Stiff Rebuke from Annan

Kofi Annan is strongly recommending that the international community reject the United States' bid to be exempt, once again, from international law regarding human rights and the treatment of prisoners. In 2002 the US threatened to veto all UN Peacekeeping Missions if the same exemption wasn't passed.

This is truly the wrong message to send to the world: We are the world's bodyguard and lawyer; we will prosecute and punish anyone who commits atrocities; we will not hold ourselves to our own standards.


A peculiar thing is that, due to the Bush Administration and the Military's victory by piling up the percentage of independent contractors involved in any overseas operations, these contractors cannot be used in the reports of human rights violations in regards to the United States. The U.S. will not be responsible for any violations by independent contractors unless it can be proven that the orders were given directly from military personnel.