…from beneath the crooked bough, witness 230 years of brutal tyranny by the al Khalifas come to an end

Family concerned Al-Khawaja may be being force fed
27 April, 2012 – Al-Akhbar

The daughter of Bahraini hunger striker Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja said she fears her father is being force-fed in an undisclosed location, after state media claimed he was taking nutritional supplements.

The state-run newspaper Gulf Daily News on Friday said that human rights leader Abdulhadi, who has been on hunger strike for 79 days, had been drinking a nutritional supplement for the past two days.

The paper also said he was in “high spirits” but Abdulhadi’s daughter Maryam, also a human rights activist, said her father would not be taking the supplements voluntarily.

“They could be just flat-out lying or it could be alluding to something else. I know that my father is not going to willingly drink or eat anything so if they are giving him anything it is by force,” she said.

“If he is awake and he is conscious and they are force-feeding him against his will according to Physicians for Human Rights that is considered torture.”

The Minister of Interior Sheikh Khaled bin Ali Al-Khalifa on Wednesday denied that the regime were not concerned about the prospect of Abdulhadi dying.

“The evidence (against him), the confession among other evidence, is being seen by the highest court in the country. The main issue if you are referring to Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja in particular I think that we have a big concern about his health and we hope that he will enjoy his health,” he told the BBC.

“We would like him, as he took a voluntary decision to take a hunger strike, to take a decision to get out of it,” he added.

The opposition Al-Wefaq party on Thursday condemned the government for refusing to reveal the location at which Abdulhadi is being held.

“The (failure) of security agencies to disclose the place of detention of al-Khawaja is considered a shameful behavior that exposes the claims of civilization and humanity by the authorities,” an Al-Wefaq statement said.

“It is also considered as a challenge to all local and international laws and customs that require the announcement of the place of the prisoner and his health status and allowing his family and his lawyer to meet and talk to him freely,” it added. …more

Carpet Gassing of Bahrainis by Timoney and Yate’s Forces
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 27 April, 2012

Repression has been greatly intensified in the past week, especially after the end of the most controversial F1 race last weekend. The use of what is now termed “Carpet Gassing” of residential areas is causing alarm on international level after more than 30 people were killed as a result of excessive inhalation of chemical gases fired by security forces. In addition to this people are routinely stopped, checked and intimidated at cheque points along the main roads and at entrances of towns and villages.

Reports have suggested that the hated duel; John Timony and John Yates have decided to create a blood bath in the country after they had been accused of failure to stem the protests or bring the situation under control. Demonstrations have been taking place on daily and nightly basis with men and women taking to the streets amid rising tension following the fiasco of the Formula 1 racing. International media has concluded that the Bahrainis Revolution is the winner of the race as it has placed itself back on the international scene. Journalists now speak of “the Forgotten Revolution” after they had witnessed its extent and determination.

The killing of a Bahriani activist on Saturday 21st April by Alkhalifa-run Death Squads has further undermined the regime which had repeatedly claimed to have “reformed” its security forces since the arrival of the torturous duel; Timony and Yates. Salah Abbas Habib, 37, was tortured to death after he was hit with a shotgun which sprayed his body with small pellets causing bleeding and pain. He was then subjected to most horrific treatment; subjected to sadistic torture in which acid was poured on his body; his hands broken at the wrists and his neck and the back of his skull also broken with severe tools. Bernie Ecclestone has also been heavily criticised for mishandling the situation and assuring the world that “all was quiet” thus giving the Alkhalifa an opportunity to take revenge from their adversaries in the middle of the night as the race was underway. The regime’s Death Certificate only mentioned that the cause of death had been shotgun wounds. But independent doctors who examined the body in the mortuary confirmed the administering of the sadistic torture. Both Dr Taha Al Durazi and Dr Ali Al Ekri gave their firm verdict that the victim had been severely tortured before his death. …source

Clashes in Bahrain as police block protest march
REUTERS – Hamad I Mohammed – 27 April, 2012

DUBAI (Reuters) – Protesters trying to march to the heart of Bahrain’s capital clashed with riot police on Friday, witnesses said, hours after a massive show of force by the mainstream Shi’ite Muslim opposition.

They said dozens of youths threw stones at police who used teargas and stun grenades to block the planned march to the Pearl roundabout, the centre of an uprising last year which the government suppressed with the help of troops from neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Bahrain, where the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa family rules over a majority Shi’ite Muslim population, has been in turmoil since an uprising erupted last year demanding reforms after successful revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.

The protests escalated ahead of last week’s Formula One Grand Prix, drawing criticism of Bahrain from some governments, rights groups and media watchdogs who say police use excessive force and the government should find a political solution.

Earlier on Friday, tens of thousands of people attended a rally in nearby Jidhafs, a village west of the capital Manama, called by the main Shi’ite opposition group Wefaq.

The demonstration was peaceful, with protesters demanding the release of opposition leader, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike for more than two months, and the dismissal of the prime minister who has held his post for more than four decades. …more

editor: This incredibly out of touch interview provides a valuable insight into the paradigm that has “silenced” the Obama administration regarding Bahrain. It might prove a useful tool for those who seek to sway the Administration from its failed “quiet diplomacy” that serves as an enabler to the brutal al Khalifa regime. While this seems a false narrative, if for no other reason than there is a pluralist base of opposition that is leading the revolution beyond Al Wefaq, it helps identify what seems to be prevailing thought throughout the US State Department, the DoD and the Obama Administration at large. Phlipn.

Bahrain’s Unsettling Standoff
Bernard Gwertzman – Interviewee: Ed Husain – Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies
Council on Foreign Relations – 27 April, 2012

Bahrain has been in political turmoil since February 2011, shortly after the start of pro-democracy uprisings in other Arab countries. But Ed Husain, a Middle East expert for CFR, says the situation in Bahrain is more complicated than “just a straightforward demand for democracy.” The monarchy of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, Husain says, is willing to open a dialogue for changes sought by Shiites, who make up a majority of the population. But the protestors–led by Ayatollah Isa Qassem, a supporter of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini–are refusing dialogue and using violence to try to unseat the government, Husain says, which would only strengthen Iranian influence in the region, and would be met with opposition from Saudi Arabia. “If it is democracy the protestors want, then that can only be achieved by returning to the negotiating table and seeking a political settlement,” Husain says.

BG: You’ve just come back from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. In Bahrain, there has been considerable controversy over the long-simmering dispute between the Shiites and the ruling government of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. What’s the situation on the ground?

The situation on the ground is one that’s radically different from the predominant narrative here in the West about Bahrain. What struck me in Bahrain was [that] the fine line between demonstrations and riots had been blurred. There were nightly riots in many of the villages, some of which I visited; attacks on police officers in Bahrain, who incidentally are for the most part unarmed. The officers use tear gas canisters for crowd control purposes–granted, many have argued that their use of tear gas is questionable. So what we are seeing on the ground is people who are increasingly using violence, and are responding to the regime’s attempts to open dialogue by a) ignoring it, b) not condemning the violence by the activists on the ground, and c), trying to derail the government. It’s important for the international community, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, to realize that what’s going on here is not just a straightforward demand for democracy.

BG: These demonstrations started in February 2011, in the wake of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. Originally it seemed that it was the majority Shiites seeking to get more of a voice in the ruling of the government, not necessarily to overthrow the monarchy. Are there different protesters, and have the parliamentary protesters been eclipsed?

The main opposition party is called al-Wefaq. When they walked out of parliament last year and then boycotted by-elections in September and October, al-Wefaq chose to walk away from dialogue with the government and with the strongest reforming voice in the royal family, Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa. Since pulling out of the parliament, the face of the opposition has been almost entirely restricted to the protesters, whose tactics have become increasingly violent. They must return to the negotiating table and empower the Crown Prince’s liberal, pluralist initiative for Bahrain. ….more

…MORE on terrorist training platform HERE

Hijacking Human Rights
By Michael Barker – 03 August, 2007 – ZSpace

In our increasingly public relations-driven world, it is of little surprise that cynical political elites regularly use the rhetoric of democracy, peace, and human rights to disguise their overtly anti-humanist policies. Why should we expect less of our leaders in a world where the corporate media wages a relentless war to manufacture our consent for ruling demagogues? Thus it seems a logical assumption that budding mind managers will attempt to pervert the very concepts that their voters/targets hold most dearly. That this doublespeak is rendered invisible in the mainstream media is a given, but the lack of debate about this process in the alternative media is more worrisome.

Writers in the alternative press, of course, regularly question the rhetoric of our anti-democratic leaders, but the number of researchers investigating their cunningly misnamed (imperial) organizations – like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) – are few, and the number examining the democratic credentials of what are taken to be progressive organizations are even less still. This is disturbing in many ways, because if say for example I was a neoconservative and had identified this void of critical inquiry, then I would see the obvious utility of infiltrating and hijacking (or even creating) such unaccountable organizations so that I could use them for my own political purposes.[1] Thus if we are truly interested in creating progressive democratically run group’s within society, then it seems like a no-brainer that we should ensure their accountability through undertaking ongoing critiques of their work. While such activities are less necessary for organisations that invite a high degree of local participatory control, it is vital for national or internationally orientated groups that for the most part are privately run, with public involvement usually limited to monetary support.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is one of the latter such organizations, and as a highly regarded and influential international nongovernmental organization (NGO), it is vital that its global work be regularly examined to ensure that it remains true to it’s stated humanitarian mission. Simply put, this is because as Jonathan Cook writes:

“The measure of a human rights organisation is to be found not just in the strides it takes to seek justice for the oppressed and victimised but also in the compromises it makes to keep itself out of trouble. Because of the business that human rights defenders are in, they must be held to a standard higher than we demand of others.”[2] …more

Bahrain Insists it Allows Peaceful Protests
by Naharnet Newsdesk

Bahrain’s foreign ministry has insisted it respects the right to hold peaceful protests in the Gulf state and that its security forces only intervene when demonstrations turn violent.

“The kingdom of Bahrain authorizes the peaceful expression of opinion within the constitution and the law,” it said in a statement late Thursday in response to U.S. State Department concerns.

“The security forces exercise maximum restraint even though they are regularly the target of acts of violence,” the ministry said. “But these forces reserve the right to take necessary measures in the face of any escalation in violence.”

The State Department on Wednesday urged Bahrain to exercise restraint and allow peaceful protests, condemning a new outbreak of unrest in the U.S.-allied Sunni Muslim-led kingdom.

“We are deeply concerned about the increase in violence in Bahrain,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

“We condemn the use of violence in all its forms — whether against peaceful demonstrators or police and government institutions — and urge all parties to reject such actions,” Nuland said in a statement.

“We call on the government of Bahrain to permit peaceful protest and to exercise maximum restraint in maintaining order, just as we call on all those demonstrating to do so peacefully,” she said.

The Gulf state’s Shiite majority holds regular protests against their alleged marginalization and disenfranchisement by the Sunni regime. A crackdown on protests last year left 35 dead, according to an independent probe.

Bahrain cracks down on news around Formula One races
23 April, 2012 – UN Refugee Agency

New York, April 23, 2012 – Bahraini authorities, intent on suppressing coverage of the restive political conditions that were a backdrop to the Formula One Grand Prix in Manama on Sunday, arrested at least seven international journalists who were seeking to report on anti-government demonstrations, according to news reports.

Police check journalist IDs outside the Formula One races on Sunday. Authorities have restricted and suppressed journalists in the run-up to the races. (AP/Hassan Ammar)Police check journalist IDs outside the Formula One races on Sunday. Authorities have restricted and suppressed journalists in the run-up to the races. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

“Bahraini authorities may have wanted to put a positive veneer on the Grand Prix, but their heavy-handed actions in shutting down international news coverage reflect a government determined to silence critical viewpoints,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “Until government leaders halt their severe, ongoing crackdown on news coverage, their talk of reform cannot be taken seriously.”

At least seven international journalists have been detained in Bahrain for covering political unrest in the past five days. British broadcaster Channel 4 news reporter Jonathan Miller, cameraman Joe Sheffer, and producer Dave Fuller were arrested on Sunday while filming a demonstration in a Shiite suburb of Manama, news reports said. The news team had been denied journalist visas and were working without accreditation, the broadcaster reported. They were released after six hours of questioning and deported to the U.K. later that day, according to news reports. Miller wrote on his Twitter account that the authorities had confiscated their equipment and refused to return it. In an interview with Channel 4, Miller also said that their driver, Ali al-A’ali, had been beaten in front of the crew and taken into separate custody. Al-A’ali was later released, news reports said.

Colin Freeman, a correspondent for the London-based The Sunday Telegraph, and an unidentified Dutch reporter were also arrested on Sunday while filming a demonstration, The Telegraph reported. Mohammed Hassan, a stringer and fixer for international news outlets, and an unidentified driver were detained as well, reports said. The four were released after four hours in custody, the newspaper said. In addition, two unidentified Japanese journalists who worked for the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun were arrested in a village outside Manama for filming a demonstration, and were released two hours later, news reports said.

Hassan had been attacked and detained two days earlier. On Friday night, Bahraini riot police hit him with a stun grenade and beat and kicked him as he worked with journalists affiliated with British broadcaster ITN in the village of Al-Bilad al-Qadim, news reports said. Hassan was taken to a local hospital with extensive bleeding and bruising, local journalists said. He was released Saturday after being accused of attending an illegal gathering, his lawyer told CPJ. He was not charged, the lawyer said. …more

Attention all – #OpBahrain : Press Release from #Anonymous with #Formula1 data dump – 04/22/2012

Anonymous has been monitoring the human rights situation in Bahrain and the popular democratic uprising for over a year now, only to see the oppression of its people grow worse. When governments murder peaceful protesters on an ongoing basis, their illegitimacy becomes clear to all who can see. The government of Bahrain has been warned. We will not stop our support of the Bahraini people or our war against your tyranny until the people of Bahrain have true freedom and peace.

This regime – which maintains its power by force and justifies it by birthright – has responded to the protests with a violent crackdown calculated to intimidate those within the country and a sophisticated public relations strategy calculated to deceive those outside of it. The crackdown has left scores dead and thousands in prison; the PR campaign is intended to ensure that such protesters are not only injured and imprisoned, but also libeled and forgotten. The violence is handled in the usual way; the lies come courtesy of an American PR firm called Qorvis. For too long, we have watched this tyrannical government tear gas its own people literally to death, with over 30 fatalities reported so far. We have watched as thousands of innocent protesters and activists have been jailed.

We have watched as human rights advocate Abdulhadi Alkhawaja commits himself to death via a prison hunger strike that as of 22/4/2012 is 74 days in length, simply in the hope that some men somewhere will notice what is being done to other men here. We have witnessed doctors and nurses imprisoned merely for treating those wounded protesters who find themselves brutalized by security forces. And we have become outraged by the ignorance and outright lies of mainstream media regarding what is truly happening in Bahrain – lies concocted in large part by Qorvis, which is more than happy to defend such crimes and even to libel those of Bahrain’s activists who try bring them to the world’s attention at risk to their own lives. …more

Asimbonanga (We have not seen him)
Asimbonang’ uAlkhawaja thina (We have not seen Alkhawaja)
Laph’ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph’ehleli khona (In the place where he is kept)

Oh the sea is cold and the sky is grey
Look across the Island into the Bay
We are all islands till comes the day
We cross the burning water

Asimbonanga (We have not seen him)
Asimbonang’ uAlkhawaja thina (We have not seen Alkhawaja)
Laph’ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph’ehleli khona (In the place where he is kept)

A seagull wings across the sea
Broken silence is what I dream
Who has the words to close the distance
Between you and me

Asimbonanga (We have not seen him)
Asimbonang’ uAlkhawaja thina (We have not seen Alkhawaja)
Laph’ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph’ehleli khona (In the place where he is kept)

Iran successfully decoded the captured US Drone RQ- 170, and now ready to Clone it
Jafria News – 26 April, 2012

JNN 23 Apil 2012 Tehran : Iran has begun building a copy of the US surveillance drone spy drone RQ 170 it captured last year,after breaking its encryption codes, the commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps announced on Saturday, Iranian Mehr news agency reported.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh who was speaking on the anniversary of the establishment of the IRGC also said experts are receiving information from the captured spy plane, and revealed what he said were “codes” gleaned from the unmanned aircraft.

“The Americans should be aware to what extent we have infiltrated the plane,” General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, military aerospace chief said.

“I am giving you four codes so the Americans understand just how far we have gone in penetrating the drone’s secrets,” he told state television.

“In October 2010, the aircraft was sent to California for some technical issues, where it was repaired and after flight tests, it was taken to Kandahar (in Afghanistan) in November 2010, when a series of technical problems still prevailed,” he said.

“In December 2010, it was sent to an airport near Los Angeles for repair of its equipment and sensors, and flight tests. The drone was then sent back to Kandahar,” he said.

Hajizadeh did not give further details, saying: “This aircraft is a national treasure for us, and I cannot divulge information about it.”

But he added Iran has “started producing a copy of the RQ-170 drone,” stressing it used the same US technology in stealth fighters and bombers.

He said that Iran had managed to hack the controls of the drone, thus enabling the Iranians to reverse-engineer the aircraft to make its own copy.

The RQ-170 Sentinel was shown on Iranian state television last December.

The unmanned, bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel drone went down in Iran four months ago, and Iran’s gleeful military proudly displayed it on state television apparently intact. …more

FAMILY, LAWYER AND DIPLOMATS DENIED ACCESS TO ALKHAWAJA – IS HE STILL ALIVE?:
TIMELINE – 26 APRIL, 2012 – Peter Clifford Online

Today, Thursday, would be the 78th day of Abdulhadi AlKhawaja’s “Freedom or Death” hunger strike – if he is still alive. 75 days is normally the limit for surviving without sustenance and AlKhawaja told his family he would even stop drinking water last Sunday.

Where is AlKhawaja?

The Al-Khalifa Government currently has a news blackout on information around AlKhawaja and his family, his lawyer and the Danish Ambassador have all been prevented this week from speaking with him or making visits.

AlKhawaja’s wife says that she phoned the Bahrain Defence Force medical ward where he was being held on Wednesday after he failed to make his regular Tuesday call to her. A nurse is reported to have told her that his room and bed were empty.

Until a few days ago the Ministry of Interior was saying that he is still “in good health” but activists have reported a large increase in police checkpoints around Bahrain in the last 24 hours, which may indicate that some announcement to the contrary is imminent.

There also seems to have been an escalation in night time police raids on houses in the Shia villages and random arrests to “neutralise” those most likely to demonstrate. The village of Duraz was particularly targeted after an explosion there on Tuesday night injured 4 policemen following a fire inside a shop.

Ban Ki Moon, the UN General Secretary, the US State Department and the EU have all once again this week called on the Bahraini Government to use “every available option” to find resolution over the AlKhawaja case. It may be too late or he is in a coma.
httP://www.petercliffordonline.com/bahrain-news

Zanaib AlKhawaja Protesting in the Road – byshr.org

Zainab AlKhawaja, his daughter, who was arrested last weekend for staging a protest sit-in in the middle of the road in the Financial Harbour district, has been remanded in custody for another 7 days.

Her sister, Maryam AlKhawaja, who acts as international spokeswoman for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, yesterday addressed the EU Parliament in clear, forthright terms about the poor state of human rights, not just in Bahrain, but throughout the Gulf. …more

Bahrain is still rife with human rights abuses, torture and political imprisonments, says Sara Yasin. No wonder the world was “hostile” to its Grand Prix

It’s time to stop dealing with Bahrain
By Sara Yasin – 26 April, 2012 – Telegraph

In the pages of The Daily Telegraph on Monday, John Yates, the former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police now working in Bahrain advising the government on police reform, claimed that “Bahrainis are bewildered by the world hostility”, and by headlines that suggested a serious safety risk to Formula One teams.

Last weekend, all eyes were on Bahrain, and not for the reason the government had hoped. Coverage of Sebastian Vettel’s victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix was drowned out by a mess of stun grenades, burning tyres, tear gas and Molotov cocktails. Bahrain’s ongoing unrest pushed human rights organisations to call for the race to be cancelled.

Yates says the F1 teams’ safety was never at risk – but in the lead up to the race he claimed that live rounds could be used to make ensure their cars could speed around the Sakhir track. Does Yates seriously expect the world’s press to ignore incidents that included a Force India team mechanic narrowly avoiding being hit by petrol bombs during a clash between protesters and police?

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and Bahraini officials insisted that the show must go on, saying that sport has nothing to do with politics. Sports journalists were left to cover the violent crackdown on protesters and death of one protester – Salah Abbas Habib – on Saturday. His death and the death earlier in the month of another protester are a testament to the failure of reforms in the country.

Those who defend Bahrain’s government claim it is improving – acting to protect human rights, regulate policing and create more transparency. But as we saw this weekend, the situation on the ground is deteriorating. The country has been plagued by protests, peaceful and violent. The protesters do not believe reform is coming. …more

Increased Concern for Al-Khawaja Amid Disappearance
26 April, 2012 – POMED

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja entered his 78th day of hunger strike today, but his whereabouts is still unconfirmed. His wife recalled their last phone conversation on Monday, saying, “”Something is very wrong. He was talking about accepting death as the path of freedom, he sounded very weak and tired.” Al-Khawaja’s lawyer, Mohamed al-Jishi said he is requesting a court order for visiting rights to his client, whom he has not seen since April 4th. Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs Khalid Bin Ali Al-Khalifa said al-Khawaja can make a voluntary choice to end his hunger strike, and assured the BBC that he is being provided with “optimal health care.” Al-Khawaja’s case and the recent increase in reported cases of violence have prompted an official statement from U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, who called for an end to the violence and urged the Bahraini government to find a solution for al-Khawaja’s case. The State Department also issued a travel warning about Bahrain.

Western media has received some criticism for its coverage of Bahrain. Sarah Hildt says the New York Times falsely characterized al-Khawaja’s daughter, Zainab al-Khawaja. “The American media has failed spectacularly in its coverage of Bahrain,” she writes, “Let us at very least not deepen this failure by now slandering and misrepresenting the stance of someone as principled and courageous as his daughter Zainab.” Jihad El-Khazen, writing for Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, attributes poor Western media coverage of Bahrain to “ignorance.” Sara Yasin says the Bahraini government has been given ample time to implement the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations, and given the lack of substantial reform, “This means that [the international community] shouldn’t be doing business with the regime, and most certainly should not be selling them arms or inviting them to lunch.” …source

Syria faces neo-mujahideen struggle
By Victor Kotsev – 26 April, 2012 – Asia Times

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may have won a battle earlier this year (as the retreat of the Free Syrian Army from the ruined city of Homs testifies), but he is nowhere near winning the war. The uprising is quickly turning into a full-scale insurgency – a foreign-sponsored insurgency, to be more precise, which some analysts term a “neo-mujahideen strategy”.

After Saturday’s unanimous vote, the lines at the United Nations Security Council have blurred somewhat: Resolution 2043, introduced by Russia, authorized the sending of 300 unarmed military observers to supervise the implementation of the latest peace plan spearheaded by United Nations peace envoy and former secretary general Kofi Annan.

By most accounts, however, this is no more than a token gesture, which will not stop the bloodshed, but may win some time for all sides to regroup and to shore up their strategy. The status quo is clearly unsustainable, but an ominous silence, at least as concerns the next big moves, has set in.

On the ground, state lines have blurred as well – although not officially, at least not yet. The powers with the greatest stakes in the Syrian conflict look at the map and increasingly appear to see networks of ethnic and religious groups scattered across a number of countries, rather than the traditional state borders that nominally define the space.

If a regime is too strong militarily to be defeated from the outside, it can be torn apart from the inside – yet this is a game that requires great skill and caution, as well as the micromanagement of an enormously complicated web of regional relationships and rivalries.

Neighboring countries, whose populations have participated in these networks for many years, typically have an edge in this game over distant superpowers, but they also have a lot more at stake in it. A mistake can cost them dearly and can set the fire of identity conflict to their own proverbial houses.

This logic fits the situation Turkey finds itself in with respect to Syria. The two countries were bitter rivals for decades, though in the past years – until last year’s uprising – Ankara sought to reassert itself on the Middle Eastern political scene, and seemingly perceived Assad’s regime as its prized instrument for channeling influence into the Arab world.

The Arab Spring put paid to that, but Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan adjusted quickly and tried to champion the cause of Syrian freedom, ostensibly in hopes of winning even greater clout among the Arabs in this way than his relationship with Assad could ever have afforded him. …more

Alkhawja’s other daughter, Zainab is currently detained by Bahrain government after being arrested during Stop Grand Grand Prix protest – below

Cyber security is stepped up
By SANDEEP SINGH GREWAL- 25 April, 2012 – Gulf Daily News

BAHRAIN has beefed up Internet security after several government websites were attacked by a global hacking network.

The Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowment Ministry, General Directorate for Traffic and Licensing, Custom Affairs, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Civil Service Bureau and Northern Governorate were among those targeted.

The international hacking group Anonymous, which has previously attacked the Chinese, British and Polish governments, the FBI, US Justice Department and Interpol, claimed responsibility.

Most of the websites in Bahrain were targeted during the F1 weekend and have returned to normal.

However, some continued to be inaccessible yesterday.

It is understood some of the sites were taken offline by a distributed denial-of-service attack that floods a server with so many requests that it cannot respond to legitimate users.

“The Information Technology Directorate and officials have been warned of increasing attacks on government websites and asked to ensure their servers are not affected,” sources told the GDN.

Anonymous claimed responsibility for the Bahrain attacks on the website anoncentral.tumblr.com, describing it as #OpBahrain and warned of further attacks.

Anonymous also targeted the Formula One fan site F1-Racers.net and posted anti-government messages and video clippings on its home page.

The personal details of F1 spectators such as their passport numbers and e-mail addresses were also displayed.

“We will also jam your phone lines, bomb your e-mail inboxes and wreck anything else of yours we can find on the Internet. Good luck generating ad revenues with your servers down!,” stated Anonymous.

Last year, hackers, mainly from Iran, targeted websites belonging to the Interior Ministry, Bahrain News Agency and Housing Ministry as part of a campaign to spread anti-government propaganda.

Following the spate of hacking incidents, Bahrain decided to shift its servers based in the US home with the help of the Central Informatics Organisation.

Gulf Air’s Facebook page was also hacked earlier this month by criminals demanding the release of political activist Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, who is among 21 men serving life sentences for being part of a plot to overthrow the monarchy last year. …source

Khawaja’s wife, Khadija al-Mousawi, said her husband had failed to call on Tuesday from the military hospital. “Something is very wrong,” Mousawi said. “He was talking about accepting death as the path of freedom, he sounded very weak and tired,” she added, referring to her last conversation with Khawaja on Monday.

Fears for Bahrain hunger striker, minister defends police
25 April, 2012 – Reuters – Andrew Hammond

DUBAI, April 25 (Reuters) – The wife of a jailed Bahraini activist said on Wednesday she was worried for the health of her husband after more than two months of hunger strike.

Bahrain’s interior minister, speaking after weeks of protests against a Formula One Grand Prix here, described as a terrorist act an explosion in a village near Manama on Tuesday night that wounded four policemen. It said security forces had the right to protect themselves.

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, one of 14 men in prison for leading an uprising last year, is serving a life sentence for expressing support last year for Bahrain becoming a republic. He has been fasting for 77 days.

Bahrainis won no major concessions on reducing the powers of the Sunni ruling Al Khalifa family in the protests, but one year later the uprising has not gone away.

In response to queries on Khawaja’s health, the interior ministry said to refer to its Twitter feed. There was no new information on Wednesday.

Khawaja’s wife, Khadija al-Mousawi, said her husband had failed to call on Tuesday from the military hospital where he is being monitored during his hunger strike and she was unable to obtain any information on his health on Wednesday.

“Something is very wrong,” Mousawi said. “He was talking about accepting death as the path of freedom, he sounded very weak and tired,” she added, referring to her last conversation with Khawaja on Monday. …source