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

Israel arresting Palestinians to preempt uprising: security
3 January, 2013 – By Steve Weizman – Agence France Presse

JERUSALEM: Israel plans to step up arrests of suspected militants in the occupied West Bank to prevent a rising tide of low-intensity conflict and civil unrest from turning into an uprising, security sources say.

“There is a certain (Palestinian) awakening,” one source told AFP.

“As a consequence a decision was taken within the security establishment to increase intelligence activity and arrests among members of Hamas or activists against Israel,” he added. “It started in the past few days and will increase.”

Recent events, however, suggest that such a policy could backfire.

On Tuesday, undercover Israeli troops attempting to arrest a suspected Islamic Jihad militant were pelted with rocks by an angry crowd.

The squad made their arrest, but Palestinian security sources said dozens were lightly injured when soldiers fired rubber bullets, live rounds and tear gas at their attackers.

Israeli public radio’s military affairs reporter quoted military sources on Wednesday as saying the arrest operation was routine, but the Palestinian response was anything but so.

“What is exceptional is the grave disturbances,” she quoted her sources as saying. “An operation like this would not in the past have brought disturbances of this kind.”

“There is a certain rise in disturbances in the territories but talk of a third intifada is premature,” she added.

Earlier this month, troops in a southern West bank village were forced to abort an attempt to arrest a Palestinian policeman suspected of militant activity when crowds of local residents pelted them with rocks.

They seized the man later at a military checkpoint near Hebron.

The Palestinians have twice risen up against their Israeli occupiers in so-called intifadas (uprisings) — in December 1987 and September 2000.

But neither movement succeeded in ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank that began in 1967. Now, with direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians on hold since September 2010, observers have raised the spectre of a third uprising breaking out.

Ghassan Khatib, a veteran of the first intifada, who later became a Palestinian cabinet minister and now teaches at the West Bank’s Birzeit University, does not see a guiding hand in the current round of clashes.

He considers as “spontaneous” the daily confrontations between Palestinian farmers and Jewish settlers, the hurling of rocks and petrol bombs at Israeli motorists in Palestinian areas and the clashes with troops.

“I don’t think that it can be connected to any specific event; it’s been building up gradually,” he told AFP.

“I think it’s a result of the dangerous combination of a complete absence of any political horizon together with serious economic and financial crisis that is leading to increased unemployment and poverty,” he added, noting an increase in settlement activity.

“In my view the situation is not sustainable,” he said.

Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service tied an upswing in clashes to November’s eight-day battle between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

“In response to the operation, Jerusalem and the (West Bank) also saw an increase in the level of violence,” Shin Bet said in its monthly summary for November.

It recorded 122 Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank, compared with 39 in October, and 44 incidents in Jerusalem, up from 31 the month before.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Palestinian youngsters seemed to be heavily involved in the unrest, which some Israeli media are already calling “a mini-intifada.”

“In general there’s been an increase in the number of incidents that have taken place, stone-throwing incidents as well as Molotov cocktails on the main highways,” he told AFP.

“The majority of incidents take place in the morning when Palestinian children are on their way to school and in the afternoon when Palestinian children are returning from school,” he said.
…source

Saudi protesters hold anti-regime demos in Mecca, Buraidah
2 January, 2013 – Persia Herald Tribune

Saudi protesters hold an anti-regime demonstration in the oil-rich Eastern Province. (File photo)

People have held demonstrations against the Al Saud regime in the holy city of Mecca and the central city of Buraidah.

The demonstrators took to the streets in the two cities on Tuesday, calling for the downfall of the Saudi regime. They also demanded the release of political prisoners.

On December 31, tens of thousands of Saudi nationals staged a protest in the oil-rich Eastern Province to condemn the recent killing of a teenage demonstrator.

The demonstration in Eastern Province was held following the funeral of Ahmad al-Marar, who was killed when regime forces opened fire on a group of protesters in the Qatif region of the province on December 27.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in Qatif and the town of Awamiyah in Eastern Province, primarily calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the Al Saud regime, especially since November 2011, when security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province.

Amnesty International has called on Saudi authorities to stop using excessive force against the protesters.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi regime “routinely represses expression critical of the government.” …source

Saudi intellectuals petition for release of novelist who ‘insulted’ Islam
2 January, 2013 – Al Akhbar

Saudi intellectuals on Wednesday urged the kingdom’s crown prince to order the release of a liberal writer accused of insulting Islam via his Twitter account.

A petition, signed by around 500 people and addressed to Salman bin Abdul Aziz, called for Turki al-Hamad’s “immediate and unconditional release.”

“We hope for, demand and expect a quick decision to be made to correct this grave error that has been committed against” Hamad, it said.

It slammed his arrest as “unjust… condemned, reprehensible, shameful, and unacceptable.”

Hamad was arrested — on the orders of Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, who was tipped off by a religious organization, according to AFP — for alleged insults to Islam he made on Twitter, his family said on December 24.

One of the comments he posted had attacked radical Islamists he said were twisting the Prophet Mohammad’s “message of love,” and what he described as “a neo-Nazism which is on the rise in the Arab world — Islamic extremism”.

The Tweet that had caused the most uproar, according to Saudi media, said “just as the prophet had descended once to rectify the faith of Abraham, it was time for someone to come and right the prophet Muhammad’s religion.”

The post caused confusion about whether Hamad was criticizing the religion itself or only the way it is practiced. Saudi responses on Twitter ranged from accusing the outspoken novelist of “atheism” to agreeing with “the need for more a more righteous application of Sharia.”

Hamad is no stranger to controversy. In 2011, he caused a stir for criticizing a Minister of State Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahad, saying he did not know how to run the state.

More recently, in a tweet that was apparently interpreted as an insult to the ruling parties, he had tweeted: ‘While the rest of the world is busy debating Iran’s nuclear capacity, we’re busy with whether women can drive…”

The petition’s signatories included Manal al-Sherif and Najla Hariri, two female activists who defied the kingdom’s driving ban on women, and liberal columnist Ahmad Adnan. …more

mahmood haider

Bahraini security forces fire tear gas at 4-year-old child
2 January, 2013 – Shia Post

A newly released film by the Bahraini people shows the Al-Khalifa regime’s security forces firing tear gas at a 4-year-old child during peaceful demonstrations near the capital Manama.

he film, taken in a village near Manama, shows a protester rescues the child and takes him to a safe place.
The Al-Khalifa regime has already killed many civilians, including women and children, by firing poisonous tear gases inside their homes.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of protesters have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

Police clampdown on protesters continues daily. Authorities have tried to stop organized protests by opposition parties over the past month by refusing to license them and using tear gas on those who turn up.

The opposition coalition wants full powers for the elected parliament and a cabinet fully answerable to parliament.

Amnesty International has announced that more than 200 people, arrested as part of the clampdown against Shiite political opposition in Bahrain, are at the risk of being tortured. Around 250 individuals in Bahrain, who are believed to have been detained, are at risk of torture, the group said. Human Rights Watch also accused Bahrain of restricting the travel of rights activists to prevent them from talking about the arrest of opposition members.

The Sunni-dominated government has intensified the crackdown against the Shiite population, arresting dozens of opposition figures on the allegation of planning to topple the government.

The population of Bahrain is predominantly Shiite. However, the majority group has long complained of being discriminated against by the Sunni-dominated government in obtaining jobs and receiving services.

Defining imperialism
Farooq Sulehria – 2 January, 2013

Is there a Saudi imperialism? No, there is not. Still, the term ‘Saudi imperialism’ is fast creeping into left-liberal narratives. Drawing our attention to ‘Saudi imperialism’, such narratives refer to the increasing Saudi influence in Pakistan. As a matter of fact, Saudi penetration of Pakistani politics, economy, and culture is a least-discussed but largely accepted fact. Also, Saudi Arabia (along with other Gulf sheikhdoms) casts its influence not merely over Pakistan but a host of other Muslim countries. For instance, one finds similar trends in Egypt, Bangladesh and Jordan. Since the outbreak of the Arab spring, Riyadh has assumed an increasingly important role. While Saudi Arabia played Big Brother in the Gulf – containing the revolution in Bahrain and mediating change in Yemen – it is patronising Islamists in Tunisia, Syria and Egypt. Since intervention and domination are two overriding characteristics of imperialism, one often also hears terms like ‘Punjabi imperialism’ in Pakistan.

This is because, to quote David Harvey, “Imperialism is a word that trips easily off the tongue.” But attempts at defining and describing imperialism often run into difficulties. Liberals have frequently reduced imperialism to domination and intervention. While domination is implicit in it, imperialism cannot be reduced to dominance or intervention alone. For instance, Punjab’s oppression and exploitation of Balochistan is based on nationalism. Similarly, Ethiopian intervention in Somalia or the Sinhalese domination of Tamils do not make Ethiopia or Sri Lanka imperialist countries. In all such cases, we are dealing with national questions even if domination, exploitation and brutal oppression feature in every instance.

Similarly, another misconception – sometime deliberately projected by liberals and post-modernists – is either to reduce imperialism to empire or present empire and imperialism as essentially concomitant features. In other words, you cannot have empire (that lords over colonies) without imperialism and imperialism without empire. Even scholars such as Edward Said run into trouble when defining imperialism.

For instance, in his seminal work Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said describes imperialism as a practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan centre ruling a distant territory; ‘colonialism’, which is almost always a consequence of imperialism, is the implanting of settlements on distant territories. In his support, Said quotes Michael Doyle: “Empire is a relationship, formal or informal, in which one state controls the effective political sovereignty of another political society. It can be achieved by force, by political collaboration, by economic, social, or cultural dependence. Imperialism is simply the process or policy of establishing or maintaining an empire.” While Doyle’s definition is flawed in view of contemporary imperialism, whereby colonialism has ended (Israel being the only exception), Said himself contradicts himself in the same breath. Having quoted Doyle, he asserts: “In our time, direct colonialism has largely ended; imperialism…lingers where it has always been, in a kind of general cultural sphere as well as in specific political, ideological, economic, and social practice.” Similarly, John Tomlinson describes imperialism as “a specific form of domination…associated with ‘empire’. “

However, if imperialism lingers on, why has colonialism ended? Said does not explain this. Likewise, the US is an imperialist country but has no formal empire. And if domination is the defining characteristic, as Tomlinson writes, one cannot differentiate between national oppression and imperial exploitation.

Also, historical experiences do not fit into this characterisation. For instance, imperial exploitation of Latin America by England in the 19th century even when Latin American countries had attained formal political liberation is a case in point. Likewise, if empire and imperialism are concomitant, should the Roman, Mongol and Ottoman empires also qualify as imperialisms? Such problems remain unsolved in non-Marxist definitions of imperialism. These definitions, even when coined by brilliant theoreticians like Edward Said, remain stuck in the apparent characteristics attributed to imperialism and are, hence, always contradictory.

This writer thinks that a sound understanding of imperialism is only offered by Marxist tradition. In the first place, imperialism can neither be understood nor properly defined if it is delinked from capitalism. In the famous words of Lenin, it is always the “latest stage of capitalism.” We must acknowledge that imperialism is a metamorphosing phenomenon. As capitalism assumes new forms, imperialism also adapts to these new forms. …more

Germany Approves Another Armored Vehicle Sale to Saudi Arabia
1 January, 2013 – theTrumpet.com

Germany has approved in principle the sale of up to 100 Dingo 2 armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia, the Bild am Sonntag reported December 30. The Dingos are mine-resistant and designed to defend their occupants against nuclear radiation, as well as biological or chemical attacks.

Citing sources close to talks on the deal, Bild am Sonntag reported that Saudi Arabia plans to buy 30 of the vehicles for around €100 million (over us$130 million). Over the long term, it plans to buy 70 more.

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, which makes the Dingos along with Bruker Daltonik, advertises them as “the safest and best-protected wheeled vehicle in its class,” showing “outstanding performance on extremely difficult terrains and under extreme climatic conditions.”

Each vehicle can carry up to eight men. As standard, it has a remote-controlled machine gun in the roof, with the option to mount other weapons.

Bild am Sonntag reports that Germany’s national security council is yet to reach a final decision, but has given it the go-ahead, in principle.

This is just another example of Germany’s new policy of using strategic arms sales to build up alliances with other nations. Germany’s arms trade with Saudi Arabia could grow very large. According to some German media reports, Saudi Arabia wants to buy 600 to 800 German Leopard ii tanks. This is part of a concerted effort by Germany to arm and ally with opponents of Iran, as prophesied in the Bible. For more on this important subject, see our recent article “The Truth Behind Germany’s Record Military Exports.” ▪
…source

Saudis protest regime’s killing of teen
1 January, 2012 – ABNA

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province to protest against the killing of a teenage demonstrator.

The protest was held following the funeral of the teenager, Ahmad al-Marar, who was killed when Saudi forces opened fire on a group of demonstrators in the Qatif district of the province on December 27.

According to local reports, several protesters were arrested and some others were injured during the December 27 demonstration, which was held to demand the release of political prisoners in the country’s oil-rich Eastern Province.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in Qatif and Awamiyah in Eastern Province, primarily calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, as well as an end to widespread discrimination.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the repressive Al Saud regime, especially since November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province.

Amnesty International has called on Saudi authorities to stop using excessive force against the protesters.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi regime “routinely represses expression critical of the government.” …source

US-backed Terrorists Renew Threat to Use Chemical Arms against Syrians and Damascus Gov’t
2 January, 2013 – Islamic Invitation Turkey

Political Advisor to the so-called Free Syrian Army Bassam ed-Dade acknowledged FSA’s chemical weapons capability, and renewed the rebels’ threat to use the lethal weapons against the Syrian Army.

Speaking to Turkish Anadolu News Agency, ed-Dade said that the FSA has achieved the capability to produce chemical arms.

He said the FSA has acquired the raw materials for the production of chemical weapons and has achieved the capability to produce chemical weapons using some defected members of the Syrian army.

He added that the group will use these lethal weapons to target bases and centers of the Syrian government if necessary.

Late last month, armed rebels released a second film on the Internet which shows them testing a poisonous chemical agent on an animal in Western Syria.

The footage shows terrorists testing a chemical substance on a rabbit in the coastal city of Latakia, the Lebanese television al-Manar reported.

On the same day, the armed rebels used chemical weapons in their attacks against the Syrian army in Darya district of Reef (outskirts of) Damascus.

“The terrorists have already thrown three cube-shaped plastic bags towards the (Syrian) army’s forces that killed seven forces due to the gases emerging from the bags,” a commander of the Syrian Presidential Guard told the Iran-based Arab-language Al-Alam news channel at the time.

The commander noted that a yellow button is installed on the bags and by pushing that a yellow gas came out and those who inhaled it died after nearly one hour.

Since several weeks ago, different media had reported about the presence of chemical weapons in Syria and the possibility of its use by armed rebels.

Terrorists have tried hard in the last several days to make Syrian cities unsafe for citizens, but the army has purged them from most neighborhoods and districts, killed tens of them and arrested many others.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. …source

Mossad agents in the Al-Qaeda unit that attacked the Yarmouk camp
Voltaire Network – 2 January 2013

The battle that raged starting December 9 in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp (south of Damascus) has revealed new alliances.

The strategic objective was to involve Palestinians in the war in Syria, mobilizing them on a sectarian basis (they are mostly Sunni) against the secular regime. But the refugees did not allow themselves to be manipulated, no more than in Lebanon in 2007, when the mercenaries of Fatah al-Islam tried to mobilize the Palestinians of Nahr el-Bared against Hezbollah.

Elements of Hamas loyal to Meshaal allowed fighters of the Al-Nousra Front (Levantine branch of Al-Qaeda) to enter the camp where they mainly clashed with men of the PFLP (nationalists and Marxists).

It now appears that the al-Qaeda fighters were not only made up of Muslim extremists, but also included Israeli Mossad agents. They had specific plans for cornering the leaders of other Palestinian factions and eliminate them. Not finding them, they allowed the other members of Al-Qaida to systematically loot the empty apartments of these leaders.

After a week of heavy fighting, elements of al-Qaida, Mossad-included, retreated and the camp was declared a “neutral zone.” Of the 180 000 inhabitants, about 120,000 had fled the camp at the request of the Syrian authorities and were relocated by them to Damascus. Most are now back home. …source

The Mukhabarat was not a monolithic unit. Instead it was a vast, complex labyrinth of security organizations with their own intelligence and military units pervading all layers of Iraqi society. The five main agencies are the al-Amn al-Khas (Special Security), al-Amn al-Amm (General Security), al-Mukhabarat (General Intelligence), al-Istikhbarat (Military Intelligence) and al-Amn al-Askari (Military Security). In addition, there are myriad Baath security agencies, civil police forces, paramilitary militias and special military units that protected the regime.

Bahrain Grants Citizenship to 1,000 Saddam Loyalists
2 January, 2013 – FNA

TEHRAN (FNA)- Bahrain’s national air carrier, Gulf Air, has transited a total of 1,000 loyalists to Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein to Manama on several flights, including on Gulf Air Flight No. GF976, on December 22, informed Arab sources disclosed on Wednesday.

“The Bahraini government has begun granting nationality to and recruiting (former Iraqi dictator) Saddam Hussein’s forces and has already attracted 1,000 of these forces who have become Bahraini citizens after going through administrative procedures,” an informed source at the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) told FNA.

The Saddam loyalists were immediately granted Bahrain’s citizenship, given houses, and recruited by the country’s security organization upon their arrival in the tiny Persian Gulf country.

They were the last group of Saddam’s loyalists who were transferred to Manama International Airport from Amman, Jordan’s capital. They had fled Iraq through the country’s land borders with Jordan.

A former commander of Iraq’s presidential guard, Tareq al-Shamri, was in charge of transferring Saddam’s loyalists to Bahrain from Jordan.

This is not the first time that the Bahrain’s Al Khalifa regime grants Bahraini citizenship and recruits mercenaries from other countries in a bid to continue with the suppression of its opponents who attend daily protests in Manama and other cities across the country in thousands.

The Bahraini government which feels desperate to bring back calm to the crisis-hit country had also earlier recruited about 5,000 Salafis from Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of protesters have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

Police clampdown on protesters continues daily. Authorities have tried to stop organized protests by opposition parties over the past month by refusing to license them and using tear gas on those who turn up.

The opposition coalition wants full powers for the elected parliament and a cabinet fully answerable to parliament.

Amnesty International has announced that more than 200 people, arrested as part of the clampdown against Shiite political opposition in Bahrain, are at the risk of being tortured. Around 250 individuals in Bahrain, who are believed to have been detained, are at risk of torture, the group said. Human Rights Watch also accused Bahrain of restricting the travel of rights activists to prevent them from talking about the arrest of opposition members.

The Sunni-dominated government has intensified the crackdown against the Shiite population, arresting dozens of opposition figures on the allegation of planning to topple the government.

The population of Bahrain is predominantly Shiite. However, the majority group has long complained of being discriminated against by the Sunni-dominated government in obtaining jobs and receiving services. …source

Al Khalifa, Persian Gulf Sheikhs unable to quell Bahrain Revolution: Mohsen Saleh
26 December, 2102 – Interview, Mohsen Saleh – PressTV

Well, it seems that they are going in this harsh dealing in the crackdown of the people and the protesters in Bahrain but it seems they have gotten a kind of help or aid from the summit, the so-called Sheikhs in the Persian Gulf, and I guess the Bahrainis would not be silent or quiescent about these atrocities and these harsh dealing with them.”

A Beirut-based political commentator believes that the demonstrations of the Bahraini people against the Saudi-backed Al Khalifa regime will continue until their demand for the establishment of a democratically elected government is met.

Bahraini forces have attacked protesters holding a demonstration against the Al Khalifa regime in the village of Eker. The Saudi-backed regime forces attacked a group of youth protesters and beat them during the demonstration on Tuesday. Several people were injured and arrested.

On December 23, police attacked the demonstrators who had thronged the streets in several towns and villages, chanting slogans against King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The uprising in Bahrain began in mid-February 2011. The Manama regime promptly launched a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests and called in Saudi-led Arab forces from neighboring states.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohsen Saleh, a political analyst in Beirut, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Saleh, let’s jump right in, illegal detentions, prosecution and persecution of medics and doctors in addition to a continuous Saudi-backed crackdown. Just how far are the Al Khalifa’s willing to go to quell these protests?

Saleh: Well, it seems that they are going in this harsh dealing in the crackdown of the people and the protesters in Bahrain but it seems they have gotten a kind of help or aid from the summit, the so-called Sheikhs in the Persian Gulf, and I guess the Bahrainis would not be silent or quiescent about these atrocities and these harsh dealing with them.

They are continuing until they win this battle. But the international community, now when they claim about democracy and freedom, they should meet with the protesters in order to achieve justice and freedom for the Bahrainis.

The Bahrainis are continuing and now they are waiting for the international community and the so-called Arab Awakening in order to help them and to defend their rights in their dignity and honor for a good life. …more

Bolivia: Evo Morales’ “Manifesto of the Island of the Sun”
01 January, 2013 – By Jean Ortiz, L’Humanite – Translated by Kristina Wischenkamper and reviewed by Henry Crapo.

On December 21, Evo Morales, President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia chose to celebrate the Summer Solstice on the Island of the Sun. Here he gave a speech: “The Manifesto of the Island of the Sun”. In view of its importance, this text deserves to be widely known, and we have translated some passages that seem most representative.

“From the island of the sun, from our sacred Lake Titicaca, we tell you that we are here on December 21, not to await the end of the world (…), but on this new dawn to give hope to the people “(…).

“This island is where time began and history began with the sons of the Sun. But then darkness fell with the arrival of foreign invaders.” (…) “Today from this island, the birthplace of the ‘Tahuantinsuyo’ (Inca Empire), we proclaim the end of that age of darkness and ‘non-time’ and the beginning of the age of light, the ‘Pachakuti’ (Andean legend of renaissance, new age, and regeneration of cosmic harmony. OJ). Once again it is time for the peoples of the world, social movements, and all those who have been marginalized, discriminated against or humiliated to unite, organize, mobilize, become aware and rise up as in the times of the ‘Pachakuti’. The world has been plunged into a global crisis (…). This age of capitalism and unbridled consumerism, this age where man thinks himself superior to Mother Earth and makes her the object of his ruthless domination and predation has come to an end.”

“On the one hand there is ever more capitalism, ever more privatization, commodification, irrational exploitation and destruction of natural resources, and increasing protection for businesses and private profits.

On the other there are fewer and fewer social rights, less public health, less free and public education, less protection of human rights. Today, the companies and the people of developed countries are living through this dramatic crisis of capitalism, which has been generated by market forces. Their capitalist governments believe that saving the banks is more important than saving the people. (…) In this capitalist system, banks have privileged economic rights and are treated as first class citizens, so that the banks have become more important than life itself. In this savage jungle, men and women and peoples are not brothers and sisters, are not citizens (…). They are only bad debtors, those living on benefits, tenants, customers.”

“We are witnessing the Green Reign: monetary policy, sustainable development and ecological policy are all green like the dollar. Faced with a new wave of capitalist systemic crisis, its ideologues advocate the privatization of nature through what they call ’the green economy’, or ’green capitalism’. But market forces, liberalism and privatization, have only ever brought poverty, exclusion, hunger and marginalization. ” (…)

“On this 21 December, the first day of ’Pachakuti’ (…) let us witness the end of this age of violence against human beings and nature and let us move into a new age. An age where human beings and Mother Earth are one, and where all people live in harmony and balance with the entire cosmos. (…) We are the Rainbow Warriors, the Warriors of the ’vivir bien’, the Rebels of the world. Here we give you ten ways to confront capitalism and start building a culture of life:

– Rebuild democracy and politics, transferring power to the poor and putting it at the service of the people

– More social and human rights, not the commodification of human needs

– Decolonize our peoples and cultures to build a “socialisme communautaire du buen vivir” (communitarian socialism of well-living)

– A real environmental policy to stand against the ‘environmental colonialism of the green economy’

– Sovereignty over natural resources as a prerequisite for the emancipation from neocolonial domination and a movement towards
integral development of peoples

– Food sovereignty and the human right to food

– The alliance of the peoples of the south against interventionism, neo-liberalism and colonialism

– The development of knowledge and technology for all

– The construction of a global institutional union of peoples

Economic development should not have as its goal capital accumulation and profit, nor market income, but must be ’holistic’, and seek people’s happiness and harmony with Mother Earth.”

(These ten points are largely detailed by Evo Morales in the Manifesto.)

“This new age is one of the power of work, of the power of ’communities’, of the solidarity of all peoples, of the communion of all living beings with Mother Earth, all working together towards building the ’communitarian socialism of well-living.’

Our vision of a communitarian socialism of well-living is based on rights and not on market forces; it is based on the fulfillment and happiness of humankind.” …source

Bahrain: Silenced Spring
30 December, 2012 – Stephanie d’Arc Taylor – NOW

More sinister than the macabre dreams the media may inspire in disturbed young men in suburban America has been its relationship with the people and governments of countries that experienced upheavals during the so-called Arab Spring. Mainstream media has largely toed the line drawn by Western governments, in practicing a “triple standard,” as analyst Samer Araabi of the Arab American Institute has said, toward protestors and leaders in the region, depending on the country’s perceived strategic importance.

Thousands of journalists representing news outlets across the world are still falling over each other to cover the revolution in Egypt and the ensuing crises, nearly two years after protesters drove Hosni Mubarak from office, while massive uprisings in Bahrain during the same period, accompanied by grievous and widespread human rights violations at the hands of the police, have been largely ignored even by news agencies in the Arab world.

Can we attribute the grisly crackdowns on Bahraini protesters, as well as the relatively peaceful uprising in Egypt, to the difference in the way mainstream media has covered them? And is the notable dearth of media coverage on Bahrain related to the blind eye that governments in the West are turning toward violence in the strategic island in the Persian Gulf?

Given Egypt’s history of human rights abuses, its revolution should have been much bloodier than it turned out to be. Since Gamal Abdul Nasser’s mass arrests of Muslim Brothers in the 1950s, the prisons, police stations, torture chambers and morgues of Egypt have been filled with Islamists and Leftists alike paying the price for any perceived opposition to the regime. More recently, with the rise of the Internet, people have been arrested and tortured for nothing more than blog posts and Facebook groups.

So when Egyptians took to the streets on January 25, 2011, the media was ready: Reporters from mainstream media outlets, as well as citizen journalists, were on the ground in Cairo, documenting every last detail of the interactions between protesters, politicians, the police and the army. A career could have been launched from a grainy video documenting police brutality. But for a while at least, Mubarak’s regime was still counting on continued material and ideological support from the United States, which is harder to secure when videos of police beatings and reports of torture are constantly surfacing. Because the world was watching, the police may have been instructed to behave themselves.

At the peak of the protests in Egypt, there were approximately one million people in Tahrir Square, about 1 in 80 Egyptians. In Bahrain, the largest protests at Pearl Roundabout in downtown Manama have drawn as many as two out of three citizens. The government has responded with attacks on unarmed protesters with stun grenades, birdshot, rubber bullets and live ammunition, as well as arbitrary long-term imprisonment for health workers and journalists. Widespread torture and even blatant murders on the street have been recorded by bystanders with camera phones and Twitter accounts. These attacks have not only been more brutal, better-documented and more sustained than any in Egypt, the terror they invoke affects the population more completely. Furthermore, according to a 2012 report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, these abuses “could not have happened without the knowledge of the higher echelons of the command structure.” Despite this plethora of evidence implicating the government, the protests and their grisly outcomes have received “no coverage” in the media, as New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof recently tweeted upon his deportation from the country.

Kristof’s experience illustrates that the mainstream media itself is not entirely to blame for the lack of coverage. Journalists traveling to Bahrain are routinely turned away at customs. Meanwhile, earlier this month, a government-aligned PR firm paid for sex-tape celebrity Kim Kardashian to travel to Bahrain to open a milkshake store franchise and tour the country. Upon arriving, she tweeted “OMG can I move here please?” and threw up peace signs while posing with camels. Islamist activists who turned out to protest her appearance were tear-gassed by the government.

As pop stars brush past waylaid journalists and human rights activists in the customs line at the Manama airport, King al-Khalifa still publicly insists that Bahrain respects “liberties” and “tolerance.” During his speech last Sunday, police were using tear gas and sound bombs to disperse thousands of protesters in surrounding villages. It seems the al-Khalifa regime knows that denial and changing the subject to a celebrity can get it very far indeed in today’s socio-political zeitgeist.

The Bahraini government “believes they have international immunity,” says Maryam al-Khawaja, acting head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, “and they’re right.” Bahrain’s sensitive geographic location, just across the Persian Gulf from Iran, has meant that King al-Khalifa and his family have enjoyed a cozy relationship with the United States in recent years, exchanging cheap weapons for a Bahraini base for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. Ideological and material support from its Saudi neighbors have provided the Bahraini king an extra measure of protection against criticism from Western governments, which can’t function without a steady stream of cheap Saudi crude. “Saudi oil,” al-Khawaja says, “is more valuable [to the West] than Bahraini lives.” Until world leaders make human rights a priority over their stakes in the global marketplace, we can expect more grim news from the Gulf. That is, if we get any at all.
…source

Islamic Awakening: Saudis hold anti-regime rally in Qassim
31 December, 2012 – Islamic Invitation Turkey

Saudis have staged an anti-regime protest rally in the central province of Qassim to demand the release of political prisoners being held without charge.

The protest was held in Buraydah, the capital city of Qassim Province, on Saturday, despite a ban on public gatherings.

The demonstrators also protested against the recent abductions of two female students by security forces near Abha University in Asir Province.
They blamed the Interior Ministry for the abductions and stressed that women should be regarded as the red line.

Saudis have staged several anti-Al Saud protests in Qassim, north of the capital, in the past few months.

In September, hundreds of Saudis, including women and children, gathered outside Tafiya prison near Qassim to demand the release of their relatives, who are being held without charges and trial.

Activists said police restricted the protesters to a cordoned-off area and kept them there without food or water for almost 24 hours. Dozens of protesters were also arrested.

Saudi activists say there are more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, in jails across the Kingdom.

Bahraini State Terror
28 December, 2012 – By Stephen Lendman – Media with Conscience

Al-KhalifaAl-Khalifa despots run Bahrain. State terror is official policy. Washington supports it. Generous aid is provided. King Hamad remains a close US ally. Double standard hypocrisy defines America’s foreign and domestic agenda.

Bahrainis want democratic change. They want popularly elected leaders. They want despotic monarchal rule, ruthless persecution, widespread corruption, and Shia discrimination ended.

For many months, they’ve braved tear gas, beatings, rubber bullets, live fire, arrests, torture, imprisonments, and disappearances. They won’t quit. The price of freedom is high.

King Hamad calls peaceful protests “foreign plots.” He banned them earlier. Unauthorized public meetings and seminars were prohibited.

On October 30, public gatherings were again banned. Authorities call them illegal. Participants face severe harshness. That’s how police states operate.

Fundamental rights are criminalized. Daily nonviolent protests still continue. Participants brave severe repression. Some end up dead.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) works for “a prosperous democratic country free of discrimination and other violations of human rights.”

It “encourage(s) and support(s) individuals and groups to be proactive in the protection of their own and others’ rights; and to struggle to promote democracy and human rights in accordance with international norms.”

Its four objectives include:

(1) Promoting civil, political, and economic freedom.

(2) Ending racial discrimination.

(3) Disseminating human rights culture.

(4) Supporting and protecting victims’ rights.

Bahraini human rights activists risk life and limb. Pro-democracy supporters are terrorized. Some have their citizenship revoked. Others face arrests, beatings, imprisonment, torture, and at times death.

On December 24, BCHR headlined, “Bahrain: Escalating state violence against peaceful protesters in lack of international accountability and using western arms.”

BCHR expressed grave concern about about ruthless state terror. It documents those affected. It discusses injuries from rubber bullets, shotgun pellets, tear gas, toxic chemicals, sound grenades, beatings, and live fire.

Injured victims avoid public hospitals. They’re militarized. Arrival for treatment risks arrest and imprisonment.

Collaboratively with doctors, BCHR discussed recent examples of injuries sustained. It did so “to present the most thorough and accurate description” of serious human rights violations.

On December 16, King Hamad called Bahrain “a country of law and freedom.” Repression is official policy. On December 17, BCHR’s acting vice president, Sayed Yousi, said authorities made 27 arbitrary arrests.

Mass protests occurred. Bahrain’s Martyrs Day was commemorated. Excessive force was used. Numerous injuries followed.

A one kg tear gas canister struck a young woman. She sustained a three-bone foot fracture. Urgent treatment was needed.

She feared arrest. Doctors operated on her at an undisclosed location. Her prognosis is poor. She’s expected to endure long-term pain. Her foot will remain deformed.

Security forces open fire at point blank range. A tear gas canister struck a young man. His forearm was fractured. Severe bone damage resulted. He required secret surgery. Doing so involves unsanitary conditions. Infection risks are high.

BCHR discussed a protester injured by multiple shotgun pellets. Many remain lodged in his body. He’s in pain. His injuries are severe.

“Several teenagers were shot in the face with shotguns and are at risk of blindness in one or both eyes.”

One remains in serious condition. He’ll possibly go blind. He’s seeking private medical care. Three other protesters sustained eye injuries. They’re in critical condition. Their prognosis is unclear.

Illegal weapons are used. Excessive force targets all protesters. Bahrainis brave state terror. They demonstrate actively anyway. They risk injuries, arrests, imprisonment and death.

Many protesters sustain serious chest, head and face wounds. Pellets penetrate lungs. Breathing problems result. Medical care is sought secretly in private homes.

Anyone seen injured in public risks detention. Some seek hospital treatment anyway. Doing so assures arrest. BCHR discussed Shamsan Mohammed.

On November 2, he was outside his home. Twenty people gathered nearby. Riot police attacked them. Metal shotgun pellets were fired.

They’re 2.2 – 3.8mm in diameter. They’re fired at point blank range. They cause serious injuries. Multiple ones occur. Chests, heads, and faces are most vulnerable.

Shamsan sustained eyes, chest, waist and leg injuries. He sought hospital care. On arrival, he was arrested and detained. He disappeared for four days.

Family members learned he was at Dry Docks prison. He was given a choice. Provide information about protesters or face torture and imprisonment. He explained he was unable to help.

He was electroshocked and severely beaten. He received constant threats. Many others are persecuted the same way.

Ahmed Aoun is a seventeen-year old student. A shotgun pellet remains lodged in his eye. He sustained it while peacefully protesting. He received private hospital treatment.

Police arrested him. He needs follow-up surgery. He’s denied. He’s been beaten and sexually harassed. He’s in severe pain. He’s expected to be tried and imprisoned.

On December 19, armed police in civilian clothes attacked a young Al Duraz resident. They raided his home pre-dawn. He sustained multiple deep forearm wounds. His left hand remains numb.

Excessive force is standard policy. Bahranis are ruthlessly terrorized. Peaceful protesters are targeted. “BCHR regularly receives a large number of reports of injuries.” Many are serious. Seeking treatment is hazardous.

BCHR expressed deep concern and disappointment about international community silence. It holds America and other Western countries most responsible.

It urged all nations stop supplying Bahrain with arms, ammunition, and political support. It demands long overdue condemnation and isolation of a rogue regime.

Zainab Alkhawaja is a prominent Bahraini human rights activist. She’s Abdulhadi Alkhawaja’s daughter. He co-founded BCHR. He was its first president.

He served as Front Line Defenders’ Middle East and North Africa Protection Coordinator. He worked as a member of the International Advisory Network of the Business and Human Rights Resource Center.

He’s one of Bahrain’s best. He remains imprisoned for life. He risked everything courageously supporting human rights.

Zainab was arrested. She protested outside Abdulhadi’s prison hospital. She wouldn’t leave. She called out her father’s name. She demanded he be released. Other protesters with her were also arrested.

She was lawlessly detained. She was sentenced to one month imprisonment and fined. She was denied counsel and family contacts. She was accused of “inciting hatred against the regime through chanting political slogans.”

She was arrested numerous times before. Thirteen cases remain active against her. She spent months in prison earlier. She’s vulnerable to rearrest any time.

Current BCHR president Nabeel Rajab was imprisoned numerous times for supporting human rights. He was targeted again after being interviewed on Russia Today.

On December 25, The New York Times provided rare op-ed space. Truth got a rare opportunity. Zainab’s commentary was featured. Her outspokenness leaves her vulnerable. She may face arrest like Nabeel. …more

Activists Call for International Probe into Use of Poisonous Gases by Bahrain Police
31 December, 2012 – FNA

TEHRAN (FNA)- Bahraini revolutionary forces called for the establishment of an international fact-finding committee to investigate the use of poisonous gases by the Al-Khalifa regime’s security and military forces against protesters, a senior politician said.

“The Bahraini opposition forces had previously also called for the formation of an international investigation committee to probe on the composition of the poisonous gases used by Bahraini regime against the protesters,” Secretary-General of Bahrain’s National Democratic Population Fazel Abbas told the Arabic-language Al-Alam television network on Monday.

He noted that many Bahraini citizens, including women and children, have died after inhaling the poisonous gases.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of protesters have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

Police clampdown on protesters continues daily. Authorities have tried to stop organized protests by opposition parties over the past month by refusing to license them and using tear gas on those who turn up.

The opposition coalition wants full powers for the elected parliament and a cabinet fully answerable to parliament.

Amnesty International has announced that more than 200 people, arrested as part of the clampdown against Shiite political opposition in Bahrain, are at the risk of being tortured. Around 250 individuals in Bahrain, who are believed to have been detained, are at risk of torture, the group said. Human Rights Watch also accused Bahrain of restricting the travel of rights activists to prevent them from talking about the arrest of opposition members.

The Sunni-dominated government has intensified the crackdown against the Shiite population, arresting dozens of opposition figures on the allegation of planning to topple the government.

The population of Bahrain is predominantly Shiite. However, the majority group has long complained of being discriminated against by the Sunni-dominated government in obtaining jobs and receiving services. …source

Yousif al-Muhafda is accused of disseminating false information about clashes. A prosecutor points to a photo that went up during a demonstration Monday. The activist’s attorney says he was observing the demonstration, not participating Human rights activists say his arrest is part of a growing crackdown on social media.

Bahraini activist arrested for Twitter posts
21 December, 2012 – Mohammed Jamjoom and Hamdi Alkhshali – CNN

(CNN) — Twitter posts about anti-government protests have landed a human rights activist in Bahrain behind bars.

Said Yousif al-Muhafda is accused of disseminating false information about clashes between security forces and protesters in the country’s capital, the state-run Bahrain News Agency said Thursday.

Al-Muhafda, the head of documentation for the Bahrain Center of Human Rights, was arrested Monday during a demonstration, attorney Mohamed Al-Jishi said.

Just before his arrest, the center said a series of posts went out on his Twitter account, describing a shotgun injury, tear gas and “security forces spraying pepper spray on female protesters faces as they mock them/laugh.”

Muhafda has been using the account for months to document what he says are human rights violations in Bahrain.

A government prosecutor pointed to one Twitter post, which showed a picture of an injured leg.

The image, posted Monday, “resulted in protests and acts of sabotage that disrupted security on that same day,” Bahrain’s government news agency said, citing Deputy Attorney General Mohammed Salah.

The activist’s attorney says he was observing the demonstration, not participating.

He is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

Human rights activists have criticized the arrest, saying it is part of a growing crackdown on social media posts.

“The authorities are placing extensive surveillance on social media, and several were arrested because of their online posts in an act that serves to intimidate others to move into self-censorship,” the Gulf Center for Human Rights and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said in a statement.

Bahraini authorities imposed a ban on public protests in October, saying it was necessary because “increasing violence has resulted in death and serious injury to many.”

But Amnesty International said the move breached people’s right to free speech.

Violent clashes have broken out between security forces and opposition protesters on numerous occasions since protests began in the island nation in February 2011, spurred by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Bahrain plays a key strategic role in the Middle East and is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters. …source