Friday, June 26, 2015

How the US government reports about violations of human rights among its client regimes versus how it reports violatiosn in Iran and Syria

When it comes to client dictatorship of the Middle East, the US annual report on human rights resorts to a cheap method to gloss over violations of human rights in that country: it basically reproduce the rhetoric of the regime about the matter as in this section about torture in the Saudi Arabia section of the report: "The law prohibits torture and holds criminal investigation officers accountable for any abuse of authority. Sharia, as interpreted in the country, prohibits judges from accepting confessions obtained under duress; statutory law provides that public investigators shall not subject accused persons to coercive measures to influence their testimony." Also, notice that there is a special section in the report about anti-Semitism but there is nothing about anti-Shi`ism of the regime and its media. Worse, the report fantastically claims: "According to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, no imams publicly espoused intolerant views warranting dismissal during the year. Cases of government-employed imams using anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, or anti-Shia language in their sermons were rare and occurred without authorization by government authorities."  Also, the section about corruption focuses on the poor civil servants and says not one word about massive corruption of the Saudi royal family. Does the US Department of State expect that anyone in the Middle East or anyone who studies the Middle East would not scoff at this silly report?