Gulag of our Time

it's not just what the US has done, it's our hypocrisy about it.

"'When the U.S. government calls upon foreign leaders to bring to justice those who commit or authorize human rights violations in their own countries, why should those foreign leaders listen?' he said. 'And if the U.S. government does not abide by the same standards of justice, what shred of moral authority will we retain to pressure other governments to diminish abuses?'

Amnesty has criticized U.S. detention practices before. But this marked its first call for closing Guantanamo, and it used unusually sharp language in demanding an independent investigation of torture and abuse of prisoners there and at detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Guantanamo has been in the spotlight in the last year since the FBI cited cases of aggressive interrogation techniques and detainee mistreatment. The government has also been criticized for not charging those classified as enemy combatant, a distinction with fewer protections than prisoners of war get under the Geneva Conventions."