“Since the end of the Cold War, the work of Amnesty International has become more complicated and more difficult. Back in the early days, most of the ‘prisoners of conscience’ were held either in the Soviet bloc or in the US satellite dictatorships in Latin America, which facilitated symmetry without unduly offending the U.S superpower. But especially since the Bush administration’s reaction to September 11, 2001, the United States has increasingly become the world’s most notorious jailer. This has brought an organization whose core is Anglo-American under conflicting pressures.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/28/the-decline-of-political-protest/