Posts from — July 2011

Jul 14, 2011
Arab world’s ratings of Obama, US plummet: Poll Two years after US President Barack Obama delivered his groundbreaking speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, his popularity among Arabs has hit a low point.

WASHINGTON – TWO years after US President Barack Obama delivered his groundbreaking speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, his popularity among Arabs has hit a low point, a poll released on Wednesday shows.

An overwhelming majority of more than 4,000 people surveyed in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, told the Arab American Institute that they felt that Mr Obama had not met the expectations he had set forth in the June 2009 Cairo speech, the poll found.

Mr Obama called in his Cairo speech for a ‘new beginning’ to end a cycle of ‘suspicion and discord’ between the United States and the Muslim world In the speech, the US leader laid out a new US blueprint for the Middle East, including a new Palestinian state and efforts to defuse a nuclear showdown with Iran.

But the poll found that Arabs see the Obama administration’s handling of key Middle East policy issues as having made no contribution to improving relations between them and the United States.

In fact, the two issues on which the US administration has invested ‘considerable energy – the Palestinian issue and engagement with the Muslim world – receive the lowest approval ratings,’ the survey found.

Less than nine per cent of the people polled said the Obama administration has handled the two key issues well. The Arab world’s image of the US as a whole has also soured to become even less favourable than during the last year of the administration of president George W. Bush, under whom the United States led an international coalition that invaded Iraq, the survey found. — AFP …source

A Fork in the Road of U.S.-Pakistani Ties
By Barbara Slavin

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2011 (IPS) – The U.S. discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden in a compound some 50 kilometres from Islamabad is a “defining moment” for a U.S.-Pakistan relationship fraught with duplicity and dashed expectations.

U.S. and Pakistani officials and foreign policy experts struggled Tuesday to find something positive to say about the relationship following bin Laden’s dramatic denouement. Some suggested that Pakistan would now have to be more forthcoming in rolling up remaining al Qaeda elements in the country and cutting back on sanctuary for Afghan militants.

Concerns mounted, however, that the fact that the al Qaeda leader had found sanctuary in Abbottabad for as long as six years would destroy what little trust remains between the two countries and dash hopes to forge a long-term relationship anchored by 7.5 billion dollars in U.S. economic aid over 10 years.

U.S. officials have not explicitly accused Pakistan of harbouring bin Laden but said that it strains credulity to believe that the Saudi fugitive – who had a 25-million-dollar price on his head – could have stayed in an Islamabad suburb that is also home to Pakistan’s most prestigious military academy and numerous military retirees without, as President Barack Obama’s intelligence adviser John Brennan put it Monday, “some kind of support system”.

On Tuesday, Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters, “It’s kind of hard to imagine the [Pakistani] military or police did not have ideas about what was going on inside [the compound].”

The president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, denied the allegations in a Washington Post op-ed, calling it “baseless speculation”. But given the historic power of the military and Pakistani intelligence services compared to elected civilian governments, it is possible, even likely, that Zardari and much of the rest of his cabinet had no knowledge of bin Laden’s whereabouts until U.S. Navy Seals entered his hiding place. …more

Panetta: Kill 20 Leaders, End the War on Terror
By: emptywheel Saturday July 9, 2011 6:48 am

Leon Panetta kicks off his new job as Secretary of Defense with a trip to Afghanistan. On the plane over there this morning, he told reporters that we just need to kill 10 or 20 leaders of al Qaeda and we will “strategically defeat” al Qaeda. (h/t Spencer)

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared Saturday that the United States is “within reach” of “strategically defeating” Al Qaeda as a terrorist threat, but that doing so would require killing or capturing the group’s 10 to 20 remaining leaders.

Heading to Afghanistan for the first time since taking office earlier this month, Panetta said that intelligence uncovered in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May showed that 10 years of U.S. operations against Al Qaeda had left it with fewer than two dozen key operatives, most of whom are in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and North Africa.

“If we can be successful at going after them, I think we can really undermine their ability to do any kind of planning to be able to conduct any kinds of attack on this country,” Panetta told reporters on his way to Afghanistan aboard a U.S. Air Force jet. “That’s why I think” that defeat of Al Qaeda is “within reach,” he added.

To kill or capture those 20 leaders, mind you, we’ve got 100,000 troops in Afghanistan–where none of these key al Qaeda leaders are, according to Panetta–and will have 70,000 there after we withdraw the surge troops. So I’m guessing Panetta isn’t really promising we’ll end the war; we’ll just have tens of thousands of troops in harms way to do … something.

Compare Panetta’s characterization of what we’re up against with Charlie Savage’s description of the government’s justification for capturing Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame. As you read this, remember that Warsame was captured on April 19, over a week before the government killed Osama bin Laden and started analyzing the intelligence at OBL’s compound. Though, according to ProPublica, we already knew that OBL nixed a suggestion to make Anwar al-Awlaki the head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Savage suggests that we nabbed Warsame on his way back to Somalia from a meeting with al-Awlaki.

Meanwhile, new details emerged about Mr. Warsame’s detention on a Navy ship after his capture in April aboard a fishing skiff between Yemen and Somalia, and about internal administration deliberations on legal policy questions that could have implications for the evolving conflict against Al Qaeda and its affiliates.

A senior counterterrorism official said Wednesday that Mr. Warsame had recently met with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric now hiding in Yemen.

The Administration justified capturing Warsame based on an argument not that we’re at war against al-Shabaab as a group, but that a handful of al-Shabaab leaders adhere to al Qaeda’s ideology and “could” conduct attacks outside of Somalia.

While Mr. Warsame is accused of being a member of the Shabab, which is focused on a parochial insurgency in Somalia, the administration decided he could be lawfully detained as a wartime prisoner under Congress’s authorization to use military force against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to several officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.

But the administration does not consider the United States to be at war with every member of the Shabab, officials said. Rather, the government decided that Mr. Warsame and a handful of other individual Shabab leaders could be made targets or detained because they were integrated with Al Qaeda or its Yemen branch and were said to be looking beyond the internal Somali conflict.

“Certain elements of Al Shabab, including its senior leaders, adhere to Al Qaeda’s ideology and could conduct attacks outside of Somalia in East Africa, as it did in Uganda in 2010, or even outside the region to further Al Qaeda’s agenda,” said a senior administration official. “For its leadership and those other Al Qaeda-aligned elements of Al Shabab, our approach is quite clear: They are not beyond the reach of our counterterrorism tools.”

Now, logic dictates that this handful of leaders of a group that did not exist on 9/11 (and therefore couldn’t logically be included in the authorization of force against those who planned the attack) includes the Somalian al-Shabaab leaders included in Panetta’s 10-20 targets. ..more

Strikes likely as Israel forces curriculum on East Jerusalem schools
Jillian Kestler-D’Amours – The Electronic Intifada – Jerusalem – 12 July 2011

OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) – Widespread strikes could be in store for East Jerusalem at the start of the next school year as an Israeli-controlled municipality moves ahead with its plan to implement an Israeli curriculum in Palestinian schools.

“I expect that the beginning of the new school year will not be a normal one,” Samir Jibril, director of the East Jerusalem Education Bureau said. “There will be lots of problems. There will be lots of demands, strikes. All [Palestinian] institutions are going to stand hand-in-hand against this implementation.”

In March of this year, the Jerusalem municipality sent a letter to private schools in East Jerusalem that receive financial allocations from the Israeli authorities. The letter stated that at the start of the 2011-12 academic year, the schools would be obliged to purchase and only use textbooks prepared by the Jerusalem Education Administration (JEA), a joint body of the municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Education.

Imposing an identity

These textbooks are already in use in East Jerusalem schools managed by the JEA. According to Jibril, however, Palestinians in East Jerusalem have at all levels rejected the plan to use them in private schools since it is viewed as being politically motivated.

“The real reason behind all this story of the curriculum is actually political,” Jibril said. “We’re talking about a radical [Israeli] government that is trying to impose its own identity on the Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Knowing that Israel doesn’t recognize Palestinian identity, it is a political reflection rather than [for] any kind of educational or pedagogical [reason].”

The move to introduce the Israeli curriculum came after an Israeli parliament (Knesset) member Alex Miller from the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, who heads the Knesset’s education committee, stated during a meeting about unauthorized curricula in the education system that, in East Jerusalem, “the whole curriculum should and must be Israeli.” …more

US-IRAN – Tensions Mount Over Iraq, Nuke Sanctions
By Barbara Slavin

WASHINGTON, Jul 12, 2011 (IPS) – Reviving U.S.-Iran friction over Iraq may have more to do with deteriorating relations over Iran’s nuclear programme than with uncertainty over U.S. troop levels in Iraq beyond the end of this year.

In recent weeks, a chorus of U.S. officials has accused Iran of providing lethal weapons to Iraqi Shiite militias that have targeted U.S. soldiers and caused a spike in U.S. death tolls. Similar charges have been made against Iran in the past.

Last month, Robert Gates, then U.S. defence secretary, said Iran- backed Shiite militias were responsible for the deaths of five U.S. soldiers on Jun. 6, the single largest toll for the U.S. in two years. Overall, 15 U.S. servicemen were killed in Iraq in June, also a two- year record.

Gates’s successor, Leon Panetta, repeated the charges this week during his first trip to Iraq as defence secretary.

“We’re seeing more of those weapons going in from Iran, and they’ve really hurt us,” Panetta told reporters in Baghdad on Monday. He threatened Iran with unspecified retaliation if the attacks did not cease.

Panetta did not reveal any concrete evidence for the charges. U.S. officials and military experts say he was referring to rocket-assisted mortars.

“The main mass casualty producer for U.S. troops has been the IRAMS (improvised rocket-assisted munitions) which have been around for several years, and which I believe are used exclusively by Iranian- supported groups,” said Michael Eisenstadt, an Iraq expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank closely tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

“There are indications that they may have gotten more lethal lately, though I don’t know if this is a function of modifications to the weapons or to improved training,” he said.

U.S. accusations are hard if not impossible to prove given the fact that Iraq is awash with weapons and smuggling across the border with Iran is rampant. Iran denies the allegations. ..more

On Two Torture Investigations
By: emptywheel Wednesday July 13, 2011 5:24 am

Across the pond–in the investigation of British complicity with the torture of Binyam Mohamed and others–the Supreme Court has told the government it can’t present secret evidence.

The supreme court has outlawed the use of secret evidence in court by the intelligence services to conceal allegations that detainees were tortured.

The decision will be seen as a significant victory for open justice, but the panel of nine judges pointed out that parliament could change the law to permit such “closed material procedures” in future.

The appeal was brought by lawyers for MI5 seeking to overturn an earlier appeal court ruling that prevented the service from suppressing accusations British suspects had been ill-treated at Guantánamo Bay and other foreign holding centres.

And here in the land where such secrets have become the norm, Apuzzo and Goldman reveal one of the reasons why DOJ is taking a closer look at Manadel al-Jamadi’s death: because the CIA guy in charge of an unofficial interrogation program in Iraq went beyond clear directions from HQ.

Steve Stormoen, who is now retired from the CIA, supervised an unofficial program in which the CIA imprisoned and interrogated men without entering their names in the Army’s books.

The so-called “ghosting” program was unsanctioned by CIA headquarters. In fact, in early 2003, CIA lawyers expressly prohibited the agency from running its own interrogations, current and former intelligence officials said. The lawyers said agency officers could be present during military interrogations and add their expertise but, under the laws of war, the military must always have the lead.

This detail is interesting for another reason. The AP notes that Stormoen asked to use torture tactics. …more

Al-Jazeera Says its Journalists Threatened
Sunday, July 10, 2011 AFP

The Al-Jazeera satellite news channel today condemned what it called a campaign of threats against its journalists because of its coverage of uprisings in the Arab world. “Al-Jazeera presenters have been the targets of a campaign of threats, with in some cases their own safety and that of family members being threatened,” the Doha-based channel said in a statement.

The campaign “is aimed at influencing Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the uprisings and protests that have swept many Arab countries,” it said. “Al-Jazeera now knows the source of these threats which convey nothing but the moral bankruptcy of those behind them,” it added.
The statement did not name the source, but did say it was planning to take legal action.

However, a source at the broadcaster said the threats emanated from Syria, which has been rocked by protests calling for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad since mid-March.

Syrian authorities have sealed off the country to most international media as they crack down on coverage of anti-Assad protests. The authorities there accuse Al-Jazeera and other international satellite channels of exaggerating the protests and of broadcasting footage without verifying their authenticity. Because few foreign journalists gain entry to Syria, international media rely heavily on video footage filmed and released by the protesters themselves on Internet sites such as YouTube.

The pan-Arab satellite television channel has been in hot water with several autocratic Arab regimes over its coverage of uprisings sweeping the region since January. During the protests in Egypt that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, the channel was banned from operating inside the country and nine of its journalists were briefly detained. In Libya, Al-Jazeera cameraman Ali Hassan al-Jaber was killed on March 12 in an ambush near Benghazi which the rebels blamed on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, and several Al-Jazeera journalists have also been arrested covering the revolt. ...source

Tunisia: New Decree on Access to Administrative Documents Rolls Back Culture of Secrecy
Monday, July 11, 2011

Article 19
As part of ARTICLE 19’s ongoing work in support of Tunisia’s democratic transition, the organisation is today releasing its analysis of the Tunisia Decree on Access to Administrative Documents, which was adopted by the Interim Government in May 2011.

ARTICLE 19 welcomes the adoption of the Decree and its many positive features as an important step in the process of democratic transition in Tunisia. At the same time, ARTICLE 19 is concerned that the exceptions to the right to access to information are overly broad and as such, can largely undermine the impact of the Decree in assuring transparency and accountability.

ARTICLE 19, therefore, calls on the Interim Government to urgently develop and adopt Guidelines clarifying the limited scope of these exceptions in order to assure a progressive interpretation of the Decree, in line with international freedom of expression standards.

ARTICLE 19 also calls on the Interim Government to develop – as soon as possible – a comprehensive action plan on the implementation of the Decree, in order to assure that the Decree can be made operational within the shortest time possible.

“Tunisia is now the second country in the Middle East to have adopted an access to information legislation. ARTICLE 19 welcomes the efforts of the Tunisian Interim Government in adopting the Decree on Access to Administrative Documents only a few months after the revolution. This is potentially another milestone in the historic process of democratic transition in Tunisia, committing the country to building a culture of transparency, the right to know and strengthening accountability,” said Dr Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director.

“For the Interim Government to turn its back on the culture of secrecy, censorship and impunity that has plagued Tunisia, access to information should be subject to limited and specific exceptions. To enable the Decree to play its functions, the Tunisian Government must, as a matter of priority, clearly and narrowly define the Decree’s exceptions and commit to making it operational as soon as possible,” continued Dr. Callamard.

ARTICLE 19’s analysis highlights a number of positive features of the Decree. In particular, it provides people – regardless of citizenship – with a right to access administrative documents; it requires public authorities to proactively disclose information about their activities; it outlines a satisfactory procedure for access to information; and it establishes that access to documents is in principle free of charge. …more

Libyan Rebels Accused of Pillage and Beatings
Bryan Denton for The New York Times
Published: July 12, 2011

ZINTAN, Libya — Rebels in the mountains in Libya’s west have looted and damaged four towns seized since last month from the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, part of a series of abuses and apparent reprisals against suspected loyalists that have chased residents of these towns away, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

The looting included many businesses and at least two medical centers that, like the towns, are now deserted and bare.

Rebel fighters also beat people suspected of being loyalists and burned their homes, the organization said.

The towns that have suffered the abuses are Qawalish, which rebels seized last week, Awaniya, Rayaniyah and Zawiyat al-Bagul, which fell to the rebels last month. Some of the abuses, Human Rights Watch said, were directed against members of the Mashaashia tribe, which has long supported Colonel Qaddafi.

The organization’s findings come as support for the war has waned in Europe and in Washington, where Republicans and Democrats alike have questioned American participation on budgetary and legal grounds.

They also raise the prospect that the NATO-backed rebel advances, which have stalled or slowed to a crawl, risk being accompanied by further retaliatory crimes that could inflame tribal or factional grievances, endangering the civilians that NATO was mandated to protect. …more

Human Rights First Urges FIFA, U.S. World Cup Team to Condemn Bahrain’s Attack on Athletes
For Immediate Release: July 12, 2011

Washington, D.C.— In anticipation of Wednesday’s World Cup semifinals game, when the U.S. Women’s soccer team will take on France, Human Rights First calls on the members of the U.S. women’s world cup team and the international sports community at large to condemn Bahrain’s attack against its own athletes. Several Bahraini soccer players, including stars from the national team, were among those arrested for their participation in pro-reform protests in March. Many are now reporting that they were humiliated and tortured while in prison.

These reports of torture and intimidation against soccer players are emerging as the Bahraini government is holding a widely-criticized national dialogue with civil society to promote reconciliation and reform. “At a time when unity as a country is being emphasized by the Bahraini government as part of national dialogue, the attack against athletes undermines any notion of national unity,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley, who left Bahrain today after a one week visit. …more

Urgent; Ayat al-Gormezi, the Poet of Bahrain Movement Released

Ayat al-Gormezi, 20, a poet and student arrested months ago after reading out a poem at a prodemocracy rally, and went on trial before a military tribunal released now.

Urgent; Ayat al-Gormezi, the Poet of Bahrain Movement Released

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – 20 year-old poet Ayat al-Gormezi who had a one-year prison sentence unjustly imposed on her 12 June 2011 for reading a poem released this afternoon.

Bahrain’s National Safety Court of First Instance claimed in sentencing Ayat that she was guilty of “inciting hatred of the regime and of being involved in a rally to commit crimes.” Masked police arrested Ayat at her home on 30 March for reciting a poem critical of the monarchy during a pro-democracy rally in the capital Manama in February.

No crime deserves such debasing and inhumane treatment — and certainly not the “crime” of reciting a poem, no matter how critical it is of the ruling government or its leader. …source

The World From Berlin
Berlin ‘Playing With Fire’ in Saudi Tank Deal

The German government’s approval of the sale of “Leopard” tanks to Saudi Arabia has outraged opposition parties in Berlin, and the ruling conservatives aren’t happy about it either. Commentators say the deal undermines principles of German foreign policy and could exacerbate the crisis in the Arab region.

German opposition parties are running riot against the government’s reported decision to allow the sale of up to 200 of the most modern “Leopard” battle tanks to Saudi Arabia.

The co-leader of the Green Party, Claudia Roth, said the decision, first reported in SPIEGEL, was a “blatant” breach of German guidelines banning the export of weapons to states in crisis regions and with questionable human rights records. She said Saudi Arabia flouted democracy and human rights, supported terrorism and had helped to crush recent anti-government protests in Bahrain.

Andrea Nahles, the general secretary of the center-left Social Democrats, said supplying battle tanks to Saudi Arabia flew in the face of the government’s pledge to pursue a value-oriented foreign policy. The head of the Left Party, Klaus Ernst, said the government was operating under the motto: “The most deadly tanks for the worst oppressors.”

More worrying for Chancellor Angela Merkel, the move has also been criticized by members of her own party, the conservative Christian Democrats. Reuters reported that a majority of the leadership of the party’s parliamentary group had argued against such a deal at a meeting on Monday evening.

The senior conservatives had included the chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Ruprecht Polenz, and the president of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert. They mainly cited human rights abuses by Saudi Arabia. According to Reuters, Lammert had argued that Saudi forces used tanks to quell unrest in Bahrain just a few weeks ago.

So far, the government has declined to confirm the export approval, taken by the government’s security council last week. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday the decision was subject to the “usual and necessary secrecy” regarded export approvals.

For decades, Germany has refused to sell battle tanks to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states because of its historical obligation towards Israel and its policy of prohibiting the sale of weapons to crisis regions. …more

EDITORIAL: Embassy stormings
Pakistan Daily Time – 13 July, 2011

The recent protest attacks on the American and French embassies in Damascus must be viewed in the context of the long-standing hostility between Syria and the western world, specially the US. However the US and French officials may describe the attacks and attempt to pin responsibility on the Syrian government, the fact remains that the ambassadors of these two countries invited wrath upon themselves by visiting Hama, the flashpoint of protests against the Ba’thist regime in Syria. This was considered highly inappropriate by the Foreign Office of Syria, which saw these visits as interference in its internal affairs. Hama city in the past has been the centre of resistance against the Ba’thist rule, put down ruthlessly by Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez al-Assad. In the current unrest in Syria, it has again become one of the main centres.

The seeming western interest and concern for the human and political rights of protestors is not accidental. Syria has long been a thorn in the side of the US and Israel for offering resistance to the American plan to subjugate the Palestinian and Arab people in the name of a sham peace process. The received wisdom in the Middle East used to be that the Arabs could not make war against Israel without Egypt (possessing the largest and strongest Arab army) and could not make peace without Syria (holding out for a just solution).

The ‘Arab Spring’, which broke out from Tunisia and Egypt, has taken on other dimensions in other Arab countries. The way NATO made a ‘humanitarian’ intervention in Libya, with the US ‘leading from behind’ to avoid the fallout of intervening in yet another Muslim country, while completely ignoring other countries with similar protests like Bahrain or Yemen, strengthened the suspicions that the US is targeting regimes it does not like. In Syria’s case in particular, there are accusations that the US is instigating and funding the protests. Looked at from a broader perspective, the ‘thorns’ are being removed from the US’s side one by one, although the campaign in Libya has turned sour and Moammar Gaddafi has turned out to be a hard nut to crack. There may be a genuine element in the Syrian protests, but the US is certainly trying to take advantage of the volatile internal situation of the country. A long-serving regime in a one party state in today’s world lays itself open to the risks of subversion through mass protests. There are reports that the US experts have been training Arab youth on how to organise mass protests through social networking websites. Therefore, the vulnerability of such a regime is a given. The protests may be spontaneous and genuine, but can be taken advantage of by an interested party in order to remove the government. In this context, the American and French diplomats’ show of support and solidarity for the protesting public in Hama was perceived as highly inappropriate. …more

Bahrain opp. delegation leaves talks
Written by Web Editor | July 13, 2011

A delegation from Bahrain’s biggest opposition party has walked out of the ongoing talks with the Al Khalifa regime, saying the regime is not serious about addressing people’s demands.

The representatives of Bahrain’s main opposition group al-Wefaq left the Tuesday session of the so-called “national dialogue,” AP reported.

Khalil al-Marzouq, spokesman of group, said that he advised the party’s top leaders to withdraw from the US-backed talks entirely, noting that the regime is not interested in political reform, therefore the dialogue is meaningless.

The opposition group agreed to participate in talks with the government after Bahraini King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa said he would set up an independent inquiry into the violent crackdown on protesters.

The opposition bloc is not satisfied with the process, saying participants in the dialogue do not fairly represent society and those participating are not being given a chance to speak during the sessions.

Earlier last week, senior Bahraini cleric Sheikh Issa Qasim also accused the Al Khalifa regime of using the ongoing reconciliation talks to delay democratic reforms, saying, “This dialogue process is twisted and the way it is conducted indicates that there is no meaningful substance.”

Since the onset of popular anti-regime protests in Bahrain in mid-February, Manama rulers have launched a brutal crackdown on protesters, their leaders and virtually anyone that come in contact with them, rounding up senior opposition figures and activists and even detaining doctors, nurses, lawyers and journalists that sympathized with the uprising in one way or another.

In March, a number of Persian Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, deployed military forces to Bahrain in an attempt to assist the Manama regime’s crackdown on peaceful protesters that demand an end to the despotic, near 40-year rule of the Al Khalifa family.

Rights groups and families of those arrested during the Saudi-backed crackdown on popular protests have blamed Bahraini security authorities for mistreating anti-government protesters, charging that they have been subjected to physical and mental abuse.

Scores of people have been killed and over 1,000 have been arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown on the peaceful uprising in Bahrain, a submissive US ally and home to US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, reports say. …source

F1 teams come under attack from Bahrain
Wednesday, 13 July 2011 00:13

Bahrain Grand Prix chairman Zayed Alzayani has fired a bitter broadside at Formula 1 teams for their attitude towards the eventually-cancelled event.

The race, which was scheduled to be the season-opener this year, was postponed due to civil unrest in the country.

Although the FIA reinstated the Grand Prix, teams opposed the move and the race was eventually cancelled.

Alzayani said if Formula 1 was not going to Bahrain for the violation of human rights, then most grands prix should also be called off.

“They’re going to the US next year,” Alzayani told the Evening Standard, London.

“What about Guantanamo? Isn’t that human rights violation? As Bernie Ecclestone told me, ‘If human rights was the criterion for F1 races, we would only have them in Belgium and Switzerland in the future’.”

He added: “The teams have been very temperamental. I feel disappointed because it cannot go within three months from one end of the spectrum, ‘Oh, you are my favourite destination. We love it here. We feel like we are at home in Bahrain.’ To the other, ‘We don’t want to go to Bahrain.’ Yes, events have happened in between but you can’t be so temperamental.”

Alzayani said Formula 1 boss Ecclestone always pushed for the race to go ahead, but he denied it was about trying not to lose millions of dollars if the event was cancelled.

“It was a unanimous vote of all the 26 World Council members. Bernie voted for it. On the June 8, I met him here in London.”

He said, ‘There is resistance from the teams but if you want I’ll push for it. We’ll get it sorted.’ He even gave us the option of holding it on December 4. This was never about Bernie losing money by not having a race in Bahrain.”

Alzayani claimed that the main reason why Bahrain decided to pull its race off in the end was because of a lack of ambulances in the country and says that was why the GP2 Asia series race too was cancelled.

He said: “We have to have a minimum of 18 ambulances to run a race and, because of the riots and people getting injured, all the ambulances were diverted to attend to the protests. So we couldn’t run the race.”

Bahrain is scheduled to return to the F1 calendar next year, having been given the season-opening slot again. …source

Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike Shines Light on True Character of US Prison System
By: Kevin Gosztola Monday July 11, 2011 12:42 pm

Harold Koh, legal advisor to the US State Department, went before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in November of last year and declared that the US is very proud of its human rights record. He responded to recommendations the UNHRC made in its universal periodic review of the United States’ respect for human rights. Koh said in the section addressing recommendations on criminal justice, “The U.S. criminal justice system rests on the protection of individual human rights and basic principles of due process and fair and equal treatment.” Prisoners striking at the Pelican Bay supermax prison in California are demonstrating to Americans and the world the scale of fraudulence behind the above statement.

On July 1, 2011, Pelican Bay prisoners began an indefinite hunger strike to protest the conditions in the prison. Across prison-manufactured racial and geographical lines, prisoners came together behind five core demands to force the prison officials to end the use of “group punishment”; abolish a “debriefing policy and the current criteria for determining who is and who isn’t a gang member; comply with the US Commission 2006 Recommendation Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement and end conditions of isolation, make segregation a last resort, end long-term solitary confinement and grant access to adequate healthcare and sunlight; provide adequate food and stop using it as a tool to punish inmates; and expand constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.

SHU stands for “Security Housing Unit.” In some prisons, the SHU is called “the hole.” The SHU is a “prison-within-a-prison.” Solitary Watch explains the SHU became more widely used after two guards were killed in the Marion, Illinois, federal prison in 1983. That led to the Marion Lockdown with prisoners being “confined to their cells without yard time, work or any kind of rehabilitative programming.” …more

World News
CIA faked health drive for bin Laden DNA – Published: July 12, 2011 at 3:00 AM

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan, July 12 (UPI) — The CIA set up a fake vaccination program near Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout before the raid that killed him hoping to get his family’s DNA, officials say.

The elaborate scheme was carried out in Abbottabad, 30 miles northeast of the capital Islamabad, in an attempt to get evidence bin Laden’s family lived where the CIA believed the al-Qaida leader was hiding, the U.S. and Pakistani officials and local residents told Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.

The civilian U.S. intelligence agency, which also engages in covert activities at the request of the U.S. president, wanted confirmation bin Laden was in the compound before mounting a risky operation inside another country, the officials said.
GALLERY: The legacy of Osama bin Laden

It wanted to compare DNA from any bin Laden child from the compound with a sample from his sister, who died in Boston last year, to provide evidence the family was present, the officials said.

At one point, a nurse managed to gain entry into bin Laden’s compound to administer the vaccines, and possibly record conversations or leave behind a surveillance device, the newspaper said.

U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in a post-midnight raid of the compound May 2. …more

Teachers ordeal in Bahrain: arrested, tortured, sacked, suspended and prosecuted
BCHR – 11 July 2011

Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its grave concern over the violent crackdown on Teachers and The Bahrain Teachers Association (BTA) who have played a significant role in the February 14 uprising as they stood in solidarity with the people’s demands, calling for strikes in protest to the brutal attacks on the peaceful protesters in Feb 2011 and to pressure the government to respect human rights and meet the people’s demands. Their strong role in support of the uprising led to a crackdown where both teachers and teachers’ unionists became subjected to arbitrary arrests, military prosecution, torture, suspensions, salary cuts, and investigation.
Crackdown on the Bahrain Society of Teachers

The Bahrain Teachers Association (BTA) was formed as a substitute for a teachers union, where the Civil Service Bureau Act 1 in 2003 banned the establishment of unions in the governmental sector. Therefore it restricted teachers, who form the biggest division in the governmental sector, from forming their own union[1] .

After the brutal response of the government of Bahrain to the peaceful protests of Feb14 and the attacks on the unarmed pro-democracy protesters in the Pearl Roundabout on the 17th February and in Bahrain’s streets, which reached the extent of the descent of the army into the streets and killing the protesters, which resulted into 7 deaths and hundreds of injuries, BTA called the teachers for a strike from February 20th to pressure the government to respect human rights and meet the people’s demands. More than 5000 teachers went on strike outside of schools[2]; they demanded political reforms and investigation into the deaths of peaceful protesters[3] . The strike was called off 23rd Feb after the army withdrew from the streets and the crown prince of Bahrain guaranteed the safety of protesters at the pearl roundabout.

On 10 March, clashes between pro-democracy and pro-government girls were reported from Saar Secondary School for girls that led to some students’ parents entering the school and physically assaulting students[4] , similar incident happened in Yathreb Intermediate School for girls which was handled by the administration of the school, however, after broadcasting false news of severe clashes on Bahrain Radio, parents arrived fearing the safety of their children which caused panic and horror among students and ambulance was called for two students who have fainted. In Al Hoora secondary School, students complained to the principle of the school verbal assaulted they were subjected to by some teachers after the crackdown on Lulu roundabout, but no actions was taken so they staged a sit-in in front of the principle office, school administration threatened them to call the police. In other schools, attendance was low because of fear and due to the lack of security in several schools, a school even reported vandalizing school property[5] . On 13 March 2011 the ministry of education announced in a statement the temporarily closure of any school where students clashes occur[6] . That included Saar Secondary School for girls

Therefore, the second strike was declared on March 14th till the 23rd to raise teachers’ concerns for their own physical security as well as that of students after thugs accompanied by security forces attacked numerous schools and universities in Bahrain[7] . However, after the declaration of National Saftey Status on 15 March 2011 the government met the teachers’ demands and participation in protests and strikes with a hostile reaction which was the start of a series of arrests, suspensions, and cuts in salaries[8] .

On March 20th, the house of the President of BTA, Mahdi Abu Deeb, was raided by security forces in the middle of the night. They did not find him home but his wife and children were interrogated for two hours. Arrests escalated on the 29th of March when the Vice President, Ms. Jaleela Al-Salman, was arrested from her home. The next day more arrests followed, among them members of the Board of the Directors in the BTA:

• Ms. Sana Abdul Razzaq, General Secretary
• Mr. Salah AlBari, Financial Secretary
• Ms. Afrah AlAsfour, Administrative Member
• Mr. Ahmed al-Aneisi, Management Member
• Mr. Falah Rabih, Management Member[9]

On April 6th, security forces arrested Mahdi Abu Deeb. They were all held incommunicado for weeks with no access to family or lawyer. Some of them were released after a month of detention (Afrah and Sana) while others like Mahdi Abu Deeb and Jaleela Al-Salman are still detained.

On April 7th, the Ministry of Social Development dissolved the Bahrain Teachers’ Association, falsely accusing the union of “issuing statements and speeches inciting teachers and students” and “calling for a strike at schools, disrupting educational establishments, in addition to manipulation school students”. The statement also blamed BTS President, Mahdi Abu Deeb (49 years), of having “delivered speeches haranguing and instigated protestors and inciting them against the political regime, flouting the real voluntary and lofty goals of the association.”[10] The government’s accusation of teachers politicizing education was made to delegitimize and slander the teachers’ strikes, in order to justify the campaign of arrests and suspensions that followed the declaration of a state of emergency on March 15. …more

[cd editor: If it were not so serious the “work” coming out of the Nation Dialogue would be comical. Rather it’s a tragic disconnection of the reality of the situation facing the Nation and window dressing to meet Western requirements to maintain continued support for Bahrain murderous regime. The absurdity of this charade rivals the imagination of George Orwell in his fictional account of Newspeak in the super nation Oceania. ]

Third Session of Bahrain National Dialogue

Manama – July 10 (BNA) On the third day of discussions, the participants in the National Dialogue addressed a number of issues of critical importance. Topics included: an enhanced role for the elected Parliament; increased media freedoms; improved budgetary controls; and the promotion of peaceful coexistence and tolerance.

Political theme
Delegates debated cabinet selection processes and how they might best secure an enhanced role for the parliament.There were calls for the composition of the government (cabinet) to better reflect the composition of the elected Parliament, whilst some of the assembly supported the existing appointment structure, as previously established under the National Charter.Delegates discussed limiting Ministerial appointments to a maximum of two terms (or a maximum of eight years). In addition, participants debated the possible introduction of the Parliament’s ‘right of veto’ over the government’s proposed four year work plan. In addition,

Rights theme
Participants debated enhanced freedoms for the media and a review of legislation governing the right of assembly. It was suggested that the media outlets should not has operations suspended without a court order. And the assembly also discussed internet freedoms and called for the removal of censorship.

Economic theme
Delegates discussed the introduction of annual budgets would lead to improved monitoring and auditing of state expenditure.There were calls to introduce compulsory ‘financial declarations’ for those in senior public sector appointments. Finally, the assembly considered the creation of a new body to ensure greater transparency and accountability for expenditure amongst charities and philanthropic societies.

Social theme
Delegates sought the best approach to promoting peaceful coexistence and tolerance amongst all Bahraini society.There were calls to consider the introduction of legislation to combat discrimination and racism based on ethnicity or religious beliefs. Additionally, there were discussions on the need to introduce legislation to tackle the incitement of religious hatred. …source

Bahrain: Martyrdom of a citizen and marches demanding the dismantlement of the regime.
Monday 11 July 2011 18:41

Bahrain (Islam Times) – This morning one Bahraini citizen, inhabitant of Al-Markh area “Adnan Al-Sayyid Ahmed Al-Sayyid Hassan” aged 44, was martyred due to an injury after inhalation of poison gas and tear gas launched by the Bahraini security forces in a religious event, in which the martyr was participating, in the Al-Darraz area. He was admitted to the hospital for medical treatment but his condition extremely worsened until he died, and his pure clean body was buried this morning. The coalition of the youth revolution of February 14 held “The regime and Saudi Arabian occupation responsible for this heinous crime.” The coalition called upon the “masses of the people of Bahrain to the broad participation in the Prayer ceremony for the martyr in Al-Markh area and to rally in the mourning march of the martyr Adnan Al-Sayyid Ahmed Al-Sayyid Hassan.”

Islam Times

The Bahraini youth did not care about the continued acts of repression by the Bahraini and Gulf forces of Bahrain, so they went out the today morning, noon and night, throughout most of the villages of Bahrain in condemnation of the military sentences in the right of national symbols and detainees in the regime and Peninsula Defense Forces prisons. There were several recorded encounters where the security forces used fission and rubber bullets, tear gas and sound grenades, and remain doing so to this hour, especially in the areas of Al-Nuwaidirat, Al-Sanabis, Sitra(External and Wadiyan), Al-Dayr, Al-Bilad Al-Qadeem, Barbar, Dar Klib, Demistan, and Almoqashaa where some demonstrators deliberately closed some streets to protect the marches.

It should be noted that after the martyrdom of this Bahraini citizen the number of martyrs in Bahrain increased to 38 since the protests began on the fourteenth of February. …source

Egypt
A “Papyrus” from Egyptian Human Rights NGOs: The protection of fundamental rights within the new constitution | 09/07/2011

Press statement

In light of the ongoing debate on the “January 25th” Constitutional process and its core provisions, the Cairo Institute for Human Right Studies (CIHRS) and several Egyptian human rights organizations have submitted a set of basic principles which they believe will guarantee an Egyptian constitution based on the values of the January 25th Revolution and its most prominent slogan, “Freedom, dignity, social justice” These principles, formulated in six detailed articles and signed by more than 25 Egyptian rights organizations, are based on the sovereignty of the people as the source of all governmental authority.

The document containing these principles has been termed a “Papyrus”, in appreciation of ancient Egyptian civilization and the great heritage of cultural, social, ethnic, and religious diversity that has shaped Egyptians’ character and identity. The productive interplay of Pharaonic, Nubian, Coptic, Arabic, and Islamic civilizations constitutes a source of pride and respect for all Egyptians, the origin of Egyptian particularity, and the backbone of their national union.

Article 2 of the Papyrus defends this diversity, emphasizing the need to strengthen and protect the values of pluralism as a fundamental part of humanity and its value, such that no majority should be permitted to suppress and repress any minority by whatever means. Article 1 of the Papyrus stresses the need for the constitution to guarantee cultural rights to every Egyptian, in order to preserve the national heritage and the cultures of various ethnic, religious, and geographic groups throughout Egypt’s history.

Recognizing such diversity and pluralism the Papyrus advocates for the Constitution to take into account numerous sources of legislation as a supra-constitutional principle that reflects Egyptians’ religious, confessional, ethnic, and cultural diversity. Egyptian identity cannot be reduced to one dimension or group without destroying national unity. The Papyrus further upholds the independence of religious institutions and commits them to refrain from engaging in any political partisan activity.

The Papyrus refrains from elaborating in detail the rights to be enshrined in the constitution and legislation, choosing instead to emphasize that international human rights conventions should constitute the fundamental reference point for the elaboration of these rights. The Papyrus proposes to protect the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens against any efforts to undermine or weaken these rights within the constitutional formation process. To do so it proposes the formation of a Constitutional Council composed of the heads of the high courts and chaired by the president of the Supreme Judicial Council to oversee the drafting of the Constitution in order to ensure the basic rights of all Egyptians are respected throughout. Additionally, the Papyrus does not propose a particular system of governance (parliamentary, presidential, or mixed), but rather leaves this to the constitution. Instead, it advances a set of fundamental constitutional provisions that must be respected in any democratic system regardless of the specific mode of governance adopted by the constitution.

The Papyrus upholds the independence of the judiciary and limits the jurisdiction of the military judiciary to military crimes committed by military personnel. It also establishes the police as a civilian body, and makes the Interior Ministry and Defense Ministry subject to parliamentary oversight.

Prompted by a belief in the value of dialogue as a basic foundation for democracy, CIHRS has set up an independent email address to receive all comments, suggestions, and questions regarding the Papyrus. Several meetings and discussions will also be organized with various political parties, public figures, youth, and rights advocates in order to further develop this document. …source

Attached the Papyrus.Please direct all comments and inquiries about the document to: albardeya@cihrs.org

Egyptian Human Rights NGOs Papyrus

بردية منظمات حقوق الإنسان المصرية

Football stars tortured for joining protest, say families
Hugh Tomlinson Dubai – July 8 2011 12:01AM

Bahraini footballers, including stars of the national team, were tortured while in custody during a crackdown on anti-government protesters this year, The Times has learnt.

The testimony given to The Times directly contradicts assurances given to Fifa, football’s governing body, by the Bahrain Football Association that no players had been suspended or mistreated.

In fact, friends and relatives said that a number of players were subjected to beatings in prison after they were arrested for taking part in a demonstration against the ruling Al-Khalifa family in March. Other sportsmen have told of long interrogations and ritual humiliation in jail.

The victims included Aala Hubail, a striker, his brother Mohammed and the goalkeeper Ali Saeed, all members of the Bahraini football squad.

Sitting in a community centre in the Shia village of Sitra, near the capital, Manama, they were too afraid to speak about their treatment and would say only that they did not know if they would be allowed to play football again. The Hubail brothers had had their heads shaved. Mohammed had bruises on his feet.

Friends and relatives said that the men had been threatened with further abuse if they spoke out, but gave details of what they knew of the men’s treatment in jail. “The first two weeks after they were arrested were the worst. They were beaten all the time. They still have marks on their bodies,” said one close relative, who did not want to be named.

Bahrainis are obsessed with football and their players are idolised alongside the international stars of the game. Aala Hubail played a vital role in Bahrain’s best showing at an international tournament, when the team came fourth in the 2004 Asian Cup. He was the tournament’s joint top scorer with five goals. …more

Special Report – Bahrain financial woes worsened by Libya
Published: July 11, 2011 at 6:21 PM

MANAMA, Bahrain, July 11 (UPI) — Bahrain’s financial problems from political unrest are being made worse by investment links to embattled Libya, a widely known issue in the financial industry that came to the fore as Moody’s downgraded Arab Banking Corp., the kingdom’s banking giant.

Earlier this year Bahrain suffered downgrades of its sovereign debt ratings by in response to the government’s violent crackdown on political activists.

The ABC downgrades could be more far-reaching, however, because of very large Libyan stake in the bank, analysts said.

Moody’s said it downgraded ABC to speculative grade because of the bank’s continued reliance on Libyan deposits and the potential constraints on its franchise given that its 59 percent majority shareholder, the Central Bank of Libya, remains subject to sanctions imposed by United Nations, the United States and the European Union against the Libyan regime.

European authorities froze unspecified Libyan state funds, believed to be tens of billions of dollars, in response to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s war on dissidents and then armed rebel groups, now grouped together in an interim Transitional National Council and poised to wrest power from Gadhafi.

The Moody’s downgrade had the dual impact of hitting an already nervous Bahraini banking sector harder and raising new questions about the status of Libyan assets abroad. …more

HM King Hamad Hails Bahrain-US Military Cooperation

Manama, July 11. (BNA) – His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Supreme Commander, today lauded the on-going joint military cooperation betwen the two friendly countries and allies – the kingdom of Bahrain and the USA.

This came as HM King Hamad received at Al Safriya Palace today the Commander-in-Chief of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, in the presence of HM’s Personal Representative Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

During the meeting, HM King Hamad was briefed on the efforts made by the BDF Military Works Directorate and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consolidate BDF’s infrastructure, in line with the BDF General Command’s keenness to continuously upgrade BDF’s potentials and competence.

HM the King hailed the on-going cooperation reflecting the solid historical relations bonding the two friendly countries at all levels.

Royal Court Minister, miniters and the Acting US Ambassador to Bahrain were also present. …source

Let them eat doughnuts: the US response to Bahrain’s oppression
by: Mehdi Hasan – guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 July 2011 20.25 BST

While the west averts its eyes, Bahrain’s people are subjected to brutal suppression

Pity the poor people of Bahrain. They have been shot, beaten, tear-gassed – and patronised. On 7 March, at the height of the pro-democracy protests in the tiny Gulf island kingdom, a crowd gathered outside the US embassy in Manama, the capital, carrying signs that read “Stop supporting dictators” and “Give me liberty or give me death”. A US embassy official emerged from the building with a box of doughnuts for the protesters, prompting a cleric in the crowd to remark: “These sweets are a good gesture, but we hope it is translated into practical actions.”

It hasn’t been. Syria was subjected to sanctions and Libya to air strikes; Bahrain, however, was rewarded with visits from the Pentagon’s two most senior officials – the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, and the then defence secretary, Robert Gates. Disgracefully, at the same time as peaceful protesters were being rounded up and imprisoned, both men offered full-throated endorsements of King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa’s brutal regime.

The Sunni Khalifas have ruled Shia-majority Bahrain – officially a constitutional monarchy – since 1783. Bahrain’s prime minister since 1971, Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa – the king’s uncle – has the dubious distinction of being the longest-serving unelected prime minister in the world. Unemployment stands at 15% – the highest in the Gulf – and Shias have long complained of discrimination and disenfranchisement.

The Arab spring reached Bahrain on Valentine’s Day; protesters – both Sunni and Shia – arrived in Manama’s Pearl Square on 14 February to demand political freedoms, democratic reforms and greater equality for the Shia majority. They were met with rubber bullets and teargas; three days later security forces switched to live ammunition. Within a few weeks some 2,000 Sunni soldiers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had arrived in Bahrain, at the invitation of the Khalifas, to impose martial law – and, in doing so, poured oil on the fire of sectarian tensions. …more