Amnesty slams U.S. on human rights - May 25, 2005 CNN.com -

CNN.com - Amnesty slams U.S. on human rights - May 25, 2005:

"LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) -- Four years after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, human rights are in retreat worldwide and the United States bears most responsibility, rights watchdog Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe the picture is bleak. Governments are increasingly rolling back the rule of law, taking their cue from the U.S.-led war on terror, it said.

'The USA as the unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power sets the tone for governmental behavior worldwide,' Secretary General Irene Khan said in the foreword to Amnesty International's 2005 annual report.

'When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity,' she said.

London-based Amnesty cited the pictures last year of abuse of detainees at Iraq's U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison, which it said were never adequately investigated, and the detention without trial of 'enemy combatants' at the U.S. naval base in Cuba."