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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (28912)	9/20/2006 11:53:35 AM
From: wonk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541099

…You appear to put that statistic above all others. I don't see why it should be considered more accurate or more important than the data for personal income, personal disposable income, or employee compensation. I focus on it for what I said earlier relative to productivity. ...Americans are smarter, better employees, working harder, working longer, and generating massive productivity gains, and on average (except perhaps the 90% percentile) getting almost nothing in return except increased employment uncertainty. Now I REALLY have to run…. ww

To: TimF who wrote (28912)	9/21/2006 2:04:48 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 541099

U.N. expert: Iraq torture may be worse By ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer GENEVA - Torture in Iraq may be worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein, with militias, terrorist groups and government forces disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners, the U.N. anti-torture chief said Thursday. Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, made the remarks as he was presenting a report on detainee conditions at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay as well as to brief the U.N. Human Rights Council, the global body's top rights watchdog, on torture worldwide. Reports from Iraq indicate that torture "is totally out of hand," he said. "The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein." Nowak added, "That means something, because the torture methods applied under Saddam Hussein were the worst you could imagine." Some allegations of torture were undoubtedly credible, with government forces among the perpetrators, he said, citing "very serious allegations of torture within the official Iraqi detention centers." "You have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have these militias. There are so many people who are actually abducted, seriously tortured and finally killed," Nowak told reporters at the U.N.'s European headquarters. "It's not just torture by the government. There are much more brutal methods of torture you'll find by private militias," he said. A report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq's Human Rights office cited worrying evidence of torture, unlawful detentions, growth of sectarian militias and death squads, and a rise in "honor killings" of women. Iraq's government, set up in 2006, is "currently facing a generalized breakdown of law and order which presents a serious challenge to the institutions of Iraq" such as police and security forces and the legal system, the U.N. report said, noting that torture was a major concern. Nowak has yet to make an official visit to Iraq and said such a mission would be unfeasible as long as the security situation there remains perilous. He based his comments on interviews with people during a visit to Amman, Jordan, and other sources. "You find these bodies with very heavy and very serious torture marks," he said. "Many of these allegations, I have no doubt that they are credible." According to the U.N. report, the number of Iraqi civilians killed in July and August hit 6,599, a record-high that is far greater than initial estimates suggested, the U.N. report said Wednesday. It attributed many of the deaths to rising sectarian tensions that have pushed Iraq toward civil war. news.yahoo.com

To: TimF who wrote (28912)	9/21/2006 3:01:32 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541099

UN rights envoys condemn Bush plan on interrogation By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights investigators said on Thursday that legislation proposed byPresident Bush for tough interrogations of foreign terrorism suspects would breach the Geneva Conventions. In a statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the five independent envoys also said Washington's admission of secret detention centres abroad pointed to "very serious human rights violations in relation to the hunt for alleged terrorists." They again called for the closure of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of foreign terrorism suspects are being held, alleging continued violations of international law on torture and arbitrary detention. Despite U.S. declarations of intent to shut Guantanamo, Washington had done nothing yet and was even planning to open a new cell bloc at the end of this month, they said. "We call on the government to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center and, until that time, to refrain from any practice amounting to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," they said. The statement was read out by Leila Zerrougui, the Algerian chairwoman of the U.N. working group on arbitrary detention. She is one of the five investigators who have tried since June 2004 to visit Guantanamo detainees. Washington has said it would allow three of them to go for one day, but not to see prisoners privately, a key demand of the investigators. In reply, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Warren Tichenor reiterated Washington's desire to close Guantanamo but said that this could only be done when other countries agreed to take some of the prisoners being held there. He regretted the investigators' decision not to make the visit and accused them of basing their report on "second- and third-hand allegations." "LEGALISE" RIGHTS VIOLATIONS The Bush administration says that with the transfer of 14 detainees, including one of the alleged masterminds of September 11, to Guantanamo earlier this month there are no more suspects being held in secret jails. But Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, told journalists that others remained unaccounted for, which he said amounted to the banned crime of "enforced disappearances." "We have a number of further individuals that have been detained and we do not know where they are," he said, adding that the Council should give the five envoys a mandate to investigate all past and present secret centres. On Wednesday, a U.S. House of Representatives panel endorsed Bush's bill for tough interrogations and trials of foreign terrorism suspects. Washington says such techniques have helped obtain information that has prevented attacks. The other special envoys report on freedom of religion, physical and mental health and the independence of judges. The five said that the bill, which has still to be approved by the full House and the Senate, amounted to an attempt to "legalise" rights violations that have been condemned in Guantanamo and elsewhere. The proposed legislation was "in breach with United States' human rights obligation as identified in our report and with the requirement of article 3 of the Geneva Conventions," they said, referring to the 1949 treaty which lays down basic guarantees of protection for detainees. The plan would allow the U.S. government to arrest and detain indefinitely people who were not involved in any armed conflict and torture was not banned outright, they said. news.yahoo.com