The State Department’s annual report on the state of human rights across the globe—which it is required by law to submit to Congress—is now 115 days late. Elliott Abrams is skeptical about the excuses offered by Foggy Bottom, and suggests that something besides procrastination is at play:
[Perhaps], the Obama administration does not wish to make public an honest report on human-rights abuses in Iran before the nuclear deal is done. The continuing delay makes that explanation more and more persuasive.
The [State Department’s] argument that [the official rollout of the report] is so important to President Obama and Secretary Kerry that Kerry and only Kerry must preside [over it] strikes me as nonsense. Neither man has paid much attention to human rights while in office, human-rights budgets are declining, and human-rights advocates write constantly about the diminishing U.S. interest in the subject. In fact, the reports speak for themselves, and any high State Department official could preside over a little ceremony releasing them. . . .
There are two likely explanations for the delay and they are not inconsistent. The administration (a) isn’t all that interested in the reports except (b) to the extent that they could be used against the Iran deal, by reminding people in Congress of the nature of the evil regime in Tehran. So, here we are: the longest delay in releasing the human-rights reports ever, and by very far. Who said the Obama administration wasn’t making history?
Read more on Pressure Points: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2015/06/16/why-is-obamas-human-rights-report-115-days-late/