In Annual Human Rights Report, Amnesty International Says U.S. “Unrepentant About Global Web of Abuse”

Amnesty International is accusing the United States of turning the world into a global battlefield in the so-called war on terror. That charge appears in Amnesty’s new report on the state of human rights around the world. Amnesty is calling for Guantanamo to be shut down, for senior government officials to be held accountable for authorizing torture, and for an end to the practice known as extraordinary rendition. The authors of the Amnesty report write: “The U.S. administration’s double speak has been breathtakingly shameless. It is unrepentant about the global web of abuse it has spun in the name of counterterrorism.’’

Amnesty’s report also highlighted human rights abuses around the globe including in Sudan, the Occupied Territories, Iraq, Russia and Zimbabwe. The report states that Israel killed more than 650 Palestinians last year, three times the number of Palestinians killed in 2005. Half of the Palestinians killed last year were unarmed civilians. The Palestinian death toll included 120 children. During the same period, Palestinian militants killed 27 Israelis – including 20 civilians and one child.

As for Iraq, Amnesty found that “the worst practices of Saddam’s regime – torture, unfair trials, capital punishment and rape with impunity – remained very much alive.” Larry Cox is executive director of Amnesty International USA. He joins us in the firehouse studio.

* Larry Cox. Executive director of Amnesty International USA.

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