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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (347495)	1/24/2003 4:27:39 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 769670

U.S. gets more criticism at World Forum _ for conduct of war on terror story.news.yahoo.com U.S. gets more criticism at World Forum _ for conduct of war on terror 25 minutes ago By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer DAVOS, Switzerland - The United States faced another barrage of criticism Friday at a global meeting of business and political leaders, this time not only for threatening war against Iraq but for conducting a war on terrorism that opponents say targets Muslims and violates human rights. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) was first in the firing line, saying the United States expects governments around the world to make terrorist prevention a priority and "desperately needs" help in piecing together information "of acts that are yet to occur." But Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said focusing on prevention without addressing the causes of terrorism would be wrong. He said the Saudis that were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks were "very well-off" who "were incensed over something." The world should try to understand what motivated them "to do these horrible things," he said, and remove the causes to prevent future attacks. Ashcroft retorted that the Sept. 11 attackers engaged in "hostage-taking to kill innocent civilians." "The targets of terrorism are values and the rule of law," he said. "I'm not willing to say we have to downplay values we believe in to appease the terrorists," he told the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) as it entered its second day. At the opening of the six-day meeting of 2,300 business, government and other leaders, much of the discussion criticized the United States for threats to go to war against Iraq over alleged arsenals of mass destruction. Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of the South African-based Civicus-World Alliance for Citizen Participation, supported Mahathir and attacked "the severe curtailment of civil liberties" in democratic countries, including the United States. He said privacy rights had been violated, meetings by certain groups banned, movements of Arabs and others curtailed. "I don't think we've got the balance right," he said. "We are seeing large levels of alienation of ordinary human beings across the spectrum." Ashcroft responded, "It distresses me to hear the panel talk about communities offended — and talk about communities as if they're just defined by race. Very frankly, I think values define communities much more effectively than race does. ... "We don't want to define communities in the United States by race. We want to define community by the fact that people in the United States endorse freedom, respect for the rule of law ... not the color of our skin." He said freedom was not being sacrificed for security in the United States. He said only individuals who violated the law have been detained — and all have access to lawyers, with the exception of a few enemy combatants and those held as material witnesses because they have vital information to a judicial proceeding. "I live in the United States," Naidoo countered, "and when I got taken off a flight last year, the content of my character did not play any role in it." The 800-strong audience burst into loud applause. Ashcroft said people from 147 countries had been screened under the new U.S. immigration policy. "The point is, for us to exclude totally people who have certain color in their skin so they are not profiled in any way would be a way of basing a system on race," Ashcroft said. "We're not going to do that. We're going to have everybody be participants." At another panel on "U.S. Foreign Policy: Going it Alone?" Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, clashed with Richard Haass, the U.S. State Department's director of policy planning. Roth accused the United States for violating civil rights in the war on terrorism and being willing to go-it-alone in Iraq without U.N. Security Council authorization. "We've got to get the balance right" between security and human rights, Haass said. "Give us some time to fix it" so that potentially dangerous people are screened out but others can come to the United States to study, to visit or for medical care, for example. Ashcroft said freedom-loving people around the world would rally around the United States in its campaign against terrorism. "We find ourselves in the midst of a historic struggle for the values of democracy. It's more than a duty. It's more than a privilege. I believe that it is the calling of our time. We must rise to the challenge and we must answer the call."