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

No Media Reform in Bahrain
6 May, 2012 – Marc Owen Jones blog

Back in October Bahrain announced that it would be opening a brand new media city, complete with new buildings, technological stuff, and an attractive investment climate. The purpose, ‘to entice companies operating in the media arena‘. Like middle-aged men who buy expensive sport cars, one can’t help thinking that this move was one of overcompensation – a poor attempt to mask inadequacies through a grandiose and expensive gesture. Indeed, the idea of building a ‘media city’ in a country deemed by Reporters Without Borders to be an ‘enemy of the internet’ is so ironic that it’s almost self-satirizing. A bit like the fake Ed Husain account, where does reality end and the joke begin?

What this media city represents is an attempt to deflect criticisms of Bahrain’s media industry through marketing Bahrain as a beacon of media modernity. The reality of course is much different, for despite these technological developments, Bahrain’s media industry seems to be regressing. This is highlighted by the appointment of Sameera Rajab as Minister of State for Information Affairs, a move that illustrates the regime’s habit of rewarding people for loyalty instead of competence. The fact that the post was created especially for Sameera Rajab is particularly galling, not least because the title has no correlation to the reality of what Sameera does. As the Prime Minister stated, (ok the parody account of the Prime Minister), ‘Miss Information’ is perhaps a more appropriate name. …more

More than 30 journalists assaulted and detained during 4 May Cairo protest
9 May, 2012 – Reporters without Borders

After deadly clashes on 2 May near the defence ministry, thousands of Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo and Alexandria two days later to protest against the army’s hold on power.

In Cairo, demonstrators gathered, mostly in the Abbassiya district, near the defence ministry, despite warnings the day before from the army against any threat to military premises, and the deployment of large numbers of security forces.

The overall toll among the demonstrators was heavy — two dead and more than 130 injured. Those working in the media suffered similarly.

Reporters Without Borders recorded at least 32 assaults and detentions of journalists on 4 May alone. Many cameras and mobile phones were seized, some of which have not been returned to their owners. (Read: http://almesryoon.com/permalink/658…)

The press freedom organization strongly condemns such brutal treatment of media workers and demands that those responsible be identified and brought to justice. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is deservedly a new entry in the list of Predators of Freedom of Information published by Reporters Without Borders on World Press Freedom Day, 3 May.

Toll of 4 May

Of at least 32 journalists targeted:

20 were assaulted or beaten
11 were injured
19 were arrested
5 were detained
1 was abducted
7 had equipment seized

Cases in detail

A five-member crew from the satellite station Misr 25, comprising reporters Ahmed Abdel Alim, Ahmed Fadl, Musa’ab Hamed and Hassan Khodary (injured that morning in the Abbassiya clashes), and photographer Ahmad Lutfi, were doing a live broadcast near the Al-Nour mosque when they were arrested, taken into the mosque and asked for identification. According to Lutfi, they were all subjected to violence and humiliation by the military police. After seizing all their equipment, troops took them to a military control unit.

Musa’ad El-Barbari, deputy director of the Misr 25 station, said the five men appeared before the public prosecutor on 5th May and faced five charges each:

Association with a group intent on disturbing public order and preventing an institution of the state from performing its duties.
Use of force and violence against agents of the security forces responsible for protecting state institutions.
Blocking public and private transport, blocking streets in the area around the defence ministry.
Illegal assembly
Entering a prohibited military zone.

Although the station produced documents proving that it employed the five men as journalists and showing they were there purely in a professional capacity, El-Barbari said the prosecutor refused to take this into account. …more

Saudi tycoon to move Rotana to Bahrain
9 May, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has signed agreements with Bahrain to move his Rotana news and entertainment company from Cairo to boost the economy of its protest-hit ally, the official BNA agency said on Wednesday.

The move comes as Prince Alwaleed plans to launch a 24-hour news channel, Alarab, in the first half of 2013 to compete with Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, and the newly-launched Sky News Arabia satellite news channels.

Prince Alwaleed said shifting Rotana to Manama from Cairo and selecting the Gulf state’s capital as the headquarters of his Alarab news channel is an “important strategic decision with many important consequences.”

The move comes after thorough studies of several Arab capitals and cities, he said.

Bahrain is enjoying considerable freedom of expression and wide-open dialogue despite attempts by a minority to prove the opposite, the prince was quoted as saying by BNA in an apparent reference to anti-government protests.

The small Gulf state has been hit by mass pro-democracy demonstrations since February last year, which have been violently crushed by Manama, drawing criticism from international rights groups.

Bahraini authorities continue to carry out serious human rights abuses against protesters, leading activists and journalists, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Gulf Center for Human Rights, as well as Amnesty International.

Bahrain’s economy has been hit by the unrest as the autocratic ruling family, a key ally of Saudi’s royal family, continues to resist calls for democratic reform. …more

Double Standards Against Change in Bahrain: Interview with Maryam al-Khawaja
by Marc Botenga – Monthly Review Press

Protests against the Formula One Grand Prix held in Manama on 22 April could have reminded the world that repression in Bahrain is still ongoing. But once more the so-called international community by and large turned a blind eye: no diplomatic pressure, certainly no “crippling” international sanctions. The Grand Prix went ahead as planned. A firebomb thrown by Bahraini protesters, however, caused US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland to ask for “demonstrators’ restraint in ensuring that they are peaceful.” The contrast with Syria, where Western politicians systematically downplay violence by the Syrian opposition, and some even talk of offering military support to the Free Syrian Army, could hardly be larger.

Maryam al-Khawaja has consistently raised her voice against these double standards. At twenty-four years of age, she heads the foreign relations office of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR). She has testified on human rights violations in Bahrain before the UN, the US Congress, and the European Parliament. Her sister Zainab has been arrested over and over by the Bahraini regime, once reportedly just for trying to see her father. Maryam’s father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, is an illegally-detained human rights activist who has been on hunger strike for over two months now.

Marc Botenga: You are responsible for international affairs at the BCHR. How did you get involved in activism?

Maryam Al-Khawaja: In 2010, I started volunteering and writing reports for the BCHR. We would go and document human rights violations, people being arrested and tortured and so on. We would then send these reports abroad to different NGOs, the United Nations, and several governments. This was what the regime feared most: someone documenting their violations. I was threatened. It became impossible for me to find a job inside the country just because of my name. So I started working full-time with the Center. I was in Bahrain in February 2011 when it all started. After I left to testify to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2011, I was unable to return.

It is no surprise that the Bahraini government is not fond of you, but you also received threats from inside the United States. Why is that?

I am not sure, but the Bahraini government has a lot of friends in a lot of places. They have around 12 public relations companies working for them, but, despite all the money they are spending, we have still been able to bring out what is happening inside the country.

Your father started a hunger strike on 8 February. What does he hope to achieve?

Most importantly, he wants to bring international attention to the situation in Bahrain and to how human rights abuses are still happening on a daily basis. The government of Bahrain has been making a lot of empty promises about reform and change, but on the ground nothing has changed. …more

U.S. Bombings Kills Dozens of Afghan Civilians
By Bill Van Auken; 8 May 2012 – WSWS

US bombardments claimed the lives of dozens of Afghan civilians over the weekend, including women and children, prompting a formal protest from Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai Monday, warning that such actions would render the pact he signed last week with US President Barack Obama “meaningless”.

US and NATO spokesmen acknowledged Monday the accuracy of a report from Afghan officials in southern Helmand province that a US helicopter had dropped bombs on a house in the Fatih Mohammad Pech area of Sangin district, killing a mother and her five children, three girls and two boys.

Helmand’s Governor Gulab Mangel denounced the Friday night attack, which was ostensibly aimed at a suspected “hideout” for forces resisting the US-led occupation, and demanded an investigation, the Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN) agency reported.

Meanwhile, in Badghis province in Afghanistan’s northwest, a US air-strike destroyed homes in the village of Nawboor, killing 15 civilians, including women and children, the district’s provincial member of parliament told the AFP news agency.

The mass civilian casualties were reportedly inflicted during a hunt by occupation forces for a Taliban commander, Mullah Abdullah Soori, who had been reported taking refuge in the village.

“The helicopters of foreign forces smashed two houses in the villages,” a resident told PAN.

Civilian casualties were also reported in bombings conducted in Logar and Kapisa provinces, east of Kabul.

“In bombardments carried out by coalition forces in Logar, Kapisa, Helmand and Badghis provinces since Saturday [May 5] dozens of our innocent fellow countrymen, including women and children, lost their lives and have been martyred,” a statement from Karzai’s office read. …more

Al Qaeda Bomb Plot Against US-Bound Jet Reportedly Foiled
by The Huffington – 7 May,2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Monday.

The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger’s underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.

The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters Monday that she had been briefed about an “undetectable” device that was “going to be on a U.S.-bound airliner.”

There were no immediate plans to change security procedures at U.S. airports.

The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought a plane ticket when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said. It’s not immediately clear what happened to the alleged bomber.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said President Barack Obama learned about the plot in April and was assured the device posed no threat to the public.

“The president thanks all intelligence and counterterrorism professionals involved for their outstanding work and for serving with the extraordinary skill and commitment that their enormous responsibilities demand,” Hayden said.

The operation unfolded even as the White House and Department of Homeland Security assured the American public that they knew of no al-Qaida plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden’s death. The operation was carried out over the past few weeks, officials said.

“We have no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden’s death,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said on April 26. …more

Unmasked: Meet The FBI’s Bridge Bomb Plot Snitch
The Smoking Gun – 7 May, 2012

The paid informant who helped orchestrate the FBI sting that resulted in the arrest of five anarchists for allegedly plotting to blow up an Ohio bridge is a convicted felon who was arrested on bad check and theft charges in the midst of his cooperation with federal investigators, The Smoking Gun has learned.

Shaquille Azir, 39, was named in a pair of felony indictments filed in January in Cuyahoga County, according to court records. Azir, who TSG has identified as the informant in the federal bombing case, is accused in the indictments of passing bad checks on July 25, 2011 and December 22, 2011.

Azir, “has been working as a source for the FBI since July 20, 2011,” according to the U.S. District Court complaint filed yesterday against the alleged bomb plotters. Wearing a body recorder, Azir captured the five self-styled anarchists plotting to use C-4 explosive to take down a Cleveland-area bridge.

Azir arranged for the purchase of the C-4 from an undercover FBI agent. He also fronted the alleged conspirators money for the buy of the material, which had been rendered inert by federal investigators. If the bombing case goes to trial, defense lawyers will certainly portray the 6’ 5”, 350-pound Azir as the plot’s instigator, a snitch who pocketed the FBI’s money to help entrap the five defendants, who range in age from 20 to 35. …more

Syrian opposition getting trained in terror tactics by KLA, for a sectarian and ethnic Bloodbath
6 May, 2012 – Jafria News

JNN 06 May 2012 Kosovo : A delegation of Syrian rebels has made a deal with Pristina authorities to exchange experience of partisan warfare. Syrian opposition is sending militants to Kosovo for adopting tactics and being trained to oust President Bashar Assad’s regime.

On April 26, a delegation of Syrian opposition members made a stop in Pristina on their way from the US to hold talks on how to make use of the experience of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Syria, reports Associated Press.

So far, a poorly-organized Syrian opposition has proven unable to self-organize and form a steady front against the forces of President Assad. Terror tactics used by militants allow them to kill military and governmental officials, but do not help to hold positions against a regular army.

“We come here to learn. Kosovo has walked this path and has an experience that would be very useful for us,” says the head of the Syrian delegation Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian-born human rights activist and dissident. “In particular, we’d like to know how scattered armed groups were finally organized into KLA.”

Syrian opposition leaders have promised to immediately recognize Kosovo once they seize power in the country.

“We’re in vital need of joint actions as a coalition opposition,” stressed Ammar Abdulhamid, a long-time opponent of the Syria’s President Bashar Assad. In 2005, he left Syria to settle in the US. It should also be noted here all the rebellions , whether it is Amr Mousa in Egypt, or Col. Haftar trained by CIA, or now the Ammar abdul Hamid , they all are being coming from the US and West , to lead the revolution or the rebellion, it looks US Intelligence agencies always keep a ‘B’ Team for every country from the Opposition group , so in the Hour of need they operate , so their Interest , should not be harmed in the Particular Country.

The training camp on the Albanian-Kosovo border that has welcomed Syrian attendees was originally organized by the US to help the KLA train its fighters.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was considered a terrorist organization by the US, the UK and France for years until, in 1998, it was taken off the list of terrorists with no explanation given. The KLA used to have up to 10 per cent of underage fighters in its ranks. So the same is the case with the Taliban and its allied groups , that they are on the Terrorist list of US and West , and now gradually and slowly its Commanders are being , taken out of the Terrorist List under the disguise of Moderate Talibans. As it confirms that first the Terror Groups were formed , so they can invade the said country on the pretext of terrorist activities, and then once the objectives are secured , then the Old loyal terrorist are even given refuge on one or the other Pretext , whether it is KLA or the Taliban , then they are used on the cover to establish their rule. …more

Bahrain Embassy in the United States Holds Session to Detail Reform Process
May 7, 2012, WSJ

MANAMA, Bahrain, Last week, Bahrain’s Embassy in Washington, D.C. held a workshop in conjunction with the Association of International Educators’ Embassy Dialogue Committee to report on the country’s progress with reform.

Held at the embassy, more than 100 people attended the workshop, including U.S. Department of State officials, embassy officials in Washington and university faculty.

In a speech to participants, Bahraini Ambassador to the U.S. Houda Nonoo said she understands that “outside perspectives and measured disagreement are important for an emerging democracy.”

“Bahrain values this transition and understands our path to democracy will take time. Meaningful democratic change cannot happen overnight,” she said.

Since last March, the country has taken “many steps to heal the wounds” through efforts like the National Dialogue, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry and ongoing reform in security services, Ambassador Nonoo said.

“Through confronting a very difficult situation, Bahrain has become a better and more democratic nation,” she said.

In 2001, Bahrain began its reform process with a National Charter that made the country’s political system more representative.

SOURCE Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain

“These killings have provoked the ire of Sunni Muslims all across the country who believe atrocities of this nature gravely shake the very pillars of Pakistan, disrupt national unity, strengthen the enemies and drag the country into abysmal extremism beyond salvation.”

Hands behind Shia massacre in Pakistan
by Ismail Salami – 8 May 8, 2012 – Media Monitors

Death is whimsical these days, manifesting itself in shapes most repellent to man: men posing with the mangled parts of dead bodies; men urinating on dead bodies; men cutting out the eyes of their brothers and killing them in the name of religion.

A human tragedy of inconceivable magnitude is taking place in some parts of Pakistan which are being inexcusably and consciously ignored by Western media.

Only in April 2012, more than 250 Shia Muslims were maimed and killed in broad daylight. Around 150 pairs of Shias’ eyes were cut out of their sockets; many of them died while their faces had been smashed with stones or sprayed with acid. According to witnesses, who had managed to flee the scene of the crime, the Wahhabi attackers were void of any mercy; the criminals are now free and keep on partaking in their feast of blood.

All these massacres are being legitimated and orchestrated by a Wahhabi group known as Sepah Sahabeh who emerged in 1985 in the Pubjab province of Pakistan as a reaction to the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the burgeoning Shia Muslims who had gradually entered the political and economical positions in the Pakistani government. The extremist group was considerably beefed up and enlarged under support of the then Pakistani president Zia ul-Haq with the ultimate goal of establishing an independent Wahhabi state in Pakistan and eliminating the Shia minority in the country. In fact, it is widely believed that the then Pakistani president Zia ul-Haq generously contributed to the emergence and development of such extremist groups and implicitly gave them carte blanche to engage in liquidating the Shia minority. …more

Bahraini regime forces attack protesters, raid homes
IBNtv – 8 May, 2012

Bahraini regime forces have used tear gas and rubber bullets against anti-government demonstrators and raided their homes in two villages.

Police raided homes and attacked protesters in the village of Ma’ameer, about 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) south of the capital, Manama, and the western village of Shahrakan on Monday.

In Shahrakan, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.

Bahrainis have been holding peaceful demonstrations against the ruling Al Khalifa regime since February 2011. Regime forces continue the fierce crackdown on the protests.

On May 3, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa approved constitutional amendments, according to which, the king now has to consult the heads of the elected parliament and the appointed Consultative Council, which was introduced in 2002, before dissolving the government.

Bahraini opposition groups, however, have censured the recent amendments, saying they were intended by King Hamad to control the parliament.

Abdul Jalil Khalil, a senior member of the main opposition group, al-Wefaq, said after the amendments were ratified that the Bahraini opposition wants “a single-chamber parliament that is elected, just as the constitution of 1973 stipulated. These amendments do not abolish the Consultative Council.”

Iran slams West’s nuclear double standards
8 May, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Western powers are mounting pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear program, while supplying Israel with nuclear capable submarines, a double standard noted by Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday.

The broadside by the ministry’s spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast appeared to be a response to a US call the previous day for Iran to take “urgent practical steps” to build confidence ahead of nuclear talks with six major powers in Baghdad on May 23.

“Some of these countries have nuclear-capable submarines they have delivered to the Zionist regime,” he said, alluding to Germany’s sale of Dolphin-class submarines to Israel, which some analysts say can carry nuclear warheads.

“All of these countries need to feel committed to the contents of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).”

In a rebuke to the world’s nuclear powers who have failed to downsize their own arsenals, Mehmanparast spoke of their “contravention and clear violation” of the rules.

“Some countries say they are concerned that Iran’s activities might be diverted towards non-peaceful purposes in the future,” he said. “When they are talking about future speculation, how can they not be concerned about scrapping nuclear weapons at the present time?”

US officials have previously suggested Iran should build confidence by accepting more intrusive UN inspections, curbing its uranium enrichment work and closing a nuclear site near Qom.

Yet no Western power has made a similar stringent demand of Israel, the Middle East’s only nuclear power and primary ally of the United States.

Iranian officials have said the Baghdad meeting should lead to the lifting of sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies against Iran’s energy and banking sectors.

The United States suspects Iran of seeking to develop a capacity to build nuclear weapons and has refused to rule out military action if negotiations fail. Iran denies this and maintains it has the right to enrich uranium and develop a peaceful nuclear program as a member of the NPT.

Last week, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Tehran would never suspend enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes, and saw no reason to close the Fordow underground site which it has used to expand higher-grade enrichment.

The IAEA and Iran will hold talks in Vienna on May 14-15 after two meetings earlier this year failed to make headway.

The UN nuclear watchdog wants Iran to address questions raised in an IAEA report in November on suspected Iranian research and development activities relevant to nuclear weapons.

Iran has dismissed the allegations as fabricated. …more

Surveillance State democracy
8 May, 2012 – IBNtv

As the FBI seeks full access to all forms of Internet communication, it is not voters who need to be convinced.

CNET’s excellent technology reporter, Declan McCullagh, reports on ongoing efforts by the Obama administration to force the Internet industry to provide the U.S. Government with “backdoor” access to all forms of Internet communication:

The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance … That included a scheduled trip this month to the West Coast – which was subsequently postponed – to meet with Internet companies’ CEOs and top lawyers …

The FBI general counsel’s office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.

“If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding,” an industry representative who has reviewed the FBI’s draft legislation told CNET.

As for the substance of this policy, I wrote about this back in September, 2010, when it first revealed that the Obama administration was preparing legislation to mandate that “all services that enable communications – including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct ‘peer to peer’ messaging like Skype” – be designed to ensure government surveillance access.

This isn’t about expanding the scope of the government’s legal surveillance powers – numerous legislative changes since 2001 have already accomplished that quite nicely – but is about ensuring the government’s physical ability to intrude into all forms of Internet communication.

What was most amazing to me back when I first wrote about these Obama administration efforts was that a mere six weeks earlier, a major controversy had erupted when Saudi Arabia and the UAE both announced a ban on BlackBerries on the ground that they were physically unable to monitor the communications conducted on those devices. Since Blackberry communication data are sent directly to servers in Canada and the company which operates Blackberry – Research in Motion – refused to turn the data over to those governments, “authorities [in those two tyrannies] decided to ban Blackberry services rather than continue to allow an uncontrolled and unmonitored flow of electronic information within their borders.” As I wrote at the time: “that’s the core mindset of the Omnipotent Surveillance State: above all else, what is strictly prohibited is the ability of citizens to communicate in private; we can’t have any ‘uncontrolled and unmonitored flow of electronic information’.” …more

How the US uses sexual humiliation as a political tool to control the masses
by Naomi Wolf – Voltaire Network – 17 April, 2012

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that it is now legitimate for police to strip search any person, regardless of the reason for the arrest. Under the pretext of security concerns, U.S. capitalism is using all the tools at its disposal to attain full control of its population. The body of the individual is no longer his. Meanwhile, the psychological part of this stripping of the individual is provided by the social networks. The panoptic device which philosopher Michel Foucault portrays as the abstract model of a disciplinary society in “Discipline and Punish” has become reality.

In a five-four ruling this week, the supreme court decided that anyone can be strip-searched upon arrest for any offense, however minor, at any time. This horror show ruling joins two recent horror show laws: the NDAA, which lets anyone be arrested forever at any time, and HR 347, the “trespass bill”, which gives you a 10-year sentence for protesting anywhere near someone with secret service protection. These criminalizations of being human follow, of course, the mini-uprising of the Occupy movement.

Is American strip-searching benign? The man who had brought the initial suit, Albert Florence, described having been told to “turn around. Squat and cough. Spread your cheeks.” He said he felt humiliated: “It made me feel like less of a man.”

In surreal reasoning, justice Anthony Kennedy explained that this ruling is necessary because the 9/11 bomber could have been stopped for speeding. How would strip searching him have prevented the attack? Did justice Kennedy imagine that plans to blow up the twin towers had been concealed in a body cavity? In still more bizarre non-logic, his and the other justices’ decision rests on concerns about weapons and contraband in prison systems. But people under arrest – that is, who are not yet convicted – haven’t been introduced into a prison population.

Our surveillance state shown considerable determination to intrude on citizens sexually. There’s the sexual abuse of prisoners at Bagram – der Spiegel reports that “former inmates report incidents of … various forms of sexual humiliation. In some cases, an interrogator would place his penis along the face of the detainee while he was being questioned. Other inmates were raped with sticks or threatened with anal sex”. There was the stripping of Bradley Manning is solitary confinement. And there’s the policy set up after the story of the “underwear bomber” to grope US travelers genitally or else force them to go through a machine – made by a company, Rapiscan, owned by terror profiteer and former DHA czar Michael Chertoff – with images so vivid that it has been called the “pornoscanner”. …more

Accompanying a volunteer medic to Boori Village
by Witness Bahrain – 4 May, 2012

The day we had chosen to go with a medic to Boori village was a special religious day for Shia Muslims; 13th Jamada Thani 1428 A.H. – the anniversary of the death of Hazrat Fatima bint-e-Hazm bin Khalid (also known as Umm-ul-Baneen) – the wife of Imam Ali (a.s.) and mother of Hazrat Abbas (a.s.) which meant than the streets were fairly quiet in comparison to a regular night in a Manama village since 14th of February 2011. The streets were still blocked around the village to slow down possible riot police troops entering the village, but there was no night protest as usual, only an earlier one that took place at 4 pm. People in the streets were singing a traditional song for funerals while synchronically clapping their chest with one hand.

We drove to one of the homes in the village were the medic would later show up. At first there were three injured people and a group of very young guys waiting with their injured friend. As the rumor spread that there was an international in the house documenting cases of injury from protests, more people came; but there was no way I could cover all of the stories and cases of those who came in one night.

As we waited for the medic, I began speaking to 15-year-old Ali. He had been shot all over his body with birdshot pellets while attending a peaceful protest the day before (see photo). When the medic later showed up he told me that when demonstrators had brought the boy to the house the day before, he had been completely covered in blood and almost unconscious.

I used to be a substitute school teacher in primary and secondary schools and young Ali really reminded me of the boys I used to teach, who having done something really cool or special, are excited to tell the rest of the class about it. He was a bit shy at first, being the only one speaking in a room full of his friends and other much older protesters, as well as the family of the house. He didn’t give out any details except for the ones I specifically asked for. But then he opened up more.

The protest involved a little over 100 people, both woman and men, old and young. After the march around the village ended, about 60 people remained outside; that’s when the riot police attacked. They began shooting teargas, aiming directly at the villagers. Some protesters grabbed the teargas canisters with their hands just after they hit the ground and threw them back in the direction of the riot police. The whole center of the village became covered in teargas the boy told me, lifting his eyebrows and his brown eyes wide open, indicating that he was overwhelmed by the details of his own story.

Ali was one of the people picking up teargas canisters to throw them back at the police who were dressed in full riot gear, with helmets, masks and padding protecting their entire bodies.

Then the riot police began shooting birdshot at the crowd of people. They seemed to be randomly firing at the whole crowd, but of course Ali couldn’t tell what their exact strategy was. At least five police officers dressed as civilians also entered the crowd with shotguns and started chasing and shooting at people. He was one of the worst injured people in Boori that night. His body was completely covered in wounds from shots when I spoke to him. In total there were 38 people reportedly injured from birdshot pellets that night throughout Bahrain. Ali was shot around 12:15 at night and taken to a private home in the village were a medic could treat him shortly afterwards.

As I have asked injured protesters before, I asked Ali what the goal from protesting was and if he had changed his views or if his enthusiasm had waned after being injured? He replied (translated from Arabic): “I want a complete change of the regime; I’m not afraid of anything; I’m just proud to serve my country.” …more

Chiapas, Mexico, Latin America: Rights-violations by mining firms
24 April, 2012 – SIPAZ blog

On 24 April in a press-conference held in the cultural space El Paliacate, Gustavo Castro from the organization Other Worlds Chiapas AC and Luis Hernández from the Digna Ochoa base Committee for Human Rights read a communiqué from the Mesoamerican Movement against the Extractive Mining Model (M4).

The communiqué notes that “Mining firms invade our territories, the majority of them Canadian, and they violate all our basic rights. Throughout the Mesoamerican region they have caused displacement from people’s lands and livelihoods, generating grave impacts on health, as in the case of Valle de Siria in Honduras, San Miguel Ixtahuacán in Guatemala, and Carrizalillo in Mexico.”

The communiqué notes as well that “In their passage through our territories they have left aquifers poisoned, communities and families divided; they have provoked deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and loss of food sovereignty for campesino and indigenous regions. They have contributed to the corruption of the local and national authorities in our countries, and they are principal actors in the growing repression and criminalization to which we have been subjected by our governments, when we demand respect for our rights or denounce the environmental injustices they carry out. As a result of this, activists, human-rights defenders from Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico have been incarcerated, threatened with death, injured, and even murdered.”

In light of this context, they enumerated a series of demands and announced several initiatives that the M4 suggests be carried out against mining extraction, including a campaign against the ColdCorp transnational firm. …more

US says Syrian election “borders on ludicrous”
May 7, 2012 – Lebanon Now

The United States said Monday Syria’s parliamentary election “borders on the ludicrous” as the regime of President Bashar al-Assad continues its violent crackdown on its people.

“It’s not really possible to hold credible elections in a climate where basic human rights are being denied to the citizens and the government is continuing to carry out daily assaults …on its own citizens,” State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said.

“To hold a parliamentary election in that kind of atmosphere borders on ludicrous,” Toner told reporters.

Syrians were voting on Monday in the country’s first “multiparty” parliamentary election in five decades, being held against a backdrop of violence and dismissed as a sham by the opposition.

Young and old cast their ballots in neighborhoods of the capital and various other regions, while in opposition strongholds residents boycotted the vote, instead holding protests and a general strike.

The election was being held despite unrest that has swept the country since March 2011 when Assad resorted to force in a bid to quash a revolt against his autocratic regime.

The vote, initially scheduled for last September, was postponed to May 7 after Assad announced the launch of a reform process backed by a referendum. …more

Secret U.S. program releases high-level insurgents in exchange for pledges of peace
By Kevin Sieff, 6 May, 2012

KABUL — The United States has for several years been secretly releasing high-level detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, a bold effort to quell violence but one that U.S. officials acknowledge poses substantial risks.

As the United States has unsuccessfully pursued a peace deal with the Taliban, the “strategic release” program has quietly served as a live diplomatic channel, allowing American officials to use prisoners as bargaining chips in restive provinces where military power has reached its limits.

But the releases are an inherent gamble: The freed detainees are often notorious fighters who would not be released under the traditional legal system for military prisoners in Afghanistan. They must promise to give up violence — and U.S. officials warn them that if they are caught attacking American troops, they will be detained once again.

There are no absolute guarantees, however, and officials would not say whether those who have been released under the program have later returned to attack U.S. and Afghan forces once again.

“Everyone agrees they are guilty of what they have done and should remain in detention. Everyone agrees that these are bad guys. But the benefits outweigh the risks,” said one U.S. official who, like others, discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the program.

The releases have come amid broader efforts to end the decade-long war through negotiation, which is a central feature of the Obama administration’s strategy for leaving Afghanistan. Those efforts, however, have yielded little to no progress in recent years. In part, they have been stymied by the unwillingness of the United States to release five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay — a gesture that insurgent leaders have said they see as a precondition for peace talks. …more

Hundreds protest in Norway against Shia genocide in Pakistan
7 May, 2012 – Shia Post

OSLO: Protesters marched on roads of Norwegian capital Oslo on April 30 against the genocide of Hazara in Pakistan. They were holding banners and placards against the systematic killing of an ethnic minority for their Shia faith, and urged the international community to help stop the killing of Hazaras in Quetta city of Pakistan.

They were holding banners calling the UN to take notice of a genocide-in-making in Quetta, Pakistan. A child was holding a placard that read: “Massacre of Hazaras in 21st Century is a Shame for Humanity”.

Speakers condemned the security establishment–Army and Intelligence agencies–of Pakistan for negligence of the situation in Quetta where victims accuse complicity of Government elements supporting the terrorists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, who have killed more than 700 Hazaras in the last ten years, without one prosecution.

The speakers said it was a humanitarian crisis. An ethnic minority of over 600,000 people are besieged in a small multi-ethnic city of few million population. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a militant sectarian organization that kill Shias. In a letter thrown in streets of Quetta, Hazaras have been warned by LeJ to leave Pakistan by 2012, or Quetta will be turned into their graveyard. Only in the last few weeks, over 40 Hazaras have been killed.

Protesters urged the international community to pressurize Pakistan to stop the merciless killings of Hazaras. …source

Biography
Mahdi Abu Deeb studied art at University of Baghdad. Later he became a teacher. In 2001, Deeb was promoted by the Ministry of Education to take responsibly for outlining the arts study program and courses offered by government schools. He founded the BTA in the same year to empower teachers’ role and equity, and was elected its president. In 2009, he received a PhD in education from Arabian Gulf University.[1] In 2010, he was elected Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab Teachers’ Union.

Role in the Bahraini uprising
In February 2011, large-scale pro-democracy protests began in Bahrain as part of the international Arab Spring. During the period between 19 February 2011 and 16 March when authorities allowed protests in the Pearl Roundabout, BTA played an important role in the uprising; they shared same demands with protesters and pressured the government to achieve them. Deeb was there almost daily. “He would leave home in the morning and come back late at night. If he wasn’t at Pearl, he was meeting people about schools,” his eldest daughter Maryam said.[1] On 20 February, the BTA called for a three-day strike demanding reforms in Bahrain’s educational system and protesting killing and suppression of activists, of whom students made up a high percentage.[1] More than five thousand teachers participated in the strike. When the martial law was imposed on 16 March, BTA called for another strike, this one lasting ten days. …more

Bahrain: FIDH Demands the Immediate Release of its deputy secretary general Nabeel Rajab
6 May, 2012 – FIDH

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is gravely concerned about the arrest of its Deputy Secretary General and the continuing targeting of human rights defenders in Bahrain. On May 5th 2012, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, was arrested upon arrival at Manama airport from Lebanon and is currently detained in Al Hawra police station.
The police officers who arrested Rajab stated that the Public Prosecution has ordered his arrest, however neither Rajab nor his lawyers have been informed of the reasons for his arrest. According to BCHR, Rajab will appear before the Public Prosecution today in the late afternoon.

Furthermore, Rajab had returned to Bahrain on 5th of May in order to attend the first scheduled hearing against him in a case on 6th of May for charges relating to a protest he had participated in on the 31st of March 2012 in the capital Manama against the detention of human rights defender Abdulhadi Al Khawaja; the charges against him include “participating in illegal assembly and calling others to join”. Rajab appeared before the court this morning and denied the charges against him.

FIDH calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Rajab and other human rights defenders, as this judicial harassment against them seems to be solely aimed at sanctioning their human rights activities.

FIDH recalls the authorities’ obligation to comply with the international human rights instruments ratified by the Kingdom of Bahrain and their pledge to effectively implement the recommendations of the BICI report, especially N°1722 with regard to “the use of force, arrest, treatment of persons in custody, detention and prosecution in connection with the freedom of expression, assembly and association”. …source

Erdogan: Syrian opposition victory not far off
7 May, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told Syrian refugees on Sunday that victory for the rebels in their country was not far off and President Bashar al-Assad was “losing blood” by the day.

Erdogan, who has tried to rally international support against the government in neighbouring Syria over its 14-month crackdown against opponents, was met with enthusiastic applause and shouts of “Long live Erdogan” at the Kilis refugee camp.

“Bashar is losing blood every day,” Erdogan told the crowd of about 1,500 people less than a kilometer from the border.

“Your victory is not far off. We have just one issue: to stop the bloodshed and tears and for the Syrian people’s demands to be met.”

Erdogan addressed the crowd from the top of a bus while military snipers watched from rooftops. Hundreds of police and soldiers guarded the road from the airport to the camp.

His remarks came on the eve of a parliamentary election in Syria that Damascus has said shows reforms are under way.

But fighting in Syria continues despite a UN-monitored ceasefire, brokered by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in place since last month. Fresh clashes erupted on Sunday between rebels and Assad’s forces in eastern Syria.

“We maintain our hopes for the implementation of the Annan plan, but the bad news out of Syria is progressively undermining those hopes,” Erdogan later told a news conference.

“Simply following the Annan plan will not bring about a resolution…A reform process that expands freedom within a parliamentary, constitutional system should start immediately.” …more