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| 11/23 |
| 2005/6/11-13 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:38086 Activity:high |
6/10 http://www.amnestyusa.org/annualreport/statement.html I happen to think AI is not playing a very intelligent game, lately. -- ilyas \_ Wow, that goes even beyond my tolerance of holding the US to a higher standard. If lunatics like this are taken to represent legitimate grievances, Joe Shmo will never take these seriously in the least. -John \_ Yow. Gitmo is bad news, AG was a disaster, but comparing that to Pinochet is strictly KPFA territory. Really, folks, yelling Nazi at people is not a constructive approach. --erikred \_ Reread it. No one was compared to Pinochet. It was simply stated that International Law could be brought to bear, similar to what happened to Pinochet. \_ Read and re-read. By placing Pinochet's name in that context, the author is inviting comparison. Either it's an example of poor editing technique, or it's deliberate. \_ You are just reading into it what you want to see. It is just the most high profile example of what can happen to the powerful when subject to International Law. If they had mentioned Kissinger's midnight flight from Spain would you claim they were comparing Rumsfeld to Kissinger? \_ 'The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to places like Acapulco or the French Riviera because they may find themselves under arrest as Augusto Pinochet famously did in London in 1998.' You read that without immediately drawing a link between what Pinochet did and what has happened in Gitmo and AG? (And OT: Kissinger had/has panache; Rumsfeld's running on sheer gall.) \_ and you think AI was playing very intelligent game when it critizing other countries? \_ AI is like the ACLU--a bit "out there", but fills a valuable function, as many of these groups do, drawing attention to wrongdoings. There are a lot of countries that deserve harsh criticisms, including the US However, there's also the idea of proportionality--while a Gitmo is horrible for a nation that should be a good example worldwide, bearing down almost solely on the US while almost completely disregarding all the far worse shit going on around the world (except for an "oh, yeah, there's Nepal and Darfur, but it's still kind of your fault for letting it happen") is just mad. -John \_ Also, ACLU gets bonus points for noting that prisoner abuse in US prisons is a huge humanitarian problem, and as such prisoner abuse is, sadly, nothing new for the US. -- ilyas \_ my biggest problem with AI is that their selection on which country to pick on seems to be not-so-randomn. Noticably, lack of critism of those nations who are US allies, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. I've always assumed it is a PR arm of US or UK in the past. \_ http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/saudi \_ http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/turkey \_ that is my point. couple pages on the internet, nothing more. No voice of boycott / economic / arm embargo or anything close to it. I just wondering why China gets all the blame. \_ Wow. AI can embargo weapons? They are far more powerful than I realized. \_ This somehow suprises you? AI has always been on the lunatic fringe along with PETA. \_ Bzzt. See John's comment above. Also, AI has been more reluctant to engage in hyperbole and guerilla PR than PETA. Cf. PBS vs. KPFA. \_ Since everything they put in that report was true, it is hard for me to figure out why you are so opposed to it. -ausman \_ Do you really not see? Let's imagine a hypothetical human rights body compiling a report on World War II, and mostly talking about Hiroshima, and the Dresden fire bombing. Everything they said was true... -- ilyas \_ You are confused about the difference between Amnesty USA and Amnesty International. Shouldn't the Amnesty sub-branch of a country be most concerned with Human Rights in their own country? The total Amnesty International report focuses first on Darfur, then way down the list on Gitmo: http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/index-eng Would your hypothetical WWII human rights rights organization be wrong to mention Dresden at all? \_ Then they should either not make what looks like a mere footnote out of supposed US responsibility for wrongs in Nepal and Indonesia or be consistent and complete in their criticism of perceived US inaction or wrongs committed elsewhere. -John \_ If, as you say, the purpose of http://amnestyusa.org is specifically the violations committed by the US government, one has to ask why isn't a website devoted specifically to governments that are actually a greater humanitarian problem (NK, etc). As far as I can see, the US is singled out for a unique form of abuse -- the report pasted is just the bashing of the US. That there is a general report which lists other countries does not explain the need for the current website to exist. \_ Are you being deliberately obtuse? Amnesty USA is comprised of those members of Amnesty International that reside in the USA. If there were enough North Korean members to form a North Korea chapter, I am sure they could have their own website, too. \_ No, they would be found and executed by the NK gov. Sheesh. Welcome to reality. \_ Your brain has been classified as: small. \_ Ok. The United States is a uniquely transparent, self-examining society. I suppose it does make it easy to specifically bash them. But this is, as an old jewish proverb goes, looking for what is lost under the lamppost (because that's where the light is). Also, where's Amnesty Europe? \_ Stop trying to defend torture. There is really no defence. And you will find all sorts of national chapter websites, if you take the trouble to look for them. I am sure you can use Google all on your own. \_ You see, people often accuse Bush supporters of the mentality of 'if you are not with us, you are with the terrorists.' Curiously, Amnesty supporters seem to have the mentality 'if you criticize Amnesty, you are defending torture!' Give me a break. This is a red herring. -- ilyas \_ No, you were critizing AI USA for attacking the US human rights record. There is really only one way to read that. No red herring at all. The claim that there is no AI Europe is the Red Herring. Europe is not even a country. Even a five minute search using Google turned up AI France, Germany, UK, Israel, Turkey, The Netherlands, Norway, India, Finland, Norway, NZ and Australia. \_ No, I am not criticising AI USA for the act of criticism itself, but for lack of scale and implied moral relativism. 'Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?' If holding the US to a higher standard is important, then holding Amnesty to an even higher standard is doubly important. important, then holding Amnesty to an even higher standard is doubly important. -- ilyas \_ And exactly how many tank divisions does Amnesty International have? \_ How many tanks does the Catholic Church have? Do you think they are a powerless organization too? You have to watch a lot more people than just those with tanks. This is another red herring. In some sense, though, there is a kind of karma to these orgs. If they get too shrill, people stop paying attention to them. -- ilyas \_ It is amusing that you think that Amnesty International is more powerful than the Pentagon. \_ Your knowledge of Soviet history is lacking. \_ I suppose the fact that Djugashvili said it makes it a RED herring. -- ilyas |
| 11/23 |
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| www.amnestyusa.org/annualreport/statement.html William F Schulz Executive Director, Amnesty International USA May 25, 2005 Good morning. Im William F Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty Intern ational USA. Today, Amnesty International releases its annual report on the state of human rights around the world. What we have found brings sh ame to governments from Afghanistan to the United States. We have docume nted that the use of torture and ill treatment is widespread and that th e US government is a leading purveyor and practitioner of this odious hu man rights violation. The refusal of the US government to conduct a truly independent investiga tion into the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and other detention centers is tantamount to a whitewash, if not a cover-up, of these disgraceful crim es. It is a failure of leadership to prosecute only enlisted soldiers an d a few officers while protecting those who designed a deliberate govern ment policy of torture and authorized interrogation techniques that cons titute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The government s investigation must climb all the way to the top of the military and ci vilian chain of command. If the US government continues to shirk its responsibility, Amnesty Inter national calls on foreign governments to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating all senior US officials involved in t he torture scandal. And if those investigations support prosecution, the governments should arrest any official who enters their territory and b egin legal proceedings against them. The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to pla ces like Acapulco or the French Riviera because they may find themselves under arrest as Augusto Pinochet famously did in London in 1998. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned in 2002 that a failure to a pply international law to detainees in Afghanistan may provoke some ind ividual foreign prosecutors to investigate and prosecute our officials a nd troops. Its not too late for President Bush to heed those words tod ay and apply international law to all who are responsible for torture at all US detention centers. Secretary Powell also argued at the time that adhering to international l aw preserves US credibility and moral authority by taking the high grou nd. How far from that moral high ground the US government has fallen: Its des cent into torture and ill treatment includes beatings, prolonged restrai nt in painful positions, hooding and the use of dogs at Abu Ghraib, Guan tanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base and rendering detainees to countries th at practice torture. Tolerance for torture and ill treatment, signaled by a failure to investi gate and prosecute those responsible, is the most effective encouragemen t for it to expand and grow. Like a virus, the techniques used by the Un ited States will multiply and spread unless those who plotted their use are held accountable. Those who conducted the abusive interrogations mus t be held to account, but so too must those who schemed to authorize tho se actions, sometimes from the comfort of government buildings. If the U nited States permits the architects of torture policy to get off scot-fr ee, then other nations should step into the breach. Foreign governments that are party to the Geneva Conventions and/or the C onvention against Tortureand that is some 190 countriesand countries t hat have national legislation that authorizes prosecutionand that is at least 125 countrieshave a legally binding obligation to exercise what is known as universal jurisdiction over people accused of grave breaches of the Conventions. Governments are required to investigate suspects an d, if warranted, to prosecute them or to extradite them to a country tha t will. Crimes such as torture are so serious that they amount to an off ense against all of humanity and require governments to investigate and prosecute people responsible for those crimesno matter where the crime was committed. Amnesty Internationals list of those who may be considered high-level to rture architects includes Donald Rumsfeld, who approved a December 2002 memorandum that permitted such unlawful interrogation techniques as stre ss positions, prolonged isolation, stripping, and the use of dogs at Gua ntanamo Bay; William Haynes, the Defense Department General Counsel who wrote that memo, and Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Polic y, who is cited in the memo as concurring with its recommendations. Our list includes Major General Geoffrey Miller, Commander of the Joint T ask Force Guantanamo, whose subordinates used some of the approved tortu re techniques and who was sent to Iraq where he recommended that prison guards soften up detainees for interrogations; former CIA Director Geo rge Tenet, whose agency kept so-called ghost detainees off registratio n logs and hidden during visits by the Red Cross and whose operatives re portedly used such techniques as water-boarding, feigning suffocation, s tress positions, and incommunicado detention. And it includes Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who called the Geneva Conventions quaint and obsolete in a January 2002 memo and who reque sted the memos that fueled the atrocities at Abu Ghraib; Lieutenant Gene ral Ricardo Sanchez, former Commander of US Forces in Iraq, and Sanchez deputy, Major General Walter Wojdakowsi, who failed to ensure proper st aff oversight of detention and interrogation operations at Abu Ghraib, a ccording to the militarys Fay-Jones report, and Captain Carolyn Wood, w ho oversaw interrogation operations at Bagram Air Base and who permitted the use of dogs, stress positions and sensory deprivation. While this is by no means an exhaustive list of those who deserve investi gation, we would be remiss if we ignored President George W Bushs role in the scandal. After all, his Administration has repeatedly justified its detention and interrogation policies as legitimate under the Preside nts powers as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. And President Bus h signed a February 2002 memo stating that the Geneva Conventions did no t apply to Taliban or al Qaeda detainees and that their humane treatment should be contingent on military necessity. Without full and impartial investigations of all key players, the torture scandal will come to be as indelibly associated with the Bush Presidenc y as Teapot Dome is with Warren Hardings or Watergate with Richard Nixo ns. Whats more, it is the height of hypocrisy for the US government itself t o use the very torture techniques that it routinely condemns in other co untries. The Bush Administration, which saw fit in its most recent Country Report s on Human Rights Practices to criticize Syria for administering electr ic shocks, appears to have used the same torture technique in the war on terror. Amnesty International took testimony, for example, from Mohamma d al Dossari, who alleged that US soldiers subjected him to electric sho cks, death threats, assault and humiliation in Kandahar. The Bush Administration cited Egypt for beating victims with fists, whips and metal rods. And yet US Major Michael Smith testified at an administ rative review hearing last year that an autopsy of a captured Iraqi gene ral revealed he had suffered five broken ribs that were consistent with blunt force trauma, that is, either punching, kicking or striking with an object or being thrown into an object. When the US government then calls upon foreign leaders to bring to justic e those who commit or authorize human rights violations in their own cou ntries, why should those foreign leaders listen? And if the US governmen t does not abide by the same standards of justice, what shred of moral a uthority will we retain to pressure other governments to diminish abuses ? It is far past time for President Bush to prove that he is not covering u p the misdeeds of senior officials and political cronies who designed an d authorized these nefarious interrogation policies. Congress must appoint an impartial and independent commission to investig ate the masterminds of the atrocious human rights violations at Abu Ghra ib and other dete... |
| www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/saudi -> www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/saudi/ Amnesty INTRODUCTION Imagine you are arrested and locked up, but you are not told why. You are not allowed to make a telephone call or contact anyone outside the pris on. The only way to stop them is to sign a confess ion, which you eventually do. Then you are convicted on the basis of tha t "confession" after a summary trial that is held in secret. You have no access to a lawyer and you are not offered the opportunity to defend yo urself. Finally, imagine you are living in a country where the punishmen t you might face after such summary justice could be death, amputation o f a limb, or flogging. Yet it is routinely suffere d by people in Saudi Arabia - and the world's governments seem indiffere nt to their plight. Fear and secrecy permeate every aspect of the state in Saudi Arabia. Your first stop here should be our briefing: Saudi Arabia - End Secrecy E nd Suffering. This provides a broad overview of the secrecy and sufferin g permeating every aspect of the state in Saudi Arabia and providing tes timony and individual reports. Downlaod the site download the kit version of this site and you could redistribute it - or republish it on your own website - perhaps even send it to the Saudi authorities - simpler still save it to your own hard-drive to read at your own leisure ... whichever you do you will be helping break the fear, helping break the silence. |
| www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/turkey -> www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/turkey/ No security without human rights Map Facts and figures Population: About 61 million. Other minority groups include Ale vis, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians and Yezidis. There are also many Africa n and Iranian migrants and asylum-seekers. Two million people from southeast Turkey have been displaced by the confl ict between PKK and government forces. Economy: Key sectors are agriculture, industry, manufacturing and tourism . Exports are dominated by textiles and textile goods, iron and steel. P rincipal imports are machinery, crude petroleum, iron and steel, transpo rt vehicles and chemical products. More than two million Turks are migra nt workers living mainly in western Europe. In 1994 their remittances ea rned the Turkish economy US $2,664,000,000. The security forces: The combined strength of the Army, Navy, Airforce an d Gendarmerie is 573,800 (including 410,200 conscripts). The defence budget accounts for 13 per cent of gross na tional expenditure. In the past 36 years the Turkish military have overturned three governmen ts, suspended three parliaments, hanged a prime minister and imprisoned thousands of civilians, some of whom are still in jail. Army officers st ill preside over civilian trials in state security courts. In southeast Turkey the security forces have formed a paramilitary villag e guard force to provide frontline defence against the PKK. Often conscr ipted under duress, village guards have also been targeted by the PKK. The 1990s have seen the emergence of "d isappearances" and extrajudicial executions. Turkey's citizens do not en joy true freedom of expression. The security forces are the most powerfu l group in the country and they have treated human rights with contempt. Political violence has been a serious problem for almost three decades. R ecent Turkish history has seen three military coups and, since the 1980s , armed conflict between the security forces and opposition groups based in the mountains of the southeast and the cities of west Turkey. The largest armed oppos ition group is the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Successive governments have either denied that human rights violations oc cur, or justified them as the inevitable consequence of defending nation al security. The result is that no one in Turkey enjoys true personal se curity. Despite repeated promises of reform, Turkish citizens can still be arbitrarily detained. In custody, they will be unprotected against to rture, still a standard method of interrogation. Since 1980 more than 40 0 people have reportedly been tortured to death in custody. "Disappearan ces" and political killings have claimed thousands of victims since 1991 . Even people fighting alongside the security forces are put at risk by the state's lawless methods. In January 1996 the government announced that the PKK had massacred 11 men near the remote village of Guclukonak. Seve n of the victims were members of the local village guard force. Independ ent investigations suggested that the massacre was the work of the secur ity forces. The international community has turned a blind eye to Turkey 's human rights record. They have echoed the Turkish Government's claim that the threat to national security must be defeated at any cost to hum an rights. They have accepted official window-dressing as progress towar ds human rights protection. They have put the interests of trade and pol itical allegiance before the security of Turkish citizens. Photograph: Special Operations Team member on guard in Diyarbakir. Appeal for the victims of human rights violations The sons of Fehmi Tosun, who "disappeared" in October 1995, join an Istan bul protest against "disappearances". Amnesty International is highlighting the cases of 10 victims of human ri ghts violations: women, men and children, who have suffered abuses rangi ng from torture to extrajudicial execution. Turkey: No security without human rights This report launches Amnesty International's campaign against human right s violations in Turkey. The report assesses the human rights problem in Turkey and suggests simpl e steps which could provide real security to the people of Turkey by pro tecting their human rights. |
| web.amnesty.org/report2005/index-eng Printer friendly Amnesty International Report 2005 During 2004, the human rights of ordinary men, women and children were di sregarded or grossly abused in every corner of the globe. Economic inter ests, political hypocrisy and socially orchestrated discrimination conti nued to fan the flames of conflict around the world. The war on terror appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principle s than in countering international terrorism. The millions of women wh o suffered gender-based violence in the home, in the community or in war zones were largely ignored. The economic, social and cultural rights of marginalized communities were almost entirely neglected. This Amnesty International Report, which covers 149 countries, highlights the failure of national governments and international organizations to deal with human rights violations, and calls for greater international a ccountability. The report also acknowledges the opportunities for positive change that e merged in 2004, often spearheaded by human rights activists and civil so ciety groups. Calls to reform the UN human rights machinery grew in stre ngth, and there were vibrant campaigns to make corporations more account able, strengthen international justice, control the arms trade and stop violence against women. Whether in a high profile conflict or a forgotten crisis, Amnesty Interna tional campaigns for justice and freedom for all and seeks to galvanize public support to build a better world. |
| amnestyusa.org -> www.amnestyusa.org/ US President George Bush When Amnesty International issued a report on US Government abuses in t he "the war on terror," the Bush Administration sent out no fewer than f ive heavy-hitters, including the President himself. AFP Join the Call for an Investigation View Amnesty International's new flash video and help build momentum for an independent commission and the appointment of a special counsel to fu lly investigate abuses in Guantnamo, Afghanistan and other detention ca mps around the world and to hold perpetrators responsible. End the uncontrolled proliferation and misuse of arms Amnesty International Works Attempts to reinstate the death penalty have been defeated in New York. A IUSA was among the activist groups who worked to prevent Gov. Pataki and the State Senate from "fixing" a constitutionally flawed statute. Too Much Time - Women in Prison In conjunction with netfeatures, Amnesty International USA introduces "To o Much Time - Women in Prison," an online documentary by photographer Ja ne Evelyn Atwood. Kathmandu residents walk by Nepalese security forces keeping watch af ter the King's seizure of power. Kathmandu residents walk by Nepalese security forces keeping watch after the King's seizure of power. Stop Security Assistance to Nepal The US State Department will soon be making a decision on the resumptio n of security assistance to the government of Nepal, despite ongoing hum an rights abuses in the country. Torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are despicable, immoral, illegal and always wrong. Sign our petition and pledge your com mitment to denounce torture. |