March 1, 2005
HE'LL NEVER PRESSURE "ALLIES":
U.S. Allies Criticized for Rights Abuses: The annual report cites Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia as among those guilty of mistreatment. (Sara K. Clarke, March 1, 2005, LA Times)
Key U.S. allies including Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia were criticized in the State Department's annual human rights progress report Monday, while violations in North Korea and strife-torn Sudan provoked sharper concerns. [...]Conditions in Russia drew more attention this year. The executive branch's greater power coupled with law enforcement corruption and increased control over media drew concerns about the erosion of government accountability.
In Saudi Arabia, positive developments such as a recent conference on women's rights and voter registration for men did not outweigh the problems, the State Department said. Torture, a lack of legal rights, violence against women and children and discrimination against religious minorities are among the issues plaguing the country, it said.
The report calls China's cooperation and progress on human rights "disappointing." The country continued to arrest political and religious activists.
If you didn't know as much as the MSM, you'd swear the President was serious about what he said in his speeches... Posted by Orrin Judd at March 1, 2005 8:09 AM
The entire impetus for the human rights reports comes from the President. If State were left to its own devices, nations that hate America could do whatever they want to their dissidents without hearing even a burp out of us.
Posted by: Bart at March 1, 2005 8:15 AMBased on this, and using the Padilla internment decision and the Supreme Court teen death penalty ruling today, I expect the big media outlets to snap to it in the upcomming weeks and clear lots of TV time/print space out for some exposes about the human rights violations within the U.S. prison system (special focus on George W. Bush's Texas, of course). No way "60 Minutes" doesn't use this as their lead story during one of their May sweeps weeks shows, and they'll probably toss in a few first anniversary Abu Ghirab shots in just for added effect.
Posted by: John at March 1, 2005 1:10 PM