Senate Judiciary Committee Passes Bill on U.S. Civilian Contractor Accountability Abroad
For Immediate Release: June 23, 2011

Washington, D.C.— Today, the Senate made significant strides in closing a pernicious accountability gap for private contractors who commit serious crimes while deployed abroad. The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (CEJA), S.1145, designed to hold civilian contractors to the same standards of accountability as Defense Department contractors and service members.

While U.S. troops are held to account under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and private contractors who work in support of DoD’s mission are subject to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, there is an open question of whether civilian contractors not contracted by DoD or working in support of DoD’s mission can be held to account under any jurisdictional statute.

The current ambiguity under U.S. law can lead to absurd results that run counter to our national security and foreign policy interests. In certain circumstances, a U.S. contractor may commit a serious crime like rape or murder with impunity if he happens to work for the State Department rather than the Defense Department, for example. …more

Bahrain’s Human Rights Crisis
Detentions, Torture, Killings, Military Trials Since Protests Began
July 5, 2011

– download report .pdf

Bahrain has brutally punished those protesting peacefully for greater freedom and accountability while the US and other allies looked the other way. The announcement of an independent investigative commission is a very promising first step for holding perpetrators of abuses accountable.

(Washington, DC) – The Bahrain government, since March 2011, has been carrying out a punitive and vindictive campaign of violent repression against its own citizens, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.

“”Bahrain’s Human Rights Crisis” (click “Download the Report” to the right for the full paper) summarizes Human Rights Watch’s research on the ground since pro-democracy protests began in February. Human Rights Watch found widespread arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detention, torture, and unfair military court trials, as well as summary dismissals of workers accused of sympathizing with the protests. The government has failed to investigate the abuses or hold anyone accountable for these actions. On June 29, the king announced an independent commission of international rights experts to investigate and publicly report on alleged human rights violations.

“Bahrain has brutally punished those protesting peacefully for greater freedom and accountability while the US and other allies looked the other way,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The announcement of an independent investigative commission is a very promising first step for holding perpetrators of abuses accountable.” …more

The silencing crime: Sexual violence and journalists

Few cases of sexual assault against journalists have ever been documented, a product of powerful cultural and professional stigmas. But now dozens of journalists are coming forward to say they have been sexually abused in the course of their work. A CPJ special report by Lauren Wolfe
Chaotic public events are often the setting for sexual abuse of journalists. CBS correspondent Lara Logan was assaulted at this political demonstration in Cairo. (AP/Khalil Hamra)
Published June 7, 2011

NEW YORK
Nine years passed before Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya spoke publicly about the brutal rape she endured while reporting on right-wing paramilitaries in May 2000. On assignment for the Bogotá daily El Espectador, Bedoya was abducted, bound, blindfolded, and taken to a house in the central city of Villavicencio, where she was savagely beaten and raped by multiple attackers.

• Download the pdf

Since she began speaking out, Bedoya said, she has encountered a number of journalists—from Colombia to the United States to Europe—who had been raped or sexually abused but chose to stay quiet because of cultural and professional stigmas. By making her own case more visible, Bedoya said, she hopes to encourage these journalists to “denounce what’s happened to them and be able to ask for justice.”

The 2000 attack on Bedoya was notable in one respect: The assault was reported to authorities and CPJ documented it at the time, making it one of the relatively few recorded cases of sexual assault against a journalist.

Now, the vicious sexual assault of CBS correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo in February has brought the issue into sharp focus, prompting journalists worldwide to begin speaking out in numbers previously unknown. Over the past four months, CPJ has interviewed more than four dozen journalists who have undergone varying degrees of sexual violence—from rape by multiple attackers to aggressive groping—either in retaliation for their work or during the course of their reporting. They include 27 local journalists, from top editors to beat reporters, working in regions from the Middle East to South Asia, Africa to the Americas. Five described being brutally raped, while others reported various levels of sexual assault, aggressive physical harassment, and threats of sexual violence. A similar range of experience was reported by 25 international journalists; two reported being raped, five others described serious sexual violation—ranging from violent, sexual touching, to penetration by hands—and 22 said they had been groped multiple times. Most of the reported attacks occurred within the past five years, although a small number of cases date back as far as two decades.

Many of the assaults fall into three general types: targeted sexual violation of specific journalists, often in reprisal for their work; mob-related sexual violence against journalists covering public events; and sexual abuse of journalists in detention or captivity. Although women constitute the large majority of victims overall, male journalists have also been victimized, most often while in captivity or detention. …more

Saudi-backed forces attack Bahrainis
By shiapost – July 5, 2011Posted in: Bahrain

Saudi-backed government forces have launched an attack on a village in northeastern Bahrain where the people had staged an anti-regime protest.

On Monday, the protesters, who had taken to the streets of Nuwaidrat, called for the implementation of reforms and demanded that Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa step down, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Bahrainis have been holding peaceful demonstrations across the Persian Gulf kingdom since mid-February, calling for an end to the absolute monarchy of the Al Khalifa family.

But the authorities have been brutally suppressing all opposition.

On March 14, troops and police forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government’s crackdown.

Dozens of people have been killed so far and many more wounded in the Saudi-backed attacks on demonstrators.

Hundreds, including doctors, nurses, teachers, and students, have also been abducted.

And many doctors and nurses have been tried in military courts on charges of helping anti-regime protesters. …more

Secretary-General welcomes start of national dialogue in Bahrain
5 July 2011

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the start of a process of national dialogue in Bahrain, taking note of Government steps to improve the political atmosphere by creating an investigations commission, transferring some trials to civilian courts and releasing detainees.

He encouraged the Bahraini authorities to take further steps towards political, economic and social reforms in accordance with the country’s international human rights obligations.

“As the dialogue process gets under way, he urges the Government to do everything possible to ensure a genuine, all-inclusive and meaningful dialogue that will lead to tangible political, economic and social reforms which meet the legitimate aspirations of all Bahraini people,” according to a note released by the spokesperson of the Secretary-General.

Mr. Ban said the process is essential for healing social tensions and promoting greater national unity and stability.

Bahrain was recently hit by unrest similar to the popular protest movements in countries across North Africa and the Middle East this year, notably including Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Yemen.

The Secretary-General had last month called for a process of political dialogue that would be “genuine, inclusive and lead to tangible outcomes which address the legitimate aspirations of all Bahrainis.” …more

Delegation travels to Bahrain in bid to secure doctors’ release
03 July 2011 By Susan Mitchell Health Correspondent

An Irish delegation that includes several politicians plans to travel to Bahrain on July 12 in an effort to pressurise the Bahraini authorities to release arrested doctors and nurses there.

The group will include MEP Marian Harkin, former minister for foreign affairs David Andrews and Fianna Fáil senator Averil Power.

The group wants the Bahraini authorities to release the doctors and nurses who were arrested during the pro-democracy demonstrations in the Gulf nation earlier this year.

Their plight has been followed by the world’s media but has a particular resonance in Ireland as three of the Bahraini doctors trained at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).

The group includes orthopaedic surgeon Professor Damien McCormack, who is one of a number of doctors to criticised the RCSI for its failure to condemn strongly the actions of the Bahraini authorities.

The RCSI’s critics claim it has been compromised by its financial interests in Bahrain. The RCSI denies this. It said working quietly behind the scenes was more effective. …more

Jul 5, 2011
Tunisian prison on fire, inmates escape: Witnesses

TUNIS – AT LEAST one person died on Tuesday when fire broke out at a Tunisian prison and inmates escaped in an incident that highlights the country’s lawlessness six months after the president was ousted.

Witnesses said ambulances rushed to the prison in Gassrine, about 300km south-west of Tunis, to take dozens of injured people to the local hospital.

‘Hundreds of locals have gathered to learn the fate of the prisoners,’ a local resident named Majed told Reuters by telephone. ‘We see ambulances transporting the injured, they seems to be dead.’ A second witness confirmed the account. A medical source told Reuters that one person died.

There has been a spate of prison fires in Tunisia over the past few months. Often the fires are started deliberately by inmates who then, in the confusion, stage mass breakouts.

Tunisia electrified the Arab world in January when protests forced President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to leave the country.

Tunisia’s revolution inspired uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world. — REUTERS …source

cb Editor Note: There have been a “rash of stories” like the one below from the western media in the days that have lead up to the so called National Dialogue. It appears they are complicit reclaiming a narrative that puts King Hamad in the drivers seat. There has been little to no reporting in the western media about the thousands who have protested against the so called “national dialogue” and were attending the funeral of the latest to be slain in Hamad’s bloody reign. To be clear the “national dialogue” is solely at the design, control and construct of King Hamad, the Shura Council under Hamad’s control has veto power over anything the “dialogue” yields. The “national dialogue” has emerged as a propaganda tool with a hand picked “opposition” at the table as benefactors to the new power structure to be brokered by Hamad.

Much of the opposition remain in Hamad’s prisons with disposition of their appeals and trials postponed until the fall. Hamad seeks to use the detained as hostages to help protect his “national dialogue” sanctioned by the West. Hamad will lead the families of the detained on under the pretense that if all goes well for Hamad’s Bahrain in the coming months perhaps the arbitrary and brutal sentences and charge will be thrown out or reduced. As the opposition, those who reject Hamad’s table of delusion and illusion rise up this summer, Hamad and the West will find renewed justification for the more brutality and more reasons to back away from democracy. This same style of retreat from democracy will occur through out the Arab world for nascent democracies that would prove problematic for Military strategies against Iran or that otherwise threaten US hegemonic aims in the Middle East and North Africa.

The process and the end game are anything but decided and it will prove a long hot and difficult summer for the opposition and the West, which it seems has been grossly under estimated the opposition probably though incompetence and reliance on the inept bureaucracies used to effect manage and interpret change in a volatile world. While the Western spin might make the brutality more palatable for the poll numbers and reelection bids it will do little to change a growing catastrophe in Bahrain or the region. …disturbingly 1979 Iran keeps ringing in my ears? …could it be this is truly the aim of the West, a proxy country to help justify and launch a war against Iran – a sort of sick vindication for 1979 Iran, old warriors and structural demons redeeming regrets with echoes of, could of, should of, would of, scenario against Khomeini’s successful revolution in 1979? what a tidy but delusional package of victories the West could have – scary stuff, very disturbing.

Coming days critical for future of Bahrain
Published: July 4, 2011 at 12:30 PM

MANAMA, Bahrain, July 4 (UPI) — The next few days and months are crucial in helping Bahrain find a solution to solving its problems, the head of National Dialogue says.

National Dialogue begins Tuesday and Issa Abdul Rahman, who heads the organization, said some 300 people from all walks of life will take part to suggest solutions to the country’s problems, Gulf News reported.

“Since February we have had many unfortunate incidents so now we have reached a stage where we need to move forward and focus on the future,” Rahman said. “We have to find a solution for the future of Bahrain.”

Political dissent earlier this year left at least 30 people dead and hundreds injured when government troops opened fire on unarmed civilians. Curfews and other strict security measures were lifted last month.

“I think the mistakes that were made will be identified by the international independent committee that was formed recently,” Rahman said. “The experts that are on the committee have a high profile in international organizations. They will be able to identity who made mistakes and prevent them from happening again.”

Rahman said it is important that issues be correctly identified and addressed.

“We didn’t want to have a National Dialogue and then discover in a few months that not all the areas of concern were not addressed,” Rahman said. …more

Saudi Arabia will dominate Bahrain talks
By shiapost – July 5, 2011Posted in: Bahrain, Middle East

Dubai – Saudi Arabia doesn’t have a seat at Bahrain’s crisis talks, but it carries a critical voice in everything from the tone of debate to the eventual offers on the table.

After four months of Shia-led protests and harsh crackdowns, Saudi Arabia has become the protector, patron and political gatekeeper for Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy in the Gulf leadership’s front-line fight against the Arab Spring.

How Bahrain’s rulers approach the talks – whose first official session is scheduled for Tuesday – largely depends on how far Saudi Arabia is willing to allow concessions on its tiny Gulf neighbor. For the powerful Saudi royal family and its Gulf partners, Bahrain represents a line that cannot be crossed.

Any setbacks by Bahrain’s 200-year-old ruling Al Khalifa dynasty is considered a threat to all monarchs and sheiks in the Gulf – and a possible opening for Shiite power Iran to make headway among the pro-Western Gulf states anchored by Saudi Arabia.

“Bahrain is crucial to Saudi national interest and Riyadh will provide it with all they have to show they are committed to preserving the rule of the Khalifas,” said Ayham Kamel, a Middle East analyst at the Eurasia Group in Washington. …more