The US is breaking international law and breaching human rights across the globe while pretending that it honours freedom and wishes to spread democracy. The desecration of the Quran in Guantanamo and the torture of prisoners in US-run prisons in Afghanistan have been publicised alongside pictures of a private nature of Iraq's ousted President Saddam Hussein. The US hasn't lifted a finger over human rights violations in Uzbekistan, simply because the country is run by a friendly regime that provides it with military facilities and bases. This will not be the last we hear of Washington's violations of human rights. From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo, the world has been treated to grotesque scenes. Over the past few years, journalists and cameramen have offered us unpleasant glimpses into the way the US is going about the business of spreading freedom and democracy. Human rights groups and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have filled pages upon pages with public and classified material about US actions. Saddam deserves no sympathy. But there is no reason to break international and humanitarian law just to humiliate him. Saddam's fate is not an issue, but the breach of the Geneva Conventions as well as principles of human rights that the publication of the photos implies is. Unfortunately, Saddam is perhaps the best-treated prisoner in the US-run detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. Saddam is better treated than the 25 people who perished while in detention in 2002. Reports of rape and torture are known to all, but the wheels of justice don't seem to be in motion. Most of the US soldiers charged with human rights violations in Guantanamo and other detention facilities have received little more than a slap on the wrist. The scandal of the desecration of the Quran may have been first reported -- then retracted -- by Newsweek. But an ICRC spokesman has just confirmed the occurrence of such deeds. The US administration, it seems, only gets concerned about crimes once the stench is public and protesters are out in force. If anything, this proves that Washington is less zealous about human rights than it claims to be.
