UN calls US human rights record "deplorable"-A new report suggests US may have committed war crimes

U.N. calls U.S. human rights record "deplorable"

A new report suggests the U.S. may have committed war crimes -- and endorses the formation of a truth commission.


May 29, 2009 | The United Nations has released a new report on accountability for human rights abuses by the United States, focusing mostly on transgressions during the Bush administration's so-called war on terror. In a word, accountability in the U.S. has been "deplorable."

The May 26, 2009, report by Australian law professor Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, does praise the United States for establishing compensation payments for civilians accidentally killed by U.S. forces in the heat of battle. But Alston quickly adds the following: "However, there have been chronic and deplorable accountability failures with respect to policies, practice and conduct that resulted in alleged unlawful killings -- including possible war crimes -- in the United States' international operations."

A summary from the report follows below. But the body of the document doesn't pull any punches either.

Here is what Alston says about at least five detainee deaths at Guantánamo: "The Department of Defense provided little public information about any of the five detainee deaths."

[link to www.salon.com]