”Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11”
A. Basic Rights Of All Peoples Under U.S. Jurisdiction
As a result of the actions by the U.S. Government after 9/11, what is the reality in the “war against terrorism” three years later?
Some observers have noticed some interesting facts:
• None of the agencies of the U.S. Government has stated why it believes that its actions since 9/11 will decrease the number of people in the world who now hate the U.S., its institutions, and its people and might therefore commit terrorist attacks on the U.S.
• None of the U.S. Government agencies has made a point of working against terrorism with any of the U.N. bodies under the U.N. Anti-Terrorism Treaties that the U.S. Government has ratified.
• Many U.S. military officers, and Bush as commander-in-chief, have expressed concern that U.S. military staff may have taken, or may take, actions under the stress of battle (as in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq) that could lead to charges that they committed war crimes or crimes against humanity or crimes against peace forbidden by the Nuremberg Principles, or violated the Geneva Conventions.
(This fear caused Bush to announce U.S. withdrawal from the new International Criminal Court, and to seek bilateral agreements with many nations that they would not seek to arrest or charge U.S. Troops with violations of the Nuremberg Principles or the law of nations.)
• Many concerned people allege that U.S. Government officials repeatedly violated many fundamental principles of law. They have filed many law suits to stop some of these violations.
• Many lawyers have gone to court to defend clients who said they could prove they were wrongfully arrested or accused.
• The government has appealed virtually every decision by a U.S. court finding its actions in the “war on terrorism” to be illegal.
• Many students of history wonder whether they are seeing the beginning of the end of the long evolution of the basic human rights of the people, from ancient Egypt to the United States before 9/11, at the moment when the people of Venezuela are trumpeting their first written bill of rights.
• An unending “war against terrorism” was declared, with no victories in sight and with rumors of new nations to be invaded by U.S. troops.
• Is it not becoming clear that human rights violations in the U.S., and by the U.S. at home and abroad, will not defeat terrorism. They will breed additional men and women and children willing to sacrifice their lives in suicidal attacks on “the U.S.” because the U.S. Government has acted violently toward their families and friends and faiths.
-by Ann Fagan Ginger
- Right Not To Be Killed Or Disappeared
- Right Not To Be Tortured
- Right Peaceably To Assemble And Petition The Government
- Right To Equal Protection Regardless Of Race Or National Origin
- Right To Equal Protection For Women
- Right To Free Exercise Of Religion
- Right Of The Media To Report Facts, And Not Be Killed
- Right To Privacy From Surveillance
- Right Of Libraries Not To Report On Readers
- Right Of Universities To Accept Foreign Scholars And Students
- Right To Travel
1. Right Of Every Human Being Not To Be Killed Or Disappeared
Every human being has a right not to be killed or disappeared — by agents of the United States or state governments, or by individuals. This right is clearly stated in the Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, in the United Nations Charter, Article 55c, and in the three human rights treaties ratified by the U.S. by 1994. There are clear limits to killings even in wartime, defined in the Nuremberg Principles, the Geneva Conventions, and in the customary international humanitarian laws of war cited in the 1996 opinion of the International Court of Justice in the Nuclear Weapons case.
This right is clearly stated in the Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, in the United Nations Charter, Article 55c, and in the three human rights treaties ratified by the U.S. by 1994. There are clear limits to killings even in wartime, defined in the Nuremberg Principles, the Geneva Conventions, and in the customary international humanitarian laws of war.
Asylum Applicant Deported, then Killed: Ahfaz Khan
(Louis Salmoe, "Deportation Becomes 'Death Sentence'," Palm Beach Post, June 8, 2003, p. 1-A.; Victor M. Hwang and Ivy Lee, "Wen Ho Lee Next Time: PATRIOT Act Threatens Asian Americans," Pacific News Service, September 12, 2002, accessed August 5, 2004.)
N.Y.C. Police Kill Immigrant from Burkina Fasso: Ousmane Zongo
(Associated Press, "Saying Goodbye to Ousmane Zongo," cbsnewyork.com July 29, 2003 accessed June 23, 2004; "As Outrage Mounts in New York Over the Police Killing of Another African Immigrant," Democracy Now, May 27, 2003, accessed June 23, 2004; Douglas Montero and Heidi Singer, "Cop-Slay Victim's Pad Was Raided," New York Post, June 7, 2003, p. 011; Sabrina Tavernise and William K. Rashbaum, "Grand Jury Said to Indict Officer in Fatal Shooting," New York Times, June 10, 2004, p. A27.)
N.Y.C. Police Raid Kills Civil Servant: Alberta Spruill
("Alberta Spruill: Victim of NYPD Killer Elite," The Internationalist, May 2003 accessed July 29, 2004; "Death by Fear: The Case of Alberta Spruill," Northstar Network, May 20, 2003 accessed June 23, 2004; Donna Lamb, "Alberta Spruill Murder Taken Seriously by City Council," Caribbean Life, June 3, 2003, accessed June 23, 2004.)
Cincinnati Police Beat African American Man to Death: Nathaniel Jones
(Jesse L. Jackson Sr., "Death by Police in Cincinnati," Sacobserver.Com, December 15, 2003, accessed June 29, 2004; Lisa Cornwell, "Cincinnati Police Cleared in Custody Death," Associated Press March 23, 2004, accessed August 6, 2004; Tiana A. Rollinson, "NAACP To Investigate Homicidal Police Beating," Sacobserver.Com, Dec. 8, 2003, accessed June 29, 2004.)
Gunmen Shoot Sikh and Muslim Americans: Balbir Singh Sodhi, et al.
("Backlash: When America Turned On Its Own - A Preliminary Report to the 2001 Audit of Violence Against Asian Pacific Americans." National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, accessed June 29, 2004; Jim Lobe, "US Police Unprepared To Defend Muslims Post-9/11," Asheville Global Report, November 21, 2002, accessed July 28, 2004.)
County Sheriffs Investigate Deaths at Arizona Border
("MCLI Helps Migrants to Arizona," MCLI Newsletter, Fall 2002, p. 4; Bob Moser, "Open Season," Intelligence Report, Spring 2003, accessed June 28, 2004; Websites," No More Deaths, accessed July 30, 2004; Jennifer Allen, "Justice on the Line," Border Action Network, accessed June 28, 2004.)
Police Murders in U.S. Virgin Islands
(Lee Williams, "Deadly Force," Virgin Islands Daily News, December 30, 2003, p. 1.)
Cluster Bombs Kill After Invasion of Afghanistan Ended
(Marc W. Herold, "Above the Law and Below Morality: Data on 11 Weeks of U.S. Cluster Bombing of Afghanistan," Cursor, February 1, 2002, accessed June 23, 2004; Reuters, "Red Cross Warns Afghan Children off Cluster Bombs," June 29, 2002, accessed June 29, 2004.)
Deadly U.S. Attack on Afghan Wedding: Kakarak Village
("Civilian Catastrophe as US Bombs Afghan Wedding," The Guardian, July 1, 2002, accessed June 29, 2004; Luke Harding, "No U.S. Apology Over Wedding Bombing," The Guardian, July 3, 2002, accessed June 29, 2004; Peter Symonds, "Evidence Points to US Cover-up of Afghan Massacre," World Socialist Web Site, Aug. 1, 2002, accessed July 29, 2004.)
Afghan Prisoners Die after U.S. Military Interrogation: Dilawar, et al.
(Duncan Campbell, "Afghan Prisoners Beaten to Death at US Military Interrogation Base," The Guardian, March 7, 2003, accessed June 29, 2004.)
U.S. Troops Charged with Massacre of Afghan Prisoners: Mazar
(Andrew McLeod, "US Had Role in Taleban Prisoner Deaths," The Scotsman, June 14, 2002, accessed July 29, 2004; Genevieve Roja, "Documenting the Massacre in Mazar," AlterNet, July 8, 2002, accessed June 23, 2004; Julius Strauss, "Slow Death on the Jail Convoy of Misery," The Daily Telegraph, March 19, 2002, accessed July 29, 2004; "Film Documents Alleged Massacre of 3,000 Taliban Prisoners in Afghanistan," Democracy Now!, May 22, 2003, accessed June 23, 2004; Heffernan and Barbara Ayotte, "Physicians for Human Rights Renews Calls for Full Forensic Investigation into Alleged Killing of Taliban Prisoners," Physicians for Human Rights, June 13, 2002, accessed July 30, 2004; David Rose, "How we survived jail hell," The Guardian, March 14, 2004, accessed June 23, 2004.)
After Iraq Invasion, U.S. Soldiers Kill Unarmed Iraqi: Mazen Nouradin
(Medea Benjamin, "The Occupations' Hidden Victims-Innocent Iraqis," Occupation Watch Center, Aug. 5, 2003, accessed July 30, 2004.)
U.S. Sergeant Reported Killing of Iraqi Prisoner at Abu Ghraib: Ivan Frederick, et al.
(Seymour M. Hersh, Torture at Abu Ghraib, The New Yorker, May 10, 2004, accessed July 30, 2004.)
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