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Human rights violations...on American soil, against Americans

A little bird of my acquaintance asks for our help:

…For the first time in our history, US attorneys are taking the USG [sic] to the international community and presenting a 456[-page] report of domestic violations of human rights… 142 groups will be presenting their case on topics ranging from torture to the treatment of Katrina victims. The hearings start next week, July 17 in Geneva where the NGO coalition will present its report against the USG and counter the USG’s flagrantly false testimony.

In other words, the largest US coalition ever to appear at Geneva will be charging (not formally as there is no actual way to do this without state sponsorship) the USG with serious crimes against their own citizens and on US soil. Yet crickets is all there is regarding this story. Are we really so jaded that we can no longer care about something as serious as our own citizens being tortured and falsely imprisoned? It is imperative that the international community knows that we do not support human rights abuses at home or abroad. I feel like I am watching China’s report being challenged by the “shadow report” of their own citizens. But I have never thought I would see such charges against my own country. What we are witnessing is historic.

[snip]

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Report__0713.html
(notice that techniques used in US prisons have appeared abroad at Abu and elsewhere)

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Shadow_human_rights_report_to_accuse _0706.html
(this is largely a summary, but it covers a lot of ground)

NEEDED FROM YOU: Please discuss these stories where possible so as to generate buzz that encourages the corporate-owned media to cover this story as it has been largely shut out. Please blog about it if you have a blog.

In short, we are talking about the international condemnation of our government for violations of human rights on American soil against Americans, in manners consistent with abuses by U.S. military and intelligence forces abroad.

This may be the very thing that the Bush Administration has been seeking to obscure, what with the currently escalation in the Middle East and the publication of Novak’s non-story. This is as bad and as important as the Wilson lawsuit; the public must hear about it.

IF you don’t have a blog of your own, this is one of the important reasons why you should have one — to be the free press that we do not otherwise have, to stand up and be heard for those who cannot be heard. Thank you.

[ed. notes: USG = US Government; 456 = 456-page]

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