Amnesty: U.S. terror war hurts human rights

Amnesty: U.S. terror war hurts human rights

WASHINGTON — One of the world’s top human rights organizations has accused the United States of “fighting injustice with injustice” in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism and fueling terrorists’ justifications for their attacks.

At the release of its annual human rights report May 26, William Schulz, Amnesty International USA executive director, said the United States must clean up its human rights record to avoid being perceived as an anti-Islamic country.

“The global security agenda promulgated by the U.S. administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle,” Amnesty International’s secretary general wrote in the annual report’s introductory message.

Amnesty International has urged the Bush administration and Congress to reaffirm their commitment to the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture by forming an independent commission to examine the administration’s detention practices, Schulz said.

“The United States government must change the culture that leads to the torture of detainees,” he said.