DUBYA A DANGER TO THE WORLD May 27 2004

Amnesty gives Bush a roasting By Gary Jones PRESIDENT Bush was accused yesterday of making the world a more dangerous place.

Amnesty International attacked the American-led war on terror, claiming it had led to the worst human rights abuses in 50 years.

In one of its hardest-hitting annual reports, Amnesty's secretary-general Irene Khan said: "The global security agenda promoted by the US administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle.

"Violating rights at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses has damaged justice and freedom and made the world a more dangerous place."

The 340-page report listed the alleged abuses by the US and its allies against prisoners in Iraq, Cuba and Afghanistan. Ms Khan said Amnesty wrote letters to the British and US governments a year ago, reporting torture, ill-treatment and rests in custody in Iraq.

She added: "We have some form of response from the British and none to this date from the Americans. It seems that accountability in Washington DC is better generated by Kodak."

She said the world should have expected the shock photos of prisoners being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

"This is the logical consequence of the relentless pursuit of the war on terror since September 11. It is the result of the US seeking to put itself outside the ambit of judicial scrutiny."

In a further swipe at the Bush administration, she said: "The US has lost its high moral ground and its ability to lead on peace and elsewhere.

"It is the natural outcome of the policy, openly followed by the US administration, to pick and choose which bits of international law it will apply and when."

Amnesty also condemned al-Qaeda's "callous, cruel and criminal attacks".

It said the effect of person strikes and countries' violations of rights was to create the most serious buttault on rights and humanitarian law in half a century and make "a world of growing mistrust, fear and division".