US leads global attack on human rights

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ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) writes: "Four years after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, human rights are in retreat worldwide and the United States bears most responsibility, rights watchdog Amnesty International said.... "'When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity,' [said secretary-general Irene Khan].

"London-based Amnesty cited the pictures last year of abuse of detainees at Iraq's US-run Abu Ghraib prison, which it said were never adequately investigated, and the detention without trial of "enemy combatants" at the US naval base in Cuba. 'The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law," Ms Khan said.

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