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Cleaning up U.S. human rights record will take new president, amnesty official says Thursday, May 1, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The head of the world's leading human rights organization said Wednesday that specific actions by the next U.S. president could clean up what she described as the nation's tarnished human rights record. Broadening America's "narrow view" of how to fight terrorism tops the list, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Kahn said during a speech at the University of Arkansas' Clinton School of Public Service. "The way to deal with terrorism is actually not by destroying the system of law and values that the terrorism itself wants to destroy, but it's by upholding human rights and security," said Kahn, the first woman, first Asian, first Bangladeshi and first Muslim to head Amnesty International. Other nations, including Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, have responded well by using fair trial standards to try, investigate and convict those suspected of acts related to terrorism, she said. The U.S., on the other hand, has increased military power and restricted rights by employing torture and secretly trying terrorism suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay. In the end, the nation's actions have eroded human rights and set a bad example for the world, Kahn said. "There are many countries in the world that are actually taking that as a license themselves to increase their own repressive practices," she said, mentioning countries in central Asia and north Africa. U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers, defended U.S. methods of interrogating prisoners in the war on terrorism, saying the methods have been reviewed by the Justice Department and determined to be within international law. "The methods that are being used ... have been able to thwart various projects. They've worked," Boozman said. "I don't in any way support torture," Boozman said. "I support getting the information that I need and ... when you're being interrogated, it makes no sense to give the enemy a manual ahead of time and say, 'These are the things that are going to happen to you, these are the things that are allowed, so go practice.' "That's exactly what Amnesty International and what a group up here (in Congress) would like to do. Kahn's criticism is in line with the reasoning behind inflammatory comments recently made by the former pastor of presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has come under fire for using harsh remarks to condemn the nation's human and civil rights record, which Wright says includes killing innocent people as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Justice Department's defense of torture of terror suspects as long as the goal is information gathering, not humiliation. Obama, who has struggled to distance himself from Wright's incendiary remarks - the preacher has said the government lied about inflicting HIV on black people, on Tuesday said he was outraged by Wright's "divisive and destructive" remarks. Kahn declined to speak specifically about Obama's political dilemma, but she said the Illinois senator is one of three people who can better the nation's human rights reputation. The others are fellow presidential contenders Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Kahn offered a laundry list of suggestions Wednesday. "I think as a new U.S. president is being elected, there's a lot of hope around the world that we will see the U.S. turn the corner on human rights, we will see the U.S. actually recommitting itself to upholding the rule of international law and human rights, closing Guantanamo, denouncing torture ... and taking a strong stand to build human rights institutions in other parts of the world," she said. "That sends a very powerful message that the U.S. is ready to subject itself to those same rules that it expects others to follow," Kahn said. |
