GCIV, Article 33. No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.

British Leader Seeks Public Housing Evictions for Rioters and Their Families
By JOHN F. BURNS – NYT – Published: August 12, 2011

LONDON — As Britain begins to weigh the costs of the rioting of recent days and ponder measures to prevent a recurrence, the government of Prime Minister David Cameron put forward on Friday a new way of punishing the looters and vandals who rampaged through many of the country’s cities and towns: kick them and their families out of their government-subsidized homes.

If carried out on the scale Mr. Cameron and his ministers have proposed, the measure would probably be the most punitive of the sanctions that they have said would be considered in response to the worst civil disorder in a generation. More than 10 million Britons, about one in six, live in public housing.

Mr. Cameron took to the television studios on Friday, the third consecutive day of calm after the days of chaos that began last weekend, to broaden the “fightback” he has declared against the rioters, and against those who have argued that the blame should rest less with the rioters than with the abject social conditions in the neighborhoods from which many of them came.

He has described the rioting as “criminality, pure and simple,” with no excuse in social deprivation, and laid out a controversial plan to make much broader use of existing powers to expel not only the rioters but also their families from the free or rent-subsidized accommodations that provide millions with cradle-to-grave homes.

“For too long we’ve taken too soft an attitude towards people that loot and pillage their own community,” Mr. Cameron told a BBC interviewer. “If you do that, you should lose your right to the sort of housing that you’ve had at subsidized rates.” He added that evictions “might help break up some of the criminal networks on some housing estates if some of these people are thrown out of their houses.”

Asked whether that would render them homeless, he replied, “They should have thought of that before they started burgling.” …more

Free AlMahfoodh

Free Alkhawaja

FM affirms security is stable in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Manama, August 14 — (BNA) Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa confirms that the security situation is stable in the Kingdom of Bahrain despite some acts being committed in breach of security and peacefulness that habitually occurred before the Feb-March 2011 incidents.

The minister in a statement published in Al-Hayat newspaper on Sunday said: “The work of independent international fact-finding commission created upon a decree issued by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Monarch of the Kingdom of Bahrain is important as Bahrain found itself in the aftermath of the incidents victim to an incorrect stereotype.” “There was need to setup a neutral body to carry out the tasks of rectification of any misdeeds,” said the minister adding: “ The recent unfortuate incidents left their impact on many Bahraini citizens.” He also pointed out: “Anyone who abstains from dialogue is mistaken as the process of dialogue should be on-going amongst members of the one family.”

The minister emphasized that the national consensus dialogue attained unanimity on many of the themes debated and even exceeded them. New powers have been vested in the House of Representatives and dialogue amongst Bahraini citizens is a non-stop process. …more

Deputy Premier lauds Bahraini people honourable stances

Manama, Aug 14 (BNA) The Deputy Premier Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa today affirmed that the people of Bahrain continues to exhibit honorable stances that is part of their culture inherited from their forefathers. He said that the people extending their hands to their Muslim brothers and their honourable national stances reflects the nature of Bahrainis.

Shaikh Ali was speaking during his receiving of senior Royal family members, senior officials, Shura and representative council members along with diplomats, journalists and religious scholars at his Ramadan majilis. The Deputy Premier exchanged with the attendees cordial talks during which he affirmed the strong and firm closely-knit family structure existing in the Bahrain community that would continue to strengthen and flourish. He also emphasized the need to utilize such religious days towards further reinforcing this cohesion that is considered a strong and vital point of Bahrain community. …more

Bahrain’s Shame
Mahmood’s Den

I love it when our enlightened officials use the severely broken record of “we’re a democracy” while they literally sign off on the destitution of their own countrymen for daring to exercise their democratic rights. To add insult to injury, even when the land’s King orders, orders their re-instatement, they completely ignore that royal order as if it’s not important and not worth of the slightest consideration. What and whom are they following exactly to be this belligerent?

So far, according to (a much rejuvenated Al-Wasat) 2,593 have been unfairly fired. I say and emphasize the word unfairly as the only reason for losing their jobs was due to their exercising of one of their basic human rights. 2,593 from 199 companies and the public sector. 1,643 from eight entities who have trampled their very own lifelines, their employees in a race the end result of which is to ensure the starvation of the largest amount of families of their compatriots as possible! Those who have excelled at this vocation are now inducted in a particular hall of shame that Bahrain will never forget. That hall of shame belongs to ALBA, Bapco, Ministry of Health, Gulf Air, Batelco, Ministry of Education, Khalifa Port and the Ministry of Municipalities all of whom account for the misery of 63% of all of those unfairly dismissed.

Put in another perspective, according to the secretary general of the Bahrain Labour Unions those despicable 199 entities are directly responsible for the hardships that 13,000 Bahrainis find themselves in with their breadwinners out of a job.

What the hell are they thinking?

Doctors, engineers, teachers, tradesmen and a plethora of other worthy individuals are out of jobs. Do those companies not have any balls whatsoever as to stand their ground and refuse to enact orders relayed by midnight callers? Ok, we know that they don’t, they’re afraid for their own positions and benefits, but why the mad chest beating rush and which-hunts? Don’t they realize the extreme damage that this situation can do to the health of their own companies? What would the remaining employees think of the company and its management? I bet that every single employee within those despicable entities cannot help but think that their own turn will come! It might not be for the same reasons, but if they see that other employees are so summarily and unfairly dumped, regardless of their length of service nor their deserved excellent local and international reputations, how easy would it be to dispense with them too? And for whatever infantile and ludicrous reason?

For those who are dancing on their co-workers’ graves, those who snitched, poked and stabbed their own brothers and sisters to be put in the literal firing line, where is your humanity? Where is your dignity? Where is your self-worth?

13,000 of my countrymen are at the risk of missed opportunities and continuous nightmares for doing nothing but expressing their views.

Know this; though, I bet that when they get used to the nightmares they will turn into a more belligerent and more extreme force that might very well rock the country, even more than what it’s at now, and those 199 entities as well as the government who is complicit in this, are directly responsible for this phenomenon. So thank you for destroying yet another generation.

What’s to be done, then? Like other great events in history, this is the time for a brave and responsible man to stand and take the helm. That man should not wait it out, because time now is the mortal enemy. The future of this country and its people are hanging in the balance and only strong, just and resolute decisions will rescue this country from the brink. This is where actual and much needed political, financial, labour, education and societal reform starts. And they all need a strong man with vision who is not afraid to step up on deck and take the helm in story seas. That journey is long and hard and won’t resolve overnight. But the country and its future children deserve the trouble.

To those 199 entities and the witch hunters. Your legacy will be shame, and you will be forgotten. Parasites that you are. …see charts more…

Bahrain satellite channel jammed, launches on Livestation instead
Sunday August 14, 2011, Nancy Messieh

Livestation, launched in 2008, gives users an easy way to keep up with major news channels including Al Jazeera, BBC and CNN, from their computers, or on the go using the iPhone app or mobile site.

Livestation seems to be earning itself a reputation as the go-to site for opposition groups in the Middle East who want to provide users with an alternative to state-run media.

Much has been made of the Internet’s role in the Arab spring, but the site’s role has largely gone unnoticed. Aside from Al Jazeera, Livestation hosts two channels of great significance to the region. Libya TV, based in Qatar, is described on Livestation as “the first independent satellite channel broadcasting news and commentary about Libya for a Libyan audience with the aim of countering state propaganda and promoting dialogue.” Libya TV is now joined by the London based Bahraini channel, LuaLua TV, launched a couple of days ago.

LuaLua (which literally means pearl) takes its name from the roundabout that was witness to the first protests in Bahrain in February of this year, until it was destroyed by the government barely one month later. A Bahraini expat living in London, Yasser El Sayegh chose the name for what he originally envisioned as a satellite channel, which he intended to use as a platform to broadcast a balanced and fair view of current affairs, exploring both governmental and opposition opinions. …more

What to do About Bahrain? A Headache For Both Obama and Blatter
Written by James M. Dorsey

US president Barak Obama and Sepp Blatter, the head of world soccer body FIFA, share the same headache: what to do about Bahrain?

So far, Messrs. Obama and Blatter have essentially shied away from confronting the issue of the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators, including some of the country’s most prominent soccer players.

The protests in February and March that started with Shiites and Sunnis standing shoulder to shoulder were an expression of frustration about years of failed dialogue over the need for more equitable housing and land policies, fairer representation in parliament and constitutional reform.

The crackdown and the government’s insistence that Iran had instigated the protests aided by a Shiite fifth column transformed the situation into one of sectarian tension. To be sure, there was violence on both sides of the sectarian and political divide during the protests but healing of the wounds is likely to prove difficult if not impossible without a genuine dialogue and members of the security forces being held accountable.

The US has been quietly but unsuccessfully urging King Khalifa for years to engage in a dialogue that would lead to democracy. Mr. Obama in May cautioned that it was difficult to conduct a national dialogue with people who have been incarcerated. Bahrain has since released a number of its detainees, including opposition members of parliament and national team players, but referred some of them to security courts.

Mr. Blatter has questioned the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) about credible reports of retribution against the soccer players and officials who allegedly had participated in the anti-government demonstrations as well as predominantly Shiite Muslim clubs. The FIFA president however appears to have accepted at face value the BFA’s statement that no sports players or officials were disciplined or harassed because of their association with the people power uprising earlier this year that was brutally crushed – a statement that flies in the face of reporting in Bahrain’s state-controlled media and reports by people involved in Bahraini soccer.

For both Mr. Obama and Mr. Blatter, the issue is what is the price of postponing the inevitable?

The widespread sense of discontent remains with a deeper than ever sectarian divide that makes the status quo in Bahrain unsustainable. The crackdown has pushed the uprising out of the capital and reduced it to street skirmishes in villages. A government-inspired national dialogue has all but failed. An independent investigation into the crackdown has yet to prove its integrity and independence but is credited for some of the prisoner releases. …more

Bahrain: The social media battle continues
AlJazeera
The battle over Bahrain’s future is raging online between government loyalists and opposition supporters.

It’s the latest chapter in the on-going protests organised mostly by the country’s Shia majority. That movement — believed to be inspired by popular protests for change in Tunisia and Egypt — began in February with Shia activists urging Bahrain’s rulers to give them greater political rights and freedoms.

Activists say the story is being kept alive by citizen journalists and social media in the face of a media clampdown by the government.

Shia Muslims comprise about 70 per cent of Bahrain’s population and have long complained of persistent discrimination in employment, education and housing.
A number of people were killed in clashes between security forces and pro-reform demonstrators in the capital Manama in February.

But the violence galvanised the movement with protesters demanding an end to the monarchy of the Sunni al-Khalifa family that has ruled the country since its independence from Britain in 1971. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa declared a state of emergency and appealed for help from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of which Bahrain is a member, along with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

In March, GCC forces led by Saudi Arabia rolled into the country to quell the movement and the King said an “external plot” had been foiled. Government loyalists believe Shia-majority Iran may have influenced and provoked the protests in Bahrain. At least 31 people are reported dead since the uprising began. The King announced an independent inquiry to look into the political turmoil and the commission is due to release its report on October 30.

That investigation is being headed by Cherif Bassiouni, an Egyptian-American, who has led similar UN inquiries in Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia. He says the Bahrain government is cooperating fully but pro-reform activists dismiss the exercise as flawed.

Last month, a national dialogue backed by the U.S. also hit a snag when representatives of Bahrain’s largest Shia opposition group al-Wefaq walked out of talks with the ruling al-Khalifa family saying “the regime was not interested in political reform.”

As the stalemate continues, the battle for global public opinion is being waged on social media with bloggers and activists from both sides arguing their points of view, here are some of the different efforts being undertaken online: …more

Published on Sunday, August 14, 2011 by the International Business Times
NYU’s Nouriel ‘Dr. Doom’ Roubini: ‘Karl Marx Was Right’
by Joseph Lazzaro

NYU Economics Professor Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini said unless there’s another round of massive fiscal stimulus or a universal debt restructuring, capitalism will continue to experience a crisis due to a systemic flaw first identified by economist Karl Marx more than a century ago. Economist Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini, the New York University professor who four years ago accurately predicted the global financial crisis, said one of economist Karl Marx’s critiques of capitalism is playing itself out in the current global financial crisis.

There’s an old axiom that goes “wise is the person who appreciates candor almost as much as good news” and with that as a guide, place the forthcoming decidedly in the category of candor.

Sees Marx’s Critique Playing Itself Out Now

Marx, among other theories, argued that capitalism had an internal contradiction that would cyclically lead to crises, and that, at minimum, would place pressure on the economic system.

Companies, Roubini said, are motivated to minimize costs, to save and stockpile cash, but this leads to less money in the hands of employees, which means they have less money to spend and flow back to companies.

Now, in current financial crisis, consumers, in addition to having less money to spend due to the above, are also motivated to minimize costs, to save and stockpile cash, magnifying the effect of less money flowing back to companies.

“Karl Marx had it right,” Roubini said in an interview with wsj.com. “At some point capitalism can self-destroy itself. That’s because you can not keep on shifting income from labor to capital without not having an excess capacity and a lack of aggregate demand. We thought that markets work. They are not working. What’s individually rational…is a self-destructive process.”

Roubini added absent organic, strong GDP growth — which can increase wages and consumer spending — what’s needed is large fiscal stimulus, agreeing with another high-profile economist, Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman, that, in the case of the United States, the $786 billion fiscal stimulus approved by Congress in 2009 was too small to create the aggregate demand necessary to advance the U.S. economic recovery to a self-sustaining expansion.

Absent additional fiscal stimulus, or unexpected strong GDP growth, the only solution is a universal debt restructuring for banks, homes (essentially households/families), and governments, Roubini said. However, no such universal restructuring has occurred, Roubini said.

Without that additional fiscal stimulus, that lack of restructuring has led to “zombie houses, zombie banks, and zombie governments,” he said. …source

BART Pulls a Mubarak in San Francisco; Shuts Cell Phone Service to Impede Protest
Published on Saturday, August 13, 2011 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation – by Eva Galperin

This week, EFF has seen censorship stories move closer and closer to home — first Iran, then the UK, and now San Francisco, an early locus of the modern free speech movement. Operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) shut down cell phone service to four stations in downtown San Francisco yesterday in response to a planned protest. Last month, protesters disrupted BART service in response to the fatal shooting of Charles Blair Hill by BART police on July 3rd. Thursday’s protest failed to materialize, possibly because the disruption of cell phone service made organization and coordination difficult.

Early reports indicated that BART cut off cell phone service by approaching carriers directly and asking them to turn service off. Later statements by James Allison, deputy chief communications officer for BART, assert “BART staff or contractors shut down power to the nodes and alerted the cell carriers” after the fact. AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile have not yet made comment as to whether or not they were complicit in the shutdown.

Obviously, we’d like to know exactly what the carriers said to BART, but many other unanswered questions remain as well. Was pulling the plug on people’s phones a quick, on-the-spot decision, or part of a protest-response plan vetted by BART’s lawyers? Who decided that blocking all cellphone calls at these BART stations was the right response to news that there might be a protest? Were the carriers ever in the loop about this plan or action? Who decided that the news of this planned protest justified the shutdown? How do we know this isn’t going to happen again?

Indeed, BART said today that it had instituted the following rules, including:

No person shall conduct or participate in assemblies or demonstrations or engage in other expressive activities in the paid areas of BART stations, including BART cars and trains and BART station platforms.

What does that mean? We can’t talk?

One thing is clear, whether it’s BART or the cell phone carriers that were responsible for the shut-off, cutting off cell phone service in response to a planned protest is a shameful attack on free speech. BART officials are showing themselves to be of a mind with the former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, who ordered the shutdown of cell phone service in Tahrir Square in response to peaceful, democratic protests earlier this year. Free speech advocates have called out British Prime Minister David Cameron for considering new, broad censorship powers over social networks and mobile communication in the UK, and we are appalled to see measures that go beyond anything Cameron has proposed being used here in the United States. …more