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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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March 9th,
2007 - Our Human Rights Hypocrisy |
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A federal report has harsh words for foreign governments while barely
mentioning U.S. violations. By Rosa Brooks Los Angeles Times March 9, 2007 On Tuesday - to ritualized
hoots of derision from around the globe - the U.S. Department of State
released its 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The annual
reports detail "the status of internationally recognized human
rights" in virtually every country in the world - except, of course, the
U.S. itself. At first glance, this year's
reports contain few surprises. The State Department laments the genocide in
Darfur, notes that Russia has experienced a "further erosion of government
accountability" and reminds us that Cuba denies its citizens "the
fundamental right to change their government peacefully." The reports
also document rights abuses in China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Venezuela, North Korea - in fact, pretty much all over the place. Even tiny
Monaco is rebuked for denying its citizens "the right to change their
government or denounce the royal family." Although the State
Department announces the annual reports with fanfare, the rest of the world
rarely responds with enthusiasm. This year is no exception. China, a
perennial target, declared that "the United States has lorded it over
other countries by condemning other countries' human rights practices while
ignoring its own problems." Other foreign commentators also complained
about U.S. hypocrisy. After Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Haditha and other
highly publicized human rights controversies, they wondered, where does the
U.S. get off casting stones at others? There's nothing inherently
sinister about the State Department's failure to include a chapter on U.S.
human rights abuses in the reports. Originally intended for internal
government consumption, the reports were designed to help Congress determine
which lucky nations would receive foreign aid. (Back in the day, Congress had
a quaint tradition of insisting that the U.S. not provide security assistance
to foreign governments responsible for "gross violations" of human
rights.) Because - by definition - the U.S. doesn't provide foreign aid to
itself, there was traditionally no reason for the reports to detail U.S.
human rights lapses. But over the years, the
country reports have evolved far beyond their original purpose, becoming a
high-visibility part of U.S. public diplomacy. As a result, they're
inevitably scrutinized with care, both for what they say and what they don't
say. On close examination, this
year's reports are notable for several major omissions - and one intriguing
inclusion. First, the intriguing
inclusion: This year's reports contain an unusual - if elliptical -
acknowledgment of serious U.S. failings. "We recognize that we are
writing this report at a time when our own record, and actions we have taken
to respond to the terrorist attacks against us, have been questioned,"
notes the introduction, which goes on to insist that "U.S. laws,
policies and practices governing the detention, treatment and trial of
terrorist suspects have evolved considerably over the last five years."
It ain't much, but it's significant. In the sausage factory of
the executive branch, phrases like those only end up in the annual country
reports after months of interagency slicing and dicing. Those unprecedented
sentences survived because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fought for
them - and won, beating back opposition that came mainly from Vice President
Dick Cheney's office. No one should view this as a dramatic turnaround, but
it suggests a growing administration awareness of just how much U.S.
credibility has suffered as a result of post-9/11 human rights abuses. Still, those important
sentences are undermined by some glaring omissions in the country reports. The report on Iraq, for
instance, contains harsh words for the government, decrying
"overcrowding and lack of judicial oversight" in Iraqi prisons and detention
centers, incidents of "arbitrary arrest and detention" and
"instances of torture and other abuses by government agents and by
illegal armed groups." Not mentioned at all: The U.S. itself holds about
14,000 detainees in Iraq. Although some U.S. officials acknowledge that many
of these detainees are probably innocent, most have never had any meaningful
opportunity to challenge their detention. Meanwhile, credible allegations of
detainee abuse persist. Similarly, the report on
Afghanistan highlights serious abuses by the Taliban and the Afghan
government but makes no mention of the hundreds of detainees still held in
Afghanistan by U.S. military and intelligence agencies. Reports on Poland,
Romania, Germany and Italy contain no references to investigations into
secret U.S. detention facilities or the illegal U.S. abduction and transfer
of terror suspects to third countries that use torture. But in the end, though their
omissions expose the U.S. to charges of hypocrisy, the annual country reports
remain valuable. Not least, the reports represent an ongoing U.S.
acknowledgment that core human rights norms ought to be respected by all -
even though the U.S. has lately been a notorious violator. In 1655, La Rochefoucauld
wrote that "hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue." If that's
true, there's hope for the U.S. government yet. External link: http://tinyurl.com/38hk7y |