A UN human rights justice official issued scathing report about the Bush administration for violations of rule of law and a failed, inadequate justice system.  Not surprising.

Excerpts from IPS News: "Unleashing a stinging barrage of attacks, Professor Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary and arbitrary executions, singles out the existence of racism in the application of the death penalty in the United States, and the lack of transparency in the deaths of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility housing suspected terrorists.

Alston, a professor at the New York University School of Law and an outspoken critic of human rights abuses worldwide, also complains about the non-availability of information on civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the refusal of the U.S. Justice Department to prosecute private security contractors who commit unlawful killings.

During his 14-day tour of the United States at the invitation of the administration, he met with federal and state officials, judges and civil society groups in New York, Washington DC, Alabama and Texas.

Alston was particularly critical of the state of Texas which has refused to review the cases of foreign nationals on death row, most of whom had been deprived of the right to consular assistance from their home countries.

He specifically chose to visit Alabama "because it has the highest per capita rate of executions in the United States, and Texas because it has the largest number of executions and prisoners on death row."

In his report, Alston points out that studies across the United States also suggest racial disparities in the application of the death penalty. In particular, many studies suggest that a defendant is more likely to receive the death penalty when the victim is white, and some studies also suggest that a defendant is more likely to receive the death penalty if he is African American.

Meanwhile, to date, just six of the "enemy combatants" detained at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been charged with capital offences under the Military Commissions Act (MCA). They are being tried before military commissions on war crimes charges, and if convicted, face the death penalty.

According to Alston, the United States has an obligation to provide fair trials which afford all essential judicial guarantees.

"The fundamental principles of a fair trial may never be derogated from. But the text of the MCA, which provides the rules which govern the trials, and the experiences of those with whom I met during my mission involved in the trial process to date, indicate clearly that these trials utterly fail to meet the basic due process standards required for a fair trial under international humanitarian and human rights law," he added.

There have been five reported deaths of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2006-07. Four were classified as suicides, and one was attributed to cancer.

In the custodial environment, Alston said, a state has a heightened duty and capacity to ensure and respect the right to life. As a result, there is a rebuttable presumption of state responsibility whether through acts of commission or omission in cases of custodial death.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, where the U.S. military is considered an occupying power, Alston points to a string of human rights abuses and violations of the rule of law. He said the "troublingly opaque character of the U.S. military justice system....

Regarding killings by private security contractors, Alston said: "It's the (U.S.) Department of Justice's job to prosecute private security contractors who commit unlawful killings, but it has done next to nothing."

The authoritarian Bush administration has been noted for its anti-Constitution, anti-rule of law, anti-human rights, horrific detention and torture policies.

Perhaps the UN investigator might want to suggest that the entire Bush administration should stand in the dock at The Hague.

And impeachment is still off the table.