Obama’s ‘Peace’ Legacy — Drones, Death Squads, And Destruction Everywhere
8/29/11 – By Thomas H. Naylor – Counterpunch

Pressenza Pressenza International Press Agency Washington DC, 8/29/11 Hardly a week goes by in which we do not learn of the deaths of innocent civilians in Afghanistan or Pakistan resulting from attacks by U.S. drones. Attack drones have also been deployed in Libya, Somalia, and Yemen.

This form of pilotless aircraft can be used to inflict death and destruction anywhere in the world. Drones are controlled by well-trained, high-tech, gutless assassins seated in air conditioned comfort in front of sophisticated instrument panels thousands of miles away from their intended targets.

The beauty of desktop, drone warfare is that it is neat, clean, precise, risk-free, sanitized, and bloodless and can be waged by those who have never set foot on a battlefield or smelled the stench of death. It’s almost like playing a video game.

The Pentagon recently ordered 55 Global Hawk drones for a cool $23 billion. There is even talk of converting the Burlington International Airport in Vermont into a drone base.

A ‘Perfect’ Killing Machine

Drones represent the perfect instruments of war for a risk averse president who shies away from hand-to-hand political combat. With drones are associated feelings of power and control. We are in charge. There is no face-to-face conflict whatsoever.

Drones also offer endless possibilities as surveillance aircraft for high-tech spying, a practice with which the Obama administration seems to feel quite comfortable.

U.S. Special Operations In 120 Countries

Under the leadership of former CIA Director Leon Panetta, the Pentagon will have U.S. Special Operations forces deployed in no less than 120 countries around the world by year-end.

These instant strike forces include Navy Seals, Army Delta Forces, Rangers, and Green Berets. Special Operations forces have been used extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq. Navy Seals garnered international attention recently with their successful assassination attack on Osama bin Laden. Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi surely would be next!

“Desist… Or Be Prepared To Die”

One can imagine a scenario in the not too distant future in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez receive phone calls from the White House saying, “Cease and desist, or be prepared to die.”

With high-tech, American death squads spread around the world, such a threat becomes increasingly credible. Will this soon become the preferred way to deal with any nation which has the audacity to challenge the American way? China and Russia might still be viewed as exceptions to the rule by the Pentagon.

Obama’s ‘Peace’ Speech…

By far, the most prescient line in President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech was, “There will be times when nations will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.”

Is it possible that what Obama really had in mind with his “hope and change” mantra was replacing old fashioned, conventional warfare with a more sophisticated, high-tech, stealthy, cowardly form of warfare involving drones and kinetic strike death squads?

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” said the Teacher in the book of Ecclesiastes. “Everything is meaningless!” …source

A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign. These killings are often conducted in ways meant to ensure the secrecy of the killers’ identities, so as to avoid accountability.[1][2]

Death squads are often, but not exclusively, associated with the violent political repression under dictatorships, totalitarian states and similar regimes. They typically have the tacit or express support of the state, as a whole or in part (see state terrorism). Death squads may comprise a secret police force, paramilitary group or official government units with members drawn from the military or the police. They may also be organized as vigilante groups.

“Extrajudicial killings” are the illegal killing of leading political, trades union, dissidents, and social figures by either the state government, state authorities like the armed forces and police… …more

Several scholars have accused the United States of conducting state terrorism. They have written about the liberal democracies and their use of state terrorism, particularly in relation to the Cold War. According to them, state terrorism was used to protect the interest of capitalist elites, and the U.S. organized a neo-colonial system of client states, co-operating with local elites to rule through terror. However, little of this work has been recognized by other scholars of terrorism or even of state terrorism.[1]

Works include Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman’s The political economy of human rights (1979), Herman’s The real terror network (1985), Alexander L. George’ Western state terrorism (1991), Frederick Gareau’s State terrorism and the United States (2004) and Doug Stokes’ America’s other war (2005).

Beginning in the late 1970s, Chomsky and Herman wrote a series of books on the United States and state terrorism. Their writings coincided with reports by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations of a new global “epidemic” of state torture and murder. Chomsky and Herman observed that terror was concentrated in the U.S. sphere of influence in the Third World, and documented terror carried out by U.S. client states in Latin America. They observed that of ten Latin American countries that had death squads, all were U.S. client states. Worldwide, 74% of countries that used torture on an administrative basis were U.S. client states, receiving military and other support to retain power. They concluded that the global rise in state terror was a result of U.S. foreign policy. …more

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