"The United States has lost its moral high ground and its ability to lead on peace and human rights elsewhere," said Khan

CAIRO , May 26 (IslamOnline.net) – Washington 's so-called war on terror and its invasion of Iraq have led to the worst human rights abuses in 50 years, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, May 26.

"The global security agenda promoted by the U.S. Administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle," the London-based group said in its 2004 report, a copy of which was sent to IslamOnline.net.

"Violating rights at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses has damaged justice and freedom, and made the world a more dangerous place," read the report.

"Thousands of people were detained in the context of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority," said the international human rights watchdog.

The report cites the hundreds of detainees from around 40 countries who are being held by the U.S. without charge in Afghanistan .

"More than 600 foreign nationals were detained indefinitely without charge or trial or access to family members or legal counsel in the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo , Cuba , on grounds of possible links with Al-Qaeda; others were held in undisclosed locations."

Amnesty's Secretary General Irene Khan said the notion of fighting a campaign against terrorism so as to support human rights, while simultaneously trampling on them to achieve this, was no more than "double speak".

She said the world should have expected the shocking photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison which broke into public view last month.

"This is the logical consequence of the relentless pursuit of the war on terror since 11 September. It is the result of the U.S. seeking to put itself outside the ambit of judicial scrutiny.

"The U.S. has lost its high moral ground and its ability to lead on peace and elsewhere," Khan told a London press conference marking the launch of the report.

'Significant Problems'

Amnesty said a U.S. Justice Department investigation confirmed "significant problems" in the treatment of hundreds of foreign nationals detained in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

Violations included denying detainees prompt access to lawyers and family members and failing to charge detainees promptly, the international watchdog said.

There was also evidence of a "pattern of physical and verbal abuse" by some correctional officers, it added.

Elsewhere in U.S. prisons, Haitian asylum-seekers were kept in detention, according to the US Attorney General, as a deterrent and on national security grounds, despite urgings from Amnesty to rescind the blanket detention policy.

Of special concern were between 5,000 and 6,000 unaccompanied migrant children who, contrary to Washington's own guidelines and international standards, were detained in some cases for months "in punitive conditions alongside juvenile offenders," said Amnesty in its report.

"There were reports of ill-treatment, excessive use of force by police and prison officers, and deaths in custody. Incidents included misuse of stun weapons and chemical sprays. Nine people died after being struck by police Tasers," the report added, referring to electrical stun weapons.

Amnesty International also criticized the use of the death penalty in the U.S., noting that 65 people were executed in 2003, bringing to 885 the total number of prisoners put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a moratorium on executions in 1976.

"The USA continued to violate international standards in its use of the death penalty, including by executing people who were under 18 at the time the crime was committed," the British-based group said in its report.

Amnesty also criticized Washington for seeking legal immunity to its troops and officials from being persecuted under the International Criminal Court.

"In July the USA announced that it was cutting military aid to 35 countries which had refused to enter into an impunity agreement not to surrender U.S. nationals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes to the International Criminal Court.

"Such agreements are in breach of states' obligations under international law," the group said.

Others As Well

Britain – Washington's closest ally which has the second largest forces deployed to the oil rich Iraq, also got a fair share of criticism.

"Slowly the courts in the United States and the United Kingdom have begun to scrutinize the executive power to restrict human rights."

Amnesty said countries used the claims that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction to justify more violations within their borders.

"While governments have been obsessed with the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they have allowed the real weapons of mass destruction—injustice and impunity, poverty, discrimination and racism, the uncontrolled trade in small arms, violence against women and abuse of children -- to go unaddressed."

The report also documents festering internal conflicts in places like Chechnya, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Nepal, saying they have become a breeding ground of some of the worst atrocities.

"Violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories has deepened, while elsewhere many governments are openly pursuing repressive agendas".

Amnesty had earlier called Israel 's latest aggressions in southern Gaza Strip, which left 62 people and many others displaced, as "war crimes".