While claiming to be a liberator, Bush tolerates and aids tyrants

On Bush's Freedom Air, genocide suspects fly free.

Date published: 6/14/2005

By RICK MERCIER While claiming to be a liberator, Bush tolerates and aids tyrants

IN HIS second inaugural address, President Bush told the world: "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors."

Well, lately there's been plenty of ignoring and excusing going on.

In fact, if you want to gain a full appreciation of the Bush administration's attitude toward human rights in the post-Sept. 11 era, you have to look at more than just the disappearances, torture, and murders for which the United States is directly responsible. You also must bear in mind how the White House sucks up to some of the world's worst human-rights abusers.

Let's consider the two most egregious examples. The first relates to the Darfur region of Sudan, where more than 300,000 people have died because of a genocide engineered by the Sudanese government.

After being silent about Darfur for nearly half a year, the president earlier this month reiterated former Secretary of State Colin Powell's assertion that a genocide is indeed occurring in the region and that the government of Sudan bears responsibility for it.

But Bush cheapens the word "genocide." He has done far too little to try to end Darfur's nightmare--even though the United States is a signatory of the international treaty requiring prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.

But it gets even worse. Instead of pursuing its moral, if not legal, obligations, the Bush administration is busy courting some of the architects of the Darfur genocide.

As first reported in The Los Angeles Times, the CIA sent an executive jet to Khartoum in April to shuttle Sudan's intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, to Washington to cement a partnership in the "war on terrorism."

Never mind that Gosh is suspected of committing the most heinous acts of terrorism against the people of Darfur.