LIFE DURING WARTIME :

U.N. Rights Chief Blasts Terror War (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 9/08/02)

Departing U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson, in a bleak assessment of the state of human rights, accused governments of hiding behind the ongoing war on terrorism to trample civil liberties and crush troublesome opponents.

"Suddenly the T-word is used all the time,'' Robinson said, referring to terrorism. "And that's the problem.''

The United States, Russia and China were among the nations she said were ignoring civil rights in the name of combating international terrorist groups.

"Everything is justified by that T-word,'' the 58-year-old former Irish president said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I hope that countries will put human rights back on the agenda because it tended to slip after September 11.''

Robinson argued the Bush administration set the tone by holding detainees from Afghanistan without charge at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I could of course be wrong, but I don't believe we ever proffered formal charges in a court of law against the thousands of German POWs who we held here during WWII either. What's Ms Robinson's point? Posted by Orrin Judd at September 8, 2002 6:46 AM