Human Rights Watch Protests Al-Qaeda Treatment

From a report by the BBC:

A New York-based human rights group has challenged America's treatment of 11 al-Qaeda suspects it is thought to be holding outside the US.

Human Rights Watch said prisoners were being denied access to the Red Cross and protection under international law, and it suggested torture had been used.

In light of the savage beheadings of innocent civilians by groups linked to al-Qaeda, the contention that terrorists aren't getting bandages for their boo-boos sits angrily on my stomach. Personally, I don't see how any purported mistreatment of terrorists is comparable. Also, the Human Rights Watch, as a group of international complainers, seems to focus an inordinate amount of time criticizing the civilized world while giving the atrocities of fundamentalist Islamic groups barely a mention. For example, months and months of unyielding attention has been devoted to alleged mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile, terrorist atrocities, such as the Beslan murders and the beheadings of Eugene Armstrong, Jack Hensley, and Ken Bigley, fade as issues in less than a week.

Most telling about the agenda of Human Rights Watch is the joint NGO statement of condemnation regarding the Beslan terrorist massacre. Paraphrasing, a group of armed men (not terrorists) took hostages in what they consider to be the international equivalent of a domestic dispute. The fault lies with Russia and the "hostage-takers" broke international hostage-taking laws and, therefore, they should be "prosecuted or extradited" for the crime. Rather than advocating human rights, the statement condemns Russia, deflects responsibility for Beslan from the terrorists, and downplays the immensity of the murders of hundreds of children, parents, and teachers.

Just for drill, try to find the word "terrorist" in the website for Human Rights Watch. I expect that it appears somewhere in the pages. I sure didn't see it.