Legal experts from around the world warned Friday that human rights and the rule of law are being trampled on in the US-led war against terrorism. "The war against terrorism is more than a set of specific laws," Nicholas Howen, secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), told a conference in Berlin. "It is a way of thinking." He added that this "disturbing rhetoric" assumed that rights and freedoms were a nuisance and interfered with security. "We witness governments trying to justify torture in the name of national security, detainees held in legal black holes, the right to a fair trial cut down," Howen told more than 150 legal experts at the conference. Arthur Chaskalson, the president of the ICJ, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization, said human rights had never been under such threat since the end of the Cold War. (AFP)