Bahrain: Younis Ashoori (prisioner of conscience) pushed to near death by prison abuses
4 March, 2012 – For what we are… they will be

The Bahrain Center for Human Right alerts of the extreme danger that Dr. Younis Ashouri, 60, director of the maternity, has been pushed by the Khalifa dictatorship to near death.

Ashouri, who was kidnapped by masked policemen and then sentenced to three years after being forced to sign some papers under torture, has a number of illnesses:

… chronic urinary stone recurrences which needs a surgery, enlarged prostate, heart problem history and a type of migraine which leaves him temporarily paralysed.

Since he was imprisoned he’s been denied access to his medicines, what puts his health in extreme danger. …more

Saudis rally against Riyadh suppression of protests in east
Press TV – 3 March, 2012

Saudis have staged a protest rally in the eastern town of Rabiyia to condemn Riyadh’s suppression of anti-government demonstrations.

The demonstrators also expressed solidarity with the victims’ of government crackdown on protests in the Eastern Province.

Qatif and Awamiyah have been the centers of anti-government protests in the oil-rich region since last year, but despite a violent crackdown on demonstrations there, it seems that protests are now spreading to other towns and cities in the province.

Saudi troops have arrested at least 25 demonstrators over the past week. They were detained without warrant and taken to unknown locations… …source

Egyptians have gathered outside the US Embassy in the capital Cairo in another anti-American rally, aimed at showing support for Bahrainis and Palestinians.

Anti-US Protest Holds in Cairo in Support of Bahrainis and Palestinians
4 March, 2012 – Press TV – ABNA.co

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – Shouting anti-US slogans, protesters demanded the expulsion of the Bahraini envoy to Egypt. Demonstrators also chanted slogans in solidarity with the people of Bahrain and Palestine.

Demanding an end to their country’s gas exports to Israel, they also voiced support for Palestinian resistance against Israel. The rally comes as reports indicate the US has sent weapons to Bahrain to further the deadly Saudi-backed crackdown on protesters.

Since the country’s revolution which led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, anti-US and Israeli sentiments have intensified. Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Tel Aviv in 1979, but the situation has drastically changed since the Egyptian revolution.

A number of Egyptian political parties are now calling for changes to the US-sponsored peace treaty as Israeli-Egyptian ties have suffered major setbacks in recent months. …more

Children in Bahrain: Victims of physical & sexual abuse, abduction, arbitrary detention and unfair trial

76 children between the prisoners in the latest security crackdown, making them 21% of the total detainees, whose numbers swelled to 355

Special Forces attack random people, especially children who are at risk of excessive use of force, rubber bullets and tear gas. Many obtained serious injuries as a result.

November 20, 2010 – on the occasion of Universal Children’s Day

“A child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child”
Article I of the International Convention for the Rights of the Child …more

editor: Obama’s “hoodlum speak” causes one pause as the US arms thugs and gangsters in Middle East, Central America and Mexico and leads the world in illegal drug trade. Phlipn

Got your back, Bibi
Bam: We support Israel vs. Iran
By S.A. MILLER – 3 March, 2012 – NY Post

WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday upped the ante in the Iran standoff by warning “I don’t bluff” about military strikes to stop its nuke program.

The tough talk preceded a high-stakes meeting Monday between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have been at odds about whether or when to bomb Iran’s alleged nuclear sites.

“I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff,” Obama told The Atlantic magazine in an interview published yesterday.

He said he would make sure Netanyahu knows that the US “has Israel’s back.”

The comments were aimed as much at Obama’s audience at home as at Israel and Iran.

The president wants to placate Jewish voters who are skeptical about his support for Israel and fend off Republican critics who say he is too soft on Iran.

Obama will address the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee AIPAC tomorrow before hosting Netanyahu at the White House. Netanyahu also will give a speech at AIPAC.
…more

ELAINE MURTAGH: The Irish Woman Fighting for Bahraini Rights
Interview by Rachael Fulton – Safe World Correspondent – 4 March, 2012

On February 14 2012, four foreigners were arrested for taking part in a peaceful women’s rights demonstration in Bahrain.

They were tear-gassed and shot at with rubber bullets, before being deported from the country.

Amongst the deported foreigners was an Irish national, Elaine Murtagh, who was visiting to observe the human rights abuses inflicted on Bahraini citizens. She spent her time befriending ordinary civilians who had been beaten and abused – tending to their wounds and encouraging them to seek help.

The sights she encountered during her brief visit will haunt her forever.
About Bahrain

Bahrain is an archipelago of small islands situated West of the Persian Gulf and is governed by a constitutional monarchy, headed by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

On 14 February 2011, inspired by the surge of revolutions spreading across the Middle East and led by a Facebook page entitled ‘Day of Rage in Bahrain’, the country erupted in protests.protest-6

The protesters stormed Bahrain’s Pearl Roundabout to campaign for equal rights and democracy. The government responded with tear gas and rubber bullets – leaving four dead and hundreds injured.

Since then, human rights violations have been widespread across the country and democracy activists are frequently arrested, tortured and detained. The death toll of civilians killed by the government since the revolution began stands at 55, and Bahraini citizens continue to protest peacefully every day in their ongoing campaign for democracy.

Safe World correspondent Rachael Fulton spoke to Elaine Murtagh about her quest for human rights in Bahrain.

INTERVIEW
Tell us a bit about yourself – what’s your job, where do you come from and what family do you have?

Elaine-Murtagh2Elaine MurtaghMy name is Elaine Murtagh. I am a 40 year-old woman who lives in the West of Ireland. I am married and I have one son who is nearly 19 now (God, saying that makes me feel old!).

I work with people who have mental disabilities. They teach me about love, respect and trust and I truly love my job.

When did you first become involved in campaigning for human rights?

I do not belong to any human rights organisation and have never worked for any either, but I have always had an interest in people and most of all, I have been gifted with compassion for all people.

I have also been gifted with speech and have always been very opinionated.

What was your initial involvement in the events in Bahrain, and how did you come to visit the country?

I lived in Bahrain in the 90’s, and my son was born there.

This was, and still is, my aim. …more

Morally Bankrupt and without Compassion, MOI Police Abuse the Mentally Challenged

NGOs: The Missionaries of Empire
by Devon DB – Global Research – 3 March, 2012

Non-governmental organizations are an increasingly important part of the 21st century international lanscape performing a variety of humanitarian tasks pertaining inter alia to issues of poverty, the environment and civil libertites.However, there is a dark side to NGOs. They have been and are currently being used as tools of foreign policy, specifically with the United States. Instead of using purely military force, the US has now moved to using NGOs as tools in its foreign policy implementation, specifically the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, and Amnesty International.

National Endowment for Democracy

According to its website, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is “a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world,” [1] however this is sweet sounding description is actually quite far from the truth.

The history of the NED begins immediately after the Reagan administration. Due to the massive revelations concerning the CIA in the 1970s, specifically that they were involved in attempted assassinations of heads of state, the destabilization of foreign governments, and were illegally spying on the US citizens, this tarnished the image of the CIA and of the US government as a whole. While there were many committees that were created during this time to investigate the CIA, the Church Committee (led by Frank Church, a Democrat from Idaho) was of critical importance as its findings “demonstrated the need for perpetual surveillance of the intelligence community and resulted in the creation of the permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.” [2] The Select Committee on Intelligence’s purpose was to oversee federal intelligence activities and while oversight and stability came in, it seemed to signal that the CIA’s ‘party’ of assassination plots and coups were over. Yet, this was to continue, but in a new way: under the guise of a harmful NGO whose purpose was to promote democracy around the world- the National Endowment for Democracy.

The NED was meant to be a tool of US foreign policy from its outset. It was the brainchild of Allen Weinstein who, before creating the Endowment, was a professor at Brown and Georgetown Universities, had served on the Washington Post’s editorial staff, and was the Executive Editor of The Washington Quarterly, Georgetown’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, a right-wing neoconservative think tank which would in the future have ties to imperial strategists such as Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. [3] He stated in a 1991 interview that “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” [4]

The first director of the Endowment, Carl Gershman, outright admitted that the Endowment was a front for the CIA. In 1986 he stated:

We should not have to do this kind of work covertly. It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the ‘60s, and that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created. [5] (emphasis added)

It can be further observed that the Endowment is a tool of the US government as ever since its founding in 1983, it “has received an annual appropriation approved by the United States Congress as part of the United States Information Agency budget.” [6]

No sooner than the Endowment was founded did it begin funding groups that would support US interests. From 1983 to 1984, the Endowment was active in France and “supported a ‘trade union-like organization that for professors and students’ to counter ‘left-wing organizations of professors,’” [7] through the funding of seminars, posters, books, and pamphlets that encouraged opposition to leftist thought. In the mid and late 1990s, the NED continued its fight against organized labor by giving in excess of $2.5 million to the American Institute of Free Labor Development which was a CIA front used to undermine progressive labor unions. …more