Political Prisoners United States

The human rights organization Amnesty International said a U.S. soldier imprisoned after he refused to help prepare supplies for troops in Saudi Arabia is "a prisoner of conscience" and should be released immediately. In calling for the freedom of Sgt. George Morse, now serving time at Ft. Riley, Kan., the London-based organization expressed the fear that "hundreds of people claiming to be conscientious objectors may also face unjust imprisonment."

Facing a fast-approaching deadline and a political firestorm, a group of Puerto Rican nationalists imprisoned for 19 years as terrorists accepted the conditions of clemency spelled out last month by the Clinton administration, their attorneys and the White House said Tuesday. The announcement came as the controversy over the clemency offer reached new heights when First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said she disagreed with her husband and said he should withdraw the offer.

The government is releasing five times as many Cubans from prison each month as it did before riots in two federal lockups last year focused attention on the detainees' efforts to remain in this country, a published report said. Since Dec. 4, when Cuban prisoners and U.S. negotiators signed an agreement ending an 11-day siege at the U.S.

In an embarrassment for the United States, Poland's non-Communist government has named one of the Cold War era's most successful Soviet Bloc spies as head of its civilian intelligence service. Marian Zacharski, 43, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States in 1981 for obtaining secret information on the U.S.-made B-1 bomber, the F-15 fighter and radar systems used in Patriot air-defense missiles, then passing the information to the East Bloc.

The Soviet Union on Friday countered President Reagan's criticism of its human rights record with accusations of its own that the United States is a major violator of human rights and not in a position to judge any other country. The official news agency Tass, quoting an American human rights group, reported that the United States is holding more than 11,000 political prisoners, mostly Puerto Rican, Indian and black political activists.

In an embarrassment for the United States, Poland's non-Communist government has named one of the Cold War era's most successful Soviet Bloc spies as head of its civilian intelligence service. Marian Zacharski, 43, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States in 1981 for obtaining secret information on the U.S.-made B-1 bomber, the F-15 fighter and radar systems used in Patriot air-defense missiles, then passing the information to the East Bloc.

Facing a fast-approaching deadline and a political firestorm, a group of Puerto Rican nationalists imprisoned for 19 years as terrorists accepted the conditions of clemency spelled out last month by the Clinton administration, their attorneys and the White House said Tuesday. The announcement came as the controversy over the clemency offer reached new heights when First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said she disagreed with her husband and said he should withdraw the offer.

An American soldier jailed after he refused to participate in the allied buildup in Saudi Arabia is a "prisoner of conscience" to AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. Army Sgt. George Morse, 25, is the first American since 1987 to be so designated by the London-based international human rights organization. Morse, of Grayling, Mich., was found guilty Dec. 17 after a court-martial in Kansas of failing to obey orders as his unit prepared to go overseas.

When Nelson Mandela walked out of a South African prison earlier this year, U.S. officials rushed to praise the government of Frederik W. de Klerk for this gesture of national reconciliation. Yet the United States still refuses to discuss amnesty for Leonard Peltier, an American Indian whose questionable conviction for the killing of two FBI agents has become a cause celebre from Moscow to Soweto. For the first time since its revolution, Cuba permitted independent U.S.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest by Myanmar's military rulers for much of the last decade, was freed today and left her home without restrictions for the first time in 19 months. Arriving at midday at the Yangon headquarters of her party, the National League for Democracy, the 56-year-old pro-democracy leader was greeted by more than 1,000 supporters chanting, "long live Suu Kyi."

The human rights organization Amnesty International said a U.S. soldier imprisoned after he refused to help prepare supplies for troops in Saudi Arabia is "a prisoner of conscience" and should be released immediately. In calling for the freedom of Sgt. George Morse, now serving time at Ft. Riley, Kan., the London-based organization expressed the fear that "hundreds of people claiming to be conscientious objectors may also face unjust imprisonment."

An American soldier jailed after he refused to participate in the allied buildup in Saudi Arabia is a "prisoner of conscience" to AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. Army Sgt. George Morse, 25, is the first American since 1987 to be so designated by the London-based international human rights organization. Morse, of Grayling, Mich., was found guilty Dec. 17 after a court-martial in Kansas of failing to obey orders as his unit prepared to go overseas.

The Soviet Union on Friday countered President Reagan's criticism of its human rights record with accusations of its own that the United States is a major violator of human rights and not in a position to judge any other country. The official news agency Tass, quoting an American human rights group, reported that the United States is holding more than 11,000 political prisoners, mostly Puerto Rican, Indian and black political activists.

Immigration officials ruled that anti-Castro militant Orlando Bosch, 61, is a danger to the community and ordered him deported. Bosch, a hero to many in Miami's Cuban exile community, served a sentence for a 1968 rocket attack on a Polish freighter in Miami, and was held 11 years in Venezuelan prisons on an unproven accusation he bombed a Cuban jetliner in 1976, killing 73 people. Bosch's attorneys are seeking a stay of the deportation. A hearing is scheduled Friday.