Amnesty International’s more than a little disturbed about our human rights record of late:

LONDON (Reuters) – The United States has failed to guard against torture and inhuman behavior since launching its “war on terror” after Sept. 11, 2001, Amnesty International said Wednesday in a report just days before the U.S. election. The rights group called on President Bush and his Democratic challenger John Kerry to promise to take prompt action to address the issue head on if elected on Nov. 2. It condemned Bush’s response to the 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, saying it had resulted in an “iconography of torture, cruelty and degradation.” Amnesty’s report accused Washington of stepping onto a “well-trodden path of violating basic rights in the name of national security or ‘military necessity’.” “The war mentality the government has adopted has not been matched with a commitment to the laws of war and it has discarded fundamental human rights principles along the way,” it said. At best, Washington was guilty of setting conditions for torture and cruel treatment by lowering safeguards and failing to respond adequately to allegations of abuse, it said. At worst, it had authorized interrogation techniques which flouted its international obligation to reject torture and ill-treatment under any circumstances.

Say, how about that “shining city on a hill” thing again?