Free Republic

Samir Sumaidaie, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, on Friday accused the international body of "bending over backwards" to help Saddam Hussein's regime during the establishment of Iraq's oil-for-food programme, and said he had "serious questions" about the role played by the former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali. His comments came the day after a UN-appointed independent inquiry revealed it was examining whether Mr Boutros-Ghali took a "political" approach in the choice of Banque Nationale de Paris to hold the programme's escrow account. BNP did not meet US Treasury criteria. It also said two of Mr Boutros-Ghali's relatives, as well as...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has done too little to improve treatment of prisoners at its Guantanamo Bay naval base and risks doing more harm than good in the battle against terror, U.N. human rights investigators said Friday. In a joint statement, six inspectors voiced fresh concern at reports of inhuman and degrading treatment of inmates at Guantanamo, saying the global fight against terrorism would be weakened if countries failed to uphold basic legal protections. "The right and duty of all states to use all lawful means to protect their citizens against death and destruction brought about by terrorists...