Amnesty International: In a 300-page annual report, the group accused the US government of damaging human rights with its attitude to torture and treatment of detainees.
This granted “a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity”, the human rights advocates said.
Afghanistan was slipping into a “downward spiral of lawlessness and instability”, it added.
In Iraq some of the violence could be blamed on armed groups but the report also blamed US-led coalition forces for “unlawful killings, torture and other violations”.
“Torture and ill-treatment by US-led forces were widely reported,” it added.
The report also highlighted the London-based organisation’s concerns about… [l]ack of a full independent investigation into abuses against detainees in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
“The US, as the unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power, sets the tone for governmental behaviour worldwide,” she 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.”
The administration was seeking “to dilute the absolute ban on torture”, Ms Khan added.
No, silly Amnesty! The problem isn’t that we routinely torture people. The problem is that you and others around the world keep reporting it. That’s what makes them all so mad — seeing it on TV and reading about it in the newspaper. Without those media outlets, the only people who’d be upset are the people we torture, their friends and family, and anyone else who hears about it by word of mouth. We don’t have the resources to torture everybody!
What? You’re saying we could just stop torturing people, then there’d be no awful torture to report? What are ya, high? This is the Global War on Terror! They’re cutting off people’s heads on the internets! They’re blowing up car bombs! We have to torture them to get the information we need to get them to stop attacking us for using torture!
