In
Geneva, US
Dodges on
Drones and
Spying, Stop
& Frisk
and Haiti
Deportations
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
14 -- When the
US delegation
to the UN
Human Rights
Committee in
Geneva took
the floor on
March 14, it
was a full
court
press. A
Native America
staffer of the
Mayor of Salt
Lake City sung
the US'
praises,
assurances
were given
about
"so-called
drones
or remotely
piloted
aircraft."
But
of the
elephant in
the room, NSA
spying, the
speaker from
the Civil
Rights
Division of
the US
Department of
Justice used a
single line:
DOJ is
"monitoring" a
number of
private
action. You
don't
say.
The
head of the US
delegation,
Mary McLeod,
said but did
not explain
why
the US
Administration
has "no
current
expectation to
become a
party to the
optional
protocol" to
the
International
Covenant on
Civil and
Political
Rights --
which the US
says does not
apply to its
actions
outside of its
borders.
This
seems
noteworthy
right now as
the US talks
of Russian
actions in
Crimea.
On
the New York
City stop and
frisk program,
the DOJ
speaker
acknowledged
that the
Department had
taken no
position on
the facts;
he noted the
appeal filed
by former
Mayor -- and now UN
official --
Michael
Bloomberg,
but that Bill
De Blasio as
withdrawn the
appeal.
On
immigration,
Alabama House
Bill 56 on
immigration
verification
came
up, with the
US saying it
was "on the
ground" in
Alabama to
make sure it
didn't block
undocumented
children from
schooling. One
almost
expected to
hear that NSA
surveillance
could help in
these
local goals.
The
morning
session closed
with a slew of
questions:
Walter Kalin
asked
why the US
deports people
to Haiti even
amid the
cholera
epidemic --
for which,
Inner City
Press notes, the
US has said
the UN should
be
immune.
Others
questioned
forced
medication of
those
detained, lack
of legal
protection for
farm workers
and abuses in
the guest
worker
program and,
yes, Prism and
NSA spying.
And they they
broke for a
Geneva lunch.
This is the
UN. Watch this
site.
, 
