GENEVA  - The United States said Wednesday it did not condone torture under any circumstances, but acknowledged to a UN anti-torture watchdog it had "crossed the line" following the September 11 attacks.
"The US is proud of its record as a leader in respecting, promoting and defending human rights and the rule of law, both at home and around the world," acting US legal advisor Mary McLeod told the 10-member UN Committee on Torture.
"But in the wake of 9/11 attacks, we regrettably did not always live up to our own values," she said.
"We crossed the line and we take responsibility for that," she said, quoting US President Barack Obama. McLeod was one of about 30 top US officials gathered in Geneva for Washington's first grilling by the committee since 2006.
In its first review since Obama came to power, several delegates acknowledged abuses had occurred during the so-called "War on Terror" under the previous administration of George W. Bush.
"We recognise that no nation is perfect, ours included," Keith Harper, US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, told the committee.
The delegation faced a barrage of questions from committee members on how the country was dealing with rectifying and providing redress for acknowledged abuses during the "war on terror".
The US delegation was asked to explain why the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba remains open, why many detainees remain there without charge and when Washington plans to shut it down. The committee members also questioned the treatment of prisoners there, and lack of redress for victims of the widely publicised abuses by US troops at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in the early 2000s.
Beyond the "war on terror" legacy, the committee members raised issues of abuses in US prisons, rape in prisons, the broad use of drawn-out solitary confinement, and long years on death row.
And they asked how Washington could justify its widespread detention of non-violent, non-criminal illegal immigrants, including minors.
And they slammed police brutality that appears to disproportionately affect minorities, such as 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri last August. His parents were in Geneva this week to take part in events on the sidelines of the committee hearing. The committee is set to publish its conclusions on November 28.
Time is ripe
Islamabad: Pakistan and Afghanistan have a historic opportunity to reset long-fraught ties following the election of democratic governments in both countries, the United States' top diplomat in Islamabad said Wednesday.
Speaking ahead of newly-elected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's first official visit to Islamabad this weekend, Richard Olson praised confidence building measures by both sides including a Pakistan army operation in a Taliban stronghold along the countries' shared border.
"I think there is quite genuinely a basis for a new relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both sides are aware of this historical moment and making efforts to seize it," he said in a speech at the National University of Sciences and Technology in Islamabad. "Also I would say the actions of the Pakistani army in clearing the North Waziristan agency I think is a very important step in all of this," he added, referring to the military offensive which began in June.
Pakistan was one of three countries to recognise the hardline Taliban regime that ruled Kabul from 1996 until 2001 when it was deposed by a US-led international military coalition.
The government of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai routinely accused Pakistan of continuing to aid the Taliban in their insurgency in order to destabilise his country, a charge Islamabad denies. Tensions are also often stoked by cross-border shelling, but Olson praised Pakistan's recent "restraint" and its efforts to secure the border during the Afghan elections.
In an interview with AFP in April, Ghani said rapprochement with Pakistan -- along the lines of France and Germany after World War II -- would be key to ending instability in his conflict-torn nation.
Ghani was sworn into office in September while his main rival Abdullah Abdullah became the country's CEO, ending a protracted election process marred by fraud allegations.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif won power in last year's general elections that marked the country's first ever democratic transition, but has since seen his mandate challenged by opposition groups who allege vote rigging.
A protest movement outside parliament that began in August triggered fears the military could intervene as it has in the past, a move Olson said the US would not back.
"We're supporters of the rule of law, democracy and the constitution and oppose any kind of extra-constitutional action," he said.