U.S. War on Terror Leads to Violations, Group Says

WASHINGTON — The U.S.-led war on terrorism is a failure that has resulted in gross human rights violations, undermined U.S. moral legitimacy and made the world more dangerous, Amnesty International said Wednesday in an annual survey of human rights around the world.

The harsh report from the respected human rights group condemns Bush administration actions, citing prisoner detention policies, the Iraq war and what it describes as selective application of international laws such as the Geneva Convention. The group said the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had further inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment.

“The U.S. government, as the dominant player on the world stage, simply must right its wrongs or it will be too late to regain the trust of its allies and too late to exercise moral persuasion on the world stage,” said William Schultz, executive director of New York-based Amnesty International USA.

The White House dismissed Amnesty’s findings, saying the U.S. adheres to “the rule of law.”

“The war on terrorism has resulted in the liberation of 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq and the protection of their rights,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.

The State Department was somewhat more conciliatory. Spokesman Richard Boucher said that “we do take Amnesty’s reports seriously” but “we don’t necessarily agree with their views.”

Calling events of 2003 “the most sustained attack on human rights and international humanitarian law in 50 years,” Amnesty International’s report documents human rights violations by governments across the globe, saying that 47 countries carried out political killings and that 58, including the United States, detained people without charge or trial.

The group also tracked 177 armed groups in 65 countries, reporting that over the last four years, 55% of those groups had killed civilians and 20% had committed acts of sexual violence.

In response to those acts, many governments deployed forces that killed civilians and tortured and mistreated suspects.

“The war on terror has evolved into a global brawl, with governments and armed groups duking it out and innocent civilians suffering severely,” Schultz said. But the group reserved its sharpest criticism for the United States.

“Who now will not doubt the U.S. government when it says that it will uphold human rights and the rule of law?” Schultz said at a news conference. “The Bush administration has lost its moral compass at a time when violations are rising around the globe.”

Amnesty International conducts human rights reviews each year and frequently criticizes the United States.

This year, the organization’s report opens with London-based Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan writing that the Bush administration’s war on terrorism has obscured “the greatest human rights challenge of our times.”

Jessica Stern, a Harvard University public policy professor and terrorism expert who appeared with Schultz on Wednesday, said the U.S.-initiated invasion and occupation of Iraq had perpetuated anti-American terrorism by Islamic groups.

“Terrorist recruiters are using the war and the continuing occupation to mobilize recruits -- not only inside Iraq but outside as well,” Stern said. “Intelligence officials in the United States, Europe and Africa have reported that the new recruits ... are younger, with a more menacing attitude.”

Stern, who spent six years interviewing Islamic radicals, said the militants were driven by “the false idea that the United States is engaged in a crusade against the Islamic world.”

Stern said that perceived humiliation of their culture was an incentive for new recruits to join holy-war organizations.

“The heart-wounding images of American soldiers humiliating, torturing and killing Iraqi prisoners” presented a prime recruitment opportunity for jihad leaders, she said.

Reviewing the human rights records of other countries, the report commends Mexico’s strides toward promoting human rights, citing the establishment by President Vicente Fox of the Government Policy Commission on Human Rights.

However, Amnesty reported continued violence against women in Mexico, particularly in the cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua.

In China, the human rights situation is “not improving at all,” said T. Kumar, Amnesty’s advocacy director for Asia.

Amnesty also denounced the records of Israel and Colombia, where it said the United States must do more to bring about changes. “There is no evidence of any moral persuasion from the U.S. government at all,” Schultz said.