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