Has the West’s war with Iran already begun? Mystery explosions at nuke sites, ‘assassinated’ scientists and downed drones fuel fears covert conflict is under way
By Daily Mail Reporter – 6th December 2011

* Iran moves long-range missiles to prevent them being targeted in an attack
* Follows mysterious blasts at military base and uranium depot in last month
* Expert says ‘assassinations, cyber war and sabotage already under way’
* Advanced CIA drone crash lands in mountains
* Think-tank warns efforts to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons could fail
* UAE vice president insists Iran is not a threat to Israel or the West
* U.S. insists Iran is becoming ‘pariah’ state for flouting international rules

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard today went on to a war footing as its commander upped his troops’ readiness for operations.

The move by General Mohammed Ali Jaafari, coming after the shooting down of a U.S. drone and the ransacking of the British embassy in Tehran, will raise fears among citizens in the West that the Islamists are escalating towards major conflict.

But following on from mysterious explosions at Iranian nuclear sites, the kidnapping and assassination of scientists and possible sabotage of computers using a virus, an increasing number of experts are suggesting that combat has already broken out – a ’21st century war’.
Operational status: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have been put on a war footing by the country’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over fears of an attack by the West on its nuclear facilities

The key area of dispute is Iran’s rapidly expanding nuclear programme from which President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad insists he will not budge ‘one iota’.

Sanctions and mounting international pressure appear to have failed to persuade the country to slow down its pursuit of uranium enrichment.

And many observers believe the blowing-up of facilities and targeting of key scientists is a more direct way of halting their ambitions. …more

Injuries as Bahrain police ‘attack’ protest
Protesters say security forces fired rubber bullets at demonstrators attempting to take back site of Pearl roundabout.
07 Dec 2011 – Al Jazeera

Manama’s landmark Pearl Roundabout was the focal point of Bahrain’s protests [Ben Piven/Al Jazeera]

Protesters in Bahrain say police have fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators who were trying to take back the site of the Pearl roundabout – the symbol of the protest movement that erupted in February.

Bahrainis were marking Ashoura, a day of mourning for Shia Muslims, when the decision was made on Wednesday to move towards the roundabout. Several people are said to have been injured.

Bahrain’s government tore down the Pearl Roundabout monument in the centre of the capital, Manama, after it became the rallying point for anti-government demonstrations. Many protesters were killed or arrested, but the movement has continued to simmer.

Mohammed al-Maskati, president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera on the phone from Manama that hundreds of people marched to the site from the village of Sanabis.

When the protesters got close to the site of the former roundabout, security forces reportedly fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

“There are a lot of injuries. [People are] trying to transfer them to the closest houses to treat them, there are nurses who are volunteers,” he said.

Fatal injury

Also on Wednesday, a woman who was seriously hurt during a recent anti-government protest in the Gulf kingdom died of her injuries, according to the ministry of health.

The ministry’s statement said the 27-year-old woman sustained head injuries during “rioting” last month in a Shia village near the capital. She died in a hospital early on Wednesday.

Bahraini rights groups say she was fatally injured in the head by a metal rod during a November protest and that security forces were responsible for her death.

More than 35 people have died in clashes and protest-related violence since February when the pro-democracy protesters, many of them Shia, started campaigning for greater rights in the Sunni-ruled Bahrain. …more

Explosives from Britain found at Bahrain airport
IANS – Dec 8, 2011

MANAMA: A package that came from Britain and contained explosives has been detected at the Bahrain International Airport, Xinhua reported.

Bahraini security authorities announced on Wednesday evening that they found the package at the airport in Muharraq, an island on the northern tip of Bahrain, about seven km northeast of the capital Manama.

The interior ministry said the explosives were reportedly sent from Britain through Dubai.

It, however, did not give details of the passenger from whom the package was seized nor the airlines the passenger travelled with.

On Dec 4, a blast occurred in a minibus parked near the British embassy in Manama, when Shia Muslims were taking part in a religious procession. There were no casualties, the interior ministry said.

The blast came a day after reports in the British media said former assistant commissioner at London’s Metropolitan Police John Yates was appointed by Bahrain to help its interior ministry’s security forces. …more

Bahrain’s brave health care workers deserve support
U.S. failure to denounce punishment of those who cared for protesters is shameful

By Adil Shamoo – November 28, 2011 – Baltimore Sun

The United States continues to ignore the thwarted Arab Spring in Bahrain. Recently, a quasi-military court in the small Gulf state sentenced 20 doctors and nurses to up to 15 years in jail. The charge against them? Treating injured demonstrators opposing the regime.

Doctors and nurses in the Middle East have a long and proud tradition of treating the ill, regardless of the situation. In ninth-century Baghdad, for example, Hunayn ibn Ishaq was the Caliph’s physician. The Caliph asked this physician to prepare a poison to kill his enemies. The physician refused, risking his life, and was eventually jailed for one year. After serving his sentence, the Caliph inquired as to why he refused. The physician replied, “My profession is instituted for the benefit of humanity and limited to their relief and cure.”

So the doctors and other health care providers in Bahrain who treated the injured demonstrators were acting not only in the noblest tradition of the Hippocratic Oath but also in keeping with centuries-old Arab tradition. Medical ethics requires all physicians to be medically neutral toward those they treat.

Last February, Bahrain’s citizens joined the Arab Spring by holding massive demonstrations against the country’s corrupt, minority royal government. Bahrain’s security forces, assisted by Saudi-led troops sent by the Gulf Cooperation Council, brutally suppressed the peaceful demonstrations by force, resulting in the deaths of around 30 people, as well as hundreds of others wounded and arrested. At least 1,200 people were dismissed from their jobs. Opposition leaders were arrested, quickly tried, and sent to jail. Many detainees were tortured, and some women were sexually abused.

The government of Bahrain soon turned its attention to doctors and other health care providers, arresting, jailing and torturing those accused of treating protesters. One female doctor told National Public Radio that she was tortured and threatened with rape. In the same story, a man claimed that he was beaten unconscious. The authorities threatened the arrested individuals, saying that the security forces would arrest and torture members of their families if they didn’t sign a confession. …more

Doctors under fire amid ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions
November 29th, 2011- NPR

Listen to the Audio Clip HERE

As the revolutions collectively known as “the Arab Spring” have rocked the Middle East and North Africa, medical professionals have often been caught in the crossfire. Dictators like Bashar Al-Assad in Syria and the late Moammar Gadhafi in Libya have threatened, imprisoned, tortured and killed doctors who dared treat the protesters and rebels threatening their regimes. In Bahrain, government agents have attacked physicians, medical staff, patients, and unarmed civilians with the use of bird shot, physical beatings, rubber bullets, tear gas, and unidentified chemical agents, and convicted them of trumped up charges. Joining us to discuss doctors under siege in the Arab world, and the pursuit of “medical neutrality” on Capitol Hill and in the United Nations, is RICHARD SOLLOM, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, who has led recent investigative expeditions into Bahrain and Libya. We’ll also hear from ADIL SHAMOO, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, who thinks the U.S. medical community should support their colleagues in Bahrain more vigorously. …source

Bloggers cannot enjoy journalists’ legal privileges, says judge
December 7, 2011 – Guardian – Gleenslade Blog

A blogger in the US state of Oregon has just been ordered by a court to pay $2.5m (£1.6m) to an investment company because of a defamatory posting.

Crystal Cox was sued by investment firm Obsidian Finance Group for writing several blog posts that were highly critical of the firm and its co-founder Kevin Padrick.

She argued in Portland district court that she should have the same legal protection that is afforded to journalists.

She said her posts – a mixture of facts, commentary and opinion – were based on material supplied by a whistle-blower whose identity she refused to reveal.

She considered herself to be a journalist and should therefore be entitled to protection under media shield laws that allow journalists not to identify their sources.

But Oregon’s shield law doesn’t explicitly include bloggers in its list.

The judge’s opinion is fascinating because it suggests there is one law for journalists and another for citizens. He said:

“Although [the] defendant is a self-proclaimed ‘investigative blogger’ and defines herself as ‘media,’ the record fails to show that she is affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system. Thus, she is not entitled to the protections of the law.”

That sounds like it’s going to require a supreme court hearing at some stage. Cox, who runs several sites, including one called obsidianfinancesucks.com, plans to appeal, rightly saying: “This should matter to everyone who writes on the internet.”

Though Obsidian sued over several postings, the judge found against Cox on only one item, ruling that it was defamatory precisely because it was more factual in tone than her other posts. …source

Bahrain: Death threats against Messrs. Mohammed Al-Maskati, Nabeel Rajab and Yousef Al-Mahafdha

URGENT APPEAL – THE OBSERVATORY
Death threats – Bahrain -December 7, 2011

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Bahrain.

Description of the situation :

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the death threats made by a former official from the State Security Services against Mr. Mohammed Al-Maskati, President of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), Mr. Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and FIDH Deputy Secretary General, and Mr. Yousef Al-Mahafdha, a member of BCHR.

According to the information received, on December 5, 2011, Mr. Adel Fleifel, a former official from the State Security Services who is close to the Prime Minister, threatened by twit Messrs. Mohammed Al-Maskati, Nabeel Rajab and Yousef Al-Mahafdha. Mr. Adel Fleifel wrote to Messrs. Al-Maskati and Al-Mahafdha: “do not think that because now I’m not in the Ministry of Interior, I will shut up about you”. He then added “Maskati and Nabeel Rajab your future death and hell”. Addressing to the three human rights defenders, he finally wrote “Will not be silent about you”[1].

Mr. Fleifel is known for his participation in grave human rights violations and for inciting to hatred against the Shia community in Bahrain. He allegedly participated in acts of torture against the opposition in the nineties and called for the repression by the military of the February 14 protest movement. Last week, during Shia celebration Maharam, on December 2 and 3, 2011, Mr. Adel Fleifel publicly called for attacks against the Shia population. On several occasions, including recently, Messrs. Mohammed Al-Maskati, Nabeel Rajab and Yousef Al-Mahafdha denounced the role played by Mr. Adel Fleifel in the above-mentioned human rights violations. The three human rights defenders will file a complaint at the police.

The Observatory condemns the above-mentioned death threats, which merely seem to aim at intimidating Messrs. Mohammed Al-Maskati, Nabeel Rajab and Yousef Al-Mahafdha for their human rights activities. Furthermore, the Observatory is deeply concerned that this campaign is fuelling, among the public opinion, hostility towards human rights defenders and organisations monitoring human rights violations.