"Rights group hits policies of US, China"
"by Meera Selva, Associated Press | May 29, 2008
LONDON - The United States is shirking its duty to provide the world with moral leadership and China is letting its business interests trump human rights concerns in Burma and Sudan, a human rights group said yesterday.
Amnesty International's annual report on the state of the world's human rights accused the United States of failing to provide a moral compass for its international peers, a longstanding complaint the London-based group has against the North American superpower.
AI generally does good work, although one should recognize the blind spot.
This year it also criticized the nation for supporting President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan last November when he imposed a state of emergency, clamped down on the media, and sacked judges.
"As the world's most powerful state, the USA sets the standard for government behavior globally," the report said.
Oh, we are DONE with that!
Wees TORTURE, and WEES NOT LIVING THAT ONE DOWN for.... ever!!!!
It charged that the United States "had distinguished itself in recent years through its defiance of international law."
Isn't that IMPEACHABLE?
As in the past, the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay came in for criticism. Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary general, appealed for the president elected in November to shut the jail down.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States remains at the forefront of promoting human rights and has made extensive efforts to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to their home countries, having done so in several hundred cases already.
Uh-huh!! Did Casey say it with a straight face, or.... ?
But more than 100 countries have refused to take back certain detainees, Casey said.
"Many countries that we would want to transfer people back to, I think if you asked an organization like Amnesty International whether they want us to transfer them back to those countries, would have some serious concerns about that," he said.
But it is no problem to kidnap INNOCENT guys of the streets, render them to secret prisons for secret torture, and hold them indefinitely without charge if it suits the Great Dictator!
MSM, where are you?
Casey said there is no perfect solution, but said those who think closing Guantanamo Bay is the answer should work with the United States to resolve these problems.
O.K., let's start with the fact that 9/11 was a CIA/Mossad FALSE-FLAG INSIDE JOB, 'kay?
Emerging power China was also criticized. The report said China had continued shipping weapons to Sudan in defiance of a UN arms embargo and had traded with abusive governments like Burma and Zimbabwe.
It said that China's media censorship remains in place and that the government continues to persecute rights activists.
The report also accused China of expanding its "reeducation through labor" program, which allows the government to arrest people and sentence them to manual labor without trial."Yeah, yeah, China's rulers aren't a great bunch of guys, either.
No one's rulers are.
I didn't see the word ISRAEL in that report, AI.
As for the cluster bombs, Israel is the worst, although the U.S. has probably dropped more in Afghanistan and Iraq (besides, Israel got them from us).
"Treaty to ban cluster bombs; But top users not involved in talks" by Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press | May 29, 2008
DUBLIN - Diplomats from more than 100 nations agreed yesterday on a treaty to ban current types of cluster bombs and require the destruction of stockpiles within eight years.
However, the talks did not involve the biggest makers and users of cluster bombs: the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan. And the pact leaves the door open for new types that could pick targets more precisely and contain self-destruct technology.
Then it is NOT REALLY a DEAL then, is it?
But here the MSM is trumpeting it!!! Will the deception ever end?
Cluster munitions, fired by artillery or dropped from aircraft, scatter dozens or hundreds of bomblets across an area as big as two football fields to attack concentrations of troops and vehicles.
Doesn't "bomblets" sound CUTE, readers?
How sick the terminology is, and it shows you the level of propaganda the U.S. public must put up with!
They have been used with devastating impact on battlefields around the globe. But critics say the explosives often fail to detonate and later inflict a terrible cost on civilians, from farmers who strike bomblets in their fields to children who mistake them for playthings....
Yup!!! That's why they are MONSTROUS WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION!!!
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin... predicted that the widespread support within the world community would put pressure on the United States and the other leading cluster-bomb makers to give them up, too.
That has never seemed to work before, and I don't like to poop at the party, but....
In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the treaty, saying it was "in line with British interests and values, and makes the world a safer place."
Brown helped propel negotiators to a speedier deal by confirming earlier yesterday that Britain would discontinue its use of two cluster munitions: one an Israeli-designed artillery shell, the other a US-made rocket system for use on
If Israel has their own cluster bombs, why did they need ours to saturate Lebanon back in 2006?
Britain previously had sought an exemption to continue using the helicopter-based weapon in particular.
Nonetheless, the draft treaty contains several concessions sought by the United States - a key absentee that still cast the biggest shadow over deliberations.
Translation: This treaty MEANS NOTHING!!
Sorry, do-gooder peaceniks, but YOU BEEN HOODWINKED!!!
The pact would allow countries that sign the treaty to keep cooperating militarily with those that do not. Earlier drafts sought to prohibit such cooperation, but the United States and its NATO allies opposed that idea on the grounds it would complicate joint peacekeeping operations.
Yeah, so they can continue their attempt to subjugate the planet!!!
But we are here to liberate you!!! Sick!!!
That section - nearly at the end of the 18-page document - makes it likely US forces based in Europe will be able to maintain stocks of cluster bombs, even in nations such as Britain that sign the treaty.
So its a shit treaty then. And Gordo looks good for banning them -- even though he's not really banning them.
Instead of British deployments of these atrocious killing devices, the U.S will do it!
A British diplomat, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said British officials had been in regular contact with US counterparts throughout the Dublin talks. He said Britain intended to work with Washington to seek a gradual reduction in the US military's heavy reliance on cluster munitions.
The treaty's detailed definition of what a cluster bomb is - and isn't - also will allow development of more advanced weapons."I wonder why this is in the paper at all when it is not news.
Makes the West look good and humane despite the mass-murder, that's all I can think of.
