U.S. "war on terror" eroded rights worldwide: experts

U.S. "war on terror" eroded rights worldwide: experts

www.reuters.com

GENEVA (Reuters) - Washington's "war on terror" after the September 11 attacks has eroded human rights worldwide, creating lingering cynicism that the United Nations must now combat, international law experts said on Monday.

Mary Robinson, who was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights when al Qaeda militants flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001, said the United States caused harm with some of the ways it responded.

"Seven years after 9/11 it is time to take stock and repeal abusive laws and policies," the former Irish president said, warning that harsh U.S. detentions and interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba gave a dangerous signal to other countries that could easily follow suit.

While new U.S. President Barack Obama has announced he will close Guantanamo to break from the practices of his predecessor George W. Bush, Robinson said sweeping changes needed to take place to ensure Washington abandons its "war paradigm."

"There has been severe damage and it needs to be addressed," she told a news conference in Geneva. "We are not more secure. We are more divided, and people are more cynical about the operation of laws."

(visit the link for the full news article)

When you have entities like the CIA grabbing people off the streets and sending them off to secret prisons for torture, when you start wars that had nothing to do with 9/11 so you can torture people there too, when you pass legislation, after legislation restricting freedom in the US, is this really any surprise?

And this wasn't just the Bush administration. This is continuing on today. Obama will continue these policies in many ways. He voted for the Patriot act(VP Joe Biden was one of the architects), he voted for the REAL ID act, he voted for the Homegrown Terrorism Act(Which is just an anti-freedom of assembly bill), he voted for the bailout bill, and now he's passing a new monstrosity as president. Just goes to show that Washington is about lip-service and ultimate power.

www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is what i and many others have been saying for YEARS.

But we just lumped into the anti-American category (like it evens means something). If i'm anti-American (which i'm not) then surely i'm pro-old-world?

It's America that has raised those curtains and set the stage for the New World Order. But the funny thing is, the Americans themselves are not the one's truly at fault.

We all played a part in the closing acts of part one.

But when the lights go down, the bar will be closed and you'll be forced to watch the second act at gunpoint.

Pro-old-world...?

Edit: typo

[edit on 16-2-2009 by mr-lizard]

ok, good article
but.... these "experts"... where were they for the last 5years or so?

where were they during Bush?

How come all these types of articles are surfacing now?
Was everyone blind and dumb for almost an entire decade?

Remember that alot of the people that are speaking out now were under a global gag order, essentially. Much information will be pouring out in the next few months. Of that I am certain.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
ok, good article
but.... these "experts"... where were they for the last 5years or so?

where were they during Bush?

How come all these types of articles are surfacing now?
Was everyone blind and dumb for almost an entire decade?

or maybe during those five years, our consciousness was re-porgrammed to belittle the people who did speak out, Mainstream news was downgraded, no footage of the war and yet we're bombarded with screaming headlines.

We were confused into sumbission.