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US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

bbc.com

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Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#11

Post by mikeyouse »

propagandist wrote: post #3
excalibur wrote: post #2

Because the US government is no longer even pretending to care about human rights.

And it was always purely a pretense. One must laud the transparency this administration has introduced.

One really mustn't. There are plenty of people who work in government that actually care about human rights - this 'tear it down' mentality relies on the fantasy that it will be rebuilt in some better form. And this kind of 'both sides' bullshit from the article highlights it perfectly:

> Blaha had already voiced frustration that despite the HRG passing its pilot phase, the Biden administration had not done enough to publicise it, meaning the provision to "facilitate receipt" of information was still not being fully honoured before the Trump administration deleted the channel entirely.

One side didn't publicize it as much as we would have preferred, and the other one deleted it entirely. Both sides are bad!

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#12

Post by duxup »

abirch wrote: post #7
mikeyouse wrote: post #5

> Tim Rieser, former senior aide to Senator Leahy who wrote the 2011 amendment mandating information gathering, told the BBC the gateway's removal meant the State Department was "clearly ignoring the law". We're in a really bad place... with a servile congress, it turns out there aren't really any laws constraining the executive branch. When everything relies on "independent IGs" for law enforcement inside executive…

It defeats the purpose of a veto if the executive branch can ignore the law.

[flagged]

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#13

Post by hirvi74 »

sschueller wrote: post #8
hirvi74 wrote: post #4

Not that I agree with this decision, but is there any evidence that these reports yielded any consequences? Or rather, was it one of those, "After conducting an internal investigation, we have determined we did nothing wrong" kind of things?

Yes, I would think the 'smart evil' thing to do would be keeping it running and just ignoring what you don't like but now people will just send the stuff to WikiLeaks.

It reminds me of a company I used to work for that had a "suggestions box." After the box was full enough, the leadership would just dump it in the trash. Leadership didn't care about employee nor customer opinions. It was just to give people the illusion that their opinion mattered just to placate them.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#14

Post by aDyslecticCrow »

hirvi74 wrote: post #4

Not that I agree with this decision, but is there any evidence that these reports yielded any consequences? Or rather, was it one of those, "After conducting an internal investigation, we have determined we did nothing wrong" kind of things?

I have a feeling thats exactly how it was used. But that makes its removal even more odd. The hosting cost must be trivial; an email support form connected to a shredder.

Defund the organization in charge of checking and follow-ups is one thing, but its complete removal just smell of incompetence or acknowledging of wrongdoing, or some sort of performance.

And the response is also baffling. "sorry we migrated it systems and accidentally took it down" is the handwave i expected. not "we follow the law regardless so it's not needed".

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#16

Post by dfee »

sschueller wrote: post #8
hirvi74 wrote: post #4

Not that I agree with this decision, but is there any evidence that these reports yielded any consequences? Or rather, was it one of those, "After conducting an internal investigation, we have determined we did nothing wrong" kind of things?

Yes, I would think the 'smart evil' thing to do would be keeping it running and just ignoring what you don't like but now people will just send the stuff to WikiLeaks.

They wouldn’t send to WikiLeaks before - also, or instead?

Do we have any evidence this initiative was ever staffed and effective?

We’ve extended a lot of credit to a vested institution to police itself. That’s not worked out in other matters, such as warrantless wiretapping, so why do you think this is effective here?

And why would you discredit third parties - especially those designed to be watchdogs?

I can see this initiative being an embrace, extend, extinguish strategy. And, I’d imagine closing this reporting portal won’t deter journalists - especially those on the frontline like WikiLeaks - from reporting on incidents.

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#17

Post by hirvi74 »

aDyslecticCrow wrote: post #14
hirvi74 wrote: post #4

Not that I agree with this decision, but is there any evidence that these reports yielded any consequences? Or rather, was it one of those, "After conducting an internal investigation, we have determined we did nothing wrong" kind of things?

I have a feeling thats exactly how it was used. But that makes its removal even more odd. The hosting cost must be trivial; an email support form connected to a shredder. Defund the organization in charge of checking and follow-ups is one thing, but its complete removal just smell of incompetence or acknowledging of wrongdoing, or some sort of performance. And the response is also baffling. "sorry we migrated it syst…

Yeah, absolutely.

I obviously do not condone the behavior of taking down such a website. I truly wish such reports were taking with the utmost severity.

As evidence, look what happened to those that were involved in the violation of human rights in Abu Ghraib Prision [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisone...

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#19

Post by AndrewKemendo »

hirvi74 wrote: post #10
excalibur wrote: post #2

Because the US government is no longer even pretending to care about human rights.

[flagged]

Which is why all of this recent mess is interesting because the only thing that’s different in terms of action now is that they are doing all the dirt in public rather in private

Even total deportation numbers are lower (given administration length) than every previous administration as reported by Jacobin in the latest issue - yall remember Elian Gonzalez?

Re: US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

#20

Post by kome »

The whole WikiLeaks affair about "Collateral Murder" was also about hiding U.S. war crimes. US army goes a long way to hide that stuff...

It was followed by a decade of ridiculous but very effective character assassination of Assange, who is hated based on how dislikable he appears.

I recommend youngsters and "zoomers" read about it, because the recent past is often the most forgotten: https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/

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