M. Cherif Bassiouni, a professor of law at DePaul University in Chicago who was the UN Human Rights Commission’s independent expert for Afghanistan, released a 21-page report last week, accusing U.S. military forces and civilian contractors of "engaging in arbitrary arrests and detnetions and committing abusive practices, including torture." He had been expecting a routine two-year renewal of his mission; instead he was told April 29 his job is over. He suspects U.S. lobbying as the cause. (NYT [1], April 30, via Guerilla News Network)
As the Pacifica Radio [2] coverage points out, the move comes--perversely--on the one-year anniversary of the leak of the Abu Ghraib torture photos.
See our last blog post [3] on the still-unfolding torture scandal.
