Amnesty: US 'War on Terror' mentality leads to Torture by Agence France Presse 8:49am 28th Oct, 2004   October 27, 2004    The United States is more concerned with getting around international laws which prohibit torture than with safeguarding human rights as it wages its "war on terror", Amnesty International said in a report.    The report, a 200-page analysis of the practices and decisions that led to torture in Iraq, and alleged abuse in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, argues that Washington's "war mentality" led it down a slippery slope toward disregard for the rule of law.    "It is tragic that in the 'war on terror', the USA has itself undermined the rule of law. Its selective disregard for the Geneva Conventions and international human rights law has contributed to torture and ill-treatment," it wrote.    "The torture and ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees by US agents in Abu Ghraib prison was -- due to a failure of human rights leadership at the highest levels of government -- sadly predictable," it continued.    The report comes just a week ahead of the US presidential election Tuesday between Republican incumbent George W. Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry.    Photos depicting torture at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, which first emerged in late April, shocked the world and left a lasting smear on the US reputation as a defender of human rights.    US government documents suggest that "far from ensuring that the 'war on terror' would be conducted without resort to human rights violations, the administration was discussing ways in which its agents might avoid the international prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," the Amnesty report said.    "The war mentality the government has adopted has not been matched with a commitment to the laws of war," it added. Instead, the strategy of the US government has been to deny detainees prisoner of war status under the Geneva Conventions, and to restrict access to detainees citing military necessity -- both of which have allowed abuse to go by unnoticed and largely unpunished, the group said.    Bush and his leadership also contribute to the slippery slope by refusing to use "torture" to describe Abu Ghraib, but only call events that took place there as "abuse", it said.    Amnesty, the London-based global rights campaigner, reiterated its call for an independent commission to investigate alleged abuse in the war on terror which would be mandated to investigate the highest echelons of government.    It also outlined 12 recommendations for Washington, including the need to improve access to detainees, totally condemn torture and ratify international treaties to that effect and prosecute wrongdoers.    The group criticized what it termed US government hypocrisy to denounce torture and and yet refuse to address its own instances of mistreatment. In a bitter ironic passage, it noted that when "it suited the US government's aims in its build-up to the invasion of Iraq", the Bush administration cited Amnesty International's reports on torture under Saddam Hussein's rule in that country.    The 202-page report draws largely on a wide source of information, including the US government and non-governmental organizations, as well as press reports of abuse cases and Amnesty's own investigations.    © Copyright 2004 AFP Visit the related web page
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