Kept Silent are these Crimes Against Humanity

Arab Awakening and Western Media: Time for a New Revolutionary Discourse
by Ramzy Baroud – July 28, 2011

[article excerpt] – “Western media and think-tanks have long presented a mistaken and divisive understanding of Arab – and other – societies. There is a discrepancy between the actual situation and indicators-driven understanding. Entire Arab societies are deconstructed and reduced into simple data, which is filtered, classified and juggled to fit into precise criteria and clear-cut conclusions. Public opinions and entire policies are then formed or formulated based on these conclusions.

The problem does not lie in academic practices per se, but rather the objective-specific understanding that many in the west have towards the Middle East. Most Washington-based think-tanks – regardless of their political leanings – tend to study distant societies only for the sake of producing definite answers and recommendations. However, providing an all-encompassing depiction of a society like Yemen’s – whose internal dynamics and complexity necessarily differs from any other’s in the region – would be most unhelpful for those eager to design policies and short-term strategies on the go.

Arab revolutions continue to tear down archaic beliefs and misguided understandings, challenging the wild theories around Arab peoples and their supposed wrangling between secularism and Islamism. Despite all of this, the self-seeking objectifying of Arabs continues in western media.

Under the all-inclusive title, “The Arab World: The Awakening”, an article in Economist Magazine (February 17) attempted to describe the upheaval currently underway throughout the Arab world. Interspersed with such predictable terms as ‘extremists’, ‘Islamists’, ‘strongmen’ and so on, the inane analysis made way for equally silly conclusions. The article, for example, suggested that the West’s decision to accommodate dictatorial regimes in the Middle East was motivated by a mix of despair and altruism: “The West has surrendered to this (Arab) despair too, assuming that only the strongmen could hold back the extremists.”

While words such as ‘extremists’, ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘terrorists’ may have their own special ring to western audiences, they could well mean something entirely different – if anything at all – to Arabs. Listening to the Arab media’s coverage of ongoing revolutions, one may not even encounter any of these terminologies. At times, they can be entirely irrelevant in terms of understanding the momentous happenings underway throughout the region.” …main article

King of Bahrain failing to restore country’s reputation after uprising
By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent
5:13PM BST 18 Jul 2011

The government’s National Dialogue, its forum for negotiation with opposition groups, lay in tatters yesterday after al-Wefaq, the biggest party in parliament, announced it intended to pull out.

Meanwhile, two of the most prominent figures detained in the crackdown have described to The Daily Telegraph a routine of beatings they suffered while in captivity.

One, Ayat al-Qurmezi, a 20-year-old trainee teacher jailed for a year for reciting poems critical of the king, said she was telephoned on Saturday by police to warn her against repeating her claims.

The other, a senior surgeon at the main Salmaniya Hospital, who has asked not to be identified, said the behaviour of the authorities had alienated the non-political middle classes like himself. He was one of 48 doctors put on trial in the wake of the protests, 20 of whom remain in custody.

He said he was hit round the head, kicked and beaten with a rubber hose until he was forced to confess to inflicting the wounds suffered by protesters he was treating for their injuries, or making them worse. …more

Widener President Urged to Press for Bahraini Alumna’s Release
For Immediate Release: July 28, 2011

Chester, Pa. – Human Rights First today urged Widener University President Dr. James T. Harris III to call on the United States and Bahraini governments to free an alumna who remains in captivity following the Bahraini Government’s violent crackdown against pro-democracy activists. Roula al-Saffar, who received a master’s degree from Widener University in the late 1990’s and is now head of the Bahrain Nursing Society, is the only female medic still held in detention since Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa launched a series of brutal measures to silence dissent, including widespread torture and at least four deaths in custody. She has been in captivity for more than 100 days.

A letter sent to President Harris from Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley, who recently returned from a mission Bahrain that included a meeting with al-Saffar’s family, notes, “We are asking you to contact the Bahraini Government (there is an embassy in Washington, DC) to ask for her immediate release, and to urge them to release all detainees who are still being held for exercising their legitimate right to freedom of expression during protests earlier this year. We also urge you to contact the U.S. Government to ask that it intercede with the Bahraini authorities to ask that she be released and charges against her dropped, or that she be given a trial which meets international standards.”

Earlier this month, Human Rights First issued “Bahrain: A Tortuous Process,” a report based on research conducted by Dooley during his second fact-finding mission to Bahrain from July 6 -12. In May, the organization issued “Bahrain: Speaking Softly,” a report capturing the findings of Dooley’s May 2011 trip to the region, his first since the Bahraini Government’s violent anti-democracy crackdown began. Both reports contain a series of recommendations for the U.S. Government and its officials, as well as for the Bahraini leadership. …source

Bahrain/Washington: Nabeel Rajab Awarded the 2011 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award
by the Washington based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Published on frontlinedefenders.org
28 July 2011

Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights has been awarded the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award by the Washington based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Further Information

The History and Public Policy Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars is pleased to announce that the 2011 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award will go to Nabeel Rajab, co-founder of the Bahrain Human Rights Society and president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights because he “has worked tirelessly and at considerable personal peril to advance the cause of democratic freedoms and the civil rights of Bahraini citizens”.

The purpose of the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award is to bring visibility and international recognition to the ideas and accomplishments of individuals around the world who are working on behalf of democracy.

The award strives to enrich the intellectual environment in which ideas about democracy and democratic change circulate, both within and beyond Washington. Sponsored in cooperation With the Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation (London, UK) and the Ratiu Center for Democracy (Turda, Romania), the award expresses the deep commitment to democracy ofthe late Ion Ratiu through his contributions as a Romanian politician and.intellectual as well as his interest in democratic change worldwide.

The Ion Ratiu Democracy Award was established in 2005 as a way to recognize the importance of the work carried out by democracy activists around the world. Since 2006, the Award ceremony is hosted at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Previous awardees include Oleg Kozlovsky (Russia, 2010), Adam Michnik (Poland, 2009), Eleonora Cercavschi (Moldova, 2008), Anatoli Mikhailov (Belarus, 2007), Saad Ibrahim (Egypt, 2006), and Sergio Aguayo (Mexico, 2005). …more

Citizens, Not Subjects: Debunking the Sectarian Narrative of Bahrain’s Pro-Democracy Movement
Author : Sahar Aziz – Date : July 06, 2011
Download the Full Report (PDF)

Strikingly absent from the discourse about Bahrain’s ongoing pro-democracy movement are the non-sectarian grounds upon which the calls for democracy are based. A closer look at the recent demonstrations indicates that the movement’s impetus is the Bahrainis’ desire for universal social, economic, and political rights irrespective of religious sect.

A growing sense of political disenfranchisement is spreading among both Sunni and Shi’a citizens who have been excluded from political and business opportunities.

Upon witnessing the remarkable display of people power in Egypt and Tunisia, Bahrainis are no longer satisfied with being treated as subjects; rather, they are demanding to be treated as citizens with twenty-first-century political, social, and economic rights and the power to shape their nation’s destiny.

Based on the foregoing analysis, this report recommends steps that would both promote democracy in Bahrain and preserve American interests in the Gulf and the wider Middle East. …source

Bahrain king ‘supports’ political reforms
(AFP) – 3 hours ago

DUBAI — Bahrain’s king said he supports proposals for political reform submitted to him on Thursday following a “national dialogue” from which the main Shiite opposition withdrew just two weeks after it began.

The report on the dialogue “reflects the determination (of the participants) to rise above the latest incidents,” King Hamad said in a televised speech, referring to a month of deadly pro-democracy protests crushed by the authorities in March.

The king expressed his “support” for the recommendations that, he said, notably included “reinforcing the independence of the judicial branch and the consolidation of human rights” in Bahrain.

He also cited the development of standards for the selection of the Majlis Ash-Shura, or consultative council, whose 40 appointed members can block legislation coming out of the lower house.

King Hamad said he had given instructions for the implementation of the recommendations in “constitutional institutions” but made no reference of the withdrawal of the main Shiite opposition party, Al-Wefaq, from the dialogue.

Al-Wefaq, or the Islamic National Accord Association, announced on July 17 it was pulling out of the dialogue on reforms, saying the talks were not aimed at achieving serious results.

The talks follow a bloody March crackdown by security forces on Shiite-led protests calling for reforms in the Sunni-ruled, Shiite-majority kingdom. Authorities say 24 people were killed in the unrest. …source

Popular Protest in North Africa and the Middle East (VIII): Bahrain’s Rocky Road to Reform
Middle East Report N°111 28 Jul 2011

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Following a spasm of violence, Bahrain faces a critical choice between endemic instability and slow but steady progress toward political reform. The most sensible way forward is to launch a new, genuine dialogue in which the political opposition is fairly represented and to move toward changes that will turn the country into a constitutional monarchy. In order to create an environment in which such talks could succeed, the regime should take immediate steps to address the human rights crisis, including by releasing political leaders jailed for peacefully expressing their views, and reverse the alarming sectarian polarisation that has occurred.

In February and March 2011, Bahrain experienced peaceful mass protests followed by brutal repression, leaving a distressing balance sheet: over 30 dead, mostly demonstrators or bystanders; prominent opposition leaders sentenced to lengthy jail terms, including eight for life; hundreds of others languishing in prison; torture, and at least four deaths in detentions; trials, including of medical professionals, in special security courts lacking even the semblance of due process of law; over 40 Shiite mosques and other religious structures damaged or demolished; the country’s major independent newspaper transformed into a regime mouthpiece; a witch hunt against erstwhile protesters who faced dismissal or worse, based on “loyalty” oaths; serious damage to the country’s economy; a parliament left without its opposition; and much more. More significant for the long term perhaps, the violence further polarised a society already divided along sectarian lines and left hopes for political reform in tatters, raising serious questions about the island’s stability.

The regime – a Sunni monarchy headed by the Al Khalifa family – gave a pseudo-legal cast to the repression it unleashed by issuing a “law of national safety”, emergency legislation that permitted some of the human rights violations listed above. And it enveloped itself in the protective embrace of its neighbours, fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), avowedly to ward off a victory by the perceived proxies of Iran, its own Shiite population.

As the crisis escalated in the second half of February and first half of March, two parallel battles unfolded within the opposing camps: a reformist crown prince wagered his political future on reaching out to a pragmatic segment of the (mostly Shiite) opposition, angering more hard-line regime elements, including the septuagenarian uncle of the king, who is the world’s longest-sitting unelected prime minister. In turn, the largest licensed opposition society, Al-Wifaq, risked alienating its popular base, including many of the protesters gathered at the central Pearl roundabout in Manama, by agreeing to engage in informal, semi-secret talks with the crown prince.

While mostly calling for political reform leading to a constitutional monarchy in the uprising’s early days, protesters steadily began to embrace the more radical demand for the regime’s replacement with a democratic republic, and they began to radiate throughout the capital to bolster this demand. Feeling threatened, the regime lashed back. This spelled the end of talk about dialogue and reform and weakened dialogue’s main protagonists. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad appears marginalised within the royal family, at least for the time being; Al-Wifaq is struggling to hold onto its popular base, as it seeks to keep reform prospects alive while opposition leaders remain in jail and repression continues. …more

Front Line registers Bahrain Center for Human Rights activists as “Human Rights Defenders”
Left: Sayed Yousif Al Mohafdah, Right: Laywer Mohammed Al Jishi
18th July 2011

In an international recognition of the efforts of the human rights defenders in Bahrain, a number of members of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) received certificates from Front Line registering them in the organization as “Human Rights Defenders”. The registered members were Sayed Yousif Al Mohafdah (board-member in BCHR) and Lawyer Mohammed Al Jishi (attorney for detainees in political cases).

Front Line is an international foundation operating from Dublin for the protection of human rights defenders globally. According to its definition of “Human Rights Defenders” they are individuals who through peaceful means work for the preservation of rights declared by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and others. Front Line strives to provide rapid and practical support to human rights defenders who are in danger and works to increase their identification and recognition as individuals under threat. Front Line has a Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations [1].

“Human rights defenders are people who make extra-ordinary sacrifices, often putting their lives at risk for the human rights of others. They are usually either on the move or on the run and they are the people who change society – that is why they need and deserve our support and why Front Line is so pleased to welcome this cross party support for human rights defenders today” said Mary Lawlor, Director Front Line [2].

Andrew Anderson said that the foundation granted membership to human rights defenders to encourage them to continue their brave work in shedding the light on human rights abuses in Bahrain and to provide some sort of international cover for them due to the dangers they are faced with. Moreover, the foundation installed a security system on the house of the Head of BCHR Nabeel Rajab which was attacked with tear-gas twice in the past two months.

Registering these human rights defenders is considered a recognition and appreciation of their brave work in defending human rights despite the dangers of assault and arrest faced by them. Particularly with them being constantly targeted such as the attempt to arrest Sayed Yousif Al Muhafdah who became active in recent years as a defender of human rights in Bahrain and a human rights blogger. His house was raided in the early hours of the morning and he was banned from travel and was delayed in other instances. Moreover, Lawyer Mohammed Al Jishi was also previously banned from travel and went through interrogation with other lawyers working in cases that were brought before the Military Prosecution in relation to participation in a lawyers’ demonstration at Lulu Roundabout demanding the rule of law on those responsible for the death of many young men in the past February. This comes after a long list of assaults they went through (see BCHR detailed statement [3]) and continued their activities despite them to document the abuses made by the Bahraini regime who took advantage of the “State of National Safety”. …more

Indian Black Money Deposits in Swiss Banks crosses US$ 1.4 Trillion , largest from any Nation in the World
July 19, 2011 – Written by jafrianews

JNN 19 July 2011 : This is an Article written by the Once India’s MP Kuldip Nayar, exposing the facts of the Indian Black Money ,and the Hipocracy of these western countries , which makes laws for International Money laundering and other things , But factually the biggest Market of all the Plundered and looted Wealth of the Developing Nations , whethere India , Pakistan or any other Developing country, they provide safe Heaven for the criminals of National and International repute . And encourage them to loot and Plunder their National Wealth , so the economies of these countries can benefit from the money kept in their Banks. While the Poor People of these Nations live under the Poverty line and dont have excess to food for even One time of a Day.

Now as the Writer Narrates his Personal experiences and observances are as follow :

” I do not think there is any top civil servant or a leading politician in South Asia without the blemish of having a foreign bank account. But the pressure in India on the Manmohan Singh government to bring back the black money stashed abroad has been relentless. But instead of taking any concrete action, the government seems to be trying its best not to let the gamut of black money come to light. Therefore, it is understandable why it is seeking clarifications on the Indian Supreme Court’s indictment: “The issue of unaccounted monies held by nationals and other legal entities in foreign banks is of primordial importance to the welfare of the citizens.”

It had warned the government not to presume that the money hidden in Switzerland was a result of tax evasion. It could be money that has been laundered after being earned from gun-running, drugs, terrorism, etc. The government is yet to give a justification why it has taken the route of entering into double taxation pacts with foreign countries in order to have the names of the tax evaders. Black money from India in Swiss banks, according to the Swiss Banking Association report in 2006, amounted to as much as $1,456 billion. The amount is reportedly more than the deposits of all other countries put together. And it is 13 times the country’s total foreign debt. With this amount, it is estimated, some 450 million people in India could get Rs 100,000 each.

After clearing its foreign debt, India will be left with a surplus almost 12 times larger than its total foreign debt. If this surplus is invested, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the central government. So even if all taxes are abolished, the central government will still have a cushion. My calculations are on the basis of the 2006 figures given by the Swiss Bank Association. The amount must have risen considerably since then.

Expressing lack of faith in investigations this time the Supreme Court has constituted a Special Investigation Team headed by two retired SC judges to probe all black money-related cases. The court itself is supervising the pace of investigation. While announcing the verdict, the court has observed that “politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen are known to park their funds abroad and then try to get them into the country through foreign institutional investors’ route”.

Very pinching remarks but every word is true. I wonder if there would be any effect on the government which has shown little agility to pursue the cases of black money abroad. …more

Obama’s Bush-League World: Is the Obama National Security Team a Pilotless Drone?
By Tom Engelhardt, July 19, 2011
Originally published in TomDispatch

George W. who? I mean, the guy is so over. He turned the big six-five the other day and it was barely a footnote in the news. And Dick Cheney, tick-tick-tick. Condoleezza Rice? She’s already onto her next memoir, and yet it’s as if she’s been wiped from history, too? As for Donald Rumsfeld, he published his memoir in February and it hit the bestseller lists, but a few months later, where is he?

And can anyone be surprised? They were wrong about Afghanistan. They were wrong about Iraq. They were wrong about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. They were wrong about what the U.S. military was capable of doing. The country imploded economically while they were at the helm. Geopolitically speaking, they headed the car of state for the nearest cliff. In fact, when it comes to pure wrongness, what weren’t they wrong about?

Americans do seem to have turned the page on Bush and his cronies. (President Obama called it looking forward, not backward.) Still, glance over your shoulder and, if you’re being honest, you’ll have to admit that one thing didn’t happen: they didn’t turn the page on us.

They may have disappeared from our lives, but the post-9/11 world they had such a mad hand in creating hasn’t. It’s not just the Department of Homeland Security or that un-American word “homeland,” both of which are undoubtedly embedded in our lives forever; or the Patriot Act, now as American as apple pie; or Guantanamo which, despite a presidential promise, may never close; or all the wild, overblown fears of terrorism and the new security world that goes with them, neither of which shows the slightest sign of abating; or the National Security Agency’s surveillance and spying on Americans which, as far as we can tell, is ongoing. No, it’s scores of Bush policies and positions that will clearly be with us until hell freezes over. Among them all, consider the Obama administration’s updated version of that signature Bush invention, the Global War on Terror.

Yes, Obama’s national security officials threw that term to the dogs back in 2009, and now pursue a no-name global strategy that’s meant not to remind you of the Bush era. Recently, the White House released an unclassified summary of its 2011 “National Strategy for Counterterrorism,” a 19-page document in prose only a giant bureaucracy with a desire to be impenetrable could produce. (Don’t bother to read it. I read it for you.) If it makes a feeble attempt to put a little rhetorical space between Obama-style counterterrorism and what the Bush administration was doing, it still manages to send one overwhelming message: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et al., are still striding amongst us, carrying big sticks and with that same crazed look in their eyes.

The Global War on Terror (or GWOT in acronym-crazed Washington) was the bastard spawn of the disorientation and soaring hubris of the days after the 9/11 attacks, which set afire the delusional geopolitical dreams of Bush, Cheney, their top national security officials, and their neocon supporters. And here’s the saddest thing: the Bush administration’s most extreme ideas when it comes to GWOT are now the humdrum norm of Obama administration policies — and hardly anyone thinks it’s worth a comment. …more

CIA Vaccination Program to Catch Bin Laden Makes Middle-East Even More Suspicious of Vaccinations
By Shiran Shen, July 28, 2011

CIA polioSince the global anti-polio campaign was launched in 1988, the number of polio cases has dropped by more than 99 percent. As of now, only Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan still suffer from the spread of polio. Supporters of the anti-polio campaign estimated that the elimination of polio would produce a net benefit of $40 billion — $50 billion by 2035. However, the global anti-polio campaign has recently been complicated by the scandal that the CIA ran an operation to verify Osama bin Laden’s location by gathering DNA samples through a false-flag hepatitis B vaccination program. This incident also further complicates the already strained U.S.-Pakistan relationship after it was uncovered that a Washington nonprofit funnels money from Pakistan’s spy agency to lobby Congress on Kashmir.

Resistance to vaccination gained much momentum in the wake of 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror. In Nigeria and Pakistan, at least, Muslim clerics have taken on roles to spread rumors that America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were part of a wider war on Islam. In 2003, religious leaders in Nigeria led the resistance to vaccination campaigns by spreading rumors that the shots were in fact sterilization drugs, part of a Western conspiracy to reduce African birthrates. In 2007, Taliban clerics in Pakistan also joined the anti-vaccination campaigns. Resistance also developed in extremely poor areas in Uttar Pradesh in India. It took a tremendous effort from the World Health Organization to reach out to religious authorities to dismiss these misconceptions.

And now these efforts are jeopardized by the CIA’s polio vaccine plot in Pakistan.

According to a Guardian report, the CIA worked with Shakil Afridi, a surgeon in Khyber Agency—a tribal agency that borders Afghanistan to the east—to lure families in for hepatitis B vaccinations. In addition to giving the shots, the medical team collected DNA from the blood of the patients. To make the vaccine drive seem less suspicious, Afridi even started in a poorer part of town before moving to Abbottabad.

The vaccination plan was conceived after American intelligence officers tracked an al-Qaeda courier…to what turned out to be bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound last summer.

The agency…wanted confirmation that bin Laden was there before mounting a risky operation inside another country. DNA from any of the Bin Laden children in the compound could be compared with a sample from his sister, who died in Boston in 2010, to provide evidence that the family was present. …more

Bahrainis to stage anti-US Friday sit-in
shiapost | July 28, 2011

Anti-government protesters chant slogans in a mosque in Bahrain. (file photo)

Bahrain’s February 14 Movement has called for a mass sit-in in front of the US embassy in Manama to condemn Washington’s interference in the internal affairs of the Persian Gulf country.

The spokesman of the Bahraini movement, Abdul Raouf al-Shayeb, said that the demonstrators intend to voice their opposition on Friday against the US support of the Al Khalifa regime.

The protesters seek to maintain the right to determine their own destiny, al-Shayeb added.

The main Bahraini opposition group, al-Wefaq, has also called for fresh rallies on Friday.

Al-Shayeb’s remarks come as Saudi-backed Bahraini regime forces continue cracking down on peaceful demonstrators.

On Wednesday, the regime forces attacked the protesters in the village of Nuwaidrat, according to witnesses.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed their first batch of military forces to Bahrain in mid-March.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia deployed more forces in Bahrain in an attempt to further help the ruling regime clamp down on anti-regime demonstrators.

In June, a military court in Bahrain tried seven opposition activists including al-Shayeb in absentia for “plotting to overthrow the ruling system.” The opposition spokesman was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

Anti-regime protesters have been holding demonstrations across the country since mid-February, calling on the ruling family to relinquish power.

Scores of protesters have been killed — many under torture — and numerous others detained and transferred to unknown locations during the regime’s brutal onslaught on protesters. …source