US accused of aiding oppressive
militaries
The Frontier Post.
The Bush administration has budgeted more than $7.7 billion
for various types of foreign military assistance in fiscal 2003.
Nineteen recipients of such assistance including
Yet the security forces in 14 of those nations were also
cited by the State Department's 2002 "Human Rights Report" for abuses
that include extrajudicial killings, torture, and arbitrary arrests and
detentions.
In fact, 51 of the 180 countries receiving military aid have
been described by the State Department as having "poor" human rights
records.
The 9/11 carnage has provided a key rationale for a big
boost
Today, the
FPIF warns that supporting lawless, oppressive governments
merely fosters the anger and misery that helps give rise to terrorists in the
first place.
The suggestion, says the prestigious Foreign Policy
magazine, is that in a few years, the
The July-August issue of the magazine notes that
"accountability" was the buzzword of choice when the Bush
administration unveiled its compact for sustainable development in mid-March.
The compact pledged $5 billion over the next three years to
help poor nations who demonstrated a "strong commitment" to rooting
out corruption, upholding human rights, and adhering to the rule of law.
And says the magazine, that zeal for accountability does not seem to apply when it comes to the more than $7.7 billion earmarked for various types of foreign military assistance in fiscal 2003.
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