‘Amnesty International says President George Bush's
tactics in his fight against terrorists have made the United States comparable
to Augusto Pinochet's Chile and Hafez Assad's Syria in its acceptance of
torture and disregard of legal restraints. 

In its annual report of human
rights conditions around the world, Amnesty included the US alongside China,
Russia, Columbia, Uzbekistan and others as states that claim anti-terrorism to
justify gross violations. 

Amnesty officials, speaking in a
news conferences about release of the report in London and Washington, had
particularly harsh words for the Bush administration. 

"It's difficult to believe
that the United States government, which was once considered an exemplar of
human rights, has sacrificed its most fundamental principles by abusing
prisoners as a matter of policy, by disappearing detainees into a network of
prisons and by abducting and sending people for interrogation to countries that
practice torture," Cox said. 

"Governments around the
world are using doublespeak and double standards to take advantage of this
vacuum of moral leadership," he said.’ 

Amnesty
Compares Bush To Pinochet