Amnesty Report on 14,000 Finds Prisoner Abuse Continues in
Iraq
Amnesty Report on 14,000 Finds Prisoner Abuse Continues in IraqAmnesty
International accused the United States and its allies on Monday of committing
widespread abuses in Iraq, including torture and the continued detention of
thousands of prisoners without charge or
trial.In its report, "Beyond Abu
Ghraib: Detention and Torture in Iraq," Amnesty International also said the
level of abuse by Iraqi forces since the transfer of power in June 2004 was
increasing.
U.S.
Envoy Offers Bleak View of Situation in
Iraq
The top U.S. envoy to Iraq
said Monday that the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime had opened a
"Pandora's box" of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions that could engulf the
region in all-out war if America pulled out of the country too
soon.
In remarks that were among the
frankest and bleakest public assessments of the Iraq situation by a high-level
American official, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the "potential is
there" for sectarian violence to become full-blown civil war.
South
Dakota Bans Abortion, Setting Up a
Battle
Gov. Michael Rounds of South
Dakota signed into law the nation's most sweeping state abortion ban on Monday,
an intentional provocation meant to set up a direct legal challenge to Roe v.
Wade, the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision that made abortion
legal.
The law makes it a felony to
perform any abortion except in a case of a pregnant woman's life being in
jeopardy. Though the law is not scheduled to go into effect until July,
officials working at the state's only abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls, where
about 800 abortions take place each year, said they spent much of the day
consoling women.
"This is a very real
issue for a lot of people," said Kate Looby, state director of Planned
Parenthood. "That's the part I think the legislators don't quite
understand."
Mr.
Bush's Asian Road Trip
There is a
lot of good a president can do on a visit to another country: negotiate treaties
that enhance American security, shore up a shaky alliance, generate good will in
important parts of the world. Unfortunately, President Bush didn't do any of
those good things on his just-completed visit to Pakistan and India and may have
done some real harm.
The spectacularly
misconceived trip may have inflicted serious damage to American goals in two
vital areas, namely, mobilizing international diplomacy against the spread of
nuclear weapons and encouraging Pakistan to take more effective action against
the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters operating from its
territory.
8,000
desert during Iraq war
At least
8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq
war began, Pentagon records show.
Posted: Tue - March 7, 2006 at 04:14 PM
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