Guess who wrote this report?
A major organization has just released its report on the U.S. human rights record in 2005. The report does not paint a pretty picture: There exist serious infringements upon personal rights and freedoms by law enforcement and judicial organs in the United States. Secret snooping is prevalent and illegal detention occurs from time to time. ...
A major organization has just released its report on the U.S. human rights record in 2005. The report does not paint a pretty picture: There exist serious infringements upon personal rights and freedoms by law enforcement and judicial organs in the United States. Secret snooping is prevalent and illegal detention occurs from time to time. The recently disclosed Snoopgate scandal has aroused keen attention of the public in the United States. After the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. President has for dozens of times authorized the National Security Agency and other departments to wiretap some domestic phone calls. With this authorization, the National Security Agency may conduct surveillance over phone calls and e-mails of 500 U.S. citizens at a time. It is reported that from 2002 through 2004, there were at least 287 cases in which special agents of FBI were suspected of illegally conducting electronic surveillance. In one of the cases,a FBI agent conducted secret surveillance of an American citizen for five years without notifying the U.S. Department of Justice. On Dec. 21, 2005, the U.S. Senate voted to extend the Patriot Act,a move that aroused keen concern of public opinion. The law makes it easier for FBI agents to monitor phone calls and e-mails, to search homes and offices, and to obtain the business records of terrorism suspects.... the U.S. Defense Department had been secretly collecting information about U.S. citizens opposing the Iraq war and secretly monitoring all meetings for peace and against the war. According to a report of the New York Times, in recent years, FBI had been collecting information on large numbers of non-governmental organizations that participated in anti-war demonstrations everywhere in the United States through its monitoring network and other channels. The volume of collected information is stunning. Now, guess who wrote this report? Is it: 1) Amnesty International 2) Human Rights Watch 3) Freedom House 4) American Civil Liberties Union 5) The State Council of the People's Republic of China You can find out the answer by clicking on the links.... or read after the jump. Obviously, the only interesting answer is China. Here's my question -- although some of the facts asserted in the report don't ring true ("the income level of African American families is only one-tenth of that of white families"), on the whole the report is about as well sourced as your typical NGO. So, why was my instinct to automatically reject it? Because it's more than a bit rich for China's government to lecture the United States about surveillance techniques it carries out on a routine basis. However -- and here's the disturbing question -- if the U.S. engages in these practices as well, then what is the external validity of its own human rights report?
A major organization has just released its report on the U.S. human rights record in 2005. The report does not paint a pretty picture:
There exist serious infringements upon personal rights and freedoms by law enforcement and judicial organs in the United States. Secret snooping is prevalent and illegal detention occurs from time to time. The recently disclosed Snoopgate scandal has aroused keen attention of the public in the United States. After the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. President has for dozens of times authorized the National Security Agency and other departments to wiretap some domestic phone calls. With this authorization, the National Security Agency may conduct surveillance over phone calls and e-mails of 500 U.S. citizens at a time. It is reported that from 2002 through 2004, there were at least 287 cases in which special agents of FBI were suspected of illegally conducting electronic surveillance. In one of the cases,a FBI agent conducted secret surveillance of an American citizen for five years without notifying the U.S. Department of Justice. On Dec. 21, 2005, the U.S. Senate voted to extend the Patriot Act,a move that aroused keen concern of public opinion. The law makes it easier for FBI agents to monitor phone calls and e-mails, to search homes and offices, and to obtain the business records of terrorism suspects…. the U.S. Defense Department had been secretly collecting information about U.S. citizens opposing the Iraq war and secretly monitoring all meetings for peace and against the war. According to a report of the New York Times, in recent years, FBI had been collecting information on large numbers of non-governmental organizations that participated in anti-war demonstrations everywhere in the United States through its monitoring network and other channels. The volume of collected information is stunning.
Now, guess who wrote this report?
Is it: 1) Amnesty International 2) Human Rights Watch 3) Freedom House 4) American Civil Liberties Union 5) The State Council of the People’s Republic of China
You can find out the answer by clicking on the links…. or read after the jump. Obviously, the only interesting answer is China. Here’s my question — although some of the facts asserted in the report don’t ring true (“the income level of African American families is only one-tenth of that of white families”), on the whole the report is about as well sourced as your typical NGO. So, why was my instinct to automatically reject it? Because it’s more than a bit rich for China’s government to lecture the United States about surveillance techniques it carries out on a routine basis. However — and here’s the disturbing question — if the U.S. engages in these practices as well, then what is the external validity of its own human rights report?
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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