Crimes against humanity require two factors in order to be proven: they have to be systematic and political. None of those applied to the events that took place in Bahrain, said committee head Dr. Mahmoud Sherif Basyouni. “There was no proof whatsoever of crimes against humanity and had there been any, I would have definitely written that in my report,” he told the Bahraini newspaper Al Ayam. …source

Bahrain Commission of Inquiry Statement on events at their offices

In light of recent allegations that the Bahrain Commission of Inquiry (BICI) has reached a determination on its investigation, as well as verbal and physical attacks on its staff, the BICI wishes to make the following statement.

Despite misleading headlines in recent news articles claiming that the Commission has determined that the government of Bahrain committed no crimes against humanity during the demonstrations that have occurred over the last several months, the Commission would like to clarify that it has not made any such determination. The Commission’s investigation is ongoing and will continue until all relevant evidence has been gathered. Its staff is still in the process of interviewing victims and witnesses, collecting evidence, and evaluating the circumstances. The Commission will not make a determination as to the extent of human rights abuses in Bahrain until its investigation is complete. Because certain media outlets and activists have misrepresented the comments of the Commission Chair, Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, in order to support their political positions, for the time being, the Commission will no longer entertain interviews to the media. Should the Commission decide that a public statement is necessary, it will provide this information on its website, www.bici.org.bh. The Commission will not allow itself to be used as a political tool for any group.

Additionally, the Commission’s office is hereby closed until further notice. This is due to the fact that today, hundreds of people forced their way into our office, having been angered over what they believed to be the Commission Chair’s “conclusions” on the investigation, and additionally having been directed by activists on Twitter and through mass texts to come to the office to report their complaints. The Commission believes its doors should be open to anyone who wishes to come forward and provide information on human rights abuses. However, as we have advised on our website and on Twitter, appointments must be made in order for our investigators to best serve the witnesses and victims. After attempting to accommodate the crowd by offering to take down their information in order to schedule appointments, some in the crowd became restless and verbally and physically threatened the staff. Individuals yelled insults, posted threatening messages on the office walls, sent threats via text and email, and even physically shoved and spat at a member of staff. Individuals also continued to photograph and video record people in the office, despite advice from staff that such actions undermine the confidentiality and safety of the many witnesses and victims coming forward. While the Commission’s staff is committed to conducting its investigation, it will not jeopardize the security of the individuals that work at and patron the office. While the office remains closed, investigators will continue to accept statements submitted by email. …more

US Debt Downgrade May Have Chinese Connection
Posted by Bill Conroy – August 14, 2011 – Narco News

S&P’s Action Appears to Have Triggered Enhanced Fortunes for Some US Business Interests in China

Standard & Poor’s recent downgrading of the US credit rating is being billed in the media as a major blow to the economic credibility of the nation and to the future election prospects of President Obama, but there are some special interests that appear to have benefited from that black mark on the US currency.

Those beneficiaries include the parent company of S&P as well as a Republican senator and aspiring vice presidential candidate who played a key role in the recent debt-ceiling negotiations that engulfed Congress and the White House in turmoil over the summer.

On Aug. 5, S&P, a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill Cos., lowered its assessment of US long-term debt, cutting its rating from a top-notch AAA to a slightly less-favorable AA+ (the only major rating agency to do so) and in the process sent shock waves through world markets.

Within days of that action, another event occurred that was barely covered in the mainstream media.

The Chinese currency, the yuan, spiked suddenly in value, reaching in a few days a 17-year high against the dollar. And this was not an unexpected result in the wake of S&P’s downgrading of US debt, according to some economists, given that China holds $1.2 trillion in U.S. Treasury notes and as much as $2 trillion more in US dollars — all of which became less valuable in the wake of the credit downgrade.

The Dow Jones news service reported on Aug. 1, four days prior to S&P’s downgrade, that an economist with a major Chinese state-run think tank was predicting just such a spike in the value of the yuan (also known as the renminbi, or RMB) should the US credit rating be slashed. …more

Some members of the Bahraini royal family beating & torturing political prisoners
by Bahrian Center for Human Rights (BCHR) – 16 August 2011

The BCHR expresses grave concern and is alarmed to learn that members of the Alkhalifa family have personally been involved in beating and torturing pro-democracy protesters. After the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain the Center has been receiving reports from victims that they were subjected to severe beatings and torture by people they identified as members of the Bahraini royal family. Five members of Alkhalifa have been specifically mentioned by victims, they are: Noura Alkhalifa, Khalifa Bin Ahmed Alkhalifa, Khalifa Bin Abdulla Alkhalifa and sons of the King, Khaled Bin Hamad Alkhalifa and Nasser Bin Hamad Alkhalifa. One of the victims subjected to torture by Nasser Bin Hamad Alkhalifa is Swedish citizen, Mohammed Habeeb Al-Muqdad, currently imprisoned at Al-Gurain military prison.
Detention Centers

The first victim to speak out was poet Ms Ayat Al-Qurmuzi, who was imprisoned for reading a couple of anti-government poems during the pearl roundabout peaceful protest. Ayat was arrested by masked civilians and blindfolded, after her release she spoke of being tortured by men and women. One of the women she claims tortured her was Noura Alkhalifa. Ayat gave a detailed account of what she was subjected to on the hands of Noura. Among other things Ayat said Noura cursed her, spat on her, and slapped her many times across the face. Noura threatened Ayat that her tongue would be cut off, when Ayat refused to open her mouth, Noura hit her with a broom on her mouth. Noura also spat into Ayats mouth and used electric shocks on Ayats face. As Noura Alkhaifa tortured Ayat she repeated slurs against shias and said “the people you criticize are your masters, and they will remain in power forever, whether you like it or not”.

Another victim is doctor Fatima Hajji. On the 17th of April Noura Alkhalifa and 25 masked men attacked Dr. Fatimas flat in the village of Bani Jamra and arrested her. During interrogations Noora demanded that Fatima confess, when Fatima said she had done nothing but treat patients Noura replied “If you do not confess I will have to torture you the way I tortured Doctor Ali Al-Ekri.” She added that detainees Roula Al-Saffar and Ghassan Dhaif had already confessed.

Noura started slapping and cursing Fatima continuously for about 25 minutes. Then she used a hose to beat her on her feet. When Noura Alkhalifa looked through Dr. Fatimas blackberry and saw two emails, one to Human Rights Watch about her suspension and the other about Martyr Ahmed Shams she shouted at Dr. Fatima “How dare you ruin the image of our government”, then electrocuted her on her face.
Fatima was told to confess that she had pretended to cry in front of foreign media, and that she had stolen 100 bags of blood from the blood bank and given it out to protesters to spill on themselves and pretend to be injured. She was forced to sign a confession after being threatened with rape. Fatima was also sexually harassed by men under the supervision of Noura. She was forced to stand on one leg, make animal noises, sing and dance.

Fatima Al-Bagali who is a student at the teaching college in University of Bahrain was arrested on the 9th of May 2011. She was blindfolded and taken to West Riffa detention center. Where Khalifa Bin Ahmed Alkhalifa The center director interrogated her about a speech she had given on Pearl Square, and about antigovernment comments she had made on facebook. Khalifa beat Fatima, slapping and kicking her as he said “You shia are ungrateful to your masters the Al-Khalifa”. After more beatings Khalifa threatened to rape Fatima if she dared to speak about what she had been subjected to. …more

IT Security & Network Security News
Google to Enforce Real Name Policy After 4 Days
By: Clint Boulton – 2011-08-12

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is now giving Google+ users who violate its real name policy by using fake names or pseudonyms four days to get in compliance before it suspends user profiles.

Google+ requires its 25 million-plus users to create Google user profiles, public pages on the Web that users may fill out “to help connect and find real people in the real world.”

The company argues that by providing a common name, users will be assisting their friends, family members, classmates, co-workers and other acquaintances to find and create “a connection with the right person online.”

Google started a minor furor last month when it began suspending accounts of those it believes were pseudonyms or fake names.

Users were both upset that they could not use Google+ with nicknames or false names to hide their identities and that Google unceremoniously turned off their accounts without notifying them first and giving them a chance to make corrections.

Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product management for Google+, promised to make changes and provide a “clear indication of how the user can edit their name to conform to our community standards.”

The company delivered Aug. 11. Saurabh Sharma, a product manager on the Google+ team, said Google will give users whose profile names do not hew to Google’s Names Policy will get a four-day grace period in which they can fix their profile before Google takes “further action,” which means an account suspension.

“During this period, you can continue to use Google+ as usual,”Sharma wrote on Google+. “We’re hoping that most affected users will be able to quickly fix their profile name while continuing to enjoy all that Google+ has to offer.”

Sharma then invited users dissatisfied with this compromise to check out of Google+, taking their data with them via the Google Takeout data migration tool fashioned by Google’s Data Liberation Front.

The move may mollify some users who created joke accounts with pseudonyms, but it’s certainly not going to appease the glut of users who use false names to hide their identity for privacy and security purposes. And it certainly isn’t satisfying folks who use nicknames, as Google+ user Jon Savage wrote:

“The problem is not allowing ‘nyms makes Google+ a less diverse place. People have nics they are known by and have used for years online. People know them by those names. I’m seeing tons of folks getting suspended for using their 2nd life names that are every bit as real as the names they use in the world. Please, please reconsider this name policy.”

Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd has described the enforcement of real name policies by Google and Facebook as a corporate “abuse of power” over those who are weaker. ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick offered his own sour critique of Google’s policy refresh. …source

British Prime Minister Does a 180 on Internet Censorship
Commentary by Eva Galperin – August 11th, 2011

After several days of destructive riots throughout the UK, British Prime Minister David Cameron is practically tripping over himself in his eagerness to sacrifice liberty for security. In a speech before an emergency session of Parliament today, Cameron highlighted concern over rioters’ use of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter:

…when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the Police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality. I have also asked the police if they need any other new powers.

Exactly what kind of government censorship of social media Cameron has in mind is unclear, but he went on to urge Twitter, Facebook, and Blackberry to remove messages that might incite further unrest across the country. British Home Secretary Theresa May is reportedly meeting with all three companies to discuss their “responsibilities” in light of the UK riots. Twitter has steadfastly refused to bow to government pressure to shut down the rioters’ accounts or delete their Tweets, referring to a blog post written by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and General Counsel Alex McGillivray earlier this year, near the start of the Arab Spring:

Some Tweets may facilitate positive change in a repressed country, some make us laugh, some make us think, some downright anger a vast majority of users. We don’t always agree with the things people choose to tweet, but we keep the information flowing irrespective of any view we may have about the content.

It was a sentiment shared by Cameron as recently as this February, when he gave a speech in Kuwait in which he asserted that freedom of expression should be respected “in Tahrir Square as much as Trafalgar Square.” The Prime Minister’s 180-degree shift on freedom of expression unfortunately places him one step closer to the growing, worldwide cohort of politicians and despots seeking solace in censorship. …more