Posts from — January 2012

General Alarm at New Detention Law
By ADAM KLASFELD – 05 January, 2012 – Stop The FBI

Human rights groups and civil libertarians are skeptical of White House assurances that President Obama’s signing of the National Defense Authorization Act will not lead to the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 writes a $662 billion check to the Pentagon, in a 500-plus-page document that grants the executive branch the power to indefinitely detain any person it accuses of being a terrorist without charge or trial. President Obama signed the bill on New Year’s Eve.

During congressional debate, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who co-sponsored the bill, said the Obama administration instructed him to keep U.S. citizens subject to the detention statutes. In a signing statement on Dec. 31, Obama claimed to oppose these provisions, and expressed “serious reservations” about indefinite detention without trial, an authority he vowed not to enforce on U.S. citizens. “The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it,” Obama wrote in the signing statement. “In particular, I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists. … Moreover, I want to clarify that my administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.”

Amnesty International ridiculed his comments, stating that “Trust Me” does not mitigate the law’s “dangerous” expansion of executive power. “Once any government has the authority to hold people indefinitely, the risk is that it can be almost impossible to rein such power in. President Obama has failed to take the one action – a veto – that would have blocked the dangerous provisions in the NDAA,” Amnesty said in a statement. “In so doing, he has allowed human rights to be further undermined and given Al Qaeda a propaganda victory.” In a telephone interview, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights told Courthouse News that the NDAA will keep Guantanamo detainees already cleared for release behind bars by forcing the Secretary of Defense to “ensure that someone who is released cannot hurt the U.S. at any time in the future.” “You can see how that is a metaphysical impossibility,” said Wells Dixon, who represents Guantanamo detainees. …more

Nevertheless, while obvious disaster appears to have been averted, the huge outpouring of alarm regarding the perceived plan to imprison Americans indefinitely without charge or trial ignores two fundamental issues that still need addressing: firstly, that President Obama has shown himself more than willing to dispose of US citizens he regards as troublesome not by imprisoning them, but by assassinating them in drone strikes; and, secondly, that the foreign victims of the indefinite detention that lawmakers have shown themselves so desperate to revive still need Americans to care about their plight, to bring to an end the unjust situation that has existed for the last ten years, and to cut off the possibility that lawmakers, or the executive branch, can decide in future to revisit these dreadful policies and to revive them again.

A Tired Obsession with Military Detention Plagues American Politics
08 January 08, 2012 – by Andy Worthington – Break The Chains

Before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, there were only two ways of holding prisoners — either they were prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, or they were criminal suspects, to be charged and subjected to federal court trials.

That all changed when the Bush administration threw out the Geneva Conventions, equated the Taliban with al-Qaeda, and decided to hold both soldiers and terror suspects as “illegal enemy combatants,” who could be imprisoned indefinitely without charge or trial, and with no rights whatsoever.

The Bush administration’s legal black hole lasted for two and a half years at Guantánamo, until, in Rasul v. Bush in June 2004, the Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of granting habeas corpus rights to prisoners seized in wartime, recognizing — and being appalled by — the fact that the administration had created a system of arbitrary, indefinite detention, and that there was no way out for anyone who, like many of the prisoners, said that they had been seized by mistake.

This was not the end of the story, as the Bush administration fought back, Congress attempted to strip the prisoners of their habeas rights in the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (PDF), and the Supreme Court had to revisit the prisoners’ cases in June 2008, in Boumediene v. Bush, reiterating that they had habeas corpus rights, and that those rights were constitutionally guaranteed.

Unfortunately, although this ruling enabled some of the Guantánamo prisoners to secure their release via the US courts, by having their habeas corpus petitions granted, the appeals court in Washington D.C. (the D.C. Circuit Court) has been fighting back, gutting habeas corpus as a remedy by insisting, ludicrously, that the government’s evidence, however obviously unreliable, should be given the presumption of accuracy.

While this continues to be fought over, the bigger problem is that the entire rationale for Guantánamo has never been adequately challenged. The basis for holding prisoners is the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed the week after the 9/11 attacks, which authorizes the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.” …more

My Guantánamo Nightmare
By LAKHDAR BOUMEDIENE – 8 January, 2012 – NYT

ON Wednesday, America’s detention camp at Guantánamo Bay will have been open for 10 years. For seven of them, I was held there without explanation or charge. During that time my daughters grew up without me. They were toddlers when I was imprisoned, and were never allowed to visit or speak to me by phone. Most of their letters were returned as “undeliverable,” and the few that I received were so thoroughly and thoughtlessly censored that their messages of love and support were lost.

Some American politicians say that people at Guantánamo are terrorists, but I have never been a terrorist. Had I been brought before a court when I was seized, my children’s lives would not have been torn apart, and my family would not have been thrown into poverty. It was only after the United States Supreme Court ordered the government to defend its actions before a federal judge that I was finally able to clear my name and be with them again.

I left Algeria in 1990 to work abroad. In 1997 my family and I moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina at the request of my employer, the Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates. I served in the Sarajevo office as director of humanitarian aid for children who had lost relatives to violence during the Balkan conflicts. In 1998, I became a Bosnian citizen. We had a good life, but all of that changed after 9/11.

When I arrived at work on the morning of Oct. 19, 2001, an intelligence officer was waiting for me. He asked me to accompany him to answer questions. I did so, voluntarily — but afterward I was told that I could not go home. The United States had demanded that local authorities arrest me and five other men. News reports at the time said the United States believed that I was plotting to blow up its embassy in Sarajevo. I had never — for a second — considered this.

The fact that the United States had made a mistake was clear from the beginning. Bosnia’s highest court investigated the American claim, found that there was no evidence against me and ordered my release. But instead, the moment I was released American agents seized me and the five others. We were tied up like animals and flown to Guantánamo, the American naval base in Cuba. I arrived on Jan. 20, 2002. …more

Bahrain resumes retrial of convicted medics
Twenty hospital staff convicted of crimes against state during protests retried after prosecution withdrew confessions.
09 January, 2012 – AlJazeera

Rights groups say the medics were given trumped-up charges for treating protesters wounded by security forces

A civil court in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, has begun a new hearing for a group of 20 medical staff who were convicted of taking part in crimes against the state during anti-government protests that rocked the country last year.

The doctors, nurses and paramedics were handed sentences, ranging from five to 15 years in prison, on September 28, over a raft of charges, including incitement to overthrow the the ruling Al Khalifa family.

But a retrial was initiated on October 23 after prosecutors dropped confessions from the defendants, who had protested that the statements were extracted under torture.

The hearing for the new trial had been adjourned in November.

Most of the staff worked at, or volunteered at, the Salmaniya Medical Centre in Manama that was stormed by security forces in mid-March after they drove protesters out of nearby Pearl Square.

The workers received the heavy jail terms from the military-run National Safety Court, but are now being tried in a civil court.

They are also being charged with occupying the medical centre and possessing weapons, while denying Sunni Muslims access to the hospital as mainly Shia demonstrators camped in the complex’s car park.

The medical professionals also stand accused of spreading false news, particularly concerning the condition of wounded protesters, the illegal acquisition of medicines and medical facilities, and participating in demonstrations.

In November, independent investigators tasked by Bahrain’s king to probe the unrest were highly critical of the special security court that had tried the medics, along with opposition leaders and activists behind closed doors.

A 500-page report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry said the court has issued harsh sentences -including life in prison and death penalties – and “denied most defendants elementary fair trial guarantees”.

The document also spotlighted abuses at the Salmaniya Medical Centre. …more

Many reports this weekend have identified Rajab as a “Shia”, or as the Telegraph wonderfully puts it, “a Shia Muslim activist”. Firstly, on a point of fact, Rajab is secular and comes from a mixed Shia and Sunni family. Secondly, even if he was a practicing Shia, why would this be a relevant detail? His work is concerned with human rights and the protest on Friday was concerned with the alleged mistreatment and possible torture of political detainees, such as Hassan ‘Oun.

Bahrain Opinion: An Open Letter to Journalists “Get The Story Right”
9 January, EA WorldView

Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, who was attacked by police on Friday

Dear Journalists,

Over the coming days, you might find the need to report on Bahrain. Beyond a quick feature about the Countess of Wessex’s jewels, courtesy of the regime, or the proposed Formula One Grand Prix, you might notice a story which has got the regime worried about its image.

On Friday, Nabeel Rajab, the President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was beaten by police in Manama. The activist was at the head of a peaceful march and had been talking with security forces, moments before they suddenly attacked. This is not an unusual event in Bahrain at the moment (indeed, by current standards, the police were relatively restrained) but it is significant because Rajab is internationally-respected as a champion of human rights.

The Bahraini regime, and presumably its PR consultants, have a series of lines they are advancing to the media to spin both this specific incident and the wider story. Below are four reporting pitfalls into which several media organisations fell this weekend:

1) The Ministry of Interior (MOI) footage is deliberately edited to create a false account

On Saturday, the MOI released a video to support their version of events. They claim that police found Rajab on the floor and then kindly helped him up and escorted him to an ambulance. The video conveniently leaves out much of the incident. Two videos recorded by protesters capture the event much better.

These two videos, featured on EA along with the MOI footage, have been available since Friday night. Therefore there is no good reason for why BBC chooses only to link to the MOI video, and why CNN introduces the footage with the headline, “Bahrain denies it beats activist”. (On a side note to CNN, I can confirm for you that @NabeelRajab is definitely Rajab, so you no longer need to caveat your report with: “writing on a Twitter account with his name and picture, that the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said is his”.)

There are photos of Rajab which establish he was cut under his eye, with bruising on his face. Therefore, saying the information of his wounds was obtained from “a senior U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity”, raises the wholly unnecessary inference that he might not actually have been injured. …more

Ex-Bahrain MP tweets for killing of protesters
9 January, 2012 – Al-Akhbar

Former Bahraini MP Sheikh Mohammed Khalid publicly called for the killing of protesters via Twitter on Monday, lambasting them as “traitors.”

Khalid, one of Bahrain’s most controversial Sunni Islamists, urged authorities to crush protesters in a sign of growing discord between loyalists to the Sunni monarchy and Shia-led protesters.

“If you see a traitor crossing the road, you must run them over and keep going because you are in a country where the law allows you to strike and crush them,” Khalid tweeted.

Khalid, also known as Bu Ammar, was part of a Salafist bloc and has previously launched sectarian tirades against Shia Muslims, slamming the protesters as “traitors” and “agents of Iran.”

He once called Shia activists “monkeys,” and referred to the Pearl Roundabout – site of pro-democracy protests early last year – as a place of “filth” and for “muta’ah”, a temporary marriage custom permitted in Shia Islam.

In a highly charged sectarian speech early last year, Khalid said “the Sunni community have the right to defend themselves against the protesters” in response to the pro-democracy uprising.

His inflammatory remarks are likely to fuel sectarian tension in the tiny Gulf state.

Protests have resurfaced in Bahrain demanding democratic reforms in a state where a Sunni royal family rules over a majority Shia population.

Bahrain witnessed mass pro-democracy protests against the royal family of King Hamad Al-Khalifa in February 2011 before authorities, backed by neighboring countries, crushed the uprising, killing at least 35 people.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf neighbors sent troops into Bahrain in March, reinforcing a crackdown that led to accusations of serious human rights violations.

Bahrain human rights groups, declaring in a report last November, said that “Bahrain committed violations of various international human rights treaties which it has signed and ratified.”

The report documented 45 killings, 1500 cases of arbitrary arrest, and 1866 cases of torture, amongst other figures.

A government-established commission found authorities used systematic torture against detainees, but its findings were met with skepticism from opposition groups due to its affiliation with the monarchy.

The commission found only 35 people had died.

Home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and on Iran’s doorstep, Bahrain is a crucial US ally in a region as tension between Tehran and Washington heats up.

…source

Bahrain overturns death sentences for 2 protesters
09 January, 2012 – Associated Press

MANAMA: A lawyer in Bahrain says death sentences have been overturned for two protesters convicted of murdering two policemen during a wave of anti-government demonstrations.

Hassan Radhi, a lawyer for one of the defendants, says the Cassation Court struck down the sentences, which had been handed down by a special security court set up under a period of emergency law last year.

International rights groups have criticized Bahrain for trying protesters, opposition leaders and activists in the military-linked tribunal.

Independent investigators tasked by Bahrain’s king with probing the unrest recommended authorities review convictions and sentences handed down by the special court.

Monday’s decision sends the case of the two protesters to the supreme court for an appeal.

…source

Bahrain Interview: Nabeel Rajab – How Police Attacked the Manama March and Beat Me
By shiapost – 8 January, 2012

On Friday night Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was at the front of a march in the capital Manama. Minutes after police spoke to him, trying to halt the rally, security forces charged the demonstrators. Rajab was knocked down and beaten before he was put into an ambulance and taken to hospital. He was released later in the evening.

Rajab talks to EA about the episode:

For Nabeel Rajab, last Friday night — like most of his nights when he is in Bahrain — was supposed to be an evening of visits to the homes of families who have lost loved ones in the violence or have had members detained since the beginning of February’s protests.

This Friday was different. “I thought I should go visit some families in Manama,” he said, but then he decided that he might join a family member in the protests over killings and detentions.

Even before Rajab and his companions reached Manama, the city had been flooded with hundreds of security forces. At 7:30 PM, he and activist friends Zainab Alkhawaja and Said Yousif Almuhafda started to walk near Alkhawaja Mosque. ”As we walked, more people showed up and started walking with us, but the location where the protesters were supposed to gather had a heavy presence of riot police.”

So instead of gathering, the crowd kept walking and growing. At some point, they turned back and walked back to where they had started their journey. By 8:20, there were more than a thousand marchers, holding banners and calling for the release of political prisoners, in an area roughly a square kilometer (0.37 square miles). But before they could complete their round-trip journey on Babul Bahrain Road, they saw a dozens of riot police blocking their path.

Fearing a confrontation was imminent, the marchers stopped 15 metres from where the riot police had stopped. For five minutes, nobody made a move. Then, the riot police started to lose patience. An officer walked towards the marchers and told Rajab to tell the protesters to go back home or they would be attacked in five minute.

“I told them there was no reason for an attack. I told him that the marchers were just men and women who’d peacefully gathered and had a right under international law to be here.”

The officer told him they needed permission for a protest.

“I told him that we wouldn’t be granted permission. We’ve asked for a permission; other political societies have asked for one, but the government rejected them all.”

The officer would not listen.

“I told him we were close to the end of our march, back to where we started, and we just wanted to complete the round trip and it would just take 10 minutes.”

The officer still would not budge form his demand for the gathering to go home.

“I said it was up to him and that he should not use violence, but if he does, the marchers wouldn’t react because violence wasn’t the solution.”

The officer gave them five minutes to disperse. In fact, the attack began 90 seconds later.

Riot police started beating people with batons. Tear gas canisters started flying all over the place, spewing what many protesters have started to call “toxic gas”, because the new gas being used by security forces has effects far stronger than that employed earlier in the protest. Rajab saw some canisters; none had any company names or other labels.

Rajab tried to get to his car as other protesters sought shelter in houses from the continuous baton charges and tear gas smoke. He only made it 500 metres. Several riot policemen cornered him in an alley. He felt two hard baton blows on his back, then one of the officers punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. The riot police then started to kick him as he hid his face in his hands. As they verbally abused him, he shouted his name and said that he was a human rights activist.

That altered the riot police’s behaviour immediately — the kicks and punches started to fall harder and more frequently.

But then an officer who was not taking part in the beating, possibly overhearing Rajab’s identity, came to his ‘”rescue”. He asked the others to stop beating Rajab and reached out to the activist.

“He insisted on holding my hand and walking with me to an ambulance. I asked him how soon this ‘gesture of kindness’ might appear on Bahrain’s state TV.” Rajab did not get a reply.

As they walked towards the ambulance, Rajab sized up the riot police accompanying him. He recognised several were of South Asian background, verifying the large number of foreigners from Pakistan, India and Arab states in the security forces.

“I asked the officer in English why I was being beaten? Why he had come to Bahrain to beat a Bahraini and how he would feel someone came to his country to beat him in front of his children? I told him, ‘You are from India. You have a democracy. Why do you come here to repress our movement for democracy?’”

The officer denied he was Indian and insisted he was Bahraini. …more

UN human rights office slams sharp rise in Saudi Arabia executions in 2011
By Associated Press, 6 January, 2012
GENEVA — The U.N.’s human rights office has criticized a sharp rise in executions carried out by Saudi Arabia in 2011.

A spokesman for the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights says the number of executions jumped from 29 in 2010 to at least 70 last year.

Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva on Friday that the wide range of offenses for which the death penalty is pronounced was particularly troubling.

He says one woman was put to death last months after being found guilty of witchcraft.

Colville says Saudi Arabia’s growing use of the death penalty goes against an international trend for fewer executions.

He says the U.N. human rights office also criticizes the frequent use of “inhuman” double amputation for robbery offenses. …source

If you are the big tree,
We have a small axe
Ready to cut you down,
Sharpened to cut you down.

If you are the big tree,
Let me tell you this: we are the small axe
Ready to cut you down,
Sharpened to cut you down.

Marley

Human rights group urge Formula One teams to boycott Bahrain GP
guardian.co.uk, 8 January 2012

The 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix was dropped from the calendar after civil unrest in the country. Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

Human rights groups have urged Formula One teams to consider boycotting the Bahrain Grand Prix in April, amid continued political unrest in the Gulf kingdom.

Last March, Bahrain’s scheduled season-opening race at the Sakhir circuit was postponed after widespread political unrest in the country and the deaths of a number of pro-reform demonstrators. Efforts were made to reschedule the race, but the Gulf state was dropped from the 2011 calendar in June, after protests from Formula One teams and drivers.

“We will campaign for … drivers and teams to boycott. The government wants Formula One to tell the outside world that everything is back to normal,” said Nabeel Rajab, vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. “Formula One, if they come, they are helping the government to say [it is normal]. We would prefer it if they didn’t take part. I am sure the drivers and teams respect human rights.”

In November, the Formula One rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone, said in November that he would press ahead with plans to return the race to Bahrain. He also said that he did not believe the Grand Prix would become a focal point for protesters.

“It’s on the calendar. We’ll be there, unless something terrible happens to stop us,” he said. …source

U.S. Rights Activist Denied Entry Into Bahrain
by The Associated Press – 8 January, 2012

An American human rights activist, who intended to observe a protest-related trial in Bahrain, was denied entry into the Gulf kingdom on Sunday despite authorities’ pledge of transparency.

Richard Sollom, deputy president of the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights, told The Associated Press that Bahraini airport authorities gave no reason for their refusal to allow him into the Gulf country, which was hit hard by political unrest during last year’s Arab Spring.

Sollom charged that Bahrain authorities do not want international observers at the trial of doctors and nurses who treated injured protesters, which is set to resume Monday. International human rights organizations have harshly criticized the prosecution of the health professionals who were working at the state-run Salmaniya Medical Center during the massive protests in February and March.

“I am quite stunned. This was the first time a member of an international rights organization came to Bahrain after authorities promised to respect human rights and told us we can come and see for ourselves,” Sollom said in a telephone interview after he landed in Dubai Sunday evening. “We can see now that not much has changed,” he added.

Bahraini authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.

The government had made a pledge of transparency following an international inquiry into months of anti-government demonstrations and the ensuing crackdowns that accused Bahrain of rights abuses, including denying a fair trial to arrested protesters.

Sollom holds a U.S. passport. He arrived in Bahrain on Sunday morning with a five-year, multiple entry visa. He said he wanted to observe Monday’s retrial of 21 doctors and nurses who were convicted last year of anti-state crimes and received lengthy prison sentences from a special security court that was set up after Bahrain imposed martial law to quell dissent.

At least 40 people have died since February when Bahrain’s Shiite majority started demanding greater rights by marching on the streets in numbers never seen before in the strategic Gulf island nation that is ruled by a Sunni dynasty.

Bahrain is a critical U.S. ally and is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. Washington has taken a cautious line with authorities, urging Bahrain’s leaders to open more dialogue with the opposition, but avoiding too much public pressure.

The government has accused the medics of participating in efforts to overthrow the ruling Al Khalifa family.

In November, independent investigators tasked by Bahrain’s king to probe the unrest were highly critical of the special security court that has tried the medics, opposition leaders and activists behind closed doors. A 500-page report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry said the court has issued harsh sentences including life in prison and death penalties and “denied most defendants elementary fair trial guarantees.”

The document also spotlighted abuses at the Salmaniya hospital. The authorities saw its mostly Shiite staff as opposition sympathizers. Dozens of doctors and nurses who treated injured protesters were detained during the crackdown. Many of them received prison sentences of five to 15 years.

Bahrain has abolished the special tribunal and has moved protest-related trials into civilian courts. …source

#Riot: Self-Organized, Hyper-Networked Revolts—Coming to a City Near You
by Bill Wasik – 16 December 2011 – Wired January 2012

2011 A Year of Unrest – From January, when a dictatorship fell in the Middle East, to autumn, when protesters settled into American cities, 2011 was a year of marches, mobs, and omnipresent occupations. — Cameron Bird SEE TIME LINE HERE

Let’s start with the fundamental paradox: Our personal technology in the 21st century—our laptops and smartphones, our browsers and apps—does everything it can to keep us out of crowds.

Why pack into Target when Amazon can speed the essentials of life to your door? Why approach strangers at parties or bars when dating sites like OkCupid (to say nothing of hookup apps like Grindr) can more efficiently shuttle potential mates into your bed? Why sit in a cinema when you can stream? Why cram into arena seats when you can pay per view? We declare the obsolescence of “bricks and mortar,” but let’s be honest: What we usually want to avoid is the flesh and blood, the unpleasant waits and stares and sweat entailed in vying against other bodies in the same place, at the same time, in pursuit of the same resources.

And yet: On those rare occasions when we want to form a crowd, our tech can work a strange, dark magic. Consider this anonymous note, passed around among young residents of greater London on a Sunday in early August:

Everyone in edmonton enfield woodgreen everywhere in north link up at enfield town station 4 o clock sharp!!!!

Bring some bags, the note went on; bring cars and vans, and also hammers. Make sure no snitch boys get dis, it implored. Link up and cause havic, just rob everything. Police can’t stop it. This note, and variants on it, circulated on August 7, the day after a riot had broken out in the London district of Tottenham, protesting the police killing of a 29-year-old man in a botched arrest. So the recipients of this missive, many of them at least, were already primed for violence.

It helped, too, that the medium was BlackBerry Messenger, a private system in which “broadcasting” messages—sending them to one’s entire address book—can be done for free, with a single command. Unlike in the US, where BlackBerrys are seen as strictly a white-collar accessory, teens and twentysomethings in the UK have embraced the platform wholeheartedly, with 37 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds using the devices nationwide; the percentage is probably much higher in urban areas like London. From early on in the rioting, BBM messages were pinging around among the participants and their friends, who were using the service for everything from sharing photos to coordinating locations. Contemplating the corporate-grade security and mass communication of the platform, Mike Butcher, a prominent British blogger who serves as a digital adviser to the London mayor, wryly remarked that BBM had become the “thug’s Gutenberg press.”

Nick de Bois, one of Enfield’s representatives in Parliament, was whiling away that Sunday afternoon at the horse races in Windsor, where a friend’s wife was celebrating her 40th birthday. It was a fine day of racing, to boot: In the third, Toffee Tart bested Marygold by just half a length, paying off at 7:2. “Unusually for me, I hadn’t looked at my handheld in two hours,” de Bois says. But when he did look, he saw something disturbing. Gossip was swirling about more riots that night, with Enfield named as a likely target. De Bois decided he had better cut his race day short. “I never even had a chance to recover my losses,” he deadpans.

By five in the afternoon, he was on the streets of Enfield Town, along with a handful of police. Was there a riot? No—not really, not yet. But there was a gathering crowd, a mixed-race group of mostly young men, just milling around in small bunches. Some were conducting what de Bois describes as “reckys”—reconnaissance missions—around the town center. “They were just having a good look!” he says. …more

Amnesty International: Fresh reports of torture are yet another blow to Bahrain’s promises of reform
06 January, 2012 – BHCR

Fresh reports of the torture of an 18-year old student in detention are yet another blow to Bahrain’s promises of reform, Amnesty International said today.

Police allegedly subjected Hassan ‘Oun to torture, including beatings and threats of rape after his arrest in Manama on 3 January.

“As such horrendous cases of human rights abuse keep piling up, the Bahraini authorities’ promises of change ring ever more hollow,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Hassan’s family has told Amnesty International that he was interrogated about his contact with the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.

The student had told the Centre about being tortured by police during a previous 2011 arrest, following his involvement in anti-government protests.

“We are concerned that Hassan ‘Oun may have been targeted again for arrest because he dared to report police abuses,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

According to family members, Hassan told his lawyer that the police had forced him to stand for about 11 hours, and that he had been beaten on his feet with a hose and threatened with rape.

Hassan’s lawyer and other witnesses have reportedly seen signs of torture on his body, and that one of his legs is swollen from injury.

“These allegations of torture must be investigated immediately,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahroui. “If Hassan is being held solely for his peaceful activities, he should be released immediately.”

After being held in a police station for a day, Hassan was questioned at the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) on 4 January in the presence of a lawyer.

The PPO extended his detention for 45 days pending investigation, under illegal public gathering charges. Hassan was then transferred to the Dry Dock Prison in Manama.

His family have not been allowed to see him, although yesterday they received permission to visit him next week. …more

Bahrain’s Protesting Footballers
By John Duerden – 6 January, 2012 – The Diplomat

On the face of it, Bahrain’s next few football world months are all about trying to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. But there are bigger issues at stake than the biggest sports tournament in the world.

The team’s chances of reaching Brazil would have been better if some of the team’s best and most experienced players were able to play on the team. But stars such as Mohammed Hubail (joint top scorer at the 2004 Asian Cup and well-known in continental football circles) his brother Alaa, and also Ali Saeed Abdullah and Sayed Mohammed Adnan, spent part of 2011 in jail.

The players, who like the majority of the population are Shia Muslim, were arrested by security forces for participating in pro-democracy protests aimed at the ruling Sunni Muslim elite. It all happened in April, at the height of the Arab Spring.

Not only that, the players – who were arrested along with dozens of other athletes – claim that they were tortured while in prison. The imprisonment of the footballers prompted FIFA to investigate whether the Bahrain government was guilty of interfering in the sport. According to the governing body’s statutes, such an act means that a federation will be suspended from the international game.

The Bahrain FA, whose president is Sheikh Salman Al-Khalifa, a member of the country’s ruling family and a probable candidate in the race to be the next president of the Asian Football Confederation, told the world governing body that no physical punishment had been meted out.

The players were then released and have been banned from their club teams, but are not yet back playing for their country (although whether they would want to do such a thing is anyway highly debatable anyway).

Last summer, I talked to the national team’s English coach, Peter Taylor, and while he denied that the ban extended to playing for Bahrain, he did admit that the club ban made it practically impossible to select them.

“The clubs suspended them, so until they are playing again, they can’t get in the squad as I need to see them play,” he said.

In an ESPN documentary about the arrested athletes that was broadcast in November, Taylor said that he had never heard of the players that were imprisoned. …more

U.S. concerned about Bahrain activist, urges probe
7 January, 2012 – Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States called on its ally Bahrain on Saturday to investigate the case of a prominent Bahraini human rights activist who the opposition says was beaten by security forces.

Opposition activists said several security officers threw Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, to the ground and beat him on the head, neck and back after a protest march on Friday.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry has denied those accounts, saying on its Twitter feed that police found Rajab “lying on the ground” and took him to the hospital for treatment.

The Sunni-led island kingdom, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, last year sought to crush anti-government demonstrations mounted by the country’s Shi’ite Muslim majority. Protest marches have continued in recent months, sometimes turning violent.

Officials from the U.S. embassy in Manama met for about an hour on Saturday with Rajab, who had a cut beneath one eye and bruising on his face, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“The United States is deeply concerned by continuing incidents of violence in Bahrain between police and demonstrators,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a written statement.

“While the facts surrounding the violence that transpired remain in dispute, we strongly urge the Government of Bahrain to undertake a full investigation (of Rajab’s case) to determine if excessive force was employed by police,” she added.

Nuland said embassy officials had raise Rajab’s case with senior Bahraini officials and urged the government to carry out recommendations made by an independent commission that found Bahrain used excessive force in last year’s crackdown. …more

Bahrain: Calls for UN inquiry as regime intensifies human rights abuses
06 January, 2012 – Bahrain Freedom Movement

As the repression continues so does the people’s unrelenting revolution. As more martyrs were killed, thousands others have joined the caravan of dignity and freedom. The latest martyr is Mrs Fakhriyya Al Sakran, 55, who had been gassed heavily causing her to lose her life on Tuesday 2nd January 2012.

The excessiv use of chemical gases has led to at least twelve fatalities in the past four months. Many more have become incapacitated as result. This is in addition to thousands injured and at least sixty people who have lost one or two eyes. The Al Khalifa hereditary dictatorship is becoming more vicious as it is cornered by the revolutionaries. It is a regime on the verge of collapse and it seeks to exact revenge on those who have defeated it. The regime’s own investigation commission had found it guilty of systematic torture and extra judicial killings. When it appointed another committee to oversee the “implementation” of the recommendations of the investigation commission, some people, mainly foreign regimes friendly to the Al Khalifa, thought they would see a new chapter of relative justice. But their hopes were dashed this week when the chairman of the supervisory committee submitted his resignation.

Ali Saleh Al Saleh, a life-long servant of the regime realized that he was being used as a scapegoat by the regime, that he would not be allowed a free hand in the implementation, and that he would yet be required to issue false statements to whitewash the senior members of the Al Khalifa. His resignation that he handed to the dictator has ended the Bissiouni bitter legacy; both in terms of the findings of his commission and the implementation of its recommendations. This has now paved the way for a more objective and comprehensive international investigation into the crimes committed by the Al Khalifa against the Bahrainis.

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has been urged to take a pro-active stand and send a team of investigators. Last month she had sent a team to undertake an “assessment” in the hope that the implementation of the recommendations would go some distance to address the grievances of the people. Now that the situation has become worse in terms of killings, torture, arbitrary detention and refusal to adopt any of the recommendations, the time has come for a more serious approach to this protracted crisis in a country that has been under occupation for more than nine months. Failure to do so is tantamount to abandonment of human duty which is also a crime against humanity. …more

As Iran Rattles Its Saber, Should the U.S. Still Ally Itself with Saudi Arabia?
By Ishaan Tharoor – 3 January 3, 2012 – Global Spin

The White House’s Dec. 29 announcement of a $30 billion sale of 84 F-15SA fighter jets to Saudi Arabia came with a lot of subtext. The deal, part of an earlier $60 billion arms agreement between Washington and Riyadh, is slated to pan out over the course of a decade, bolstering the Kingdom’s defense forces and creating some 50,000 American jobs at home. It followed a day after regional bogeyman — and longtime Saudi foe — Iran rattled a blunt saber, threatening to close off the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic passage that sees much of the world’s oil exports flow past. On Jan 2., the Iranians raised temperatures further after successfully testing a naval cruise missile during a ten-day exercise in the Strait; the next day, officials in Tehran warned the U.S. to keep an aircraft carrier away from the Persian Gulf.

Saudi Arabia’s enmity and rivalry with Iran is well documented and, in many respects, shapes much of the Middle East’s geopolitical landscape. But the question begs: following a year of uprisings for democracy worldwide, should the U.S. still be so much in bed with the repressive Saudi monarchy?

D.C. hawks answer “of course!” The oil-rich Saudis have long served as moneyed, America-friendly interlocutors in the Middle East, supposed fellow combatants in the war against terror and a bulwark against the Shi’a theocracy in Iran. The cloistered Saudi monarchs are known entities in Washington and the tacit consensus forged between the two sides dictated much of the political status quo in the region until the seismic upheavals of the Arab Spring.

Iran’s behavior, meanwhile, may prove increasingly erratic. Tehran’s isolation has deepened following new rounds of sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear program. A looming power struggle within the regime — most recently, authorities arrested the daughter of reform-friendly former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani for “making propaganda” against the state — may lead to more public displays of chest-thumping bravado such as the recent missile tests. A stronger Saudi Arabia, then, hedges against whatever threat the Islamic Republic may pose. Andrew Shapiro, the U.S. State Department’s assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, said the arms deal “will send a strong message to countries in the region that the United States is committed to stability in the gulf and broader Middle East.”

But that commitment to “stability” comes, in effect, with a moral price. The Saudis played a conspicuous role during the democracy uprisings in the Arab world last year: they offered safe haven to ousted Tunisian autocrat Zine el Abidine Ben Ali; attempted to exert pressure on the U.S. and other actors to protect Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, who eventually was forced out; and spearheaded a military intervention into restive Bahrain, helping quash widespread protests against the ruling Sunni monarchy there. The country’s draconian religious laws are among the world’s most stifling and its rulers have occasionally curious ideas about human rights. And, in some respects, Saudi Arabia is part of the strategic dilemma — not solution — facing policy planners in Washington. After all, private Saudi donations and funds from other pliant Gulf states are at the heart of the fundamentalist radicalization seen in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Despite government’s promises, journalists continue to be harassed and attacked
7 January 2012. – Reporter without Borders

Reporters Without Borders deplores the way the Bahraini security forces continue to intimidate and attack journalists despite the undertakings that the government gave after an independent commission of enquiry released its report on the crackdown on anti-government protests during the first half of 2011.

The international community must not be taken in by the duplicity with which the government expresses a desire to punish those responsible for the abuses while continuing to crack down on dissent.

In one of the latest incidents, DPA photographer Mazen Mahdi was beaten by police in front of the police station in Samaheej, northeast of Manama, on 3 January, despite wearing a vest with the word “Press” on it.

He had gone to cover a protest by a crowd that had gathered outside the police station in response to a youth’s arrest, and was taking photos when the police charged the protesters at around 12:30 pm. Two of the policemen challenged him, although he was clearly identifiable as a journalist, and the officers he was arguing with failed to intervene when he was hit violently on the head. After being taken inside the police station, he was released 20 minutes later, but the police refused to register his complaint, he told Reporters Without Borders.

It was the fourth time Mahdi had been attacked or harassed by the police in the space of three weeks. …more

“The Timoney” makes US a direct partner in al Khalifa regime Human Rights Abuse
07 January, 2012 – Phlipn Pagee – Crooked Bough

Running headlong into disaster, the former police chief of Philadelphia and Miami, John Timoney, has arrived at Bahrain’s Interior Ministry to “advise” the Bahrainis on more effective use of concussion grenades, pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets and baton charges and how to masquerade Human Rights abuse as policing strategies. While the opposition looked to Washington for a constructive intervention, Secretary Clinton delivered ‘The Timoney’.

“The Timoney’s” militarized crowd control methods made him a fascist legend in his own mind and apparently that of the al Khalifas, who have “choosen” him from Seceratray Clinton’s “short list” of one. He brings with him a record of miserable failure in the pubic relations with disaster, after disaster and a trail of blood and brutality. He is sure to be in good company with the al Khalifas. Perhaps this time he is deployed far enough away from home to kept the ugly shit out of the US press.

Bahrain’s keystone cops will now be aided by a Bahrain’s military unit, recently trained in the US on the latest tips and tricks of ‘crowd control’, during a police training exercise called “Urban Shield 2011”. The Israeli Border Police thugs were there along with the Human Rights Champions from the US Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, who recently brutalized the US Occupy Oakland protesters.

This strategy apparently hatched through collaboration between the State Department and the al Khalifas, has put a direct ‘command and control’ apparatus in Secretary Clinton’s hands. It’s the “riot control” equivalent of flying a drone and “killing terrorists” en-remote. All quite sanitary, augmented with a cadre of Public relation experts to manage Obama’s reelection image and do damage control. If it goes bad, Clinton can blame “the contractors” and stay clear of the real ugly shit, while she spins success as necessary, to boost the US economy and create jobs at home, through weapons and security service sales, to another “vertically integrated US trading partner” called “friends”.

It’s way past time to hold President Obama accountable for killing and brutalizing innocents en-remote control. This “ain’t no video game” Mr. President, your in a serious need of a reality check – layoff the “joy stick” because it isn’t one.

Miami crowd control would do tyrant proud
30 November 30, 2003 – By ROBYN E. BLUMNER – St. Petersburg Times

Miami police Chief John Timoney must be mighty proud of the social order he maintained during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit a couple of weeks ago in Miami – sort of the way Saddam Hussein was proud of quieting dissension in his country.

Timoney has a well-deserved reputation for using paramilitary tactics to turn any city where large protests are planned into a place where the Constitution has taken a holiday. During the FTAA meeting on Nov. 20, Timoney dispatched 2,500 police officers in full riot gear against a crowd estimated at 8,000 people, mostly union members and retirees.

The result was a show of force that would have made a Latin American dictator blush.

Slavish public officials such as Miami Mayor Manny Diaz touted Timoney’s handiwork as “a model for homeland defense,” and the Miami Police Department has responded to complaints by saying that officers demonstrated “a tremendous amount of restraint.”

But this is hardly the way eyewitnesses described it. The scene was a “massive police state,” according to the president of the United Steelworkers of America, who has demanded a congressional investigation. Congress gave Miami $8.5-million for security during the FTAA meetings – funds slipped inside the $87-billion measure for Iraq. The steelworkers called it money for “homeland repression.”

The National Lawyers Guild, a liberal legal organization, said the day was punctuated by “indiscriminate, excessive force against hundreds of nonviolent protesters with weapons including pepper spray, tear gas, and concussion grenades and rubber bullets.”

Observers said the provocation for officers to shoot rubber bullets and paint balls filled with pepper spray at the predominantly peaceable crowd was often one person lobbing an orange in the direction of police or lighting a trash can on fire.

Nikki Hartman, a 28-year-old Pinellas County resident, was shot three times with rubber bullets – once, she said, when a police officer fired point-blank at her behind after she stooped to pick up a bandanna she’d dropped. The officer had kicked it her way before shooting her. She was later shot in the back while retreating from police lines. Her friend Robert Davis was shot seven times while trying to help Hartman to her feet.

In addition to such shootings, police abandoned any legitimate basis for searching and arresting people. Miles Swanson, 25, a legal observer for the lawyers guild, was punched numerous times while being taken in by officers for pointing out undercover police dressed up as protesters. Eight of 60 guild observers were arrested that day; they wore distinctive green hats and were apparently targeted. When Swanson was grabbed off the street by three Broward County sheriff’s deputies – two of whom were in ski masks – he said they told him “this is what you get when you f– with us.” Then, Swanson said, the deputies drove him around while looking for another legal observer to arrest. He ultimately pleaded no contest to one charge of obstructing justice so he could return to law school in Washington, D.C. …more

Sectarian conflict flares in Iraq
By Brian M Downing – 5 January, 2012 – Asia Times

Sectarian conflict in Iraq is again a concern as the Shi’ite government seeks the arrest of a Sunni vice president whom they tie to an assassination team.

Implicit in the accusation is the charge that Sunni politicians were complicit in a number of bombings over the past two years that have killed hundreds of Shi’ites. At present, the conflict is political and judicial, but it may not be settled by dialogue and legal rulings.

Sunni Iraqis want to establish an autonomous region in central Iraq; regional Sunni powers, who oppose Iranian-Shi’ite influence, support that goal. Shi’ite Iraqis want to keep the Sunnis a weak minority; their Iranian ally seeks to punish the Sunni powers conducting clandestine warfare against it. There is considerable danger of a return to sectarian warfare and also of regional conflict.

The sectarian situation

Conflict between Sunnis and Shi’ites has been part of the Mesopotamian region ever since the time of the Ottoman Empire, when Sunnis, though a minority, were politically dominant. Sunni pre-eminence continued as the British installed the Hashemite monarchy after World War I and various politicians and generals, including Saddam Hussein, came and went.

Saddam’s ouster in 2003 led to an insurgency aiming to prevent Sunni marginalization and Shi’ite dominance. Mollified temporarily by United States and Saudi bargaining in the troop “surge”, the Sunnis later faced systematic arrests and exclusions at the behest of the Shi’ite government.

Over the past two years, a deadly bombing campaign has been directed against the Shi’ite population and security forces, killing scores of people every month.

The Sunni resistance differs from the old Sunni insurgency. It has no prominent leaders or bold manifestoes; it has moved from dozens of tribal, Ba’athist and army movements to a reasonably unified entity of nebulous leadership and uncertain size. It generally eschews firefights and ambushes – commonplaces during the insurgency – in favor of bombs. Puzzlingly, it only rarely attacked US troops, though they were prime targets during the insurgency. …more