Posts from — October 2011

Human Rights Ministry condemns attack on Ms. Samira Rajab’s house
27/10/2011 – BNA

Manama, Oct. 27 (BNA)—The Human Rights and Social Development Ministry condemned today the Molotov cocktail attack yesterday night on the house of Shura Council member, writer and journalist Samira Rajab.

The attack by unidentified persons was carried out following Ms. Rajab’s participation in a televised programme (Opposing Views) which was aired by Al Jazeera satellite channel, the ministry said in a statement adding that this act proves that the perpetrators are using terrorist ways to oppress freedom of expression and muzzle moderate voices.The ministry denounced the terrorist attack and considered it as part of a plan to abuse Bahraini citizens’ rights by some extremists who are held responsible for the regrettable incidents which gripped the kingdom last February and March.”Such acts will not deter Bahraini citizens from exercising their inherent rights to freedom of expression which are guaranteed by the Bahraini constitution,” the statement said. The Human Rights and Social Development Ministry hailed anyone who denounced the attack and called on those who showed no stance towards it to take the initiative as the attack is a transgression of the rights of the whole Bahraini society.The ministry expressed confidence in the specialized authorities to tack down the perpetrators and bring them to justice. …source

BAHRAIN: Female teacher re-arrest exposes human rights abuse as others recount torture
Women News Network – WNN Breaking News – 26 October 26, 2011

(WNN) Manama, BAHRAIN: Without proper jurisdiction and legal rights, school teacher and Vice President of Bahrain’s Teachers Association Mrs. Jaleela Al Salman has been forced to return to prison by Bahrain police security following her official release from prison while she was waiting for the appeal of her upcoming case set for December 11.

Detained in prison without access to a lawyer from March 29 to August 21, Jaleela faced a Bahraini military courtroom on September 25, 2011 where she was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment on charges of ‘inciting hatred towards the regime.’ Charges also included calling for a teachers strike and attempting to overthrow the ruling system by force. During her days in prison Jaleela later outlined what she calls “beatings” and sexual intimidation under threats of rape that lead her to making a forced confession of guilt before she received her first official day in court.

“I’m not a politician,” says nurse and President of the Bahrain Nursing Society Ms. Roula al-Safar who had volunteered, along with other medical personnel, to help injured protesters on the streets of Manama, February 14, 2011. “I’m one of these people who will run (to aid) whenever there is a disaster,” Roula, who has now been sentenced to 15 years in prison, added.

“Suddenly the hospital was in chaos,” said Roula outlining events of violence against protesters that resulted in those injured being rushed to the hospital at the Salmaniya Medical Complex emergency room in February, causing it to spill beyond capacity.

Describing continued attacks of protesters, and two persons dead, Roula’s eye-witness account outlines her own arrest. “They did not read our warrants (for arrest),” she said. “They did not tell us what we are accused of for 2 or 3 days of continuous beating,” she describes during a Skype interview with Brian Dooley from the international advocacy group Human Rights First, an international agency that works to protect human rights defenders. …more

Congress backs Bahrain protesters when the White House won’t
By Editorial, Published: October 26 – Editorial Board Opinion, Washington Post

THE BELEAGUERED reformist faction within Bahrain’s ruling al-Khalifa family has good reason to thank the U.S. Congress. Until this month the Obama administration, which has enormous leverage over the Persian Gulf emirate, was blithely ignoring Bahrain’s crackdown on domestic opposition and its failure to implement promised reforms.

Even as the regime staged unfair trials of peaceful opponents in special security courts, dismissed thousands from government jobs for participating in protests and violently repressed demonstrations in restless villages, the administration notified Congress in September that it intended to sell Bahrain $53 million in military equipment, including 40 armored Humvees.

Set aside for the moment the fact that Bahrain, an island nation that hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has no plausible use for armored vehicles other than against its own people. The sale sent the message to the regime’s hard-liners that domestic repression would not damage relations with the United States. Little surprise that, not long afterward, 20 doctors and nurses who had treated injured protesters were sentenced to lengthy prison terms after a grossly unfair trial.

Fortunately, Bahrain’s abuses — documented and denounced by every major Western human rights group — prompted a reaction in Congress. Legislation was introduced to block the arms sales, and a group of five Democratic senators, led by Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Oct. 12 to ask that the sale be put on hold. A separate letter was dispatched by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

The senators got a response. On Oct. 14, the State Department wrote to Mr. Casey to say that the administration would not proceed with the sale until after the independent international commission appointed to investigate the unrest in Bahrain — with the regime’s cooperation — issues its report, scheduled for Nov. 23. Bahrain, meanwhile, was backpedaling: even before the senators’ letters were sent, the doctors’ sentences were nullified and their cases transferred to civilian court. The pro-reform foreign minister traveled to Washington to assure Congress that the commission’s recommendations will be followed.

This is progress — but there is a distinct danger that the promises of the Khalifas and the State Department will prove hollow. The credibility of the commission has been under question ever since its Egyptian-born chief appeared, in an Aug. 8 interview, to preemptively clear the Bahraini government of a policy of using excessive force or torture. The regime has failed to deliver on pledges made by its reformists in previous trips to Washington.

Rather than tying itself to this uncertain process, the United States should set its own conditions for continued good relations with Bahrain. These should include accountability for the torture and killing of protesters; the release of all political detainees; and the initiation of meaningful political reform that enfranchises the country’s Shiite majority. The current status quo in Bahrain is unsustainable; reinforcing it with U.S. military sales would be foolish as well as unconscionable. ...source

European Parliament: Human rights resolutions: Tibet, Bahrain, Syria
27 Oct 2011 – BCHR

Bahrain: halt the violence and release the prisoners

Parliament condemns the repression of citizens in Bahrain, which has led to dozens of deaths and injuries, and urges the immediate and unconditional release of all peaceful demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, doctors and paramedics, bloggers and journalists. It also expresses its solidarity with the families of all the victims.

The Bahraini security forces and authorities should stop violence, repression and detention of peaceful demonstrators and show the utmost restraint when attempting to control protests, say MEPs, who urge the authorities to act in strict accordance with their legislation and international obligations.

MEPs also reiterate their view that demonstrators in Bahrain have expressed their legitimate democratic aspirations and call on the government there to engage in a genuine, meaningful and constructive dialogue with the opposition, without further delay or additional preconditions, in order to bring about the necessary reforms, encourage national reconciliation and restore social consensus in the country.

EU Press Release

The European Parliament,

1. Condemns the repression of citizens in Bahrain which led to dozens of deaths and injuries and urges the immediate and unconditional release of all peaceful demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, doctors and paramedics, bloggers and journalists and expresses its solidarity with the families of all the victims;

2. Calls on the Bahraini security forces and authorities to stop violence, repression and detention of peaceful demonstrators and to show the utmost restraint when attempting to control protests; urges the authorities to act in strict accordance with their legislation and international obligations;

3. Reiterates its view that demonstrators have expressed their legitimate democratic aspirations and calls on the Bahraini Government to engage in a genuine, meaningful and constructive dialogue with the opposition, without further delay or additional preconditions, in order to bring about the necessary reforms, encourage national reconciliation and restore social consensus in the country;

4. Expresses its grave concern at the presence of foreign troops under the GCC banner in Bahrain and calls for their immediate withdrawal; reiterates its call on the GCC to contribute constructively and mediate in the interest of peaceful reforms in Bahrain;

5. Condemns the use of special military courts to try civilians, as it is a violation of international fair trial standards, and stresses that civilians must be tried in civilian courts and that every detained person deserves a fair trial, with adequate access to a lawyer and sufficient time to prepare a defence; calls for an immediate cessation of mass trials of civilians in the military court, the Court of National Safety;

6. Welcomes the decision to retry doctors and nurses in civil courts but considers that all charges against them should be dropped, and calls on the civil courts to release the doctors and medical staff unconditionally and immediately, as they were acting in accordance with their professional duty and have been accused of tending to the medical needs of those who oppose the regime, as well as of serious criminal offences which seem to be of a political nature and for which credible evidence has not been put forward, as well as to release all other political activists, journalists, teachers, bloggers and human rights defenders due to the arbitrary nature of the charges and of the entire proceedings; expresses its strong concern about the life sentences handed down to at least eight opposition activists and at least 13 people who were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison;

7. Underlines that providing impartial treatment for the wounded is a basic legal obligation under humanitarian law, and urges Bahrain, as a party to the Geneva Conventions, to respect its obligations regarding the provision of health care to the sick and injured;

8. Calls on the Kingdom of Bahrain to allow all medics to resume their jobs and allow all medics and their defence teams access to the medical examination reports from the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry’s examination of the detained doctors;

9. Cautions against the abuse of national security laws;

10. Calls on the authorities to restore and respect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including pluralism in the media, both online and offline, freedom of expression and assembly, freedom of religion, women’s rights and gender equality, and measures against discrimination, and to put an end to the censorship; calls on the Bahraini authorities to accept the requested visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;

11. Notes that thousands of employees have lost their jobs for their participation in the peaceful anti-government protests; calls on the national authorities as well as the European enterprises involved to order the immediate reinstatement of these individuals and to ensure that they are compensated for their lost income;

12. Takes positive note of King Hamad’s decision to set up an independent commission to investigate the human rights violations by the security forces during the government crackdown on peaceful pro-reform protesters; urges full impartiality and transparency for the commission and calls on the Bahraini Government not to interfere in its work and to ensure that perpetrators of crimes and all persons responsible for the violent crackdown are brought to justice and tried by due process;

13. Welcomes the setting-up of a Ministry for Human Rights and Social Development in Bahrain, and calls on that ministry to act in accordance with international human rights standards and obligations;

14. Calls for the admission of international observers to the trials of political prisoners as well as for them to be allowed to monitor the work of the independent commission investigating human rights violations to ensure objectivity according to international standards;

15. Calls on the Bahraini authorities and the King of Bahrain to commute the death sentences of Ali ‘Abdullah Hassan al-Sankis and ‘Abdulaziz ‘Abdulridha Ibrahim Hussain; reiterates its strong opposition to the use of the death penalty and urges the Bahraini authorities to declare an immediate moratorium;

16. Considers that the investigation which has been launched into the death of a 16-year-old boy, Ahmed al-Jaber al-Qatan, during an anti-government protest must be independent, that the findings must be made public and that those responsible must be brought to justice;

17. Underlines the importance of reconciliation as an essential part of reform and stability in Bahrain’s diverse society in which the rights of each citizen should be equally guaranteed in both the letter and the practice of the law;

18. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the Government and Parliament of the Kingdom of Bahrain. …source

Oakland Police Raid on Occupy Oakland Raises Serious Questions – Right to Protest
by Linda Lye – ACLU – Oct 27th, 2011

Picture this. In response to a peaceful anti-war protest, the Oakland Police Department uses large wooden bullets, sting ball grenades and shot-filled bean bags, as a result of which at least 58 protesters are injured. That was 2003, and unfortunately sounds eerily similar to reports of OPD’s response to an Occupy Oakland demonstration Tuesday evening, in which bean bags or other projectiles appear to have been fired directly into crowds and multiple rounds of tear gas were used.

OPD’s conduct in 2003 led to a class action lawsuit brought by the ACLU-NC, the National Lawyers Guild, ILWU, Local 10 and other civil rights attorneys. The lawsuit led to a historic settlement, with OPD adopting a Crowd Control Policy that strictly limits the use of force and prohibits the indiscriminate use of bean bags and other projectiles against crowds or passive resisters, except in unusual circumstances.

The ACLU of Northern California and the National Lawyers’ Guild demanded a full investigation of Tuesday’s events. The groups also asked OPD to immediately produce records about the use of force in responding to the early morning raid of the Occupy Oakland encampment and the evening demonstration. The public has a right to transparency and accountability, and yesterday’s events are no exception. The ACLU-NC is also urging people to email the Oakland Police Department calling for transparency and an end to excessive use of force.

Reports of OPD’s conduct raise serious questions about whether it violated its own policy on dealing with demonstrations.

* The Policy requires the Department to use “the minimal police intervention needed to address a crowd management or control issue.” This video shows a protester who sustained a head injury. Injuries do not appear to be isolated. Did OPD really use the minimal amount of intervention necessary to control and disperse the crowd?
* The Policy requires the Department to use “the minimum amount of chemical agent necessary to obtain compliance.” But the quantity of tear gas that must have been used to generate this cloud-filled scene doesn’t appear “minimum” at all.
* The Policy prohibits the Department from firing bean bags or other “Direct Fired Specialty Impact Less-Lethal Munitions,” such as rubber bullets, “indiscriminately against a crowd or group of persons even if some members of the crowd or group are violent or disruptive. But this video (at 0:43) shows law enforcement firing a projectile directly into a crowd tending to an injured protester.

On Tuesday , after OPD’s early morning raid of the Occupy Oakland encampment, Acting Chief Jordan agreed to conduct an investigation of the Department’s conduct. That’s a start, but the situation demands full transparency and accountability. The investigation should clearly be expanded to the Department’s conduct in handling not just the morning raid but also the evening demonstration. But separate and apart from any internal investigation the Department conducts, the situation requires independent oversight and the public has a right to know exactly what happened. …source

[cb editor: The “subline” in the article below by Middle East Online, “Clinton warns Bahrain: No human rights, no arms” is a curious one. I’m wondering if this is an editorial hope from Middle East Online’ or a failure to grasp the reality of US policy regarding Bahrain. And yes, it does seem, some courageous US Senators have stood up to the atrocities of the al Kahlifa regime. Adding, yet another policy dilemma that confronts the Obama-Clinton stumbling and bumbling in the Middle East. The US silence regarding Bahrain may well be broken, but what remains is the contradictory and unreconciled policy of “friends don’t stop friends from brutally oppressing their governed” – especially if the the governed want something as absurd as democracy and it might disturb your military and economic ambitions in the region. And any other cozy arrangements made with your “partners in brutality”.

The Department of State’s decision to hold up arms sales a few weeks while waiting on a tainted and discredited investigative report on Bahrain’s “unrest”, sponsored by King Hamad’s and conducted by his hand picked “independent team”, is just short of political grand standing masquerading as impartiality and fairness. Nonetheless it is an obvious strategic decision. It must be noted that at no time has Clinton said the deal would NOT go through, but rather in the usual DOS Newspeak, she says “we will wait and see how the regime responds to the report”. An unqualified expectation of a response from King Hamad – perhaps the deal can proceed if King Hamad decides to increase the frequency of gassing Sunni villages as well – fair and balanced oppression? Or maybe if Hamad admits the “the government has “some problems” and promises he will “look into them”, that will be enough to complete the deal and keep it’s challengers in the US Senate at bay?

And what of Bassiouni’s BICI Report? As the US places new value on it, there is a mad dash to rewrite it – supposedly to be more inclusive of complaints against the regime? So had Bassiouni shorted the report important testimony until the US became interested in it? The reports continues to reek of a tainted, corrupt process or at the very best, a horribly shoddy one – surely it will go down as Bassiouni’s “boondoggle in Bahrain”. What then of the rewrite? …is it a new version that adjusts the bar for “acheivibility” and couches King Hamad’s problems in something that is politically expedient for the US and a palatable compromise to more moderate Western Human Rights critics?

And what of Clinton’s praise for al Khalifa’s kangaroo courts? …get real, a civilian trial without due process, confessions extracted through torture, though some now thrown out and horribly trumped up charges? Does anyone really think justice can be dispensed by the regimes “civilian courts”? Has it ever when it comes to matters of political resistance? All the victims of Hamad’s “charade of justice” are hoping for is another opportunity to force Hamad’s capitulation or even to be granted the “King Mercies” under the charade of an appeal. The sad reality complicity only serves to legitimize his courts. Not only are the bumblings and stumblings of Obama-Clinton an embarrassment to the US they are dangerous, shallow and contemptuous. ]

US urges Bahrain to probe crackdown on anti-regime protests
26 October, 2011 – Middle East Online, “Clinton warns Bahrain: No human rights, no arms”

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Bahrain on Wednesday to follow through on an independent probe into a crackdown on anti-regime protests, officials said.

Clinton and Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa also discussed a planned $53 million US arms sale to Bahrain that has been put on hold pending the outcome of the investigation, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

“The thrust of our message to Bahrain over some months was that not only the Bahraini people but the international community and certainly the United States are waiting eagerly for the release of the results of the independent commission of inquiry,” Nuland added.

The panel’s report was expected by October 30 but its release has been delayed to November 23.

The pro-democracy protests that broke out in February amid the fervor of the Arab Spring were crushed by Bahraini security forces, backed by Saudi troops. The government says 24 people were killed, including four police officers, while the opposition puts the count at 31.

Nuland said the outcome of the investigation would be “a litmus test of transparency and accountability for what happened in Bahrain and particularly how the government chooses to deal with what is reported,” Nuland said.

Clinton also underscored the importance of Bahrain’s decision to retry in civilian courts cases that were tried by the military, she said.

Nuland defended the proposed arms sale to Bahrain, a key US ally in the Gulf that hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, saying it would bolster Manama’s external defenses.

But “the Bahrainis know we have human rights standards attached to these sales, and actual transfer decisions are pending,” she said.

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, introduced legislation earlier this month to bar arms sales to Bahrain until it addresses “alleged human rights violations” since the protests began. …source

The Familiar Sound (Excerpt Amnesty International – 31 August 2011) A 14-year-old boy was killed during a peaceful demonstration in Bahrain’s central town of Sitra today, where dozens of demonstrators took part in anti-government protests marking the feast of ‘Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Ali Jawad Ahmad al-Shaikh died from a head injury after being hit by a tear gas canister thrown by riot police, a local human rights group said.

Occupy Oakland Protester Severely Injured in Police Clash ID’ed as Iraq War Veteran
26 October, 2011 – ABC News

The group Iraq Veterans Against the War has identified the demonstrator who endured a skull fracture after Occupy Oakland protesters clashed with police Tuesday night. According to the organization’s statement, Scott Olsen, also a member of Veterans for Peace, was “shot in the head with a police projectile while peacefully participating in the Occupy Oakland march.”

A news release from Mike Ferner, Occupy Oakland’s interim director, said that Olsen’s condition was stable but serious. Olsen, 24, a former Marine, did two tours of duty in Iraq before leaving the military in 2010. Formerly of Wisconsin, he now lives and works in Daly, Calif.

On Tuesday, a number of clashes erupted between police as a group of nearly 500 protesters who’d marched from the main branch of the Oakland Public Library to City Hall to reclaim the camp they’d been evicted from earlier in the day. According to Ferner, a video with slow-motion footage showed police tossing a flash-bang into a group of people standing around someone in the street, though it was not clear whether Olsen was the person on the ground.

Authorities have denied reports that they used flash-bang canisters to help break up the crowds, saying the loud noises came from large firecrackers.

During a late-night news conference, Oakland Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan told reporters that authorities had no other choice then to use the tear gas, saying the protesters were throwing rocks and bottles at officers. According to Ferner’s statement, a Veterans for Peace member, Josh Sheperd, who’d witnessed Olsen’s injury, said that after police fired tear gas, bean bags and flash-bangs and warned demonstrators to leave, “people in the rear of the crowd threw eggs at the police.”

Carlos Villarreal, a spokesman for the National Lawyers Guild, which represents the protesters, told ABC News station KGO-TV that two protesters suffered broken hands when they were arrested, and that one protester had been taken to a hospital with head injuries.

The statement from the Iraq Veterans Against the War said that Olsen was sedated at a local hospital and would be examined by a neurosurgeon. …source

Canadian jailed for protesting in Bahrain
Oct 25 2011 – The Star

Canadian Naser al-Raas will begin a five-year sentence in a Bahraini prison on Wednesday. He is one of 13 people sentenced Tuesday to jail terms related to the uprising in the country. Canadian Naser al-Raas will begin a five-year sentence in a Bahraini prison on Wednesday. He is one of 13 people sentenced Tuesday to jail terms related to the uprising in the country.

Canadian Naser al-Raas will begin a five-year sentence in a Bahraini prison on Wednesday. He is one of 13 people sentenced Tuesday to jail terms related to the uprising in the country.

Naser al-Raas remembers the cramped office, the beatings, and the small gun pointed at his head. He remembers the cables used to tie his hands behind a chair and the blindfold fastened around his face.

He remembers the ambush at Bahrain International Airport on March 20, just as he was preparing to present his Canadian passport to customs and fly to Kuwait, where he was born.

He remembers three mock executions held under the desert sun. And he remembers the dingy cell in the notorious Al Qala prison, where he said he spent more than a month in solitary confinement, beaten and electrocuted daily, the screams of other tortured prisoners echoing through the halls.

Now on Wednesday, nearly six months after he was inexplicably released from that cell, authorities are set to enter his in-laws’ home in Bahrain — where he is staying with his Bahraini fiancée Zainab — and steer him to prison, for a five-year term for participating in antiregime demonstrations that swept the country beginning in February. At least 30 people have been reported killed in the crackdown.

Al-Raas was sentenced by a civilian court Tuesday for violating Bahrain’s illegal-assembly laws. A defence lawyer in Bahrain said he was one of 13 people sentenced to jail terms for links to anti-government protests and unrest in the Gulf kingdom.

The 28-year-old lived in Ottawa from 1996 to 2000, and his mother and brother are still there. He now works as an IT specialist in Kuwait.

Al-Raas had arrived in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain on March 6 amid a countrywide crackdown on Shiites protesting against the Sunni monarchy.

“I didn’t chant against the government; it’s not my business,” he told the Star. “The country was in chaos.”

But when he tried to return to Kuwait two weeks later, he said, he was whisked away by men from Bahrain’s National Security Agency, an intelligence wing of the Ministry of the Interior.

Over the course of his imprisonment, al-Raas said he was beaten daily with a rubber hose. He also suffered excruciating chest pain. Al-Raas has pulmonary hypertension, a heart and lung condition.

His torture in Bahrain is recorded in a medical report filed by Doctors Without Borders obtained by the Star.

When he was released on April 28, al-Raas stripped off his prisoners’ garb and put on the Ottawa Senators T-shirt he’d worn to the airport. He said he made a forced on-camera confession to spying for the Iranian government. Then he was dumped in the street outside the prison, given back his glasses and wallet and told to take a taxi home. ..more

US labor team probes job purges in Bahrain
By BRIAN MURPHY – Oct. 26, 2011 – The Sacramento Bee

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A U.S. fact-finding team in Bahrain wrapped up talks Wednesday to investigate workplace purges that have spurred calls to suspend a key trade pact over the Gulf nation’s crackdown on protesters.

The firsthand inquest by the Department of Labor is in response to efforts by America’s biggest labor group to force a stinging U.S. rebuke of Bahrain’s rulers, who have crushed opposition groups but have avoided serious backlash from Washington because of strategic concerns.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and its ruling monarchy is closely backed by another critical U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have dispatched troops to help Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy battle Shiite-led protesters calling for greater rights.

The Labor Department has until December to complete a report on a complaint filed by the AFL-CIO, seeking to block the free-trade pact with Bahrain in retaliation for widespread dismissals of workers and union leaders with suspected ties to protesters.

Bahrain’s majority Shiites began protests in February calling for reforms, including an end to the monarchy’s monopoly on appointing top government officials. At least 35 people have died in the unrest, and hundreds have been purged from jobs or arrested, including some sentenced to life in prison or given death sentences for killing security forces.

The number of people pushed from their jobs is unclear. Bahrain’s biggest labor group, the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions, has put the figure as high as 2,500.

A statement Wednesday by Bahrain’s government said 1,623 cases are pending before disciplinary councils, which were set up to review the dismissals of employees.

In possible reaction to the U.S. investigations, Bahrain’s deputy prime minister, Sheik Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, urged for a “resolution” of the review of workers dismissed from jobs. The statement said the disciplinary councils have so far cleared 156 people for reinstatement and confirmed the dismissals of 174 employees.

In September, more than 100 workers returned to jobs at the state oil company.

Suspending the 5-year-old trade pact would have not have major financial effects – the two-way trade is less than $1.5 billion a year – but it would be seen as a direct blow to Bahrain’s efforts to reassure international companies and investors.

The pact, which waives tariffs on industrial and consumer products, is just one of 17 such bilateral agreements with Washington. Others in the Middle East include Israel, Jordan and Oman.

In Bahrain’s capital Manama, U.S. Embassy spokesman Bradley Niemann said the Labor Department envoys have held talks since last week with government officials, union representatives and workers. The mission was scheduled to end Wednesday.

In Washington, rights groups have urged the U.S. Congress to block a proposed $53 million arms sale to Bahrain.
…source

Smuggled Libyan weapons flood into Egypt
By Leila Fadel – Washington Post – 26 October, 2011

EL ARISH, Egypt — Large caches of weapons from Libya are making their way across the Egyptian border and flooding black markets in Egypt’s already unstable Sinai Peninsula, according to current and former Egyptian military officials and arms traders in the Sinai.

Egyptian security officials have intercepted surface-to-air missiles, most of them shoulder-launched, on the road to Sinai and in the smuggling tunnels connecting Egypt to the Gaza Strip since Moammar Gaddafi fell from power in Libya in August, a military official in Cairo said. Arms traders said the weapons available on Sinai’s clandestine market include rockets and antiaircraft guns.

The seizures raise fresh concerns about security along the sensitive area that borders the Gaza Strip and Israel, at a time when unrest is roiling the region. The addition of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to arsenals of Palestinian fighters in Gaza could add significantly to the threat against Israel, whose helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft frequently patrol the strip, which is controlled by the militant Islamist group Hamas.

“We don’t want to see Egypt as a pathway to smuggle weapons,” said Sameh Seif el-Yazal, a retired Egyptian general in military intelligence who said several surface-to-air missiles have been intercepted on the desert road from Libya to the Egyptian city of Alexandria and north on to Gaza. “We believe some Palestinian groups made a deal with Libyans to get special weapons such as shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.”

Concerns about security in the Sinai have been growing in Egypt and among Israeli and American officials, who have called on Egypt to do more to protect the sensitive area, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel. In the months since Egypt’s January-February revolution, the pipeline that feeds natural gas to Israel has been attacked seven times by militants. A cross-border attack by assailants in August killed eight Israeli civilians and prompted an Israeli counterstrike that killed six Egyptian troops, including three who later died of their wounds

Palestinian militants in Gaza command a potent arsenal that includes surface-to-surface missiles capable of striking deep inside Israel. But they are not known to have employed more than rudimentary antiaircraft weapons.

Resistance by Bedouins

The vastness of the Sinai, with its deserts and mountains, poses a major challenge to efforts by Egyptian authorities to maintain security there. In recent months, Egypt has sent reinforcements, bringing the number of troops on the peninsula to 20,000, but it has struggled to gain control in an area governed by tribal customs and populated primarily by Bedouins, who distrust the government and call the shots.

A security official and an Egyptian brigadier general who served recently in the Sinai said the seizures have included ammunition, explosives, automatic weapons and caches of heavier arms, including Russian-made Strela-2 and Strela-3 heat-seeking, shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles.

“We’ve intercepted more advanced weapons, and these weapons aren’t familiar to the Egyptian weapons markets; these are war weapons,” said the brigadier general, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. …more

Saudi Arabia police open fire at protest in Qatif back
25 October, 2011 – xfmnewscenter.com

Police in Saudi Arabia have opened fire to disperse protesters in the eastern city of Qatif, a day before planned countrywide anti-government protests.

Witnesses said police also beat demonstrators with batons injuring at least three people.

The protesters, from the Shia minority, were demanding the release of prisoners they say have been held without charge.

Protests are illegal in Saudi Arabia, which has had an absolute monarchy since its unification in the 1930s.

But last month the arrest of Shia cleric Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amer, detained reportedly for calling for a constitutional monarchy, sparked outrage and drew crowds on to the streets.

He was released last weekend, but relatively small-scale protests have continued in the Eastern Region, where much of the country’s crude oil is sourced.

The protesters have been demanding the release of nine Shia prisoners who they say have been held without trial for more than 14 years.

A witness in Qatif told AFP news agency the crowds had once again been demanding the prisoners’ release.

“As the procession in the heart of the city was about to finish, soldiers started shooting at the protesters, and three of them were wounded,” the witness said.

Other accounts said the police had also used stun grenades and had beaten the protesters with batons, injuring many more than three.Rights groups have accused the police of beating protesters during previous rallies in Qatif.
[Read more →]

Volunteers in Surt removed bodies of people apparently killed in reprisal by anti-Qaddafi militias. Many had their hands bound and had been shot in the head

In Libya, Massacre Site Is Cleaned Up, Not Investigated
By KAREEM FAHIM and ADAM NOSSITER – October 24, 2011 – NYT

The volunteers said the victims included at least two former Qaddafi government officials, local loyalist fighters and maybe civilians. The killers, they believed, were former rebel fighters, belonging to anti-Qaddafi units that had used the hotel as a base in recent weeks. It appeared to be one of the worst massacres of the eight-month conflict, but days after it occurred, no one from Libya’s new government had come to investigate.

The interim leaders, who declared the country liberated on Sunday, may simply have their hands full with the responsibilities that come with running a state. But throughout the Libyan conflict, they have also shown themselves to be unwilling or incapable of looking into accusations of atrocities by their fighters, despite repeated pledges not to tolerate abuse.

The lack of control came into sharp focus last week, when former rebel fighters arrested Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. In videos of the capture on Thursday morning, victorious fighters were shown manhandling Colonel Qaddafi, who appeared to be bleeding and distressed but conscious. This was moments after he was pulled from a large drainage pipe where he had hidden after a NATO air assault destroyed part of his convoy. Subsequent video shows his bruised corpse, with at least one bullet wound to the head. …more

Bury Gaddafi with dignity
Gaddafi’s body should be treated with dignity in order to send a message to other dictators and future generations.
Hamid Dabashi – 22 Oct 2011 – AlJazeera

The unseemly pictures and videos circulating the internet capturing the final moments of Gaddafi’s life should be the last signs of indignity that Libyan people would ever see marking their historic revolution. Future generation of Libyans, the children of these very freedom fighters, deserve better.

Reports indicate that Colonel Gaddafi’s body is in the possession of authorities from the National Transitional Council (NTC). They must see that he gets a proper and dignified funeral, befitting a fallen head of state.

The body now in possession of NTC authorities is not just the remains of a fallen dictator to be violated freely on the battlefield of a cruel history. It is also the body-politic of future Libya. The triumphant euphoria of Libyans feasting on their victory, richly deserved, must not be marred by the undignified pictures of abusing the image they will most remember and tell their grandchildren for an entire history yet to unfold.

Treat Gaddafi’s body with dignity not because he deserved it. But because the Libyan people need it. They must commence the rest of their history with a sense of self-dignity, of triumphant pride. That self-dignity is now determined by how they will treat the dead body of Colonel Gaddafi.

Treat that body not as the fallen tyrant deserved, but as the future of your children deserves.

Shakespearian dilemma

There is a scene in Hamlet where the bereaved Prince turns to the conniving Polonius asking him to treat a group of actors visiting the Elsinore with dignity and generous hospitality. “Good my lord,” Hamlet says, “Will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.”

These days are indeed “the abstract and brief chronicles of the time” for future Libyans, for the future of the Arab and Muslim world. They should treat the fallen tyrant not “according to his desert,” but after their own honor and dignity.
Follow Al Jazeera’s ongoing coverage

Let the pictures and videos of a proper burial and a dignified resting place for Colonel Gaddafi fill the schoolbooks in which future generations of Libyans will read their Arabic alphabet and learn the dignity of their parentage.

The man was a relic, a frightful echo from a past, a monster not entirely of his own making. Heads of state, who in some cases enabled the dictator, are now rejoicing in his downfall. …more

US senator talks about military options in Syria
The Associated Press – Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011- Las Vegas Sun

U.S. Senator John McCain said Sunday that military action to protect civilians in Syria might be considered now that NATO’s air campaign in Libya is ending.

However, President Barack Obama’s administration has made clear it has no appetite for military intervention in Syria _ a close ally of Iran that sits on Israel’s border _ and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted Sunday that the Syrian opposition has not called for such action as President Bashar Assad’s regime.

“Now that military operations in Libya are ending, there will be renewed focus on what practical military operations might be considered to protect civilian lives in Syria,” McCain said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan. “The Assad regime should not consider that it can get away with mass murder. Gadhafi made that mistake and it cost him everything,” he added, referring to ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi who was captured and killed last week by fighters loyal to the new government.

“Iran’s rulers would be wise to heed similar counsel,” McCain said.

It was not clear whether the Republican senator from Arizona was referring to American or NATO military action against the Syrian regime, which has waged a 7-month crackdown on opposition protesters and killed about 3,000 people, according to the U.N.

However, international intervention, such as the NATO action in Libya that helped topple Gadhafi, is all but out of the question in Syria. Washington and its allies have shown little inclination for getting involved militarily in another Arab nation in turmoil. There also is real concern that Assad’s ouster would spread chaos around the region.

Syria is a geographical and political keystone in the heart of the Middle East, bordering five countries with which it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel’s case, a fragile truce. Its web of alliances extends to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran’s Shiite theocracy. There are worries that a destabilized Syria could send unsettling ripples through the region.

Most Syrian opposition groups, inside and outside Syria, also have said they oppose military intervention. …more

The U.S. State Department announced Oct. 14 that it was putting the Bahrain sale on hold until a government commission set up by King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa in June to investigate Manama’s harsh crackdown on protesters demanding the end of the Sunni monarchy. It’s more than likely the report will exonerate the Bahraini government, which would clear the way for the Pentagon to complete the $53 million sale. quagmire

Arms sales to Mideast under the gun
Oct. 24, 2011 – UPI

MANAMA, Bahrain, Oct. 24 (UPI) — Amid growing calls for halting arms sales to repressive Arab regimes, the U.S. administration has delayed a planned $53 million deal with Bahrain. But it’s a token gesture at best and is expected to go through eventually.

Not surprising since U.S. officials disclosed in September that the United States had secretly extended a defense agreement with the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom, a key regional financial hub, in 2002 that will run until 2016. The Pentagon declared the agreement, reached in 1991, is classified and declined comment on the extension. Because it’s not a full-blown defense treaty, the agreement didn’t require approval from Congress. The pact allows the United States access to bases in the island state, strategically located in the middle of the Persian Gulf opposite Iran, and the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. That’s a powerful U.S. military force in the volatile region and its importance grows as the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq moves toward completion Dec. 31.

The U.S. State Department announced Oct. 14 that it was putting the Bahrain sale on hold until a government commission set up by King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa in June to investigate Manama’s harsh crackdown on protesters demanding the end of the Sunni monarchy. It’s more than likely the report will exonerate the Bahraini government, which would clear the way for the Pentagon to complete the $53 million sale.

It includes 44 Humvee armored vehicles, several hundred TOW anti-tank missiles with associated equipment and support programs. Primary U.S. contractors are AM General and the Raytheon Co.
The United States clearly has strategic interests in Bahrain and doesn’t want to see the Al Khalifa monarchy fall as that would jeopardize U.S. bases in Bahrain and boost Iran’s influence.

The U.S. Navy is extending its naval base in Manama, which supports more than a dozen U.S. warships. The Navy has taken over the Mina Salman port, which will be large enough to berth Nimitz class aircraft carriers. The Navy has been in Bahrain since 1973, when the British pulled out of the Persian Gulf, and has built a minor naval station into one of the most crucial bases in the region.

According to the Marine Times newspaper, the U.S. Marine Corps plans to locate one of two new Marine Expeditionary Brigade headquarters in Bahrain under the U.S. Central Command.

Manama authorities claimed the mass protests, mainly by the kingdom’s downtrodden majority Shiites, were instigated by Iran, which has long claimed the island state as its territory.

The revolt took place as the Arab world was convulsed by uprisings by pro-democracy protesters that have toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, both U.S. allies, and overturned the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed by rebel fighters.

Other uprisings are taking place in Syria and Yemen, with some 5,000 people killed since January, most of them by the forces of regimes they seek to topple. Western human rights organizations claim the weapons used by these repressive regimes, with records of large-scale human rights abuses, were provided by U.S., European and Russian governments and defense companies.

These groups demand tighter regulation of arms sales to such regimes. Amnesty International said Oct. 18 that many of the world governments calling for political reforms and human rights in the Middle East were the very ones preventing it by selling weapons to those regimes. Amnesty’s report on arms sales to despotic regimes listed Austria, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States as the main suppliers since 2005 to the countries — Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen — covered by the study.

Britain has said it plans to tighten export regulations to halt the sale of weapons, ammunition and tear gas to regimes that maintain police states and abuse human rights. But, like the Americans, Britain and its European partners are coming to rely heavily on military exports to maintain production lines and research and development at a time when defense budgets are being slashed because of the global economic slowdown. So it wasn’t surprising that when British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the gulf in February, when the Arab uprisings were getting into full swing, a posse of executives from U.K. defense companies went with him. …source

HRW: Bahrain: Medics Describe Torture in Detention
Appeals Court Should Void Flawed Convictions – OCTOBER 21, 2011 – BCHR

(Beirut) – Medical staff convicted by a military court of alleged serious crimes during the period of anti-government protests in Bahrain in early 2011 were subjected to abuse and torture in detention, Human Rights Watch said today. Given the fundamental unfairness of the trial, including that civilians were tried in a military court, Bahrain’s High Court of Appeals should reverse the convictions of 20 medical staff when they hear their appeal on October 23, 2011, and order an independent investigation into the defendants’ allegations of abuse and torture.

The prosecutors should drop all charges based solely on their exercise of freedom of speech and assembly, and ensure a new trial for defendants in a civilian court only if there is evidence of possible criminal activity, Human Rights Watch said. On October 5, Attorney General Ali Al Buainain announced that the appeal will “be equivalent to a retrial.” Human Rights Watch interviewed 7 of the 20 medical staff convicted of serious crimes, who told of severe abuse in detention and extensive violations of their rights to a fair trial.

“The appeals court should decisively overturn the unfair verdicts against the medics and dismiss outright all politically motivated charges,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The new hearing should also disallow allegedly coerced confessions.”

On September 29, the National Safety Lower Court, a special military court, convicted the 20 doctors, nurses, and paramedics on charges including forcibly taking over the Salmaniya Medical Complex and refusing treatment to patients based on sectarian affiliation. The court also convicted the 20 of transparently political offenses, such as “instigating hatred against the ruling system,” “incitement to overthrow the regime,” and “spreading false news.”

On March 16, the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) took control of the Salmaniya Medical Complex, the largest medical complex in Bahrain. Beginning on March 17, security forces arrested 48 medics, 28 of whom separately face lesser misdemeanor charges before a civilian court for speech-related offenses.

Medical staff interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that interrogators subjected them to physical and psychological pressure during pretrial detention, typically to coerce confessions. Authorities held many of them for weeks, much of that time incommunicado. None could meet with their lawyers to prepare their defenses prior to the military court trial. Many saw family members and lawyers for the first time on June 6, at their first trial session. …more

Geopolitics and Democracy in Bahrain
By: Abbas Bu-Safwan – Published Friday, October 21, 2011 – Al-Akhbar

The Bahraini popular uprising is bound by its local framework and by regional and international factors that guide its direction and may define its outcome. In light of this reality, a more comprehensive approach needs to be taken towards the choices and outcomes that await the current political situation in Bahrain.

The uprising in Bahrain is purely an internal event. It is the manifestation of people’s bitterness toward the ruling dynasty and their monopolization of power. The uprising is merely the translation or embodiment of people’s resentment stemming from a dictatorial regime and from corruption, including the inconsistent implementation of law and the strong hold that security forces have over politics. The regime in Bahrain has demonstrated an increasingly entrenched discrimination against its Shiite citizens. The government has taken steps to change the demographics by illegally offering Bahraini nationality to non-Shiite migrants, though Shia still represent at least two-thirds of the population in the country. This internal tension is at least a century old, and its renewal reflects the depth and longevity of the crisis. Since the 1930s, Bahrainis have demanded an elected parliament and a regime that upholds the law equally for all its citizens.

The geopolitical realities of the small islands of Bahrain may prevent a democracy from ever taking hold. At the very least, the characteristics of the Bahraini ruling system and its rentier economy impede any transition to a democratic regime. The geographic location of Bahrain is a factor that also hinders renovation of the country’s tribal structure. How so?

Bahrain is in the center of a turbulent region, with a history of wars that precedes the establishment of the relatively new state. This region that includes Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries is governed by tribes. Bahrain’s Al Khalifa tribe has controlled political power and the national wealth for the past 230 years. Such regimes don’t tolerate authentic democratic transformations that allow people to effectively participate in the ruling of their country. Moreover, Saudi Arabia considers Bahrain to be its backyard. In other words, it has a real say in Bahraini affairs. When demonstrations spread in Manama between mid-February and March, Saudi Arabia felt that its influence in Bahrain was threatened. It intervened militarily in a crude and unprecedented manner. …more

24 October.2011

Latest News regarding Bahrain’s Doctors in Chains:

On 23rd October the medics went back to court, unsure whether it was for an appeal or a retrial. The Public Prosecution dropped a few of the lesser charges and stated that a retrial would begin, starting on 28th November. The trial will be open to the public. We encourage everyone to write to their government to encourage them to send representatives to observe the proceedings to ensure a fair trial. This is a fact sheet handed out by the Public Prosecution in court on 23rd October regarding the proceedings: Public Prosecution statement on 23 Oct 2011 distributed in Appeal Court HERE

This is the response from the medics’ lawyers, released on 24th Oct: Arabic & English Medics’ Lawyers statement in reply to PP statement on 23 October 2011

In the name of God the most merciful and precious

Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the Start of the Hearings before the Criminal High Court of Appeal The Criminal High Court of Appeal yesterday, 23rd October 2011, held its first hearings of the appeals filed by the Medical Staff and also by the Public Prosecution. In a precedent considered the first of its kind in the history of the Courts of Bahrain, the Public Prosecution distributed among the persons attending the Court hearing, just a few minutes before the hearing started, an English statement printed on the Public Prosecution’s letterhead papers, consisting of three pages. The statement was entitled “Fact Sheet for Hearing of 23.10.2011.”

In our capacity as the defense lawyers for the Medical Staff charged in the Case, we hereby lay our response to the Public Prosecution’s statement and also what the Public Prosecution’s representative recorded in the hearing minutes, as follows:

First: There is difference in the charges put against the Medical Staff before the Court of Appeal and those which were put against them before the military National Safety Court. The Public
Prosecution, for example, dropped three minor charges out of 14 charges put against them. The three charges which the Public Prosecution dropped from the list of charges are only misdemeanors
the punishment for which does not exceed a maximum of three years’ prison term. Those three misdemeanors are:

1. Public incitement of hatred to the ruling regime or showing contempt towards it, which is punishable according to Article 165 of the Penal Code. Statement by the Lawyer of the Bahraini Medics regarding the Start of the Hearings before the Criminal High Court of Appeal 1

2. Publicly broadcasting false or malicious news or statements which are detrimental to the public interest, which is punishable by Article 168 of the Penal Code.

3. Inciting others, by any method of publication, not to comply with the applicable laws or to do any act that constitutes a crime, which is punishable by Article 173 of the Penal Code.

Therefore, it is clear that the Public Prosecution maintained all charges against the Medical Staff the constitute felonies, which are the most grave and serious, mainly the following:

1. Occupying a public hospital which is punishable with up to life imprisonment as per Article 149 of the Penal Code.

2. Possessing arms without license which is punishable with up to 15 years’ imprisonment as per Article 7 of the Explosives and Arms Law.

3. Detaining public servants and preventing them of carrying their duties which is punishable with up to 15 years’ imprisonment as per Article 357 of the Penal Code.

4. Promoting the overthrow of the political system of the State by force which is punishable with up to 10 years’ imprisonment as per Article 160 of the Penal Code.

Practically speaking, dropping the said three minor charges by the Public Prosecution will have no impact on the prison sentences passed against the Medical Staff, in case the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling handed down by the military National Safety Court for any of the felony charges above-mentioned. This is because according to Article 66 of the Penal Code, a single punishment
which is that or the gravest offense will be applied. .FULLTEXT HERE

Ignoring Human Rights, Defense Dept. Considers Selling Weapons to Bahrain
by Zachary Foster – 24 October, 2011 – policymic.com

Last week, Amnesty International published a report urging the international community to ban arms sales of any kind to countries in which there is a substantial risk that these arms will be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights law.

The report analyzed arms transfers to Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen since 2005, finding that the principle weapons suppliers were Austria, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the United States.

The evidence is at times disturbing. In 2009, Finland authorized the sale of sniper rifles to Bahrain for “demonstration purposes.” Egyptian security forces (mostly from the Ministry of Interior) killed hundreds of peaceful protestors with shotguns and automatic weapons obtained from the U.S. government as well as other U.S. commercial suppliers. Libya used Spanish-made MAT-120mm mortars in the city center of Misrata – weapons that are altogether prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions. These and thousands more weapons sales, the report documents, have enabled tyrants in the Middle East to slaughter their own people.

To the credit of the West, in most cases the U.S. and European states froze contracts or revoked licenses to states that began using their weapons en masse against their own people.

Still, exceptions can be made for friends. A September 14 Department of Defense press release noted a possible Foreign Military Sale to the government of Bahrain, which had requested 53 million dollars of military equipment, including 44 Armored High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles, a variety of wire guided missiles, Night Sight Sets, spare parts, and other support and test equipment. Perhaps some of the tanks and armored vehicles used in the February 17 raid on peaceful Bahraini protesters — in which five people were killed and 250 injured — were damaged and in need of urgent U.S. government repair before the next round of protests broke out?

The State Department, in response to pressure from Congress and other NGOs, recently announced a “delay” in the shipment of new arms to Bahrain pending the results of an international commission investigating “alleged” abuses by the Kingdom’s security forces. Is Foggy Bottom incapable of conducting its own investigation? Is there not enough independent evidence of flagrant human rights violations to “cancel” the shipment altogether?

The main recommendation of the report, however, is not to prohibit arms sales to erstwhile violators – something about which there seems to be general consensus (with the possible exception of the Defense Department) – but rather to establish “objective and non-discriminatory” criteria “designed to prevent arms transfers where there is a substantial risk of serious violations occurring” in the future.

How it is possible to establish “objective” criteria to predict which countries will commit “serious” violations in the future? If these criteria were so easy to develop, why didn’t Amnesty publish this report a year or two ago? Amnesty could only conceive of producing such a priori criteria after violations have taken place.

The inevitable risk – one acknowledged in the report – is that politicians will exploit this kind of law to punish some states and reward others, for reasons that may or may not have anything to do with the potential for human rights violations (if such a potentiality is even possible to determine). Short of banning the sale of any kind of arms to anyone for any reason, I think the Amnesty recommendations need a great deal more deliberation – including public debates over the objective criteria – before U.S. lawmakers consider accepting them. …source

Roula Al-Safar is a nurse, head of the Bahrain Nursing Association. She spent eighteen years in the United States where she trained at Baylor medical facilities in Dallas, Texas and studied at Widener University in Pennsylvania. Roula was detained for over five months for treating wounded protestors. The Bahrain military court sentenced her to 15 years in prison. She is currently released pending an appeal on October 23, 2011.

Fears for Bahraini teacher after pre-dawn arrest
Jalila al-Salman was previously ill-treated and verbally abused in detention
18 October 2011 – Amnesty Intenrational

There are fears for the safety of a former vice-president of the Bahrain Teacher’s Association after she was arrested in heavy-handed fashion before dawn this morning after recently speaking out about earlier abuses.

Jalila al-Salman was taken from her home in Bahrain by a force of more than 30 security officials, including riot police, who arrived in seven vehicles. The officials reportedly said that they were enforcing a court order for her arrest though they refused to produce a formal arrest warrant.

Last month, Jalila al-Salman was convicted on charges that included attempting to overthrow the Bahrain government after a trial before the military National Safety Court, although she is a civilian. Her appeal is due to be heard in a civilian court on 1 December.

“The manner in which Jalila al-Salman was arrested this morning appears to have been intended to intimidate her and her family and to put them through another terrifying ordeal,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director.

“She has told us how she was previously ill-treated and verbally abused after she was arrested in the middle of the night by armed officials following popular protests in Bahrain last March. This latest action by the security forces inevitably raises renewed concerns about her safety in detention.”

“The Bahraini authorities also need to explain why Jalila al-Salman has been arrested at a time when others who are waiting for their promised civilian court appeals to be heard have been allowed their release on bail.” …more

The killing of Awlaki’s 16-year-old son
Extreme secrecy, as usual, shrouds this act, but it underscores how often the U.S. uses violence around the world
By Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – 20 October, 2011

Two weeks after the U.S. killed American citizen Anwar Awlaki with a drone strike in Yemen — far from any battlefield and with no due process — it did the same to his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, ending the teenager’s life on Friday along with his 17-year-old cousin and seven other people. News reports, based on government sources, originally claimed that Awlaki’s son was 21 years old and an Al Qaeda fighter (needless to say, as Terrorist often means: “anyone killed by the U.S.”), but a birth certificate published by The Washington Post proved that he was born only 16 years ago in Denver. As The New Yorker‘s Amy Davidson wrote: “Looking at his birth certificate, one wonders what those assertions say either about the the quality of the government’s evidence — or the honesty of its claims — and about our own capacity for self-deception.” The boy’s grandfather said that he and his cousin were at a barbecue and preparing to eat when the U.S. attacked them by air and ended their lives. There are two points worth making about this:

(1) It is unknown whether the U.S. targeted the teenager or whether he was merely “collateral damage.” The reason that’s unknown is because the Obama administration refuses to tell us. Said the Post: “The officials would not discuss the attack in any detail, including who the target was.” So here we have yet again one of the most consequential acts a government can take — killing one of its own citizens, in this case a teenage boy — and the government refuses even to talk about what it did, why it did it, what its justification is, what evidence it possesses, or what principles it has embraced in general for such actions. Indeed, it refuses even to admit it did this, since it refuses even to admit that it has a drone program at all and that it is engaged in military action in Yemen. It’s just all shrouded in total secrecy.

Of course, the same thing happened with the killing of Awlaki himself. The Executive Branch decided it has the authority to target U.S. citizens for death without due process, but told nobody (until it was leaked) and refuses to identify the principles that guide these decisions. It then concluded in a secret legal memo that Awlaki specifically could be killed, but refuses to disclose what it ruled or in which principles this ruling was grounded. And although the Obama administration repeatedly accused Awlaki of having an “operational role” in Terrorist plots, it has — as Davidson put it — “so far kept the evidence for that to itself.” …more

BAHRAIN
Small arms – Austria (€28,709), Belgium (€5,643,483), Finland (€13,500), France (€1,254,772), Germany (€87,862), Switzerland (SFr292,804), the UK (£1,065,795)6 and the USA ($929,904) all authorised the transfer of small arms to Bahrain, including assault rifles, sniper rifles, semi automatic and non-automatic firearms, and shotguns.

Smooth-bore weapons over 20mm – Austria (€384,000), France (€1,628,630), Italy (€6,796,430)7, and the UK (£1,458,000) authorised the sale of equipment under the category of smooth bore weapons over 20mm that covers grenade launchers, riot guns used for firing tear gas and other projectiles, or machine guns, for example. The problem is governments usually do not report on exactly what equipment was sold under the reporting categories in their annual reports on arms exports and despite asking for clarification on what was sold no further information has been obtained to indicate the type of weaponry allowed.

EXAMPLES OF DEADLY FORCE
Riot police and soldiers fatally wounded seven people between 14 and 18 February. Security forces used live ammunition, sometimes at close range, fired medium-to-large calibre bullets from high-powered rifles, and apparently targeted people’s heads, chests and abdomens. ‘Ali ‘Abdulhadi Mushaima’, aged 21, suffered multiple gunshot wounds from being shot by the riot police while at a demonstration on 14 February in al-Daih village, east of Manama. He died soon after in hospital. ‘Isa ‘Abdulhassan, aged 60, died instantaneously from a massive head wound caused by a shot fired probably from less than 2m away. Mahmood Maki ‘Ali, aged 23, and ‘Ali Mansoor Ahmed Khudair, aged 52, were shot dead from within 7m. ‘Ali Ahmed ‘Abdullah ‘Ali al-Mo’men, aged 23, died in hospital of multiple gunshot wounds. ‘Abdul Redha Mohammed Hassan, aged 20, died in hospital after also being shot in the head from close range.

full report HERE

Bahrain: ill-treatment and torture threaten the lives of leaders
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 20/10/2011

Fears for the lives of the opposition leaders jailed for their opinion and political demands have grown in the past two weeks after reports of criminal behavior by the Al Saud and Al Khalifa security forces were reported.

The case of Hassan Mushaima, the ledear of Haq Movement, has been of special concern due to lack of treatment to his cancer ailment. Last year he was treated at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London and was completely cleared of cancer. This was concluded by his doctor after a PET scan confirmed that all traces of cancer had disappeared. However, the ill-treatment he received after his arrest last March and the lack of proper medical care had led to serious concerns about his condition. He had been given three doses while blindfolded the nature of which is not known. His condition deteriorated for a while and his real condition now is unknown. International human rights bodies are urged to take the cases of Bahraini detainees seriously, especially those of Mr Hassan Mushaima and Mr Abdul Wahab Hussain who also has been ill-treated despite his serious illness in the nervous system.
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