MOSCOW, November 20 (Sputnik) – This year's overview of human rights in the United States by the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation has revealed a lack of compliance with the nation's declared standard.
The institute, a non-governmental organization (NGO) civil rights group established to promote US-Russian dialogue, said its sixth annual evaluation was based on various media publications and is supported by the majority of US human rights watchdog organizations.
The NGO has found that much of the responsibility for violations is contained within the "structural" flaws of US federal agencies, specifically law enforcement and intelligence. Researchers said that United States" failure to protect the rights of its own citizens is exacerbated by the ease with which it can infringe on the rights of foreign citizens.
"Under these circumstances, the constant lecturing of American officials with regard to the human rights practices of other countries appears preposterous," the 150-page report said.
SURVEILLANCE AND PRIVACY
The fallout of the National Security Agency (NSA) spying scandal triggered by the revelations of Edward Snowden has continued into 2014, with whistleblowers facing increased pressure at work, the study showed. According to the research, Congress has, on multiple occasions, prevented the monitoring of NSA activities and even banned from disclosure what lawmakers believe to be civil-rights abuses perpetrated by the agency.
In 2013 it was revealed that the NSA ran massive surveillance programs without a warrant, sifting through databases in search of private information on Americans, foreign citizens and even leaders of allied countries. The full extent of this surveillance program is still being evaluated, but the number of violations appeared to stand at almost 3,000 annually.
The dragnet surveillance program has been given a green light by the US government, "albeit with some restrictions," the report said, citing a letter from US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and adding, "The phone collection program was reauthorized this year and is in force until September 2014." As of April, the NSA has been collecting the phone calls and e-mails of US citizens using a "[back] door" in surveillance laws.
Other US security agencies have followed this practice. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) runs a Special Operations Divisions (SOD) unit to help NSA, FBI, CIA and IRS share data collected from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps and phone records.
LAW ENFORCEMENT VIOLATIONS
Human rights activists continue to find abuses by US law enforcement agencies, the study has found, including racial profiling and legal violations by its informants, many of whom are convicted criminals.
Shootings that involve US police officers represent another concern, including officers" suspected inclination to resort to the use of excessive force, especially toward people who are mentally ill. In one instance, an Iraq war vet suffering from PTSD was shot dead after pointing a gun at his own head.
"Another domain of police abuse comprises particularly aggressive and invasive searches, especially as part of the War on Drugs," the research said further, citing the story of a US woman who was assaulted sexually for hours by US border guards searching her for drugs. The 54-year-old [victim] was afterwards billed $5,000 for four hours of doctor"s services, although "by legal standards, she was raped." In another case, "Police and doctors allegedly committed medical anal rape repeatedly [for] over 12 hours."
The authors of the report found that migrants were particularly vulnerable to abuse by police and other law enforcement agencies. "The physical and verbal mistreatment of migrants is not a random occurrence, but rather a systemic fact," they stated. The list of violations includes verbal abuse, sleep deprivation, physical assaults and rape while in custody.
PRISON VIOLATIONS
The judicial and penitentiary systems of the United States have been under a continued barrage of criticism by human rights activists and journalists. "The main complaint concerns the record number of prisoners in the American penal facilities, which boast the highest number of prisoners per population [of every country in the world]: 716 prisoners per 100, 000 citizens," the report said.
Other problems arise from a high number of mentally ill convicts, the cruelty of prison guards and the growth of private prison industry. According to the study, US prisons have effectively become "giant psychiatric clinics," where inmates are deliberately harmed or die from "overly harsh punishments."
In one case, inmates were singled out for experimental solitary confinement programs after protesting their conditions or because of their religious beliefs. "Prisoners in the experimental program were disproportionately Muslim," researchers said.
POLITICAL LOBBYING AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The researchers discovered that corruption in the United States is often legal as long as it takes the form of lobbying and approved campaign donations. "A bigger concern is the fact that even though the numbers of registered lobbyists have fallen, there is a marked increase in the number of people who lobby without being registered as lobbyists," the report pointed out.
It was also noted that people in power are increasingly "using their position [to] pressure companies and citizens who have capital, in order to receive as much money as possible via legal channels, including via electoral campaign." Record levels of campaign donations were documented by the presidential re-election campaign of Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, US journalists are targeted by authorities to disclose their sources or have had charges brought against them, in an apparent move to pressure them into cooperation. In addition, the US governments" aggressive campaign against people who leak sensitive intelligence information has raised concerns that it could open the way for "unlawful government activities" resulting in the removal of protective legislation for and subsequent intimidation of journalists.
ILLEGAL WAR ON TERROR
America"s global "war on terror" has sparked criticism at home and internationally, with human rights organizations pointing to torture under the guise of anti-terror investigations and US drone attacks that continue to devastate civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the report, the air strikes fuel terrorism in the Middle East. In the wake of these drone air strikes, vengeful terrorists raid villages searching for US informants, rounding up, torturing and killing many innocent people.
Torture has been used by the CIA, which misled Congress, the White House, and the public about a program involving brutal interrogations of over a hundred US detainees. The agency has been accused of running controversial "black site" prisons around the world where inmates were detained and tortured with no oversight from authorities.
In addition, the CIA has played a "crucial role in advising the DOJ [Department of Justice] that enhanced interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation and waterboarding were medically acceptable," the study noted. These and other interrogation techniques have notoriously been used on Guantanamo Bay terror suspects, who are held in Cuba without formal charges or kept in the prison for long periods after being cleared for release.
GENDER, ABORTION RIGHTS AND SEXUAL ASSAULTS
The study also points out Americans suffer workplace discrimination based on gender, race and even health. According to reports, women continue to earn 77 cents for each dollar men earn doing the same work. Discussions have begun on initiatives that would prohibit employers from making invasive inquiries or punishing employees for refusing to divulge certain details, such as health issues.
Women are also discriminated against with ever more restrictive anti-abortion measures adopted by some US states, especially over the past three years. "One of the main directions of the fight between supporters and opponents of [the legality of] abortion is the prohibition of abortions after the 20th week of conception. There are currently bans on such abortions in nine states."
Female military personnel are targeted in indecent assaults, a pattern indicative of the difference the US Military has with "other institutions in accepting women as equals in the workplace." In a particularly notorious case, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair was accused in March 2014 of assaulting a female junior officer and threatening to kill her family. Another case saw a 17-year Army vet help organize a prostitution ring of female soldiers at Fort Hood. The US military has been under scrutiny for covering up instances of rape and for an acknowledged lack of transparency when these crimes are tried by military courts.
