Posts from — February 2012

Why Bahrain is not Syria
14 February, 2012 -nsnbc – By Pepe Escobar

How poignant that the first anniversary of a true Arab pro-democracy movement in the Persian Gulf – then ruthlessly crushed – falls on February 14, when Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the West. Talk about a doomed love affair.

And how does Washington honor this tragic love story? By resuming arms sales to the repressive Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty in power in Bahrain.

So just to recap; United States President Barack Obama told Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to “step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately” while King Hamad al-Khalifa gets new toys to crack down on his subversively pro-democratic subjects.

Is this a case of cognitive dissonance? Of course not; after all.

Syria is supported by Russia and China at the United Nations Security Council while Bahrain hosts the US’s Fifth Fleet – the defender of the “free world” against those evil Iranians who want to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.

A year ago, the overwhelming population of Bahrain – most of them poor, neglected Shi’ites treated as third-class citizens, but also educated Sunnis – hit the streets to demand the ruling al-Khalifas allow a minimum of democracy.

Just like Tunisia and Egypt – and unlike Libya and Syria – the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain was indigenous, legitimate, non-violent and uncontaminated by Western or Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) infiltration.

The response was a major crackdown plus a Saudi Arabian invasion over the causeway to Manama. That was the tacit result of a deal struck between the House of Saud and Washington; we give you an Arab resolution allowing you to go to the UN and then launch the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s humanitarian bombing on Libya, you leave us alone to smash this Arab Spring nonsense (see Exposed: the US-Saudi Libya deal Asia Times Online, April 2, 2011.)

The Obama administration took no time to preempt the “celebration” of Bahrain’s crushed democracy push by dispatching a State Department honcho to Bahrain.

As reported by the Gulf Daily News, the so-called “Voice of Bahrain” (more like the voice of the al-Khalifas), US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman widely praised King Hamad’s steps to “diffuse tensions” – such as “the release of political prisoners, a partial cabinet reshuffle and the withdrawal of security forces”. …more

Revolutionary Socialists: The “Brave Kids” of Egypt
By: Bisan Kassab – 15 February, 2012 – Al-Akhbar

Egypt’s Revolutionary Socialists are far from the politically irresponsible group they are now made to be. They started their political activism in support of Egypt’s labor movement over two decades ago and adopted a radical but pragmatic course for change.

Cairo – Some activists used the term “brave kids” when describing the Revolutionary Socialists (RS) last December. Even though they had previously come under fierce criticism from leftists and liberals for working with Islamists, they were also facing a legal complaint by Gamal Taj, a lawyer and prominent member in the Muslim Brotherhood.

The complaint accused the RS of seeking to destroy the state. It cited a statement by RS member Sameh Naguib that the old state must collapse, as should the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), after its soldiers lose trust in their leadership.

But due to widespread condemnation of the Islamists on social networking sites and newspapers, they quickly withdrew the complaint. Brotherhood leaders, including their Supreme Guide Mohammad Badie, also issued a statement disowning Taj’s complaint. The Freedoms Committee in the Bar Association also criticized the Brotherhood for lodging the complaint.

The RS were the first to warn against the SCAF taking power on the very day Hosni Mubarak was ousted and when the Military Council was still viewed as the “protector of the revolution” for remaining neutral. Today their publications openly blame the ruling SCAF for much of the post-revolutionary violence and repression.

The RS are also known for their passionate defense of the working class, particularly when unions were accused of stubbornly refusing to back down on their demands for the sake of economic stability. …more

Starving for freedom: The hunger strike of Khader Adnan
Khader Adnan, currently on hunger strike in an Israeli prison, runs the risk of dying without international help.
14 February, 2012 – Al Jazeera

According to Amnesty International, as of December 31 last year, 307 Palestinians were in Israeli administrative detention, including 21 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council that was elected in January 2006 [EPA]

Amman, Jordan – By the time you read these words, Khader Adnan could be dead. After 58 full days on hunger strike, his body is already well past the stage where his vital organs may cease to function at any moment. But Khader Adnan is dying to live.

The 33-year-old Palestinian baker, husband, father, and graduate student has refused food since December 18, a day after he was arrested in a nighttime raid on his family home by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank. He has lost over 40 kgs and his wife Randa and young daughters have described his appearance as “shocking”.

Adnan, whom Israel says is a member of Islamic Jihad, was given a four month “administrative detention” order by the Israeli military – meaning that he is held without being charged for any crime or trial, a practice continued by Israel that dates back to British colonial days.

Yesterday an Israeli military court rejected Adnan’s appeal against the arbitrary detention. Having vowed to maintain his hunger strike until he is released or charged, the judge – an Israeli military officer – might as well have sentenced Khader Adnan to death, unless there is urgent international intervention.

Though the life in his body hangs on by a thread, his spirit is unbroken.
Hundreds of Palestinians join hunger strike

“The Israeli occupation has gone to extremes against our people, especially prisoners,” Adnan wrote in a letter published through his lawyer, “I have been humiliated, beaten, and harassed by interrogators for no reason, and thus I swore to God I would fight the policy of administrative detention to which I and hundreds of my fellow prisoners fell prey.”

According to Amnesty International, which has issued two urgent appeals on Adnan’s behalf, as of December 31 last year, 307 Palestinians were in Israeli administrative detention, including 21 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council that was elected in January 2006.

“I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on,” Adnan wrote in his letter.

In addition to Amnesty, Human Rights Watch too has heard Adnan’s message, calling on Israel to release or charge him. …more

Activists and American Observers Detained as Bahrain Marks Protest Anniversary
By ROBERT MACKEY – February 14, 2012 – NYT

Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, center, surrounded by protesters and American observers.Mazen Mahdi/European Pressphoto AgencyNabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, center, surrounded by protesters and American observers.

Bahrain arrested three local human rights activists on Tuesday, along with six Americans who had traveled to the kingdom as part of a private monitoring mission, during a security crackdown on the first anniversary of the country’s protest movement.

As Reuters reports, the authorities detained Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and the American observers who entered the country last week to work with Witness Bahrain, a project set up by international activists to monitor the policing of demonstrations in the country.

Bahrain’s state news agency reported that the six Americans were deported “for applying for tourist visas under false pretenses.” An immigration official told the agency, “People coming to visit Bahrain need to understand that lying on immigration documents is against the law.”

Two Bahraini activists, Naji Fateel and Hassan Jaber, were also detained with Mr. Rajab after the police fired tear gas at a small group of demonstrators who tried to march to the former site of Lulu Roundabout, or Pearl Square, the focal point of protests last February. (To deny opposition activists a rallying point, the authorities removed the traffic circle last March, and pulled down the pearl monument that had become a symbol of the protest movement.)

Nabeel Rajab, a rights activist, was detained at gunpoint in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Tuesday.Hamad I. Mohammed/ReutersNabeel Rajab, a rights activist, was detained at gunpoint in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Tuesday.

After Mr. Rajab was released several hours later, he updated his Twitter feed with just one word: “resistance.”

Video posted online by activists showed armored police vehicles patrolling the streets, in the capital and in Shiite villages where support for the protest movement is strong.

…more

Adding Fuel to Syria’s Fire
By Anya Barry, 13 February, 2012

russia-syria-assadDespite the widespread international denunciation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the government in Damascus continues to crack down hard on the country’s growing domestic opposition. “They are moving in a direction that completely shows that they are absolutely out of touch,” says Yasser Tabbara, the secretary general of the Syrian National Council (SNC), a government opposition group. Other countries in the region have experienced revolutions, but Syria remains in a state of uncertainty. At the UN, China and Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian government’s actions, making a coordinated international response even more difficult.

Meanwhile, as the conflict rages on, Syria continues to receive shipments of military supplies—specifically from countries like Iran, Lebanon, and Russia. In January, Russia inked a lucrative deal with the Syrian government to sell approximately $500 million worth of military arms in the form of 36 Yak-130 aircraft combat jets. Russia’s actions have caused significant outcry from the international community. High-ranking officials such as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice as well as other Western diplomats have stated their strong disapproval of Russia’s move. Over the past 10 months, Syria’s escalating violence has resulted in the deaths of 5,400 civilians. Russia’s combat jets are specifically designed to shoot targets on the ground, which could lead to an increase in the civilian death toll.

Arms Embargo?

In response to the ongoing problems in Syria, the Moroccan delegation to the UN introduced a resolution calling for an arms embargo on Syria and for Assad’s resignation. Russia vetoed the resolution, claiming that it would precipitate regime change and a possible civil war. As Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov stated, “there is no clear line between arms contraband that some countries engage in to support extremist forces in Syria, and the legal military-technical ties with this country.” Russia has claimed that the violence occurring in Syria is the result of opposition groups rather than Assad’s security forces. One rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, has been trying to smuggle weapons across the border through Lebanon, but the amounts pale in comparison to what the Syrian security forces have been receiving from abroad.

According to Business Insider, Syria is one of Russia’s largest weapons consumers, purchasing around $4 billion total in military supplies. Additionally, Syria’s port of Tartus, where Russia recently sent an aircraft carrier, serves as Russia’s sole naval base in the region. Russia has also invested around $19.4 billion in Syria’s infrastructure and exports about $1.1 billion in goods to the nation. If Assad were to resign, Russian business interests could be seriously put at risk. An additional motive for Russia’s staunch support for the Assad regime is the concern that if Syria’s government were to crumble, it could have a domino effect in the nearby Russian North Caucasus region. …more

Loss in the Time of Revolution
11 February, 2012 – by Flo – Witness Bahrain

Witness Bahrain team members spent the evening visiting families of those who have lost loved ones in the revolution. Story after story of young boys seemed ripped apart limb from limb, killed by tear gas canisters to various parts of the body, beaten to death to the point of internal bleeding without any visible bruises. And of course, each story came complete with slideshows of the boys living and photos of them lying cold, dead and bloodied on the mortician’s slab.

All of the dead detailed below are from Sitra, a collection of 6 villages on one of Bahrain’s outlying islands. The first time Witness Bahrain visited Sitra we were told it is the capital of the revolution because of the resilience of the people there and because of the strength of their ongoing and nightly demonstrations against the regime.

Meeting with families and loved ones of those killed is always a moving and affecting experience. Witnessing the loss of anyone’s loved ones is always difficult, whether it is amidst revolution or not. Combine that with stories of youth shot down before their time and graphic post mortem images of those same youth sewn back together after being dragged under vehicles or lying in pools of their own blood in the street and the experience becomes another thing all together.

Part of the resilience of those in struggle that I have encountered in more then one time and place is that these losses do not leave the people destroyed. People have an understanding that these losses are the unfortunate price that needs to be paid when fighting for justice – especially, as is usually the case, when fighting against violent regimes bent on doing nothing but protecting their own interests.

These are the stories we heard:

Ali Jawad Ahmad al-Shaikh was 14 years old when he was killed on August 31, 2011, by a tear gas canister to the head. Ali was a part of a demonstration in his village at the time of his death. In a video shown by his family, you can see Ali fleeing as police pursue him through the streets of the village. Moments later, shots are heard and the next video shows Ali lying face down in a pool of blood pouring out of his head. As Ali’s friends attempt to approach, police again fire tear gas surrounding his lifeless body in a cloud of gas, making it impossible for Ali’s friends to retrieve his body. …more

Bahrain: First anniversary of popular uprisings
14 February 2012 – fidh

While thousands of Bahraini people are expected to meet on 14 February 2012 to mark the first anniversary of the start of pro-democracy protests, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is publishing a position paper on the situation of human rights since the release of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report on 23 November 2011 [1]. On the basis of the information received from reliable sources [2], FIDH points out that key recommendations in the BICI report have not been effectively implemented, and human rights violations recorded in the said report continue unabated.

This report strongly questions the commitment of the King of Bahrain, who declared at the occasion of the release of the BICI report “we are determined, (…), to ensure that the painful events our beloved nation has just experienced are not repeated, but that we learn from them, and use our new insights as a catalyst for positive change.” This statement was reassuring as the BICI had documented 45 killings, 1,500 cases of arbitrary arrest, and 1,866 cases of torture.

Since that date, the Government of Bahrain (GoB) has made other comforting declarations and has set up several follow-up and implementation mechanisms, among them, a national Commission which is mandated to review the laws and procedures adopted in the wake of the February and March 2011 events. This Commission is also mandated to make recommendations to the legislative body to amend existing laws and to adopt new legislation. Among the 18 commissioners, mostly members of the Shura council, are occupying governmental position. Only one, Mr. Abdulla Al-Derazi, former president of BHRS, is a civil society activist, undermining the recommendation No. 1715 [3]. The Commission should complete its mandate before the end of February 2012.

However, these pledges and initiatives have yet to be translated into concrete actions. Indeed, large-scale human rights violations continue to be committed on a regular basis as protests are still ongoing. Use of excessive force against peaceful protesters, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and ill-treatment of detainees, ongoing judicial harassment, impunity, obstacles to independent monitoring, etc., as documented in the FIDH position paper, continue to be recorded. …more

‘Bahrainis must revolt against Al Khalifa regime to get freedom
15 February, 2012 – PressTV

Video HERE (if you can get past the network interference)

Bahraini anti-regime protesters have kept the popular uprising against the Al Khalifa dynasty alive for a whole year, despite continued crackdown by the regime that is supported by the US and Saudi Arabia.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Colin Cavell, a former Assistant Professor at the University of Bahrain, from Austin, to further discuss the issue.

The video offers the opinions of two additional guests: Jamal Wakim who is the professor at the Lebanese International University and Jafar al-Hasabi, a Bahraini political activist from London

Press TV: Mr. Cavell, would you say that despite the fact that we know that these demonstrations have been taking place for a whole year now, that they’ve been continuing, that however, the regime has been successful in stopping these protests from moving any more, rather from forcing it to undergo changes.

Would you say that the protesters do have the upper hand or is it the regime that has the upper hand?

Cavell: The regime has not stopped the protests; they have not stopped the will of the people!

The people are very united; they have lost their fear of the regime!

And as I’ve said many times before, directly to the US State Department, they need to realize that the situation is not going to go away.

The State Department thinks that this will be like the 90s, and that things will quiet down eventually.

No, the people have had enough of a 228-year monarchy and autocratic dictatorship and they want change.

But I leave that to the Bahraini people to decide.

My purpose here is to tell the US government, we need to live up to democratic values. We need to quit supporting monarchical dictatorship, and we need to quit ignoring democratic activists in the streets.

Especially, when they have a vast majority of the population of Bahrain!

Press TV: Mr. Cavell, that brings to the question of how much control the Bahraini rulers have in this situation. Would you agree with this interpretation or this analysis that the Bahraini rulers are listening to each and every order that’s coming from Riyadh and they themselves are in a very weak position?

Cavell: Well, first of all, the Al Khalifas have no desire to enact reforms. Yes they are a satrap or an appendage of Saudi Arabia.

But to add to professor Wakin’s analysis, it’s also the US that is keeping the Saudi monarch in power, as well as the Bahraini monarch in power.

And this goes back to a deal made between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abdul Aziz back in 1945, in the Great Bitter Lake in Egypt, where they said, we will support this one family in Saudi Arabia, and we’ll have cheap access, easy access to oil in the region.

And we have utilized that model ever since, supporting the Saudi monarch, supporting the Al Khalifas in Bahrain, supporting the other five members of the [P]GCC monarchs.

We have to quit supporting despotic tyrants. We should live up to our democratic values instead of just kowtowing to these monarchs, because it’s betraying who we are as democratic republic.
[Read more →]

Bahraini Activists Detained, Deported on One-Year Anniversary of Protests
14 February, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Freedom House is appalled by the Bahraini government’s relentless repression of activists before and on the one-year anniversary of the “Pearl Roundabout.” Three human rights activists were detained on February 14 – Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Naji Fateel and Hassan Jaber. On February 12, human rights activist Zainab Alkhawaja, who has documented the protest movement on Twitter using screen name “Angry Arabiya,” was arrested. Zainab’s father, prominent activist and founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, was sentenced to life in prison and recently began a hunger strike. In addition, two activists working with Witness Bahrain – Radhika Sainath and Huwaida Arraf – were deported this past weekend after entering the country in anticipation of the February 14 protests. The Bahraini government continues to crack down on ordinary Bahraini citizens and has failed to implement comprehensive political reform. In recent weeks, Bahrain has prevented journalists and human rights organizations, including Freedom House, from entering the country.

Bahraini citizens have been broadly engaged in protests since February 2011, to call for a more representative government and to denounce ethnic-based inequities in a country run by the Sunni Al-Khalifa royal family, where the majority of citizens are Shiite. Despite promises of reform, Bahraini authorities have continued to use torture against detainees, block access to medical services, and raid the homes of suspected protesters. Bahraini rights groups have reported ongoing arrests, intimidation, and in some cases torture of those speaking out against despotic rule. …source

Libya Struggles to Curb Militias as Chaos Grows
By ANTHONY SHADID – 8 February, 2012 – NYT

TRIPOLI, Libya — As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted. When the guns fell silent, briefly, the scene that unfolded felt as chaotic as Libya’s revolution these days — a government whose authority extends no further than its offices, militias whose swagger comes from guns far too plentiful and residents whose patience fades with every volley of gunfire that cracks at night.

The woman was soon freed. The base was theirs. And the plunder began.

“Nothing gets taken out!” shouted one of the militiamen, trying to enforce order.

It did anyway: a box of grenades, rusted heavy machine guns, ammunition belts, grenade launchers, crates of bottled water and an aquarium propped improbably on a moped. Men from a half-dozen militias ferried out the goods, occasionally firing into the air. They fought over looted cars, then shot them up when they did not get their way.

“This is destruction!” complained Nouri Ftais, a 51-year-old commander, who offered a rare, unheeded voice of reason. “We’re destroying Libya with our bare hands.”

The country that witnessed the Arab world’s most sweeping revolution is foundering. So is its capital, where a semblance of normality has returned after the chaotic days of the fall of Tripoli last August. But no one would consider a city ordinary where militiamen tortured to death an urbane former diplomat two weeks ago, where hundreds of refugees deemed loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi waited hopelessly in a camp and where a government official acknowledged that “freedom is a problem.” Much about the scene on Wednesday was lamentable, perhaps because the discord was so commonplace.

“Some of it is really overwhelming,” said Ashur Shamis, an adviser to Libya’s interim prime minister, Abdel-Rahim el-Keeb. “But somehow we have this crazy notion that we can defeat it.”

There remains optimism in Tripoli, not least because the country sits atop so much oil. But Mr. Keeb’s government, formed Nov. 28, has found itself virtually paralyzed by rivalries that have forced it to divvy up power along lines of regions and personalities, by unfulfillable expectations that Colonel Qaddafi’s fall would bring prosperity, and by a powerlessness so marked that the national army is treated as if it were another militia.

The government could do little as local grievances gave rise last month to clashes in Bani Walid, once a Qaddafi stronghold, and between towns in the Nafusah Mountains, where rival fighters, each claiming to represent the revolution, slugged it out with guns, grenades and artillery.

“It’s a government for a crisis,” Mr. Shamis said, in an office outfitted in the sharp angles of glass and chrome. “It’s a crisis government. It is impossible to deliver everything.”

Graffiti in Tripoli still plays on Colonel Qaddafi’s most memorable speech last year, when he vowed to fight house to house, alley to alley. “Who are you?” he taunted, seeming to offer his best impression of Tony Montana in “Scarface.”

“Who am I?” the words written over his cartoonish portrait answered back.

Across from Mr. Shamis’s office a new slogan has appeared. …more

Honduras: While Corruption and Repression Mushroom, Justice Rots on the Vine
By Mark Engler – 15 February, 2012 – FPIF

Honduras has become a human rights disaster. The country now has the world’s highest murder rate. And impunity for political violence is the norm.

For all this, the United States deserves a good deal of the blame.

I was pleased to see the New York Times recently publish a hard-hitting op-ed by Dana Frank that makes this case. Lest anyone in this country think that things in Honduras have settled into a peaceable, post-coup normality, Frank describes the post-June 2009

chain of events—a coup that the United States didn’t stop, a fraudulent election that it accepted—[that] has now allowed corruption to mushroom. The judicial system hardly functions. Impunity reigns. At least 34 members of the opposition have disappeared or been killed, and more than 300 people have been killed by state security forces since the coup, according to the leading human rights organization Cofadeh. At least 13 journalists have been killed since [President Porfirio] Lobo took office, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The police in Tegucigalpa, the capital, are believed to have killed the son of Julieta Castellanos, the rector of the country’s biggest university, along with a friend of his, on Oct. 22, 2011. Top police officials quickly admitted their suspects were police officers, but failed to immediately detain them. When prominent figures came forward to charge that the police are riddled with death squads and drug traffickers, the most famous accuser was a former police commissioner, Alfredo Landaverde. He was assassinated on Dec. 7. Only now has the government begun to make significant arrests of police officers.

State-sponsored repression continues. According to Cofadeh, at least 43 campesino activists participating in land struggles in the Aguán Valley have been killed in the past two and a half years at the hands of the police, the military and the private security army of Miguel Facussé. Mr. Facussé is mentioned in United States Embassy cables made public by WikiLeaks as the richest man in the country, a big supporter of the post-coup regime and owner of land used to transfer cocaine.

This past Tuesday, a comical response to Frank’s piece appeared at Foreign Policy, written by former Bush administration official José Cárdenas. It was humorous in that it included an understated disclaimer at the end. Cárdenas wrote, “Full disclosure: In July 2009, I helped to advise a Honduran business delegation that came to Washington during their presidential crisis to defend Manuel Zelaya’s removal from power.”

Not surprisingly, given his qualifications, Cárdenas frames Honduras’s current problems as solely the product of drug trafficking, and he encourages the United States to recognize that “Honduras’s war on drugs is ours too.” …more

Can the informal leader of Bahrain’s revolution keep the movement going despite a government that cracks down with impunity and an indifferent world?

The Agony of Nabeel Rajab
By Karen Leigh – 12 February, 2012 – The Atlantic

Nabeel Rajab, the man who comes as close as any to leading Bahrain’s revolution, was in a Manama coffee shop last March, holding his drink and casting an amused eye out the window at what appeared to be government-issued security cars lined up at the curb.

“I’m not hiding,” he said.

At the time, Rajab, the gregarious, grey-haired president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was one of a trio of prominent activists — including University of Bahrain professor Dr. Abdul-Jalil al-Singace and the BCHR’s founder, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja — who had become the most revered figures of the then weeks-old revolution.

Now, almost a year later, his two contemporaries have each received lifelong prison sentences, leaving Rajab — a 47-year-old building contractor by trade — the de-facto leader of Bahrain’s resurgent uprising.

He’s kept safe by making himself a celebrity among the Arab Spring’s activists, journalists, experts, and rights workers, too well-known for the regime to arrest or worse, as it has with so many others.

“Already I have seen violence from people, which worries me.”

Many, including Rajab himself, correlate his freedom to a strong personal relationship with those international figures, many of whom were in Manama for the first months of the island kingdom’s Shi’a revolt.

In the last year, he’s attended conferences across the Arab world and has traveled to Washington, D.C., to publicize the ongoing violence against what he says are peaceful protests against the monarchy, which is made up of the country’s Sunni minority.

“He has deftly used his high media profile and connections with Western diplomats to stay out of prison,” says Barak Barfi, a New America Foundation fellow who was on the ground in Manama last March. “Nevertheless, his plight has been much better than that of other regime critics such as Singace, who, lacking Rajab’s high-level ties, find themselves imprisoned for long periods of time.”

But Rajab hasn’t had an easy time, and Bahrain revolution is struggling.

At a rally outside the King’s palace in Riffa last March, he stood on a dirt field, providing information and reassurance to protesters and journalists. In buoyant spirits, he marveled at the size of the crowd. At the same rally, fellow activist al-Singace, briefly freed from prison in a government show of goodwill, parted the crowd in his wheelchair, flowers thrown at his feet.

Rajab is the only highly visible Bahraini activist still able to attend those marches, which though largely ignored by international media, have happened most Fridays for the last year, a testament to the stubborn will of the country’s activist corps.

Rajab says there is “violence every night” inflicted by security forces on the streets of Bahrain’s poorer Shi’a neighborhoods. His claim is backed up by a constant stream of information coming from cyber activists based on those very streets.

The devastation, they say, comes largely from the tear gas grenades that are often shot into houses or overhead into a crowd, as they were that day on the field in Riffa.

“It’s like shooting a cannon at someone,” Rajab says. “They’re supposed to be rolled on the ground. What they’re doing on these crowded, small streets is throwing tear gas into people’s homes. It’s especially complicated if you have asthma or chronic disease.”

In the last year, two physical attacks on Rajab, allegedly by government forces, made global headlines. “His good relations with Western governments have not been able to prevent the regime from persistently harassing him,” Barfi says.

For a period of months last year, Rajab was forbidden to leave Bahrain. …more

Occupy Lulu

Occupy Oakland

Crooked Bough Interview with Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D., former Assistant Professor at the University of Bahrain
14 February, 2012

Crooked Bough: It’s now been about a year since your return from your teaching position in Bahrain. Can you recollect for the readers the circumstances and situation as you left Bahrain?

CSC: My wife and I left Bahrain on February 25, 2011, the day of one of the largest demonstrations in Bahraini history with over 300,000 people marching in the streets calling for the downfall of the 228-year-old Al-Khalifa monarchical dynasty. The political situation in the country had been deteriorating gradually for some time, though most folks in the government and in the professions were unaware of this erosion of confidence in the regime and the rising anger which accompanied it. However, this deterioration was evident in the stultifying inefficiency in the country’s bureaucracy where all are fearful to take any initiative or make any decision for fear of royal retaliation. It was also evident in the lack of any meaningful advancement based upon merit and hard work instead of patronage and favoritism. And, of course, there is the persistent low wages for the country’s majority Shia citizens as well as their systematic denial of promotions. And there is the very abusive usage of expatriate labor being imported from neighboring countries in the region for manual labor of all sorts. Sensing the gradual ossification of Bahrain’s reform movement, started since the ascendancy of King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa in 1999, we applied for an immigrant visa to the USA for my wife, who is a Moroccan national, in the summer of 2010 and received approval later that fall from the State Department. I finished my teaching duties at the end of the Fall 2010 semester in January 2011 and submitted my resignation, effective February 15, 2011. We left Bahrain ten days later. The Arab Spring revolts were rocking the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region by then, and Bahrain’s revolt began on February 14th of 2011. The immediate reaction of the monarchy was to shoot the protesters, and this only inflamed the uprising leading to an occupation by thousands of the Pearl Roundabout in downtown Manama. We were in a race to leave the country, as we sensed by that time that the political situation was rapidly boiling and about to explode. Faced with the necessity to obtain a slew of bureaucratic signatures and approvals before our departure, I was concerned that events would stall our departure. Thus, we let go a sigh of relief as our plane departed the airstrip that night heading for London and then on to the USA.

Crooked Bough: What kind of relationship do you now have with the UOB?

CSC: As regards my present relationship with the UOB, I have not been in touch with the University since my departure. There was violence at the University in mid-March 2011, and, from what I understand, the campus was initially closed down for a couple of months, and since reopening, returning students have been forced to sign loyalty oaths to the regime, and there is heightened surveillance everywhere on campus. A number of students, nearly 500, have been expelled, and a number of staff have also been dismissed for their pro-democracy beliefs.

Crooked Bough: What has become of your students and colleagues?

CSC: I have only had contact with a few colleagues, as most are too fearful to communicate about the political situation in Bahrain while still in country. I believe it was very fortuitous that we left when we did, as several of my colleagues have been dismissed from their positions at the University of Bahrain for allegedly supporting the pro-democracy activists. At least one Bahraini newspaper undertook an attack on the American Studies Center at the UOB, where I used to teach, for allegedly fostering hostility towards the regime, because some of our students and/or alumni were engaged in the uprising and had become leading spokespersons of the opposition. Teaching students about American democracy was what they learned theoretically in the classroom; now, in the real world, they are shocked to see the US government side with the autocratic monarchy. US interest in maintaining its naval base in Bahrain for the US Fifth Fleet apparently outweighs our country’s interest in supporting democracy. Was in touch with many students while still in Bahrain, but once the regime crackdown commenced in mid-March of 2011—the Ides of March—most have been very reluctant to communicate via normal channels, and I have not heard from most in country for quite some time now. Am in communication, however, with a few who are outside of the country. For example, Maryam Al-Khawaja, a former student, is a spokesperson for the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and she regularly tracks the political situation in the country alerting the international press of developments. Her sister, Zainab Al-Khawaja, another former student, is still in country, and is a leading activist. Both Maryam’s and Zainab’s father, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, a founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and a prominent and leading human rights activist, was sentenced to life imprisonment last fall for his opposition to the regime, and he is now on a hunger strike and is gravely ill.

Crooked Bough: Do you anticipate a return to Bahrain?

CSC: As to whether I shall ever return to Bahrain, that remains to be seen. I would love to return to a democratic Bahrain, a free Bahrain. But, for now, it would be suicidal for me to return as long as the Al-Khalifas are still in power.

Crooked Bough: Thank you for your time and thoughts Dr. Cavell and thank you for all your effort toward a free and democratic Bahrain – watch for part two of this interview in the near future.

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U.S. activist deported from Bahrain following protests
14 February, 2012 -LA Times

Radhika Sainath was clutching an iPad and trying to blend in with Indian shopkeepers on the outskirts of a scattering protest when the Bahraini police asked for her passport.

“They looked at my name and they looked at their Blackberrys and they said, ‘That’s her,’” Sainath said.

Sainath is one of two activists from the United States who were deported from Bahrain on Sunday, two days before the island nation marked the one-year anniversary of protests still racking the country.

Protesters say Shiite Muslims are disenfranchised by the Sunni Muslim monarchy. Government loyalists have accused them of inciting violence, arguing Bahrain has already made reforms.

As the country neared the fateful anniversary Tuesday, clashes between protesters and police grew increasingly tense. Police flooded protests with tear gas. Some protesters lobbed Molotov cocktails at officers.

Sainath came to the country with Witness Bahrain, a group of observers that supports the Bahraini opposition. Officials accused the two activists of violating tourist visa rules by joining the protests “in order to report on them” for websites and social media, the Associated Press reported.

The Newport Beach native shared her story with The Times on Monday. The Bahrain Information Affairs Authority did not respond immediately Tuesday morning to Twitter and email requests for comment on her deportation. A phone call to the authority in Bahrain was not answered.

Sainath said on Saturday she was tweeting updates from the sidelines of a peaceful march toward Pearl Roundabout, the hub of protests last year, when tear gas canisters started whizzing by. She tweeted from the @WitnessBahrain account, “Choking on teargas as police chase peaceful protesters.”

When the gas began to clear, Sainath found herself surrounded by police. They took her to the police station and questioned her on and off for several hours, asking who invited her to the protests.

Sainath said an attorney sent by activists wasn’t allowed to meet with her; instead she met a U.S. official who told her she was detained “because we were at an illegal protest for riot purposes,” Sainath said. She was especially upset that Bahraini authorities took her equipment.

“We had taken video of people who had said, ‘You’ll black out my images afterwards, right?” she said. The U.S. official told her, “You should have known that before you took the footage,” Sainath said.

Sainath alleges she was mistreated on the flight back to London while being accompanied by Bahraini officials. Her hands were cuffed behind her back for seven hours, she said, and someone punched her in the head three times from behind. “When I asked to use the restroom, I was told, ‘If you need to use the bathroom you can go on yourself,’” she said.

The Bahraini government has restricted access to the country ahead of the protest date, turning down visas for several journalists and human rights activists and saying the demand was unusually high.

While opposition groups have denounced the deportations and police crackdowns on protests, the government has argued that it is merely trying to stop violence. The Ministry of the Interior tweeted Tuesday that “thugs set fire to electric transmitter in Mughsha and attacked civil defense to prevent firefighters from putting out the fire.” …source

Although the armed clashes are not completely over in the beleaguered district of Homs and that the Syrian and Lebanese authorities have yet to inform public opinion of their recent actions, Thierry Meyssan appeared Monday night on the leading Russian television channel to make an initial assessment of the operations, giving first-hand information which he is sharing with the readers of Voltaire Network.

Endgame in the Middle East
by Thierry Meyssan – Voltaire Network – 14 February 2012

For eleven months, the Western powers and the Gulf States have lead a campaign to destabilize Syria. Several thousand mercenaries infiltrated the country. Recruited by agencies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar within the Sunni extremist community, they came to overthrow the “usurper Alawite” Bashar al-Assad and impose a Wahhabi-inspired dictatorship. They have at their disposal the most sophisticated military equipment, including night vision systems, communication centers, and robots for urban warfare. Supported secretly by the NATO powers, they also have access to vital military information, including satellite images of Syrian troop movements, and telephone interceptions.

This has been falsely portrayed to the Western public as a political revolution crushed in blood by a ruthless dictatorship. Of course, this lie has not been universally accepted. Russia, China and the Latin American and Caribbean member states of ALBA repudiate it. They each have a historical background that allows them to readily grasp what is at stake. The Russians are thinking of Chechnya, the Chinese of Xinkiang, and the Latin Americans of Cuba and Nicaragua. In all these cases, beyond ideological or religious appearances, the methods of destabilization by the CIA were the same.

The strangest thing about this situation is to observe the Western media deluding themselves that the Salafists, Wahhabis and Al-Qaeda fighters are motivated by democratic principles, while they continue to demand on Saudi and Qatari satellite channels the head of the Alawi heretics and the Arab League observers. It matters little if Abdel Hakim Belhaj (number 2 of Al Qaeda and current military governor of Tripoli, Libya) came personally to install his men in northern Syria, and Ayman Al-Zawahiri (current leader of al Qaeda since the official death of Osama bin Laden) has called for a jihad against Syria: the Western press pursues its romantic dream of a liberal revolution.

Even more ridiculous is to hear the Western media slavishly disseminating the daily dispatches put out by the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood ranting about the crimes of the regime and its victims, under the signature of the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. Besides, since when has this Brotherhood of putchists been interested in human rights?

All it took to turn “terrorists” into “democrats” was for Western secret services to arrange for the puppet “Syrian National Council” to enter the scene, with a Sorbonne professor as President and as spokesperson the mistress of the former head of the DGSE. In a sleight of hand, the lie has become a media reality. Those abducted, mutilated and murdered by the Wahhabi Legion are transformed by the press into victims of the tyrant. Conscripts of all faiths who are defending their country against aggression are painted as sectarian Alawite soldiers oppressing their people. The destabilization of Syria by foreigners is treated as one more episode of the “Arab Spring.” The emir of Qatar and the Saudi king, two absolute monarchs who have never held national elections in their countries and incarcerate protesters have become the champions of revolution and democracy. France, the United Kingdom and the United States, who just killed 160,000 Libyans in breach of the mandate they received from the Security Council, have turned into philanthropists responsible for the protection of civilian populations. Etc..

However, the low intensity war that the Western press and the Gulf have hidden behind this masquerade came to an end with the double veto by Russia and China on 4 February 2012. NATO and its allies were ordered to cease fire and withdraw, at the risk of sparking a war on a regional, or even global, scale. …more

Bahrain receives military equipment from UK despite violent crackdown
14 February, 2012 – Shia Post

Britain has continued to sell arms to Bahrain despite continuing political unrest in the Gulf state, new official figures disclose.

According to the figures the government approved the sale of military equipment valued at more than £1m in the months following the violent crackdown on demonstrators a year ago. They included licences for gun silencers, weapons sights, rifles, artillery and components for military training aircraft.

Also cleared for export to Bahrain between July and September last year were naval guns and components for detecting and jamming improvised explosive devices. No export licences were refused.

Security forces in Bahrain fired teargas and stun grenades at protesters in pre-dawn skirmishes before Tuesday’s first anniversary of the uprising in the Gulf kingdom. Armoured vehicles patrolled the capital, Manama, in a security clampdown after protesters flung volleys of petrol bombs at police cars. There was also a massive police presence in Shia Muslim villages ringing Manama, with helicopters buzzing overhead, underlining the concerns of the Sunni-Muslim-led monarchy about a new explosion of civil unrest by Bahrain’s disgruntled Shia majority.

After the exposure a year ago of Britain’s approval of arms sales, including crowd control equipment, guns, and ammunition to Bahrain, Libya and Egypt, the government revoked 158 export licences, including 44 covering military exports to Bahrain.

The latest figures, published on the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills website, also show that during the third quarter of last year Britain exported arms valued at more than £1m to Saudi Arabia, including components for military combat vehicles and turrets. During last year’s uprising, Saudi Arabia sent forces to Bahrain in British military trucks.

Britain also supplied equipment, including components for military combat vehicles, weapons night sights, communications and rangefinding, valued at more than £1m, to Egypt’s armed forces.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, admitted to a committee of MPs last week: “We do trade with governments that are not democratic and have bad human rights records … We do business with repressive governments and there’s no denying that.”

He was giving evidence to the Commons committee on arms export controls whose chairman, the former Conservative defence minister Sir John Stanley, accused the government of adopting a “rosy-tinted” and “over-optimistic” approach to authoritarian regimes. …more

Iraqi Jihadists and weapons flow to Syria
12 February, 2012 – JafriaNews

JNN 12 Feb 2012 Baghdad : Jihadists are flocking to Syria from neighboring Iraq and weaponry is being sent across the border to support anti-Assad movement in the country, Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Assadi has announced.

In his interview to AFP news agency, Adnan al-Assadi said that Iraqi authorities have intelligence information that a“number of Iraqi Jihadists” had gone to Syria to take part in the protest movement.

He added that his country also sees the major outflow of weapons towards its neighbor. A strong indicator of weapons smuggling is, according to the deputy minister, the sudden and steep hike in prices on the Iraqi side of the border.

“The weapons are transported from Baghdad to Nineveh province, and the prices of weapons in Mosul [city] are higher now because they are being sent to the opposition in Syria,” said Adnan al-Assadi. The official added that in the province bordering Syria, the price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has recently risen from between $100 and $200 up to $1,500.

“The weapons are being smuggled from Mosul through the Rabia crossing to Syria, as members of the same families live on both sides of the border,” Adnan al-Assadi added. There is also some smuggling ongoing through a crossing near the Syrian city of Abu Kamal, he claims.

The Syrian government has long claimed that the opposition was being largely helped by foreigners.

In a recent development, Al-Qaeda has voiced its support to the Syrian opposition, urging Muslims across the Middle East to aid the Syrian uprising.

According to The Guardian, Turkey comes as probably “the most significant outside player” against the current regime in Syria. The country hosts the opposition Syrian National Council and allows a “safe haven” for the Free Syrian Army. Syrian opposition sources say they receive weapons coming from the territory of Turkey and Jordan, The Washington Times newspaper reports.

The Syrian officials recently handed to another neighbor, Lebanon, a list of individuals allegedly involved in border smuggling of people and weapons “for destructive acts on the territory of Syria”. Syria asked its neighbor to tighten border controls between the two countries.

According to Israeli website depka.com, known for his links with intelligence, UK and Qatari troops are largely involved with the battle for Homs on the side of the opposition. …more

Six US citizens arrested in Bahrain, to be deported
14 February, 2012 – Witness Bahrain

Manama, Bahrain – Six US Citizens were arrested by Bahraini security forces in Manama on Tuesday during a peaceful protest on the way to the Pearl Roundabout. Protesters had marched into the city center to reestablish a presence of nonviolent, peaceful protest on the one year anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising in Bahrain.

The international observers were in Bahrain as part of Witness Bahrain, an effort aimed at providing civilian presence to report and monitor the situation on the ground (witnessbahrain.org). Leading up to February 14, the one year anniversary of pro-democracy protests, Bahraini authorities had prevented journalists, human rights observers and other internationals from entering the country, leading many to fear a brutal crackdown.

Just yesterday, Secretary of State spokesperson Victoria Nuland stated that the US wanted to see the “security forces exercise restraint and operate within the rule of law and international judicial standards.” But she failed to condemn the violent arrests of US international observers, the detainment of numerous Bahraini pro-democracy activists (including President of the Bahraini Center for Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab) and the ongoing use of overwhelming amounts of tear gas.

The six US citizens were part of a peaceful protest marching towards the Pearl Roundabout – site of last year’s peaceful round-the-clock protest in Bahrain, modeled after Egypt’s Tahrir Square – when they were attacked. Bahraini authorities appear to have targeted the Witness Bahrain observers, as one volunteer was told that she was detained for reporting on the February 11th Manama protest.

The six observers remain in Bahraini custory in the Naem Police Station in Manama. This group of internationals is the second to be deported by the Bahraini government. Attorneys Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath were deported on Saturday, February 11th. The two were handcuffed for the duration of their flight from Bahrain to London.

Several international observers remain on the ground. …more

Urgent Appeal: The Bahraini Authorities Arrested Two Prominent Human Rights Activists
14 February, 2012 – Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights

The Bahraini authorities today ( February 14, 2012) arrested two prominent human rights activists after their participation in a peaceful march to the Pearl Roundabout.

Mr. Naji Fateel – Board Member of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) – and Mr.Nabeel Rajab – President of Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) – were arrested after participating in protests in support of democracy and human rights.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) demands the immediate release of Mr. Fateel and Mr. Rajab, and provide protection to human rights activists in Bahrain.
…source