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Amnesty International has provoked a furious debate about American policy – and about its own judgment and impartiality – by launching the most rhetorically charged attack on the Bush administration’s policies on terrorism and Iraq heard from a mainstream non-governmental organization since September 11.

More than a year after the now-infamous torture photos from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were broadcast and displayed across the world, Amnesty International blasted the United States for failing to investigate the episode thoroughly and called on foreign governments to provide the justice it says Washington has shirked, by arresting and prosecuting senior American officials.

“The refusal of the U.S. government to conduct a truly independent investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and other detention centers is tantamount to a whitewash, if not a cover-up, of these disgraceful crimes,” said Dr. William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

Schulz noted that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and several other high-ranking administration officials may be considered responsible for crimes of torture and, therefore, punishable under international law.

“If the United States permits the architects of torture policy to get off scot-free, then other nations should step into the breach,” he said.

Amnesty’s charges were made in late May as the organization unveiled its annual report examining 151 countries for human maltreatment, ranging from support of death squads to discrimination against women. But, the focus of the 2005 report was torture, and the government of the United States was singled out for particular contempt along with that of Sudan, where there have been charges of genocide and systematic rape by government-sponsored militias in the Darfur region.

In the forward to the report, Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan assailed Washington for its treatment of prisoners in the war on terrorism, drawing a metaphorical parallel between U.S. policies and those of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.

“The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law,” Khan wrote in reference to the American-controlled prison in Cuba where hundreds of detainees are being held as suspected terrorists. “Trials by military commissions have made a mockery of justice and due process.”

The condemnation sparked a storm of criticism from the administration and some media outlets, with President George Bush calling the allegations “absurd,” and both The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal offering terse denunciations.

“Turning a report on prisoner detention into another excuse for Bush-bashing or America-bashing undermines Amnesty’s legitimate criticisms of U.S. policies and weakens the force of its investigations of prison systems in closed societies,” the Post editorial read.

The Journal’s editorial staff was even harsher, dismissing Amnesty as a partisan group that “can’t be taken seriously.”

A New York Times editorial found the gulag metaphor to be fitting, noting that Guantanamo is only one of a chain of shadowy detention camps that includes Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the military prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and other secret locations run by U.S. intelligence agencies.

Among the critics was Julian Ku, associate professor at Hofstra University School of Law, who felt the report was overblown and, at least in part, fueled by a historic animosity toward certain U.S. policies.

“Amnesty already believes the U.S. is a human rights abuser because it endorses capital punishment,” said Ku, who specializes in the confluence of international and domestic law. “Even if everything they claim is true, it still doesn’t rise to the level of the Soviet gulag.”

Hadar Harris, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University, noted that, when it comes to human rights, the world’s superpower has the obligation to lead by example – a role she said the White House has neglected.

“For better or for worse, other countries do follow this country’s lead,” Harris said. “Amnesty is saying that the emperor has no clothes.

“It’s not just Amnesty, but all of us in the human rights community are really struck by this administration’s rhetoric about adhering to international law, and its lack of compliance with the same,” she added. “What it speaks to … is the lack of accountability we’re seeing here.”

Accountability issues have swirled around Abu Ghraib, where U.S. soldiers have been charged with crimes ranging from conspiracy to assault for prisoner mistreatment. During April 2004, ghastly photographs of military police posing and grinning next to naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners surfaced, along with scorching accounts of abuse and intimidation, from the use of snarling dogs to sexual humiliation. A photo, which quickly became an iconic image, showed a hooded Iraqi prisoner balanced on a box with electrodes attached to his body to create the impression that he would be electrocuted if he fell off.

The horrifying images spread quickly through the news media and Internet more than a year ago, stirring outrage, especially among Muslim communities.

So far, eight soldiers have been convicted of committing crimes at Abu Ghraib, with one trial still pending. The sentences have ranged from a dishonorable discharge to a ten-year prison term. Almost all of those charged were lower-ranking reservists, causing administration critics to wonder where exactly the buck stops in Washington.

In December 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved interrogation methods for use under some circumstances at Guantanamo that included sleep deprivation, stripping prisoners and using dogs to inspire fear. Those guidelines were revised a few months later to remove some of the most punishing techniques.

Critics of the administration contend the sanctioned abuse of prisoners not only constitutes torture but also undermines any moral authority the U.S. has in condemning similar abuses by other countries.

“It is unbelievable that the U.S. is not taking decisive action except to punish a few at the bottom of the chain of command,” said Gay McDougall, executive director of the Washington-based humanitarian group Global Rights. “It is disgusting, and it will be totally ineffective if the goal is in fact to stop this sort of thing from happening again.”

Amnesty officials have called for a congressionally appointed independent commission to investigate the culpability of high-level officials. Such an investigation “will go a long way to restoring confidence that true justice has no double standards,” said the group’s secretary general.

Amnesty USA leader William Schultz suggested that other nations bound by Geneva Convention rules have an obligation to investigate the U.S. officials if they ever set foot on their soil. “Crimes such as torture are so serious that they amount to an offense against all of humanity and require governments to investigate and prosecute people responsible for those crimes – no matter where the crime was committed,” he said.

Administration officials deny that upper level officials have evaded responsibility for the crimes.

“We’ve done exactly what Secretary Rumsfeld said we’d do last May while testifying before (Congress): evaluate what happened, make sure those who have committed wrongdoing are brought to justice, and make changes as needed to see that it doesn’t happen again,” said Lt. Col. John Skinner, a spokesman for the Defense Department.

“DOD policy did not sanction, condone or encourage detainee abuse. The humane treatment of detainees has always been the standard.”

“The point being made by Amnesty International is that the responsibility for these crimes goes up the chain of command,” McDougall of Global Rights said. “It’s unfair and inaccurate to lay the blame for what’s happened at the lowest end of the food chain.”

“What’s truly amazing is that the American people are not outraged every single day,” American University’s Harris said. “And if you tell me how to change that, we’d be living in a very different world.”