I was thinking about the ole saw concerning a pot, a kettle and the color black, but then I came across this -
"There are increasingly glaring inconsistencies between the practices the State Department condemns in these reports and the practices that the Bush administration engages in at home"
U.S. Report Criticizes Russia on Human Rights
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 26, 2004; Page A02
The Bush administration bluntly criticized Russia yesterday for manipulating regional and national elections, cracking down on the news media, and prosecuting or threatening members of opposition groups -- a series of steps that the administration said raised questions about Moscow's commitment to the rule of law.
The State Department's annual human rights report cited frequent use by Russian law enforcement officials of "torture, violence, and other brutal or humiliating treatment." It said that arbitrary arrest remains a serious problem and that prison conditions are "frequently life-threatening." It also criticized police corruption, infringement on citizens' privacy rights and hazing in the armed forces.
The criticism comes at a time of tough public language from the administration about the tightening grip on power by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last month, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell published a front-page commentary in the newspaper Izvestia in which he criticized Russia for interfering with political parties and taking other steps that breached democratic principles.
The report released yesterday also criticized China for "backsliding" after tentative earlier openings, citing the arrests in 2003 of democracy advocates, protesting workers, HIV/AIDS activists, defense lawyers and church members. The United States is now considering submitting a resolution critical of Beijing at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights meeting next month.
"We're heading in that direction. We are still talking to China, but we have over the past year not had much progress in our dialogue, and that has come against a backdrop of continued arrests within China," Lorne W. Craner, the assistant secretary of state for human rights, told reporters
In general, the administration warned that progress on basic human liberties was lacking in many countries. "Even a cursory reading of the country reports for 2003 confirms that many -- too many -- governments across the globe still violate the most basic rights of their citizens," Powell said at a news conference on the report. "These regimes cannot hold back freedom forever, and one day [from] prison camps and prison cells and from exile, the leaders of new democracies will arrive."
But human rights groups charged yesterday that the United States has also become a major violator of international standards because of its own conduct in the war on terrorism.
"There are increasingly glaring inconsistencies between the practices the State Department condemns in these reports and the practices that the Bush administration engages in at home, in particular the indefinite detention of people deemed a national security threat," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch.
The United States has now "lost the moral authority" to evaluate human rights worldwide while it detains both Americans and foreign nationals indefinitely, without charges or recourse to a speedy trial, in the name of national security, said a statement by the U.S. Human Rights Network, a new coalition of more than 100 legal and human rights groups.
"These dramatic and flagrant violations are occurring in the context of sustained general attacks on privacy, freedom of information and expression, due process, and economic and social rights, among others," the coalition said in a statement.
Amnesty International USA noted the Bush administration's "erratic and inconsistent" behavior on human rights. "The content of this report has little correspondence with the administration's foreign policy. Indeed, the U.S. is increasingly guilty of a 'sincerity gap,' " said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.
The United States also criticized other parts of the world, including important allies. The State Department charged that Israeli security forces tortured Palestinian detainees during interrogation and used excessive force, including bombing and shelling, against Palestinian civilian areas. The government has done "little" to change "institutional, legal and societal discrimination" against the 20 percent Arab minority who are citizens of Israel, the report added.
Pakistan, a linchpin state in the U.S. war on terrorism, was mentioned as engaging in a wide range of violations, from extrajudicial killings to the use of excessive force. A constitutional amendment consolidated the powers of President Pervez Musharraf. And the credibility of the judiciary is generally "low," the global survey said.
The State Department cited Saudi Arabia for torture and abuse of prisoners, arbitrary arrests, discrimination against minorities and women. It also noted that the government has yet to follow through on a pledge in October to hold elections for half the members of city councils.
In other regions, the administration charged that abuses "worsened dramatically" in Cuba, where 75 peaceful dissidents were sentenced to prison terms averaging 20 years for "trying to exercise their basic rights." It also described North Korea as one of the world's inhumane regimes, with "rigid controls" over most aspects of life and widespread abuses.
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