Free Republic

WaMu Recognized as Top Diverse Employer—Again Washington Mutual, Inc., September 24, 2008 Washington Mutual, Inc. (NYSE:WM), one of the nation’s leading banks for consumers and small businesses, has once again been recognized as a top employer by Hispanic Business magazine and the Human Rights Campaign. Hispanic Business magazine recently ranked WaMu sixth in its annual Diversity Elite list, which names the top 60 companies for Hispanics. The company was honored specifically for its efforts to recruit Hispanic employees, reach out to Hispanic consumers and support Hispanic communities and organizations. The Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and...

Human Rights Watch on Friday condemned the expulsion from Venezuela of two of its senior staff members after releasing a report that was sharply critical of President Hugo Chavez. The staffers, Jose Miguel Vivanco and Daniel Wilkinson, were forced to leave the country late Thursday. The order came a few hours after a Caracas news conference where they presented a report describing how Chavez has weakened democratic institutions and human rights guarantees in Venezuela. "Chavez's expulsion of Human Rights Watch's team is further evidence of Venezuela's descent into intolerance," Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch,...

A noted child and family psychologist says spanking a child can be an effective form of discipline, despite a recent study that states otherwise. A new report titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools" shows that more than 200,000 children received corporal punishment in U.S. schools. Texas accounted for the majority of the cases, although 21 U.S. states allow the use of corporal punishment. The study was conducted by Humans Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a Reuters article on the study, "liberal groups regard corporal punishment as a barbaric relic...

UNITED NATIONS - When the Israeli Air Force destroyed a slew of oil storage tanks and a key power station in Lebanon in July 2006, the environmental damage was described as devastating. And now, more than 15 months later, the United Nations has released a report detailing the extent of the destruction caused by that oil spill to human health, biodiversity, fisheries and tourism. The destruction has had "serious implications" for livelihoods and economy in that continuously trouble-plagued country. The Israeli bombing, which destroyed storage tanks and the El-Jiyeh power plant, triggered the release of about 15,000 tonnes of fuel...

When two Tunisian men were sent home after five years in Guantanamo, they thought they would be free. Instead, they faced imprisonment, abuse, threats and solitary confinement. Now they say things were better back in the US prison camp.Many of the detainees sitting in Guantanamo Bay hail from countries with a terrible record of torturing and abusing prisoners. While they may want to see an end to their ordeal in the US prison camp, they also have reason to dread the treatment they could face back home. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the US government is not doing enough...

An Iraqi man accused of being a key aide to Osama bin Laden and a top leader of al-Qaeda was arrested late last year on his way to Iraq and handed over to the CIA, the Pentagon announced yesterday, in what became the first secret overseas detention since President Bush acknowledged the existence of such a program last September. -snip- He spent 15 years in Afghanistan as a trainer and planner beginning in the early 1990s, the Pentagon said. Before leaving his home country to join al-Qaeda's Islamic movement, al-Iraqi served in Saddam Hussein's military, rising to the rank of...

A human rights group is asking President Bush to disclose the fates of all terror suspects held since 2001, including at least 16 it believes have been locked up in secret CIA facilities. Human Rights Watch said it compiled a report about the 16, whose whereabouts are unknown, along with 22 others possibly held by the CIA, based on interviews with former detainees, press reports and other sources. The report — "Ghost Prisoner: Two Years in Secret CIA Detention" — includes an accounting from Marwan Jabour, a Palestinian who says he was held incommunicado for more than two years by...

The rule of law is disappearing in Venezuela Marcel Granier, President of Radio Caracas Television (Inter-American Press Agency) The reaction of President Chavez is verbally violent and crude each time someone dares to have a different opinion. ____________________________________________________ President Chavez verbally announced his decision to close Radio Caracas Television, a channel which for more than 53 years and with the best facilities draws the greater audience, moreover of being the television broadcaster that employs the most people in Venezuela. Thus culminates a long chain of aggressions against journalists, employees, managers, and shareholders of the independent media. He is trying to...

NEW YORK (AFP) - Human Rights Watch urged the Iraqi government not to execute Saddam Hussein, describing the trial that convicted the former president for crimes against humanity as "deeply flawed." "Imposing the death penalty, indefensible in any case, is especially wrong after such unfair proceedings," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice programme. "That a judicial decision was first announced by Iraq's national security adviser underlines the political interference that marred Saddam Hussein's trial," he added. Saddam was sentenced to death in November after a trial lasting more than a year for ordering the deaths of...

NEW YORK: Human Rights Watch said Monday that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was not given a fair trial, claiming in a report that attorneys and judges undermined the legitimacy of the process by staging repeated walkouts and failing to uphold standards of international law. In a 97-page report, the group called the soundness of the guilty verdict "questionable" and said the Iraqi High Tribunal was not equipped to handle such a complex case. The document was based on observation of the trial and interviews with court officials, lawyers and other key parties, the group said. The New York-based rights...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An organization that is supposed to monitor international human rights abuses is instead furthering its pro-abortion agenda and has issued comments responding to a new report condemning various states in the U.S. for their pro-life laws that place sensible limits on abortion.Human Rights Watch condemned the laws in some states that it sways is infringing on the so-called right to an abortion."The mounting obstacles to abortion services include in some states a legal requirement to provide medically inaccurate information as part of obligatory pre-abortion counseling," Marianne Mollmann, of the group's women's rights division, told UPI.The group...

British Parliamentarian Andrew Turner of the Conservative Party was forced to apologize for equating Israel’s attacks on the Lebanese infrastructure and its citizens to the tactics carried out by the Nazis. During a panel of discussions dealing with the Palestinian problem and the recent war in Lebanon, Turner claimed that there was much condemnation of suicide bombers, but very little of Israeli attacks in Gaza against civilians. Turner slammed the British government for not calling for an immediate cease-fire during the summer conflict. He said even Human Rights Watch condemns Israel’s lawless attacks on south Lebanon that were followed by...

U.S. Troops Arrest Relative of Al-DouriBy CHRIS BRUMMITTASSOCIATED PRESS TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops arrested a relative of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, and believe he may help in the hunt for the most senior former regime figure still at large, a U.S. officer said Wednesday. The man, who was not identified, was arrested late Tuesday in a raid in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, said Lt. Col. Steven Russell, who led the operation. Russell described the suspect as a "close relative" of al-Douri, who was the vice chairman of the Baath Party's Revolutionary Command Council and a longtime confidant of Saddam....

A mass teachers' strike that is part of a growing Palestinian power struggle erupted in violence Sunday when masked militants trying to keep students away from school shot and moderately wounded a 12-year-old boy trying to go to class. Palestinian teachers began striking Saturday, the start of the school year, to demand full back pay and regular salaries from the Hamas-led government, which has been financially crippled by six months of international sanctions. The strike is being lead by leaders of the Fatah Party, a rival Palestinian group that was swept from power by Hamas earlier this year. Fatah, led...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi tribunal is incapable of fairly and effectively trying Saddam Hussein and six others on genocide charges stemming from an Iraqi campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds in the 1980s, a human rights group said Friday. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Iraqi High Tribunal must "improve its practices if it is to do justice" in the trial scheduled to start Monday. The case involves Saddam's alleged role in "Operation Anfal" — Arabic for "spoils of war." The 1987-88 operation intended to crush independence-minded Kurdish militias and clear Kurds from the sensitive Iranian frontier....

Aug 18, 2006 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi court which will hold Saddam Hussein's second trial next week, on charges of genocide against the Kurds, has proven it is incapable of holding fair hearings, a human rights group said on Friday. "Based on extensive observations of the tribunal's conduct of its first trial … Human Rights Watch believes that the Iraqi High Tribunal is presently incapable of fairly and effectively trying a genocide case," the group said.

Human rights groups are complicit in murder, says Trimble Giles Tremlett in Madrid Thursday January 29, 2004 The Guardian The Nobel Peace laureate and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble called human rights organisations a "great curse" yesterday and accused them of complicity in terrorist killings. "One of the great curses of this world is the human rights industry," he told the Associated Press news agency at an international conference of terrorism victims in Madrid. "They justify terrorist acts and end up being complicit in the murder of innocent victims." His words drew an angry reaction from Amnesty International and Human...

Clip and save] State Department seeks to delay supply of M-26 artillery rockets to Israel Israel Asks U.S. to Ship Rockets With Wide Blast By DAVID S. CLOUD The New York TImes August 11, 2006 www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/middleeast/11military.html?hp&ex=1155355200 &en=4887d0ebeb1cdf33&ei=5094&partner=homepage WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - Israel has asked the Bush administration to speed delivery of short-range antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster munitions, which it could use to strike Hezbollah missile sites in Lebanon, two American officials said Thursday. The request for M-26 artillery rockets, which are fired in barrages and carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area, is...

Fox's Brian Wilson just interviewed a representative from Human Rights Watch. The HRW guy immediately launched into a high-pitched tirade against "Israeli aggression," and Israel's alleged "random and excessive violence against civilians," and its "destruction of Lebanon." When Wilson asked this guy why he wasn't also condemning the Hezbollah savages, the spokestwerp replied that HRW was also unhappy with Hezbolla's rocketing Israeli civilians but that was understandable when considering Israel's actions... This continues the incoherent and suicidal actions of the US Left -- largely composed of my fellow Jews -- in its attempt to destroy Jews. Psychotic.

Hizbullah must immediately stop firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, Human Rights Watch said Saturday. "Lobbing rockets blindly into civilian areas is without doubt a war crime," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Nothing can justify this assault on the most fundamental standards for sparing civilians the hazards of war." "Most of the attacks appear to have been directed at civilian areas and have hit pedestrians, hospitals, schools, homes and businesses," the humanitarian organization's website stated. Since July 12, when Hizbullah captured two IDF soldiers and killed eight, Human Rights Watch researchers have been documenting the...

There were two kinds of people who reacted with instant condemnation to the news of Israel’s strike on the building at Qana. One kind consisted of Arabs and Muslims who grew up in authoritarian countries or social frameworks and mostly had been indoctrinated in hatred of Israel and Jews. The other kind consisted of people who grew up in free and tolerant frameworks in democratic countries and supposedly absorbed ideals regarding fairness and evidence.

During these tense times in the Middle East, at least Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can have a good laugh over the pathetic July 26 letter addressed to him by the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, Sarah Leah Whitson. “Dear President Ahmadinejad,” the letter solemnly begins, “We [at HRW] are aware that you have recently expressed great concern about the current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, citing in particular the large numbers of Lebanese civilian victims of this conflict.” Your eyes do not deceive you. HRW believes, at least publicly, that it is communicating...

"Such tunnel vision towards its political goal not only undermines HRW's credibility as a defender of human rights, but also feeds the process of anti-Israel demonisation. Until it relinquishes its extremist political program with respect to Israel, and recognises the difference between terrorists and sovereign democratic states, HRW will continue to fuel the conflict that it condemns with such vigour."

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch accused an Israeli army investigation on Wednesday of ignoring evidence that challenges its decision to clear the military of blame for a blast that killed seven Palestinians on a Gaza beach. The deaths on June 9, a day of heavy Israeli shelling designed to stop militants firing rockets from Gaza, drew international condemnation and prompted the ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to call off a 16-month-old truce. Major-General Meir Califi, who led the army investigation, dismissed the accusations by the U.S.-based rights watchdog, which has carried out its own inquiry into the explosion that...

Two American soldiers, missing since an insurgent ambush at the checkpoint they were manning last Friday, were found dead Monday night on a street just south of Baghdad. An Iraqi General confirmed to the Associated Press that the soldiers’ bodies showed “signs of torture,” and that the men appeared to have been killed in a particularly “barbaric” way. This assertion appears to be backed up both by the fact that DNA tests were required to positively identify the remains, and by the claim of responsibility made by the self-titled new leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, who posted on an Islamist...

AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan rebuked Human Rights Watch on Monday for criticizing the kingdom's arrest of four lawmakers after they paid condolences to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's family. Al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad on June 8. The four lawmakers — members of Jordan's largest opposition group, the Islamic Action Front — attended the al-Qaida in Iraq leader's wake in his native Jordan on June 9. One described al-Zarqawi as a "martyr." Two days later, they were arrested and charged with "instigating sectarian strife" and "fueling national discord" and jailed for 15 days. The New York-based rights...

While sticking to its demand for the establishment of an independent inquiry into a blast on a Gaza beach 10 days ago that killed seven Palestinian civilians, the Human Rights Watch conceded Monday night for the first time since the incident that it could not contradict the IDF's exonerating findings. On Monday, Maj.-Gen. Meir Klifi - head of the IDF inquiry commission that cleared the IDF of responsibility for the blast - met with Marc Garlasco, a military expert from the HRW who had last week claimed that the blast was caused by an IDF artillery shell. Following the three-hour...

AMMAN, Jordan, AP -Human Rights Watch criticized Jordan's arrest of four lawmakers who visited the family of slain terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, calling it a violation of freedom of expression. "Expressing condolences to the family of a dead man, however murderous he might be, is not a crime," Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, said in a statement Saturday. The lawmakers, members of Jordan's largest opposition group, visited al-Zarqawi's family home in Zarqa, 17 miles northeast of Amman, on June 9, two days after al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed in...

Human Rights Watch and Saeb Erekat lack objectivity The Israeli Defense Forces recently concluded a report on the tragic deaths of seven Palestinians on a Gaza Beach. As detailed yesterday in HR's special report "Gaza Beach Libel", the IDF has carefully analyzed all evidence and proven that it was not responsible for this tragedy. In the past 24 hours, our report has generated over 500 letters to the media. While some news organizations have reported the IDF findings, it certainly does not compensate for the highly emotive front page initial accusations.At the same time, many in the media have been...

US counter-terrorism policies, with their deliberate use of "torture and mistreatment," put the global defence of human rights on the back foot in 2005, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report released overnight. The New York-based monitor said the US strategy has fuelled terrorist recruitment and hampered Washington's ability to pressure other countries into respecting international law. "Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive." The watchdog also criticised US allies in the war on terror for...

(CNN) -- After a year of arduous political spadework by Iraqis trying to establish a democracy, a major humanitarian watchdog group has said "the human rights situation in Iraq deteriorated significantly in 2005." Human Rights Watch made the assessment Wednesday in a report titled "Human Rights Watch World Report 2006," a global survey of the state of human rights. The U.S.-led coalition has touted a year of political progress in Iraq, as Iraqis numbering in the millions went to the polls to vote for a transitional parliament, a four-year parliament and a constitution.

Bush Meets Victims of 'Butcherer' Saddam By NEDRA PICKLER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - 0118dv-bush-iraqis Iraqis who said they were beaten, imprisoned and lost loved ones at the hands of Saddam Hussein's government shared their stories Wednesday with President Bush, who said the former Iraqi president "will get his due justice." There was an emotional atmosphere in the hourlong meeting, participants said, as Bush went around a table in the Roosevelt Room asking each of roughly a dozen Iraqis to tell their experiences. Bush said they told "stories of sadness and stories of bravery." "One of the interesting moments will...

Poland was main CIA centre in Europe, says rights body 09/12/2005 - 5:03:52 PM A Human Rights Watch investigator said Poland was the CIA’s main centre to detain terrorist suspects in Europe at clandestine prisons, a Polish newspaper reported today. Poland’s leaders continue vigorously to deny any involvement. Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst with the rights organisation, was quoted by Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza as saying Human Rights Watch had documents corroborating its case about Poland, and showing Romania was a transit point for moving prisoners. “Poland was the main base of interrogating prisoners and Romania was more of a...

EU investigator seeks data on CIA planesJAN SLIVAAssociated Press PARIS - The head of an investigation into alleged secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe said Tuesday he was checking 31 suspect planes that landed in Europe in recent years and was trying to acquire past satellite images of sites in Romania and Poland.If the European probe uncovers evidence of covert facilities, the potential impact ranges from major embarrassment for the United States to political turmoil in countries that might have participated, even unwittingly. Countries found housing secret detention centers also could be suspended or expelled from the 46-member Council...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA took the first step toward a criminal investigation of a leak of possibly classified information on secret prisons to The Washington Post, a U.S. official said Tuesday. The agency's general counsel sent a report to the Justice Department about the Post story, which reported the existence of secret U.S. detention centers for suspected terrorists in Eastern Europe. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue deals with classified information, said the referral was made shortly after the Nov. 2 story. The leak investigation into the disclosure of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame's...

In this report, Human Rights Watch calls on insurgent groups active in Iraq to: Cease all attacks against civilians, the civilian population and civilian objects, both Iraqi and non-Iraqi. Civil servants, politicians, religious leaders, humanitarian aid workers, journalists and civilian employees of foreign governments are immune from attack; Cease all attacks that do not discriminate between combatants and civilians, and attacks that cause harm to civilians or civilian objects that is excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage; Take all feasible precautionary measures during military operations to verify that objectives to be attacked are not civilian but military, and...

Iraqi insurgents are committing war crimes by attacking civilians in their fight against U.S. forces, the New-York based Human Rights Watch said on Monday. Although the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the ensuing occupation resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, and abuses that enraged many Iraqis, this was no justification for deliberate killings of civilians, it said. "The deliberate targeting of civilians during an armed conflict constitutes a war crime," Human Rights Watch said in a 140-page study, released in Jordan.

Ok, this is 'older'; but it looks front page news worthy to me! Corporate Board Member May/Jun 2003 Feature Story How Citigroup’s Board Cleaned the Stable by Monica Langley Sandy Weill built the world’s most profitable financial empire. Then Citigroup—and Weill—became embroiled in scandal. Here’s how he got his board to sign off on his plan to save the company and redeem himself. During his tumultuous career, humbly born Sanford I. Weill survived setbacks that would have finished most people and went on to build Citigroup, the singularly profitable agglomeration of Citibank, Travelers, Smith Barney, and other financial businesses (2002...

U.S. Policy Options for Iran: Sham Elections, Disinformation Campaign, Human Rights Abuses, and Regime Change Excerpt from Executive Summary While the Bush administration has been reluctant to adopt an unambiguous policy of regime change for Iran, the outcome of the Iranian electoral process, disinformation campaign, and violations of human rights require adoption of an explicit regime change policy for Iran.  An ambiguous American policy was somewhat effective prior to the June 2005 Iranian elections. That policy allowed Washington to support the European diplomatic initiative toward Iran without fear of being blamed for sabotaging negotiations by threatening the regime’s existence....

US faces prison ship allegations The United Nations says it has learned of serious allegations that the US is secretly detaining terrorism suspects, notably on American military ships. The special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak said the accusations were rumours at this stage, but urged the US to co-operate in an investigation. He said the UN wants lists of the places of detention and those held. The comments come five days after the UN accused the US of stalling on their requests to visit Guantanamo Bay. Investigators have been asking to visit the jail in Cuba to carry out checks...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States abused a law intended to keep witnesses from fleeing when it jailed dozens of Muslim men after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a report Monday by two major rights groups. The 70 men, all but one of them Muslim, were suspected by the Justice Department of involvement in terrorism but were held as material witnesses rather than criminal suspects, said Jamie Fellner of Human Rights Watch, which released the report with the American Civil Liberties Union. The designation, intended to hold people who have information about a crime but may want...

As millions of children look forward to a break from school, millions of oth­ers only wish they could begin. For these children, summer days will not be spent in ballparks and play­grounds, but on battlegrounds or in fields. These children have no time for play. It's all work. And the work is dirty, hard and dangerous. According to the International Labor Organization's (www.ilo.org) global report, "A Future Without Child Labor," 246 million children worldwide are in­volved in child labor, which should be abolished. The study found that 179 mil­lion children ages 5 to 17 are exposed to forms of child...

NEW YORK, May 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The US should investigate the humiliation of Muslim detainees and the abuse of their religious beliefs rather than attack those who expose them, an international human rights group has said. “Around the world, the United States has been humiliating Muslim detainees by offending their religious beliefs,” Reed Brody, a special counsel for the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP). “If the United States is to repair the public relations damage caused by its mistreatment of detainees, it needs to investigate those who...

When The New York Times, “Nightline,” and CNN nominate a young blonde for sainthood ahead of the Pope, it’s time for a reality check. Especially when that blonde, Marla Ruzicka’s sole purpose is to legitimize our enemies, cause problems for U.S. troops already in harms way, and morally equivocate dead terrorists with victims of 9/11. Jane Fonda lite—but unfortunately without having been spat upon by right-thinking veterans. The recent death of Ruzicka, an American “activist” in Iraq, elicited an orgy of gush—everywhere from Time Magazine to The Guardian of London to Al-Jazeera. A 28-year-old San Franciscan, Ruzicka was in Iraq...

Human Rights Watch has begun a project to track how allegations of abuse and homicide against U.S. soldiers are dealt with in the military justice system. “What we’re trying to get a handle on, is how successful the military justice system has been in investigating and prosecuting allegations of abuse,” said John Sifton, lead researcher on counter-terrorism and military affairs for the non-profit group based in New York City. “We’re not on a witch hunt against troops; our concern is systematic failures.” The project to collect and analyze data from more than 100 cases began in December, which includes allegations...

Human rights group accuses Ethiopian military of attacking civilians NAIROBI, Kenya: Ethiopian troops have committed widespread killings, rapes and torture of the Anuak population in the southwestern corner of the country since late 2003, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. Numerous attacks by soldiers and civilians from other ethnic groups have killed more than 500 people and driven several thousand Anuaks from their homes in the Gambella region, the New York-based group said in a 64-page report released in Nairobi. The most serious attack took place in December 2003 when civilians attacked several Anuak villages, killing more than 400 people, the...

(via Geopolitical Review) Ken Roth and Human Rights Watch have employed Lucy Mair as a researcher in Israel/Occupied Territories. Ms. Mair's qualifications include writing for the "Electronic Intifada" and work with Grassroots International, a radical pro-Palestinian political organization. (Since HRW's employment process is secret, and not subject to independent review, we are unable to compare her credentials and expertise on universal human rights issues with the other candidates.) Her descriptions of Life in Palestine, and articles for "Palestine Now" etc., focus exclusively on Palestinian "fear and the loss and the humiliation and the despair", with no mention of terror, suicide...

Iraq: Torture Continues at Hands of New Government Police Systematically Abusing Detainees (Baghdad, January 25, 2005) -- Iraqi security forces are committing systematic torture and other abuses against people in detention, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The people of Iraq were promised something better than this after the government of Saddam Hussein fell. The New Iraq? Torture and Ill-treatment of Detainees in Iraqi Custody Report, January 24, 2005 The 94-page report, The New Iraq? Torture and Ill-treatment of Detainees in Iraqi Custody, documents how unlawful arrest, long-term incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees...

LONDON (AP) - Iraqi security forces are arbitrarily arresting people and systematically torturing and abusing detainees, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday. With few exceptions, Iraqi authorities have not acted to stop such mistreatment, the report said. International police advisers, largely funded by the U.S. government, "have turned a blind eye to these rampant abuses," it said. "The Iraqi interim government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi ... appears to be actively taking part, or is at least complicit, in these grave violations of fundamental human rights. Nor has the United States, the United Kingdom or other...

America's human rights abuses have provided a rallying cry for terrorists and set a bad example to regimes seeking to justify their own poor rights records, a leading independent watchdog said yesterday. The torture and degrading treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay have undermined the credibility of the US as a defender of human rights and opponent of terrorism, the New York-based Human Rights Watch says in its annual report. "The US government is less and less able to push for justice abroad because it is unwilling to see justice done at home," says Kenneth Roth, the...