http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1390207,00.htmlBush under fire over human rights
Watchdog says US setting bad example
Richard Norton-Taylor, Julian Borger in Washington and Suzanne Goldenberg in Fort Hood
Friday January 14, 2005
The Guardian
America's human rights abuses have provided a rallying cry for terrorists and set a bad example to regimes seeking to justify their own poor rights records, a leading independent watchdog said yesterday.
The torture and degrading treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay have undermined the credibility of the US as a defender of human rights and opponent of terrorism, the New York-based Human Rights Watch says in its annual report.
"The US government is less and less able to push for justice abroad because it is unwilling to see justice done at home," says Kenneth Roth, the group's executive director.
-snip-
Yesterday's scathing report argues that the US has weakened its own moral authority at a time that authority is most needed, "in the midst of a seeming epidemic of suicide bombings, beheadings, and other attacks on civilians and noncombatants."
-snip-
more...