Posts from — December 2011

Saudi Arabia’s Breach of Human Rights
by César Chelala – December 13, 2011 – CommonDreams.org

December 10 is Human Rights Day. On December 12, 2011, Saudi Arabian authorities ordered the execution of a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery. Although the Saudi Interior Ministry didn’t give details of the woman’s crime, the London-based al-Hayat newspaper quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, chief of the religious police, who stated that the woman had tricked people, making them believe that she could cure them of a variety of ailments. It was an outrageous response to a serious crime.

“Despite the fact that I hate violence against women, when it comes to God’s will, I have to carry it out,” said Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, Saudi Arabia’s top executioner, during an interview with the Saudi daily Arab News. And with remarkable calm he added, “It doesn’t matter to me: two, four, ten – as long as I am doing God’s will, it doesn’t matter how many people I execute.”

Beheadings of women in Saudi Arabia didn’t start until the early 1990’s. Before then, they were shot. Up to the end of 2011, forty-nine women have been publicly beheaded, mainly in major cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah and Dahran. Executioners are proud of their job, which is handed down from one generation to the next. In Saudi Arabia, executioners use a traditional Arab scimitar approximately 44 inches long.

Many people consider the government headed by King Abdullah as reformist. After all, he was behind the decision to allow women to vote and in local elections, albeit in 2015. However, the World Economic Forum 2009 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 130th out of 134 countries when considering gender parity issues. That same report ranked several Muslim countries such as Kyrgystan, Gambia and Indonesia significantly higher than Saudi Arabia on issues of women’s equality. …more

Palestinian Flag Raised at UNESCO for First Time
Local Editor – moqawama.com

The Palestinian flag was raised at the headquarters of the Unites National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the first time.
Attending the event held in Paris on Tuesday, Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbass stated that joining the UNESCO has been an important step for Palestinians.

After the ceremony, Abbass held a press conference in which he referred to the ongoing “Israeli” settlement activities, stressing that “Israeli” has to “stop its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.”

Moreover, Abbass indicated that peace is a right to be spread everywhere, especially in the Gaza Strip and within all the occupied territories.

Since Palestine submitted its bid for full membership at the UN Security Council last September, the UNESCO was the first UN agency to welcome the Palestinians to join. …source

Special forum on “Justice for Murdered and Disappeared Journalists”
9 December 2011 – Reporters without Borders

Reporters Without Borders and its partner organization, the Centre for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET), have decided to wage a joint campaign against the violence and impunity that Mexican journalists have been suffering for the past decade.

To this end, they are organizing a forum on “Justice for Murdered and Disappeared Journalists” in Mexico City on 10 December. The venue is opposite the memorial to Francisco Zarco, a famous journalist, politician and member of the 1857 constituent assembly.

Reporters Without Borders and CEPET would like to thank all those who have already confirmed their intention to attend. They include leading journalists, politicians and civil society representatives, relatives of journalists who have been murdered, and Alan García, the delegate of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico. Reporters Without Borders will be represented by the head of its Americas Desk, Benoît Hervieu.

The two partner organizations would also like to thank the cartoonist Rafael “Rapé” Pineda for his support. Pineda is one of the cartoonists contributing to the “¡Basta de Sangre!” – “No + sangre” campaign which Reporters Without Borders has been relaying on its website all year.

In the past decade, Mexico has come to rank not far behind Pakistan as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media. The overwhelming majority of the 80 murders of journalists since 2000 have gone unpunished. Another 14 journalists have disappeared since 2003. The situation has deteriorated even more since the start of a federal offensive against drug trafficking after President Felipe Calderón’s installation in December 2006, from which the toll stands at 50,000 dead. …more

Mexico: New murder of person linked to the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity
Trinidad de la Cruz (@MPJD) – SIPAZ

On 7 December 2011 was found the body of Trinidad de la Cuz, leader of the community of Xayakalan, Michoacán, following his kidnapping the previous day by a group of armed men who took him while he was being accompanied by members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD). Since 6 December, a commission of 12 persons from the MPJD had found themselves in the zone to participate in a community assembly in Santa María Ostula.

It should be remembered that Santa María Ostula has been besieged by paramilitary groups since 2009, when the communards retook close to 1300 hectares that had been seized from them by “small property-owners” in La Placita, Michoacán. The community has organized its own “communal police,” asserting its right to exercise its own forms of justice and self-defense. This situation has resulted in the death of 27 persons and the disappearance of five others. On 7 October, Pedro Leyva was also murdered, just before participating in the second dialogue between the MPJD and President Felipe Calderón.

The MPJD has announced that it will suspend a series of actions it had planned during these days to call attention to the high level of vulnerability experienced by human-rights defenders. …source

Debates: ‘No confidence’ in Bahrain reform plan
13 December, 2011 – Shia Post

Nabeel Rajab, Christopher Davidson, Tim Sebastian, Abdulla Alderazi and Khaled al-Maeena participate in the debate on Bahrain’s future, held at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar for the first time.

The willingness and capability of the Bahraini authorities to implement reforms in the kingdom came under the spotlight at the Doha Debates last night, where 78% of the audience voted in favour of the motion that: ‘This house has no confidence in Bahrain’s promises to reform.’
Chairman of the debates, Tim Sebastian introduced the discussion by referring to the recent report commissioned by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa into the violence and alleged torture which took place in Bahrain earlier this year, describing it as “chilling reading,” but reminding the audience that this report represents an unprecedented step for a monarch in admitting that mistakes had been made and serious offences committed.

First to speak for the motion was human rights activist and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, who passionately expressed his belief that the current regime must be changed if any reform is to take place in Bahrain.

“How can we trust a government which has been there for 42 years to make any reforms?” he asked incredulously, arguing that member of the ruling family have such control over the country that any meaningful dialogue or reform process is impossible while the current regime remains intact.

He suggested the King Hamad made a calculated choice to commission his own inquiry into the violence rather than allowing a UN inquiry to investigate, allowing him to distance himself from accepting responsibility for events.

Editor-at-large of Saudi-based Arab News, Khaled al-Maeena was first to speak against the motion, expressing his opinion that the actions of young people throughout the Arab world have made reform an inevitability for Bahrain and other countries in the region.

He said Bahraini authorities will have to reform if they wish to remain in power, describing the issue as one of survival as opposed to a choice.

“The events were extremely sad and should never have happened,” he said, adding “the focus of the world is now on the Arab world and no longer can leaders afford to ignore these people.”

“Young people will not take the nonsense they took before,” he added.

Next to speak for the motion was Christopher Davidson from the University of Durham, an expert and author of numerous books about politics in the region. Davidson referred to the measures being taken by the king as “papering over cracks,” claiming that the ruler has been taking face-saving measures for the past 10 years to ensure that he remains in power. …more

Who Does Bahrain Pay to Make It Look Good? – Human-rights abusing country employs D.C. lobbyists in surprising ways
united re:Public – 12 December, 2011

Bahrain has used DC lobby firms to improve its image during Arab Spring protests. Credit: Wikipedia

The Arab Spring has been good business for lobby shops in Washington. Despotic regimes have long sought to improve their reputations abroad, especially in the United States.

Bahrain, like many of its neighbors in the Middle East, has seen its share of demonstrations where security forces have been brutally violent toward protesters. But, as Ken Silverstein reports in Salon, that’s not always the story you’ll read when you Google “Bahrain.”

…to judge from Tom Squitieri — the self-described “stargazer, Award winning reporter, communications crafter” who has tweeted and blogged about events in Bahrain for Huffington Post and the Foreign Policy Association — demonstrators are largely to blame for the violence.

Squitieri states in his blog posts that he “works with the Bahrain government on media awareness and press freedom,” which is an odd way of describing work that amounts to propaganda…Nor does he mention anywhere that he is an employee of Qorvis Communications, a Washington firm that is registered to lobby for the government of Bahrain.

Silverstein notes that foreign governments, especially those with bad reputations, have started “meta-lobbying” using tactics that advance their interests through other means such as:

making contributions to think tanks and universities; arranging for allegedly independent pro-democracy groups to shill for their bogus elections, funding bilateral business associations that focus on trade issues while advocating, directly or indirectly, for enhanced political ties; and influencing the media and public opinion by hiring American opinion-makers to mouth their talking points.

It’s not just Bahrain. Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, for example, paid the Monitor Group of Cambridge, Mass. $250,000 each month to burnish his image. They employed people like historian Francis Fukuyama, scholar Bernard Lewis, neoconservative Richard Perle, and Harvard professor Joseph Nye to advocate on the Libyan regime’s behalf. …more

Did America help stifle the Arab Spring?
From Bahrain to Morocco, the Pentagon worked to prop up oppressive regimes
By Nick Turse – Dec 13, 2011 – TomDispatch

As the Arab Spring blossomed and President Obama hesitated about whether to speak out in favor of protesters seeking democratic change in the Greater Middle East, the Pentagon acted decisively. It forged ever deeper ties with some of the most repressive regimes in the region, building up military bases and brokering weapons sales and transfers to despots from Bahrain to Yemen.

As state security forces across the region cracked down on democratic dissent, the Pentagon also repeatedly dispatched American troops on training missions to allied militaries there. During more than 40 such operations with names like Eager Lion and Friendship Two that sometimes lasted for weeks or months at a time, they taught Middle Eastern security forces the finer points of counterinsurgency, small unit tactics, intelligence gathering and information operations — skills crucial to defeating popular uprisings.

These recurrent joint-training exercises, seldom reported in the media and rarely mentioned outside the military, constitute the core of an elaborate, longstanding system that binds the Pentagon to the militaries of repressive regimes across the Middle East. Although the Pentagon shrouds these exercises in secrecy, refusing to answer basic questions about their scale, scope, or cost, an investigation by TomDispatch reveals the outlines of a region-wide training program whose ambitions are large and wholly at odds with Washington’s professed aims of supporting democratic reforms in the Greater Middle East.

Lions, Marines and Moroccans — Oh My!

On May 19th, President Obama finally addressed the Arab Spring in earnest. He was unambiguous about standing with the protesters and against repressive governments, asserting that “America’s interests are not hostile to people’s hopes; they’re essential to them.”

Four days earlier, the very demonstrators the president sided with had marched in Temara, Morocco. They were heading for a facility suspected of housing a secret government interrogation facility to press for political reforms. It was then that the kingdom’s security forces attacked.

“I was in a group of about 11 protesters, pursued by police in their cars,” Oussama el-Khlifi, a 23-year-old protester from the capital, Rabat, told Human Rights Watch (HRW). “They forced me to say, ‘Long live the king,’ and they hit me on my shoulder. When I didn’t fall, they clubbed me on the head and I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness, I found myself at the hospital, with a broken nose and an injured shoulder.”

About a five-hour drive south, another gathering was taking place under far more hospitable circumstances. In the seaside city of Agadir, a ceremony marking a transfer of military command was underway. “We’re here to support… bilateral engagement with one of our most important allies in the region,” said Colonel John Caldwell of the U.S. Marine Corps at a gathering to mark the beginning of the second phase of African Lion, an annual joint-training exercise with Morocco’s armed forces. …more

Report: Bahrain king says Syria trains opposition
AP – December 12, 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Bahrain’s king is quoted by a British newspaper as saying some members of the opposition in Gulf kingdom are being trained by Syria.

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was quoted by Britain’s Telegraph newspaper Tuesday that he has notified Syrian authorities of the allegation, but they deny involvement.

The king’s interview coincided with his visit to London on Monday to meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy has previously accused Iran of involvement in widespread protests this year led by Bahrain’s Shiite majority. Syria is a longtime ally of Iran.
…source

Poor’s Plight in Beqaa: Burning Shoes to Keep Warm
By: Ossama al-Kadiry – Al Akhbar – December 13, 2011

Thirteen-year-old Samer stands embarrassed at the petrol station near the Anjar turnoff, in Lebanon’s Beqaa valley. In his hands, he carries a one and a half liter empty water bottle, hiding it behind his back.

Samer feels that poverty is something to be ashamed of, in a country where the poorer class is becoming larger by the day. Noticing the boy, a station employee takes the empty bottle and fills it with diesel. As Samer waits he prepares the 2,000 Lebanese lira (LL) (about US$1.33) to pay for it.

There are many people like Samer in the cold Beqaa area, which experiences a dramatic drop in temperature every winter. As their standard of living falls, residents use diesel for heating more and more sparingly, in amounts that are barely enough to last a few hours.

A tin of diesel is now over LL32,000 (about US$21), and smuggled Syrian diesel is still not making it to the market. Even the price of firewood is now being dragged up along with it on the weekly fuel market, gradually climbing up from LL200,000 (US$133) to LL300,000 (US$200) a ton.

Firewood has therefore become a profitable commodity.

Trading it is no longer just a spontaneous response by the people of the area to the rise in the price of diesel. The stockpiling of tons of apricot, cherry, almond, apple and grape firewood in the Central Beqaa has gone beyond the consumer needs of those with a limited income, those who also use wood burning stoves as an alternative to diesel ones.

These days, instead of paying US$250 for a wood burning stove, some have turned to blacksmiths to convert their diesel stoves. In turn, blacksmiths have found a new way to earn a living, charging LL50,000 (US$16.66) for each conversion.

Relying on electricity for heating has gradually become the worst option for winter in the Beqaa, not only because of its relatively high cost but also due to power rationing, leaving many homes in darkness for hours every day.

In trying to deal with the difficulties of finding sources of heating, people have resorted to alternatives which they find less than satisfactory. Some have been using old shoes as an alternative to firewood, while others have been creating a “hybrid” fuel of sorts. Old shoes are now collected in bags and sold in the popular markets.

“Our government really respects its citizens. It raises the price of everything to teach them to be creative!” says Aida Abdul Halim sarcastically.

Halim, from the Western Beqaa, is aware of the harmful effects burning shoes in her stove can have on her family’s health. But she says she has no alternative, because her husband’s monthly income barely reaches LL700,000 (US$466.66).

“A bag of old shoes costs LL7,000 (US$4.66) and lasts for two days. If we have to use diesel, we need 15,000 (US$10). Firewood is now only for the upper middle class,” she says.

Jamil Khaled, from Tinayel, is in a similar situation. But by widening the pipes of his diesel stove, he can fill it with used cooking oil. “Two barrels cost LL70,000 (US$46.66). I spent the whole summer collecting used oil from every restaurant that sells kebab. Then I mixed the two barrels with five tins of diesel,” he says.

Abu Ashraf al-Muhammad begins this year where he left off last year. He “provides for” his stove with sawdust mixed with used cooking oil, collecting it in paper bags. Because of the power harsh rationing his area is subjected to, Abu Ashraf no longer uses his electric heater, and because diesel for him is “like gold,” he has had to resort to this creative solution. …source

Military wants Iran to return downed drone
By Dave Majumdar – Staff writer – Marine Corp Times – Dec 12, 2011

The government is asking Iran to return the Lockheed Martin-built RQ-170 Sentinel UAV that was recently downed over that country.

“We’ve asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond,” President Obama said Monday during a news conference at the White House with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Obama’s statement is the first official confirmation that the stealthy high-altitude spy plane had been captured by Iran. Earlier, the Pentagon had only officially acknowledged that an unmanned aircraft of an unspecified type was missing over western Afghanistan.

Iranian officials have already stated that they will not return the captured aircraft and have promised to reverse-engineer the jet’s technology.

“I hope he said please,” said analyst Dan Goure of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., referring to Obama’s statement. “I can’t quite see that happening.”

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group, mirrored those comments.

“Good luck with that,” he said. “I think I read this really bad plot line in a cheap novel a few years ago. Life imitating art, or something like that.”

Goure said that there is no chance that Iran will return the Sentinel to the U.S. Nor does Obama have any legal grounds to ask for such a return.

“I’m a little puzzled as to why he even bothered,” he said.

Goure said the U.S. had a right to complain when the technical research ship Pueblo was captured by North Korea in 1968 or when a Chinese fighter collided with a Navy EP-3 Aries spy plane in international airspace in 2001. But the more recent episode is different.

“Nobody has argued that it didn’t go down inside their airspace,” he said.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Rives, a former judge advocate general, said that the U.S. was within its rights to ask for the return of the RQ-170 if the aircraft accidentally strayed into Iranian territory.

“We’re not at war with the Iranians,” Rives said. “When we’re in our current conditions with them, this was an accident, it was a malfunction, the plane went down, it was our plane, there is no question over that. So it’s just a common sense request under international law.”

He said Iran has an obligation to return the aircraft, assuming it was operating in either international airspace or western Afghanistan with the consent of that nation’s leadership. …more

The Saudi-Iranian Rivalry and the Future of Middle East Security
Authored by Dr. W. Andrew Terrill – December 8, 2011 – US Army War College, Strategic Studies

document can be found HERE

Brief Synopsis

Saudi Arabia and Iran have often behaved as serious rivals for influence in the Middle East and especially the Gulf area since at least Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. While both nations define themselves as Islamic, the differences between their foreign policies could hardly be more dramatic. In most respects, Saudi Arabia is a regional status quo power, while Iran often seeks revolutionary change throughout the Gulf area and the wider Middle East with varying degrees of intensity. Saudi Arabia also has strong ties with Western nations, while Iran views the United States as its most dangerous enemy. Perhaps the most important difference between the two nations is that Saudi Arabia is a conservative Sunni Muslim Arab state, while Iran is a Shi’ite state whose senior politicians often view their country as the defender and natural leader of Shi’ites throughout the region. The rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran has been reflected in the politics of a number of regional states where these two powers exercise influence including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Bahrain and others.

The 2011 wave of pro-democracy and anti-regime protests known as the “Arab Spring” introduced new concerns for both Saudi Arabia and Iran to consider within the framework of their regional priorities. The Saudi-Iranian rivalry is therefore likely to intensify as a central feature in the Middle Eastern security landscape that reaches into both the Gulf region and the Arab-Israeli theater. This is a reality that will touch upon the interests of the United States in a number of situations. In many instances, Saudi opposition to Iran will serve U.S. interests, but this will not occur under all circumstances. Saudi Arabia remains a deeply anti-revolutionary state with values and priorities which sometimes overlap with those of Washington on matters of strategic interest and often conflict over matters of reform and democracy for other Middle Eastern states. Additionally, in seeking to support Middle Eastern stability, the United States must be prepared to mediate between Riyadh and Baghdad, and thereby help to limit Iranian efforts to insert itself into Iraqi politics. …source

Zambada Niebla Case Exposes US Drug War Quid Pro Quo
Posted by Bill Conroy – December 10, 2011 – NarcoNews

Prosecutor, DEA Agent Confirm Intel From Sinaloa Mafia Used to Undermine Juarez, Beltran Leyva Drug Organizations

U.S. government officials have long presented the drug war through the media as a type of “Dirty Harry” movie, in which hardscrabble cops are engaged in a pitched battle with hardened street criminals who threaten the very social fabric of life behind America’s gated communities.

Of course it’s a big pretense, with the truth being closer to what really goes on in the marketplace of the US everyday. The drug war is, in reality, a drug business in which backroom deals are cut to advance the profit motives of the business entities involved, whether they be narco-trafficking organizations, or weapons manufacturers or government bureaucracies — and the aspiring, greedy careerists who inhabit their leadership ranks.

But even the US government makes mistakes, and in this case it’s the government’s own agents and prosecutors who have that egg on their face via affidavits filed in early December in a controversial criminal case now pending in the Windy City. The pleadings supposedly advance the government’s case against a major Mexican narco-trafficker, Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla. In reality, though — for any person of a critical mind reading them — the court documents demonstrate the insidious nature of the cooperation that exists between the US government and Mexico’s Sinaloa mafia organization.

Nowhere has the peel on that sour fruit been stripped back more cleanly with the paring knife of truth, revealing the bloody pulp inside, than in the ongoing narco-trafficking case against the rising Mexican Sinaloa Cartel capo Zambada Niebla — son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, who, together with business associate Joaquin Guzman Loera (El Chapo), serves as a godfather of the Sinaloa organization.

Mexican soldiers arrested Zambada Niebla in late March 2009 after he met with DEA agents in a posh Mexico City hotel, a meeting arranged by a US government informant who also is a close confident of Ismael Zambada and Chapo Guzman. That informant, Mexican attorney Humberto Loya Castro, by the US government’s own admission in court pleadings in the Zambada Niebla case, serves as an intermediary between the Sinaloa Cartel leadership and US government agencies seeking to obtain information on rival narco-trafficking organizations. …more

Middle East Scholars Give Academic Freedom Award to Bahraini Resistance
Washington, December 3, 2011 – MESA – Source BHCR

The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) awarded its 2011 academic freedom prize:

“To all faculty, students and staff of Bahraini institutions of higher education who, by speaking out, documenting abuses, and engaging in myriad other forms of resistance have struggled against a range of brutal assaults by the Bahraini government upon academic freedom and upon the autonomy and integrity of the country’s educational institutions”

Since April 2011, MESA’s Committee on Academic Freedom has sent three letters to the Bahraini Minister of Education and other top university officials in Bahrain outlining our deep concerns over what has been nothing less than a massive assault against academic freedom at all levels since the peaceful protests of last February were countered with brutal, and in some cases lethal, force. Hundreds of students, faculty and staff have been dismissed, arrested, humiliated and tortured during detention; some have been required to sign loyalty oaths; others have had their scholarships withdrawn. Moreover, the abuses against members of the educational sector continue—against some for joining in peaceful protests, against others simply having the wrong last name.

The record of the past months is more than sufficient reason to focus on Bahrain for this year’s Academic Freedom award. However, an additional reason for highlighting the vicious assault on the educational sector -–from a podium in Washington, D.C.—is to underline the complicity in the violence in Bahrain of the US government, through its failure to defend human rights in a country which hosts the base of the US Fifth fleet. As scholars of the region, we are angered by the treatment of our Bahraini colleagues. We are also outraged by the relative silence of the Obama administration.

Nabil Rajab, one of the founders of the human rights movement in Bahrain and who currently serves as the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, accepted the award on behalf of his Bahraini colleagues. Rajab was in Washington D.C. to accept the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award, an honor bestowed annually by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and for which he was nominated by MESA. …source

Bahrain’s Past and Present an Interview with Bahrain Human Rights Defender, Nabeel Rajab
Dec 12 2011 – by Rosie Bsheer and Ziad Abu-Rish – Jadaliyya

see multi-part video Arabic HERE listen bot-audio HERE

During the period of the 1940s through the 1960s, regime forces and oil company private security contractors violently crushed anti-colonial and anti-imperialist protest movements in places like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain (among many others), with the explicit approval of and material support from London and Washington D.C. In Saudi Arabia, counter-revolutionary forces decimated these twentieth-century popular leftist and nationalist movements. They also thwarted several attempts at orchestrating anti-regime coups or implementing a constitutional monarchy. However, in Bahrain, the ruling family was not as successful, despite Saudi, British, and US support. Consequently, Bahrain continued to witness democratic liberation and constitutional movements throughout the decades, culminating in this year’s February 14 Uprising. This historical connection is often severed in mainstream western and Arab media, which often posit the current uprising as an exception in Bahrain’s history, often depicting it along purely sectarian and conspiratorial lines.

In the following interview conducted on 3 December 2011, Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab clarifies these historical links. Rajab explains the ways in which both the current popular uprising as well as the attendant counter-revolutionary efforts parallel or depart from those of years past. In addition, he highlights the immense promise contained within the movement that emerged in February as a result of the latter’s political, socio-economic, and sectarian diversity. It is this promise that has frustrated the Bahraini and Saudi counter-revolutionary campaigns, which have been waged on multiple fronts: international diplomacy, domestic and international media, the judicial system, and extra-legal security operations and coercion. Finally, Nabeel Rajab highlights the resilience of the people of Bahrain, as well as their aspirations for and commitment to building a democratic, accountable, and just political system that guarantees the legitimate rights of all Bahrainis.

Rosie Bsheer and Ziad Abu-Rish (RB&ZA): How does the February 14 movement differ from the many liberation movements that Bahrain has witnessed in the last century?

Nabeel Rajab (NB): I think the February 14 Movement is an extension of previous liberation movements that emerged in Bahrain in the past. It is perhaps also the closest, because for the first time in the long period since Bahrain’s previous liberation movements, there has been a new movement since 14 February consisting of so many people from across sectarian, political, economic, cultural, and social backgrounds. Some of them are communists, others are Shia and Sunni, intellectuals and uneducated, managers and workers. This is the first time that we are able to bring together so many people of such diverse backgrounds and cultures in one movement, one cause, and one uprising. We have not seen this level of activism for many years, and this is the first time in so long that we are witnessing a repeat of the liberation movements, of previous liberation experiments in Bahrain, and it started again on 14 February 2011.

RB&ZA: We often hear that the level of violence used to put down the February 14 Uprising is unprecedented in Bahrain’s history. Weren’t the Bahraini regime’s attempts to crush popular uprisings as well as anti-colonial and constitutional movements in the last century just as violent?

NR: All of Bahrain’s previous liberation movements were countered with great levels of systematic oppression, violence, killing, imprisonment, and torture. What is happening today is no different. However, this level of violence against peaceful protesters has been escalated and the modes of oppression being exercised… We have probably never sacrificed this many deaths and causalities in past years. [Since 14 February] there have been over forty-five martyrs. Thousands of people have been systematically tortured. Security forces have also systematically broken into houses, [even] stealing people’s belongings. They have also targeted people at their place of employment by having them fired from their jobs. They have targeted people’s education through expelling them from their schools and universities. They have targeted people in their place of worship by targeting their mosques and demolishing them. There has been a systematic targeting of people across all lines and all levels, and this has perhaps happened for the first time in our history. But we need to take into consideration that in the 1970s, 1990s, 1950s, 1940s, or 1920s, liberation movements were also violently crushed. You should know that security forces in Bahrain are structured based on British security forces, and the Bahraini intelligence services are full of British advisers, so are the security forces. Until recently, we in Bahrain still rely on the remnants of British colonialism and its security structures in Bahrain.
[Read more →]

Saudi Arabia: Beheading for ‘sorcery’ shocking
December 12, 2011 – Amnesty International

The beheading of a woman convicted of “witchcraft and sorcery” is deeply shocking and highlights the urgent need for a halt in executions in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International said today.

The Interior Ministry said that the woman, Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser, a Saudi Arabian national, was executed on Monday in the northern province of al-Jawf. It gave no further details of the charges against her.

“The charges of ‘witchcraft and sorcery’ are not defined as crimes in Saudi Arabia and to use them to subject someone to the cruel and extreme penalty of execution is truly appalling,” said Philip Luther Amnesty International’s interim Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“While we don’t know the details of the acts which the authorities accused Amina of committing, the charge of sorcery has often been used in Saudi Arabia to punish people, generally after unfair trials, for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion.”

The execution is the second of its kind in recent months. In September a Sudanese national was beheaded in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina after being convicted on “sorcery” charges. He had allegedly confessed after being tortured and was tried without a lawyer.

The number of executions in Saudi Arabia has almost tripled this year. So far at least 79 people – including five women – have been executed there, compared to at least 27 in 2010.

Hundreds more people are believed to be under sentence of death, many of them convicted of drugs offences. They have often had no defence lawyer and in many cases have not been informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them.

“The huge rise in the number of executions in Saudi Arabia is deeply disturbing,” said Philip Luther. “We regularly call on the Saudi Arabian authorities to impose a moratorium with a view to abolishing the death penalty. Where the death penalty is used, under international law it should only be applied to the most serious crimes.” …more

Ongoing Human Rights Violations in the Trial of Leaders of the Teachers Association in Bahrain
2011-12-12 – Gulf Center for Human Rights

Beirut, December 12, 2011 – On Sunday, December 11, 2011, the Supreme Court of Appeal held its first hearing to consider prison sentences issued by a military tribunal against two human rights defenders. On September 25, the Court of National Security has sentenced Mr. Mahdi Abu Deeb, President of the Teachers Association of Bahrain to 10 years in prison. His deputy, Mrs. Jalila Al-Salman, was sentenced to 3 years in prison. According to Bahraini law, both Abu Deeb and Salman should be tried in a civil court, not a military tribunal.

In yet another human rights violation, the Bahraini authorities brought human rights defender Mr. Mahdi Abu Deeb to the court, handcuffed wearing light prison dress, on a cold winter day. The authorities did not allow him to wear more clothes to get warm and waited until the start of the hearing to get his hands uncuffed.

Once the hearing started the defense team consists from lawyers, Ms. Jalila Al-Sayed for activist Mahdi Abu Dib and Mr. Mohammed Al-Jishi for activist Jalila Al-Salman, started to present their requests which focused on the case of defender Mehdi Abu Dib and included: to challenge the constitutionality of the Court of National Security that has made the verdicts, the annexation of Bassiouni’s report, which refers to the torture that has been practiced against Mr. Mahdi Abu Deeb and includes number of paragraphs that illustrate methods of detention and torture, as evidence in the file of this case, a request for the cancellation of confessions and similar to doctors and medics, as they were taken from both activists under the threat of torture, and finally Mrs. Jalila Al-Sayed talked about the ill-treatment of her client in the prison which includes preventing him from protecting his ears against the cold despite the presence of inflammation in both of them and referring to the lack of medical care, which negatively affects his health, demanding his release under any guarantee that the judge deems appropriate.

The judge later postponed the hearing to February 19, 2011, and ordered the the annexation of Bassiouni’s report in the file of the case, keeping in prison human rights defender Mahdi Abu Deeb.

It is worth mentioning, that on March 29, 2011, Jalila Al-Salman, the vice president of the Teachers Association, was taken from her home to an unknown location. On April 6, 2011, security forces arrested Abu Deeb, along with other teachers. They were all held for weeks, being isolated from the outside world and not allowed to contact their families or their lawyers. On August 21, 2011, Al-Salman was released, while Abu Deeb was held in arbitrary detention until now.

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights calls on the Bahraini government to immediately release Mehdi Abu Deeb and to revoke the sentence issued against him and his colleague Jalila Al-Salman and to respect the trade union’s freedom to work. The Gulf Centre for Human Rights calls on the respective authorities to stop arbitrary procedures against the Teachers Association of Bahrain and allow it to work freely and reinstate the dismissed teachers to their previous jobs and the abolition of all administrative penalties issued against them and their colleagues. …source

King of Bahrain insists his forces do not indulge in ‘ethnic cleansing or genocide’ as he defends handling of protests
By Con Coughlin – 12 Dec 2011 – The Telegraph

King of Bahrain insists his forces do not indulge in ‘ethnic cleansing or genocide’ as he defends handling of protests. The King of Bahrain on Monday defended his record in handling anti-government protests, insisting it was not government policy “to go and kill people on the roads” and that the Bahraini security forces did not indulge in “ethnic cleansing or genocide”.

Instead King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s Sandhurst-educated ruler, blamed Syria and Iran for “stirring up our people” and claimed the regime had evidence that Syria was training young Bahrainis to overthrow the ruling family.

Responding to the conclusions of an independent commission published last month, which found that the Bahraini police had used excessive force in suppressing anti-government protests, King Hamad vowed to implement wide-ranging reforms with the aim of establishing a “kingdom of tolerance” in the tiny Gulf state.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, his first since Bahrain was rocked by violent protests in February, King Hamad readily accepted the protests had been mishandled, but said this was due to individuals in the security forces rather than Bahrain’s government.

“What happened was the result of individual acts, not government policy,” he said. “It is not the policy of the Ministry of Interior to go and kill people on the roads. The policemen and soldiers involved in the killings did not take notice of the discipline side of matters.

“If people have done something wrong then they should be held accountable. We have removed people from positions of authority so that this does not happen again.”
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The King has already implemented a number wide ranging reforms following publication of last month’s report by Professor Cherif Bassiouni, a former UN human rights lawyer, which concluded Bahrain’s security forces had used “excessive force” against anti-government demonstrators, in which 35 people died and more than 1,600 were detained without charge. It found many detainees had been subjected to “physical and psychological torture”. They had been blindfolded, whipped, given electric shocks and threatened with rape in order to extract confessions

New Report Says No More Excuses – Time for Radical Change in Bahrain apartheid
December 12, 2011 – Human Rights First – Brenda Bowser-Soder

Washington, DC – A Human Rights First report issued today reveals that not much has change in the weeks since the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) released its findings that the Kingdom’s government had engaged in a series of grave human rights abuses – including thousands of illegal arrests, widespread torture in detention, forced confessions and deaths in custody.

“The Bahrain regime promised it would react positively and immediately to the criticisms in the report, but people continue to be subjected to show trials and exposed to excessive force at the hands of security forces,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley, who recently returned from Bahrain and is the author of today’s report, No More Excuses – Time for Radical Change. “Just today, another group of 28 medics were back in court. Instead of dropping the baseless charges against them, the government introduced new allegations against a portion of the group, saying the group had weapons. Now these medical professionals are forced to continue living in limbo as their case was adjourned to a future unspecified date.”

Today’s Human Rights First report reveals that around 160 policemen continue to face charges for refusing to join in the violent government crackdown on protestors. Many of these law enforcement officers have already been sentenced to many years in prison for their decision. The report also clearly outlines the role Bahrain Defense Forces have played in the crackdown.

“The defense forces were directly involved in targeting protestors and must be held accountable for that activity,” Dooley notes, “It is clear that they have little regard for the human rights of Bahrainis. In light of that, the United States should not permit a proposed arms sale to the Bahrain dictatorship until reforms have been undertaken.”

No More Excuses – Time for Radical Change features details from the latest hearing for 20 medics currently facing prosecution for treating injured protestors. It also highlights the case of

Mahdi Abu Deeb, president of the Bahrain Teachers’ Society, who a military court has sentenced to 10 years for allegedly inciting hatred and violent crimes. Her appeal has been delayed until Feb. 19.

“Nothing in the BICI should have come as a shock to anyone,” said Dooley. “International media and NGOs have been telling the world the truth about the human rights violations in Bahrain for months. The Bahrain regime still seems to be in denial. It’s time it faces reality, stops making excuses, drops political charges against peaceful opponents, releases those it should never have imprisoned and orders its security forces to stop firing on protestors.”

The BICI did not name those responsible for the systematic violations included in its report. Bahrain authorities have announced a series of measures in response to the BICI’s findings, including the establishment of a committee to advise the king on how to best implement the commission’s recommendations. Though the Kingdom recently agreed to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to detainees, it continues to violate fundamental human rights on a number of other key fronts. The report notes that without additional action, lives will remain at risk in Bahrain.

“The Bahrain’s government failure to adequately address the commission’s findings is appalling. The United States Government should publicly call for those responsible for these violations to be held accountable, no matter how high up the chain of command. It should also publicly state that its relationship with the Bahrain regime is dependent on the Kingdom’s respect for human rights.” …more

Blackwater 3.0: Rebranded ‘Academi’ Wants Back in Iraq
By Spencer Ackerman – December 12, 2011 – Wired Danger Room camouflage

So much for naming your mercenary company after an obscure element from the periodic table.

Say goodbye to Xe. The company formerly known as Blackwater — the world’s most infamous private security corporation — has jettisoned the name it chose in its 2009 rebrand. Now the “security solutions provider” wants to wash away the taint of the 2007 Nisour Square shootings by adopting the new name “Academi.”

But the company is changing its name — not its core business. And it even wants back into the country where it ran its brand through the mud: Iraq.
“Our focus is on training and security services. We’re continuing that,” new CEO Ted Wright tells Danger Room. “We’re not backing away from security services. The lion’s share of our business today is providing training for security services and [providing] security services.”

If Blackwater — sorry, Academi – was a sports franchise, you’d consider 2011 its rebuilding year. A consortium of investors close to the family of founder Erik Prince bought the company in late 2010, and spent 2011 putting together its new leadership team. It brought on board former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Bill Clinton consigliere Jack Quinn and Suzanne Folsom from the insurance giant AIG. Wright came from military-services giant KBR. Notice a pattern? All have deep experience with crisis management.

Notice another pattern: All of those hires either worked in senior government positions or worked closely with those who did. That signals confidence in the company’s traditional business — getting big government contracts to protect diplomats, aid workers and even the military in dangerous places. On its new website, Academi says providing “stability and protection to people and locations experiencing turmoil” is its “core” business. New name, same wheelhouse. …more

[cb: please watch the video – it really needs no translation. Imagine the moral outrage in the world if it were Jewish villages being similarly gassed?]

Bahrain forces kill infant with poison gas
Dec 12th, 2011 – By shiapost

A Bahraini infant has died in a poison gas attack carried out by regime forces in a residential area, Press TV reports.

Bahraini activists said the six-days-old baby died of asphyxia from inhaling tear gas fired on protesters in a residential area near the capital Manama on Thursday.

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces continue attacks on anti-regime demonstrators in towns and villages across the country.

On Wednesday, 27-year-old Zahra Saleh, who was brutally hit by regime forces in the head during an anti-government demonstration in the northern village of Daih on November 18, succumbed to her injuries.

Dozens of people have been killed and thousands more have been arrested or fired from their jobs since February as part of the regime’s crackdown on demonstrations in Bahrain.

On December 2, the Manama regime announced it would hire John Timoney, a former police chief from Miami, and John Yates, the former assistant commissioner of the UK Metropolitan Police, to offer support to Bahraini security forces in their brutal crackdown on popular protests.

The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) issued a report on November 23, saying that the ruling Al Khalifa regime had used “excessive force, including the extraction of forced confessions against detainees,” in their efforts to crush demonstrations in the country …source

What Next in Bahrain? More U.S. Silence
December 7, 2011 – The Trench

After successfully delaying a proposed arms shipment until the release of Bahrain’s “Independent Commission of Inquiry” (BICI), Senator Ron Wyden has made sure to keep his low-wattage spotlight on the island nation. Speaking at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C., the Senator articulated a red-line that few U.S. officials are willing to go near.

“Imagine if everyone in Congress had kept quiet and this arms sale had been completed,” Wyden asked his audience in Kenney Auditorium. “What kind of message would this have sent the world or to the people aspiring for freedom and democracy? America should NOT be rewarding brutal regimes with arms. It’s that simple.”

The Obama administration has yet to process Bahrain’s latest shipment of arms (joint-training with Oakland police is another story), but a reward-based media blockade remains in effect after the BICI’s release. Treated as an afterthought throughout the Arab revolutions, U.S. officials again turned their backs on Bahrain as they concentrated on Egypt, Syria and Pakistan’s latest blowup. The White House praised King Hamad’s inquiry and urged him to follow through on proposed reforms, a message designed to reduce U.S. culpability in Bahrain.

Little – if anything – has changed in the two weeks since King Hamad received his BICI in Manama’s Royal Occasions Hall. Confidence quickly dropped after the inquiry’s release, protesters continue to battle government forces in a running low-intensity conflict, and Shia opposition groups such as Al Wefaq and Waad remain marginalized in the political process.

Nabeel Rajab recently arrived in Washington to spread awareness of Bahrain’s environment. The head of Bahrain’s Human Rights Organization wasn’t invited to any State Department meeting and only spoke briefly to Gayle Smith, senior director for democracy in Obama’s National Security Council. Thus Rajab settled for media organs to disseminate his message, and Foreign Policy’s attempt to maintain neutrality – “Is US on Wrong Side of Bahrain?” – rapidly descends into redundancy.

“What I have realized is that there’s a difference between the way the American government and the American people look at the Arab uprisings or the Arab revolution. I have received great support from American civil society, human rights groups, etc., in support of the Bahraini revolution. But that is totally different than the position of the United States government, which has disappointed many people in the Gulf region. And they have seen how the U.S. has acted differently and has different responses for different countries.”

Rajab’s interview offers a clear, sensible warning to U.S. policymakers attempting to navigate Bahrain’s uprising: support genuine democratic reform or risk total regime change. While many Sunni Bahrainis and external observers fear an Iranian takeover if the Shia opposition receives greater political representation, Rajab’s message is free of Tehran’s interference. He is genuinely trying to assist the Obama administration in diffusing Bahrain’s crisis and creating a stable democracy. ….more

‘KSA rejects seditious elements in Bahrain’
By Hussein Hazzazi and Muhammad Al-Daqa’i

JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia supports the Bahraini King, government and its people against those trying to destabilize the country, said Dr. Abdullah Aal Al-Sheikh, Speaker of the Saudi Shoura Council, at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Shoura Speakers meeting in Jeddah on Saturday.

He lauded the decision taken by the GCC leaders for the Peninsula Shield Force to secure Bahrain’s vital installations and protect the country from those with seditious and malicious intentions.

Aal Al-Sheikh also praised the signing of the GCC-brokered deal in Yemen. “We hope this agreement will end the country’s long conflict and tension and restore its status as a hub for human civilization.”

He said the GCC Unified Parliament will only be achieved by leaders trusted by their people. A working paper on the subject will be produced for discussion at future meetings. “We are only having our fifth meeting so we don’t expect to immediately achieve a unified parliament and Shoura Council.”
Aal Al-Sheikh said the Shoura Speakers meeting was important because it comes before the 32nd GCC Summit, which will take place in Riyadh this month under the chairmanship of King Abdullah.

Addressing the session, Assaf Al-Assaf, representative of the GCC Secretary General and Director of the Administration of the Parliaments Council, paid tribute to Khalid Bin Hilal Al-Ma’wali, Chairman of the Omani Shoura Council, and Muhammad Ahmad Al-Mirr, Chairman of the Union National Council in the UAE, for attending the periodic meeting in Jeddah.

“Our meeting is part of joint efforts to deepen and strengthen the brotherly relations between our councils, which are aimed at achieving the noble goals stipulated by the GCC Basic System.”

The GCC states have made big strides in its parliaments, in the interest of all Gulf citizens, he added.

The speakers concluded their 5th session with a communiqué strongly condemning Iran’s accusations against Saudi Arabia, plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US, and interference in the internal affairs of GCC states.

The statement denounced Iran for conspiring against GCC’s national security and creating sectarian conflict in the region. …source