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

Saudi: Women Lead Protest; Activists Plan Hunger Strike
12 March, 2012 – POMED

Female students at King Khaled University in Saudi Arabia broke out in protest because the university decided to stop all cleaning services, and to rally against perceived corruption, and failed leadership, of the university president, Abdullah Al-Rashid,. In response, the university called in the Haia religious police to quell protests that had grown to around 1,000 women. Some of the girls threw shoes at the Haia – to which they responded with batons – resulting in the death of one girl from an epileptic fit; another is reported to have suffered a miscarriage as a result of the violence. Another 50 girls received injuries during the scuffle. Two days later, about 500 male students rallied in the university courtyard demanding the resignation of Al-Rashid. “No one paid attention to the women’s complaints, but when the guys protested the administration and the authorities reacted immediately,” said one of the male students. Days later, when a large group of female students decided to boycott class there were a notably high number of absences.

In other news, dozens of Saudis signed up to join a two-day hunger strike this week to protest against the detention of a prominent rights activist Mohamad al-Bajadi. Al-Bajadi was detained in March 2011, activists said, for supporting families demonstrating, and calling for the release of detained relatives, outside the Interior Ministry in Riyadh. Al-Bajadi’s trial, which includes the charge of tarnishing the reputation of the state, has been suspended for his refusal to recognize the court.

Elham Fakhro argues in his piece “The Kingdom Divided,” that Saudi Arabia faces somewhere between 10-20 percent unemployment, with an estimated 670,000 families living in poverty. He says, “While sustained opposition movements continue to battle for their own Saudi Spring, their success hinges on their ability to unite around a common and national set of political demands—and lay to rest the demons of tribalism and sectarianism.” Fakhro writes, however, that part of the reason the regime has successfully quelled protest attempts is its strong religious connection. Madawi Al-Rasheed agrees that the Saudi regime first turned to Wahhabi religious officials, who “warned from the minarets that the wrath of God would be inflicted on demonstrators… [and] reminded the believers of the need for ijma, consensus around the pious rulers of the country, and warned that protests would lead to fragmentation and bloody civil war.” However, Christoph Wilcke argues in Foreign Policy that the Saudi “Spring” has left its mark. “The government has to publicly defend its actions,” he says, “and increasingly, members of the public are doubting its reasoning that portrays peaceful, often nationalistic and religious-based reform activism as dangerous subversion.” …more

No Justice in Bahrain
8 March, 2012 – Bahrain Freedom Movement

Beirut – Bahrain has routinely convicted hundreds of opposition activists and others of politically motivated charges in unfair trials, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report. The government should void the convictions in trials before Bahrain’s military and civilian courts that fell far short of international fair trial standards, Human Rights Watch said.

Ressenza Human Wrongs Watch, 3/6/12 The 94-page report “No Justice in Bahrain: Unfair Trials in Military and Civilian Courts” documents serious due process violations in high-profile trials before Bahrain’s special military courts in 2011 – including one trial of 21 prominent political activists and another of 20 doctors and other medical personnel – and in politically motivated trials before ordinary criminal courts since 2010.

“Egregious Violations of Fair Trial Rights in Political Cases”

Serious abuses included denying defendants the right to counsel and to present a defense, and failure to investigate credible allegations of torture and ill-treatment during interrogation, it says.

“Grossly unfair military and civilian trials have been a core element in Bahrain’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should remedy the hundreds of unfair convictions of the past year by dropping the cases against everyone convicted on politically motivated charges and by adopting effective measures to end torture in detention.”

The egregious violations of fair trial rights in political cases do not just reflect the poor practices of individual prosecutors and judges, but serious, systemic problems with Bahrain’s criminal justice system, Human Rights Watch said.

Torture
In a February 13, 2012 interview, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa told Der Spiegel magazine that: “There are no political prisoners as such in Bahrain. People are not arrested because they express their views, we only have criminals.”

The Human Rights Watch report is based on more than 50 interviews with defendants, defense lawyers, and trial observers, and a comprehensive examination of available trial verdicts and other court documents. Human Rights Watch wrote to Bahrain’s attorney general in November 2010 and to the justice minister in December 2011 concerning the trials, but received no response.

At least five people died as a result of torture while in custody following the government crackdown on mostly peaceful protests that began in mid-March 2011, according to the November report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, a body of five international jurists and human rights experts set up by King Hamad. Human Rights Watch has documented the persistent practice of torture and ill-treatment by Bahraini security officers over the past several years.

Those whose convictions should be voided and who should be released from prison include protest leaders such as Ibrahim Sharif, Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja, Hassan Mushaima, and Abdul Wahab Hussein, Human Rights Watch said.

In one case a nurse was convicted of “incit[ing] … hatred and contempt for the governing regime” and of “destroy[ing] moveable property … in furtherance of a terrorist purpose” because she allegedly stepped on a photo of the prime minister. …more

In protest to distorted Press Release on His Health Condition: Human rights Defender Abdulhadi Alkhawaja Refuses Medical Check
11 March, 2012 – Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) has recently learnt that on the 6th of March, two individuals who only identified themselves as Dr. Fatima and Mohammed met with Human Rights Defender Mr.Abdulhadi Alkhawaja in prison. The doctor told him she will be administrating a checkup and consequently Mr.Alkhawaja allowed this. The results were, low blood pressure, low blood sugar and low temperature. When they started asking him questions unrelated to his health, Mr.Alkhawaja asked them to identify themselves properly or he would refuse to answer their questions. They refused and walked out.

Mr.Alkhawaja was surprised to see a press release days later based on the testimony of a Mr. Mohammed Alahmad – Pro-government journalist- from the GONGO organization, stating that his health was fine and the that he was being treated well. The press release was released by the Ministry of Human Rights.

In protest to the manner by which the prison and the Ministry behaved, Mr.Abdulhadi Alkhawaja decided to end cooperation with the hospital clinic by refusing medical check-ups. He insisted that they either be honest in relating information regarding his health or he would refuse to do the routine checkups. Mr.Alkhawaja also started refusing water and glucose which resulted in the deterioration of his health and he was unable to concentrate. After three days, Mr.Alkhawaja started drinking water and taking glucose once again.

On a different note and in contrast to what the Ministry of Human Rights alleges, the Danish foreign Minister stated to a Danish Newspaper that he was worried about Mr.Alkhawaja’s health after a representative of the Danish embassy met with the activist last week.

The BYSHR demands that:

1. The international community exerts more pressure in order to secure the immediate and unconditional release of human rights defender Abdulhadi Alkhawaja before there is any further deterioration in his health
2. That the Ministry of Human Rights allow credible, international human rights organizations who have repeatedly requested to see the activist access to him in order to be able to adequately evaluate his health situation
3. That the Ministry of Human Rights refrain from using GONGO’s in order to discredit claims made by credible human rights activist
4. That the Ministry of Human Rights release accurate and precise information regarding human rights defender Mr.Abdulhadi Alkhawaja’s health situation
…source

…more

Pentagon Prepares War Plans for Syria
By Bill Van Auken – 9 March 2012 – WSWS

In testimony before a Senate committee Wednesday, the Pentagon’s civilian and uniformed chiefs confirmed that they are drawing up war plans against Syria at the request of the Obama White House.

The statements by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey came amid mounting evidence that Washington and its key European allies, working in conjunction with the right-wing monarchical regimes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are escalating a covert intervention aimed at bringing about Syrian regime change.

Much of the media coverage of Wednesday’s hearing focused on the jingoistic intervention of Arizona’s Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate. He is demanding US air strikes against Syria, to carve out “safe havens” in which Western-backed armed groups can prepare military strikes against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“How many additional civilian lives would have to be lost in order to convince you that the military measures of the kind we are proposing [are] necessary to end the killing and force Assad to leave power?” McCain demanded of Panetta.

The defense secretary responded by asserting, “We are not divided here.” He insisted that the Pentagon is “reviewing all possible additional steps that can be taken” to hasten the downfall of the Assad regime, “including potential military options if necessary.”

General Dempsey cautioned that a US intervention in Syria would be more difficult than the NATO war in Libya given the country’s “far different demographic, ethnic, religious mix.” However, he assured the Senate panel, “Should we be called upon to defend US interests, we will be ready.” The Joint Chiefs chairman added that military operations under consideration included the imposition of a “no-fly zone,” the opening up of a “humanitarian corridor,” a naval blockade of the Syrian coastline and air strikes.

Panetta and Dempsey both echoed statements made the day before at a White House press briefing by President Obama, that it would be a “mistake” to “to take military action unilaterally.”

None of them, however, raised a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing use of military force as a pre-condition for US military intervention in Syria. …more

Syrian opposition: International military intervention ‘urgent’ following Homs killings
By Liz Sly – 12 March, Washington Post

BEIRUT — The brutal killings of dozens of women and children in the central Syrian city of Homs prompted the council representing Syria’s opposition to call on Monday for “urgent” international military intervention to protect civilians as diplomatic efforts to resolve the country’s escalating conflict faltered.

The Syrian National Council, the deeply divided umbrella group whose efforts to unite the Syrian opposition have failed in part because of divisions over the issue of military intervention, issued the call after videos showing the mutilated corpses of at least 45 victims were posted overnight on the Internet.

Activists said the videos offered evidence of what they called a massacre of civilians who supported the opposition by pro-government militias. The Syrian government countered with allegations that “terrorist armed groups” had killed the victims and then filmed their bodies to influence discussions at the United Nations Security Council on Monday, and to shore up Syrian opposition calls for “foreign interference in Syria.”

Massacre in Afghanistan: US soldier kills 16 villagers, including 9 children
By Patrick Martin – 12 March 2012 – WSWS

In a massacre that expresses the brutality and horror of the entire American war in Afghanistan, an Army staff sergeant walked into a village in rural Kandahar province early Sunday morning and murdered 16 people, nine of them children.

Eleven members of a single family were gunned down in their home, their bodies then piled in a heap and set on fire. The victims included four girls six years old or younger. Only the father, Samid Khan, and one child survived, because they were away from the village at the time.

The gunman then went on to shoot the inhabitants of two more dwellings before he returned to his base and turned himself in. At least five villagers were wounded, some of them critically, and the death toll could rise.

Samid Khan, a poor farmer, returned to the village to find his entire family shot to death and their bodies burned inside his home. “This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act,” he told the press. “Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women.” He and his neighbors demanded that the killer be handed over to the Afghan government for punishment.

According to one local Afghan official, villagers loaded the bodies of the victims into cars and drove to the entrance of the nearby American base to demand justice. “They were very angry,” he said. “They wanted to do something to take revenge.”

The identity of the mass murderer was being kept secret by US and Afghan authorities and by the American media late Sunday night, but the British Broadcasting Corporation reported that he was a staff sergeant and a member of the US special operations forces engaged in training the Afghan police.

There are conflicting reports about many details of the massacre. Some survivors contend that more than one American soldier was involved, and Taliban spokesmen claimed that the attack was one of the notorious night raids conducted by US special forces that have become a focal point for popular hostility to the US occupation. …more

Is Barack Obama the First Jewish President?
Paul Waldman – 12 March, 2012 – The American Prostect

It’s not as crazy an idea as you might think.

If Bill Clinton was the first black president, as Toni Morrison famously observed, then could Barack Obama be the first Jewish president? That’s the interesting case Jeffrey Goldberg makes at The Atlantic. Goldberg tells how he gave Obama a copy of a new Haggadah he contributed to:

When I handed him the Haggadah, President Obama, who famously stages his own seders at the White House, (which is a very nice philo-Semitic thing to do, IMHO) spent a moment leafing through it and making approving noises. Then he said (as I told the Times): “Does this mean we can’t use the Maxwell House Haggadah anymore?”

George W. Bush was, in his own way, a philo-Semite, but he never would have made such an M.O.T. kind of joke (see the end of this post if you’re not sure what M.O.T. means). Once again, Barack Obama was riffing off the cosmic joke that he is somehow anti-Semitic, when in fact, as many people understand, he is the most Jewish president we’ve ever had (except for Rutherford B. Hayes). No president, not even Bill Clinton, has traveled so widely in Jewish circles, been taught by so many Jewish law professors, and had so many Jewish mentors, colleagues, and friends, and advisers as Barack Obama (though it is true that every so often he appoints a gentile to serve as White House chief of staff). And so no President, I’m guessing, would know that the Maxwell House Haggadah — the flimsy, wine-stained, rote, anti-intellectual Haggadah you get when you buy a can of coffee at Shoprite) — is the target, alternatively, of great derision and veneration among American Jews (at least, I’m told there are people who venerate it).

Most conservatives wouldn’t go as far as to accuse Obama of being an anti-Semite, but they certainly believe he’s anti-Israel. Which is insane, of course, but what I’ve always found so striking about this question is how sidelined Jews themselves have become in today’s discussions of Israel. That isn’t to say there aren’t particular Jews who are plenty involved, but the American Jewish community as it actually exists in America—mostly politically liberal, living its Judaism more as a culture than as a religion, troubled by the policies of the Israeli government in multiple areas—is increasingly estranged from the discussion, as more and more of that discussion is dominated by people like Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum. It’s the world of post-Jewish Zionism, where Israel’s most vehement advocates are people who see it mostly as a tool to use in a holy war between Christianity and Islam. As someone who grew up in a household where liberal Zionism was the primary expression of Jewish identity, I can’t begin to describe how alienating it is to watch people like Palin waving Israeli flags around. And I’m pretty sure there are lots of other Jews who feel the same way. …more

US sent 600,000 tear gas canisters to Israel
David Elkins – The Electronic Intifada – 9 March, 2012

WASHINGTON (IPS) – A new policy paper published earlier this week by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation documents a number of cases occurring over the past decade in which weapons and ammunition produced and financed by the US have been used to kill unarmed Palestinians and US citizens.

“US military aid to Israel is a policy that is running on autopilot and must be reconsidered,” Josh Ruebner, the national advocacy director for the organization and author of the new policy paper, said on Monday.

“US weapons provided to Israel at taxpayer expense make the US complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinians living under Israel’s 44-year military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip and defeat US foreign policy objectives of halting Israeli settlement expansion, ending Israeli military occupation and establishing a just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace,” Ruebner added.

Between the years 2000 and 2009, the US transferred “more than 670 million weapons, rounds of ammunition and related equipment,” according to the report.
Violating US law

During the same period, “Israel killed at least 2,969 unarmed Palestinians, including 1,128 children, often with US weapons in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act and Arms Export Control Act.”

The Foreign Assistance Act, signed into law in 1961, stipulates that “no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

Several US administrations have sanctioned or withheld funding from countries, including Israel, that violated laws such as the Foreign Assistance Act. But according to the report, official inquires and investigations into US military aid to Israel over recent decades have been met with growing resistance from groups both within and outside of the US government.

Although more expensive weapons systems such as tanks and aircraft make up the bulk of purchasing contracts made between the Israeli government and US manufacturers, small arms and ammunition purchases account for the largest number of deaths. …more

How to fight Obama’s police-state policies
by Jerry White – 6 March, 2012 – TruthOut

The drive towards an American police state that began under George W. Bush is accelerating under his Democratic successor. The Obama administration is now asserting the right to kill or jail indefinitely anyone designated by the president as a threat to US national security. Obama and his legal aides declare this to be an absolute power of the executive, unreviewable by any court or by Congress.

Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder defended the assassination doctrine in a speech March 5 at Northwestern University Law School, where he outlined the purported legal basis for the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the US citizen who was incinerated last September in Yemen by a missile fired by a CIA-controlled drone.

According to Holder, the congressional resolution passed in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 gives the president as commander-in-chief continuing power to order such extra-judicial state murders based solely on his own discretion, without even the pretext of judicial review.

This speech made the extraordinary claim that the right to “due process of law,” guaranteed to all Americans under the Fifth Amendment, does not mean a “judicial process.” That is, the president’s determination that a US citizen can be killed—anywhere, including in the United States itself—is sufficient to satisfy the Constitution.

The attorney general’s speech was largely ignored by the mass media, and not a single reporter at Obama’s press conference the next day asked him about this new doctrine of a presidential right to murder. This only demonstrates the extreme erosion of democratic consciousness in the American ruling class over the past dozen years, since the stolen presidential election of 2000. There is no significant constituency for democratic rights in any section of the US ruling elite, Democratic or Republican.

Holder’s speech follows on Obama’s executive order February 28, officially putting into effect the provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011. This law gives the president the power to arrest any person in the United States, citizen or non-citizen, and jail them forever without a trial.

While the executive order ostensibly waives the power of indefinite detention for American citizens, this is simply a cynical fraud on the part of the administration. The law remains and can be implemented at any time.

Holder has been designated as the president’s agent to make day-to-day decisions on the fate of those non-citizens who are seized as suspects in the “war on terror.” He can order those arrested to be transferred to military custody, where their detention would be unreviewable by any judge, or have them sent into the civilian justice system, where they would be tried by a federal court.

Finally, on Thursday, Obama signed into law HR 347, a bill that significantly expands on existing anti-democratic laws prohibiting demonstrations and civil disobedience at the White House or at any location being visited by the president, vice president or other officials under Secret Service protection. This includes three of the four remaining Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. …more

US military unveils ray beam as latest non-lethal weapon
by Staff Writers – 10 March, 2012 -Space War

A sensation of unbearable, sudden heat seems to come out of nowhere — this wave, a strong electromagnetic beam, is the latest non-lethal weapon unveiled by the US military this week.

“You’re not gonna see it, you’re not gonna hear it, you’re not gonna smell it: you’re gonna feel it,” explained US Marine Colonel Tracy Taffola, director the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, Marine Corps Base Quantico, at a demonstration for members of the media.

The effect is so repellant, the immediate instinct is to flee — and quickly, as experienced by AFP at the presentation.

Taffola is quick also to point out the “Active Denial System” beam, while powerful and long-range, some 1000 meters (0.6 miles), is the military’s “safest non-lethal capability” that has been developed over 15 years but never used in the field.

It was deployed briefly in Afghanistan in 2010, but never employed in an operation.

The technology has attracted safety concerns possibly because the beam is often confused with the microwaves commonly used by consumers to rapidly heat food.

“There are a lot of misperceptions out there,” lamented Taffola, saying the Pentagon was keen to make clear what the weapon is, and what it is not.

The frequency of the blast makes all the difference for actual injury as opposed to extreme discomfort, stressed Stephanie Miller, who measured the system’s radio frequency bioeffects at the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The system ray is 95 gigahertz, a frequency “absorbed very superficially,” said Miller.

The beam only goes 1/64th of an inch (0.4 millimeter), which “gives a lot more safety.”

“We have done over 11,000 exposures on people. In that time we’ve only had two injuries that required medical attention and in both cases injuries were fully recovered without complications,” she said.

In contrast, microwave frequency is around one gigahertz, which moves faster and penetrates deeper — which is how it can cook meat in an oven, said top researcher Diana Loree. …more

From this inside look into the destabilization process of Syria, Professor James Petras, adduces that ’there is clear and overwhelming evidence that the uprising to overthrow President Assad is a violent power grab led by foreign-supported fighters who have killed and wounded thousands of Syrian soldiers, police and civilians, partisans of the government and its peaceful opposition.’

The Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance’s War on a Sovereign State
by James Petras – Voltaire Network – 11 March, 2012

The outrage expressed by politicians in the West and Gulf State and in the mass media, about the ‘killing of peaceful Syrian citizens protesting injustice’ is cynically designed to cover up the documented reports of violent seizure of neighborhoods, villages and towns by armed bands, brandishing machine guns and planting road-side bombs.

The assault on Syria is backed by foreign funds, arms and training.Due to a lack of domestic support, however, to be successful, direct foreign military intervention will be necessary. For this reason a huge propaganda and diplomatic campaign has been mounted to demonize the legitimate Syrian government. The goal is to impose a puppet regime and strengthen Western imperial control in the Middle East. In the short run, this will further isolate Iran in preparation for a military attack by Israel and the US and, in the long run, it eliminates another independent secular regime friendly to China and Russia.

In order to mobilize world support behind this Western, Israeli and Gulf State-funded power grab, several propaganda ploys have been used to justify another blatant violation of a country’s sovereignty after their successful destruction of the secular governments of Iraq and Libya.

The Larger Context: Serial Aggression

The current Western campaign against the independent Assad regime in Syria is part of a series of attacks against pro-democracy movements and independent regimes from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. The imperial-militarist response to the Egyptian democracy movement that overthrew the Mubarak dictatorship was to back the military junta’s seizure of power and murderous campaign to jail, torture and assassinate over 10,000 pro-democracy protestors. …more

ACLU of Massachusetts Makes Statement on Twitter Subpoena Case
1 March, 2012 – ACLU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

BOSTON — After nine weeks of secret court hearings, the Suffolk Superior Court has ordered Twitter, Inc., to comply with a state administrative subpoena issued by the Suffolk District Attorney’s office on December 14, 2011, seeking personally identifying information for an anonymous Twitter user during the period December 8, 2011 to December 13, 2011, for “account or accounts associated with” the name “Guido Fawkes”, “@p0ison0N”, “@OccupyBoston”, as well as information on anyone “associated with” two Twitter hashtags: #d0xcak3 and #BostonPD. Twitter hashtags are essentially key words used to indicate a topic of conversation.

Both the subpoena and the secrecy of various court proceedings have been challenged by the ACLU of Massachusetts, most recently at a hearing this morning.

The following statement may be attributed to Peter Krupp, cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts and partner at the law firm of Lurie & Krupp:

“The ACLU challenged the lawfulness of this administrative subpoena and was told by the Superior Court that we did not have standing. As a result of these various proceedings, the Superior Court ordered the documents produced.

“We continue to believe that our client has a constitutional right to speak, and to speak anonymously; and that this administrative subpoena both exceeded the scope of the administrative subpoena statute and infringed our client’s rights under the First Amendment. With the turnover of these documents any subsequent review of these issues will be moot. …more

Who Are the ‘Terrorists’?
by Justin Raimondo, 12 March, 2012 – AntiWar.com

In the early morning hours of March 11, a US soldier assigned to “special ops” in Afghanistan, stationed near Kandahar, went into a local village and gunned down 16 people – including nine women and three children. At least three others were wounded. He went from house to house, in the predawn darkness, systematically murdering people while they slept in their beds: he then doused them with a flammable liquid and set them ablaze.

What is it about American troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan? From Abu Ghraib [.pdf] to the Mahmudiyah killings to the Hamdania murder of a crippled old man to the horrors of the Haditha massacre, it’s been one atrocity after another (see here, here, and here). More recently it was the “rogue” team of killers that murdered Afghan civilians in the Maywand district for sport. Then it was US troops urinating on corpses, followed shortly afterward by the Koran-burning incident, the second such example of American contempt for the people they are supposed to be “liberating.” Now we have this, which – we’re told – is the result of a US soldier having a “breakdown.”

Was it a breakdown, or merely the logical extension of the soldier’s training and inclination, that caused him to go on a murderous rampage? That hardly a month goes by without some kind of atrocity being committed should tell us something.

What it tells me is that America is a depraved nation, a country where the very worst-of-the-worst flock to join the military, free to kill and maim and rape to their heart’s content.

And Rachel Maddow wants to give these guys a “welcome home” “victory” parade?

Of course she does: even the “liberals” in our country are corrupted by the ugliness that pervades the national consciousness and poisons everything we do. “Honor the troops” is a given on the left as well as the right, because the above-mentioned atrocities are just “isolated incidents,” examples of soldiers who had “breakdowns” and went “rogue.” Their actions have nothing to do with our mission [.pdf], our mentality, or our decadent culture, which glorifies violence and disdains foreigners – especially if they’re Muslims. Oh no: these are all anomalies, there’s nothing to see here so please move along …

I’m not buying it. There is something wrong – very wrong – here: a trend, a significant uptick in the savagery that is part and parcel of every war. During World War II, American atrocities were relatively few and far between, although no less reprehensible. As the American presence abroad grew more substantial, however, and the cold war heated up, such incidents increased in number, and took on a more horrific – and systematic – character. …more

Female protesters hold pictures of men said to be held prisoner without trial during a protest rally in Qatif to demand their release, and the withdrawal of Saudi troops from neighboring Bahrain, April 14, 2011.

Saudi security forces attack, beat female protesters in Abha
7 March, 2012 – PressTV

Saudi security forces have reportedly attacked and beaten female students in the southwestern city of Abha, protesting against injustice and inequality.

Activists say female students of King Khalid University in Abha staged a protest gathering on Wednesday to express their anger about discrimination and mistreatment by security officials at the university.

They also denounced lack of facilities some of them very basic like chairs.

Meanwhile, Saudi human rights campaigner Mohammed Albajady is still on hunger strike to protest his detention of nearly one-year without trial. Activists say he refused to eat 16 days ago.

Saudi Arabia is facing growing unrest and people have been demanding justice and release of political prisoners since last year. Anti-government protest rallies are mostly held in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province but despite a violent crackdown on demonstrations, it appears that the protests are now spreading across the country.

Saudis have held peaceful demonstrations in Eastern Province, mostly in Awamiyah and Qatif, since February last year on an almost regular basis, demanding reform, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners.

Protesters also want an end to economic and religious discrimination against the oil-rich region. Several demonstrators have been killed and dozens of activists have been arrested since the beginning of protests in the region.

On February 23, protest rallies were held across the province to demand the prosecution of those who opened fire on demonstrators one week earlier. Saudi security forces broke up the rallies using force and arrested several demonstrators.

Riyadh has intensified its crackdown on protesters since the beginning of 2012. …source

Bahraini youth ‘Fadhel Mirza’ shot martyred with gas canister at close range
10 March, 2012 – Shia Post

Martyr Fadhel Mirza is the 4th one martyrs who was shot dead with tear gas in the head from close rang on Saturday 10, 2012.

22 years youth Fadhel Saeed Mirza al-Obeidi of Diraz District has been martyred who was shot in head with a gas canister last week by US-Saudi backed Bahraini regime forces when he was protesting peacefully for democracy.

Fadheel Mirza is the 76th Martyr of Bahrain revolution, who is also 4th one of martyrs was shot dead with tear gas in the head from close rang.

Martyr Fadel Mirza fell wounded after being shot with gas canister three times and he was also beaten by police while bleeding and screaming.

Islamic National Accord Association Al-Wefaq has condemned the killing of Bahraini youth and announced Young Fadhel Saeed Mirza al-Obeidi of Diraz district a martyr of Bahrain revolution.

Bahrain has been witnessing a wave of anti-regime protests since February 2011.

Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested or fired from their jobs since the beginning of the popular uprising in Bahrain in February 2011.

On January 26, Amnesty International called on Bahraini authorities to “investigate and account for the reports of more than a dozen deaths following tear gas use.”

Amnesty also called on the US government to “suspend transfers of tear gas and other riot control equipment to the Bahraini authorities.”

Fadhel al-Obeidi and other Young People defend against Security Force Assault on Village

The HRW also called on Bahrain’s Saudi-backed Al Khalifa regime to release detained protesters.

During the crackdown against peaceful protesters 76 people have been killed and thousands have been injured by US-Saudi backed regime forces. …more

Bahrain: Two more deaths caused by tear gas
09 March, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

As reported to BCHR, a one month and a half infant (Yahya Yousif Ahmed) died on 05 March 2012 after suffering from side effects of toxic gas during pregnancy.

The father told BCHR that his wife was subjected to suffocation several times due to excessive tear gas during her pregnancy. Their house was attacked with tear gas at least 8 times. The doctors reported the cause of death to be abdominal inflammation and increased blood acids.

An elderly woman Sakeena Marhoon (in her 70s) died 06 March 2012, as reported to BCHR, after suffering from side effects of repeated inhalation of toxic gases thrown by security forces inside her house several times in Feb and March 2012. She was hospitalized a few weeks earlier due to suffocation after tear gas was shot inside her house.

A protestor from Al Dair got severely injured 06 March 2012 due to tear gas shot at his head.

Ahmed Oun (15 years old) was arrested weeks ago while marching to Lulu. On 05 March 2012, police raided his house in search for him claiming that he ran away. There are concerns on his life and safety.

The house of Deputy General Secretary of the National Fraternity Association (Yousif Qudrat) got attacked on night of 06 March 2012 by Molotov cocktails, leaving with this vicious attack obvious effects on the walls and courtyard of the house.

BCHR’s President Nabeel Rajab was summoned to appear in front of the public prosecution Thrusday 08 March, 03:00 pm, for the charge of calling for “unauthorized rallies”.

A primary school for girls suspends 20 students under the pretext of «chanting political slogans», a number of parents said that they were surprised by notification from the school to suspend their daughters out of school for one week, without prior notice.

A number of workers who are laid off because of the events of last year renewed their sit-in protest on Tuesday morning (6 March / March 2012) in front of the Ministry of Labour to speed in moving the files sent back to their work places.

Doctors Without Borders organization declared closing its mission in Bahrain, after the Bahraini authorities prevented the entry of two of the organization’s delegation to Bahrain last week, and warned that the organization does not currently have any staff in Bahrain.

The organization said it will continue contacting the Bahraini authorities, and hopes to return to work in Bahrain soon, according to WHO, one of its members will follow the situation in Bahrain from the WHO office in Dubai.

The organization has indicated that it examined and treated since February until August 2011 about 200 patients and the patients were afraid to get medical care from health facilities for fear of arrest, either for their involvement in the protests or their solidarity with the demonstrators.

The trial of the medical staff was postponed to 15 March to display a CD by the prosecution and the defense and to hear defense witnesses and inquire about the complaints of torture. ...more

Hezbollah praises protesters in Bahrain
11 March, 2012 – The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Hezbollah praised over the weekend Bahraini protesters seeking reforms in the Arab island kingdom and urged the government to respond positively with the rightful demands of the people.

“What demands great respect with regard to the Bahraini people’s uprising is the [people’s] steadfastness and insistence on the peaceful nature of the movement, including today’s [Saturday], despite the brutality of the regime in its crackdown on isolated protesters that led to the deaths of 10s of martyrs and wounded,” Hezbollah said in a statement Saturday.

Tensions have remained high in Bahrain since a deadly crackdown last year after a month of Manama street protests. According to an independent probe, 35 people were killed in last year’s unrest, including five security personnel and five detainees tortured to death while in custody.

Over the weekend Bahrain police fired tear gas at protesters following the funeral for a 22-year-old man whose family claims he was fatally wounded in clashes earlier this month.

The resistance group called on Manama to meet the demands of the protesters.

“Hezbollah pays tribute to this popular wave [of protests] that has continued over several months and sees that the Bahraini authorities need to respond to the rightful demands of the people in order to prevent bloodshed of the innocent as well as to save the country from the state of oppression that it suffers from.”

Hezbollah came under heavy criticism last year from Lebanon and Manama for statements it made against the Bahraini government that prompted the country’s two airline carriers – Gulf Air and Bahraini Air – to suspend flights between Manama and Beirut for at least four months.

The decision to suspend flights came after Hezbollah Chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah criticized Bahrain’s monarchy for brining in troops from neighboring Gulf countries to help put down the Shiite-led protests there.

Hezbollah has asked the Bahrain government to grant Shiites their rights and end violence against protesters.
…source

Noam Chomsky on the Arab Spring
12 March, 2012 – Mario Martinez – The Tech

Famed professor and linguist Noam Chomsky gave a lecture on the Arab Spring and some of its consequences Thursday night in 26-100. This event was sponsored and carried out by both Amnesty International and i-House, and its main purpose was to bring awareness of issues from the Arab Spring and provide a perspective from a distinguished speaker.

The Arab Spring describes the revolutions and protests that have recently swept through the Middle East. It began with local demonstrations and quickly grew into a large series of national power reversals in the Middle East, starting in Tunisia, continuing with Egypt, and later, Tripoli, all the while igniting public action and governmental response from many of the countries in the region.

At 6 p.m., the event started with an opening speech by MIT Amnesty International president, Ngee Yong Teo. In his speech, he gave a quick retelling of the events of the Arab Spring, and then called for a moment of silence for all of those hurt by effects of the Arab Spring.

Teo then went on to introduce Chomsky, the father of modern linguistics. Chomsky has been at MIT since 1955 and is a political theorist and activist. His political activity began in the time of the Vietnam War and continues to today.

Chomsky’s focus centered around how U.S. foreign policy shaped the events of the Arab Spring. Throughout his talk, he highlighted the idea that the U.S. only acts in ways that will be favorable for its own interests, and that since the areas with power changes did not really affect U.S interests, the U.S. would do nothing to stop revolutions. In nations in which the U.S. held high stakes, however, governmental change would be struck down.

He began speaking by bringing up two points about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that would become the basis for his lecture:

The “U.S. wants to control energy resources in the region”
What the U.S. “[doesn’t] want is very clearly Democracy”, since it blocks control on energy and its plans to organize the world

He then went on to bring out a few polls on the Arab world, some of which included:

73% see Israel and the U.S. as the biggest threat.

5% are afraid of Iran

80% believe the cause of Palestine should be the cause of every Arab

55% see Israel having nuclear weapons as dangerous

From here, he continued to weave the argument that the U.S. is not hated by groups in the Middle East because of the way we live or the freedoms we have, but because of the policies the U.S. has enacted and supported across that region. According to Chomsky, the perception in the Arab world is that the U.S. supports harsh and brutal regimes to control the energy supply.

Chomsky repeated the theme of the U.S. in search of its own interests, following the “state model” of behavior — one which compels the state to favor itself. The kind of democracy Chomsky said the U.S. would support is one that serves its own interests — a top down procedural democracy in which the U.S. could control as much a possible. ….more