Obama Refuses to Release Bush’s Legal Excuse for Illegal Surveillance
Monday, August 29, 2011 – AllGov – Noel Brinkerhoff

The Obama administration has refused to declassify a secret memo from the George W. Bush presidency that justified the warrantless spying conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Matthew Aid, a writer who’s covered the NSA and surveillance policy, requested a copy of a 2001 Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion by John Yoo that discussed the legal grounds for electronic spying without permission from a special federal court. The Department of Justice mostly denied Aid’s Freedom of Information Act request, saying the redacted information in the OLC opinion was “classified, covered by non-disclosure provisions contained in other federal statutes, and is protected by the deliberative process privilege.”

One thing from the memo that was released by the Justice Department was a brief assertion involving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which dictates when the government can snoop on those deemed a threat to the nation. The statement read that “unless Congress made a clear statement in FISA that it sought to restrict presidential authority to conduct warrantless searches in the national security area—which it has not—then the statute must be construed to avoid such a reading.”

As noted by Steven Aftergood in the Secrecy News blog, some members of Congress have taken exception to the Bush administration’s insistence that FISA does not restrict the White House, unless specifically stated.

“I cannot reconcile the plain language of FISA that it is the exclusive procedure for electronic surveillance of Americans with the OLC opinion saying Congress didn’t say that,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) was quoted by the Washington Post in a May 23, 2008 story. “Once again, behind the veil of secrecy, OLC appears to have cooked up extravagant or misguided legal theories which would never survive the light of day.” …more

New Report Identifies Organizational Nexus of Islamophobia
by Jim Lobe, August 27, 2011

A small group of inter-connected foundations, think tanks, pundits, and bloggers is behind the 10-year-old campaign to promote fear of Islam and Muslims in the U.S., according to a major investigative report released here Friday by the Center for American Progress (CAP).

The 130-page report, “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” identifies seven foundations that have quietly provided a total of more than 42 million dollars to key individuals and organizations that have spearheaded the nationwide effort between 2001 and 2009.

They include funders that have long been associated with the extreme right in the U.S., as well as several Jewish family foundations that have supported right-wing and settler groups in Israel.

The network also includes what the report calls “misinformation experts” – including Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), Daniel Pipes of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum (MEF), Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, David Yerushalmi of the Society of Americans for National Existence, and Robert Spencer of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) – who are often tapped by television news networks and right-wing radio talk shows to comment on Islam and the threat it allegedly poses to U.S. national security.

“Together, this core group of deeply intertwined individuals and organizations manufacture and exaggerate threats of ‘creeping Sharia’, Islamic domination of the West, and purported obligatory calls to violence against all non-Muslims by the Quran,” according to the report whose main author, Wajahat Ali, described the group as “the central nervous system of the Islamophobia network.”

“This small band of radical ideologues has fought to define Sharia as a ‘totalitarian ideology’ and legal-political-military doctrine committed to destroying Western civilization,” the report said. “But a scholar of Islam and Muslim tradition would not recognize their definition of Sharia, let alone a lay practicing Muslim.”

Nonetheless, the group’s messages receive wide dissemination by what the report calls an “Islamophobia echo chamber” consisting of leaders of the Christian Right, such as Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson, and some Republican politicians, such as presidential candidates Representative Michele Bachmann and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.

Other key disseminators include media figures, especially prominent hosts on the Fox News Channel and columnists in the Washington Times the National Review; as well as grassroots groups, such as ACT! For America, local “Tea Party” movements, and the American Family Association, which are behind current efforts by Republican-dominated state legislatures to ban Sharia in their jurisdictions. …more

The War on Drugs and the Mexican Movement to End It
“It’s a Welcome Escape From the Seemingly Insurmountable Sectarianism that Has Plagued Social Movements for Centuries”

By Quincy Saul – Special to The Narco News Bulletin – August 6, 2011

The forty year anniversary of the war on drugs came and went this summer without any mention of the most significant movement to end it.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report in June with a clear and succinct conclusion: “The global war on drugs has failed.” The US government has now spent about a trillion dollars on this war, but drug consumption has increased and drug-related violence and incarceration have spiraled ever further out of control. Signed by a wide diversity of prominent names such as Paul Volcker, Ernesto Zedillo, Carlos Fuentes and Kofi Annan, the report went on to accuse the United States of “drug control imperialism.”

More than any other country, Mexico is dying from the sins of the war on drugs. As the bottleneck of the drug trade for all of the Americas, almost 50,000 have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico in the last six years alone, with the numbers of dispossessed and disappeared mounting ever higher. It is not entirely surprising then, that the first mass movement to end the drug war has arisen in Mexico. More surprising is the almost total boycott in the United States and international media of this movement.

The Movement

Seen from the outside, the current movement to end the war on drugs in Mexico began suddenly. The brutal murder of the son of a prominent poet named Javier Sicilia prompted him to write a call to action urging all Mexicans to take to the streets to end the drug war. His voice reached and touched millions. Within days, tens of thousands had filled the centers of forty major cities, calling for the legalization of drugs and the demilitarization of their country.

Popular mobilization has been sustained since then through two major actions involving all demographics of Mexican society. Led by Sicilia, a week-long march to end the drug war from the city of Cuernavaca to the nation’s capital culminated on May 8th when 100,000 people filled the central square of Mexico City. That same weekend, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation led a silent march of tens of thousands out of the mountains, occupying the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Several weeks later, the mobilization continued with a “caravan of solace,” in which tens of thousands more participated. The caravan traveled from Cuernavaca through a dozen major cities, for the first time sharing and organizing the pain which until now most Mexicans have suffered in fear and isolation. The caravan culminated in the infamous Ciudad Juárez. Renowned as the most violent city in the world, the caravan inscribed a fresh, new and indelible chapter in the city’s history. In the words of Antonio Cervantes, a participant in the caravan, on the eve of its arrival, “we are going to occupy Ciudad Juárez peacefully… We are going to fill the most violent city on earth with humanity and desire for life.” The nonviolent occupation of Juarez concluded peacefully with the reading of drafts of a pact which includes demands and a program of action.
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At present, the Narco News Advance Team is in the Mexican Southeast, preparing our coverage of the upcoming second stage of the Caravan of Solace and the movement against the drug war inspired by Javier Sicilia. From September 8 to 18 we’ll be accompanying Sicilia and other family members of drug war victims and martyrs through the states of Morelos, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, crossing the border into Guatemala – where Sicilia tells Narco News he plans to offer an apology to the people of Central America for the maltreatment of their immigrants in Mexican territory – then through

Zapatista territory, and the states of Tabasco, Veracruz, Puebla, the state of Mexico and, finally, in Mexico City. These are lands from where we’ve reported extensively for the past 14 years (11 of them via Narco News) and we can report to you already that there is a palpable excitement among many of the movements in the Mexican South for this upcoming visit, including yesterday’s communiqué from Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos reiterating “total support” for Sicilia and the movement (a statement that ought to be humbling to some who have accomplished far less yet who behave as more-radical-than-thou armchair critics of the world’s first ever mass movement to end the war on drugs).

How many news stories, essays, videos and other reports have you seen about the Egyptian Revolution that “began,” according to many breathless reports, on January 25 of this year and culminated in the February 11 resignation of the three-decade dictator Hosni Mubarak? And how many of those reports spoke in fearsome terms about an organization called the Muslim Brotherhood as if it were some monolithic force aspiring to impose an Iran-style theocracy on the country?
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The Revival of Shi’a Militancy in Iraq
By Ramzy Mardini

The U.S. military is required to completely withdraw its forces from Iraq no later than December 31, 2011, in accordance with the bilateral U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement signed in December 2008 by outgoing President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. As Iraq struggles to normalize its institutions and international relations, renewed efforts by various insurgent groups have sought to showcase their influence on the backdrop of the U.S. withdrawal. In late July 2011, a report released by the U.S. inspector general for Iraq reconstruction asserted worsening security conditions as compared to the previous year, and a higher risk for U.S. personnel. Indeed, for the entire year of 2010, the U.S. military suffered 22 fatalities due to hostile fire. This year, and only as of July 2011, 31 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, mainly at the hands of Shi`a militants backed by Iran.

The severe political impasse in Baghdad, an increasingly frustrated population, and an unpopular and ineffective central government are contributing to anti-regime violence in Iraq, especially among Sunni insurgents such as al-Qa`ida in Iraq (AQI) and the Jaysh Rijal al-Tariq al-Naqshabandi (JRTN) movement. These factors, however, are not underlying the revival in Shi`a militancy in the country. Instead, the fundamental principle driving the unstable environment is the heightened level of uncertainty, both on the local and regional stage. The national debate surrounding the continuance of the U.S. presence dominates the local environment, while the regional factor is driven by the uneasiness ushered in by the upheavals of the “Arab Spring.” In the final analysis, both make available a strategic logic for Iran and its Shi`a proxies to exploit the Iraqi scene in hopes of influencing a particular outcome that favors their interests. …more

by, Samer Araabi -August 23, 2011
Right Web – Tracking militarists’ efforts to influence U.S. foreign policy

At the end of February 2011, it looked as though the old order was crumbling across the Arab world. Inspired by the self-immolation of a Tunisian street vendor, massive popular demonstrations ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was not long to follow. Similar uprisings began to swell in Algeria, Jordan, Bahrain, and Yemen, and the anciens regimes appeared helpless against the rising tide of popular anger and nonviolent resistance.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, actively worked to encourage the forces of counter-revolution throughout the region. From Morocco to Bahrain, Saudi financing, support, and intelligence has sought to prevent political turmoil, reinforce existing dynasties, and crush nascent democratic movements before they could reach critical mass. This reactionary tide has been supported by some ideologues in Washington, who worry that Arab democratization would be detrimental to U.S. policy objectives.

Though allowing Saudi Arabia to stifle change and suffocate democratic aspirations within the region may appear to serve U.S. interests in the short term, it will certainly have blowback down the road. At a watershed political moment, the United States has failed to act in accordance with its stated principles, and as a result, popular anger towards Saudi Arabia’s counter-revolutionary campaigns is causing increasing numbers of Arabs to turn against the United States as well. The fallout from Washington’s support for the Arab counter-revolution could haunt U.S. policy for decades to come.

The Wrong Side of History

The reaction of U.S. elites to the wave of Arab democratization has been lukewarm at best. While paying lip service to self-professed ideals of democracy and self-determination, government officials and policy analysts have expressed reservations about the long-term implications of Arab democracy to U.S. strategic interests.

Some pundits, like Daniel Pipes, the neoconservative director of the Middle East Forum, have worried about losing “our bastards” in the Middle East and the damage new regimes could do to themselves and their neighbors.[1] Others have been busy wringing their hands about volatility in energy markets, reduced access to oil and natural gas reserves, and the potential nationalization of corporate holdings.[2] There is little doubt, however, that one of the main strategic concerns is the potential damage that a new power dynamic could inflict on the two key U.S. regional allies: Israel and Saudi Arabia.[3]

Israeli fears have been apparent from the very beginning, which is not much of a surprise considering the anti-Zionist messages emanating from Egypt and Tunisia.[4] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visibly distraught over the loss of a key regional ally in Hosni Mubarak, and Israeli entreaties have likely contributed to the lukewarm U.S. response to other uprisings.[5] However, Israel was helpless in stemming the tides of change in Egypt, and initially watched with trepidation as the unfriendly but reliable regime of Bashar Al-Assad has teetered on the brink of collapse.[6] Because of its limited regional reach, Israel has focused much of its energy on the halls of the U.S. Congress, counting on the faithful support of like-minded U.S. think tanks, journalists, and pundits.

The dirtier work of counter-revolutionary action, meanwhile, has fallen to the Saudi Arabian government.

Turning the Tides: Bahrain and the GCC Counter-Revolution

Nowhere has the outsized importance of Saudi interests been clearer than in the Obama administration’s response to the uprisings in the small island kingdom of Bahrain. Despite the apparently democratic, non-sectarian intentions of the protestors, both Riyadh and Washington were quick to play the sectarian card, inaccurately framing the conflict as one between Sunni and Shi’a, rather than between an entrenched regime and disillusioned citizenry.[7] As a result, the United States has significantly stepped back its support for Arab revolutions. “Not only is the U.S.—not to say the rest of the West—effectively deferring to Saudi policy, particularly in the Gulf, but it also appears to be hedging its bets against truly democratic change elsewhere in the region,” says Jim Lobe, Washington Bureau Chief of the Inter Press Service.

By rebranding the protestors as Iran-affiliated sectarian zealots, the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council used a shared defense clause as a pretext to militarily assault the democratic movements.[8] On March 14, its Peninsula Shield Force moved thousands of troops into Bahrain in response to a rapidly-escalating protest movement. Despite assurances by Peninsula Shield force commander Mutlaq Bin Salem al-Azima that the military deployment intended to “bring goodness, peace, and love to Bahrain,” video footage and eye witness accounts detailed a grim scenario of mass arrests, beatings, and dozens of deaths.[9]

Though the Arab world, along with much of the international community, was visibly outraged at the invasion, Washington remained hesitant to interfere. At a press conference held during some of the worst violence against protestors, President Obama refused to openly condemn the Saudi offensive, stating instead that “each country is different, each country has its own traditions; America can’t dictate how they run their societies.”[10]

A week later, a spokesperson for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen praised the Bahraini government “for the very measured way they have been handling the popular crisis here.”[11] Many Washington insiders applauded the decision to defend the Bahraini monarchy, secure the U.S. naval base, and guarantee stability for the Saudi regime. Michael Rubin, a self-professed “Arab democracy expert” at the American Enterprise Institute, argued that Obama must “preserve the monarchies,” offering only enough reform to guarantee “renewed stability and preservation of regimes that are essential to U.S. national security.”[12]
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Iran releases jailed HIV doctor: family source
By Kerry Sheridan (AFP) – 28 August

WASHINGTON — Iranian HIV doctor Arash Alaei has been released from jail in Tehran after spending more than three years behind bars for allegedly conspiring against the regime, his US-based brother said Monday.

“He got released today,” Kamiar Alaei told AFP in an email. “He was among 100 Iranian political prisoners who got a pardon today due to the coming end of the Ramadan religious holiday, Eid al-Fitr.”

Alaei also posted on a statement on his Facebook page, thanking his friends, colleagues and family for their “tireless help and support.”

The two brothers were arrested in June 2008 and accused of communicating with the United States in a bid to unseat the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Kamiar, 37, was released from Tehran’s Evin prison earlier this year and returned to Albany, New York where he is completing a doctoral degree in public health.

He and Arash, 42, who was initially sentenced to six years in jail, were in June awarded the Global Health Council’s Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights.

Kamiar said he was detained when he took a summer break from his US studies and went to work in Iran for a few months.

He served two and a half years — a term he told AFP he remembered as “870 days, 20,800 hours” — and said upon receiving his award that he hoped Arash would be released soon because his elder brother had served half his sentence.

The pair are known for their efforts to help drug addicts infected with HIV and improve conditions for sick prisoners, and are regarded as pioneers of AIDS treatment in Iran, where discussions about sex and drugs are often taboo.

Data is scarce about the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Islamic republic, but according to UNAIDS there were 5,000-10,000 infections in 2009 and about nine percent of people with advanced HIV infection were being treated with antiretroviral drugs.

The brothers began treating HIV-positive patients in the late 1990s, and they developed a three-pronged program that integrated prevention, care and social support.

This “triangular” approach to AIDS care was first tried in a prison in their hometown of Kermanshah and later became recognized as a best practice model in the Middle East.

The duo were also featured several years ago in a BBC documentary, “Mohammad and the Matchmaker,” which showed how the doctors became closely involved in their patients’ lives and even helped introduce HIV-positive singles seeking marriage.

Physicians for Human Rights helped organize a letter-writing campaign across 80 countries urging the brothers’ release.

Kamiar said his brother ended up serving three years and two months in jail, and was now with their mother at the family’s home in Tehran.

“He is happy since his other political cellmates got released, too,” Alaei told AFP.

Bahrain: Authorities block website broadcasts live events on Twitter
August 29th, 2011 – BYSHR

Bahraini authorities have blocked a website that broadcasts live events on Twitter (http://twitcam.livestream.com/), after signing up on the site, it provides a link that the user can use to broadcast live events on the Internet and the broadcast is viewed on Twitter pages.

Bahrain Youth Society For Human Rights (BYSHR) believes that blocking the site because that the protesters in Bahrain broadcast live events on Twitter, especially the events of repression of the demonstrators demanding political reforms.

Since the protests in Bahrain (14 February), the demonstrators have used social networking websites extensively to call for the protests in the areas and the authorities have arrested many of the users of those social networking websites. The authorities have dismissed many of the students for expressing their political opinion on those sites.

BYSHR expresses its deep concern about blocking popular websites by Bahraini authorities to prevent exposing human rights violations. …source

Bahrain troops attack protesters
Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:13PM GMT

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have attacked anti-government protesters after the demonstrators took to the streets across the Persian Gulf sheikdom to protest a speech by the Bahraini king.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters took to the streets across Bahrain on Sunday shortly after the country’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa delivered a televised speech calling for national unity in a bid to bring normality back to the country.

The protesters rejected the king’s decision announced by him during his speech to pardon some of the anti-government protesters detained during the popular uprising in the country.

The anti-government protesters also accused the Bahraini king of ordering the brutal crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations in Bahrain, demanding an end to the rule of Al Khalifa dynasty.

Activists said the protests lasted into Monday morning and that regime forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowds in several regions including Sitra, where several people were also injured by the forces.

During his Sunday speech, the Bahraini king also said that he would “allow compensation to prisoners abused by security forces.”

The Bahraini ruler promised to reinstate employees and students who were dismissed for taking part in anti-regime protests.

He said, however, that the protest-related trials will continue in the tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom.

King Hamad’s remarks come more than six months after the Manama regime launched a brutal Saudi-backed crackdown on protests, killing scores of demonstrators and injuring hundreds far. …source

Top petrochem firm sets up base in Bahrain
Manama: Mon, 29 Aug 2011

Mena Energy DMCC, a major regional petroleum and chemicals products company has selected Bahrain as the headquarters for its new ‘Pörner Bitumen Packing System project in the Mena region.

Following support from the Economic Development Board (EDB), Mena Energy DMCC, has chosen the Bahrain Logistics Zone (BLZ) as the base for its project, with a view to gaining access from Bahrain to Africa, India and Asia.

The project is also expected to create around 40 new job opportunities in the kingdom, as well as potentially increasing cargo and load movements at Khalifa Bin Salman Port.

It has the potential to be a key customer for Bapco which has a strong working relationship with Mena Energy DMCC, as it will allow the development of more efficient bitumen production and transportation.

‘The EDB support for setting up new project by Mena Energy DMCC is part of the overall strategy to increase the role of private sector as an engine for growth,’ said EDB chief executive Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa.

‘However, it also demonstrates the benefits of doing business in Bahrain with an established infrastructure, offering access to the trillion dollar Gulf market and other international locations as well as wide-ranging commercial and operational benefits.’

‘This key tenancy at the BLZ represents a milestone in the kingdom’s efforts to leverage our position as a multi-modal logistics leader serving the subcontinent, India, Africa and the northern Gulf countries,’ General Organisation of Sea Ports chairman Shaikh Daij bin Salman Al Khalifa.

‘We are seeing an increasing number of regional and international logistics organisations establishing their commercial bases here, and GOP are focused on facilitating this set up process for global companies.

‘Bahrain has not only geographical advantages, our set up costs are also lower than those of other Gulf countries, and the EDB is a unique body that supports and aids foreign investment.’ …more

EU May Probe Bahrain Spy Gear Abuses
By Vernon Silver – Aug 24, 2011 9:59 AM MT – Bloomberg

European Union legislators asked the EU to investigate whether companies have aided human rights violations by selling surveillance gear to repressive governments.

Marietje Schaake, who is a Dutch member of the European Parliament, and five of her colleagues in the assembly, requested the probe today after Bloomberg News reported that a monitoring system sold and maintained by European companies had generated text-message transcripts used in the interrogation of a human rights activist tortured in Bahrain.

The legislators made their request in writing to EU foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is also vice president of the European Commission, the 27-nation EU’s executive body in Brussels. The probe would determine whether any European security and communications companies contributed to “human rights violations, in particular in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Iran,” the request says.

The surveillance technology in Bahrain was sold by Siemens AG (SIE), and later maintained by Nokia Siemens Networks, followed by NSN’s divested unit, Munich-based Trovicor GmbH, Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing Ben Roome, a Nokia Siemens spokesman. Egypt, Syria and Yemen also purchased monitoring centers from the business now known as Trovicor, according to two people familiar with the installations. The equipment plays a surveillance role in at least 12 Middle Eastern and North African nations, they said.
Supporting Export Ban

Barbara Lochbihler, a German member of the EU Parliament who signed the letter and sits on the Subcommittee on Human Rights, said she plans to speak with company officials about the uses of their products. She supports a European export ban of such technology to regimes that could abuse it, she said.

“As a deputy from Bavaria I´m very interested in the follow up of what happens with the company Trovicor and also with Siemens,” she said in an e-mail. Munich, where Trovicor and Siemens are based, is the Bavarian capital. The other legislators asking for an inquiry are the Netherlands’ Hans van Baalen, Estonia’s Tunne Kelam, the U.K.’s Sarah Ludford and Slovenia’s Ivo Vajgl, according to a copy of the letter provided by Schaake’s office.

The European Commission will revisit the EU’s corporate responsibility strategy this fall, said Cristina Arigho, a spokeswoman for the commission. She said the EU is also considering how to support the implementation of United Nations principles on business and human rights, passed in June, which say corporations have a duty to respect human rights.
For Law Enforcement

Monitoring centers are sold around the globe by many suppliers, and form the heart of what the industry refers to as lawful interception surveillance systems. The equipment is marketed largely to law enforcement agencies for tracking terrorists and other criminals. The clusters of computers typically tap into communications networks, scan and sort calls and data — sometimes by keywords or voice recognition — and send the results to operators at police and intelligence agencies. The company behind the Bahraini monitoring center started in 1993 as the voice and data-recording unit of Siemens. In 2007 it became part of Nokia Siemens Networks, the world’s second biggest maker of wireless communications equipment.

NSN, a joint venture with Espoo, Finland-based Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), sold the unit, known as Intelligence Solutions, in March 2009. It’s now called Trovicor.

Sold to Iran

Siemens and Trovicor declined to comment for the Bloomberg investigation; Siemens said it no longer had records of the business, while Trovicor said contracts prevented it from disclosing clients or countries where it does business. NSN said a major reason it sold the business was the risk of human rights abuses. The company has since established a human rights policy and due diligence program, Roome said. In 2009, the company disclosed that it delivered a monitoring center to Iran, prompting hearings in the European Parliament, proposals for tighter restrictions on U.S. trade with Iran, and an international “No to Nokia” boycott campaign.

NSN issued a statement yesterday reiterating its concern for human rights.

“Nokia Siemens Networks has stated clearly that such abuse, if it has occurred, is wrong and is contrary to its Code of Conduct and accepted international norms,” the statement said.
Tracking Terrorists

“Partly as a result of the issues raised by the potential for misuse of its technology, Nokia Siemens Networks is the first telecommunications equipment provider to adopt a human rights policy specifically addressing the issues of new technologies and privacy, access to information, and freedom of expression,” it said.

NSN’s Roome and Siemens spokesman Wolfram Trost declined to comment on the inquiry request. Birgitt Fischer-Harrow, Trovicor’s head of marketing communications, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment. There was no response at her office phone.

The Netherlands’ Schaake helped sponsor and pass a nonbinding parliamentary resolution in February 2010 that called for the European Commission to ban exports of such technology to regimes that could abuse it. The Bahraini government said it is taking allegations of abuse seriously and an independent committee is investigating alleged torture. “The Kingdom of Bahrain does not advocate the abuse of human rights,” Luma Bashmi of the Bahrain Information Affairs Authority wrote in an e-mail yesterday to Bloomberg.

“The committee will investigate any allegations regarding the Bahrain Defense Forces” and security operations and submit its report by October 30, she wrote. “At that point the government of Bahrain can and will address all of these issues in a just manner.” …source

Bahrainis reject king’s speech
shiapost – August 29, 2011

Bahraini anti-regime protesters have rejected King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s decision to pardon the demonstrators who were arrested during the country’s popular uprising.

The protesters took to the streets immediately after the king’s televised speech on Sunday, blaming him for the brutal crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations. King Hamad said in his speech that he would “dismiss charges against some of the detained protesters and allow compensation to prisoners abused by security forces.” He also promised to reinstate employees and students who have been dismissed for participating in anti-regime protests.

Thousands of employees lost their jobs in punishment for supporting the protests. Some of the students were denied scholarships to study abroad. The Bahraini king’s remarks come more than six months after his regime launched a Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.

Meanwhile, a special security court on Sunday resumed the trial of 20 doctors and nurses accused of treating injured anti-government protesters. The court adjourned until September 7, when it will begin hearing defense witnesses.

Thousands of anti-government protesters in Bahrain have been holding peaceful demonstrations since mid-February, demanding an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty.

Potential Demonstrations in Bahrain 30 Aug. – 02 Sep.
by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command / U.S. 5th Fleet on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 5:29am

The following potential or planned demonstrations in Bahrain should be avoided by all U.S. Forces, DOD civilians, DOD contractors and family members.

Tuesday, 30 AUG 0600-0900 in the vicinity of Sanabis.
Tuesday, 30 AUG 0600-0900 in the vicinity of Hamad Town.
Tuesday, 30 AUG in the evening in the vicinity of Sanabis.
Wednesday, 31 AUG, in the vicinity of Seef.
Thursday, 01 SEP, in the viciinity of Nuaim, Ras Ramman, Sanabis, Diah and Karbabad.
Friday, 02 SEP, in the vicinity of Farooq junction (aka GCC Circle or former Pearl Roundabout).

…more

Bahrain’s Military Trial of Doctors a Travesty
August 28, 2011- Human Rights First

Washington, DC — Today’s trial of doctors and other medics in Bahrain’s military court exposes that the country’s judicial process is a farce, Human Rights First said. The authorities reintroduced the military courts last week after having said they would abolish them and in today’s proceedings adjourned the health professionals’ case until September 7. It will resume again in the military court on that day.

“To hear the cases of civilians in a military court that falls far short of international standards of justice is totally illegitimate,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley. “When the Bahraini authorities announced on June 26 that they were transferring all cases from military courts to civilian courts they lied to the defendants, to their families and to the world.”

The return to military trials undermines the Bahrain Government’s claim to take human rights violations seriously. The King of Bahrain appointed a commission, headed by Cherif Bassiouni, to investigate abuses. But the reversion to military courts exposes the monarchy’s real intentions to continue its crackdown on peaceful activists. The United States Government should publicly condemn these trials as shams and ask the Bahraini government to drop charges against those prosecuted for the peaceful expression of their opinions.

More than a dozen doctors and other medical professionals appeared before the military court today, including Roula Al-Saffar, the head of the Bahrain Nursing Society, who spent over four months in custody. She studied at Widener University in Pennsylvania and at the University of North Texas, and worked for many years as a nurse at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

“I met some of those on trial today when I was in Bahrain last month, “ said Dooley. “They told me credible and consistent stories of having been tortured in detention. The U.S. government should make clear that continuing with discredited military courts to try pro-democracy activists will have consequences for the relationship between the United States and Bahrain.” …source