The human rights group's Secretary General Irene Khan called for the closure of the infamous institution. About 540 men are detained in the prison camp for as long as three years, most without trial, purely on suspicion of having links to the Taliban regime or Al Qaeda.

Khan was speaking at a press conference to launch Amnesty's 308-page annual report for 2004, which accuses the United States and its main ally Britain of betraying the cause of human rights in pursuit of the so-called "war on terror."

"Not a single case from some 500 men has reached the courts," Khan said.

She accused Washington and London of both masterminding and ignoring acts of torture. "A new agenda is in the making, with the language of freedom and justice being used to pursue policies of fear and insecurity. This includes cynical attempts to redefine and sanitise torture," said Ms. Khan.

US troops have committed appalling torture, and sexually abused detainees, Kahn said, and evidence has since come to light "that the US administration had sanctioned interrogation techniques that violated the UN Convention against Torture."

"When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a license to others to commit abuse with impunity," she warned.

Neither the Bush administration nor the US Congress has called for a full and independent investigation of the abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, or into the evidence suggesting that such practices applied to other prisoners held by America in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and elsewhere. "Instead, the US government has gone to great lengths to restrict the application of the Geneva Conventions and to 're-define' torture," Khan said.

"It has sought to justify the use of coercive interrogation techniques, the practice of holding 'ghost detainees' (people in unacknowledged incommunicado detention) and the 'rendering,' or handing over, of prisoners to third countries known to practice torture. The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has become the gulag of our times," she said, "Entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law. Trials by military commissions have made a mockery of justice and due process."

Khan added the UN Commission on Human Rights "has become a forum for horse-trading on human rights. Last year, the commission dropped Iraq from scrutiny, could not agree on action on Chechnya, Nepal, or Zimbabwe, and was silent on Guantanamo Bay."

The section of the annual report dealing with the Middle East and North Africa the report explains, "Civilians bore the brunt of the casualties as the war in Iraq intensified and the death toll rose. Tens of thousands of men, women and children were reported to have been killed or injured since the armed conflict began in March 2003. Both the US-led occupying forces and armed groups operating in Iraq -- often with the declared objective of resisting foreign occupation -- continued to violate international human rights and humanitarian laws with impunity.

"Throughout the year there were reports that scores of civilians had been killed unlawfully by the US-led forces during bombardments of Fallujah, Najaf and Samarra, and in various operations in Baghdad."

The report further states; that hundreds of civilians have been killed in "indiscriminate or direct attacks by armed groups" opposing the US occupation.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, "human rights violations continued to be justified by the global 'war on terror' as security forces across the region responded to attacks by armed groups they accused of links with Al Qaeda."

In the section on the Americas, Amnesty turns once more to the way the US-led "war on terror" has undermined human rights. The report explains:

"President Bush's refusal to apply the Geneva Conventions to those captured during the international armed conflict in Afghanistan and transferred to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was challenged by a judicial decision in November. The ruling resulted in the suspension of trials by military commission in Guantanamo, and the government immediately lodged an appeal. The US administration's treatment of detainees in the 'war on terror' continued to display a marked ambivalence to the opinion of expert bodies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and even of its own highest judicial body. Six months after the Supreme Court ruled that the federal courts had jurisdiction over the Guantanamo detainees, none had appeared in court. Detainees reportedly considered of high intelligence value remained in secret detention in undisclosed locations. In some cases their situation amounted to 'disappearance.'"

The US has also continued to pressure governments throughout the region to sign unlawful immunity agreements shielding US personnel from surrender to the International Criminal Court: "Of 12 countries that had refused to sign, 10 had some military aid suspended as a result. In November the US Congress threatened to cut off development aid to countries that refused to sign."

In a more piercing statement, William Schultz, the executive director of Amnesty International's US branch issued a direct warning to top US officials.

"The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to places like Acapulco or the French Riviera," he said, "because they may find themselves under arrest as Augusto Pinochet famously did in London in 1998."

The American establishment press has reacted to the human rights report issued by Amnesty International with a combination of indignation and verbal mud slinging. The editorial boards of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post have taken particular offence at the statement by Amnesty International's secretary general calling the US-run prison camp in Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our times."

This Amnesty International Report, which covers 149 countries, highlights the failure of national governments and international organisations to deal with human rights violations, and calls for greater international accountability.

In its carefully chronicled 300-plus pages report, AI takes an unflinching look at chaos and heartache in each region of the world. It's depressing reading, but necessary, and it does not leave its readers without hope.

The report can be read at the Amnesty International web-site.

Billy I Ahmed is a researcher.