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When it's gone it's gone ...
Credibility is like virginity. When it's gone it's gone. For ever. End of story. No ifs nor buts about it.
Yet, the Blairs and Bushes of the world still try to convince us otherwise. They still think that we still trust them. At least, they still talk and act like that's the case.
Perhaps, men who believe they've actually been born twice, can believe anything -- of themselves. That's as may be. Billions of people all over the world, know better. A liar is a liar. End of story. No ifs nor buts about that, either.
Amnesty International is a global organization -- one that's kept it's credibility. Here's a Brit press-snip, relating to Amnesty's newly released annual report.
** Britain and the US are betraying the cause of human rights in pursuit of their "war on terror", Amnesty International says in its annual report published yesterday. **
Strong stuff, you may think. But, it gets stronger. See this other excerpt, below.
** Irene Khan, Amnesty's general secretary, launching the report, accused the two governments of condoning torture while trying to keep their consciences clear. **
And, it's not just the US and UK being named & shamed. The 'usual suspects' are there too. Including, Russia, China and Israel -- to mention but a few. ( Birds of a feather, maybe? )
Richard Norton-Taylor wrote a relevant and revealing piece in today's 'Guardian'. Here's another quick snip.
** The UN was paralyzed because of China's imports of oil from Sudan and Russia's arms exports to the country.
The US could not garner support in Africa for military intervention at least partly because it had spent its "moral currency" in Iraq ...... **
Hit this link to read the article in full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1492350,00.html
Then visit Amnesty's own site, for further reading : http://www.amnesty.org.uk/
posted by Richard at Thursday, May 26, 2005
6 Comments:
Moral currency spent in Iraq ...
History will not be kind to Bush and Blair.
When this all started, naive me, I thought that Blair, urbane and well-educated, coherent, would be the sane voice, that his role would be to temper the cowboy.
It is so horrible - think that we might be getting emails from Amnesty to write to our own leaders - Twilight Zone.
* History will not be kind to Bush and Blair. *
So true, cosmic. Over here, we especially thought Blair would be the voice of sanity. Huh - how wrong we were.
And sadly, everything they've done and continue doing - is in 'our name'.
I fear you may be right Elaine! I just wonder how long WWIII will actually last... 5 minutes? 10? 15?
What the hell happened? When did we elect the Anti-Christ?
To the Editor:
President Bush's characterization of Amnesty International's criticisms of United States human rights abuses as "absurd" is ironic (news article, June 1).
If our reports are so "absurd," why did the administration repeatedly cite our findings about Saddam Hussein before the Iraq war? Why does it welcome our criticisms of Cuba, China and North Korea? And why does it cite our research in its own annual human rights reports?
No amount of spin can erase the myriad human rights abuses committed by United States officials in the "war on terror." The United States cannot simultaneously claim that it "promotes freedom around the world" while detaining tens of thousands at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and in Iraq and other locations without charge or trial and allowing those civilian and military officials responsible for orchestrating a systematic policy of torture to escape accountability.
Instead of attacking us, President Bush should insist upon a truly thorough, independent investigation of those who tried to circumvent global prohibitions on torture, and he should open all detention centers to scrutiny by independent human rights groups.
Only then will the world be able to judge whether it is Amnesty International or the president whose perspective deserves to be called "absurd."
William F. Schulz
Exec. Dir., Amnesty International
New York, June 1, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/04/opinion/l04amnesty.html?pagewanted=print
That Vice President Dick Cheney is offended by Amnesty International's report criticizing conditions at the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp is not surprising.
It sometimes seems that our vice president thinks that no matter what crimes American military or security agencies - or right-wing Republicans - are accused of, they must be innocent, since any evidence to the contrary could be the invention of America's enemies.
It will take a long time and tremendous effort to undo the damage done to our reputation in the world by our own leaders, and the hardening opinion of many Americans about the legitimacy of those same leaders.
"It sometimes seems that our vice president thinks that no matter what crimes American military or security agencies - or right-wing Republicans - are accused of, they must be innocent, since any evidence to the contrary could be the invention of America's enemies."
Anony... what is even more disturbing is that Cheney's public play acting in this role of Presidential lap dog has become contagious and has been taken up by a huge swath of the conservative public, many of them educated and otherwise intelligent people who I would trust and actually admire under other circumstances!
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
-- John Stuart Mill
(English philosopher)
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