[UPDATE: 1:13pm EDT -- no authorization yet to release name of source, but the situation is still critically important. Don't let the chatter over the middle east drown this out!]
A little bird of my acquaintance asks for our urgent help; I don't currently have permission for full attribution, but I'll update this diary in the morning if/when I do.
This may be the very thing that the Bush Administration has been seeking to obscure, what with the currently escalation in the Middle East and the publication of Novak's non-story. This is as bad and as important as the Wilsons' lawsuit; the public must hear about it.
In short, we are talking about the international condemnation of our government for violations of human rights on American soil against Americans, in manners consistent with abuses by U.S. military and intelligence forces abroad.
My source says:
...For the first time in our history, US attorneys are taking the USG [sic] to the international community and presenting a 456[-page] report of domestic violations of human rights... 142 groups will be presenting their case on topics ranging from torture to the treatment of Katrina victims. The hearings start next week, July 17 in Geneva where the NGO coalition will present its report against the USG and counter the USG's flagrantly false testimony.
In other words, the largest US coalition ever to appear at Geneva will be charging (not formally as there is no actual way to do this without state sponsorship) the USG with serious crimes against their own citizens and on US soil. Yet crickets is all there is regarding this story. Are we really so jaded that we can no longer care about something as serious as our own citizens being tortured and falsely imprisoned? It is imperative that the international community knows that we do not support human rights abuses at home or abroad. I feel like I am watching China's report being challenged by the "shadow report" of their own citizens. But I have never thought I would see such charges against my own country. What we are witnessing is historic.
[snip]
http://www.rawstory.com/...
(notice that techniques used in US prisons have appeared abroad at Abu and elsewhere)
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Shadow_human_rights_report_to_accuse_0706.html
(this is largely a summary, but it covers a lot of ground)
NEEDED FROM YOU: Please discuss the two stories linked above where possible so as to generate buzz that encourages the corporate-owned media to cover this story as it has been largely shut out. Please blog about it if you have a blog. Keep in mind the report is filed on Monday 17-JUL and may slip quietly by without your help.
IF you don't have a blog of your own, this is one of the important reasons why you should have one -- to be the free press that we do not otherwise have, to stand up and be heard for those who cannot be heard. Thank you, fellow Kossacks.
[ed. notes: USG = US Government; 456 = 456-page]