Three US ‘diplomats’ detained in Peshawar for illegally carrying weapons
4 June, 2012 – Shia Post

PESHAWAR: Six people, including three US nationals, were detained Monday after police discovered a large cache of illegal arms from their vehicles.

According to police sources, the “suspicious cars” were stopped for a routine check at the Peshawar Motorway toll plaza when the weapons were discovered.

Police sources told Dawn.com that the weapons included 4 M4 assault rifles with 36 magazines and 4 pistols with 30 magazines.

US Consul General Mary Richard also reached the police station where the Americans were detained for questioning, urging officials to seize weapons but not to detain the foreigners.

The US Consul General however refused to give any comments on the arrests when approached by our reporter.

The six detained include three foreigners described as US diplomats, as well as three Pakistanis, which included a security guard and two drivers.

According to recent instruction from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, foreign diplomats are prohibited from carrying weapons or travelling to prohibited areas in the province unless expressly permitted by the provincial government with a No Objection Certificate (NOC). …more

A Normal Day in Sitra
03 June , 2012 – AhlamOun.com

A Normal Day in Sitra (1)

An old man holding his walking stick in one hand,
and a bread he just bought for his family on the other.
lifting one foot slowly after the other in pain,
Police start shooting teargas .. both of his hands occupied,
He can’t throw his walking stick because he needs to walk,
He can’t throw his bread because he needs to feed his family,
He collapse in the middle of the street, suffocating!
A normal day in Sitra !

A Normal Day in Sitra (2)

A mother calling her son;
Mom : “Son, where are you? Did you pick the medicine for your sister from the pharmacy?”
Son : “Yes Mom, I picked up the medicine , I am a block away .. don’t worry I am almost there.”

30 minutes later.

Mom calls again and an auto answer on the phone.
“THE NUMBER YOU ARE CALLING CANNOT BE REACHED AT THE MOMENT”

3 days later,

Mother receives a call from an unknown number,
“YOUR TRAITOR SON IS IN PRISON FOR PROTESTING”
Mom :”Where is my son!! I didn’t hear from him in 3 days!!”
Voice: “He is in the prison hospital.”
Mom: “WHY??? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM??”

…… line disconnected!

A Normal Day in Sitra (3)

A woman with her kids in the car visiting her family in Sitra,
An alien with a police uniform and his gun pointing at car nodding at her,

Woman : “Please, don’t scare my kids, I am here to visit my family.”

Policeman: ……..

Woman: “لو سمحت، لا تفزع أطفالي… اريد أن ازور اهلي”

Policeman: …….

Policeman speaks in foreign language, pointing at her to turn back not allowing her to pass!

He doesn’t understand Arabic nor English.

A normal day in Sitra ! (4)

5 teenage kids playing outside their house,
A Turkish-Made Police Tanks storming from one side of an alley,
Police jeeps rush from the other side,
Policemen rush out with their guns!
Next day a headline in a local newspaper;

“5 people were arrested for illegal gathering!”

A normal day in Sitra ! (5)

Grandmother: “It’s almost 12:00 PM, where are you going in his heat?”

Grandfather : “I am taking our grandson to pray in the historic mosque of Shaikh Aabid, I’ll come back after 2 hours”

10 minutes later,

Grandmother: “Oh! that was quick?! and why the sad look in your face??”

Grandfather : “The government demolished the entire mosque!!! it vanished!”

Grandson : “Grand-dad, I promise you, I will rebuild it and you will pray in it again!”

…more

Arab Monarchies: Surviving the Revolts
By: Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi – 3 November, 2011

In the mid 20th century a majority of Arabs lived in monarchical states, some dating as far back as several centuries. However, by the 1960s, the monarchies of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Iraq and Yemen had transformed into republics. Today, eight Arab monarchies remain, namely, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar and the Sultanate of Oman.

The reason some Arab monarchies ceased to exist varies from popular revolutions to military coups. However one feature they shared is their lack of ability to adapt to the changing geopolitical environment of surrounding countries from South Asia to Africa, gaining their independence and empowering their people as well as their own citizens.

The need to adapt to a changing environment is now more necessary than ever. The 2011 popular Arab uprisings that are spreading throughout the region will affect every single country in the region, if not in the short term then several years down the line. For instance, citizens of nominal republics such as Sudan will not continue to tolerate their dictators while they witness history being made by their Egyptian neighbors preparing to vote in the next few months. The eight Arab monarchies, even those whom, as I have argued earlier, have scored highly on human development reports will similarly have to face new realities that are taking shape both within their borders and in the region.

Due to the varied nature of these monarchies such an evolution into constitutional monarchies will likely occur in three cycles. The first cycle will include Kuwait, Jordan and Morocco, the second Bahrain and Oman, and the third Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Setting up constitutional monarchies has been attempted in the past. Half a century ago, as Arabs were rising up against their governments and mere months after it gained its independence from Britain, Kuwait’s Emir, Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem unveiled a constitution that even today, is decades ahead of both Arab monarchies and republics alike. The constitution guaranteed Kuwaitis freedom of religion, speech and the press. Additionally, while enshrining a role for the Emir, it specifically stated that Kuwait’s system of rule is democratic with an elected assembly.

The managing editor of a Gulf based English newspaper told me he believes that the current controversial Prime Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Nasser Al Sabah (71), will be the last premier to be appointed directly by an emir and the last to be chosen from the royal family. Sheikh Nasser was forced to resign by opposition MPs six times since his appointment in February 2006. Rhetoric that is not often heard used against members of Gulf ruling families is casually employed against Sheikh Nasser, with news wires quoting an MP at a recent 10,000 strong rally demanding his sacking describing him as “incompetent,” and saying that he “cannot be trusted”. These are some of the reasons that indicate Kuwait will likely be the first Arab monarchy to officially transform into a constitutional monarchy. …more

Opposition to enter dialogue
2 June, 2012 – UPI

MANAMA, Bahrain, June 2 (UPI) — Bahrain has offered to resume negotiations with the opposition al-Wefaq party in a bid to solve the ongoing political crisis, an official said.

Information Minister Samira Rajab said Bahrain leaders are trying to find some common ground with al-Wefaq “despite insurmountable obstacles and unfeasible conditions” in a bid to pave the way for dialogue, CNN Arabic reported Saturday.

Akhbar al-Khaleej newspaper said state officials and leading members of al-Wefaq have already met “unofficially” to iron out the details of the dialogue and discuss prerequisites.

Al-Wefaq, which represents Bahrain’s Shiite community, pulled out of the national dialogue in 2011 after violence exploded in the kingdom.

…more

Four Shia Muslims & two others killed in Wahabi’s attack in Quetta.
Pakistan – 3 June, 2012

Four Shia Hazara’s, and Two others including a policeman, were gunned down by the American and Saudi backed Nasabi-Wahabi terrorists in Quetta Sirki Road here on Sunday.

The armed terrorists of Nasabi-Wahabi banned outfits of Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba (Yazeed) on motorcycles opened fire on a Cement shop on Sirki Road, Quetta, the provincial capital of violent Balochistan Province.

Four Shia Hazara’s victims were inside the shop whereas the other two victims were passersby, police sources said. The bodies were shifted to the Civil hospital where the families of the victims were staged protest against the brutal killing. A heavy contingent of police reached the crime scene and cordoned off the area. A search operation is underway. Police sources said that this appeared to be an incident of target killing. …source

…more

Internal Obama administration estimates say sabotage program slowed Iran’s progress toward developing the ability to build nuclear weapons by 18 months to 2 years

Obama order sped up wave of cyberattacks against Iran
By DAVID E. SANGER – 1 June, 2012- NYT

WASHINGTON — From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.

Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks — begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games — even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran’s Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.

At a tense meeting in the White House Situation Room within days of the worm’s “escape,” Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, Leon E. Panetta, considered whether America’s most ambitious attempt to slow the progress of Iran’s nuclear efforts had been fatally compromised.

“Should we shut this thing down?” Mr. Obama asked, according to members of the president’s national security team who were in the room.

Was Flame virus written by cyberwarriors or gamers?

Told it was unclear how much the Iranians knew about the code, and offered evidence that it was still causing havoc, Mr. Obama decided that the cyberattacks should proceed. In the following weeks, the Natanz plant was hit by a newer version of the computer worm, and then another after that. The last of that series of attacks, a few weeks after Stuxnet was detected around the world, temporarily took out nearly 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges Iran had spinning at the time to purify uranium.

This account of the American and Israeli effort to undermine the Iranian nuclear program is based on interviews over the past 18 months with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts. None would allow their names to be used because the effort remains highly classified, and parts of it continue to this day. …more

IT official: 30 countries ask Iran for help to combat ‘Flame’
2 June, 2012 – Shia Post

Iran says 30 countries have asked it for help in fighting Flame, a computer programme designed to steal data. Australia, the Netherlands, India and Malaysia are among the countries that have contacted Iran’s Maher Centre to ask for the anti-virus programme that detects and destroys Flame.

The Maher Centre (Maher means ‘expert’ in Persian) is part of the Information Technology Company (ITC).

The ITC discovered Flame over a month ago and has been working on an anti-virus programme since then said Esmail Radkani the organisation’s deputy director.

“Detecting and writing a programme to wipe out Flame was especially complex,” said Mr. Radkani.

Flame is the third programme to have targeted Iran for the purpose of gathering information, or attacking a specific system.

In 2010, Iran’s industrial and nuclear computer systems were attacked by the Stuxnet worm. The worm was a malware designed to infect computers using Siemens Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), a control system favoured by industries that manage water supplies, oil rigs and power plants.

Stuxnet was followed by Duqu, a virus designed to gather data for future cyber-attacks. Iran announced the discovery of Duqu in November 2011.

Flame seems to have been created with the express purpose of gathering information. Experts believe it could have been running for as long as five years before it was discovered. …more

US democracy aid went to favored groups in Egypt
3 June, 2012 – By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and DESMOND BUTLER — Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Two months before Egyptian police stormed the offices of U.S.-backed democracy organizations last year, seven Egyptian employees resigned from one of the American groups to protest what they called undemocratic practices.

They complained that the U.S. group, described as nonpartisan, had excluded the country’s most popular Islamist political organization from its programs, collected sensitive religious information about Egyptians when conducting polls to send to Washington, and ordered employees to erase all computer files and turn over all records for shipment abroad months before the raids.

“Our resignation is a result of many different practices we have been witnessing that seem suspicious and unprofessional,” the Egyptian employees wrote in their Oct. 17 resignation letter.

This wasn’t the democracy that Dawlat Soulam, one of those who quit, said she had hoped to deliver to Egypt when she went to work for the International Republican Institute.

Soulam, a New York City-born Egyptian with dual citizenship, and the others said they were troubled by work being done under the programs run by Sam LaHood, the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

“Are we doing something we want to hide from the Egyptians?” Soulam, in a telephone interview from Cairo, said she asked her bosses. “Are you playing a political agenda and you don’t want to show that you want to take sides?”

IRI officials deny doing anything improper and dismiss the former employees as disgruntled. But the workers’ small revolt, unknown to most, was significant because it reflected a growing sense in Egypt that U.S.-backed democracy programs were less about helping Egyptians and more about serving American interests.

Interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the workers’ protest and the broader government crackdown with the raids helped expose what U.S. officials do not want to admit publicly: The U.S. government spent tens of millions of dollars financing and training liberal groups in Egypt, the backbone of the Egyptian uprising. This was done to build opposition to Islamic and pro-military parties in power, all in the name of developing democracy and all while U.S. diplomats were assuring Egyptian leaders that Washington was not taking sides.
…more

Contrary to prosecutors’ claims, the former executives now say the king’s visit to Moyock “was not a Blackwater marketing effort, but was instead a CIA-organized and CIA-sanctioned diplomatic event attended by dozens of U.S. Government officials with the aim not of increasing Blackwater’s potential profits, but instead of furthering relations between the two countries.”

The royal visit arose out of a personal relationship between the king and Blackwater founder Erik Prince and was organized with the assistance of other government agencies including the State Department and the Secret Service, they say.

5 ex-Blackwater execs cite CIA in Jordan gun gifts
The Associated Press – 2 June, 2012

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Five former executives of the private security firm once called Blackwater are defending themselves against federal firearms charges by saying the CIA asked them to provide guns as gifts to the king of Jordan.

Federal prosecutors in 2010 accused former Blackwater Worldwide president Gary Jackson and four past colleagues of various federal firearms violations. A group of charges related to five guns given to King Abdullah II of Jordan. Prosecutors said the guns were part of a bid for Blackwater to land a lucrative overseas contract, but allege that records tracking the guns were later falsified to claim the weapons were sold to individuals.

Defense attorneys filed declarations from two retired CIA officials who say they are familiar with gifts presented during the king’s 2005 visit to Blackwater’s Moyok, N.C., headquarters. John Macguire, who described himself as a CIA officer for 23 years ending in 2005, and Charles Seidel, who said he was CIA station chief in the Jordanian capital of Amman in 2005, said they would be willing to testify about their knowledge of government involvement if the spy agency allows it.

“I have information related to the transfer of firearms to the King of Jordan described in numerous counts of the indictment and how the U.S. government’s authorization for the transfer of those weapons took place,” Maguire said in a statement filed in federal court in Raleigh, where the case is pending.

A CIA spokesman declined to comment Saturday.

“The CIA does not, as a rule, comment on matters pending before U.S. courts,” agency spokesman Preston Golson said in an email.

On Friday, the former Blackwater executives asked the judge in the firearms case to dismiss the charges related to the gun gift and others in the indictment.

The filings were first reported by the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va. (story HERE).

A group of investors bought Blackwater in December 2010 from founder Erik Prince. It is now called Academi.

Prince, a former Navy SEAL, opened Blackwater in 1997 in North Carolina, a half-hour drive south of the world’s largest naval base, in Norfolk, Va. He built it into a contractor that provided training and protection for government workers in war zones around the globe. But Blackwater guards were involved in a series of high-profile shootings, the most notorious being the 2007 shootings in Nisoor Square in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead.

Academi’s owners said in January that the company settled the last lawsuit brought by survivors and estates of Iraqis killed during the Nisoor Square shooting.

Arlington, Va.-based Academi also announced in January that it had settled a lawsuit brought by families of former Blackwater security guards who were killed and mutilated during a mission in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. Two of the guards’ bodies were photographed hanging from a Fallujah bridge, producing one of the most disturbing images of the Iraq war. …source

King calls for integrated strategies to fight terror
2 June , 2012 – Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has called for formulating comprehensive and integrated strategies to fight terrorism.

In a speech delivered on his behalf by Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Foreign Minister, at the 2nd meeting of the Advisory Board of the UN Counter-Terrorism Center here Sunday, the King said that combating terrorism was a common international responsibility requiring the highest degree of coordination and cooperation.

King Abdullah said that the adoption of the UN Counter-Terrorism strategy in 2006 by the General Assembly was an evidence that combating terror required strengthening of cooperation and coordination, which is embodied in the establishment of the UN Counter-Terrorism Center, the initiative adopted by the International Conference on Combating Terrorism held in Riyadh in 2005, which became a reality with the establishment of the UNCTC.

The Kingdom contributed $10 million for the establishment of the center. It is, however, not a substitute for international institutions involved in combating terrorism, but is supportive in coordinating these efforts.

The Kingdom has at various forums condemned and denounced terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and whoever might be its perpetrators, and has announced its full readiness to join international efforts to combat it, the King said.

Addressing the gathering, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appreciated the commitment and generosity of King Abdullah, “whose support was important in making the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Center a reality.”

He said that the center, which has attracted considerable interest, is important as terrorism continues to affect all regions around the world and claim lives.

He said that the United Nations strategy to address global terrorism, adopted by all member states, is the cornerstone of a global collective response. Ban Ki-moon stated that choking financial support to terrorism was also an important area and called for building a culture of dialogue and creating awareness. …more

Israel fitting nuclear arms on German subs
June 04, 2012 – Agence France Presse

Iran signatory non-proliferation treaty enriches uranium provokes war response, Israel non-signatory arms submarines with nuclear weapons

BERLIN: Israel is arming submarines supplied and largely financed by Germany with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, influential German news weekly Der Spiegel reports in its issue to be published Monday.

The magazine said in a cover story likely to touch off a debate in Germany that Berlin had denied any knowledge that German submarines were being used as part of an Israeli atomic arsenal.

Israel is the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear-armed power.

However, former high-ranking officials of the German Defense Ministry told the magazine that the government always assumed that Israel was putting nuclear warheads on the Dolphin-class vessels.

The article, based on a monthslong probe, cited files from the Foreign Ministry in Berlin indicating that the West German state was aware of the practice as early as 1961.

Germany has already supplied Israel with three of the submarines in question, footing most of the bill, and another three are to be delivered by 2017 under a recently signed contract.

Israel is weighing whether to order three more, according to the report.

“The Germans can be proud to have ensured the existence of the state of Israel for several years to come,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted by Der Spiegel as saying.

The report said that Germany hoped to see Israeli concessions on settlements and approval for the completion of a sewage treatment plant in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the assistance.

Israel sees its existence under threat if its arch-foe Iran goes nuclear. Like the United States, it has refused to rule out bombing Iranian nuclear sites.

Germany, bearing the historical guilt of the Holocaust, is Israel’s closest ally in Europe.

But it has sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pro-settlement policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as undermining peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Tensions between Germany and Israel flared in April when Nobel prize-winning German author Gunter Grass published an inflammatory poem in which he warned that a nuclear-armed Israel “could wipe out the Iranian people [with a] first strike.”
…more

Palestinians threaten to relaunch prisoner hunger strike
3 June, 2012 – Agence France Presse

RAMALLAH: Palestinian prisoners in Israel are threatening to relaunch a hunger strike, a Palestinian official said on Sunday, blaming Israel for reneging on a deal that ended a recent one.

“There are still provocations in the prisons, and the prisoners are threatening to resume the strike if the situation remains as it is,” Palestinian prisoners minister Issa Qaraqaa said at a press conference in Ramallah.

Some 1,550 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel ended a hunger strike on May 14 in exchange for a package of measures which would allow visits from relatives in Gaza, and the transfer of detainees out of solitary confinement.

Israel also said it would not extend administrative detention orders, unless new evidence emerged.

In return, prisoner leaders committed to not engage in militant activity inside jail and to refrain from future hunger strikes.

Administrative detention is a procedure that allows suspects to be held without charge for renewable periods of up to six months.

But Qaraqaa said Israel was not keeping its end of the deal.

“Israel has begun to violate the deal it signed with the prisoners, and within ten days after announcing the end of the strike, Israel renewed administrative detention orders for approximately 30 prisoners,” Qaraqaa charged.

“Israel wants to punish the prisoners for striking with these renewed orders,” he said.

Qaraqaa also said he doubted Israel would allow the Gaza visits it had committed to.

“So far, we don’t know if Israel will even allow families of prisoners from Gaza to visit their imprisoned relatives,” he said.

An Israeli defence official who wished to remain unnamed rejected Qaraqaa’s claims.

“As of the end of last week, three administrative detention orders were renewed,” the official told AFP.

Regarding the visits from Gaza, the official said that Israel was indeed working toward enabling visits, but it was a process that “would take some time” as it “involves many different bodies.”

Qaraqaa also addressed the issue of two prisoners, Mahmud Sarsak and Akram Rikhawi, who have been on extended hunger strikes.

He said they “were on the verge of a coma and have a low heart rate.”

Sarsak, who comes from Gaza and is demanding to be recognised as a prisoner of war, began refusing food on March 23, and went 53 days without eating before a short break on May 14 when the deal was signed.

He restarted his strike a day later.

Rikhawi is demanding that the prison authority hand over his medical file prior to him appearing before a prison release committee to expedite his release.

Israel Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said that the two were under medical supervision in the infirmary in Ramle prison near Tel Aviv, and if the need arose, would be transferred to a civilian hospital for further care.
…more

Bahrain to seek closure of Shia opposition party

* Amal Party accused of violations of constitution and laws

* Party spokesman says govt pressuring them to accept national dialogue

DUBAI: Bahrain said on Sunday it would take legal measures to close down a Shia opposition party that has played a prominent role in protests against its Sunni monarchy.

Bahrain’s Justice Ministry said it would ask the courts to ban the Islamic Action Society, also referred to as Amal Party, for “major violations” of Bahrain’s constitution and laws, the state BNA news agency reported. It gave no details.

Amal spokesman Hisham Sabbagh said he believed the ministry was trying to put pressure on the party to accept a national dialogue with the government aimed at ending the political crisis which grew out of protests that erupted 16 months ago. He said the violations referred to party meetings in unlicensed premises in 2006 and 2008.

Bahrain’s biggest Shia opposition party, Wefaq, and other legal opposition groups have accepted the dialogue in principle, after saying a previous round was skewed towards pro-government factions and did not take their demands seriously.

Protesters led by the Shia majority took to the streets in February last year demanding an elected government, reduced powers for the ruling al Khalifa family, and an end to sectarian discrimination they say they face. A few Shia groups wanted to remove the monarchy.

Bahrain denies any policy of sectarian rule, and described the protests as an attempt by Iran to destabilise the country, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, by manipulating its co-religionists.

Bahrain called in troops from fellow Sunni-led monarchies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to crush the protests, and sentenced some of the organisers to life terms for trying to overthrow the state. ...source