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

EU ‘disappointed’ as Bahrain upholds activists’ sentences
5 September, 2012 – Agence France Presse

BRUSSELS: EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Wednesday she was “disappointed and concerned” after a Bahrain court upheld convictions against a score of activists accused of trying to overthrow the monarchy.

“I am disappointed and concerned at the decision of the Bahraini Court of Appeal to uphold the harsh sentences against Mr Abdulhadi Khawaja and nineteen other individuals,” Ashton said in a statement.

The court Tuesday retried 13 leading opposition figures, including seven facing life in prison, as well as seven others who remain at large.

Among those sentenced was Khawaja who in June ended a 110-day hunger strike.

The defendants, who played leading roles in month-long protests last year demanding democratic reforms, did not turn up in the appeals court, the lawyers said.

The opposition swiftly condemned the “vindictive” rulings and accused the court of staging “mock trials,” the United States expressed its concern, while London-based Amnesty International denounced the ruling as “outrageous.”

“I hope that the appeal before the Cassation Court will be fair, transparent and conducted in the full respect of international obligations Bahrain has subscribed to,” Ashton said.

“I will continue to monitor the process and the overall situation in the country very closely,” she added on behalf of the European Union.

…source

U.S.: Rights Activists Call on U.S. to Revise Bahrain Policy
By Jim Lobe – IPS

WASHINGTON, Sep 6 2012 (IPS) – Human rights activists are calling on the administration of President Barack Obama to radically revise its policy toward Bahrain in light of the decision by an appeals court in the kingdom this week to confirm harsh prison sentences against 13 opposition activists.

The court’s decision, which also confirmed the conviction of the 13 men by military courts in the aftermath of mainly peaceful anti-government protests during the so-called “Arab Spring” last year, followed the sentencing three weeks ago by yet another court of Nabeel Rajab, the director Bahrain’s most important human rights watchdog, to a three-year prison term for helping organise opposition rallies.

“I’m hoping the administration is doing a radical rethink of its policy on Bahrain,” said Brian Dooley, a Gulf specialist at Human Rights First. “It’s pretty clear that its original plan – to support the so-called reformers in the government – just hasn’t worked. The behind-closed-doors, softly-softly approach clearly hasn’t delivered.”

The appeals court decision was roundly denounced by international human rights groups.

“Today’s court decision is yet another blow to justice and shows once more that the Bahraini authorities are not on the path of reform but seem rather driven by vindictiveness,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, who also noted that many of the defendants have testified that they were tortured during their initial detentions.

“Instead of upholding the sentences, …the Bahraini authorities must quash the convictions for the 13 men who are imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their human rights and release them immediately and unconditionally,” she added.

The ongoing repression in Bahrain – of which the appeals court decision and Rajab’s sentencing are only the latest examples – has posed a major challenge to the credibility of the Obama administration’s claims to support human rights and democratic reform throughout the Arab world.

While it has continuously urged dialogue between the government, which is dominated by the long-ruling Al-Khalifa family, who are Sunni Muslims, and representatives of the Shi’a community, which makes up between 60 and 70 percent of the kingdom’s population, since anti-regime protests broke out in early 2011, it has been reluctant to exert serious pressure to achieve that end.

Its reluctance is explained both by the fact that the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, whose assets have been significantly boosted as tensions with Iran have increased over the past 18 months, is based in Bahrain and by the strong backing – even encouragement — Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter and Washington’s most important U.S. ally and arms-purchaser in the Gulf, has provided the Al-Khalifa family.

Concerned that Manama might have been tempted to compromise with the demands of the opposition, which initially included prominent Sunnis as well, for democratic reform, Riyadh, along with its neighbour, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), sent some 1,500 troops and police across its causeway to Bahrain in support of the government’s crackdown in mid-March 2011. …more

Bahrain Monarchy Teaches Lessons Of Inefficient Counterrevolution
September 5, 2012 – The Trench

In the aftermath of Nabeel Rajab’s three-year prison sentence, The Trench observed that the Bahraini monarchy must want the island’s democratic uprising to continue for a minimum of three years. “Minimum” being the operative word, because the monarchy evidently wants to set an indefinite date for the uprising’s end. On Tuesday Bahrain’s High Court of Appeals ruled against some of the country’s highest-profile activists and delivered a range of lengthy prison terms, conceivably to crush the opposition.

Except the only way to “defeat” Bahrain’s opposition – without losing King Hamad’s crown in the process – is the institution of genuine democratic reforms at the parliamentary and judiciary levels.

The King’s latest moves are so predictably unjust that their “shock” should only exist as a sheer force, like ice water, rather than as a result of false expectations. Some defendants have already endured horrific conditions in Jaww prison and other confinement centers as they await a protracted appeal process. Seven are being tried in absentee for “crimes” that either fail to exist, or are legitimized by the revolutionary situation at hand. The idea of due process is absent before and after the final verdict, systematically destroying any possibility of a fair trial. All opposition parties, human rights groups and activists of consequence have roundly denounced the rulings as a total violation of justice, along with many of Bahrain’s Western allies (out of coercion, not free will).

According to state media, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain expresses its refusal of the statements related to the court sentences issued by the Supreme Appeals Court Tuesday, September 4, 2012 ‘in the case of “overturning of the government and communication with foreign entities along with the violation of constitutional laws.'”

As for the effects of Draconian sentencing, this act will produce the same popular backlash as Rajab’s unjust imprisonment and further extend Bahrain’s democratic uprising. Nothing short of mass slaughter inspires revolutionary action in the same manner as imprisoned leaders, who provide ideological hubs to rally the resistance around. In short, the quickest path to ending Bahrain’s uprising involves freeing them and opening a convulsive negotiating process. The longest path unjustly imprisons and tortures them.

King Hamad is cunning enough to have stayed below the West’s tolerance for this long, but the delusion of his inner circle cannot be permanently masked by tear gas and favorably media coverage. Tactical successes continue to be negated by strategic errors, ultimately playing into the weaker side of an asymmetric conflict, and the monarchy appears to be semi-sincere in its belief of invincibility. This overconfidence is partly responsible for Bahrain’s current state of affairs, yet new examples crop up by the week. Overlooked in the aftermath of Rajab’s sentencing, King Hamad’s Eid-ul-Fitr address demonstrated just how defiant his regime is by speaking about the uprising in past tense. Revolutionaries mutate into “strife-mongers.” …more

It suits the Bahrain regime and the British establishment to co-operate in a phoney reform process

Bahrain’s citizens pay the price for Britain’s dealings with the kingdom
Louisa Loveluck – guardian.co.uk – 6 September, 2012

Last year, the Bahraini government praised the findings of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) into institutional failures that caused the death of 35 individuals between 14 February and 15 April 2011. It committed to the professionalisation of the police force and the introduction of greater accountability for those charged with torture. Ten months on, the BICI’s recommendations read as a hollow reminder that little progress has been made. On Tuesday, an announcement was made that the convictions of 20 prominent dissidents were being upheld, despite widespread condemnation over the politicised nature of the judicial process.

Practical attempts to address the most heinous allegations have been minimal. Instead, implementation efforts have been carefully orientated towards international allies, hiring western advisers to legitimise the reform process and send a message to the world that action is being taken. A number of prominent British establishment figures have risen to the occasion.

John Yates, the former Metropolitan police assistant commissioner, was hired last December to overhaul Bahrain’s police service in line with international human rights standards. Since then, he has become the de facto security spokesperson for the Bahrain government. In April, when the Bahrain Formula One grand prix took place against a backdrop of heated protest, Yates appeared across international news outlets defending the stuttering reform process and framing the unrest as “criminal acts” against “unarmed police”.

The few reforms announced to the public wither in the face of basic scrutiny. In April, Yates announced that he was hiring 500 community police officers to improve relations with the public. However, far from extending an olive branch to a suspicious citizenry, the police continue to make extensive use of teargas as well as shotguns in the name of crowd control.

So why was the commissioner hired, if not for his ability to implement genuine reforms? It’s possible the Bahraini government saw him as part of a package. Kristian Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the London School of Economics, told me that Yates was seen as a key to “the highest levels of government”, although British ministers insist there was no contact over Yates’s appointment, reports suggest he has since enjoyed an unprecedented degree of contact with British officials. In June, he accompanied interior minister Lt Gen Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa to diplomatic engagements in London, even meeting with junior Foreign Office minister Lord Howell.

A number of similarly well-connected British lawyers also travelled to Bahrain in April, this time advising on the BICI’s recommendations regarding accountability for torture. Among their number was Sir Daniel Bethlehem, a former Foreign Office legal adviser who returned to the bar for a brief period before assuming his new role. As with Yates, the involvement of Britons as advisers has resulted in few tangible changes. Despite extensive documentation of state-led human rights abuses, only five low-level personnel have been imprisoned, taking the rap for what the BICI called “systematic … mistreatment which … amounted to torture.” The gulf between Bahraini rhetoric surrounding the lawyers’ appointment and their practical achievements reinforces an impression that they too have been hired as the publicly acceptable face of a reform process that is going nowhere.

The British government has supplied the security forces of Bahrain with crowd control weapons and British advisers have been co-opted into the abortive reform process. But British involvement doesn’t there, our oldest institutions continue to train a steady stream of Bahraini nationals for active service. According to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, this training comes at a high cost to the British state. Although it costs £78,000 to train a single recruit, Bahrain only pays £48,400 an individual. The Ministry of Defence has therefore subsidised Bahraini military training with at least £380,000 in the past three years alone.

But for a government committed to boosting ties with a “key defence ally”, this will be seen as a small price to pay. As former regional partners such as Egypt undergo their own political struggles, British officials place an increasingly high premium on alliances based on trust and deep historical roots. The price for this co-operation is complicity in the slow and steady crackdown on the human rights that Britain purports to defend. …source

U.N. chief slams jailing of Bahrain opposition leaders
6 September, 2012 – Agence France Presse

Ineffectual UN Chief Ban Ki-moon in denial about his current status as US Door Mat

UNITED NATIONS: U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon Wednesday sharply criticized tough jail terms imposed on 13 leading Bahraini opposition figures, calling on the country’s leaders to ensure the right to a fair trial.

“The secretary-general is concerned by the harsh sentences, including life imprisonment, upheld by a Bahrain appeals court,” Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.

The jail terms, which included seven life sentences, were imposed for charges of plotting to overthrow the Sunni Gulf monarchy during last year’s Shiite-led protests.

Ban “urges the Bahraini authorities to allow all defendants to exercise their right to appeal and to ensure that due process is observed.”

And he “reiterates his appeal to the Bahraini authorities to ensure the application of international human rights norms, including the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” the statement added.

The U.N. chief also renewed his belief “that there needs to be an all-inclusive and meaningful national dialogue that addresses the legitimate aspirations of all Bahrainis.”

…more

Britain’s global legacy of conflict
4 September, 2012 – Finian Cunningham – PressTV

In each of these seemingly disparate conflicts, the seeds of violence were sown by one system – British colonialism and its malevolent engineering of sectarianism. It is an indictment of British rulers that decades on, and sometimes centuries on, people’s lives are still being blighted by the legacy of Britain’s predatory, criminal history.”

It’s been a busy news week for British colonialism, or more accurately, the violent legacy of British colonialism. A rash of ongoing or renewed conflicts across the globe speaks of the detriment that the once-powerful British bequeathed and for which people of today have to contend with through injustice and in some cases immense human suffering.

In Northern Ireland, Belfast city has seen resurgent riots between pro-British Protestant youths and Irish nationalist Catholics, with extensive injuries, property damage and a painful reminder of sectarian bloodletting in recent years.

Over in the South Atlantic, Argentines and their government are up in arms over the London government’s proposal to hold a referendum on the future status of the Malvinas Islands, the British colony off Argentina otherwise known as the Falklands.

In the Middle East, Israel has committed yet more crimes against the besieged Palestinian people when fighter jets bombed the coastal Gaza strip, adding to the daily abject misery and terror of inhabitants.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, the people of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia continue their street agitations for democratic freedom from despotic monarchial rulers. In Bahrain, the calls for democracy were given added impetus when a court upheld the sentences against 20 political leaders, some of whom have been imprisoned for life.

Further East on the atlas, in the military junta of Myanmar, formerly known as British Burma, the persecution of thousands of Rohingya Muslims continues unabated, with hundreds killed at the hands of Buddhist gangs after being burned out of their shanty homes.

In each of these seemingly disparate conflicts, the seeds of violence were sown by one system – British colonialism and its malevolent engineering of sectarianism. It is an indictment of British rulers that decades on, and sometimes centuries on, people’s lives are still being blighted by the legacy of Britain’s predatory, criminal history.

In Northern Ireland, a peace settlement was reached after nearly 30 years of an anti-imperialist war between the guerrilla Irish Republican Army and the British forces. More than 3,000 people were killed during that conflict, which British government counter-insurgency policy succeeded in distorting into a sectarian bloodbath between pro-British Protestant loyalists and the mainly Catholic Irish nationalist population. The origins of that conflict lay in the gerrymandering of Ireland by the British colonial rulers when they partitioned the island in 1920-21 – against international and democratic norms – into a pro-British northern statelet and a nominally independent southern state. …more

Can someone please explain what the crime is in contact with Iran and Hezbollah. The Bahrain Regime has yet to release of publish verifiable evidence of crimes of sedition regarding the detained in Bahrain. Until they do so the press should be demanding proof not proliferating bull-shit. Phlipn -out.

Bahrain says uprising leaders had contact with Iran, Hezbollah
by Andrew Hammond – 4 September, 2012 – Reuters

(Reuters) – Leaders of a Bahraini uprising last year, whose prison sentences were upheld by a court on Tuesday, were in “intelligence contact” with Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, a public prosecution official said on Tuesday.

“It is established clearly to us from this verdict that some of the accused had relations and strived to have relations and intelligence contacts with a foreign organization, which is Hezbollah, which works in the interests of Iran,” Wael Boualai told a news conference, in comments carried by state media.

Six of the 20 men whose sentences were upheld were found guilty of “intelligence contacts with foreign bodies”. They were also jailed for offences including trying to overturn the system of government and violating the constitution. The 20 deny all charges against them, saying they wanted only democratic reform. …source

It is CNN International that is, by far, the most-watched English-speaking news outlet in the Middle East. By refusing to broadcast “iRevolution”, the network’s executives ensured it was never seen on television by Bahrainis or anyone else in the region.

Glenn Greenwald: “Why didn’t CNN’s international arm air its own documentary on Bahrain’s Arab Spring repression?” – A former CNN correspondent defies threats from her former employer to speak out about self-censorship at the network.

Gulf Center for Human Rights: Bahrain emboldened by international silence, sentences Nabeel Rajab to 3 years imprisonment – The BCHR and GCHR condemn in the strongest terms the sentence passed today against the detained human rights defender Nabeel Rajab by the Bahraini government on charges related to protesting. Rajab was sentenced to a total of three years imprisonment in three cases, to be immediately carried out. He is already serving a 3 months imprisonment sentence on charges of “libeling the citizens of the town of Muharraq over twitter”, another case of an ongoing campaign of judicial harassment against Rajab. He is in prison since 9 July 2012 for this charge. …more

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Upholding the Sentence of 13 Bahraini Activists
Press Statement

Patrick Ventrell
Acting Deputy Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

September 4, 2012

We are deeply troubled by today’s developments in which an appeals court upheld the vast majority of convictions and sentences of 13 Bahraini activists.

We urge the Government of Bahrain to abide by its commitment to respect detainees’ right to due process and to transparent judicial proceedings, including fair trials and access to attorneys. It is important that verdicts are based on credible evidence and that judicial proceedings are conducted in full accordance with Bahraini law and Bahrain’s international legal obligations. We call on the Government of Bahrain to investigate all reports of torture, including those made by the defendants, as it has pledged to do, and to hold accountable those found responsible.

We continue to call on all parties, including the government, to contribute constructively to reconciliation, meaningful dialogue and reform that bring about change that is responsive to the aspirations of all Bahrainis. As we have said, Bahrain needs dialogue and negotiation to build a strong national consensus about its political future, strengthen its economic standing, and make it a more prosperous country and a more stable ally of the United States. …source

Saudi Arabia approves state media restructure
04 September, 2012 – By Al Arabiya

The Saudi government approved Monday the restructuring for state media, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Under the restructuring, a new government body called the General Authority for Audio and Visual Media will be created to regulate, develop and supervise media content according to the state’s media policy.

SPA said the authority will be an independent body in terms of finance and administration and that it would have an independent annual budget. However, the new authority will be under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Culture and Information.

“The authority will be the responsible agency for the transmission of audio and visual media and its content,” Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja told the state news agency.

The Authority will also be responsible for issuing permits for media activities in the country, as well as supervising service providers and content creation. Other responsibilities of the Authority include receiving complaints and investigating them in media matters.

The board of the new Authority will be chaired by the Minister of Culture and Information and will include its president, the governor of Telecommunication and Information Technology Commission, representatives of government departments and two experts appointed by the Council of Ministers. …source

UN chief blames Syria arms suppliers for spreading misery
5 September, 2012

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has accused Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia of arming the Syrian conflict, spreading misery as the fighting intensifies.

The latest unverified video said to be in Aleppo certainly illustrates the use of heavy weaponry.

Meanwhile the new UN and Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi called for unity in addressing the crisis during his first speech to the General Assembly.

“I am looking forward to my visit to Damascus in a few days time and also, when convenient and possible, to all countries who are in a position to help the Syrian-led political process become a reality leading to a transition that respects the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.”

On Tuesday the Syrian president promised the Red Cross he would allow the organisation to expand its relief operations.

As reports grow of a worsening humanitarian crisis in several bombarded cities, a video taken off the internet purported to show the discovery of 18 bodies dumped at a hospital in Douma. …source

Diatribes and Curious Silences – Democrats and U.S. Labor Delusional About Latin America
By ALBERTO C. RUIZ – 04 September, 2012 – Counterpunch

The Democrats just put out their platform on Latin America, and it demonstrates only the loosest connection to reality. Thus, while praising the “vibrant democracies in countries from Mexico to Brazil and Costa Rica to Chile,” as well as “historic peaceful transfers of power in places like El Salvador and Uruguay,” the Democrats continue to point to Cuba and Venezuela as outliers in the region in which the Democrats plan “to press for more transparent and accountable governance” and for “greater freedom.” Of course, it is their Platform’s deafening silence on critical developments in the region which says the most about their position vis a vis the Region.

Not surprising, the Democrats say nothing about the recent coups in Honduras and Paraguay (both taking place during Obama’s first term) which unseated popular and progressive governments. They also say nothing about the fact that President Obama, against the tide of the other democratic countries in Latin America, quickly recognized the coup governments in both of these countries. Also omitted from the platform is any discussion of the horrendous human rights situation in post-coup Honduras where journalists, human rights advocates and labor leaders have been threatened, harassed and even killed at alarming rates.

As Reporters Without Borders (RWR) explained on August 16, 25 journalists have been murdered in Honduras since the 2009 coup, making Honduras the journalist murder capital of the world. In this same story, RWR mentions Honduras in the same breath as Mexico (a country the Democrats hold out as one of the “vibrant democracies” in the region) when speaking of the oppression of journalists and social activists, as well as the general climate of violence which plagues both countries. As RWR stated, “Like their Mexican colleagues, Honduran journalists – along with human rights workers, civil society representatives, lawyers and academics who provide information – will not break free of the spiral of violent crime and censorship until the way the police and judicial apparatus functions is completely overhauled.” And indeed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 38 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992, and it has been confirmed in 27 of these cases that the journalists were killed precisely because they were journalists. Meanwhile, in Mexico, over 40,000 individuals have been killed due to the U.S.-sponsored drug war – hardly a laudable figure. …more

In case no one was watching in the US, the FBI has contracted your privacy rights away to the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance. The fascists cometh and they are for hire. While both parties are holding their ‘twilight-zone-esque’ conventions, they are both pissing all over your privacy rights. Phlipn.

With What Databases Has NCTC Cross-Referenced with FBI’s 12 Million iDevice User IDs?
4 September, 2012 by emptywheel

As you may have heard, Anonymous and AntiSec hacked into a database of 12 million Apple Universal Device IDs that were in an FBI officer’s laptop and released 1 million of them, ostensibly so some people could identify if their device was one of those FBI was tracking.

They claimed to have tapped into a Dell laptop owned by Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl, an FBI cyber security expert. They downloaded several files, including one that contained “12,367,232 Apple iOS devices including Unique Device Identifiers (UDID)” and other personal information, they wrote in a text file published online. “[The] personal details fields referring to people appears many times empty leaving the whole list incompleted [sic] on many parts. no other file on the same folder makes mention about this list or its purpose.”

While it’s not immediately clear what the FBI is doing with the Apple UDIDs and detailed information on device owners, Gizmodo pointed out that the acronym “NCFTA” could stand for the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, a nonprofit that acts as an information-sharing gateway between private industry and law enforcement.

These are unique identifiers for things like iPhones and iPads that have long presented the risk of tying someone’s identity to an individual device.

There are multiple ways FBI could have collected this information–either using an NSL or Section 215 request or an insecure transmissions to an ad or game server. And no one knows how the FBI was using it. Whatever you think about Anonymous, we may finally learn more about how the government is tracking geolocation.

But here’s one other concern. Assuming that’s an official FBI database, not only the FBI has it, but also the National Counterterrorism Center. And they’ve got access to whatever federal databases they want to cross-check with existing counterterrorism databases. And one of the few checks we have on the use of our data in this way is a Privacy Act SCOTUS just watered down.

This is a massive amount of data the government likely has no good excuse for having collected, much less used. But it’s likely just one tip of a very big iceberg. …more

Sandhurst took £3m Bahrain gift after regime’s crackdown
2 September, 2012 – by Simon Murphy and Martin Williams – The Bureau of Investigate Reporting

Britain’s world-famous officer training school, Sandhurst, has accepted a £3m donation from the King of Bahrain, despite global criticism of the regime following a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators last year.

Documents obtained by the Bureau reveal the top military training establishment was in negotiations with the regime about the donation throughout 2011. It received the money in January 2012 and sent a gushing letter thanking the King of Bahrain for his generosity at the beginning of summer.

The academy, which is responsible for training British Army officers, is using the donation to build a sports hall which is due to open early next year. It will be named in the country’s honour.

The donation is part of a long-standing relationship between the Bahraini royal family and Sandhurst. The King, Hamad bin Essa Al Khalifa, was trained at the Surrey-based academy, as are a select group of Bahraini military personnel each year.

The King has also been a patron of the Sandhurst Foundation, the academy’s alumni charity, since 2007. He twice donated a fee of £69,975 to the Foundation in 2011 and 2012.

The Sunni regime, which rules over the Shia majority, was criticised after the Saudi National Guard were deployed to crush pro-democracy protests that started in February 2011, sparked by the Arab Spring movement. Hospital staff were arrested for helping protestors and many are still on trial.

Jeremy Corbyn MP condemned the decision to accept the donations.

‘Bahrain has an appalling human rights record and even now medical practitioners are on trial for helping victims,’ he said.

‘It is disgraceful that the British government should allow the King of Bahrain to fund Sandhurst and it seems there is a completely different set of standards on human rights relating to Bahrain, compared to many other states in the Gulf and Middle East region.’

The MoD has provided training for 77 Bahraini military personnel at Sandhurst since 1992, including three last year, and 39 in the past decade, according to a response to a Freedom of Information request.

An MoD spokesman told the Bureau that although the training costs the government £78,000 per recruit, Bahrain only pays £48,400, meaning the government subsidises training costs to the tune of £29,600 in each case. Figures suggest this will have cost the MoD £384,800 in the past three years alone.

An MoD spokesman argued that the subsidies were beneficial to Britain as they ‘help them [Bahraini military personnel] see how we do things,’ – a practice dating back to 1947.

The recruits undergo a 48-week Army Commissioning Course, which the MoD says gives ‘a grounding in British Military doctrine’ and teaches ‘to think and communicate as commanders and to foster a deep interest and care for the individual’. …more

The US and Israel, Not Iran, Threaten Peace
by Noam Chomsky – 4 September, 2012 – commondreams.org

It is not easy to escape from one’s skin, to see the world differently from the way it is presented to us day after day. But it is useful to try. Let’s take a few examples.

The war drums are beating ever more loudly over Iran. Imagine the situation to be reversed.

Iran is carrying out a murderous and destructive low-level war against Israel with great-power participation. Its leaders announce that negotiations are going nowhere. Israel refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and allow inspections, as Iran has done. Israel continues to defy the overwhelming international call for a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the region. Throughout, Iran enjoys the support of its superpower patron.

Iranian leaders are therefore announcing their intention to bomb Israel, and prominent Iranian military analysts report that the attack may happen before the U.S. elections.

Iran can use its powerful air force and new submarines sent by Germany, armed with nuclear missiles and stationed off the coast of Israel. Whatever the timetable, Iran is counting on its superpower backer to join if not lead the assault. U.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta says that while we do not favor such an attack, as a sovereign country Iran will act in its best interests.

All unimaginable, of course, though it is actually happening, with the cast of characters reversed. True, analogies are never exact, and this one is unfair – to Iran.

Like its patron, Israel resorts to violence at will. It persists in illegal settlement in occupied territory, some annexed, all in brazen defiance of international law and the U.N. Security Council. It has repeatedly carried out brutal attacks against Lebanon and the imprisoned people of Gaza, killing tens of thousands without credible pretext.

Thirty years ago Israel destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor, an act that has recently been praised, avoiding the strong evidence, even from U.S. intelligence, that the bombing did not end Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons program but rather initiated it. Bombing of Iran might have the same effect.

Iran too has carried out aggression – but during the past several hundred years, only under the U.S.-backed regime of the shah, when it conquered Arab islands in the Persian Gulf.

Iran engaged in nuclear development programs under the shah, with the strong support of official Washington. The Iranian government is brutal and repressive, as are Washington’s allies in the region. The most important ally, Saudi Arabia, is the most extreme Islamic fundamentalist regime, and spends enormous funds spreading its radical Wahhabist doctrines elsewhere. The gulf dictatorships, also favored U.S. allies, have harshly repressed any popular effort to join the Arab Spring.

The Nonaligned Movement – the governments of most of the world’s population – is now meeting in Teheran. The group has vigorously endorsed Iran’s right to enrich uranium, and some members – India, for example – adhere to the harsh U.S. sanctions program only partially and reluctantly.

The NAM delegates doubtless recognize the threat that dominates discussion in the West, lucidly articulated by Gen. Lee Butler, former head of the U.S. Strategic Command: “It is dangerous in the extreme that in the cauldron of animosities that we call the Middle East,” one nation should arm itself with nuclear weapons, which “inspires other nations to do so.”

Butler is not referring to Iran, but to Israel, which is regarded in the Arab countries and in Europe as posing the greatest threat to peace In the Arab world, the United States is ranked second as a threat, while Iran, though disliked, is far less feared. Indeed in many polls majorities hold that the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons to balance the threats they perceive.

If Iran is indeed moving toward nuclear-weapons capability – this is still unknown to U.S. intelligence – that may be because it is “inspired to do so” by the U.S.-Israeli threats, regularly issued in explicit violation of the U.N. Charter.

Why then is Iran the greatest threat to world peace, as seen in official Western discourse? The primary reason is acknowledged by U.S. military and intelligence and their Israeli counterparts: Iran might deter the resort to force by the United States and Israel.

Furthermore Iran must be punished for its “successful defiance,” which was Washington’s charge against Cuba half a century ago, and still the driving force for the U.S. assault against Cuba that continues despite international condemnation.

Other events featured on the front pages might also benefit from a different perspective. Suppose that Julian Assange had leaked Russian documents revealing important information that Moscow wanted to conceal from the public, and that circumstances were otherwise identical.

Sweden would not hesitate to pursue its sole announced concern, accepting the offer to interrogate Assange in London. It would declare that if Assange returned to Sweden (as he has agreed to do), he would not be extradited to Russia, where chances of a fair trial would be slight.

Sweden would be honored for this principled stand. Assange would be praised for performing a public service – which, of course, would not obviate the need to take the accusations against him as seriously as in all such cases. …more

The network is seriously compromising its journalism in the Gulf states by blurring the line between advertising and editorial

CNN and the business of state-sponsored TV news
Glenn Greenwald – guardian.co.uk – 4 September, 2012

Report: why didn’t CNNi air its own ‘iRevolution’ documentary?

Today I reported on the refusal of CNN International (CNNi) to broadcast an award-winning documentary, “iRevolution”, that was produced in early 2011 as the Arab Spring engulfed the region and which was highly critical of the regime in Bahrain. The documentary, featuring CNN’s on-air correspondent Amber Lyon, viscerally documented the brutality and violence the regime was using against its own citizens who were peacefully protesting for democracy. Commenting on why the documentary did not air on CNNi, CNN’s spokesman cited “purely editorial reasons”.

Even so, the network’s relationships with governments must bear closer examination. CNNi has aggressively pursued a business strategy of extensive, multifaceted financial arrangements between the network and several of the most repressive regimes around the world which the network purports to cover. Its financial dealings with Bahrain are deep and longstanding.
CNNi’s pursuit of sponsorship revenue from the world’s regimes

CNNi’s pursuit of and reliance on revenue from Middle East regimes increased significantly after the 2008 financial crisis, which caused the network to suffer significant losses in corporate sponsorships. It thus pursued all-new, journalistically dubious ways to earn revenue from governments around the world. Bahrain has been one of the most aggressive government exploiters of the opportunities presented by CNNi.

These arrangements extend far beyond standard sponsorship agreements for advertising of the type most major media outlets feature. CNNi produces those programs in an arrangement it describes as “in association with” the government of a country, and offers regimes the ability to pay for specific programs about their country. These programs are then featured as part of CNNi’s so-called “Eye on” series (“Eye on Georgia”, “Eye on the Phillipines”, “Eye on Poland”), or “Marketplace Middle East”, all of which is designed to tout the positive economic, social and political features of that country.

The disclosure for such arrangements is often barely visible. This year, for instance, CNNi produced an “Eye on Lebanon” series, which that nation’s tourist minister boasted was intended “to market Lebanon as a tourism destination”. He said “his ministry was planning a large promotional campaign dubbed ‘Eye on Lebanon’ to feature on CNN network.”

Yet one strains to find the faded, small disclosure print on this “Eye on Lebanon” page, even if one is specifically searching for it. To the average viewer unaware of these government sponsorships, it appears to be standard “reporting” from the network. …source

Bahrain pins high hopes on GCC summit at home
By Habib Toumi – 4 September – 2012 – Gulf News

Manama: Bahrain is getting ready to host the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in December, the country’s foreign minister has said.

“We are working around the clock to be ready for the summit in Manama,” Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa said. “The leaders’ meeting will build on the achievements accomplished at each of the past summits. The Manama summit will continue the trend of achievements. When you look at the larger picture, you see that the GCC has never regressed and that it has always moved forward. Today’s GCC is different from what it was 10 or 20 years ago,” he said, quoted by local Arabic daily Al Ayam on Tuesday.

However, a proposed union between the GCC countries will not likely be on the main agenda of the leaders’ summit, Shaikh Khalid said although he did recall that the GCC leaders at their summit in Riyadh in May had “agreed that a special summit would be held to discuss the latest developments on the union”. …more

In December, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz sought to rally fellow GCC states, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE saying it was time for the alliance to move from the phase of cooperation to a Gulf union within a single entity.

The six member states of the Council founded in 1981 in Abu Dhabi have reportedly agreed on the move, but hold different views on the pace at which such a transition should come about.

An ad-hoc commission, made up of 12 members, two from each member country, was set up to look into ways to implement the proposal and its report was submitted to the Council.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were openly enthusiastic about it, while other members said that more time was needed to achieve the transition. Enthusiasm for the move was so high in Manama and Riyadh that it gave rise to the thinking that the two countries should jointly work to speed up the initiative, possibly with Doha being part of it, with the other capitals joining in at a later stage.

However, the GCC leaders at their annual advisory summit in Riyadh in May said that more time was needed and that the initiative would be taken up by the council of foreign ministers.

In remarks made at the opening of the Korean embassy in Manama, Shaikh Khalid also reiterated Bahrain’s commitment to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

“We have been committed to the Movement since 1971 — Bahrain’s year of independence — and we have taken part in each of its summits regardless of where it is held,” he said. …more

Is Amnesty International abandoning human rights?
2 September, 2012 – By Bev Cotton – Uprooted Palestinians

The internationally renowned journalist, Greg Palast offers the following advice in his 1999 book “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” – “if you are a member of Amnesty International, quit”. Mr. Palast’s brush with Amnesty was in a court case in which he was sued after quoting Amnesty research containing allegations against the multinational mining company, Barrick. Amnesty refused to verify their own research in court. As Palast says, “Amnesty wants journalists to report their material. I would say to any journalist that they would be completely, utterly and absolutely insane to ever cite Amnesty again.”

Failure to prioritise human rights

Why do increasing numbers of people believe that Amnesty has abandoned the cause of human rights? As Francis Boyle, ex board member of Amnesty International USA – and renowned expert in international law puts it:

“Amnesty International is primarily motivated not by human rights but by publicity. Second comes money… To be sure, if you are dealing with a human rights situation in a country that is at odds with the United States or Britain, it gets an awful lot of attention… But if it’s dealing with violations of human rights by the United States, Britain, Israel, then it’s like pulling teeth to get them to really do something on the situation”.

Moral flatulence

That was in 2001. A neater solution to this problem has been found by Amnesty since – to issue very little meaningful data at all. Issues from the entire region of the Middle East and North Africa are now channeled through a single Amnesty office, MENA. As its UK director describes it “I should say a little about the campaign I manage here – Crisis & Transition in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA). It’s fair to say it is an ambitious, labyrinthine and long term campaign but when I am asked what it is really about I say “Solidarity with people peacefully demanding change”.

All of which means, well, nothing really. When asked recently why Amnesty International Ireland (AII) had failed to issue any briefings over the past year about a supposedly priority campaign for Zimbabwe, the answer was that the whole organisation was ‘still in transition’. In transition to what, exactly? And from what? Meanwhile MENA, originally a military campaign term, serves to bury the vast scale of human rights abuses in Palestine by losing them in a stream of information about a region that includes 523 million people and 6% of the world’s population.

As ex Amnesty supporter Paul De Rooij writes in CounterPunch:

“Reading AI’s reports doesn’t reveal why there is a conflict in the area in the first place…. The portrayal of violence is stripped of its context, and historical references are minimal…. The fact that Palestinians have endured occupation, expulsion, and dispossession for many decades, the explanation of why the conflict persists, is nowhere highlighted in its reports”.

He concludes, “today, most AI pronouncements range between moral flatulence and moral fraudulence”.

Lack of transparency

You would think that transparency would be a cornerstone of a human rights campaign group. However, Amnesty International Ireland has still failed, even after a resolution calling for openness at its 2011 AGM, to publish its staff salaries. The approximately 20 local groups are sending no more than a few thousand euro each to AII annually, and membership subscription internationally is falling after the scandal over the expensive and unexplained sacking of two of Amnesty’s senior staff in 2009. When asked by members of the Clonakilty group recently a representative of AII was unable to explain what its sources of funding are, how much they receive and on what it is spent.

Meanwhile AII is running a Mental Health Campaign part funded by Atlantic Philanthropies that bears an uncanny resemblance to the government’s rationale for its attempts to reduce services and cut funding. AII threw itself behind government closures of allegedly failing residential centres in the claimed expectation that “care in the community” was a more humane policy. Investing in improving the much needed centres was off the agenda. As was expected by many who depend on them, closures of residential services have gone ahead speedily and efficiently while the corresponding funds for care in the community have not only failed to materialise but existing funding has now been drastically cut. …more

Bahrain hits back at child detention claims on ‘CNN’
4 September, 2012 – Gulf News

BAHRAIN has hit back at claims made in a CNN interview that an 11-year-old alleged tyre burner was detained in prison, branding the allegations as baseless.

The Information Affairs Authority (IAA) yesterday issued a statement in which it said the boy, Ali Hassan, had actually been held at the Bahrain Juvenile Care Centre from May 14 to June 11.

It was responding to comments by opposition activist Lamees Dhaif in an article that appeared on CNN’s website on August 15.

“We reiterate that he was not in jail and was not detained for months; nor was he charged with participating in an illegal gathering,” the IAA said.

“Hassan participated in burning tyres in a roadblock and after several warnings to clear the street he was held in the Bahrain Juvenile Care Centre from May 14 to June 11.”

The IAA said the child had received “academic tutoring, social services and healthcare from a centre that is acknowledged by many, including international experts, for its high standard of care and state-of-the-art facilities”.

“Contrary to (Ms) Dhaif’s claim, this case was not an attempt to send a warning to protesters,” it added.

“Unfortunately juvenile delinquency is common around the world and it is Bahrain’s obligation to not only maintain the well-being of the boy, but that of the community as well.”

The IAA said that Bahrain’s government was “firmly committed” to punishing all human rights violators and did not resort to arbitrary arrests as claimed, highlighting that one Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) recommendation was to oblige police officers to show warrants upon arrest and grant suspects access to a lawyer.

It also defended the impartiality of the judiciary.

“It should also be noted that the National Security Agency’s mandate to gather intelligence has been restricted and they are no longer authorised to arrest or detain individuals on their own authority,” it added.

“Despite (Ms) Dhaif’s false allegation, the judiciary system is an independent body that holds those who break the law to account, whether they are vandals or members of security forces.”

Prosecution

The IAA pointed to the prosecution of 15 policemen following an investigation by the Public Prosecution.

“Bahrain is firmly committed to punish all human rights violators and provide citizens the opportunity to express themselves freely,” it said.

It revealed the government had permitted 88 rallies and gatherings since the beginning of the year, at which participants had been able to express their views.

“It is also important to highlight that Bahrain currently has 20 political groups, including opposition groups such as Al Wefaq National Islamic Society, who vividly voice their complaints and concerns,” it said.

“So to claim that Bahrain is intentionally targeting activists is outrageous when the government has facilitated the platform to voice their concerns.”

The IAA also defended Bahrain’s close ties to the UK and US.

“The US provided security assistance to protect the country from foreign threats and not for crowd control as (Ms) Dhaif suggests,” it said.

It also pledged that reforms initiated by His Majesty King Hamad in 2001 would continue and “will not be hijacked by any special interest group from the opposition, especially one that does not represent the vast majority in Bahrain and protect the rights of all”.
…more

Bahrain says uprising leaders had contact with Iran, Hezbollah
4 September, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

DUBAI: Leaders of a Bahraini uprising last year, whose prison sentences were upheld by a court on Tuesday, were in “intelligence contact” with Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, a public prosecution official said on Tuesday.

“It is established clearly to us from this verdict that some of the accused had relations and strived to have relations and intelligence contacts with a foreign organisation, which is Hezbollah, which works in the interests of Iran,” Wael Boualai told a news conference, in comments carried by state media.

Six of the 20 men whose sentences were upheld were found guilty of “intelligence contacts with foreign bodies”. They were also jailed for offences including trying to overturn the system of government and violating the constitution. The 20 deny all charges against them, saying they wanted only democratic reform.
…source

Bahrain: Iranian translators swopped us for Syria in ‘oppressive regime’ speech
By Associated Press- 1 September – 2012 – PDMI

MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain says it has filed a formal protest with Iran over a broadcast translation that wrongly substituted Bahrain for Syria in a speech by Egypt’s president.

A statement by Bahrain’s government says Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi referred to the Syrian rebels fighting an “oppressive” regime during a speech at a Tehran conference Thursday.

Instead, Bahrain claims Iranian state TV replaced the word “Syria” with “Bahrain” in its Farsi translation.

Morsi’s speech was an embarrassment for Iran, which is a close ally of the Syrian regime.

But Shiite power Iran has frequently criticized Bahrain’s authorities for crackdowns against mostly Shiite protesters seeking greater political rights.

Bahrain says the formal complaint was filed Saturday with an Iranian diplomat.

…source

Bahrain: Appeals Court Upholds Life Imprisonment for Opposition Leaders
4 September, 2012 – by Amira Al Hussaini – Global Voices

Bahrain’s High Court of Appeals upheld jail sentences against 20 opposition figures accused of plotting to overthrow the regime today [September 4, 2012]. While international human rights organisations describes them as “prisoners of conscience,” Bahraini authorities and the local Press call them “terrorists” for their role in anti-government protests, which started in Bahrain on February 14, 2011.

Eight of them have been slapped with life in prison; the rest have been given jail sentences ranging from five to 15 years.

Supporters called the trial a sham, rejecting its ruling and pledging to continue with anti-government demonstrations. …more