Obama’s Middle East speech missed ‘historic opportunity,’ say many Arabs

While those involved in Arab uprisings welcomed Obama’s support, others were disappointed with his failure to apologize for US support for Middle East dictators.

By Kristen Chick, Correspondent / May 19, 2011 – Cairo

President Obama pledged American support for pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East Thursday, trying to put the US on the right side of history as he laid out his vision for US involvement in the region after the Arab Spring.

Those from nations where opposition movements are fighting brutal crackdowns welcomed the president’s messages of support. But what was billed as a major speech left some in the region nonplussed. They said that the speech didn’t cover new ground, was short on policy prescriptions, and that the president missed a chance to apologize for America’s history of supporting the dictators people revolted against.

“Obama really had an opportunity to reshape and reframe the debate and … he gave it away,” says Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, adding that there was nothing distinctive or imaginative about the address. “This speech was an opportunity to say to Arabs, ‘We as Americans made mistakes, we did not support democratic aspirations as much as we should have, but we’re going to do better.’ Obama didn’t say that.”

Marked difference from Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech

The muted response to the speech differed markedly from the widespread interest and pockets of hope generated by Obama’s landmark speech to the Muslim world from Cairo two years ago. Many felt that Obama has failed to follow through on the promises he made in 2009, and declined to give him another chance.

The protests that began six months ago have imparted to Arabs a strengthened sense of independence, even as subsequent uprisings have stalled with a bloody conflict in Libya, prolonged and brutal crackdowns in Syria and Yemen, and the near-total crushing of a protest movement in Bahrain. Obama said that the US aimed to throw its full weight behind supporting those uprisings. …more

THE ROVING EYE
What Obama could not possibly say
By Pepe Escobar

Facts on the ground will decide whether the United States really “values the dignity of the street vendor in Tunisia more than the raw power of the dictator”.

So let’s start with a fact. For US President Barack Obama, Saudi Arabia is not in the Middle East. Maybe the House of Saud has relocated the deserts and the oil to Oceania without telling anyone. In his major speech on Thursday from where the opening quote comes, and where, according to the Reuters gospel, he would “lay out a new US strategy toward a skeptical Arab world”, the skeptical Arabs, and the whole world for that matter, never heard these fateful two words, “Saudi” and “Arabia”. Even India, Indonesia and Brazil were mentioned.

That goes a long way to explain how the US, once again according to the Reuters gospel, plans to “shape the outcome of popular uprisings”; by not even naming the Middle Eastern power behind the ongoing counter-revolution against the great 2011 Arab revolt.

Obama tried to shape what Clintonites define as “ambitious realism”. It was more like ambitious fiction. By insisting on America’s set of “principles” and not so subtly trying once again to monopolize the moral high ground – issuing dispensations on regime change from Muammar Gaddafi (already gone) to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad (reform or go), Obama tried to rewrite history by inscribing Washington at the heart of the Arab-wide push for democracy. It may fool Americans. It didn’t fool the Arab street.

It took three long months for Obama to finally deal with the al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain – without ever mentioning their masters Saudi Arabia. He let the Bahraini rulers off the hook with a State Department-issued velvet glove, at the same time deviating into a Riyadh/Tel Aviv-approved script blaming the evil of all evils Iran; “We recognize that Iran has tried to take advantage of the turmoil there, and that the Bahraini government has a legitimate interest in the rule of law. Nevertheless, we have insisted publicly and privately that mass arrests and brute force are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s citizens, and will not make legitimate calls for reform go away.”

It’s much more Orwellian than mere “brute force”; it’s the University of Bahrain, for instance, forcing students to sign a pledge of allegiance to the government, promising not to defy the monarchy; otherwise they’ll be expelled. …more

President of Bahrain’s Center for Human Rights Nabeel Rajab says the Bahraini regime dismiss people from their jobs for sending information of the government’s harsh crackdown on protesters via social networks.

Bahrain Insists It is Open to Dialogue with Opposition

VOA News May 20, 2011
Residents of the Shiite Muslim village of Malkiya, Bahrain, southwest of Manama, watch, some with stones in hand and others photographing riot police and tanks moving in, Sunday, March 20, 2011

Bahrain’s government is insisting it is open to dialogue with the opposition, following criticism from U.S. President Barack Obama for its deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters.

In his address Thursday, Obama said the United States has made clear that “mass arrests and brute force” are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s citizens. He said the only way for Bahrain to move forward is through dialogue.

In a statement, the Bahraini government welcomed Obama’s comments and said his speech included “visions and principles” that match what it called its “democratic strategy.”

The government appeared to dismiss reports of human rights abuses on its part, saying it has responded to “false accusations.”

The Sunni-ruled Gulf nation has arrested hundreds of mostly Shi’ite protesters and put dozens on trial in special courts since protests were crushed in March. Bahraini officials have said 24 people died in the unrest. The state also imposed emergency law during the crackdown, which is due to be lifted on June 1.

British Prime Minister David Cameron raised his own concerns about the situation in Bahrain Thursday in talks with the Gulf kingdom’s crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, in London. Cameron’s office said he stressed the importance of the Bahraini government moving to a policy of reform rather than repression.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP. …source

Bahrain: Sentencing on 8 protesters and prominent cleric “20 years imprisonment”
May 19th, 2011

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) is deeply concerned about sentencing on 9 demonstrators today in National Safety court ( Emergency court) .

On 19 May , 2011 :

1-Hamid Ibrahim Al-Madhoun
2-Khalil Ibrahim Al-Madhoun
3-Jassim Ali Yahya
4-Bassam Jalil Saeed
5-Jalal Saeed Mohammed
6- Fouad Ali Fadel
7- Falah Ali Fadel
8- Mohamed Ali Mirza
9-Mohammed Habib Al Safaf. ( Mohammed Habib Miqdad)

All of them sentenced: 20 years imprisonment

Charge: Kidnapping of a policeman
…source

British firm offered spy software to Egypt
Activists say they were the targets
By Eli Lake
The Washington Times
8:35 p.m., Monday, April 25, 2011

Egyptian anti-regime activists found a startling document last month during a raid inside the headquarters of the country’s state security service: A British company offered to sell a program that security experts say could infect dissidents’ computers and gain access to their email and other communications.

The discovery highlights the emerging market of Western companies that sell software to security services from the Middle East to China to spy on the kinds of social media activists who recently toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.

Amid the scattered papers, interrogation devices and random furniture found during the raid, the activists uncovered a proposed contract dated June 29 from the British company Gamma International that promised to provide access to Gmail, Skype, Hotmail and Yahoo conversations and exchanges on computers targeted by the Interior Ministry of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

The proposal from Gamma International was posted online by Cairo physician Mostafa Hussein, a blogger who was among the activists who seized the ministry’s documents.

“It is important evidence of the intent of the state security and investigation division not to respect our privacy,” Mr. Hussein said. …more