THE UNITED STATES HAS UNDERMINED HUMAN RIGHTS and its own moral authority as an upholder of human rights. This from Human Rights Watch's annual report on the state of human rights around the world.

"When most governments breach international human rights and humanitarian law, they commit a violation," New York-based Human Rights Watch said in its annual report of human rights developments in 60 countries.

"When a government as dominant and influential as the United States openly defies that law and seeks to justify its defiance, it also undermines the law itself and invites others to do the same."

You can read the full report here.