Wednesday.
The meeting was a reminder of the Bush
administration position on reform in Africa: you have to be democratic, fight
corruption, and promote market liberalization and transparency -- unless you
have oil. Equatorial Guinea is Africa's third-largest oil exporter, though the
crude has "done little to help Equatorial Guinea's 540,000 people, some
400,000 of whom suffer from malnutrition," the Washington Post
editorializes.
"The meeting with Mr. Obiang was
presumably a reward for his hospitable treatment of U.S. oil firms, though we
cannot be sure since the State Department declined our invitation to
comment."’
bah humbug .....
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has branded Zimbabwe's president a "disgrace" to his people and to Africa, and expressed concerns about verifying whether the country held free and fair elections.
Rice, in the Mideast for peace talks, made the harsh comments after balloting in Zimbabwe that presented Robert Mugabe with the toughest challenge to his 28-year rule.
The main opposition party claimed an early lead.
Preliminary results are expected soon.
"We've made very clear our concerns about how this election might be conducted, given the very bad record of Mugabe concerning his people, the opposition and the region," Rice told reporters after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
"We've tried to make a case ... that there needed to be free and fair elections in Zimbabwe as much as it was possible. It's difficult since really no international observation was allowed," the top US diplomat said. "But really, the Mugabe regime is a disgrace to the people of Zimbabwe and a disgrace to southern Africa and to the continent of Africa as whole," she said.
Zimbabwe had barred observers traveling from the United States and the European Union and several international media organisations.
The State Department said on Friday the US would field almost a dozen poll watchers for the elections and would report afterward on the electoral process and the results.
The department, in its annual accounting of human rights practices around the world, listed Zimbabwe this month as among abusers of human rights.
Mugabe A Disgrace To His People: Rice
Ah yes, the old pot calling the kettle black again … the great talent of hypocrisy possessed by mealy-mouthed amerikans.
Mugabe might be a deluded megalomaniac, but he is in good company with the draft-dodging war criminal currently embedded in the out house, whose record of human rights abuses puts him on a par with Caligula, Hitler & Pol Pot.
From Afghnistan, to Iraq, to Guantanamo Bay, the Bushit administration has proved itself to be the greatest abuser of human rights in the history of the planet.
As for ‘monitors’ of elections to protect against vote rigging, perhaps conning Condi would have more credibility if the US invited independent monitors to oversight its elections? Bushit & the rest of the fascist cavalcade that infects the US landscape would have us forget the 2000 Presidential election that they stole from Al Gore.
Does this stupid phoney woman really think that anyone cares for her opinion or that the world really thinks that views expressed by the US really matter any more?
Bah humbug.