Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017

VI. Continued Violations of Human Rights in Other Countries

The US-led military operations in other countries have caused heavy civilian casualties. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp continued to detain and torture foreigners. The United States also made cyber warfare tools, hacking and spying on foreign networks.

The war of aggression on Syria caused a large number of civilian casualties. On June 19, 2017, The New York Times website reported that the U.S. administration had given the military "total authorization" to decide how, and how much, force would be used, while the American military had relaxed the oversight, investigation and accountability on civilian casualties, resulting in the civilian death toll ticking upward. The US-led coalition and Marines had bombed or shelled at least 12 schools, 15 mosques, 15 bridges as well as residential neighborhoods, hospitals, cultural relics and refugee camp. The coalition warplanes also launched a barrage of airstrikes targeting the boats, on which many families waited to cross a river to escape, reportedly massacring as many as 21 civilians (www.motherjones.com, August 6, 2017). The Muslim Times website reported on June 24, 2017 that the US military had attacked Syrian government forces "at least four times in recent months", including a missile strike in April against a Syrian airfield. Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst, said the United States was violating the UN Charter by conducting a war of aggression against Syria (muslimtimes.co, June 24, 2017).

Foreigners have long been tortured and detained at Guantanamo Bay. On December 13, 2017, The American Broadcasting Company website reported that the new U.S. administration had not released any prisoners from Guantanamo Bay and not added any to the list of cleared men who can go home, or to a third country, for resettlement. The Al Jazeera website reported on September 22, 2017, that in a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the Commission), former Guantanamo detainee Djamel Ameziane prepared a written statement saying he was detained for 11 years, faced prolonged incommunicado detention, multiple forms of torture, and never received a judicial determination regarding the legality of his detention. According to a report of The USA Today website on December 13, 2017, the U.N. and human rights organizations had criticized U.S. authorities for creating a "legal black hole" allowing for the infinite detention of suspects without charge, and for holding many of the detainees for more than a decade. Nils Melzer, the United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur on torture, on December 13, 2017, urged the United States to end its torture of detainees held at the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention facility (www.usatoday.com, December 13, 2017).

Making cyber warfare tools. The US National Security Agency (NSA) operators hacked into Pakistani mobile networks and spied on hundreds of IP addresses in the country, WikiLeaks claimed (economictimes.indiatimes.com, April 11, 2017). On May 14, 2017, the Zero Hedge website revealed that NSA created a "Top Secret Arsenal" of tools that allowed anyone to "back door" into virtually any computer system. An unknown group of hackers used the same set of NSA-created tools to launch a global malware cyber attack by using ransomeware virus, holding at least 200,000 computer systems around the globe hostage (www.zerohedge.com, May 14, 2017).

Homeless people have lunch offered by charities on Thanksgiving Day in Los Angeles. Zhao Hanrong / Xinhua

 

 

 

(China Daily 04/26/2018 page8)