Posts from — March 2012

Democratic Senators Issue Strong Warning About Use of the Patriot Act
By CHARLIE SAVAGE – 16 March, 2012 – NYT

WASHINGTON — For more than two years, a handful of Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee have warned that the government is secretly interpreting its surveillance powers under the Patriot Act in a way that would be alarming if the public — or even others in Congress — knew about it.

On Thursday, two of those senators — Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado — went further. They said a top-secret intelligence operation that is based on that secret legal theory is not as crucial to national security as executive branch officials have maintained.

The senators, who also said that Americans would be “stunned” to know what the government thought the Patriot Act allowed it to do, made their remarks in a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. after a Justice Department official last month told a judge that disclosing anything about the program “could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”

The Justice Department has argued that disclosing information about its interpretation of the Patriot Act could alert adversaries to how the government collects certain intelligence. It is seeking the dismissal of two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits — by The New York Times and by the American Civil Liberties Union — related to how the Patriot Act has been interpreted.

The senators wrote that it was appropriate to keep specific operations secret. But, they said, the government in a democracy must act within publicly understood law so that voters “can ratify or reject decisions made on their behalf” — even if that “obligation to be transparent with the public” creates other challenges. …more

NYPD chief, council clash over Muslim surveillance
CHRIS HAWLEY – Associated Press – 16 March, 2012 – Time Union

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Thursday challenged city council members who want to create an inspector general to regulate the department’s surveillance of Muslims, saying his department needs no additional oversight.

In sometimes heated exchanges with council members at a budget hearing, Kelly defended his department’s counterterrorism surveillance program as well as another crime-fighting policy, the stopping, questioning and frisking of people on the street.

“I think there’s plenty of oversight,” Kelly said. He cited New York’s five district attorneys, two U.S. attorneys, a committee that investigates police corruption, the department’s own internal affairs office and a 2003 court order that governs police surveillance.

“I don’t know what more you would want,” Kelly said.

Some council members say they are deeply concerned by a series of stories by The Associated Press detailing the extent of the surveillance program, which overwhelmingly targeted Muslim ethnic groups in its hunt for suspicious activity.

Undercover police officers eavesdropped in cafes and grocery stores, infiltrated Muslim student groups and monitored the public Internet activity of people as far away as Buffalo, N.Y. They set up a command center in New Brunswick, N.J., without the knowledge of the FBI or local police. They monitored people who changed their names from Arab-sounding names to more Americanized ones, created detailed catalogs of Muslim-owned businesses and recorded the license plates of worshippers at a New Jersey mosque.

Civil rights activists say they are worried about the names of innocent Americans ending up in secret police files.

Legal changes since 9/11 have left the police department’s Intelligence Division with too little supervision, said Brad Lander, a Democratic council member from Brooklyn.

“We have many blind spots in our understanding of the NYPD,” Lander said Thursday.

A 1985 court settlement, known as the Handschu Guidelines after the name of one of the plaintiffs, set strict time limits for investigations, imposed rules on the kinds of records police could keep and created a three-person body to oversee such investigations.

But after the 9/11 attacks, the NYPD persuaded a judge to give it more freedom. The resulting order, known as the Modified Handschu Guidelines, did away with the three-member body and most of the restrictions in 2003. Kelly said Thursday that his department “scrupulously” follows the new, more lax guidelines.

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“Abbas, these fruits do not seem too dangerous to me, are you sure they are terrorists?”

ABDULHADI ALKHAWAJA, STILL ON “FREEDOM OR DEATH” HUNGER STRIKE, THREATENED WITH “FORCE FEEDING”:

WAITROSE, CONSIDERED ONE OF UK’S MOST ETHICAL COMPANIES, BLINDLY OPENS 2ND STORE IN BAHRAIN:

INTERIOR MINISTER, SUFFERING AMNESIA ATTACK, TELLS TUNIS GATHERING “HOLY SITES – PROTECTING THEM IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY”:

28 YOUNG BAHRAINIS CHARGED WITH “ATTEMPTED MURDER” OF POLICE, 10 “CONFESSED”, 8 STILL ON THE RUN:

TIMELINE – 15th March 2012 12.57 GMT:

Abdulhadi Alkhawaja is now in the 35th day of his hunger strike and according to his lawyer, Mohamed al-Jishi, his condition has deteriorated so far that prison authorities are considering force-feeding him.

Sentenced to life imprisonment after a controversial trial in a military court, AlKhawaja is still waiting for a date for an appeal in a civilian court. The reality is that he may die before that day is reached.

AlKhawaja stopped drinking liquids as well for a few days last week after being visited by 2 people who he believed to be journalists but who subsequently contributed to a pro-government statement which implied he was “very well” and which gave a completely false picture of his current health.
http://www.petercliffordonline.com/bahrain-news

Free Abdulhadi AlKhawaja – courtesy @AliCartoon

“We believe that his hunger strike is not exposing him thus far to imminent danger,” a group called Mabadi said in a statement published in the pro-government al-Ayyam daily.

He is now back drinking again, up to a litre a day of water containing glucose and salts, but steadfastly refusing to eat food in his “freedom or death” hunger strike.

The death of AlKhawaja, who is an internationally known and a respected human rights campaigner and also a Danish citizen, is likely to cause a huge back-lash in Bahrain where he has a very large following.

The Danish Ambassador, who is based in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, had meetings with senior Bahraini Government officials this week, including the Foreign Minister, but the subjects within those discussions are not known. Danish consular staff have visited Khawaja in prison several times during his hunger strike.

Following his arrest on April 8th 2011, AlKhawaja was beaten and abused many times, completely breaking his jaw, which is now held together with metal plates and screws, beaten on the soles of the feet and even sodomised with a stick. …more

Saudi-backed forces attack Bahraini protesters in Sitra
15 March, 2012 – Shia Post

Saudi-backed regime forces in Bahrain have once again attacked peaceful anti-government demonstrators as Manama’s crackdown on the country’s popular uprising continues.

Regime forces fired teargas and sound grenades on Thursday to disperse protesters on the eastern island of Sitra.

The protesters were shouting slogans against the ruling Al Khalifa family and calling for the downfall of the US-backed regime.

Meanwhile, activists in Bahrain released footage showing Saudi-backed forces throwing Molotov cocktails in residential areas.

It also shows regime forces throwing petrol bombs at protesters.

Activists say that police usually harass protesters in a bid to provoke a fight-back.

The incident comes days after a mass demonstration by Bahraini protesters indicated the government’s efforts to dampen the popular uprising in the Persian Gulf Island nation have been futile.

On March 9, Hundreds of thousands of people held a mass rally outside the Bahraini capital, where they denounced the dictatorial rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty and demanded the ruling family to step down. They also called for an immediate release of all political prisoners.

Scores of people have been killed in the crackdown on anti-regime rallies that broke out last February, while thousands more have been arrested. …more

Protesters attacked in Sitra; Pakistani riot police throw Molotov cocktails
15 March, 2012 – Shia Post

Saudi-backed regime forces in Bahrain have again attacked peaceful anti-government demonstrators as Manama’s crackdown on the country’s popular uprising continues.

Regime forces fired teargas and sound grenades on Thursday to disperse protesters on the eastern island of Sitra.

The protesters were shouting slogans against the ruling Al Khalifa family and calling for the downfall of the US-backed regime.

Meanwhile, activists in Bahrain released footage showing Pakistani nationalist Bahrain- forces throwing Molotov cocktails in residential areas.

While attacking in residential area they were also speaking Pakistani regional language.

It also shows regime forces throwing petrol bombs at protesters.

Activists say that police usually harass protesters in a bid to provoke a fight-back.

The incident comes days after a mass demonstration by Bahraini protesters indicated the government’s efforts to dampen the popular uprising in the Persian Gulf Island nation have been futile.

On March 9, Hundreds of thousands of people held a mass rally outside the Bahraini capital, where they denounced the dictatorial rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty and demanded the ruling family to step down. They also called for an immediate release of all political prisoners.

Scores of people have been killed in the crackdown on anti-regime rallies that broke out last February, while thousands more have been arrested. …more

Bahrain vs. the Media
Morgan Lorraine Roach – 15 March, 2012 – The Foundary

Bahraini pro-reform protesters march during a rally in Maksha village west of the Bahraini capital Manama on December 30, 2011.

Since the uprising erupted last year, Bahrain has continued to experience unrest. Despite continuing reforms by the government, the opposition movement has steadily hardened its stance against the al-Khalifa monarchy.

Last weekend, protests in Bahrain escalated in one of the most violent confrontations between the opposition movement and police. Tens of thousands blocked King Faisal Highway, the main thoroughfare to Manama’s financial district, demanding an end to the al-Khalifa monarchy.

The government of Bahrain has responded to the unrest using a number of tactics, including restricting the media (international and domestic) and the Internet. This week, Reporters without Borders released its annual “Enemies of the Internet” report highlighting the government of Bahrain as one of the worst offenders.

Bahrain’s abuse of bloggers and journalists as well as extreme measures for handling protestors, including allegations of torture and murder, cannot be excused. Although the government is working toward reform, particularly following the release of the report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, the process has been slow and not has kept pace with the growing demands of the opposition.

On the other side of the debate, Bahrain’s opposition movement isn’t necessarily as innocent and well-meaning as the media portray it. Opposition members, particularly those who are part of the February 14th Movement, have wreaked havoc on the streets. Leading figures such as the influential cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim have incited violence against police and have contributed to Bahrain’s instability. Armed with Molotov cocktails and homemade weapons, protestors have injured not only police officers but also innocent bystanders.

The international media have tended to take a very superficial view of the events in Bahrain, failing to take Bahrain’s complex history and political dynamics into consideration. When I was in Bahrain last January, many Bahrainis expressed their frustration with international coverage of the crisis. One of their criticisms was the media’s lumping of Bahrain into the rest of the “Arab Spring” countries. …more

Bahrain to retry 20 doctors, nurses convicted after treating wounded uprising protesters
By Associated Press – 15 March, 2012

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Twenty Bahraini medical professionals convicted on uprising-linked charges and sentenced to prison terms face retrial in civilian courts, a lawyer said Thursday.Lawyer Jalila al-Sayed said a judge revoked last week’s decision to proceed with only five cases and refer the other 15 doctors and nurses to a medical disciplinary board. All were convicted of anti-state crimes during last year’s unrest.Even so, Bahraini authorities insisted the prosecutors will pursue charges only against five of the 20 health professionals. The discrepancy could not immediately be clarified.The 20 doctors and nurses treated wounded protesters during the Gulf kingdom’s uprising. Last year a special security court, set up during eight weeks of emergency rule in the Gulf kingdom, sentenced them to five to 15 years in prison.That court has been disbanded. Al-Sayed said the judge did not mention dropping charges against 15 medics during Thursday’s proceedings in a civilian court.The next hearing has been set for March 20. The case has drawn stiff criticism from human rights groups.Also Thursday, clashes between security forces and opposition supporters flared across the tiny but strategically important Gulf island that is the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.Riot police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at protesters, who were marking the first anniversary of the deployment of a Saudi-led military force in Bahrain.Some protesters threw firebombs at the riot police. There were no reports of injuries.The troops from the Sunni-ruled neighboring states were sent to Bahrain to help the Sunni monarchy quell dissent among the island nation’s majority Shiites. …source

European Parliament condemns rights violations in Bahrain, demands release of political prisoners
15 March , 2012 – Bahrain Justice and Development Moment

The Parliament of The European Union today voted to condemn human rights abuses in Bahrain and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.

This motion for resolution was passed by MEP’s, cementing the institutions support for freedom in Bahrain. It specifically called on the Bahraini authorities to “stop the excessive use of violence, including excessive the use of tear gas, repression, acts of torture, unlawful detention and prosecution of peaceful protestors”.

The motion reiterated the Parliaments demand for the “immediate and unconditional release of all peaceful demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, doctors and paramedics, bloggers and journalists who have been detained or convicted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly or performing their professional obligations.”.

Hunger strike: Abdulhadi AlKhawaja

This includes human rights activist Abdulhadi Al Khawaja who is now on his 36th day of hunger strike and whose condition has now deteriorated to an extremely dangerous level.

Also mentioned by name is Mahdi Abu Deeb, the head of Bahrain’s teaching union, who has been in prison for more than 11 months. In september he was given a ten-year sentence, a jail term the European Parliament believes should be reversed.

As well as demanding an end to human rights violations, the Parliament also expressed that it finds the democratic aspirations of the Bahraini people “legitimate” and called on the Bahraini authorities to make the necessary reforms to achieve a social consensus.

It also called on EU member states to “suspend all military and security-related sales and assistance, including surveillance technologies to Bahrain” until Bahrain has implemented reforms. It welcomed the BICI report and it’s recommendations but urged Bahrain to swiftly implement, with a real focus to end the impunity enjoyed by it’s leaders.

The European Parliament has voted in the past to support the people of Bahrain, but naturally such votes will not necessarily transform into real political action.

We are hopeful that this can act as a source of encouragement for member states, as well as non-EU nations, to adopt similar motions and push the Bahrain Government to end violations and begin reforms.

Either way this shows the international disgust with Bahrain’s treatment of it’s people and is a promising sign that international pressure may finally be turning against the dictatorship.

Iran sends planeload of ‘medical aid’ to Syria: report
15 March, 2012 – Agence France Presse – The Daily Star

TEHRAN: An Iranian aircraft carrying 40 tonnes of “medical aid” arrived in Syria on Thursday, the first of four such shipments destined for Tehran’s regional ally, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The cargo which arrived in Damascus early Thursday was to be handed over to the Syrian Red Crescent, the agency said, quoting the Iranian ambassador to Syria, Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani.

Sheibani said Thursday’s shipment included “medicines and medical equipment” and the subsequent shipments would comprise “food products, ambulances, tents and blankets.”

He said the deliveries were being made “in the framework of reinforcing the relations and support of Tehran to this country.”

Iran is standing fully behind the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad as it battles armed rebel groups it describes as “terrorists”.

Tehran has voiced opposition to any foreign “interference” in Syria, and denied US allegations it is sending arms to Syria.

US officials have said they suspect Iran is providing Assad with arms, electronic monitoring equipment, intelligence and advice on how to crack down on the uprising.

“They are working earnestly to keep Assad in power,” General James Mattis, the head of the US military?s Central Command, told a Senate hearing last week, according to The New York Times newspaper.

“The aid from Iran is increasing, and is increasingly focused on lethal assistance,” The Washington Post newspaper quoted one unnamed official with access to intelligence reports from the region as saying early this month.

The head of Iran’s elite military Quds Force, Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, has paid at least one visit to Damascus recently, the paper said, citing US officials.
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A Saudi youth ‘awakening’?
Postnoon News – 15 March, 2012

Seventy percent of the Saudi population is under 30, and as many as 40 per cent of those young people are unemployed. According to the kingdom’s own statistics, holding a college degree almost doubles the chances of failing to find a job.

The frustration of being young and Saudi, led by a monarchy viewed by critics as arrogant, incompetent and repressive, is finally producing a youth protest movement in a country where public dissidence is exceedingly rare and severely punished.

Last week 1,000 female students at King Khalid University rallied against the school’s president after the university cancelled its cleaning services and garbage began to pile up and stink in the intense Saudi heat. The demonstration was dispersed with batons and water hoses, injuring more than 50 women. Then on Saturday an estimated 500 male students took up the cause, calling for the resignation of university president Abdullah Al-Rashid.

Some of the protesters told media outlets that their demands were not political, expressing loyalty to Saudi King Abdullah.

But local governor Prince Faisal bin Khaled condemned the protests, warning, “We will not be lenient with anyone, whoever may it be, who play with the security of the country.”

Amnesty International reported this week that the Saudi government continues to incarcerate at least six men who had planned to take part in a ‘Day of Rage’ last March 11. Only one of the men is believed to have actually demonstrated and Amnesty’s Middle East director Philip Luther said the year-long detentions were preposterous.

“Holding people for a year merely for intending to protest is completely unconscionable,” he said.

Saudi Arabia has largely resisted the ‘Arab Awakening’ that swept the region in 2011, as the royal family used a combination of force and distribution of subsidies to nullify protest. King Abdullah has announced limited social and judicial reforms in recent years, including granting women the right to vote last September. But Saudi women are still banned from driving cars, running businesses or entering major government buildings and must cover themselves in head scarves and abayas in public.

Saudi remains a highly conservative society rooted in the very conservative Wahhabist Islamic tradition and led in part by the ulema — a body of Islamic religious leaders. …more

Bahrain Issues New Code of Conduct for Police, IAA Says
By Donna Abu-Nasr – 15 March, 2012 – Bloomberg

Bahrain issued a new code of conduct for police officers force requiring adherence to 10 principles, including limited use of force and zero tolerance toward torture and mistreatment, the Information Affairs Agency said today.

The Interior Ministry code, recommended by an independent international commission that investigated possible human-rights abuses during the February-March 2011 protests, states that officers must show respect for human dignity and make arrests in accordance with international standards. It forbids the use of force “except when absolutely necessary,” state-run IAA said.

“This code of conduct represents a new social treaty between members of Bahraini society and the police which will mark the start of a new era and a correct path to building bridges of confidence between the united Bahraini society and the police, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said in the statement.

A new Internal Affairs Department being established within the Interior Ministry will be responsible for disciplinary reviews, as well as overseeing the new code, according to the statement.

Last year’s mass protests, led by Bahrain’s Shiite majority, included demands for democracy and equal rights from the Sunni monarchy, leading to a crackdown by security forces in which troops from neighboring Saudi Arabia, also ruled by Sunnis, were called in to help.

At least 35 people were killed during the rallies and an ensuing crackdown through April last year, the independent commission has said. Tensions in the island nation have simmered in Shiite areas throughout the past year.

ACT NOW HERE

It is heartbreaking to see a renegade country like Libya shoot pro-democracy protesters. But it’s even more wrenching to watch America’s ally, Bahrain, pull a Qaddafi and use American tanks, guns and tear gas as well as foreign mercenaries to crush a pro-democracy movement — as we stay mostly silent.

Bahrain Pulls a Qaddafi
16 March, 2011 – By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF – NYT

In Bahrain in recent weeks, I’ve seen corpses of protesters who were shot at close range, seen a teenage girl writhing in pain after being clubbed, seen ambulance workers beaten for trying to rescue protesters — and in the last few days it has gotten much worse. Saudi Arabia, in a slap at American efforts to defuse the crisis, dispatched troops to Bahrain to help crush the protesters. The result is five more deaths, by the count of The Associated Press.

One video from Bahrain appears to show security forces shooting an unarmed middle-aged man in the chest with a tear gas canister at a range of a few feet. The man collapses and struggles to get up. And then they shoot him with a canister in the head. Amazingly, he survived.

Today the United States is in a vise — caught between our allies and our values. And the problem with our pal Bahrain is not just that it is shooting protesters but also that it is something like an apartheid state. Sunni Muslims rule the country, and now they are systematically trying to crush an overwhelmingly Shiite protest movement.

My New York Times colleague Michael Slackman was caught by Bahrain security forces a few weeks ago. He said that they pointed shotguns at him and that he was afraid they were about to shoot when he pulled out his passport and shouted that he was an American journalist. Then, he says, the mood changed abruptly and the leader of the group came over and took Mr. Slackman’s hand, saying warmly: “Don’t worry! We love Americans!”

“We’re not after you. We’re after Shia,” the policeman added. Mr. Slackman recalls: “It sounded like they were hunting rats.”

All this is tragic because the ruling al-Khalifa family can be justly proud of what it has built in Bahrain, including a prosperous and dynamic society, a highly educated work force and a society in which women are far better off than next door in Saudi Arabia. On a good day, Bahrain feels like an oasis of moderation in a tough region.

Yet you can parachute blindfolded into almost any neighborhood in Bahrain and tell immediately whether it is Sunni or Shiite. The former enjoy better roads and public services. And it’s almost impossible for Shiites to be hired by the army or police. Doesn’t that sound like an echo of apartheid?

It is true that Bahrain’s protesters have behaved in ways that have undermined their cause. They frequently chant “Death to al-Khalifa” — a toxic slogan that should offend everyone. And some protesters have targeted Pakistanis and other South Asians who often work for security services. …more