(Jun 28, 2012) There are worse places to be a dissident than the USA.

In many countries, people who cross the line in opposing the government risk incarceration, torture, or murder.

Until recently, it was hard for American dissidents to cross that line. If they wanted to get arrested for saying something subversive, mere ideas weren't enough; they would have to actually threaten to physically harm the President or another high official.

But the post-9/11 USA is no longer a beacon of human rights. As former President Jimmy Carter recently wrote in the New York Times, "The United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights."

In his article, Carter points out that top US officials are now openly targeting US citizens for political assassination, "disappearance," unlimited surveillance, and other forms of gross human rights abuse.

"Since we now know that a secret National Security committee is ordering the murder of American citizens, and since we know the CIA has the power to easily simulate deaths from illness and accident, we might as well assume that every time a dissident dies unexpectedly, he or she has been murdered by the US government.