[HOME ] [ABOUT] [PHOTOS] [VIDEO] [BLOG] [HOUSTON] [TEXAS] [U.S. NEWS] [WORLD NEWS] [SPORTS] [POP CULTURE] [CONTACT]
China: Hypocrisy of the United States as human rights police
by Joseph Earnest December 10, 2014
Newscast Media HOUSTON—After the much-anticipated report was released by the United States Senate, several countries, led by China were quick to accuse the US of hypocrisy as the human rights police. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also released a response to the report within hours of it being declassified.
Chinese state-owned media outlet Xinhua said, "Ironically, the report, which included a list of the ten major interrogation techniques used by the CIA, was released on the eve of Dec. 10, Human Rights Day—the day the world honors the United Nations' (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)."
"[The questioning under torture] didn't result in Osama bin Laden being found, according to the report," said Wang Guan, China Central Television (CCTV) Washington D.C. correspondent, adding that the CIA had also lied about the number of detainees it had tortured.
It was also revealed that the interrogators would not face criminal charges despite the fact that their behavior violated U.S. laws and the Geneva Convention. The anchorman called the report "a heavy slap in the face of the American government", which has long portrayed itself to be a defender of human rights, according to Xinhua. Click here to read or download the entire CIA torture report. (pop-up)
The CIA responds to the torture report
CIA Director John Brennan responded to the report in a statement saying, "As noted in CIA’s response to the study, we acknowledge that the detention and interrogation program had shortcomings and that the Agency made mistakes. The most serious problems occurred early on and stemmed from the fact that the Agency was unprepared and lacked the core competencies required to carry out an unprecedented, worldwide program of detaining and interrogating suspected al-Qa’ida and affiliated terrorists...Yet, despite common ground with some of the findings of the Committee’s Study, we part ways with the Committee on some key points...We also disagree with the Study’s characterization of how CIA briefed the program to the Congress, various entities within the Executive Branch, and the public. While we made mistakes, the record does not support the Study’s inference that the Agency systematically and intentionally misled each of these audiences on the effectiveness of the program..."
The entire response can be viewed on the CIA Website here. (pop-up)
Obama himself called the report troubling, while Tehran did not miss the chance to refer to the US as tyrannical.
According to Radio Free Europe, the American Civil Liberties Union called on the U.S. attorney-general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate officials who "created, approved, carried out, and covered up the torture program."
"The offenders should be prosecuted," it said. "In our system, no one should be above the law."
What the ACLU forgets is that in America, law enforcement is above the law. All one has to do is take a look at the recent grand jury decisions in Ferguson and New York. Add Comments>>
|
|
Join the Newscast Media social networks
for current events and multimedia content.
Copyright© Newscast Media. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Privacy Policy