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CNN Live At Daybreak

Watchdog Group Suggests War on Terrorism Has Casualties Bush Administration Refuses to Admit

Aired May 29, 2002 - 06:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A watchdog group suggests the war on terrorism has casualties the Bush administration refuses to admit. CNN's Andrea Koppel looks at new charges raised by Amnesty International.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the wake of the September 11 attacks, a scathing report by Amnesty International claims the U.S. is sacrificing human rights in the name of national security, in Afghanistan, where many civilians were killed, and at home, where hundreds of foreign nationals have been detained. Topping the list, treatment of captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Guantanamo, Cuba held incommunicado, without legal counsel, which Amnesty says violates the Geneva Conventions and compromises U.S. moral authority.

WILLIAM SCHULTZ, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: By having shredded certain provisions of the conventions ourselves, namely, the requirement that an independent tribunal determine whether captives are to be regarded as prisoners of war, the United States is severely compromised in calling Russia to account for its violations of the conventions in Chechnya.

VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: They are battlefield combatants, and they are being held as such, and they are being held appropriately.

KOPPEL: The Bush administration also denies that by welcoming leaders from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Malaysia to the White House, the U.S. is excusing their poor records on human rights.

SCHULTZ: When it comes to confronting terrorism, President Bush is a bulldog. But when it comes to confronting the human rights violations of our allies in the war against terrorism, he turns into a lap dog.

KOPPEL (on camera): And Amnesty says it's this double standard which most concerns the human rights community, the further erosion of what little leverage used to exist now that one of the world's most outspoken defenders of human rights has become less so.

Andrea Koppel, CNN at the State Department. (END VIDEOTAPE)

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