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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Do you wish to join us in Chicago to oppose and protest threats and attacks by the U.S. or its proxies (NATO, Israel, Turkey, etc.) on Iran or Syria?

Leave your name and contact information below and we will contact you. HERE

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