[cb editor: To observers in the West loosing ones drivers license seems a hand slap for protesting, yet the story has traction in the Main Stream Media. It follows a similar misdirection and deception over Women’s rights to drive in Saudi Arabia. It creates an image to Western viewers of a Bahraini King that is antiquated but also one who has great tolerance and that of a nation that will eventually turn the corner as the benevolent King “comes around” – it would seem to the casual viewer the major issues facing Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are protesters losing their drivers license or women demanding the right to drive??? And it’s absolutely presented that way in the Western media. While the Saudi’s were busy helping to crush Bahrain democracy movement, US Secretary of State Clinton was weighing in on “womens right to drive” in Saudi Arabia.

When the consequence here unto now for protesting has been detention, torture, life imprisonment, gassing, murder, rape… …loss of one’s drivers license would be welcome relief from the daily brutality of al Khalifa. The whole notion would seem comical if it weren’t so cynical. Careful about this PR business coming from the US Democrats, it’s poison and these bastards really are wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing….]

Bahrain to protesters: Snarl traffic, lose license
Sep 20, 2011 at 15:26 – AP

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahraini authorities are warning anti-government protesters they could lose their driver’s licenses for up to a year if they carry out threats to create massive traffic jams to disrupt this week’s parliamentary elections.

The notice by the Gulf kingdom’s Interior Ministry is among several statements circulating Tuesday promising a hard-line response to any unrest during the voting.

Bahrain plans elections Saturday for 18 seats in the 40-member parliament. The posts were abandoned by Shiite lawmakers protesting harsh crackdowns on pro-reform demonstrations.

Bahrain’s majority Shiites have led a seven-month uprising calling for greater rights from Sunni rulers. Shiite groups have appealed for an election boycott.

cb Editor: Don’t miss the eloquent Prince Turki al Faisal, former Saudi Ambassador to the United States. Looks like he and Charlie Rose are staged here as part of the Joe Trippi PR campaign. They are shaping the Saud and al Khalifa lies into a grand deception and creating entertainment value to augment the evening news. See the interview HERE and be careful not to vomit on your shoes before it’s over. Hey Charlie why don’t you give Nabeel Rajab equal time?

It definitely wins the coveted Crooked Bough “Royal Horse Shit Award”:

Bahrain: Protests on September 23-24, 2011 (parliamentary elections)
Manama, 20 September 2011 – BYSHR

Ladies and gentlemen, members of international NGOs, authorities, and Media.

Best regards from Bahrain.

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) addresses this urgent letter to you about targeting and randomly suppressing a protest rally against the government.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We would like to inform you that a group of activists, patriotic figures and youth are planning to launch a rally against the government in protest on violations of human rights in Bahrain. The protests will start at Manama district on September 23-24, 2011 ( parliamentary elections)

BYSHR believes that Fighting Riot Forces (FRF) will attempt the protest randomly and will target participants by using rubber bullets and tear-gas. FRF use such weapons intensively against children, women, youth, and seniors.

We announce that we expect security attacks on the prospected peaceful protests. FRF has committed similar violations against participants in previous peaceful events calling for democracy, freedom, and justice in Bahrain. FRF is asserting on its role to fractionate the bones of participants and using sound bombs to disperse participants, in addition to random arrests and torture in detention centers.

Ladies and gentlemen,

BYSHR looks forward to your interest in following up the consequences of the protests on Friday and Saturday ,September 23-24, 2011 (parliamentary elections). BYSHR calls upon you to move urgently to stop the expected acts of Bahraini Ministry of Interior, including detention and using FRF to suppress the peaceful protests.

Sincerely,

Mr. Mohammed Al-Maskati – President of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights
E-mail: info@byshr.org
Mobile: (+973)36437088
…source

Obama preaching Democracy and Aiding Dictators like Al Khalifa , Ale Saud, Saleh
jafriaNews.com – 19, Sep. 2011

JNN 19 Sept 2011 : The United Sates gave 90 million dollars in military aid to Bahrain regime, since President Barak Obama’s tenure started, Press TV reported.

“The Obama administration’s support for the al-Khalifa dictatorship (Bahrain’s ruling dynasty) has been continuous. Over 92 million dollars of aid were directed by Obama since his inauguration and another 26.2 million dollars slated for next year,” Press TV quoted Ralph Schoenman author of Hidden History of Zionism.

Formerly, two nations signed 10- year military pact on October 28, 1999, and renewed it again in October 2001 for another 10-year. Washington Post reported the secret extension of the pact for another five years. Former President of the United States Gorge W Bush extended the accord. United States helped Bahrain regime to repress Bahraini’speaceful protests by such military pacts.

“The Pentagon has cut specific deals with Bahrain sending American tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopter gunships, thousands of 38-caliber pistols, millions of rounds of ammunition, 50-caliber rounds used in sniper rifles and machine guns, bullets for hand guns and specifically, gas,” Schoenman said.

It seems contradictory that on the one hand countries like US claim for supporting freedom and democracy, and on the other hand they endorse such contracts to assist dictator regimes. Many Bahraini people have been arrested by the Saudi-backed regime since revolution started in February.

The clear difference in the US Preaching and Practice they adopt shows their , evil designs of working against the Human Rights Not Only around the world , but also in their Homeland , as the Number of People living under the Poverty line is increasing every day , while the Tax Cuts and Rebates are being paid by the US Government to the already Filthy Rich Cooperate Giants , which are in one way or the other connected to the government , and are the Major Players in changing and Keeping the government intact. …source

Bahrain: Appeals to world leaders to intervene to stop blood bath
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 20/09/2011 – 10:29 am

The two days of reckoning in Bahrain are fast approaching as the Al Khalifa junta threatened a blood bath. On 23rd and 24th September the people of Bahrain will attempt to re-conquer the Pearl Roundabout in order to mourn those who were murdered by the Saudi and Al Khalifa forces in mid March.

Preparations are being made to ensure a successful and peaceful operation as a first step to liberate Bahrain from the brutal Saudi occupation. The 14th February Youth are making last minute steps to ensure a peaceful march, as the Al Khalifa ministry of interior repeated threats to inflict maximum damage on anyone taking part in the proposed march. The Youth have appealed to international bodies to put pressure on the Al Saud and Al Khalifa regimes not to use violence against Bahrainis. The Bahraini opposition abroad have also written to several personalities and bodies urging them to intervene to stop a blood bath by troops, security forces and Death Squads. The plan is to reverse the crime committed by the joint aggressive forces in mid March when, under the international spotlight they waged lethal attacks on Bahrainis encamped at the Roundabout killing and injuring tens of people.

The proposed peaceful action has been planned for three reasons: The first is to tell the world that the destruction by Al Saud and Al Khalifa forces of the Pearl Monument after their criminal attack had failed to destroy the will of the Bahraini revolutionaries and that the civil movement is here to stay until a regime change has been achieved. The second is to commemorate the martyrs who have fallen over the past seven months including the latest two. The third is to draw the attention of the world on the day of proposed bye-elections for the dictator’s shura council, half of whose members are elected through a closely controlled process. There has been massive support to the move from the youth or revolutions in several countries including Yemen and Egypt.

The latest two martyrs have ignited the popular feeling of rage against the Al Saud and Al Khalifa whose machines of death have not ceased their criminal activities against the people of Bahrain. Sayyed Jawad Sayyed Ahmad Marhoon, 35, from Sitra died in agony ten days after he had been attacked by the regime’s forces with poisonous and tear gases on 3rd September. His house was also attacked on 10th September when poisonous chemical gases were thrown inside his house by the Death Squads and security forces. He emerged from the house carrying his baby daughter but had suffered massive internal injuries as a result. The second martyr is Jaffar Hassan Yousuf, 28, married with two children, from Demstan, died as a result of severe torture inflicted by the regime’s torturers during his incarceration. His massive funeral was attacked by the security forces and thugs and more people were reported injured. The attacks on Bahrainis have continued in the past few days as the people staged demonstrations throughout the country calling for a regime change and chanting: “Down with Hamad” in reference to Bahrain’s dictator who has become the most hated tyrant in the region. Among those attacked was a women protest on 16th September at Bilad Al Qadeem. Several women were injured.

Meanwhile, the US administration has been widely criticized for agreeing to receive the dictator whose trip to New York today has triggered widespread revulsion especially among human rights activists. The Obama administration has registered a drastic moral failure by its refusal to take a neutral stand with regards to the Bahraini revolution. On 15th September the New York Times published a damning article titled “Bahrain Boils Under the Lid of Repression” detailing the repression by the Al Khalifa against the people of Bahrain. On 10th September, the Washington Post published an editorial calling on the White House to take action against the Al Khalifa dictatorship and stop its double-standard policy in the Middle East. It had been hoped that Bahrain’s dictator, who has come to symbolize brutality and absolute dictatorship would not be allowed to set foot on the American soil. The American stands have been criticized by both politicians and human rights activists as the world witnesses more political saga unfolding in various parts of the Middle East.

Bahrain Freedom Movement
20th September 2011 …source

Abd al-Rahman Al-Nu’aimi: Forty Years of Bahraini Opposition
Claire Beaugrand, 20 September 2011 – Open Democracy

Reflecting upon Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aimi’s lifelong activism adds important context to Bahrain’s current crisis and generates feelings of nostalgia for a united political opposition, says Claire Beaugrand

Far removed from the political turmoil that has recently swept through his home-country of Bahrain, Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aimi passed away on 1 September 2011, after four years in a deep coma. His death, triggering reactions of sympathy from across the political spectrum in Bahrain, comes at a crucial time when both government and opposition search for a modus operandi in order to salvage what is left of Bahraini politics. Reflecting upon his lifelong activism as a window to modern Bahraini politics puts the current crisis into its historical context.

Throughout his life, Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aimi played an important role in shaping the modern political consciousness of Bahrain. His dedication to political struggle and steady commitment to leftwing values contributed to make the conception of politics in Bahrain gradually evolve from a sheer elite consensus towards a more agonistic understanding, where politics is about expressing conflicting interests, yet in a peaceful way. Embodying the opposition since the early days of his involvement in a student organisation in 1961, al-Nu’aimi tirelessly imposed new terms on the political debate,

Al-Nu’aimi was born in 1944, on al-Muharraq island, to a notable family with close links to the traditional ruling circles. Increasingly politically active in the 1960s, he broke away from that background by joining the Arab Nationalist Movement. In 1966 he graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and found himself amongst the educated elite – of the sort that continues to be represented in Kuwait by Ahmad al-Khatib – that was advocating new forms of political legitimacy, on the basis of nationalist and leftist ideologies.

In the context of a politically charged Gulf with the independence and creation of new states in both Yemen and the Lower Gulf#, al-Nu’aimi’s political activism was defined via his enrolment in the nebulous Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf that aimed to fight British imperialism and overthrow its local ‘stooges’. This organisation oscillated between different levels and areas of action. It originally united regional forces to support the Dhofar rebellion in the Western part of Oman (hence the renaming Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf); yet, as the Dhofar rebellion was being crushed, it was disbanded and divided between the Bahraini and Omani branches in 1974. Al-Nu’aimi became the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. By this time, though, he was already in exile.

Exile

Following a crackdown on worker’s movements at the power station where he was an engineer in 1968, Al-Nu’aimi had left Bahrain to live in exile. He was not the only one to leave: between March 1965, the date of a major uprising in Bahrain, and the dissolution of the first Bahraini Parliament in 1975, the great majority of the members of the clandestine leftwing opposition in Bahrain whether it was the Popular Front or its Marxist-tinged counterpart, the National Liberation Front of Bahrain, left the island. They either feared further repression or were refused re-entry into the state following the state authorities’ suspicions of their political leanings and activities. After travelling via Qatar or pre-Saddam Iraq and, for some, after a revolutionary experience in Dhofar or Aden, all eventually settled in Beirut and Damascus. The policy of Ba’thist Syria was to grant residency to any Arab especially nationalists and Gulf dissidents. Al-Nu’aimi, known as ‘sa’id saif’, the luck-bringing sword, was no exception. He remained in Damascus for 33 years.

It was from abroad that he witnessed the rise of Shiite Islamist forces in Bahrain throughout the 1980s and watched during the 1990s the ‘Intifada’ mark the brutal entry into Bahraini politics of the masses from the peripheral Shiite ‘villages’.

Despite of the discredited reputation that affected the Arab nationalist leftists – as much as it did the Marxists – al-Nu’aimi kept alive a secularist form of political opposition. He, at the same time, liaised with a new generation of Shiite activists in exile, including Mansur al-Jamri and Saeed al-Shehabi from the London-based Harakat Ahrar al-Bahrain al-Islamiyya (Islamic Bahrain Freedom Movement). The period of exile allowed oppositional activists to build bridges between their diverse movements: both islamists and leftists worked to raise awareness and gain international support. The Popular Front, led by Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aimi and Abd al-Nabi al-Akry, both based in Damascus, began to embed its claims in the then universalising language of human rights. This forced it to adopt representative democracy as an ideal and to discard revolutionary goals and violent means to achieve their aims. …more

US weapons were used against protesters in Bahrain – expert
by John Robles – Sep 20, 2011 14:39 Moscow Time

Interview with Nabil Rajab, President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and Deputy Secretary General for the International Federation of Human Rights.

JR: Can you detail some of the human rights violations of the Bahrain government for our listeners?

NR: We have a culture of human rights violation and of crime, committed against humanity in Bahrain, especially in the past 6-7 months, since the Arab uprising – and, as you know, we started our uprising on January 11. Since then, there was a bloody crackdown, where thousands of people were detained and tortures. At least two people for every thousand citizens were in detention, thousands of people sacked from their jobs, expelled from their schools, their universities. There were systematic tortures, hospitals were taken by the military and patients were abused and tortured in the hospitals. Many people fled the country as people died or were tortured to death. We have a bad human rights record, especially the one we have since last March.

JR: There have been a lot of reports about US weapons being used to suppress democracy demonstrations in Bahrain. Can you give us some details on that?

NR: First of all, the American political position on Bahrain was totally different from their foreign policy towards other revolutions and other uprisings that were calling for democracy and human rights. The Americans and some other western countries were very silent on Bahrain. And not only that. Their weapons were used against protesters and human rights defenders in Bahrain, especially tear gas. At least ten people died in the past ten days because of the tear gas that was used by the special forces and riot police. And this tear gas is made in Pennsylvania, in the US. Unfortunately, human rights record is not a standard to the Americans when they sell weapons to Bahrain. Bahrain has a very bad human rights record, and it was very disappointing for the people of Bahrain, for human rights activists and for democracy fighters that the US did not only take their side in the uprising but was supplying the repressive regime with weapons in the region. That has a very poor human rights record. The people of Bahrain look at the US very differently than they did before February 13, especially when they saw our revolution, our uprising, which was calling for democracy and human rights, being banned, punished – and they still gave them aid and they still supplied them with weapons and tear gas that was used against the protesters and democracy activists.

JR: The US base in Bahrain, does that have any relationship for the US supporting government?

NR: I think the US base is the policy-maker in Bahrain, rather than the Embassy and the State Department of the US in Bahrain. The US naval base has more power than the Embassy, and I think that was the main reason why the American government has taken the side of the Bahraini regime – because they see that their benefits and interests lie with the dictators and the repressive regime, not with any future democracy. People thought that the presidents of America and Bahrain would help them struggle for democracy and human rights. That’s what they thought in the past. But now it’s very clear: their president was very negative and helped the regime and the repressive ruler more than the people of the country.

JR: So we see a complete double standard?

NR: We are a victim of the American double-standard foreign policy, we are a victim of the American interests, we are a victim of the American military presence in Bahrain. For that reason, as well as due to the complication of US’s foreign relations with Iran and other countries, we have to pay the price, because the US government’ still sees its interests lie with the dictators in the Gulf Region. That’s why they have reacted very negatively in the Gulf region, totally different to how they had reacted in Syria, Libya, Iran and Egypt. You could see that when the US president in his speech, where Saudi Arabia wasn’t mentioned at all, although Saudi Arabia is known to have the most oppressive regime in the region, spoke about most of the Arab countries but not those countries, because I think the flow of the oil has more importance than human rights of the people here.

JR: How many people have been killed, in your estimation, by the government of Bahrain?

NR: At least 40 people were killed in the past months. Thousands of people detained and systematically tortured. Those numbers are very high percentage wise, if you take into consideration the population of Bahrain, which is around half a million people only. It is more than in Tunisia, it is more than in Egypt. But, unfortunately, we have seen complete silence from the US, because of their interests, because of their military presence, because of the arms sales, because of the oil sales. I think the US is creating people who don’t support it in the region. They have lost the hearts and minds of the people in that part of the region. Since my country gained independence, the army has been used only once – against peaceful protesters that were calling for democracy and human rights. It’s the only time that the Bahraini army has been deployed. Not only that, the Bahraini government did worse than any other country, because they killed their own people with their own army, but they invited other troops, from Saudi Arabia, from UAE, to take part in the bloody crackdown against the people of Bahrain.

JR: You say, people are arrested, tortured and disappear, they lose jobs, they are kicked out of universities. On what basis could this happen?

NR: Unfortunately, the crackdown has targeted people mostly in the sectarian basis, because the majority of protesters were calling for equality – they come from the indigenous Shiite population. The government targets them, targets their businesses, targets them at schools, at universities. Many people lost their sight because they were shot in the eyes.

JR: Would you characterize human rights violations in Bahrain as crimes against humanity?

NR: What happened in Bahrain is a crime against humanity. …source

Saudi Arabia donates $200 mln to Palestinians
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to address the UN General Assembly on Friday with a formal call for
REUTERS – by Chip East – 20/09/2011 – GAZA, September 20 (RIA Novosti)

Saudi Arabia will donate $200 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Palestinian news agency Maan reported on Tuesday.

“The Saudi king, Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, issued orders to the finance minister to transfer $200 million to the PA,” Maan quoted Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as saying after a meeting of PA donors in New York.

The Saudi move comes at a crucial moment as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to address the UN General Assembly on Friday with a formal call for Palestinian statehood.

While most UN members support the bid, approval by the General Assembly would only give the Palestinians non-member state status. For full recognition, the bid would have to be approved by the UN Security Council – and the United States has said it will use its veto to block it.

Washington, which insists on the resolution of the Middle East crisis through direct talks between Israel and Palestinians, could also cut its $500 million annual contribution to the Palestinian cause.

The PA heavily relies on foreign aid, which accounts for about half of its $3.7-billion annual budget. Main PA donors include the European Union, the United States, Japan and Arab countries. …source

Freedom Now files petition to United Nations on behalf of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja
to obtain opinion that his ongoing Detention violates international law

September 19, 2011 – BCHR

On September 19, 2011, Freedom Now filed an urgent action petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja. Freedom Now hopes to obtain a legal opinion from the Working Group that the Bahraini government’s detention of Mr. Alkhawaja is in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Freedom Now Executive Director Maran Turner stated, “Mr. Alkhawaja’s brutal arrest and conviction, as well as his treatment in detention are appalling. The actions by the Government of Bahrain are a clear violation of international law. It is our hope that a decision by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention will compel the government to abide by its commitments under the law and release Abdulhadi Alkhawaja.”

Mr. Alkhawaja has been a well regarded human rights defender for more than 20 years. Because of his tireless advocacy for peaceful reform in Bahrain, Mr. Alkhawaja has faced a long history of arrests and unlawful detainment. Just before his current detention, Mr. Alkhawaja had publicly criticized the regime’s brutal response to the recent anti-government protests in Bahrain.

The Bahraini government has detained Mr. Alkhawaja since April 9, 2011, in violation of both Bahraini and international law. During his arrest, 15 masked men forced entry into the apartment of Mr. Alkhawaja’s daughter, breaking down the door with a sledgehammer. Without producing identification or an arrest warrant, they beat Mr. Alkhawaja until he lost consciousness and took him into custody along with his two sons-in-law. On May 8, 2011, the government initiated its prosecution of Mr. Alkhawaja and 20 other individuals before the National Safety Court – a military tribunal. Despite a lack of evidence against him, the military court convicted Mr. Alkhawaja of a number of charges, including financing and participating in terrorism to overthrow the government and spying for a foreign country. On June 22, 2011, authorities sentenced Mr. Alkhawaja to life imprisonment. Mr. Alkhawaja has filed an appeal, which has been postponed by the government until September 28, 2011.

Mr. Alkhawaja has been subjected to deplorable treatment during his detention. Because of the beatings he endured from security agents, he suffered four fractures to his face, requiring a four hour surgery to repair his jaw. Security forces are also subjecting Mr. Alkhawaja to other forms of inhumane treatment, such as attempted sexual assault and psychological torture.

Freedom Now represents Mr. Alkhawaja as his pro bono international legal counsel. …source

U.S. to build new massive prison in Bagram
By Glenn Greenwald – Monday, Sep 19, 2011 15:20 ET – salon.com

As the Obama administration announced plans for hundreds of billions of dollars more in domestic budget cuts, it late last week solicited bids for the construction of a massive new prison in Bagram, Afghanistan. Posted on the aptly named FedBizOps.Gov website which it uses to announce new privatized spending projects, the administration unveiled plans for “the construction of Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP), Bagram, Afghanistan” which includes “detainee housing capability for approximately 2000 detainees.” It will also feature “guard towers, administrative facility and Vehicle/Personnel Access Control Gates, security surveillance and restricted access systems.” The announcement provided: “the estimated cost of the project is between $25,000,000 to $100,000,000.”

In the U.S., prisons are so wildly overcrowded that courts are ordering them to release inmates en masse because conditions are so inhumane as to be unconstitutional (today, the FBI documented that a drug arrest occurs in the U.S. once every 19 seconds, but as everyone knows, only insane extremists and frivolous potheads advocate an end to that war). In the U.S., budgetary constraints are so severe that entire grades are being eliminated, the use of street lights restricted, and the most basic services abolished for the nation’s neediest. But the U.S. proposes to spend up to $100 million on a sprawling new prison in Afghanistan.

Budgetary madness to the side, this is going to be yet another addition to what Human Rights First recently documented is the oppressive, due-process-free prison regime the U.S. continues to maintain around the world:

Ten years after the September 11 attacks, few Americans realize that the United States is still imprisoning more than 2800 men outside the United States without charge or trial. Sprawling U.S. military prisons have become part of the post-9/11 landscape, and the concept of “indefinite detention” — previously foreign to our system of government — has meant that such prisons, and their captives, could remain a legacy of the 9/11 attacks and the “war on terror” for the indefinite future. . . . .

The secrecy surrounding the U.S. prison in Afghanistan makes it impossible for the public to judge whether those imprisoned there deserve to be there. What’s more, because much of the military’s evidence against them is classified, the detainees themselves have no right to see it. So although detainees at Bagram are now entitled to hearings at the prison every six months, they’re often not allowed to confront the evidence against them. As a result, they have no real opportunity to contest it.

In one of the first moves signalling just how closely the Obama administration intended to track its predecessor in these areas, it won the right to hold Bagram prisoners without any habeas corpus rights, successfully arguing that the Supreme Court’s Boumediene decision — which candidate Obama cheered because it guaranteed habeas rights to Guantanamo detainees — was inapplicable to Bagram. Numerous groups doing field work in Afghanistan have documented that the maintenance of these prisons is a leading recruitment tool for the Taliban and a prime source of anti-American hatred. Despite that fact — or, more accurately (as usual), because of it — the U.S. is now going to build a brand new, enormous prison there.

One last point: recall how many people insisted that the killing of Osama bin Laden would lead to a drawdown in the War on Terror generally and the war in Afghanistan specifically. Since then — in just four months since bin Laden’s corpse was dumped into the ocean — the U.S. has done the following: renewed the Patriot Act for four years with no reforms; significantly escalated drone attacks in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan; tried to assassinate U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki with no due process; indicted a 24-year-old Muslim for “material support for Terrorism” for uploading an anti-American YouTube clip after he talked to the son of a Terrorist leader; pressured Iraq to keep U.S. troops in that country; argued that it has the virtually unlimited right to kill anyone it wants anywhere in the world; and now finalized plans to build a sprawling new prison in Afghanistan. If that’s winding things down, I sure would hate to see what a redoubling of the American commitment to Endless War looks like. …more

Letter from Cairo: the struggle for a free press
The independent press has gained strength from the revolution, writes Maria Golia.
New Internationalist

Now that Egypt is in revolution mode, Cairo is attracting more than its usual large share of artists, journalists, academics, analysts and spooks. People are getting out more, throwing parties. Friends you haven’t seen in ages are back in touch, and new alliances formed over coffee and beers. In this convivial atmosphere, people are sharing their hopes – and fears. Will the fundamentalists take over? The economy fail? Lawlessness prevail? The regime make a come-back? I ran into an old colleague who reminded me of conditions preceding the uprising, and how, in the hearts of many individuals, something ineluctable yet vital had changed.

I met Hisham Kassem in the 1990s, at a time when the state had loosened its monopolistic grip on the press and opened somewhat to independent publishers. This was in keeping with both the regime’s programme of economic liberalization and the US wish that its strategic ally could at least pretend to appear more democratic. Several entrepreneurs entered the fray, some focusing on the Arabic-language news market, others on fashion/society glossies targeting the niche market of high-end consumers. Only Hisham had the idea of doing an English-language news weekly. At that time Egypt’s existing English newspapers belonged to the state-owed Al Ahram franchise; one tried to disguise its bias, the other was frankly sycophantic.

The red lines were still there – the president and his security apparatus brooked no criticism – but the new Cairo Times challenged them with critical coverage of political, environmental and social developments, emphasizing human rights abuses and corruption-related scandals. I was one of several columnists given the freedom to write pretty much what I pleased. The paper soon acquired a small but influential following in Egypt and abroad. It even ran a decent profit thanks to the support of advertisers who identified its readership as their target audience (middle/upper class Egyptian youth and young adults, foreign residents and Egypt watchers). Several now influential journalists, bloggers, commentators and activists (Egyptian and foreign), got their start at the Cairo Times, even though as matters progressed it became more and more difficult to get paid.

In response to his efforts, Hisham, the paper’s editor-in-chief, was hauled in for questioning by state security on more than one occasion, the surest of all signs that journalistically, he was doing something right. Then several issues of the paper were banned by state censors, creating a sense of uncertainty among advertisers. Although the Cairo Times offered low ad prices and reached the right audience, it was having trouble reaching the streets. Advertisers were further dismayed by phone calls from the Ministry of Information suggesting that state-owned papers had a much larger readership and their ads would be most welcome there.

In the ensuing years the regime waged a tug-of-war with the independent press, employing a variety of intimidation tactics. The Cairo Times was one of the publications that lamentably went under. It took a while, but Hisham eventually emerged from bankruptcy and helped start the Masry al-Youm, an independent Arabic daily that today boasts one of Egypt’s largest readerships and English and Arabic websites that attract a half-million hits per day combined. …more