Sick and Tired actually, of seeing Human Rights Watch get an automatic pass to creating a BBC headline when they haven't done anything to deserve it.

All they have done is pass comment on Abu Ghraib, and offered their opinion that it came about as a result of US policy post 9/11- a vast conspiracy theory encompassing Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and tactics for other suspected Al Qaeda detainees, if you will.

They have no new evidence; they have no revelations. They just produced a pastiche of press reports, briefings, off the record comments of intelligence staff, and frankly, tittle-tattle, to 'prove' that Abu Ghraib came about as a culmination of Bush policies. Then, in a lull in the US election run-up caused by John Kerry's calculated pause in campaigning, they 'challenged the government to prove' its innocence 'by releasing all relevant government documents'- and that won them a top place in the headlines.

Well, a lot of sensitive documents (like the Taguba report) have already reached the public sphere, and trials of miscreants have begun, and the whole Abu Ghraib thing brought shame on the media for their utter irresponsibility in magnifying every image, every document- yet despite all that the cases of abuse appear localised and limited.

When will the Beeb get the message: HRW may have many good hearted people. They may have many an Oxbridge, Yale or Harvard graduate working for them, and many others with colourful and rich life experience (in fact, as they put it, 'lawyers, journalists, academics, and country experts of many nationalities and diverse backgrounds') - but they are just an impressive kind of pressure group, nothing more.