Hypocrisy watch: 2007

What does it say about a country if Russia and China criticize your human rights record?

And you concede their argument?

From The Moscow Times, March 12:

"Washington has long practiced double standards in the sphere of human rights, depending on whether one state or another acts in accordance with [U.S.] political interests," the statement said.

These standards are particularly clearly visible against the background of what is happening now in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the military base in Guantanamo with the participation of the U.S. armed forces," the statement said.

At home, the statement said, "the United States, under various pretexts, limits democratic freedoms, interferes in the personal lives of its own people, effectively carries out censorship of the media and sends minors to the electric chair."

Russia was firing back at the US for its 2006 State Department Report.

The Shanghai Daily, March 10, included a discussion of China's retort: Human Rights Record of US 2006:

The document says the United States has a flagrant record of violating the Geneva Convention in systematically abusing prisoners during the Iraqi War and the War in Afghanistan.

In the United States, human rights violations committed by law enforcement and judicial departments are also common.

...In recent years, American citizens have suffered increasing civil rights infringements, as the US government has put average Americans under intense surveillance as part of terrorism investigations since the 9-11 attack

It goes on like that.

One thing the US has over Russia and China: self criticism. The BBC, March 9:

The FBI has been illegally obtaining information on the US public, a report by the justice department's inspector general has said.

The FBI used the Patriot Act, passed after the 11 September 2001 attacks, to compel the release of information illegally or improperly, it said...

"We believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities," it concluded.

Then again, this admission more-or-less confirms one of the Russian and Chinese criticisms.

The FBI has filed about 45,000 national security letter requests annually since 2003.


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