US human rights hypocrisy. posted by Richard Seymour

One thing some news outlets were swift to pick up on when the State Department issued its annual human rights report was that Saudi Arabia had been criticised for the first time, and the Iraqi Interim government even copped it - but no mention of Abu Ghraib, Bagram or Guantanamo, or of the fact that the Iraqi police and security forces now torturing prisoners have themselves been trained by the CIA.

Before I get to the serious stuff, here's a couple of hearty one-liners. On Israel and the Occupied Territories , the report states:

"There were no reports of politically motivated killings by the Government or its agents during the year."

Of course there weren't.

Now, on Saudi Arabia, the report rightly notes the following:

[A]uthorities reportedly at times abused detainees, both citizens and foreigners. Ministry of Interior officials were responsible for most incidents of abuse of prisoners, including beatings, whippings, and sleep deprivation. In addition, there were allegations of beatings with sticks and suspension from bars by handcuffs. There were allegations that these practices were used to force confessions from prisoners.

Canadian and British prisoners released in 2003 reported that they had been tortured during their detention; however, the Government denied these claims.

Maintaining its reservation to Article 20 of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Government does not recognize the jurisdiction of the Committee Against Torture to investigate allegations of systematic torture.

The US can say this because it is a signatory to the Convention Against Torture, which was ratified by US Congress in 1994. However, at the moment the Convention has no teeth, and there were attempts to give it some by passing a protocol at the UN which supported inspections. The US would not back this, according to the Telegraph , because:

[S]enior figures in the Bush administration - most notably in the Pentagon - have argued that the protocol could lead to intrusive inspections of the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

The extent of torture at Guantanamo , Bagram and elsewhere has been hinted at and, sometimes, documented . One of the techniques described above ("suspension from bars by handcuffs"), known as the Strappado, has been seen in Guantanamo.

Further, the US itself seems to be the provider of some of the torture equipment that the Saudi regime uses, not to mention weapons . As an Amnesty International spokesperson pointed out :

"Although torture is endemic in Saudi Arabia, Smith & Wesson had no qualms about exporting approximately 10,000 leg-irons to Riyadh, and, apparently sharing this lack of concern, the Bush administration approved the sale ..."

"For decades, human-rights groups and the U.S. State Department have documented Saudi Arabia's cruel use of leg-irons and shackles to inflict torture and force confessions. With this shameful shipment, we can expect the torture of religious minorities and peaceful protestors to continue for years to come."

In Egypt , too, the report mentions widespread torture, but doesn't mention that Egypt is America's second greatest ally in the Middle East receiving the largest portion of US military aid next to Israel. And once again, guess who the supplier is?

This morning, The Guardian has run a lengthy interview with the Prime Minister in which he "hails" a "ripple of change" in the Middle East. They also run a column by Jonathan Freedland claiming that the war on Iraq had a 'silver lining' in that it had initiated wave of change in the Middle East - Bush's "democratic revolution". (Typically, there is a reference to Arafat's death "unblocking movement" on the Palestinian side of the Israeli occupation, as if the problem was not the intransigence of the occupiers themselves). Well, evil actions can generate positive results, and it certainly is true that the bombing of Iraq excited some upheaval - but this is mainly concentrated in two regimes supported by the US, and began as a movement against the war. Hence, the Cairo declaration . The continuing tumult, ironically, may have more to do with the war's failure, both militarily and morally, than anything else.

Any fool who runs around claiming that the war is a success and democracy is spreading across the Middle East as a result is a pure sap, or worse.