While everybody else spys on UN officials, in fact it is illegal under UN Charter provisions. So, technically, the Obama administration in its own documents requested illegal acts.
But then technically the US is in violation of probably a dozen different US laws and UN charter violations.
Below is taken from a June 2010 Amnesty International report:
``The latest National Security Strategy released by the White House on 27 May 2010 also makes promises on human rights and human dignity, some general, some specific. Generally, the strategy asserts, one of four enduring national interests for the USA is ensuring `respect for universal values at home and around the world'. In addition, it asserts that the `rules of the road must be followed and there must be consequences for those nations that break the rules', such as on their `human rights commitments'. More specifically, it reiterates among other things that torture is prohibited `without exception or equivocation'. While this is welcome, some other parts of the security strategy, such as its restatement of the Obama administration's decision to retain military commission trials and indefinite detention without charge or criminal trial for use against selected terrorism suspects, are not:
`When we are able, we will prosecute terrorists in Federal courts or in reformed military commissions that are fair, legitimate, and effective. For detainees who cannot be prosecuted; but pose a danger to the American people we must have clear, defensible, and lawful standards. We must have fair procedures and a thorough process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified.' ''
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20100624002&lang=e
What the report shows is a systematic cover-up of former and current illegality with the Guantanamo prisoners.
If you follow the relevant cables from wikileaks, what you sse is the difficulty the US has had in getting rid of the people it holds, which are down to about 170. About 90 of these are from Yemenis. Yemen will take them back if the US and Saudis put up money for a prison. Another group that seem hard to get rid of are the Uyghurs:
``The United States government detained twenty-two innocent Uyghurs in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp since 2002. As of today the five Uyghurs Abdul Razakah, Yusef Abbas, Hajiakbar Abdulghupur, Saidullah Khalik and Ahmed Mohamed remain in Guantanamo and have filed cases in US courts to obtain the right to be brought to the United States.'' (According to another article, its down to three held.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_detainees_at_Guantanamo_Bay
What you see in the ins and outs of these cases is a corrosive and systemic erosion of basic civil and legal rights by the DoJ. While many of the twists and turns of this story come from news reports, what the wikileaks cables show are the ridiculous lengths the State Dept has gone to, to get other states to follow the US. Here is a summary article:
``Nevertheless, the documents have been useful for revealing more than was previously known about the horse-trading involved in negotiations with the Maldives, Bulgaria, Norway, Lithania, Slovenia, the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, China, Germany, Finland, Albania, Afghanistan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia - and also for revealing praise for the efforts of former prisoner Moazzam Begg in seeking the release of former prisoners in Luxembourg.''
Although Worthington seems to have made Guantanamo his single issue, he doesn't seem to see the whole point behind this endless foot dragging and foreign release program is to keep these guys out of US and other court systems where they can qualify for reparations and add to the lest of war crimes.
CG