America's shameful Human Rights Record

Singh

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A Cruel and Unusual Record



THE United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights.

Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation's violation of human rights has extended. This development began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has been sanctioned and escalated by bipartisan executive and legislative actions, without dissent from the general public. As a result, our country can no longer speak with moral authority on these critical issues.

While the country has made mistakes in the past, the widespread abuse of human rights over the last decade has been a dramatic change from the past. With leadership from the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 as "the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." This was a bold and clear commitment that power would no longer serve as a cover to oppress or injure people, and it established equal rights of all people to life, liberty, security of person, equal protection of the law and freedom from torture, arbitrary detention or forced exile.

The declaration has been invoked by human rights activists and the international community to replace most of the world's dictatorships with democracies and to promote the rule of law in domestic and global affairs. It is disturbing that, instead of strengthening these principles, our government's counterterrorism policies are now clearly violating at least 10 of the declaration's 30 articles, including the prohibition against "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Recent legislation has made legal the president's right to detain a person indefinitely on suspicion of affiliation with terrorist organizations or "associated forces," a broad, vague power that can be abused without meaningful oversight from the courts or Congress (the law is currently being blocked by a federal judge). This law violates the right to freedom of expression and to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, two other rights enshrined in the declaration.

In addition to American citizens' being targeted for assassination or indefinite detention, recent laws have canceled the restraints in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to allow unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications. Popular state laws permit detaining individuals because of their appearance, where they worship or with whom they associate.

Despite an arbitrary rule that any man killed by drones is declared an enemy terrorist, the death of nearby innocent women and children is accepted as inevitable. After more than 30 airstrikes on civilian homes this year in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai has demanded that such attacks end, but the practice continues in areas of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen that are not in any war zone. We don't know how many hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in these attacks, each one approved by the highest authorities in Washington. This would have been unthinkable in previous times.

These policies clearly affect American foreign policy. Top intelligence and military officials, as well as rights defenders in targeted areas, affirm that the great escalation in drone attacks has turned aggrieved families toward terrorist organizations, aroused civilian populations against us and permitted repressive governments to cite such actions to justify their own despotic behavior.

Meanwhile, the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, now houses 169 prisoners. About half have been cleared for release, yet have little prospect of ever obtaining their freedom. American authorities have revealed that, in order to obtain confessions, some of the few being tried (only in military courts) have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers. Astoundingly, these facts cannot be used as a defense by the accused, because the government claims they occurred under the cover of "national security." Most of the other prisoners have no prospect of ever being charged or tried either.

At a time when popular revolutions are sweeping the globe, the United States should be strengthening, not weakening, basic rules of law and principles of justice enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But instead of making the world safer, America's violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends.

As concerned citizens, we must persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership according to international human rights norms that we had officially adopted as our own and cherished throughout the years.


A Cruel and Unusual Record — www.nytimes.com — Readability
 
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Why should USA worry about human rights when terrorists have came to America and
committed atrocities like 9/11? The liberal media are a bunch of idiots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

W.G.Ewald

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THE United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights.
Why did Uncle Sam assume this role in the first place? Doing so has engendered more resentment around the world than it has respect, I would say. And if this country has such a shameful human rights record, why do people from so many other countries want to come here?
 

W.G.Ewald

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P.S. The writers at The New York Times are hopeless bed-wetting liberals.

P.P.S. Ohferchrissakes the article was written by Jimmah Kotter. He should be out down.
 
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The Messiah

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Why should USA worry about human rights when terrorists have came to America and
committed atrocities like 9/11? The liberal media are a bunch of idiots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then they should also stop lecturing other nations about human rights.

Either practise what you preach or dont preach and do what you want! You cant do both and expect none to raise question about your hypocracy.
 
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Then they should also stop lecturing other nations about human rights.

Either practise what you preach or dont preach and do what you want! You cant do both and expect none to raise question about your hypocracy.
I always wondered why USA has never once brought up the Tibet issue?
 

average american

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Isnt the fact that India has the 4th worse womens rights records on the planetl. Kind like people that live in glass houses should not throw stones. Or

Matthew 7:3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew 7:4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
 

Zarvin

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Isnt the fact that India has the 4th worse womens rights records on the planetl. Kind like people that live in glass houses should not throw stones. Or

Matthew 7:3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew 7:4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
The writer of the article is American not Indian.

America'ss human rights record for its own citizens is pretty good.
 

KS

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Then they should also stop lecturing other nations about human rights.

Either practise what you preach or dont preach and do what you want! You cant do both and expect none to raise question about your hypocracy.
Their human rights record is still faaaaaaaar better than any out there, barring some like Nordic countries.
 

W.G.Ewald

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Then they should also stop lecturing other nations about human rights.

Either practise what you preach or dont preach and do what you want! You cant do both and expect none to raise question about your hypocracy.
"They" don't lecture other nations, if you mean Americans. Obama, Hillary and US DoS lecture other nations. Pay no attention.
 

The Messiah

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Their human rights record is still faaaaaaaar better than any out there, barring some like Nordic countries.
What about supporting paki genocide in bangladesh ? or bombing entire villages in vietnam ?

There's only one thing more annoying than a dhimmi and thats a phoren dhimmi.
 

The Messiah

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Isnt the fact that India has the 4th worse womens rights records on the planetl. Kind like people that live in glass houses should not throw stones. Or

Matthew 7:3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew 7:4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
India doesn't lecture others about human rights!

Glass house is more suited to you because you preach it and then do the opposite.
 

The Messiah

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"They" don't lecture other nations, if you mean Americans. Obama, Hillary and US DoS lecture other nations. Pay no attention.
I get the sense thats not true.

If your different ewald than the likes of obama,hillary etc then pay no attention to my asserations since they dont apply to you.
 

KS

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What about supporting paki genocide in bangladesh ? or bombing entire villages in vietnam ?

There's only one thing more annoying than a dhimmi and thats a phoren dhimmi.
By constitution they are mandated to provide those rights only to their citizens. Rest is national interest. As it should be.

The only thing more annoying that a phoren dhimmi is a che wannabe who finds an eveeel Amreekan hand everywhere,




India doesn't lecture others about human rights!
Oh it does !
 
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