Amnesty attacks US 'disappearances'

FPF-fwd.: The Guardian

Amnesty attacks US 'disappearances'

Fri May 26, 2006 11:29

NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN:

By Peter Walker

05/23/06 "The Guardian" -- -- The United States' reported use of secret CIA-run prisons for terrorism suspects amounts to a policy of "disappearances", human rights watchdog Amnesty International said today in its annual report.

In a sometimes scathing assessment of Washington's rights record, the London-based group also raised serious concerns about detainees held without trial in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Washington had failed to bring to account those potentially guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity, it added.

Britain also faced condemnation, with Amnesty saying the government had "continued to erode fundamental human rights" through new anti-terrorism laws and the possible use of evidence obtained through the torture of suspects in other countries.

The 238-page report for 2005 carries a lengthy catalogue of abuses in dozens of countries, with some of the most-criticised including China, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Russia.

While Washington traditionally dismisses such complaints - President Bush labelled last year's Amnesty report "absurd" for likening Guantanamo Bay to a gulag - it remains embarrassing for the US to be bracketed in such company.

The latest document considers widespread reports that the CIA has run a network of secret detention centres in countries including Afghanistan, Poland and Romania, transporting suspects via unlisted 'rendition' flights.

"Such facilities were alleged to detain individuals incommunicado outside the protection of the law in circumstances amounting to 'disappearances'," Amnesty noted, saying it had spoken to three Yemeni detainees held in secret locations for up to 18 months.

"Their cases suggested that such detentions were not confined to a small number of 'high value' detainees as previously suspected."

Amnesty also warned of increasing evidence of torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, which the rights group has repeatedly demanded be closed.

"Despite evidence that the US government had sanctioned interrogation techniques constituting torture or ill-treatment, and 'disappearances', there was a failure to hold officials at the highest levels accountable, including individuals who may have been guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity," Amnesty said.

In an almost equally lengthy entry for Britain, Amnesty condemned the Prevention of Terrorism Act passed by Tony Blair's government last year, saying it "allowed for violations of a wide range of human rights" such as control orders against terrorism suspects.

"The imposition of 'control orders' was tantamount to the executive charging, trying and sentencing a person without the fair trial guarantees required in criminal cases," Amnesty noted.

It also raised concerns at the death last July of Jean Charles de Menezes, the young Brazilian electrician shot dead by police at Stockwell Underground station in south London after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.

"Evidence emerged giving rise to suspicion of an early attempt at a cover-up by the police," Amnesty said.

There were also harsh words for the US and Britain over the actions of their troops and allies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Both the US-led Multinational Force (MNF) and Iraqi security forces committed grave human rights violations, including torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention without charge or trial, and excessive use of force resulting in civilian deaths," Amnesty said, while noting that insurgents were "responsible for grave human rights abuses".

In Afghanistan, US forces "continued to arbitrarily detain hundreds of people beyond the reach of the courts and their own families".

More generally, almost five years after the Taliban regime was ousted, "the (Afghan) government and its international partners remained incapable of providing security to the people".

China - which routinely dismisses allegations - was heavily condemned for no real change in its appalling rights record, despite some limited legal and judicial reforms.

"Tens of thousands of people continued to be detained in violation of their human rights and were at risk of torture or ill-treatment," Amnesty said.

Freedoms were especially restricted in Tibet and Xinjiang, the Muslim-majority region in far-west China where dissent has been severely repressed under the guise of a "war on terror", the report noted.

Widespread abuses in long-time dictatorships North Korea and Burma were also listed at length, while the regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe was condemned for "widespread and systematic violations of the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, and the protection of the law".

Sudan's government was cited for allowing "grave abuses of human rights" by both government forces and government-allied militias in its western region of Darfur.

Russia was also given a long entry, listing complaints ranging from racist attacks and ill-treatment in prisons to "serious human rights abuses" such as torture and killings in Chechnya. "Impunity remained the norm for those committing human rights violations," Amnesty noted.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Click below to post comments - Url.: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13163.htm

GLOBALLY ALL CRIMINALS (especially the propagandists in the PNAC's media, without whom this never would have been possible) MUST BE JUDGED BY WAR CRIMES TRIBUNALS.

* PULITZER PRIZE FOR HOLOCAUST DENIER - Url.: http://www.cemab.be/print.php?id=1360

* THE NAKED FACE OF U.S. FASCISM: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL MAY 2006 REPORT ON THE INHUMAN USE OF TORTURE ON BEHALF OF THE MANAGERS OF THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER CRIMINALS OF DOUBLE AND/OR DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES - Url.: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140012006

* THE PNAC FRONT MAN IS GUILTY: INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR AFGHANISTAN AT TOKYO - THE PEOPLE versus GEORGE WALKER BUSH - 'President' of the United States of America - Url.: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5855.htm

* 'PNAC DEMOCRACY' - RADIATION - DEATH MADE IN AMERICA - PICTURES MADE BY A DOCTOR WHO WONDERS: ''IF YOUR CONSCIENCE IS STILL ANESTHETIZED'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/pbkyh

* SPREADING DEADLY 'DEMOCRACY' - IRAQ: UN report cites vast under-nutrition among children - Url.: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12981.htm

* PRESENT AND PAST - UNICEF reports on another PNAC HOLOCAUST: 'The under-5 infant mortality for 2003 was 110,000 in occupied Iraq, 292,000 in occupied Afghanistan.' - Gideon Polya: 'Non-reportage of US-linked infant mass mortality' - December 23, 2004 - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/rb3rx

* The 'PROJECT FOR A NEW AMERICAN CENTURY' is HOLOCAUSTING MORE TODDLERS: "Children Continue To Be the Main Victims Of the U.S. War Crimes." - By Dr. César Chelala - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/oys87

* 'PROJECT FOR A NUCLEAR AMERICAN CENTURY': NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST FOR YOU TOO - Depleted Uranium for Dummies - Url.: http://www.notinkansas.us

* US 'BABY GENOCIDE' DEFENDED: Former U.S. PNAC-Secr. of State Madeleine Albright-Korbel, 10 years ago in her comment on the at least HALF A MILLION dead children in Iraq, which now is estimated at ONE MILLION MORE BY UNICEF: "WE THINK THE PRICE IS WORTH IT" - On CBS '60 Minutes' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2vmc8

* HOLODOMOR = HOLOCAUST 0F MORE THAN 6 MILLION IN UKRAINE - [http://tinyurl.com/jthyo] - Writer Eric Margolis: "The Soviet's genocide accounted for at least 40 million victims, not including 20 million war dead. Kaganovitch and many senior OGPU officers (later, NKVD/KGB) were Jewish." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/kycrw - Stalin's Terminator: LAZAR KAGANOVITCH - Url.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor

* US CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL CONFIRMING THE CREATION OF A WORLD GOVERNMENT - "He asked if there was an international conspiracy to overthrow our government: The answer is ''Yes" - Short video - Url.: http://100777.com/media/RonPaul-NewWorldOrder.wmv

* WHO CREATES OUR MONEY? And what is ‘Press Freedom’ about? - Url.: tinyurl.com/8cxyv
* The Secret of the private US Federal Bank - Url.: www.geocities.com/northstarzone/FED.html

* BILDERBERG: The Secret World Government? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/rzuxv
Or Url.: http://www.freepressinternational.com/bilderberg.html

* ON THE BUCKLES OF THE BELTS HITLER'S NAZI-SS WORE, it said the same as George Bush keeps repeating: 'Gott mit Uns' - 'God is on our side' - SS/CIA - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9xqcr

* CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN THE US? - 'IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE!' - But if you don't react now... - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/o6lpx

* THE 'WHY' OF GLOBAL RESISTANCE - HOW IT IS DONE BY THE PNAC'S CIA JACKALS & THE WORLD BANK's SERIAL KILLER WOLFOWITZ - 'Confessions of an economic 'hit man'. World Bank insider Perkins explains: "Jackals' are C.I.A. - sanctioned people that come in and try to foment a coup or revolution. If it doesn't work, they perform assassinations, or try to." - They steal billions for the World Bank, IMF, USAID, UNDP, AID etc. - Perkins web site - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/jvhbu - It's your life too: Must watch Video Url.: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8171.htm

* THIS IS A VERY INFORMATIVE ARTICLE - AN EYE-OPENER - After working around the globe for more than forty years, I can not find anything wrong with this eloquent description of the state of affairs: ''Just six simple words that carry the weight of the world upon them, six simple words that act as the engine for so much turmoil and unrest.'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/gj4x5

* 6 MILLION PEOPLE WERE KILLED? - ANOTHER HOLOCAUST - THIS IS ONE OF MANY BY THE PNAC's CIA: John Stockwell, former CIA Station Chief in Angola in 1976, working for then Director of the CIA, George Bush. said and wrote in 1986: ''How 6 million People Were killed in CIA secret wars against Third World countries.'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/gpcg

* "Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - George Bush Senior speaking in an interview with Sarah McClendon in December 1992.

* HOW THE BUSH FAMILY MADE ITS FORTUNE FROM THE NAZIS: THE DUTCH CONNECTION - by John Loftus, a former U.S. Department of Justice Nazi War Crimes prosecutor, the President of the Florida Holocaust Museum and the highly respected author of numerous books on the CIA-Nazi connection including The Belarus Secret and The Secret War Against the Jews, both of which have extensive material on the Bush-Rockefeller-Nazi connection. - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/omczx

* GLOBAL PREDATORS - ‘FRAUDS-R-US’ - The Bush Family Saga - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/elarx

* PROFESSIONAL PILOTS ON 9/11 - THE ENEMY WITHIN THE GATES - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/kjkda

* US TERROR in a CNN Poll - Question: "Do you believe there is a U.S. government cover-up surrounding 9/11?" - 'Yes' - 89% - 'NO' - 11% - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7w7c5

* The 9/11 drama was the 'trigger' used by the PNAC Group, killing Americans to further their inhuman goals: Anybody who after seeing this video - '9/11 revisited' - still believes the version from the 'PNAC pack' - the Washington cabal - is beyond all professional help - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/jn5jx

* SCHOLARS FOR 9/11 TRUTH - American and other scientists, diplomats, researchers etc.: What happened on 9/11? - What is happening to our world? - How can we improve our situation? - Url.: http://www.st911.org/

* The MAD COW MORNING NEWS is one of the absolutely best 9/11 sites on Internet - by Daniel Hopsicker - Url.: http://www.madcowprod.com/01042004.html

* PSYOPS: How to make anybody say and see anything - William M. Arkin's "The U.S. Military Online" - When Seeing and Hearing Isn't Believing - Special to the Washington Post - already on Feb. 1, 1999 - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/hvnrq

* FOX: Video 49" - The example how viewers are brainwashed and 'outfoxed' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b2zzl

* All the more reason to read the 'FIGHTIN' COCK FLYER' - Url.: http://fightincockflyer.blogspot.com/

* THE ONLY SOLUTION? - Help all the troops, including the revolting generals and other officers - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE ARE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

The Dutch author this far has lived and worked abroad for more than 4 decades for international media - when they still knew what honest journalism was - as an independent foreign correspondent. Of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the 'Arab World' and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism !

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