Gulag

"Gulag" is an acronym for "Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps," which was in charge of the Soviet Penal System, and it was described by Solzhenitsyn as an "archipelago'' or series of "islands" (camps, prisons, detention centers, etc) which are spread through the whole of the Russian land like a country within a country.

So, as Susie tells us, the use of the term by Amnesty International is done with a purpose:

William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty’s Washington-based branch, speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” defended the human rights group’s recent criticism of U.S. treatment of detainees at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“The U.S. is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons, into which people are being literally disappeared, held in indefinite, incommunicado detention without access to lawyers or a judicial system or to their families,” Schulz said.

“And in some cases, at least, we know they are being mistreated, abused, tortured and even killed.”

I know that it is impossible for many freepers to think that their country can do ill (though, sadly many of them are all for it) but this is a cancer that is not going away. We preach human rights, while flouting them around the globe.