STATE DEPARTMENT DIDN'T LOOK AT ABU GHRAIB, GUANTANAMO

Venezuela's right! The state department report is nothing more than a smoke screen to cover up US abuse around the globe.

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CARACAS, Feb. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Venezuelan Vice President Jose Rangel said Monday that the United States does not have the moral authority to address the issue of human rights.

"The government that nowadays violates human rights the most both in and out of its territory is that of the United States, by way of the murder of thousands of people, including children, women and old people, in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Rangel.

Rangel made the statement in response to a report released Monday by the US State Department, claiming that "human rights are not respected and poverty prevails" in Venezuela.

The vice president described the report as the same as the ones issued in the past, only "with more lies, falsehood and hypocrisy," and that the US government is disqualified to address the issue of human rights.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/01/content_2632518.htm

Don't they realize the first step in problem-solving is admitting there's a f&%#ing problem?!
:grr:

Can we spell HYPOCRISY? :crazy:

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...As in the past, this year's edition also did not address human rights conditions in the United States or in U.S.-controlled facilities overseas, such as Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003 and most of 2004 and the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, where Washington has been holding suspects in its "war on terror," an omission that was cited by some observers as evidence of hypocrisy and double standards.

The introduction, for example, cites the "widespread use of torture" by the government of Syria but fails to note the case of a terrorism suspect, Canadian/Syrian national Maher Arar, who, after being detained at a U.S. airport, was "rendered" to Damascus where he was allegedly severely tortured for months and then held in inhumane conditions until his repatriation last year to Canada.

"It's a clear indication of the absolute hypocrisy of a policy that would seek diplomatic assurances that someone won't be tortured in a country like Syria that the report holds out as an example of 'widespread use of torture,'" said Jumana Musa of Amnesty International USA, who noted that detainees have also been "rendered" to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, other countries where torture of prisoners is common.

"Renderings," as well as other documented abuses, including torture by U.S. military personnel against prisoners in U.S.-controlled facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere, contributes to cynicism about U.S. human rights reporting, according to Human Rights First (HRF).

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=5013

what audience do they write there bs reports for?what a laughing stock this government is i tell ya

it doesn't count if we torture them somewhere else

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050214fa_fact6

coming from the U.S., it's meaningless.

Stupidhead really likes to thump the tub for transparency in other countries, doesn't he?

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'Brooklyn's Abu Ghraib'

Defense attorneys call it Brooklyn's Abu Ghraib. On the ninth floor of the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, terrorism suspects swept off the streets after the Sept. 11 attacks were repeatedly stripped naked and frequently were physically abused, the Justice Department's inspector general has found.

The detainees - none of whom were ultimately charged with anything related to terrorism - alleged in sworn affidavits and in interviews with Justice Department officials that correction officers:

Humiliated them by making fun of - and sometimes painfully squeezing - their genitals.

Deprived them of regular sleep for weeks or months.

Shackled their hands and feet before smashing them repeatedly face-first into concrete walls - within sight of the Statue of Liberty.

Forced them in winter to stand outdoors at dawn while dressed in light cotton prison garb and no shoes, sometimes for hours.

"In December, they left me outside for more than four hours only a jumpsuit and a light prison coat," Ahmed Khalifa, an Egyptian, told the Daily News. "I asked them to let me inside. They were laughing and pointing to me. When I finally got back inside, I felt like I had frostbite."

The Justice Department's inspector general has substantiated some of the prisoners' allegations - and some incidents were captured on videotape. But the Justice Department has declined to prosecute any federal correction officer at MDC.

http://nydailynews.com/front/story/282716p-242172c.html

Some State Dept.