THE US: A man disembarks from a plane at an airport in his home country. He is arrested and refused access to family or lawyer. The president signs an order that he be detained indefinitely. He disappears into army custody.
This happened last year not in a repressive dictatorship but in the US, where US citizen Mr Jose Padilla was taken into custody at Chicago airport on May 8th on suspicion of plotting to detonate a so-called "dirty bomb" and has since been held incommunicado by the military in South Carolina.
The treatment of Mr Padilla is highlighted in the annual report of Human Rights Watch, which claims that, because of the war on terrorism, there has been "a persistent erosion of basic rights, including the right to liberty", in the US.
The New York-based organisation also alleges in its 558-page World Report 2003, released yesterday, that global support for the war on terrorism is diminishing "partly because the United States too often neglects human rights in its conduct of the war".
The report castigates the EU for failing to fill the void in leadership on human rights, as "its excessive preoccupation with achieving consensus and other concerns frequently left it paralysed".
European leaders virtually abandoned efforts to pressure Russia, an anti-terror ally, to end its abusive conduct of the war in Chechnya, and the burden of moving forward on rights worldwide fell on "principled" countries like Mexico, Canada and Senegal.
Human Rights Watch examined 58 countries and identifies positive trends such as the end to wars in Angola, Sudan, and Sierra Leone, peace talks in Sri Lanka and democracy in East Timor.
It records the continued killing of civilians in Colombia, Chechnya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and finds that Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia and Vietnam continue "highly repressive policies".
In the Middle East it accuses both sides of "grave breaches" of the rules of war and criticises the Palestinian Authority for failing to move decisively against suicide bombings when it had the capacity to do so.
The report accuses the Israeli army of excessive lethal force, collective punishment, wilfully and unlawfully killing Palestinians, damaging homes wantonly, and looting and stealing in a "culture of impunity".
The 13th annual review focuses however on what it states is the US's declining role and performance on human rights in 2002, and the "profound and dangerous" consequences throughout the world.
"The United States is far from the world's worst human rights abuser," said Mr Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, "but Washington has so much power today that when it flouts human rights standards, it damages the human rights cause worldwide. Cozying up to oppressive governments is hardly a way to build those alliances."
The survey concludes that "Washington's tendency to ignore human rights in fighting terrorism is not only disturbing in its own right. It is dangerously counterproductive. The smouldering resentment it breeds risks generating terrorist recruits, puts off potential anti-terrorism allies and weakens efforts to curb terrorist atrocities."
It said terrorists violated basic human rights but the US overlooked human rights abuses by anti-terror allies such as Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Afghan warlords.
Global sympathy for the US after September 11th had given way to growing reluctance to join the fight and even resentment towards the US.
"There is growing disquiet that the means used to fight terrorism are often in conflict with the values of freedom and law that most people uphold.
"For example, the United States is generating popular resentment in Pakistan by uncritically backing Gen Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup" and "last year pushed through constitutional amendments to extend his presidential term by five years and recently strengthened a draconian anti-terror decree".
In China, the Bush administration has downplayed the repression of Muslims in the north-west Xinjiang province, rarely challenged human rights in Saudi Arabia, and relied on Afghan warlords who were as repressive as the Taliban.
Last year the US government "actively tried to undermine important human rights initiatives, such as the International Criminal Court, a new international inspection regime to prevent torture, and a UN resolution that the war on terrorism should be fought in a manner consistent with human rights".
The report says the line between war and law enforcement was crossed in the case of Mr Padilla, also known as Abdullah Al Muhajir. Instead of charging him and bringing him to trial, the US unilaterally declared him an enemy combatant, to be held "until the end of the war on terrorism which may never come".
In the US "anyone could be picked up and detained forever" as an "enemy combatant" on the claim of the administration.
Also, after September 11th 1,200 non-citizens, mostly from the Middle East or south Asia, were arrested in connection with the attacks. Their names, place of imprisonment and deportation proceedings were kept secret from families and the media.
The US is also holding some 625 mainly Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are detained 24 hours a day in cells, apart from two, 15-minute exercise periods, without any guarantee of release upon the end of "active hostilities", as required by the Geneva Conventions.