Posts from — March 2012

“If people actually knew what was happening, they would be really pissed off.” -Barbara Brenner, former BCAction Executive Director in the new documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc.

Pink Ribbons, Inc.: The Movie
by Caitlin – 23 February, 2012 – Think Before You Pink

Billions of dollars have been raised through the tireless efforts of women and men devoted to putting an end to breast cancer. Yet, breast cancer rates in North America have risen to 1 in 8. “What’s going on?” asks our former Executive Director Barbara Brenner in Pink Ribbons, Inc. a new film now playing across Canada and debuting in the U.S. this year.

The Toronto International Film Festival says: “Léa Pool’s devastating documentary about the industry and “culture” around breast cancer, addresses the rise of corporate involvement in fund-raising for charities … and the impact it has had on research into the disease. Powerful and incendiary, the film is an important and timely piece from one of our finest filmmakers.”

Thank you, Léa Pool, from the bottom of our pink ribbon-fatigued hearts, for making this movie. We need powerful. We need incendiary.

This film has been a long time coming. Based on Samantha King’s brilliant book of the same name, Pink Ribbons, Inc. pulls back the pink curtain on why we aren’t making progress in ending this epidemic. It’s a curtain we’ve been tugging on for over a decade through our Think Before You Pink® campaign, where we encourage people to ask critical questions about breast cancer fundraising. We are thrilled to see this message go mainstream.

Pink Ribbons, Inc. also shines a much-needed spotlight on pinkwashing, a coin we termed to describe when a company or organization claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces, manufactures and/or sells products that are linked to the disease.

Breast cancer has become big business—corporations look good by associating themselves with breast cancer, but how much does their involvement benefit women? As one woman living with metastatic breast cancer says in the film, “Our disease is being used for people to profit. And that’s not OK.”

This movie is a potential game-changer, showing just how much the shiny pink status quo has cost us—and how little we’ve gained from it. As an advocate says in the film, “For people to finally rise up and object, they have to be aware of the lies they’re being fed.”

Pink Ribbons, Inc. is debuting at film festivals in the U.S. this spring and we’ll keep you posted on where and when you can see it in theatres. In the meantime, get your free copy of our brand new Think Before You Pink Toolkit, which is a perfect companion to the film and, says, Samantha King, “gives both seasoned agitators and newcomers to breast cancer activism vital resources to change the conversation about breast cancer. Download it today and start changing the world, one pinkwasher at a time.”

When it comes to breast cancer, profits far too often are priority number one. This toolkit helps advocates like you challenge the status quo and make sure women at risk of and living with breast cancer come first. …Screenings

The Purpose of U.S. Soft Power Themed Revolutions: Disunity and Power Projection
Wayne MADSEN – 14 February, 2012 – Strategic Culture Foundation

A U.S. “alphabet soup” agency-sponsored themed revolution in the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean comprising twenty-six atolls, stands to plunge the nation, heretofore considered a tropical paradise for tourists, into the same kind of chaos and civil unrest now seen on the streets of Libya, Egypt, and Syria. Maldives is smaller in comparison to the nations of the Middle East where the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute (NDI), and George Soros’s Open Society Institute (OSI) have sponsored themed revolutions that have all resulted in civil unrest and a entrance of extremist Wahhabi Salafists into political power. However, the small size of Maldives provides a much clearer picture of how the aforementioned Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-sponsored “soft power” aggressors managed to turn paradise into another center of unrest in the Muslim world.

In the case of the Maldives, the road to civil strife began in 2005 when USAID- and OSI-sponsored democracy” manipulation groups took root in the country upon the legalization of opposition political parties by the government of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Serving as president for thirty years, Gayoom was seen by the international human rights network of non-governmental organizations as a dictator ripe for removal. The Western-sponsored NGOs settled on Mohamed Nasheed, a Maldivian opposition leader who had lived in exile in Britain – with the support of the British government — and Sri Lanka and who returned to Maldives in 2005, as their favorite candidate for president.

In preparation for the first direct presidential election for president in 2008, outside “democracy manipulators” descended on Maldives, a country that had become popular with the Soros network because of global climate change. Maldives, which is threatened by rising sea levels, became a cause célèbre for the carbon tax and carbon cap-and-trade advocates.

Nasheed was the 2008 presidential candidate of the Maldivian Democratic Party against President Gayoom’s Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party. In the first round of voting, Gayoom received a little over 40 percent of the vote in the first round to the 24 percent of Nasheed’s and his vice presidential running mate, Mohammed Waheed Hassan. To defeat Gayoom in the second round, Nasheed, obviously with the encouragement of his foreign “democracy” advisers, sought and received the endorsement of four other opposition parties, including the Saudi- and United Arab Emirates-financed Salafist Adhaalath (Justice) Party. Adhaalath is an ideological partner of the Muslim Brotherhoods of Egypt and Syria. In the second round of the election, Nasheed, with the support of the other four opposition presidential candidates, defeated Gayoom 54 percent to 46 percent. …more

Mossad, CIA and Blackwater operate in Syria – report
08 March, 2012 – Strategic Culture Foundation

A security operation in Homs reveals Mossad, CIA and Blackwater are involved in the military violence in this part of Syria, as over 700 Arab and Western gunmen and Israeli, American and European-made weapons were detained in Baba Amr district.

­Syrian security forces got yet further proof of Western powers’ military involvement in Syria’s internal conflict, reports Al-Manar, a news agency, affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group and political party.

Around 700 gunmen were recently arrested in the former rebel stronghold of Babar Amr.

“The captured gunmen held Arab nationalities, including Gulf, Iraqi, and Lebanese. Among them were also Qatari intelligence agents and non-Arab fighters from Afghanistan, Turkey, and some European countries like France,” the agency quotes Syrian expert in strategic affairs Salim Harba as saying.

Harba also confirmed to the agency that “a coordination office was established in Qatar under American-Gulf sponsorship. The office includes American, French, and Gulf – specifically from Qatar and Saudi Arabia – intelligence agents, as well as CIA, Mossad, and Blackwater agents and members of the Syrian Transitional Council.”

The Syrian expert also added the security forces have also seized Israeli-, European- and American-made weapons.

“The Syrian army also uncovered tunnels and equipments there,” he told to the agency, “advanced Israeli, European, and American arms that have not yet been tested in the countries of manufacture, in addition to Israeli grenades, night binoculars, and communication systems were confiscated by the security forces.”

Salim Harba however said the Syrian authorities are not planning to reveal all the obtained information now, but assured all the evidence is of high value.

“The Syrian security forces have documents and confessions that could harm everyone who conspired against Syria, and could make a security and political change, not just on the internal Syrian level, but also on the regional level,” he said.

The recent Stratfor leak and hacked email of the company’s director of analysis also suggest undercover NATO troops are already on the ground in Syria. …more

Martyr Bahia Abdelrasoul Al-Aradi (Ms).

Name:Martyr Bahia Abdelrasoul Al-Aradi (Ms)

Age:51 years

Area:Bahrain- Manama
Reason of Martyrdom:in pursuit of Allah’s pleasure and over the issue for getting back human dignity and freedom in his country.

Date of Martyr:20th March 2011
Way of Martyrdom:She was shot in the head on 17th March by sniper She was on the phone with her younger sister when she was shot. According to witnesses who came to her aid from nearby houses. They claim they were also shot at by the military vehicles parked on a highway near Al-Gadam roundabout. Bahia’s family refused to take her body when they were asked to sign a paper saying that she died in a car accident. Final official death certificate stated that Bahia died as result of “severe brain injury

Family mourns senseless death of Bahiya Al Aradi
23 March, 2011 – Zoi Constantine – The National

MANAMA – Some sat quietly crying. Others wailed and cursed the government, which they hold responsible for the death of the 51-year-old woman who was shot in the head a week ago. Bahiya Al Aradi’s sister Umm Mahmoud urged the women not to cry.

“She is the first shaheeda [female martyr],” she told the mourners. “Don’t cry.”

Al Aradi had not been involved in the pro-democracy demonstrations that began over a month ago in Bahrain, before the violent clampdown when security forces stormed Pearl Roundabout, killing three and wounding many more.

An estimated 25 people, including at least 15 Shia Bahrainis, have been killed since unrest broke out in the island kingdom on February 14. Opposition groups say around 100 people are still unaccounted for.

The government announced a state of emergency last week, shortly before the arrival of the Peninsula Shield Force, led by Saudi Arabia and including UAE police.

On Wednesday afternoon, al Aradi was en route from her elderly mother’s home in central Manama to the home of her best friend of 40 years, a woman who would agree to be identified only by the name Salwa.

After the violent events of the morning, there was a heavy police and military presence on the roads as al Aradi drove Salwa’s car from Manama towards the area of Budaiya.

A drive that would normally take 20 minutes ended up taking hours, as she was stopped by multiple military checkpoints.

Umm Mahmoud said her sister was rerouted several times, struggled to find petrol and became increasingly alarmed about driving in the dark with armed soldiers on the streets.

As she was driving through the village of Qadam, al Aradi was on the phone to one of her sisters, who suddenly heard what sounded like shots being fired on the other end of the line.

“My sister heard Bahia scream,” said Umm Mahmoud, 37, in the family home’s majlis in Manama. “My sister called me and said ‘Maybe she’s dead’.”

Three days later, the al Aradi family were informed that she was at the Bahrain Defence Force Hospital. After several unsuccessful attempts to enter the facility, Habib al Aradi, her brother, was finally given access and found his elder sister hooked up to life-support.

On Monday night, the family were told that she had passed away.

There has been no comment from the government about al Aradi’s death, but the official death certificate issued to the family yesterday said she died from the “shock” of a “severe brain injury”.

By yesterday, a wound in the back of her head had been stitched up, making it difficult to determine the exact entry point of the bullet. …more

Bahrain awash with anti-regime protests
07 March, 2012 – By Houty

Prominent Bahraini human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, led a massive anti-regime demonstration in Meqsha near the capital city of Manama on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, people held a candlelight vigil in memory of Mohammad Ibrahim, a Bahraini male, who was killed by Saudi-backed Al Khalifa forces in January.

Also, a huge nightly demonstration was held in the village of Nabih Saleh in eastern Bahrain, with protesters expressing solidarity with Bahraini opposition leaders.

Protesters have also vowed to hold further mass demonstration on Friday.

In a popular revolution, thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging peaceful demonstrations across the Persian Gulf island since February 2011, demanding that the Al Khalifa dynasty relinquish power.

On March 14, 2011, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed troops to the sheikdom at Manama’s request to help the Bahraini security forces crush the nationwide protests.

Scores of people have been killed and many more arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown. …source

Islamist, leftist Tunisian students clash
07 March, 2012 – Ben Bouazza – The Daily Star

TUNIS, Tunisia: Religious and leftist students fought running battles at a Tunisian university Wednesday in the latest incident involving rising religious sentiment in the North African country.

Competing demonstrations in the morning by hundreds of conservative students, known as Salafists, and leftist members of the national students’ union erupted into violence when the former tore down the national flag flying at the university entrance.

The Salafis students replaced the Tunisian flag with their own black standard bearing the Muslim profession of faith.

The state news agency reported that five students were injured in the clashes, which went on and off throughout the day, including three that had to be hospitalized.

Salafi students have been demonstrating at Manouba university near the capital against a policy banning female students from wearing the conservative face veil during classes or exams. They are also demanding a prayer space on campus.

Tunisia’s dictators rigidly promoted a secular ideology and cracked down on any overt expressions of piety, including women’s veils. Since Tunisians overthrew their ruler last year, however, people espousing a more conservative approach to the religion have come out into open – often clashing with leftists.

According to Mohammed Bakhti, spokesman for the Salafi students, they were also demonstrating against an assault on Tuesday on two veiled students by the dean of the faculty of humanities, Habib Kazdaghli.

For his part, Kazdaghli told The Associated Press the accusations were baseless and he was the one attacked.

“One of them barged into my office and attacked me and my books and documents, I had to push her away and I still have bruises from it,” he said.

Five students were also disciplined by the university on Tuesday for attempting to wear the veil, including one given a one-year suspension for praying in class.

Earlier in the year, Salafi students had held a monthslong sit-in in front of the faculty over the veil issue preventing exams from being held.

Kazdaghli, who has become a polarizing figure in the debate, condemned authorities for not intervening to stop the Salafi students.

The moderate Islamist Ennahda party leading the government issued a statement Wednesday condemning the attack on the country’s flag.

“The party also stresses that all must engage in a dialogue in order to achieve the appropriate solutions that guarantee the university’s sanctity and the students’ rights and freedoms,” it said. …source

The Syrian Veto: China,Russia and the Arab Spring
7 March, 2012 – Middle East Futures Network

It all began on March 15 2011 when protestors, inflamed by the arrest of a group of teenagers and inspired by the Tunisian, Egyptian, and Libyan people, took their desire for freedom and justice to the streets of Daraa in southwest Syria, and started the deadliest episode of the Arab Spring. Despite President Assad’s confident assurance to the world that Sham was immune from anti-Government protests, what began in Daraa kick-started Syria’s descent into a civil war; a war that seems unstoppable as it approaches its first anniversary and marks the end of a chaotic year in Syrian history.

Given the geostrategic importance of Syria and Assad’s popularity and carefully constructed image as a reformer, there was early optimism inside and outside Syria over his willingness and capability to calm the situation through the initiation of meaningful reforms. As a matter of fact, there were commentators who believed that the Arab Spring had provided the reform-minded, Western-educated Bashar with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity finally to unleash a series of socio-political reforms, thereby weakening the more conservative members of his inner circle and encourage their early retirements.

Two months into the uprising, there emerged a sudden change in the stance of regional and extra-regional actors towards Syria led by Turkey. It was in this context of rising tensions that Syria lost its Arab League membership; GCC states, Britain, France, and the US closed their embassies; more economic sanctions were imposed by the EU, the US, and the Arab League, which also sent a monitoring mission to Syria that had two broad outcomes: embarrassment for the League, and the departure of Syrian ambassadors from the GCC. In response, Syria’s allies – namely, Iran, Hezbollah, Russia, and China – increased their public backing of the Syrian regime, helping to create a mini Cold War situation in the Levant; a situation that acquired a whole new dimension when China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Syria for the second time, claiming that it was unbalanced and unreasonable.

Hillary Clinton described China and Russia’s veto as a ‘travesty’; the Turkish Prime Minster called it a ‘fiasco’, and various Arab regimes accused Beijing and Moscow of licensing more killing in Syria. Russia and China, however, dismissed all these accusations and justified their veto as an attempt to seek ‘peaceful settlement of the chronic Syrian crisis’. Hence, digging beneath the surface and behind the veil of what has become a ‘war of rhetoric’, it is useful to ask why Beijing and Moscow, which have typically tried to align their policies with regional states/blocks, have disregarded and antagonised the Arab League by lending their backing to Mr. Assad, and how disruptive their support and indeed cooperation is to the international community’s efforts to end the violence in Syria.

For both Russia and China, and indeed the other members of the BRICs, NATO’s intervention in Libya was a wakeup call. As is evident in their remarks during the last meeting of BRICs leaders in 2011, the UN-sanctioned intervention in Libya was less of a humanitarian operation and more of a well thought out, Western-engineered strategy of regime change in order to perpetuate Western dominance over the entire MENA. As such, Chinese and Russian rationale today is that they no longer want the UN to be involved in further cases of ‘regime change’. Put differently, they fear that the Libyan campaign has set up a precedent for intervention based on human rights, and this, needless to say, has raised red flags in Beijing and Moscow at a time of leadership change/elections and rising domestic discontent and public protests in both countries. …more

Twelve prominent Egyptian activists referred to military court
07 March, 2012 – X index

Twelve prominent Egyptian activists, including Wael Ghonim and presidential hopeful Bothaina Kamel, have reportedly been referred to a military court on charges of attempting to bring down the state and inciting hatred against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Egypt’s military leaders have faced widespread criticism since they came into power after the fall of Mubarak. Activists working with the No Military Trials Campaign have been campaigning on behalf of 12,000 civilians tried and imprisoned by the military, and report that only 2,613 civilians have been released. …source

Women’s Day: Taking a stand with women in the Middle East
6 March, 2012 – Amnesty International

People around the world should show their solidarity with the courageous women who were pivotal in uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, Amnesty International said.

Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, the organization is calling on its supporters to mark the day by sending messages of support to women in the region.

Thousands of individual actions are expected to be taken, with a focus on four countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen – where women remain at the heart of calls for reform, but a broad spectrum of women’s rights are still threatened.

In North Africa, which saw momentous events in 2011, political change has yet to translate into real gains for women’s rights.

“Across the Middle East and North Africa, women have been an inspiring force for change, standing up against repressive regimes to defend basic human rights and promote reform and equality,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International.

“This International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity with these courageous women, to support them in their struggle for human rights and freedom, and to let them know the world is behind them at this historic moment.”

Imprisoned in Iran for defending women’s rights

Iran’s women played a key role in massive protests around the June 2009 elections, when they advocated for a wide range of human rights reform, including greater freedoms for women.

But the country’s women activists continue to pay a high price for their peaceful work.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prisoner of conscience and human rights lawyer, is serving a six-year jail sentence, reduced from 11 years on appeal, on charges of “propaganda” and belonging to an “illegal” organization – the Centre for Human Rights Defenders. She denies all charges. …more

Fifty injured in attack on Saudi student protest: report
7 March, 2012 – Al-Akhbar

Over 50 female Saudi students were injured when security guards and Saudi police attacked a peaceful protest in a university, a local newspaper has claimed.

The 1,000-strong all-women protest, which was calling for an end to corruption and ill-treatment at the King Khaled University (KKU) in Abha, was attacked on Wednesday by security services wielding batons, the Al Watan newspaper said.

The students had begun a protest on Tuesday to criticize the university management for allowing the campus to deteriorate and against ongoing corruption in the country.

Security forces stormed the campus on Wednesday and attacked the protesters with batons, fire extinguishers, and water hoses, activists said.

Activists criticized the attack on Twitter and other social networks, with proposing the hashtag #BlackDeath after the violence. Another said it was the first time she was proud of being an KKU student. …source

Syria ready to cooperate with Chinese peace initiative
7 March, 2012 – Al-Akhbar

Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Wednesday that Damascus was ready to cooperate with a Chinese initiative to end the bloodshed and begin dialogue between the regime and the opposition.

After meeting Chinese envoy Li Huaxin, Beijing’s former ambassador to Damascus, Muallem said Syria welcomed a six-point peace plan and was “ready to cooperate” with the plan aimed at “halting the violence,” the official SANA news agency reported.

Damascus was also ready to “cooperate with the envoy of the United Nations” and the Arab League, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who is due in Syria on Saturday, the minister added.

Li Huaxin, quoted earlier in Al-Watan newspaper, said he had already met Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnus to discuss China’s “six-point vision” on the year-long crisis in Syria.

The Chinese initiative, unveiled by Beijing on Sunday, calls for an immediate end to the violence and for dialogue between the regime of President Bashar Assad and the opposition.

Syria’s main opposition alliance has previously ruled out dialogue while Assad remains in power.

Beijing’s proposal rejects foreign interference or “external action for regime change” in Syria but supports the role of the UN Security Council “in strict accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN charter.”

Li is expected to meet representatives of opposition groups in the coming days, according to Al-Watan. …source

How empires fall (including the american one)

A TomDispatch interview with Jonathan Schell
7 March, by Andy Kroll

When Jonathan Schell’s The Unconquerable World, a meditation on the history and power of nonviolent action, was published in 2003, the timing could not have been worse. Americans were at war — and success was in the air. U.S. troops had invaded Iraq and taken Baghdad (“mission accomplished”) only months earlier, and had already spent more than a year fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Schell’s book earned a handful of glowing reviews, and then vanished from the public debate as the bombs scorched Iraq and the body count began to mount.

Now, The Unconquerable World’s animating message — that, in the age of nuclear weaponry, nonviolent action is the mightiest of forces, one capable of toppling even the greatest of empires — has undergone a renaissance of sorts. In December 2010, the self-immolation of a young Tunisian street vendor triggered a wave of popular and, in many cases, nonviolent uprisings across the Middle East, felling such autocrats as Tunisia’s Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak in mere weeks. Occupations, marches, and protests of all sorts spread like brushfire across Europe, from England to Spain to Greece, and later Moscow, and even as far as Madison, Wisconsin. And then, of course, there were the artists, students, and activists who, last September, heard the call to “occupy Wall Street” and ignited a national movement with little more than tents, signs, and voices on a strip of stone and earth in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park.

You might say that Schell, a former New Yorker staff writer renowned for his work on nuclear weapons and disarmament (his 1981 book The Fate of the Earth was a best-seller and instant classic), prophesied Occupy and the Arab Spring — without even knowing it. He admits to being as surprised as anyone about the wave of nonviolent action that swept the world in 2011, but those who had read Unconquerable World would have found themselves uncannily well prepared for the birth of a planet of protest whenever it happened. …more

“What happened in Baba Amr is totally depressing, regardless of what side you’re on,” he says. “With every person who dies, and every drop of blood that is shed, this window (for negotiation) is narrowing. Time is ticking – it’s against the Syrians on both sides.”

Samaan says the media has contributed greatly to polarising views in and out of Syria. “We can divide the media into two kinds: pro and against,” he says. “We’re in the middle of crazy violence – from both the regime and the militias – but nobody is covering both sides properly.”

The Doves Of Damascus
7 March, 2012 – By Jess Hill – The Global Mail

As Syria slides into civil war, moderate voices inside the country want to know: Why isn’t anyone listening to us?
For the Saudis, Syria is a prize too valuable to be left to the Syrians.

Fresh from his glad-handing tour of the Middle East, United States Senator John McCain returned to the Senate this week and made the call for war. “Time is running out. Assad’s forces are on the march. Providing military assistance to the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups is necessary, but at this late hour, that alone will not be sufficient to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives,” he implored from the Senate floor.

The solution? ‘The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centres in Syria,” said McCain. “To be clear: This will require the United States to suppress enemy air defences in at least part of the country.”

In other words: Bomb Syria.

Asked to respond to the Senator’s speech, the White House remained unmoved. “The administration is focused on diplomatic and political approaches rather than a military intervention,” said its spokesman.

But it may not be the White House and its allies that end up leading the response to Syria. The rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait each have called for the arming of the opposition militia, the Free Syrian Army (FSA). On March 5, in an astonishing display of hypocrisy, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said, “Is there something greater than the right to defend oneself and to defend human rights?” The Saudi agenda in Syria is no secret. The hardline Sunni monarchy is battling Iran’s Shia clerics for hegemony in the region, and Syria is Iran’s last significant ally. For the Saudis, Syria is a prize too valuable to be left to the Syrians.

As the Gulf states plot their next move, however, the dialogue continues – outside Syria, at least. At the recent Friends of Syria meeting in Tunis, delegates from 60 countries recognised Syria’s opposition-in-exile, the Syrian National Council (SNC), as the legitimate representative for the Syrian people.

But what about the people working for change inside Syria?

The Global Mail tracked down three moderate voices living in Damascus: an activist wanted by the regime, a politician pushing for dialogue, and a lawyer working for an influential nongovernmental organisation. They each say that while conferences are being held outside the country to decide Syria’s fate, nobody – not the international community, the Syrian regime, nor the world’s media – is listening to them.

OSAMA, 33, HAS BEEN living in hiding for months. He and his wife are both activists, and both are wanted by the authorities. A few months ago, they moved from Darya, a Damascus suburb, into the city, because it’s “safer”.

“Many activists are moving to Damascus, because there aren’t as many checkpoints,” he says. “It’s easier to move around.” There may be less security visible on the street, but Osama and his wife still have to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid being arrested. Each time somebody close to them is captured, they have to move. Each time they do, they also have to find somewhere that can accommodate their six-month-old daughter. In the past week, they’ve moved three times. …more

Bahraini elderly woman killed by tear gas: Activists
06 March, 2012 – Shia Post

Bahraini opposition group Al-Wefaq says a 78-year-old woman Sakeena Marhoon has been killed after inhaling tear gas fired inside her house by the regime forces during a demonstration in a village of Abu Saiba, about 12 kilometers west of Manama on Tuesday March 06, 2012. The Shia Post reported.

According to reports up to 72 Bahraini and 3 foreigners have been killed in Bahrain during pro-democracy demonstration.

On Monday a 45 days old infant was died due to inhaling teargas fored by Saudi-backed regime forces in a residential area in Manama.

Bahraini demonstrators hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the death of protesters during the popular uprising in the country that began in February 2011.

Amnesty International said in a statement issued on February 13 that despite promises made by the Bahraini government, “victims and families of victims of the serious human rights violations (including) torture, arbitrary detention and excessive use of force… are still waiting for justice.” …more

After democracy-group crisis, U.S. seeking reliable partner in new Egypt
By Leila Fadel – 6 March, 2012 – Washington Post

CAIRO — American officials say the negotiated end to a crisis involving pro-democracy workers has only underscored what remains a major obstacle in U.S.-Egyptian relations: the absence of a reliable partner following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

“One of our problems is we don’t really have an Egyptian government to have a conversation with,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in recent testimony to Congress, in the midst of a diplomatic effort that ended last week when Americans under criminal investigation were whisked out of Egypt. “And I keep reminding myself of that, because it is an uncertain situation for all the different players.”

For now, aging Egyptian generals who once served Mubarak are running the country, the most populous in the Arab world. It was Mubarak-era holdovers, including Faiza Abou el-Naga, the planning and international cooperation minister, who led the charge against the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

U.S. officials hope the players will change after Egyptians elect a new president this summer. But they also recognize that they will be dealing with different and unknown centers of power, and they say their primary goal must be to build and strengthen a relationship with Egypt’s new leaders as the country makes a painful and bumpy transition to what many hope will be democracy. …more

Breathless predictions that the Islamic Republic will soon be at the brink of nuclear capability, or – worse – acquire an actual nuclear bomb, are not new. For more than quarter of a century Western officials have claimed repeatedly that Iran is close to joining the nuclear club. Such a result is always declared “unacceptable” and a possible reason for military action, with “all options on the table” to prevent upsetting the Mideast strategic balance dominated by the US and Israel. And yet, those predictions have time and again come and gone. This chronicle of past predictions lends historical perspective to today’s rhetoric about Iran.

Imminent Iran nuclear threat? A timeline of warnings since 1979. Christian Science Monitor – 11 November, 2011 – By Scott Peterson

1.Earliest warnings: 1979-84
Fear of an Iranian nuclear weapon predates Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, when the pro-West Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was deep in negotiations with the US, France and West Germany, on a nuclear-energy spending spree that was to yield 20 reactors.

Late 1970s: US receives intelligence that the Shah had “set up a clandestine nuclear weapons development program.”

1979: Shah ousted in the Iranian revolution, ushering in the Islamic Republic. After the overthrow of the Shah, the US stopped supplying highly enriched uranium (HEU) to Iran. The revolutionary government guided by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini condemned nuclear weapons and energy, and for a time stopped all projects.

1984: Soon after West German engineers visit the unfinished Bushehr nuclear reactor, Jane’s Defence Weekly quotes West German intelligence sources saying that Iran’s production of a bomb “is entering its final stages.” US Senator Alan Cranston claims Iran is seven years away from making a weapon.

2.Israel paints Iran as Enemy No. 1: 1992
Though Israel had secretly done business with the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution, seeking to cultivate a Persian wedge against its local Arab enemies, the early 1990s saw a concerted effort by Tel Aviv to portray Iran as a new and existential threat.

1992: Israeli parliamentarian Benjamin Netanyahu tells his colleagues that Iran is 3 to 5 years from being able to produce a nuclear weapon – and that the threat had to be “uprooted by an international front headed by the US.”

1992: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres tells French TV that Iran was set to have nuclear warheads by 1999. “Iran is the greatest threat and greatest problem in the Middle East,” Peres warned, “because it seeks the nuclear option while holding a highly dangerous stance of extreme religious militanCY.”

1992: Joseph Alpher, a former official of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, says “Iran has to be identified as Enemy No. 1.” Iran’s nascent nuclear program, he told The New York Times, “really gives Israel the jitters.”

3.US joins the warnings: 1992-97
The same alarm bells were already ringing in Washington, where in early 1992 a task force of the House Republican Research Committee claimed that there was a “98 percent certainty that Iran already had all (or virtually all) of the components required for two or three operational nuclear weapons.”
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No to U.S. Military Attacks on Iran or Syria by the U.S. Government or Its Proxies (NATO, Israel, Turkey, etc.)

The U.S. government has been escalating its threats against both Iran and Syria. President Obama has repeatedly said that military attack “is not off the table” for Iran and that the government of Syria has to go.

This is illegal interference and war against countries that have not attacked or threatened the U.S. or its allies.

The U.S. and its allies have also imposed more and more sanctions against both Iran and Syria, and tried to destabilize both of them with money and arms to opposition groups.

We need to protest and organize against this and, as well, also prepare for a demonstration of outrage if the U.S. government or one of its proxies (such as Israel or NATO) launches a military attack on Iran or Syria. We should be prepared to come out for an emergency protest.

The U.S. claims to uphold democracy and the rule of law, but in fact international law in the UN Charter and elsewhere condemns such aggression against countries that have not attacked the U.S. as a crime.

Regardless of what excuse the U.S. gives for attacking another people, we must firmly oppose U.S. slaughter of human beings. The people of all countries have the right to self-determination, to decide their own future.

The U.S. has no right to prowl around the world, looking for opportunities to gain control of more countries. We know from long experience of unending U.S. wars that they are only for the benefit of the super-rich who want to expand the U.S. empire and get control over other peoples’ resources, markets, labor power and strategic locations, while blocking their rivals.

The corporate media is constantly used to demonize and lie about those the U.S. government targets and to promote hysteria in a buildup to war. Meanwhile, they omit or downplay what the government really wants in its reckless military assaults.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of the heads of other governments or their systems and culture, it is our duty to try to hold back the bloody hands of the U.S. government. This is how we fight for peace and justice–against the world’s greatest terrorist.

If an attack begins in the morning, before noon our time, everyone should assemble that day at 5 p.m. at the Federal Plaza. If the attack comes later, we will protest at 5 p.m. the next day.

THE CALL TO COME OUT WILL BE GIVEN ON LINE. BUT THE LATEST NEWS WILL TELL YOU WHEN TO COME OUT TO FEDERAL PLAZA. SEE YOU THERE. ORGANIZE YOUR TELEPHONE TREES NOW.

Endorsers list in formation: Albany Park, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice; American Friends Service Committee, Answer Coalition-Chicago, Cangate-Chicago, Committee Against Political Repression, Illinois Coalition to Protect the Public Commons, Midwest Anti-War Mobilization, Neighbors for Peace, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Non-violence, Wellington Avenue Church, World Can’t Wait. …source

cd editor – note to Bahrain: I know hurts and I know its tough to keep up the good fight at times, so whats the alternative, what else is there but to make them relent. …it does makes me wonder if they, my government, are ever going to learn, are they every going to get it – that there is a better way than brutality. ..that Human Rights are foundational, they have to come first, before all other actions. I know at times it feels hopeless, but there are still a lot of us here in the US – still fighting, still trying to help them see the horrible things that come from the way they operate. I’m not stopping, no way. Phlipn

anyway, one of my favorites for the people of Bahrain…

If I had a Rocket Launcher
by Bruce Cockburn – 1983

Here comes the helicopter — second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they’ve murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher…I’d make somebody pay

I don’t believe in guarded borders and I don’t believe in hate
I don’t believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher…I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation — or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher…I would not hesitate

I want to raise every voice — at least I’ve got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher…Some son of a bitch would die

November 1984 (Bruce Cockburn speaking at a Concert by)

“If one needed a reason to; needed an example of why there wasn’t a Nicaraguan revolution, you can look at the situation in Guatemala, because the situation is, if anything, worse than what was happening in Nicaragua under Somosa, has been for the last 30 years.

Since the military government presently in power was installed with a little help from your neighborhood agents…. the Washington boys. They ran the country on behalf of themselves and a small land owning elite, using everybody else in the country as their personal servants; and with a cheap labor force. The way they do that is they make sure that the people don’t have enough land to support themselves on. Aside from keeping them from any access to medical care or education, they make sure that they don’t have enough land to grow enough food for a family. Which means that people have to go work for them if they want to survive.This doesn’t necessarily guarantee survival either, of course , because if people object in anyway to that kind of situation…..or maybe if they just sort of go about peacefully trying to rectify things on their own.

Getting together with their neighbours to pool resources. Getting together…. Those attempts are met with acts of incredible ferocity in order to prevent it from spreading. You never knew when one [helicopter] was gonna swing in from the north and start shooting. That situation — thats the first time I’d even seen anything like that. First hand, you know, you watch it on TV, and it doesn’t look the same somehow when you’re there. Partly because of the incredible spirit of the people. Because of that spirit and the sense of that spirit and the stories that they told of what they had survived and what they witnessed, it was impossible not to feel great sympathy for and with them. And the ease at which that sympathy slid over to a willingness to kill those who were inflicting that agony on them was a little bit shocking. It’s not an answer, especially for us, you know, to go down there and start shooting Guatemalans…. maybe for them…”

” Yeah,well, there are people in them [helicopters], you know? Which is something that – the thing is, the weird thing about it is they stop looking like people because of what they’re doing. I guess that’s what makes it so easy to want to shoot them down because they make- – -they make you feel like they forfeited their humanity somehow. But they’re pawns in it. Anyway, this song is all about that. The one thing I must stress in case anybody’s under any delusion that this is so, is that this is not a call to arms. This is, this is a cry…”

Death in Bilin: IDF Doctors Found ‘Prolonged Exposure’ to CS Gas Lethal
by Tikun Olam

Teargas clouds in Bilin: prolonged exposure can cause death (Oren Ziv/Active Stills)

The Forward publishes today an eye-opening follow-up to the Jawaher Abu Rahme story. It seems that the IDF’s own doctors published a study in an academic journal noting that the type of CS gas used in the Bilin demonstrations could be lethal:

A 2003 article published by four Israeli army doctors in Archives of Toxicology noted that CS gas…causes tearing and burning for about 15 to 30 minutes, and this is lessened if people are moved into fresh air. The army has insisted on the safety of CS beyond these immediate effects. But the Israeli army doctors’ article noted, “At high concentrations, enclosed spaces, or prolonged exposures, severe side effects may occur and human deaths…have been reported.”

A 2009 article in the British Medical Journal came to similar conclusions, noting that tear gas is “not a gas at all, but a toxic chemical irritant.”

Instead of examining the circumstances under which the IDF prepared and conducted its teargas barrage on unarmed Palestinian protestors to determine whether something might have led this particular incident to be more lethal than others, the IDF obfuscates by insinuating that Abu Rahme really died of cancer or asthma or that she wasn’t even at the protest (she was in fact 150 feet away near her home, but the massive flow of teargas engulfed her and her mother).

You remember the standard definition of insanity: repeating the same failed action in the belief that next time it will work. In that light, and after reading that the army’s own doctors warned of such lethal effects from CS, we must call the IDF’s approach to policing the Bilin demonstration certified insanity:

The Israeli military source says the army does not plan to change its methods. A statement released by the spokesman noted: “The tear gas used by the IDF, like all other riot dispersal means, is checked rigorously before being put into active use. During the approval process, the device passed all the necessary tests and approvals.” …more