In the forth day of Violent Crackdown on protesters, Bahrain buries the fifth victim since BICI report

18 December, 2011 – BCHR

(AP) —Police in Bahrain on Sunday fired tear gas at thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans after the funeral of an elderly man who witnesses say died from tear gas inhalation.

The unrest Sunday is the fourth straight day of clashes between opposition supporters and security forces along a main highway west of the Bahraini capital Manama. At least 40 people have been killed since February, when Bahrain’s Shiite majority started campaigning for more rights from Sunni rulers in the Gulf kingdom that is the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The start of the police attack at Qadam roundabout

Amir al-Mouali said his 73-year-old neighbor, Abdulali Ali Ahmed, was taken to a hospital Saturday morning after struggling to breath during a night of heavy clashes near his home along the Budaiya highway, which connects a string of Shiite villages west of Manama. Al-Mouali said Ahmed died Saturday evening.

In a statement Sunday, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said Ahmed died of natural causes.

The demonstrations along the strategic highway has been going since Thursday. The Budaiya highway leads to a junction that is roughly half a kilometer (a quarter of a mile) south of Manama’s Pearl Square, the former focus of Bahrain’s Shiite uprisings. see extenisve update on situation from BCHR HERE

Bahrain police fire tear gas after funeral
(AP) – 3 hours ago – The Guardian UK

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Police in Bahrain on Sunday fired tear gas at thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans after the funeral of an elderly man who witnesses say died from tear gas inhalation.

The unrest Sunday is the fourth straight day of clashes between opposition supporters and security forces along a main highway west of the Bahraini capital Manama. At least 40 people have been killed since February, when Bahrain’s Shiite majority started campaigning for more rights from Sunni rulers in the Gulf kingdom that is the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Amir al-Mouali said his 73-year-old neighbor, Abdulali Ali Ahmed, was taken to a hospital Saturday morning after struggling to breath during a night of heavy clashes near his home along the Budaiya highway, which connects a string of Shiite villages west of Manama.

Al-Mouali said Ahmed died Saturday evening.

In a statement Sunday, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said Ahmed died of natural causes.

The demonstrations along the strategic highway has been going since Thursday. The Budaiya highway leads to a junction that is roughly half a kilometer (a quarter of a mile) south of Manama’s Pearl Square, the former focus of Bahrain’s Shiite uprisings.

Government forces evicted protesters from the Pearl Square in March and tore down the pearl sculpture that marked the site.

The now heavily guarded square holds great symbolic value for Bahrain’s opposition movement, and protesters have repeatedly tried to retake it. …source

Thousand of combat and intelligence experts remain at massive Embassy-Base, Drones fully deployed from Turkey, thousands of former US military troops employed as mercenary “contractors”, making six digit paychecks, five times what they were paid as government troops and negotiations continue for troop and contractor immunity, leaving door open for return – is mostly a bullshit, cynical reelection stunt by Obama. HuAh Commander-in-Chief Sir!

US Pursues Legal Protections for Contractors Still in Iraq
December 14, 2011 – Stars and Stripes|- by Erik Slavin

BAGHDAD — The United States is still pursuing an agreement with the government of Iraq that could provide defense contractors working for the U.S. State Department with some legal protections in 2012, U.S. embassy and military officials said last week.

While diplomats and servicemembers working for the State Department are shielded by diplomatic immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law, the thousands of private contractors who will be working for the agency in have no such protections.

Contractors have lacked immunity from Iraqi law since 2009, when a new status of forces agreement excluded them.

However, with the pullout of the remaining 50,000 troops from Iraq this year, contractors say they now feel more vulnerable to danger, both from potentially corrupt Iraqi police and from anti-American groups.

“You have to cross a major Iraqi road and, should the [Iraqi police or Iraqi army] decide, they might begin detaining American personnel,” said one contractor, who asked for anonymity because his company has not authorized him to speak publicly.

It remains unclear whether a new agreement could include immunity, an idea which is highly unpopular in Iraq. Talks over allowing thousands of U.S. troops to remain in Iraq in 2012 collapsed in October after it became clear that Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki wouldn’t be able push immunity for troops through an Iraqi parliament vote.

Opposition to contractor immunity largely stemmed from a September 2007 incident, where 17 Iraqis died after a confrontation with Blackwater security contractors.

However, some legal protections for contractors could still be gained through a diplomatic chapeau agreement, State officials said.

Chapeau agreements vary in scope, but they are usually umbrella agreements that outline broad principles in a binding legal framework.

“We are still pursuing that option,” a U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad said last week on condition of anonymity.

James Jeffrey, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, broached the idea of an agreement spelling out the terms of conditions for contractors during an interview with Stars and Stripes in August.

At the time, such an agreement wasn’t ready for discussion because of ongoing negotiations for a broader security agreement involving a U.S. troop presence.

“All of the contactors that are coming in support of weapons purchases are coming out under the terms of the [foreign military sales] case,” Jeffrey said at the time. “Were there not to be a security agreement, we would probably negotiate with the Minister of Defense a chapeau agreement laying out some of the technical issues related to that.”

A major overseer of contractors is the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, which will manage up to 763 contractors and show Iraqis how to operate more than $11 billion in military weapons and equipment purchases. …more