Amnesty International's 2005 Annual Report is out today.
The United States of America FAILED, miserably I might add, to follow any international rules of law.
Shocker, I know. But this is serious.
It's not ok that we still have hundreds of 'detainees' in a prison in Cuba that have been there for YEARS, without being charged with a crime, allowed to see a lawer, are being tortured and photographed.
Furthermore, it's not only not ok, it is ILLEGAL.
What we've been doing, and continue to do is "in violation of international law." Why do you think Bush wants a thug, a bully, and a liar to be our representative to the UN? Bush and company have no respect for international law, international government, or international relations. They do not like following anyone else's rules, they'd much rather make them up for themselves.
"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."
You see... they spend all this time, air time to be exact, proclaiming us, the US, to be the world leader. Not "A" world leader. THE world leader... bringing freedom to oppressed people (with oil) everywhere. How much do you think Bush really knows about what's going on in Dafur right now? That's what I thought. Luckily, Amnesty doesn't just blame us for this;
"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."
But I digress... we were talking about breaking international law over our knee....
Yesterday I read a story on TruthOut. Not a new story, really, and certainly not the only of it's kind. Two AMERICAN citizens of Pakistani descent, were abducted (NOT arrested, abducted from their home) in August 2004, and released nearly a year later with no charges.
"They said they had come from the "agencies" and that this was a "raid." They tied my hands, entered the house and handcuffed my brother. They also broke things in the house. They asked for all our U.S identity papers--passports, social security number, driver's licenses and so on. For this purpose, they untied our hands so we could fetch them. They also took a licensed gun from our home. We kept asking what was going on but we got no answer. When my mother asked they said we would be back in a day or so."
A day or so. Can you imagine? Your sons, your brothers, your father goes missing, poof, without a trace, no one willing to give you answers, for nearly a year? And these are AMERICAN CITIZENS. These are not 'insurgents', not 'rebels', not Taliban... AMERICANS.
Just weeks before they were finally released, with no evidence of any involvement in any sort of crime, one brother recalls telling an FBI agent this:
"If you think we are guilty of a crime please charge us in court or release us. I pointed out that my brother was very ill. They said "we are the court."
This is what I believe to be the crux of the problem. Bush and friends don't follow law, international or otherwise. They believe themselves to BE the law. Why do you think they hold such contempt for the courts, for 'activist judges' (ie, judges that base their decision on LAW rather than political affiliation), for groups like the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and all the other whistle blowers who are red in the face from blowing the whistle on US? They don't answer to anyone, we all answer to them.
Cue show-down, Western movie whistle... The wild wild west has marched in to Washington and taken over. They don't need no stinking badges... they have 'mandate.' That trumps law.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052505Y.shtml
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052405Y.shtml
Cross posted at http://screamingme.blogspot.com/