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

Obama’s Syria policy in shambles as Assad opposition squabbles
Hannah Allam – McClatchy – 25 March, 2013

WASHINGTON The Obama administration’s Syria policy was unraveling Monday after weekend developments left the Syrian Opposition Coalition and its military command in turmoil, with the status of its leader uncertain and its newly selected prime minister rejected by the group’s military wing.

State Department officials said they still planned to work with the coalition, to which the United States has pledged $60 million, but analysts said the developments were one more sign that the Obama administration and its European allies had no workable Syria policy.

The opposition coalition, already in its second incarnation, has proved to be as beset by factionalism as its predecessor, the Syrian National Council, exacerbated this time by the meddling of foreign donors, analysts said. But, the analysts added, the United States has no other entity to back in a war that pits the regime of President Bashar Assad against a jihadist-dominated rebel movement.

“This is it. The U.S. can’t reboot it a third time. If they can’t make this work, they’ve got nothing,” said Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and the author of the blog Syria Comment.

Syrian Opposition Coalition leader Mouaz al Khatib announced his resignation Sunday, citing his frustration with unspecified foreign powers, which he accused of trading funding for control of the group. The coalition said it had refused the resignation, and Khatib later announced on his Facebook page that he’d lead a delegation representing Syria this week at the Arab League summit in Qatar, leaving his precise status uncertain.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said it was unclear whether Khatib had resigned and that events were still “playing out.”

“What’s important is that the Syrian opposition continues to work toward what they’ve laid out, which is a vision for a tolerant, inclusive Syria,” Ventrell said. “There may be different leadership that will come and go, there may be different folks who play different roles, but we are going to continue to focus on that important vision.”

The confusion over Khatib’s resignation was compounded by word over the weekend that the head of the Supreme Military Command, the semi-affiliated military wing of the coalition, refused to recognize newly chosen Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto, saying the premier had been improperly elected and pushed through by Qatar, one of the biggest backers of the opposition movement and its armed rebels.

Hitto, a longtime Texas resident who recently returned to the region to join the opposition, heads what was envisioned as an interim government that’s poised to take over once Assad falls. But his credibility is deeply in doubt now that Khatib appears to have resigned and Hitto’s military commanders reject his leadership. The rejection also casts a pall over American efforts to pass through the coalition millions in U.S. money destined for Syrians whom the fighting has forced from their homes; Hitto was in charge of the coalition’s nascent aid organization.

Opposition activists who were privy to details of the negotiations say Hitto’s nomination was backed by Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood, the conservative Islamist organization that’s fought the Assad regime for three decades and is at the forefront of the political opposition.

Qatar, a Muslim Brotherhood patron, supported Hitto over the objections of rival Persian Gulf nation Saudi Arabia. In retaliation, opposition activists say, Saudi Arabia, which is a key supplier of weapons to the rebels, pressured the Supreme Military Command’s leader, defected Gen. Salim Idriss, to reject Hitto, essentially putting negotiations back at square one.

“With a clear absence of the U.S., small players like the Qataris and Saudis will take over,” said a prominent Syrian opposition activist who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivities of the topic. “It’s bringing the government down, when the goal was to put an end to the chaos and vacuum.”

The setbacks over the weekend only underlined the lack of progress the Syrian political opposition has made after two years and millions of dollars in outside aid.

The lack of opposition cohesion raises the specter of a bloody free-for-all should Assad fall, perhaps plunging Syria into anarchy with no credible body poised to take charge.

“We have a leader who resigned, an interim prime minister whose election was conducted without transparency and the formal opposition has failed. I don’t know what happens if Assad falls,” said Rafif Jouejati, a spokeswoman for the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists with more than 80 branches throughout Syria.

Jouejati, who’s consulted with the State Department on Syria policy, said key developments to watch were whether the coalition-linked rebel command would live up to its promise of accepting civilian leadership and whether cooperation could improve amid both sides complaining of being sidelined.

“The Syrian opposition needs to look at itself in the mirror and realize it’s been a colossal failure to the Syrian people,” Jouejati lamented. “It’s time for a complete overhaul.”

Landis predicted that the United States will try to restore some type of role for Khatib, who’d fallen out with the Muslim Brotherhood by calling for conditional talks with Assad, a track that the U.S. and Europe are quietly pursuing in hopes of preventing a total collapse of Syrian institutions but that Brotherhood activists reject after decades of heavy losses to the Assad dynasty. It’s in the U.S. government’s interest that the coalition doesn’t totally collapse, especially as a rebel group that the U.S. government has labeled an al Qaida-linked terrorist group, Jabhat al Nusra, gains ground throughout the country.

“It’s going to limp along because they need it,” Landis said. “They need a political organization that’s pro-West.”
…source

Syria opposition leader demands Patriot missiles, UN seat
26 March, 2013 – Al Akhbar

Syria’s opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib, taking Syria’s seat at an Arab summit for the first time on Tuesday, said the United States should use Patriot missiles to protect rebel-held areas from government warplanes.

Khatib said the United States should play a bigger role in helping end the two-year-old conflict in Syria, blaming President Bashar al-Assad’s government for what he called its refusal to solve the crisis.

“I have asked [US Secretary of State John] Kerry to extend the umbrella of the Patriot missiles to cover the Syrian north and he promised to study the subject,” Khatib said, referring to NATO Patriot missile batteries sent to Turkey last year to protect Turkish airspace.

“We are still waiting for a decision from NATO to protect people’s lives, not to fight but to protect lives,” he said.

In a fiery address, Khatib also demanded that he be allowed to represent Syria at the United Nations.

“We demand … the seat of Syria at the United Nations and at other international organisations,” Khatib said, addressing Arab leaders at the Doha summit.

Khatib, a Sunni cleric, took over Syria’s vacant chair at the Arab League summit in Doha after it had been empty since the Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in November 2011.

Qatar had lobbied other Arab League to promote Syria’s opposition National Coalition to fill the country’s spot.

Khatib had announced his resignation from his position as leader of the Syrian National Coalition Sunday, confusing the situation and throwing the fragmented opposition into disarray and denting its credibility.

Despite his resignation, which has not yet been accepted by the coalition, Khatib had said he would address the summit “in the name of the Syrian people,” and that his attendance “is not linked to the resignation which will be later discussed.”

Khatib had told Al Jazeera television that his main reason for quitting was frustration with world inaction. He also acknowledged that the coalition had been divided, referring to last week’s decision in Istanbul to appoint Islamist-leaning technocrat Ghassan Hitto as provisional prime minister.

Last year during the summit, Russia and Iran threw their backing behind a UN-sponsored peace plan in Syria, as Arab foreign ministers met in Baghdad to debate a draft resolution calling on Damascus to end the continuing violence.

The plan’s six-points had called for a ceasefire and withdrawal of government forces from cities and towns, but did not specify that Assad must step aside as a precondition for dialogue. …source

US training ‘secular’ Syrian rebels: Officials
The Associated Press – 26 March, 2013 – Hurriyet Daily

WASHINGTON – The United States is training secular Syrian fighters in Jordan in a bid to bolster forces battling President Bashar Assad’s regime and stem the influence of Islamist radicals among the country’s persistently splintered opposition, American and foreign officials said.

The training has been conducted for several months now in an unspecified location, concentrating largely on Sunnis and tribal Bedouins who formerly served as members of the Syrian army, officials told The Associated Press. The forces aren’t members of the leading rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, which Washington and others fear may be increasingly coming under the sway of extremist militia groups, including some linked to al-Qaida, they said.

The operation is being run by U.S. intelligence and is ongoing, officials said, but those in Washington stressed that the U.S. is providing only nonlethal aid at this point. Others such as Britain and France are involved, they said, though it’s unclear whether any Western governments are providing materiel or other direct military support after two years of civil war that according to the United Nations already has killed more than 70,000 people.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the program.

Officially, the Obama administration has been vague on the subject of what type of military training it may be providing, while insisting that it is doing all it can – short of providing weapons to the rebels or engaging in its own military intervention – to hasten the demise of the Assad family’s four-decade dictatorship.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday the U.S. has “provided some logistical nonlethal support that has also come in handy for the Syrian rebels who are, again, fighting a regime that is not hesitating to use the military might of that regime against its own people. …more

Hugo Chávez: 1954-Forever
22 March, 2013 – By Jordan Katz

Just inside the entrance to New York’s Church of St. Paul the Apostle, a line to sign a book of condolences for the late Hugo Chávez snaked around tables at the ecumenical service held just over a week after the former Venezuelan president’s death. Piled on the tables were t-shirts imprinted with the slogan, “Yo Soy Chávez.” Beneath the slogan in smaller print: “1954-Forever.”

Mourners from Venezuela and throughout the Americas filled the church on the night of March 13 to pay their respects and look toward the future. According to Venezuela’s recently appointed Minister of the People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Elías Jaua, who spoke at the event, Venezuela’s future holds an expansion of the Chavista socialist program, and most importantly, a “radicaliz[ing] of participatory democracy.” Jaua expressed confidence that Chavez’s predecessor and Venezuela’s interim president, Nicolas Maduro, will win the election scheduled for April 14th.

Jaua’s words were met with cheers from an emotional and inspired audience, which included a host of progressive organizations. The Workers World Party, the Urban Justice Center, and leaders of several unions attended the memorial.

Among the slew of political activists who came out to show their support were some familiar faces. Actor Danny Glover sent a letter to be read in his absence and former Congressman Joseph Kennedy gave a speech, condemning those who spoke ill of Chávez and praising his redistribution of the country’s wealth. Citing Chávez’s reorganization of Venezuela’s previously ailing state oil program, PDVSA, he asked, “What possible benefit could that oil monster have been to the poor of Venezuela?”

The speakers glorified rather than analyzed Chávez, but individual audience members’ reactions were more critical. A Venezuelan national who attended the service and wishes to be named only as Max, said things in Venezuela are progressing little by little. “You have to give it time,” he said. “Chávez did quite a lot. He had his problems, but no one is perfect in this life. He achieved more than anyone else did, especially in education, which is what the people need…We’re not going to become like Cuba. To become like Cuba, where people can’t even leave their country, we’d have to move backward.”

Carmen Martinez, an occupational therapist originally from Venezuela, said her support for Chávez largely stems from what he did for the handicap community. “The president actually was the one who promoted the love for the handicap people there,” she said. “In the past, they didn’t have any wheelchairs. They really didn’t have any equipment there… and [Chávez] created a mission where he was able to provide not only the care, but also all the equipment that they lacked before.” She said she was deeply saddened and devastated by his death, but believes Nicolas Maduro is the right person to carry out the programs that Chávez put in place.

When asked about Maduro’s opposition, Henrique Capriles, Martinez said she doesn’t think that his campaign has been honest. “Because of the campaign, they were saying ‘Oh, well we promise every handicapped child a wheelchair.’ Well we had that… They forgot that we already have the mission,” she said. “So somebody who can lie on the TV just to try to make people happy, I don’t think I can trust.”

Despite controversy surrounding the constitutionality of Maduro’s taking over the presidency in the interim, he is the favored candidate. And considering Maduro’s recent declarations that the United States was behind Chávez’s illness, it doesn’t look like U.S.-Venezuelan relations will be softening in the near future. Whoever wins the election inherits some of the highest inflation rates in the world and an extremely high crime rate–Venezuela’s homicide rate is second only to Honduras. The best way to tackle those challenges is by constructing programs that have lasting positive impact, whether the president is Chavista or not. …more

School students and bank workers are among those protesting in Cyprus, after the country reached a painful bailout deal with European creditors. A 3,000-strong crowd of high school pupils marched to the presidential palace in Nicosia, while workers from the Bank of Cyprus staged an occupation of the headquarters in the capital. A banking restructure and a tax of 40% on bank savings over €100,000 are part of the painful measures designed to keep the country from going bankrupt

Gulf: rise in arrests and convictions of cyber critics
25 March, 2013 – ANSAmed

(ANSAmed) – DUBAI, MARCH 25 – In the cyber-savvy but socially conservative Persian Gulf, the duel between modernity and tradition, free speech and subservience to king and country is being played out on the social media platform, as shown by a rise in trials of activists, bloggers and tweeters on charges of blasphemy or sedition.

The latest conviction came yesterday in Kuwait, where blogger Rashid al-Hajiri was sentenced to two years in jail for offending the emir and encouraging people to join in illegal demonstrations. Two similar cases are pending in Kuwaiti courts, while a third ended with a fine. In June 2012, blogger Hamad al-Naqi, 26, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. While bloggers have been arrested from Bahrain to Oman to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait is the only country with a bill pending that calls for capital punishment for social media users convicted of offending Allah and the Prophet Mohamed.

In Saudi Arabia, Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Shaiki has spoken out against social networks, without explicitly banning them. In December, the UAE arrested the country’s youngest activist, an 18-year-old blogger, after a presidential decree set jail time of up to three years for anyone convicted of using cyber media to deride or damage the country’s reputation, institutions or symbols.

In Bahrain, where a Sunni minority rules over a Shiite majority, the most glaring case of repression is the life sentence handed to activist and blogger Abdel Hadi al-Khawaja, thought to be among the promoters of the Bahraini Arab Spring uprisings. His daughter Zainab is also in prison, and both father and daughter went on thirst strike after they were denied visits from relatives, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, which is chaired by Khawaja’s other daughter, Maryam.

Zainab is in danger of cardiac arrest, doctors said.

Oman has so far been the only country to buck the regional trend of repressing free cyber speech. While dozens of critical social media users have been arrested over the past months, the authorities have pardoned them all. …more

News blackout imposed on trial of 94 activists on national security charges
25 March, 2013 – Reporters without Borders

Reporters Without Borders roundly condemns the news blackout that the UAE’s authorities have imposed on the trial of 94 political activists and human rights defenders before the supreme court in Abu Dhabi on charges of endangering the country’s security.

The authorities have allowed the UAE media to attend the four hearings so far held but not the international media. International observers and relatives of the defendants have also been banned from fifth hearing, which is due to be held tomorrow.

In a related development, the netizen Abdulla Al-Hadidi was arrested on 22 March on trumped-up charges of attacking a security guard outside the court on 19 March and disseminating false information on Twitter. He is being held in Abu Dhabi’s Khaledyya district police station.

The second charge has been brought under a new cyber-crime law (Federal Legal Decree No. 5/2012), which was adopted at the end of 2012 and which is regarded as pretext for drastically curbing freedom of expression and information in the UAE.

The Emirates Centre for Human Rights said it believes that 41 relatives of the 94 defendants could also be arrested soon because of what they have allegedly posted on social networks about the trial.

Six human rights organizations including Reporters Without Borders issued a joint statement on 28 January condemning the crackdown on human rights defenders and political activists on the eve of the UAE’s Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council. …source

America’s Other Dark Legacy In Iraq
By Joy Gordon – 25 March, 2013 –

When the United States, the United Kingdom, and the “coalition of the willing” attacked Iraq in March 2003, millions protested around the world. But the war of “shock and awe” was just the beginning. The subsequent occupation of Iraq by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority bankrupted the country and left its infrastructure in shambles.

It’s not just a question of security. Although the breathtaking violence that attended Iraq’s descent into sectarian nightmare has been well documented in many retrospectives on the 10-year-old war, what’s often overlooked is that by far more mundane standards, the United States did a spectacularly poor job of governing Iraq.

It’s not that Iraq was flourishing before the occupation. From 1990 to 2003, the UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions on Iraq that were the harshest in the history of global governance. But along with the sanctions, at least, came an elaborate system of oversight and accountability that drew in the Security Council, nine UN agencies, and General Secretary himself.

The system was certainly imperfect, and the effects of the sanctions on the Iraqi people were devastating. But when the United States arrived, all semblance of international oversight vanished.

Under enormous pressure from Washington, in May 2003 the Security Council formally recognized the occupation of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Resolution 1483. Among other things, this resolution gave the CPA complete control over all of Iraq’s assets.

At the same time, the Council removed all the forms of monitoring and accountability that had been in place: there would be no reports on the humanitarian situation by UN agencies, and there would be no committee of the Security Council charged with monitoring the occupation. There would be a limited audit of funds, after they were spent, but no one from the UN would directly oversee oil sales. And no humanitarian agencies would ensure that Iraqi funds were being spent in ways that benefitted the country.

Humanitarian concerns

In January 2003, the UN prepared a working plan anticipating the impact of a possible war. Even with only “medium impact” from the invasion, the UN expected that humanitarian conditions would be severely compromised.

Because the Iraqi population was so heavily reliant on the government’s food distribution system (a consequence of international sanctions), the UN anticipated that overthrowing the Iraqi regime would also undermine food security. And because the population already suffered from extensive malnutrition, this disruption would be quite lethal, putting 30 percent of Iraqi children under five at risk of death. The UN noted that if water and sewage treatment plants were damaged in the war, or if the electrical system could not operate, Iraqis would lose access to potable water, which would likely precipitate epidemics of water-borne diseases. And if electricity, transportation, and medical equipment were compromised, then the medical system would be unable to respond effectively to these epidemics. …more

In response to the criticisms made by western States and organizations against the Bahraini regime, a Bahraini government writer in a quasi-government daily paper called openly for the founding of al-Qaeda in Bahrain.

A suspicious call for an existence of al-Qaeda in Bahrain
25 March, 2013 – ABNA

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – In response to the criticisms made by western States and organizations against the Bahraini regime, a Bahraini government writer in a quasi-government daily paper called openly for the founding of al-Qaeda in Bahrain.

The government writer made this threat in order to mix things up amidst the wide demands for democracy and respect of human rights, and as a direct threat to the western States and parties which demanded Bahrain to respect human rights.

The Media Centre in Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society denounced such a call that incites terrorism and destroys the country in order to serve suspicious interests and desires.

The Media Centre demands a national and international humanitarian prompt and firm stance to protect this country from destruction.

Democracy is the choice of all peoples including the people of Bahrain who have come very close to it after the nationwide demands movement proved readiness to reach its goal. …source

Is U.S. Trying To Gut Arms Trade Treaty?
Amnesty International – 25 March, 2013

The US is trying to strip the Arms Trade Treaty of critical human rights protections.

By Nate Smith, Arms Trade Treaty Negotiations Observer

Late on Friday, the latest draft of the Arms Trade Treaty was shared publicly. It’s not looking good.

Here’s what it boils down to: Will world leaders take the necessary steps now to prevent sending weapons to countries where they will likely be used for torture, summary executions, and other human rights abuses? Or will they allow business as usual and wait until even more staggering numbers of civilians have been killed until they finally decide to stop arms shipments to those who are targeting civilians?

The second option is called the “body bag” approach. The US government is among those who actually think this is a good idea. It wants to allow critical human rights protections to be kept out of the treaty. These would require countries to exercise some due diligence in making sure they aren’t transferring weapons to places where they know they’ll be used in extrajudicial executions, disappearances, or torture – a global “background check” for arms transfers. …more

Police occupy New York City neighborhood After shooting of Kimani Gray
By Sandy English; 25 March 2013 – WSWS

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has stationed hundreds of police officers in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Flatbush since protests erupted after the shooting of 16-year-old Kimani Gray on March 9.

Over the weekend, WSWS reporters in the area saw horse-mounted officers waiting alongside dozens of police motorcycles. Police were stationed at every corner of East Flatbush’s Church Avenue and nearby Nostrand Avenue, close to the location where the killing took place.

Mobile command centers with sophisticated surveillance equipment were stationed in the area, and convoys of squad cars and vans filled with police could be seen speeding along the streets. Groups of officers congregated in the side streets, and in adjoining neighborhoods metal police barricades were stacked on sidewalks.

While the police presence was heightened because of the funeral of Kimani Gray on Saturday and another protest march on Sunday, heavy police presence has been constant since March 10. At that time, protesters began a series of marches to the NYPD 67th Precinct building in the neighborhood. Youth confronted the police and ransacked a store that night. Police arrested nearly 50 people at a protest the next evening.

Protests began after two undercover officers from the Brooklyn South Anti-Crime Patrol shot Gray on March 9, a Saturday night, after he left a group of young men who were congregating in front of a private residence.

The police allege that Gray pulled a gun on the officers, and that the officers warned him and then fired. Witnesses have contradicted the NYPD version, and told the media that no weapon was visible. An official autopsy revealed that of the seven shots that hit Gray, three entered his body from behind.

Hundreds of mourners attended Gray’s funeral on Saturday while police officers stood nearby and were stationed on a roof across the street. Police also had a substantial presence at Sunday’s protest.

Carol Gray, Kimani’s mother, has called for an independent inquiry into the shooting of her son.

According to a report in the Daily News, one of the police officers who shot Gray, Sgt. Mourad Mourad, had at least three suits brought against him when he was a plainclothes officer on Staten Island. The other officer involved, Jovaniel Cordova, had two suits brought against him while he was stationed at Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct. All of the suits alleged civil rights violations surrounding false arrest and illegal stop-and-searches.

The police occupation of East Flatbush is an intensification of the decade-long stop-and-frisk policy. Initiated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2002, this policy directs officers to randomly stop passersby on the streets and in front of residences, question them and pat them down for drugs or weapons. As a rule, only the poorest neighborhoods in the city are affected. …more

Globalizing repression, from Hebron to Brooklyn
Joshua Stephens – 24 March, 2013 – NOW

BROOKLYN, NY – On March 12th, 25-year-old Mahmoud al-Titi was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Hebron, where he was a journalism student and an organizer on behalf of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. His death marks just the most recent casualty of Israel’s use of live sporting ammunition against Palestinians, banned by the IDF since the Second Intifada. Some speculate it reflects an Israeli strategy to undermine unarmed resistance by forcing protestors to resort to violence, a terrain in which they would easily be dominated by the IDF. Similar to the fallout from the recent murder of Arafat Jaradat in an Israeli prison, al-Titi’s death was followed by an escalation in confrontations with soldiers. “Hebron is very hot, people are very angry; about this situation and about everything around them,” says Issa Amro, an organizer with the Hebron group Youth Against Settlements. “There are almost daily clashes.”

Three days prior to al-Titi’s murder, in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Flatbush, undercover NYPD officers shot and killed sixteen year-old Kimani Gray, after seeing him allegedly adjust his waistband in a suspicious fashion, and claiming he’d pulled a gun when they approached him. At least one witness has publicly disputed the police story, and claims the officers continued to fire into Gray’s body once it had hit the sidewalk – behavior incommensurate with the police officer’s claim of self-defense. The borough has responded with fury, organizing nightly anti-police protests, and spreading news of the event on social media using the hash tag #BrooklynUprising. Aside from the protests, often in defiance of pleading local politicians, the neighborhood has seemingly turned on the police. “The anger has been impossible to contain,” says Chepe, an Occupy Wall Street organizer and Brooklyn resident. Seeing bottles rain down on violent cops from balconies and windows is nothing new, he says. “But this isn’t a matter of a few drops. It’s a downpour.”

In Brooklyn and the West Bank, the backlash against brutality has instigated a state response. Over the last week, according to Amro, Hebron has rather predictably been subject to increased Israeli military activity. “More restriction, more checkpoints, more house raids at night,” he says. Similarly, in East Flatbush, the NYPD recently declared a “Frozen Zone”: an official designation that bars all media access and authorizes the arrest of anyone who ignores or defies a police order – a rare measure implemented in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks.

While these vignettes suggest a certain correspondence, and even appear to share a timeline, a rather glaring error is committed in drawing equivalencies. As one Palestinian organizer pointed out, “Talking about police brutality under a state is different than talking about the acts of an occupying army.”

In addition to flattening the differences between the two scenarios, equating the two obscures rather stark larger trends. Legal acts dating back to the US Civil War bar the military from performing in a domestic law enforcement capacity, but the militarization of police the world over has been underway for some time, amidst discourses within which even public health matters are constructed as ‘wars’. In the paranoid post-9/11 era, war is no longer confined by space or time; war since 2001 has morphed into a permanent state of exception in which civil liberties and necessities of the democratic process are often radically curtailed. From unmanned drones, to spying operations, to the low-scale warfare unleashed on nonviolent demonstrators during the Occupy movement in the US, the exploded notion of warfare against diffuse enemies such as ‘terror’ have fundamentally altered the contours of not only war, but policing. As Chepe points out, “it’s important to understand that police precincts like the 67th [in East Flatbush] consider their beats to be war zones.”

These trends are not ones lost on those looking to turn a profit. Israel and its private sector increasingly position themselves as exporters of surveillance and security technology, as well as technologies for crowd control and the management of civil disturbance – even to their sworn enemy, Iran. China, India, and Finland have all recently pursued acquiring Israeli surveillance and security tools as well.

Aside from providing a captive market for Israeli goods, the occupation is a major engine for the Israeli defense industry. The West Bank effectively serves as a proving ground for both tactics exported to official agencies, and the technologies best suited to those tactics. The correspondences between Hebron and East Flatbush are not a matter of mirroring or reducibility, but their strikingly similar timelines bring into focus key features at the intersection of militarization and neoliberal globalization. From Spain, to Greece, to Tunisia, to Egypt – and increasingly the United States and Canada – a pronounced shift in the management of nonviolent civil society movements has taken shape in recent years; one that casts democratic aspirations as a threat to security, and responds with overwhelming force. Perhaps more importantly, it’s a shift that puts Palestine and the methods of repression and justification refined on its population front and center – especially as they become key Israeli exports. …source

Bethan Tichborne to appeal against public order conviction for telling PM he had ‘blood on his hands’ during anti-cuts protest

Activist ‘shocked’ at conviction for yelling at David Cameron
Mark Townsend and Tracy McVeigh – guardian.co.uk – 16 March 2013

A woman has described her shock after being found guilty of a public order offence for telling David Cameron he had “blood on his hands”.

Bethan Tichborne, 28, said initially she assumed her court summons was a bureaucratic error after she was arrested for protesting against cuts to disability benefits. But she was told by a district judge that her comments must have hugely insulted the prime minister.

Cameron was switching on the Christmas lights in his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, in December, when Tichborne tried to climb a barrier with her homemade placard. The one-woman protest, she claims, was against cuts leading to the deaths of people with disabilities. She believes her conviction at Oxford magistrates court last week was politically motivated.

District Judge Tim Pattinson told her: “It is difficult to think of a clearer example of disorderly behaviour than to climb or attempt to climb a barrier at a highly security-sensitive public occasion.”

Judge Pattinson praised Tichborne’s previous good character but said her comments that Cameron “had blood on his hands” could “hardly be more insulting to anyone, whether a politician or not”.

The 28-year-old was convicted of using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Tichborne, a teaching assistant who works with disabled children, said that she now intends to appeal against the conviction. “My faith in the court system is a bit shaky but on the other hand I feel I’ve got to hold them to account.”

She added: “I am really quite shocked and quite sad … I had a placard that said Cameron has got blood on his hands and shouted disabled people are dying because of Cameron’s policies.

“The judge said stuff in his verdict that made it very clear it was political, like he couldn’t think of anything more insulting or offensive.”

She also alleged police beat her up moments after she tried to scale the barrier separating Cameron from the crowd. …more

Bypassing Saudi human rights in the name of oil and jobs
25 March, 2013 – Jon Snow – 4News

Charles and Camilla are safely home from Saudi Arabia and assorted Gulf states.

They were in Saudi at a somewhat bumpy moment. The royal couple never got closer than a thousand miles from the “public killing grounds”, as they are somewhat candidly described.

Had they got a lot closer, they might have seen the blood drying from the execution of seven alleged robbers.

I use the word “alleged” because the UN and various human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch’s Middle East section, have argued that the trials of the men – some of whom were juveniles – conducted under sharia law, were deeply flawed.

The suspects were charged with being part of a gang of thieves in the Saudi town of Abha. There was no evidence that any of the accused had killed or injured anyone.

Actually there may well have been rather less blood in the aftermath of the killings than usual. The death sentences were carried out, for the first time, by firing squad. The kingdom has run out of execution swordsmen, so it is no longer possible to disconnect the accused’s head from his or her body. It was a practice which led to a gushing of much blood from the severed neck.

In the same period, two of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent advocates of non violent reform – Mohammed Fahd al-Quatami and Abdullah al-Hamed – were jailed for 10 years apiece.

Charles and Camilla were not alone in bypassing human rights as a discussion point with their hosts. US Secretary of State John Kerry and America’s Attorney General Eric Holder were both in Saudi in recent days. They too decided not to raise human rights. I hate to use the phrase, but the per capita execution rate in Saudi is higher than in any other country on earth.

I have blogged before on the issue of Saudi-financed warfare. I have yet to be contradicted on the claim that there is not a British military boot in overt or covert action anywhere in the world, where the enemy is not in some way financed by Saudi interests.

Can it really be British jobs and a British thirst for oil that neutralise the reality that this just may be a state that it is perhaps unwise to retain as a ‘most favoured nation?’

Charles and Camilla were not alone in bypassing the matter. …source

British Ambassador asserts that those who perpetrate blasts are terrorists and he describes Human Rights Watch recent allegations as high-handed and arrogant
25 March, 2013 – BNA

Manama: March 25—(BNA)— The British Ambassador in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Mr. Iain Lindsay, described as terrorists those responsible for explosion acts in Bahrain and urged political and religious factions to denounce violence, asserting that there are clues that those who stand behind acts of violence receive Iran’s support and backing.

Ambassador Mr. Lindsay criticized Human Rights Watch Organization for its alleging that Bahrain has not achieved any progress in its promises of accomplishing reforms; and he described the Organization as high-handed and arrogant.

The UK Ambassador in an exclusive interview published by the Gulf Daily News (GDN) today said that the ongoing National Dialogue is the only way to end the political stalemate which dates to more than two years. However, he added that the United Kingdom is concerned towards the support provided by Iran to those involved in acts of violence. He also added that the British Government explicitly voiced its concernment towards increasing evidences of Iran’s shifting its position from exploiting Bahrain’s problems for propaganda purposes to its provision of support to persons who commit acts of violence.

Ambassador Mr. Iain Lindsay did not mention the details of such evidences or the type of support provided by Iran; however, he said that an investigation conducted by the Committee on Foreign Relations in the British Parliament regarding relations with Bahrain gleaned these evidences.

Mr. Ian Lindsay emphasized that “we condemn Iran’s meddling in Bahrain’s internal affairs and in the affairs of any other country; and, we firmly believe that Bahrain can make progress if it is given the chance and if Bahrainis are given the chance to solve their own problems by themselves.

The British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain accentuated that the National Consensus Dialogue (NCD) which has continued for more than one month now has the support of the international community. The Ambassador said that the dialogue is still in its early days and that the United Kingdom had had a similar experience when it sought to reach an agreement in Northern Ireland. We know from our experience in Britain and Northern Ireland that the process of dialogue could take a long time and may meet with good days or other bad days and that patience and persistence are a must, Mr. Iain Lindsay explained. …more

Iran ‘backing street violence in Bahrain’
25 March, 2013 – Robert Smith – Trade Arabia

Bahrain’s political, religious and community leaders are being urged to condemn violence on the streets, with the UK citing increasing evidence that those behind it were receiving support from Iran.

British Ambassador to Bahrain Iain Lindsay labelled those behind a spate of bombings as “terrorists” and called on all groups to denounce such acts in an exclusive interview with our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

He said the ongoing National Dialogue was the only way to end a political stalemate that stretches back more than two years, but added the UK was concerned about Iranian support for those engaged in acts of violence.

“The British government has said publicly that we are concerned by the fact that we see increasing evidence of Iran moving from exploiting Bahrain’s problems for propaganda purposes to providing support to people here who are bent on violence,” he said.

Lindsay declined to elaborate on the evidence or the type of support Iran was providing, but said an inquiry by the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) into Britain’s relations with Bahrain had been made aware.

“We condemn Iran’s meddling here and indeed elsewhere and we firmly believe that Bahrain will make progress if Bahrain is given a chance and Bahrainis are given a chance themselves to resolve their problems,” he said.

A National Dialogue that brings together four key factions to find solutions to Bahrain’s current problems, which date back to anti-government protests in February 2011, has been underway for more than a month.

Critics have questioned the value of the process with participants struggling to even agree an agenda for the talks, but the ambassador said they should take comfort in the fact that the process had the support of the international community.

He added it was still “early days” and the UK had a similar experience as it sought to reach an agreement on Northern Ireland.

“We know from our own experience in the UK and Northern Ireland that this sort of process can take a long time,” he said. …more

Cabinet: Security of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Are Inextricably Linked
24 MArch, 2013 – BNA

Manama, March 24 (BNA)—The Cabinet, Chaired today by His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, emphasized that the security of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are inextricably linked due to the solid ties and common destiny binding both countries.

The ministerial council voiced Bahrain’s support to all measures taken by Saudi Arabia to maintain its security and stability, lauding the competence of the Saudi security bodies in uncovering the espionage network working for a foreign country.

The council also reiterated thanks and gratitude to Saudi Arabia for its political and economic support to Bahrain.
…source

The Dirt Done Iran by the House of Saud
21 March, 2013 – Finian Cunningham – Pacific Free Press

Saudi claims of “busting a spy ring” involving Iranian and Lebanese nationals this week smell of yet more dirty tricks by the creaky House of Saud.

But the repeated formula for attempting to smear Iran used by the Saudis and their Western and Israeli partners is in danger of becoming a parody.

Saudi authorities detained 18 individuals across the kingdom this week, who, it is claimed, were working for a “foreign state” in a plot to target vital installations.

“Sixteen Saudis, an Iranian and a Lebanese were arrested in coordinated and simultaneous operations in four regions of the kingdom,” including the capital Riyadh and the holy city of Mecca, the Saudi interior ministry said in a statement.

Wow. Do you feel the bombast in those words “coordinated and simultaneous operations”?

The suspects “gathered information on vital installations which they provided to the country” they had been working for, added the Saudi intelligence experts.

Iran was not mentioned specifically, but the inclusion of an as-yet unnamed Iranian national is something of a finger of accusation that tries to be subtle, but is, in fact, a clumsy attempt to fabricate.

The Lebanon connection can also be seen as a Saudi bid to implicate Hezbollah. That combination is a gauche effort to appear neat, from the Saudi point of view, to resonate with the hoary Western stereotype of Iran and its alleged sponsorship of international terrorism.

The purported busting of an alleged Iranian-led spy ring in Saudi Arabia makes for good headlines in the supine Western media. But between the headlines is the unmistakable stench of another dirty tricks operation, aimed at smearing Iran and covering up the reality of Saudi repression and state-sponsored terrorism across the Middle East.

Scarcely mentioned in the Western media coverage is that the arrests also involved Saudi nationals from among its Shia population in the country’s Eastern Province. This hard-pressed minority within Saudi Arabia has been holding peaceful protests for political freedoms for the best part of two years, closely aligned with their confessional brothers and sisters in nearby Bahrain. In both Bahrain and Saudi’s oil-rich Eastern Province, the House of Saud has sent its shock troops in to try to crush the movement for democracy with brutal, unremitting repression.

Since Saudi forces entered Bahrain in March 2011, up to 100 unarmed civilians have been killed and thousands more mutilated or imprisoned for daring to demand the right to democratic government. Likewise in Saudi Arabia, hundreds have been arrested and thrown into unknown dungeons by the same system of monarchial tyranny that the Western governments have backed to the hilt.

What better way to distract from this reality of crushing democracy than to cook up a tall story about a foreign spy ring – and an Iranian spy ring at that.

That relocates the problem from one of long-overdue political rights among the population of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to one of foreign subversion. Irony upon irony, it also diverts from the fact that Saudi Arabia has over the same period been backing terrorists in Syria causing murder and mayhem for the criminal Western objective of regime change.

The latest claims by the Saudi authorities bear the usual hallmarks of a psyops smear. Details are all-too vacant and the allegations rely on innuendo and sensationalism. Observers familiar with Bahrain will recognize the tired old pattern of “foreign subversion”. Arrests, accusations, momentary headlines, bombastic claims of probes to “reveal the foreign plotters”… followed, always, by scant substance of anything. Political theatrics that have become ridiculous parody.

Recall the “sensational plot” that the Saudis and the Americans made media song and dance of when they accused Iran of trying to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington at the end of 2011.

Whatever happened to the follow-up substance to that risible ruse? Or the two hapless Iranians who allegedly were planning an all-out bombing blitz on Israeli properties in Kenya in May 2012?

Then there were similar claims by Israeli intelligence of Iranian international terror plots in Georgia, Thailand, India, Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, also last year.

Despite copious coverage in the Western media of these threadbare tales, none of these “sensational plots” have amounted to follow-up prosecutions, let alone proof of official Iranian involvement. …more

Major medical ethics conference is cancelled in the troubled kingdom

Bahrain hit by doctors’ desertion
Robert Fisk – 24 March, 2013 – Pacific Free Press

Bahrain’s already tarnished reputation for human rights will receive a body blow today with the cancellation of a major conference on medical ethics in the tiny island monarchy, and the resignation of the Irish director of Bahrain’s principal medical school.

At least 20 civilians were killed by government forces – opposition leaders say the figures is four times as great – in the failed uprising by the majority Shia Muslim community against the minority Sunni-led government of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa two years ago. Security forces stormed hospitals in the kingdom and tortured patients in medical care, tearing apart the hitherto non-sectarian health service. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) – which trained many of the doctors later arrested by the regime – was bitterly criticised after the violence for not condemning government brutality.

But Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) will today announce its decision to cancel next month’s international meeting – in which medical and human rights experts were to speak for two days on “medical ethics and dilemmas in situations of political discord or violence” – while Professor Tom Collins, president of the Medical University of Bahrain, will tell his 1,100 students and 240 staff at lunchtime that he is resigning in protest at the cancellation. The university is run by the RCSI and was co-sponsor of the conference with MSF.

At least 40 Bahraini doctors, many of them attached to the RCSI medical university on the island, were arrested and charged after the mini-uprising of 2011 – four are still in prison – although Professor Collins has pleaded for their release. A prestigious roster of speakers was to have included Professor Patrick Roe, the president of RCSI, a consultant general surgeon at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, Anastasia Crickley of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and Baroness Nuala O’Loan, Northern Ireland’s first – and highly controversial – police ombudsman from 2000 to 2007. Many attribute Catholic trust in the new Police Service of Northern Ireland to the work of Lady O’Loan. The organisers were to show a film, Access to the Danger Zone, on MSF doctors in Afghanistan and other wars, narrated by Daniel Day-Lewis …more

Kerry: Iraq helping Syria’s Assad by allowing arms flow
By Anne Gearan – 24 March, 2013 – Washington Post

BAGHDAD — Iraq is helping to shore up the besieged regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by allowing Iranian arms and fighters to cross into Syria from Iraq, Secretary of State John F. Kerry charged Sunday.

During an unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry lobbied Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for greater scrutiny of flights that cross Iraq. He appeared to make little headway with Maliki, a Shiite with long-standing ties to Iran and little inclination to do U.S. bidding 10 years after the American invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Maliki is a prickly leader whose relations with U.S. officials have grown more strained since the departure of American forces and the re-emergence of widespread sectarian violence in Iraq. Maliki’s consolidation of power worries his U.S. backers. His dealings with Shiite Iran worry them more.

“Iraq’s success will take enormous cooperation,” Kerry said. “It’ll take dialogue, and it’ll take courage. It’ll require the resolve to defend the sovereignty of the country and its airspace. . . .

“We all want to see Iraq succeed. There’s such an enormous investment of our treasure, our people and our money in this initiative.”

The Obama administration has been unable to persuade Iraq to block overflights from Iran or even to perform regular inspections.

“We had a very spirited discussion,” Kerry said after the meeting with Maliki, “and I made it very clear to the prime minister that the overflights from Iran are, in fact, helping to sustain President Assad and his regime.”

Kerry began the session with Maliki by joking that he had been assured that the Iraqi leader would “do everything that I say.” Maliki had a good-natured reply: “We won’t do it,” he said through an interpreter. Both men smiled.

Iraq says Iranian flights over its territory carry only humanitarian supplies for the civil war in next-door Syria, and the only two known inspections of Iranian aircraft found just those supplies.

The United States says the sheer volume of flights and overland vehicle traffic to Syria through Iraq points to regular arms shipments. A senior U.S. official traveling with Kerry said there are flights nearly every day. The official would not say how the United States is certain that the planes are carrying weapons for Assad, an Iranian ally, but repeatedly asserted that is the case. …more

The Iraq War: A resolute rebuttal
By Cameron Quinn – 25 March, 2013 – The Oxford Student

This piece was written in response to Harry Gillow’s defence of the Iraq War, also written for OxStu, which can be found here.

Harry Gillow is brave, if nothing else – it takes guts to try to defend the indefensible. But guts don’t guarantee a solid argument, and Mr Gillow’s “tentative defence” of the Iraq War, relying as it does on factual inaccuracies and hubristic assumptions, simply fails to convince.

Mr Gillow begins his article with a preamble lamenting the naïveté of US and British war planners for not understanding “the dangers of military adventures,” yet he remonstrates President Obama for his risky “isolationist” foreign policy. Obama’s “isolationism” apparently encompasses his vast expansion of Bush’s drone killing programme, his cyber-attacks against Iranian nuclear sites (an “act of war” according to the Pentagon), his military build-up in the Pacific, American involvement in Libya and Mali, and plans for military strikes in Syria and Iran.

It isn’t until halfway into his “defence” that Mr Gillow arrives at his arguments for why the Iraq war wasn’t “a disaster”. He informs us that Iraq “is now one of the few functioning democracies in the Middle East.” This will be news to Iraqis. Corruption in the Iraqi government is rife. Torture, rape and executions are practically everyday occurrences. US-installed Prime Minister Maliki, has recently taken steps to consolidate his power, in actions that have been compared with those of Saddam during the 1990s.
Oil: Never far from the centre of the problem

Oil: Never far from the centre of the issue

Another supposed bright spot in post-occupation Iraq is that “[o]il production, the lifeline of its economy, is up one million barrels per year from 2003 levels”. This is a bright spot indeed for the multinational corporations that bought the rights to exploit Iraq’s oil fields, a major objective of the war. The revenues from Iraq’s oil reserves, the largest in the world, will now flow into the pockets of international investors, though not into programmes and services that might improve the lives of ordinary Iraqis.

No matter. The “greatest vindication of the Iraq War,” which “removes the most powerful argument against the invasion” is to be found elsewhere, in (favourably) comparing the US-led invasion and occupation of the country with the tragic bloodletting that has accompanied many of the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring. “[T]hat Iraq would have seen a similar eruption into sectarian violence is almost certain,” Mr Gillow tells us. That is, thanks to the invasion, Iraq did not see such an eruption: “[T]he presence of coalition troops was clearly the only thing preventing a collapse into full-scale anarchy”.

Of course, as anybody familiar with the most basic facts of the Iraq war will know, the majority of the violence in the country after 2006 occurred not between coalition troops and Iraqi insurgents, but between Sunni and Shi’a militia groups in what US intelligence officials – and Mr Gillow himself in his second paragraph – have called a sectarian “civil war”. In other words, three years into the US occupation, Iraq erupted in sectarian violence – violence that caused thousands of Iraqi deaths and displacements, and has continued at varying levels of intensity until today. What’s more, overwhelming evidence shows that top US military officials directly fomented sectarian tensions by organising, training, and commanding a network of brutal Salvadoran-style Shi’a torture squads as early as 2004 to combat a mostly Sunni insurgency.

It is worth noting that under Saddam’s secular dictatorship, sectarian divisions did not play a significant role in Iraqi life: Iraqis were often unaware of and indifferent to their neighbours’ or even their family members’ religious loyalties. Following the invasion, however, these once-ignored Sunni-Shi’a differences have become the major fault-lines in Iraqi society and politics, to the point that the country may one day be torn into three separate states, along ethno-sectarian lines.

It would not be overstating the case, then, to say that the US invasion of Iraq in fact stoked the once-dormant sectarian tensions in the region that have since exploded following the Arab Spring uprisings. We could phrase it this way: the presence of coalition troops was clearly the only thing ensuring a collapse into full-scale anarchy.

In his conclusion, Mr Gillow warns foreign policy elites against the “the temptation to ignore the internal squabbles of the Islamic [sic] states,” lest they be “remembered for allowing the disintegration of society across an entire region”. As we have seen, however, this is precisely what Western governments will be remembered for in Iraq. The disintegration of Iraqi society and of the Middle Eastern region was precipitated not by Western “isolationism,” but by military interventions promising stability and democracy. …more

President Obama’s Second Term: Selling Death and Buying Assassins In the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia
24 March, 2013 – James Petras – thepeoplevoice.org

Introduction

As President Obama enters his second term with a new Cabinet, the foreign policy legacy of the past four years weighs heavily on their strategic decisions and their empire-building efforts. Central to the analysis of the next period is an evaluation of the past policies especially in regions where Washington expended its greatest financial and military resources, namely the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.

We will proceed by examining the accomplishments and failures of the Obama-Clinton regime. We will then turn to the ongoing policy efforts to sustain the empire-building project. We will take account of the constraints and opportunities, which define the parameters resulting from imperial military ambitions, Israeli-Zionist influence in shaping policy and the ongoing anti-imperialist struggles. We will conclude by examining likely polices and outcomes resulting from current strategies.

The Clinton-Obama Imperial Legacy: The Accomplishments

The greatest success of the Obama-Clinton (OC) imperial legacy was the virtual elimination of organized domestic anti-war dissent, the demise of the peace movement and the co-optation of virtually the entire ‘progressive’ leadership in the US – while multiplying the number of proxy wars, overt and covert military operations and ‘defense’ spending. As a result, the entire political spectrum moved further to the right toward greater militarization abroad and increased police-state measures at home.

Facing mass revolts and the overthrow of long-standing client regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, the Obama-Clinton (OC) Administration moved rapidly to reconfigure new client regimes while preserving the state apparatus – the military, intelligence, police, judicial and civilian bureaucracy. The empire dumped incumbent regimes in order to save the repressive state, the key guarantor of US strategic interests. Washington reminded its client rulers that ‘There are no permanent alliances, there are only permanent imperial interests’. Washington successfully engineered a political pact between conservative Islamist leaders and parties and the old military elite. The new political blocs in Egypt upheld Israeli annexation of Palestine, the brutal blockade of Gaza and the neo-liberal economic order. Washington repeated the ‘reshuffle of clients’ in Yemen and Tunisia. The OC intervention temporarily aborted the pro-democracy, anti-Zionist and anti-corruption popular revolt. The OC policies secured a temporary respite, but the subsequent effort by Egypt to secure an IMF loan has led to a stalemate amid deteriorating economic conditions and rising political protest. The successful imposition of new client regimes amenable to US hegemony in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, in the face of popular revolts, marked the beginning of a series of favorable political-military outcomes in the region for the OC regime.

Facing Israeli annexation of ever-widening swaths of Palestinian land and the end of any pretense of ‘peace negotiations’, Washington continued to provide Israel with massive military assistance, modern weapons systems and unconditional political support in the UN. By submitting to Israel the OC regime succeeded in retaining the political support of the domestic Zionist power configuration (ZPC). The OC regime’s economic handouts supported the puppet Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as it policed the West Bank for Israel. Despite losing the vote to seat the Palestinians as a non-voting member in the UN, Washington succeeded in blocking full membership. The OC regime succeeded in fulfilling its role as Israel’s handmaiden, despite opposition from the vast majority of UN members.

The OC regime succeeded in tightening sanctions on Iran, by securing Russian, Chinese and Arab League support, without provoking a potentially destructive war. The US sanction policy toward Iran is largely designed and implemented by key Zionist appointees in the Treasury (formerly Stuart Levy, now David Cohen) and in Congress, by legislators bought and directed by the powerful America-Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

The US, under Obama-Clinton, destroyed the independent nationalist Gadhafi government via a joint air war with the EU and tried to set up a client regime. In turn, Libya became a key recruiting ground for violent Islamist mercenaries invading Syria and weapons depot supplying Islamist terrorists. The OC regime’s military success in Libya was part of a general strategy to accelerate the expansion of US and European military operations in Africa. This includes setting up drone bases and promoting African mercenary armies from Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia to expand imperial control in Somalia, Mali and elsewhere.

In the Gulf region the US succeeded in propping up the autocratic Bahrain monarchy, as it killed and jailed opponents and outlawed the mass pro-democracy social movement among its oppressed Shi’a majority population. The OC regime successfully secured Gulf state financing for the Libyan and Syrian wars.

In Iraq, the US has succeeded in dividing the devastated nation into fragments of warring fiefdoms, Shi’a, Sunni, Kurd and subsets of each. It succeeded in destroying a once modern and secular society, an advanced economy and independent nationalist regime. Initially the OC regime hoped to establish a client outpost in Iraq from which to secure Washington’s wealthy petro-clients in the Gulf, especially among the patrimonial dictatorships in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates. …more

While ensuring to perform a simple exercise that was planned long time ago, Moscow has responded to the announcing from Paris and London to send weapons to Syria, by sending a naval fleet on site. Any Franco-British intervention, direct or indirect, would lead to an escalation and confrontation with Russia.

The American plan of the last minute
By Ghaleb Kandil – 25 March, 2013 – Voltairenet.org

The painful truth that the secretary of state John Kerry finally accepted is that any solution in Syria is a defeat for the United States, the West, the petrodollars kings and Turkey. Also, Washington and his allies try to circumvent this solution by announcing their intention to arm the terrorist gangs and threatening to widen the battlefield before sitting down at the negotiating table in a Russian-American summit which date will be soon, according to diplomats.

At the request of Kerry, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of France and Britain, Laurent Fabius and William Hague, called for arming rebels in Syria. Then Prime Minister of Her Majesty, David Cameron, has denied these intentions, while President François Hollande almost stammered at the meeting of the European Union. Knowing that weapons and communications equipment provided by the West are already for months in the hands of terrorists, who are unable to make significant progress on the ground, despite the support of U.S, Western and Arab instructors, in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

After a severe political warning issued by Russia, information was conveyed that promises to provide new weapons designed primarily to boost the morale of armed gangs with the approach of the Russian-American negotiations. Till the last minute, Americans want to use the capacity and energy of those they invented, trained, armed and financed. Is not that the reason they were created?

A dramatic political development took place last week in Syria, when Russia has launched a stern warning to the address of American who maneuver and delay on the principles Geneva agreement. The Franco-British announcement about sending arms to the rebels was an opportunity for Moscow to underline that this decision constitutes a violation of international law. Sergei Lavrov’s remarks, Russian deployment of warships to the Syrian port of Tartous, arfe a reminder of the red lines that the West must not overstep about the type of weapons they send to terrorists.

During his last tour in the Middle East, John Kerry has flip-flopped on the terms of the agreement with Russia in Geneva. But he was finally forced to make a political statement which had the effect of a shock to his allies and auxiliaries, recognizing that President Bashar al-Assad was an unavoidable negotiator. So, Washington finally abandoned the condition of a president’s departure, as a precondition for national dialogue.

Despite this, the United States remains tempted by the plan of the last minute, trying to change the internal balance of power in Syria in preparation for the start of negotiations. This is a desperate move to avoid total political defeat. It is in this context that we should interpret the training of Syrian terrorists by U.S. instructors in Jordan, sending 3,000 tons of weapons purchased in Croatia by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and scenarios on a Israeli intervention in order to build a security zone in Syria, entrusted to terrorists.

But in the opinion of experts, any Israeli military adventure in Syria and Lebanon would be a catastrophe for the that state, for Western interests and for the entire region. The balance of forces is indeed strong and well anchored, and the axis of the Resistance, with its international alliances -Russia, China and the Brics- has the necessary capacity to thwart any offensive and to break U.S. hegemony over the world.

In this context, the experts agree on the fact that despite the war in which it is engaged, the Syrian army still has significant capabilities in addition to anti-air defense and ballistic missiles, which remain intact. …more

Obama warns of extremist threat in Syria
Matthew Lee – Associated Press – 22 March, 2013

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Anxious to keep Syria’s civil war from spiraling into even worse problems, President Barack Obama said Friday he worries about the country becoming a haven for extremists when — not if — President Bashar Assad is ousted from power.

Obama, standing side by side with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, said the international community must work together to ensure there is a credible opposition ready to step into the breach.

“Something has been broken in Syria, and it’s not going to be put back together perfectly immediately — even after Assad leaves,” Obama said. “But we can begin the process of moving it in a better direction, and having a cohesive opposition is critical to that.”

He said Assad is sure to go but there is great uncertainty about what will happen after that.

“I am very concerned about Syria becoming an enclave for extremism,” Obama said, adding that extremism thrives in chaos and failed states. He said the rest of the world has a huge stake in ensuring that a functioning Syria emerges.

“The outcome is Syria is not going to be ideal,” he acknowledged, adding that strengthening a credible opposition was crucial to minimizing the difficulties.

STORY: Israel apologizes to Turkey over flotilla deaths

Eager to resolve another source of tension in the region, the president earlier Friday helped broker a phone call between the Israeli and Turkish prime ministers that led to the restoration of normal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Obama had come to Jordan from Israel, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu placed a call to Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan to apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish activists in a 2009 Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound international flotilla.

“The timing was good for that conversation to take place,” Obama said.

Obama, at a joint news conference with Abdullah, said his administration is working with Congress to provide Jordan with an additional $200 million in aid this year to cope with the massive influx of refugees streaming into the country from Syria.

Abdullah said the refugee population in his country has topped 460,000 and is likely to double by the end of the year — the equivalent of 60 million refugees in the United States, he said.

Obama also said he would “keep on plugging away” in hopes of getting the Israelis and Palestinians to reach a peace agreement.

“The window of opportunity still exists, but it’s getting more and more difficult,” the president said. “The mistrust is building instead of ebbing.”

On Iran, Obama reiterated that the U.S. is open to “every option that’s available” to keep the country from developing a nuclear weapon.

He said it would be “extraordinarily dangerous” for the world if Iran does become nuclear capable, and he expressed his desire for using diplomatic means to halt Iran’s nuclear aspirations. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

“My hope and expectation is that among a menu of options, the option that involves negotiations, discussions, compromise and resolution of the problem is the one that’s exercised,” Obama said. “But as president of the United States I would never take any option off the table.”

Obama arrived in Jordan on Friday evening, the final stop on a four-day visit to the Middle East that included his first stop in Israel as president. …more

Iran slams international silence on chemical weapons use in Syria
24 March 2013 – Islamic Invitation Turkey

da6f28c1539e3e56d5f5ee6b230ea053_LAn Iranian deputy foreign minister has criticized the silence of international community following the use of chemical weapons by militants against the people of Syria.

According to Press TV, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdullahian slammed the silence of the international community and said, “Using chemical weapons against Syrian people and police is a very painful event.”

He added: “As the biggest victim of chemical weapons, Iran strongly condemns using of these weapons by terrorists and extremists in Syria who act under the disguise of opposition.”

At least 25 people were killed and 86 others injured after militants fired missiles containing poisonous gas into Aleppo’s Khan al-Assal village on March 19. Women and children were among the victims.

The attack came after Syria’s opposition coalition, known as the Syrian National Coalition, chose a Syrian-born American citizen, Ghassan Hitto, as the prime minister of what they call an interim government.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals. …source