Posts from — July 2012

Gamma Says No Spyware Sold to Bahrain; May Be Stolen Copy
By Vernon Silver – 27 July, 2012 – Bloomberg

Gamma International GmbH’s managing director said his company didn’t sell its FinFisher spyware to Bahrain, responding to research that showed activists from the Persian Gulf kingdom were targeted by what looked like the software, which can secretly monitor computers.

The Munich-based executive, Martin J. Muench, said he’s investigating whether the malicious software sent to activists was a demonstration copy of the product stolen from Gamma and used without permission.
Enlarge image Morgan Marquis-Boire

University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab security researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire. Photographer: Jacob Kepler/Bloomberg

“As you know we don’t normally discuss our clients but given this unique situation it’s only fair to say that Gamma has never sold their products to Bahrain,” Muench said in an e-mail today.

He was responding for the first time to a July 25 report by Bloomberg News that said researchers believe they’ve identified copies of FinFisher, based on an examination of the malware e- mailed to Bahraini activists. Their research, published the same day by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab, was based on e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News.

Muench said his company can’t yet confirm whether the software analyzed by Citizen Lab is Gamma’s product.
FinFisher Portfolio

Gamma International GmbH in Germany is part of U.K.-based Gamma Group. The group also markets FinFisher through Andover, England-based Gamma International UK Ltd. Muench, 30, leads the FinFisher product portfolio.

The Citizen Lab research linked the malware sent to pro- democracy activists to FinSpy, part of the FinFisher spyware tool kit. It can secretly take remote control of a computer, copying files, intercepting Skype calls and logging every keystroke.

Based on details published by Citizen Lab, “it is unlikely that it was an installed system used by one of our clients but rather that a copy of an old FinSpy demo version was made during a presentation and that this copy was modified and then used elsewhere,” Muench wrote in his e-mail.

“The modification meant that there was no message sent to our server when the demo product was used against a real target,” he said. An unaltered demo would have sent a message to Gamma, and the company would have been able to deactivate that copy of the software, he said.

“I can speculate that probably the demonstration version may have been stolen using a flash drive but I have no evidence to support this,” Muench said. He added that Gamma will tighten its security during presentations.

The Citizen Lab research showed the malware took screen shots, intercepted voice-over-Internet calls and transmitted a record of every keystroke to a computer in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, which has been gripped by tension since a government crackdown on protests last year.

Muench said the transmissions to Bahrain don’t mean the computer ultimately receiving the data is in that country.

“It could simply be a proxy server, which most of our clients setup around the world to anonymize the created network traffic,” he said.

He said in the e-mail that Gamma complies with the export regulations of the U.K., U.S. and Germany. …source

The US has more guns per person than any other country in the world. The Small Arms Survey estimated that in 2007, there were 88 guns owned for every 100 Americans.

All mentioned figures come from a Small Arms Survey report published in 2007.

Scientists: More Guns Don’t Enhance Penis Size or Usefulness
William K. Wolfrum blog

This man has a very sad penisSWEDEN – After a full decade of research, a team of Swedish scientists has confirmed that no matter how many guns a man owns, his penis will remain small and insignificant.

“Ve look at ze mens wit ze guns and ve look at ze penis of zeese mens,” said Dr. Sven Svenenberg of the Svenlandia Institute. “Itz veery zad. Ze penis is so wee.”

The research looked at 300 average American men who owned multiple guns. Those 300 were then weighed, measure, and found wanting. Following that, the men were then encouraged to buy even more guns over the next year. They were then were then weighed and measured again, and found wanting even more.

“Ze penis iz so wee, still,” said Dr. Svenenberg in an accent that no one could really identify. “Iz almozt of no uze. Like a wee pinkie toe.”

American scientist Tim Johnson said the research proved what has long been suspected – that owning guns for hunting and self-protection is generally a lie and that most men buy guns because they feel it will be an extension of their manhood.

“We’ve known this all along. We call it the ‘Glenn Beck Effect,'” said Johnson from his home office in Tupelo, Miss. “Not long ago, a Wikileaks document emerged showing a naked picture of Beck. Dude’s hung like a pimple on a pimple. Then all of a sudden you start seeing the guy show up holding guns.”

Still, some have called the research misleading. Ron Schmeits, President of the NRA said that the problem was that the men in the research sample were not encouraged to buy enough guns.

“These small men will get larger if they own more guns,” said Schmeits, handing out checks to Republican congressmen on the steps of the nation’s capital. “They need pistols and shotguns and guns that have guns attached to them and guns that shoot guns. That will fix them right up.”

But Dr. Svenenberg stood by his research.

“Zey are so wee, it’z almozt to make me to laugh,” said Dr. Svenenberg. “But no. I don’t to laugh. Iz zad. Zo veery zad.” …source

Russia slammed the US for ‘justifying terrorism’ in Syria while according to one US intelligence estimate, as many as a quarter of the 300 rebel groups in Syria may be fighting under the banner of al-Qaeda, says Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Al-Qaeda Infiltrating Syrian Opposition, With US Support
by John Glaser, 25 July, 2012 – Antiwar.com

Al-Qaeda militants and other Sunni extremists are becoming a greater and greater part of the conflict in Syria, just as the US officially announced it was abandoning any pretense of a diplomatic approach in favor of toppling the regime through proxy rebel groups.

“The evidence is mounting that Syria has become a magnet for Sunni extremists, including those operating under the banner of Al Qaeda,” reports the New York Times. “The presence of jihadists in Syria has accelerated in recent days in part because of a convergence with the sectarian tensions across the country’s long border in Iraq.”

According to one US intelligence estimate, as many as a quarter of the 300 rebel groups in Syria may be fighting under the banner of al-Qaeda, says Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Strangely, the fact that Washington, in cooperation with its allies, is now sending communication gear, military intelligence, and weapons to militias in Syria with considerable – and growing – ties to al-Qaeda has not made the Obama administration blink.

Russia on Wednesday criticized the US for not condemning the July 18 bombing in Damascus, which they called an act of terrorism. ”This is directly justifying terrorism. How can this be understood?” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“In other words, to say it in plain Russian, this means ‘we (the United States) will continue to support such terrorist acts for as long as the UN Security Council has not done what we want’,” Lavrov added.

The CIA is supposedly employing a “vetting process” to avoid having the aid get into the hands of Islamic extremists, but the process is made up of untrustworthy, third-party sources and intelligence officials have recently told the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times that the truth is that the US doesn’t know who is getting the money and weapons.

Apparently, even arming and strengthening al-Qaeda isn’t enough to disrupt Washington’s plan to change the regime in Syria, in order to eliminate Iran’s main ally in the Middle East and to gain an even stronger foothold in the region.

But extremist infiltration of the Syrian opposition carries other problems. The Obama administration runs the risk of helping to bring these extremists to power if and when the Assad regime finally does collapse. Moreover, as happened in Afghanistan after the US proxy war there with the mujihadeens, the potential for deadly blowback is very real. …more

Following the systematic elimination of the Al-Qadea leadership that wrestled control of Al-Qadea away from the US Intelligence Agencies, the US has embarked in a intense redeployment of Al-Qaeda through-out MENA as an key component in fighting its “democracy wars”. All the while the US conveniently uses Al-Qaeda’s “anti-western terrorist reputation” to provoke fear in the Western Public in help facilitate public support of its strategic aims of expanded hegemonic domination of MENA. – Phlipn

US Openly helping Al-Qaeda Terrorists infiltrate Syrian rebels
27 July, 2012 – JNN

JNN 27 July 2012 Damascus : The United States Helping Al-Qaeda militants and other Wahabi terrorists in Syria to help the country’s armed rebels overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“The evidence is mounting that Syria has become a magnet for Wahabi extremists, including those operating under the banner of al-Qaeda,” the website Antiwar Website cited a New York Times report as saying.

The article attributed the escalating presence of militants in Syria over the past days to “a convergence with the sectarian tensions across the country’s long border with Iraq.”

According to chairman of the US House Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Rogers, as many as a quarter of the many rebel groups in Syria see themselves as al-Qaeda offshoots.

The growing al-Qaeda presence seems to disturb neither Washington, nor its allies in their decision to send communication gear, military intelligence, and arms to militias in Syria.

Washington’s silence on the July 18 bombing in Damascus drew sharp criticism from Moscow, where Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the US for “directly justifying terrorism.”

“In other words, to say it in plain Russian, this means ‘we (the United States) will continue to support such terrorist acts for as long as the UN Security Council has not done what we want’,” Lavrov said on Wednesday.

US intelligence officials have revealed CIA’s chicanery in its so-called “vetting process,” which is to safeguard the aid for Syrian rebels fall into the hands of extremists.

The process involved unreliable, third-party sources and that the truth is that the US is least informed on the identity and motivations of the people receiving the money and weapons, the officials admitted.

The support for al-Qaeda and other terror cells in Syria is feared to throw the militants into power and give them a staunch stronghold if the US-led campaign managed to finally topple the Assad government.

The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has revealed that al-Qaeda is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Syria, including the Houla massacre.

The BND estimates that al-Qaeda has carried out “about 90 terrorist attacks” in Syria between late last December and early July, German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungwrote in an article on July 16.

The revelation was made public by the German government in response to a parliamentary question.

The German government also confirmed that it had received numerous reports from the BND on al-Qaeda’s involvement in the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla in the central province of Homs, in which 108 people, including dozens of children and women, were killed execution-style.

However, the German government stated that the reports were supposed to remain classified “by reason of national interest.”

The West and the Syrian opposition blamed the Syrian government for the carnage, but a Syrian government-appointed fact-finding mission had said that armed groups had carried out the massacre to frame the government and foment sectarian strife.

The intelligence reports raise several questions about the terrorist nature of the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army, and even more so about the fact that many of the armed terrorists, killed in clashes with Syrian security forces, carried foreign passports.

On Thursday, The New York Times published an article, stating that “the evidence is mounting that Syria has become a magnet for Wahabi extremists, including those operating under the banner of al-Qaeda.”

Syria has been the scene of violence by armed groups since March 2011. The violence has claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including many security forces.

Damascus blames “outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, asserting that it is being orchestrated from abroad. The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing the protesters. …more

STRATFOR: An Iranian Opportunity in Bahraini and Saudi Protests
26 July, 2012 – Friction Facts

Low-level anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province have continued sporadically since February 2011. But the July 8 arrest of a prominent Shiite cleric has led to an increase in demonstrations and a return to the promotion of aggressive protest tactics. There appear to be similarities between those tactics and tactics used by the more violent Shiite opposition factions nearby in the Sunni-dominated island nation of Bahrain, possibly indicating that protest groups in the two countries have increased coordination.

Such cooperation would be notable for both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. But the possibility that Iran is playing a role in the intensifying protests is more important. Threatened by the teetering regime in Syria, Tehran is looking for ways to demonstrate that it still is capable of sparking instability in strategic places. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain would be ideal locations for such a display.

Analysis

Improvised incendiary devices such as Molotov cocktails were first used against Saudi security forces in demonstrations in Eastern Province in October 2011, during which unknown gunmen reportedly shot at security forces. However, since March 2012, protests have been infrequent (there have been only a few reported demonstrations each month), and the use of violence against authorities has declined.
Increasing Violence

This dynamic changed July 8 with the arrest of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric. Three days later, 37 Shiite clerics in Eastern Province signed a joint statement calling for the government to end sectarian discrimination and to implement significant reforms. In light of the spiraling events in Syria, the timing of al-Nimr’s arrest suggests that it was likely an attempt by Riyadh to pre-empt any possible Iranian move to exploit Shiite unrest in Saudi Arabia. But the move backfired, resulting in near-daily protests, fires set in the streets, and renewed use of improvised incendiary devices against security forces.

More concerning for the Saudi government, the Shiite opposition in Eastern Province have used social media to spread digital flyers promoting violence, mimicking a campaign by one of Bahrain’s most violent opposition groups. The flyers promote the use of Molotov cocktails against security patrols and the setting of large fires in the streets to block the movements of soldiers and armored vehicles. Bahrain’s February 14 Movement distributed flyers with a similar graphic design and message in January 2012. The February 14 Movement later began constructing pipe bombs and conducting widespread arson attacks.

The Saudi opposition could be merely observing and copying its counterparts in Bahrain, but it is more likely that the groups are cooperating. Saudi opposition groups have advertised planned demonstrations and activities organized by the February 14 Movement and have even held sit-ins in solidarity with Bahraini protesters. Similarly, the February 14 Movement staged daily rallies in Bahrain during the week of July 15 in support of the Eastern Province protesters. The exchange of support and expertise about protest tactics between the groups could lead each to stage more aggressive, more organized demonstrations.
An Iranian Role?

The bigger question is whether Tehran is helping facilitate the protests in these strategically significant countries. Since the beginning of the unrest in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh has accused Iran of interfering and encouraging Shiite opposition groups in both Bahrain and Eastern Province. The extent of Iran’s leverage among Shia in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia is still unclear, but at least in Bahrain, many prominent Shiite clerics have long-time connections to Iranian clerics.

In June, the Bahraini government disbanded the opposition group Amal for allegedly inciting violence. A month later, a Bahraini National Security Agency officer said in court that Iraqi Shiite cleric Sayed Hadi Ahmed al-Madrasi had instructed Bahrainis to take up arms against the al-Khalifa government. Al-Madrasi is the leader of the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, which gave birth to Amal, and he led an Iranian-backed coup attempt against the Bahraini leadership in 1981. In 1985, al-Madrasi allegedly helped establish Bahrain’s most prominent underground militant organization, Bahraini Hezbollah, which is believed to coordinate with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. Given al-Madrasi’s ties to Iran and Amal, as well as Amal’s alleged role in the violent demonstrations, Bahrain is particularly important to watch to gauge Iranian influence on the protests.

The weakening of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad is a setback for Iran’s regional ambitions. The Saudis and Qataris have been at the forefront of the overt foreign campaign to undermine al Assad’s regime. Riyadh and Doha hoped to minimize Iran’s role in the region. In response, Tehran can be expected to utilize whatever levers of influence it has in Eastern Province and Bahrain. Thus, the levels of unrest and the adoption of violent tactics — or lack thereof — in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain could demonstrate the magnitude of Iran’s influence in these areas.

ref: STRATFOR …source

Russia: Assad resignation calls blocking peace
26 July, 2012 -Al Akhbar

Demands that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad quit power are blocking efforts to end the 16-month-old conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Thursday.

Lavrov said such calls – made by the United States, several European and Arab governments and Turkey – were fanning the flames of violence and reiterated Moscow’s claim that support for Syrian rebel groups was tantamount to backing terrorism.

“We propose things that would allow for an immediate ceasefire, but the other side says, ‘No, either the regime capitulates or we will continue to back…the opposition’s armed fight’, justifying terrorist acts,” Lavrov said.

“As long as such support continues, what kind of humanitarian action can we talk about? – including the initiatives of those who will not allow this fire to die down, but instead are fanning it,” he told a joint briefing with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic in Moscow.

Russia and China have been engaged in a war of words with Western states after they vetoed a fresh UN Security Council resolution earlier this month.

Western states said the resolution was intended to increase pressure on Assad to end the violence sparked by a government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, but Russia said it could be used as an excuse for foreign intervention.

Moscow retaliated this week, accusing the United States on Wednesday of trying to justify terrorism against the Syrian government.

The claim raised tensions surrounding a diplomatic spat in the UN Security Council, pitting Russia and China against their permanent veto-wielding counterparts the United States, Britain and France. Washington has said it will seek ways to tackle the crisis in Syria outside the world body.

Moscow has repeatedly criticized Western nations for encouraging Assad’s foes and said they must put more pressure on rebels to stop the violence in Syria, warning that some of those fighting government forces are extremist militants.

Russia says its rejection of sanctions is not driven by support for Assad but by a conviction that Syrians must decide their own fate. …source

A divide regarding Syria is gradually emerging between the German government on one side, its army and press on the other. While the Chancellor has been actively lining up her country behind Western schemes, German intelligence agencies and the press have slammed the anti-Assad propaganda and the impunity of the crimes committed by the opposition.

German Intelligence: “al-Qaeda” All Over Syria
by John Rosenthal – Voltaire Network -26 July, 2012

German intelligence estimates that “around 90” terror attacks that “can be attributed to organizations that are close to al-Qaeda or jihadist groups” were carried out in Syria between the end of December and the beginning of July, as reported by the German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). This was revealed by the German government in a response to a parliamentary question.

In response to the same question, the German government admitted that it had received several reports from the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla. But it noted that the content of these reports was to remain classified “by reason of national interest.” Like many other Western governments, Germany expelled Syria’s ambassador in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, holding the Syrian government responsible for the violence.

Meanwhile, at least three major German newspapers – Die Welt, the FAZ, and the mass-market tabloid Bild – have published reports attributing responsibility for the massacre to anti-government rebel forces or treating this as the most probable scenario. …more

The appointment of Prince Bandar bin Sultan as head of Saudi Arabia’s principal intelligence service is seen as a shift toward a more aggressive foreign policy.

New Saudi spymaster marks shift in policy
26 July, 2012 – UPI

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 26 (UPI) — The appointment of Prince Bandar bin Sultan as the head of Saudi Arabia’s principal intelligence service is widely seen as a shift toward a more aggressive foreign policy as the kingdom struggles with challenges from Iran and Syria.

King Abdallah named Bandar, a veteran of the Middle East’s intrigues and Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington in 1983-2005, in a surprise July 19 command change at the General Intelligence Presidency, the kingdom’s foreign intelligence agency.

Bandar, Abdallah’s nephew, replaces Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, the king’s half-brother and Bandar’s half-uncle who was widely seen as one of the monarch’s closest advisers.

Abdullah appointed Muqrin in 2005 to replace Prince Nawaf bin Abdulaziz. Muqrin, who had lived in relative obscurity until he took over the GIP, had come under considerable domestic criticism of late because of what is seen as a poor performance in handling the complexities of the surge of pro-democracy uprisings across the Arab world that the House of Saud has sought to keep at arm’s length.

The civil war in Syria, whose Alawite regime Saudi Arabia’s Sunny monarchy has long plotted against, and the prospect of a war with Shiite Iran over its reported drive to acquire nuclear weapons, preoccupy Riyadh while, Abdallah, Canute-like, strives to keep the democratic wave from breaking on its shores.

Saudi Arabia now “has the opportunity to regain its leading role” in the region after it “subsided in favor of Iran and Turkey following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the U.S. invasion of Iraq,” in 2003, observed political analyst Abdullah al-Shummari. …more

Bahrain opposition party launches “Gangs of Darkness Campaign”: “$10 million stolen from citizens in house raids”
26 July, 2012 – BJDM

$10 million worth of property and cash has been stolen during house raids in Bahrain over the past year, said Al Wefaq National Islamic Society during a press conference to launch a new campaign “Gangs of Darkness”.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the “constant attacks on homes” in Bahrain by security forces. According to Al Wefaq’s documentation department 270 homes were “raided, robbed or vandalized” in June and July 2012 alone.

Khalil Almarzooq, a leading figure of Al Wefaq, said in a press conference, “These crimes cannot have been committed without an official will.” He went on to add, “The King of Bahrain is responsible for this number (270 raids).”

The number of raids in homes seems to have increased in the past couple of months, with Al Wefaq regularly reporting of areas that have suffered from such attacks. Last week the opposition party said that a young woman was attacked whilst showering during a raid on her home.

Almarzooq stressed the need for a broad campaign across the political spectrum to condemn the “terrifying raids”. He addressed the Crown Prince of Bahrain in saying “We have condemned all forms of violence from the opposition in all of our speeches, it is now your turn to condemn these unjustifiable raids during your Ramadan visits this evening.”

According to documentation by Al Wefaq in all cases the raids are carried out either by police or armed civilians who are supported by the police. A statement said, “These masked armed civilians, supported by the police, are fixing police badges on their clothing. All documentation proves that police are directly involved in the raiding of homes.” …more

READ ABOUT “Arms Trade Treaty” HERE

5 Bahrainis detained from Sadad Village, several critically injured
27 July, 2012 – Shia Post

5 Bahraini citizens from Sadad Village have been detained after riot police stormed their house without an arrest warrant last nigh, while several Bahraini were also short injured during the raids, The Shia Post reports.

According to sources near about 300 houses in Bahrain has been raided where dozens Bahrainis have been short injured with bird-short gun and teargas fires.

According to sources Mahooz protester suffers from dangerous injuries after he was shot by bahrain security forces with pellets yesterday.

Maryam Al Khawaja, the acting president of Bahrain Center for Human Rights has shown deep concern by Quoting “I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that protesters in Bahrain still do not have access to hospitals due to fear of areas.”

Child Mohammed Mansoor Mattar’s mother was able to see him at the military hospital, said body was covered in pellet.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging regular demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

According to human rights organization Amnesty International, scores of people have been killed since the protests first erupted in February 2011.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on the peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in the crackdown.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have also been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protester. …more

Secret Turkish nerve center leads aid to Syria rebels
27 July, 2012 – By Regan Doherty, Amena Bakr – Reuters – The Daily Star

DOHA/DUBAI: Turkey has set up a secret base with allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar to direct vital military and communications aid to Syria’s rebels from a city near the border, Gulf sources have told Reuters.

News of the clandestine Middle East-run “nerve centre” working to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad underlines the extent to which Western powers – who played a key role in unseating Moammar Gaddafi in Libya – have avoided military involvement so far in Syria.

“It’s the Turks who are militarily controlling it. Turkey is the main co-ordinator/facilitator. Think of a triangle, with Turkey at the top and Saudi Arabia and Qatar at the bottom,” said a Doha-based source.

“The Americans are very hands-off on this. U.S. intelligence are working through middlemen. Middlemen are controlling access to weapons and routes.”

The centre in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 100 km (60 miles) from the Syrian border, was set up after Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Saud visited Turkey and requested it, a source in the Gulf said. The Turks liked the idea of having the base in Adana so that they could supervise its operations, he added.

A Saudi foreign ministry official was not immediately available to comment on the operation.

Adana is home to Incirlik, a large Turkish/U.S. air force base which Washington has used in the past for reconnaissance and military logistics operations. It was not clear from the sources whether the anti-Syrian “nerve centre” was located inside Incirlik base or in the city of Adana.

Qatar, the tiny gas-rich Gulf state which played a leading part in supplying weapons to Libyan rebels, has a key role in directing operations at the Adana base, the sources said. Qatari military intelligence and state security officials are involved.

“Three governments are supplying weapons: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia,” said a Doha-based source.

Ankara has officially denied supplying weapons.

“All weaponry is Russian. The obvious reason is that these guys (the Syrian rebels) are trained to use Russian weapons, also because the Americans don’t want their hands on it. All weapons are from the black market. The other way they get weapons is to steal them from the Syrian army. They raid weapons stores.”

The source added: “The Turks have been desperate to improve their weak surveillance, and have been begging Washington for drones and surveillance.” The pleas appear to have failed. “So they have hired some private guys come do the job.”

President Barack Obama has so far preferred to use diplomatic means to try to oust Assad, although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signalled this week that Washington plans to step up help to the rebels.

…more

Bahrain: Repression intensifies as Revolution re-invigorated
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 27 July, 2012

Since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadhan the Bahraini Revolution has escalated dramatically. At least 25 demonstrations have taken place every day and night with one clear message:

The people want regime change. Chanting like “Down with Hamad” has become the standard slogan uttered by the men and women participating in those protests. The regime’s brutality has also not diminished. The use of chemical gases has intensified dramatically in the past three weeks. While the zeal of the people has intensified, the regime’s repression knows no bounds. Makeshift clinics in towns and villages have offered first aid to the victims who fear for their life to go to the main hospital at Salmaniya which is run by the military. Many observers believe that the situation has reached the point of no-return. The Alkhalifa regime is doomed as the people unanimously refuse to accept to be ruled by tribal hereditary dictatorship. Neither side is in a mood to compromise or engage in any form of dialogue. The hostilities have become so entrenched in the public domain that it is hard to imagine any kind of reconciliation between the two sides.

The Alkhalifa have lost the opportunity to retain any degree of power. They have reduced their choices to one; crushing the people to the ground with no compromise. On 23rd July Amnesty International called on the Alkhalifa to release all political prisoners: Bahrain must release all prisoners of conscience immediately and without conditions, Amnesty, ahead of appeals in the cases of a prominent human rights activist and a group of medical workers. Yet the regime deferred the case of Nabeel Rajab for another session in September. “The charade of justice has gone on too long in Bahrain, and all prisoners of conscience must be set free immediately and unconditionally before these appeals take place,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Programme Director.

“All convictions against them should be quashed.”

Nine months ago the Bissiouni report also recommended that these prisoners be released. None of the serious recommendations of the report has been implemented.

In another development, Bahraini Pro-democracy activists received the malware in Washington, London and Manama, the capital of Bahrain, the Persian Gulf kingdom that has been gripped by tension since a crackdown on protests last year.

Researchers believe they’ve identified copies of FinFisher, (a spyware sold by U.K.- based Gamma Group) based on an examination of malicious software e-mailed to Bahraini activists, they say. Their research, which is being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab, is based on five different e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News from people targeted by the malware.

On Monday 23rd July The Times newspaper published a one page article about Bahrain titled “Police ‘dodge security clean-up by torturing detainees at secret sites” highlighting the tactics adopted by the regime in its repression of activists.

The detainees whose number now exceeds 1200 are now facing severe crackdown. At the Dry Dock Prison detainees have been attacked at the middle of the night as a means of intimidation and repression. The cooling system has been switched off intermittently and the detainees have been subjected to more torture and beating.
…more

Obama fails to bring Bush-era gangsters to justice
26 July, 2012 – By Colin S. Cavell

However, his supporters are upset with him for not following through on his promises to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, bring any of the Bush gang to justice for waging illegal wars, breaking international and national laws forbidding torture, addressing climate change dangers, etc.”

Former US Presidential candidate and one-term Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the US Congress today as an invited guest to voice his opinion before a hearing dubbed as “Taking Back Our Democracy: Responding to Citizens United and the Rise of Super PACs.”

Roemer lambasted the role of corporate money which now controls the US presidential campaign process in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a landmark case decided two years ago in 2010 in which “the Court held that the First Amendment [to the US Constitution] prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.” Commenting on the electoral system in light of this court ruling, Roemer declared: “It’s bought!”

Senator Dick Durban (D-Ill.) said that the court case now allows for “super-secret PACs” set up by billionaires to “control our political agenda” thus disenfranchising the average American voter. This sentiment was echoed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who stated that the Citizens United ruling is turning the US back into an oligarchic system putting all power into the hands of a few millionaires and billionaires.

The Citizens United (2010) ruling is only one of many tactics being utilized by the Republican Party opposition to try and unseat the country’s first African-American president, Barack Obama, in his bid for reelection to a second term in office this coming November. Trying not to appear too radical, Obama has temporarily salvaged the US capitalist economy from a near total economic meltdown, restored a sense of sanity to the Executive Branch of government which former President George W. Bush had almost totally shredded, and provided the US with a cover for its historical record of slavery and discrimination against Blacks and other ethnic minorities.

However, his supporters are upset with him for not following through on his promises to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, bring any of the Bush gang to justice for waging illegal wars, breaking international and national laws forbidding torture, addressing climate change dangers, etc.

Nonetheless, the ouster in 2008 of perhaps the most criminal US regime in American history, the George W. Bush Administration, and his replacement by an avowed liberal and relatively dynamic highly-educated Black man, has infuriated a section of the US ruling class which seeks to maintain a white-dominated political system in order to preserve its asymmetrical control over property, profits, and privileges accumulated over the previous two and a half plus centuries of white European domination on the North America continent.

Not only have death threats against Obama increased by a reported 400% from his predecessor but, as well, the number of white supremacist militia groups in the US has grown by 35% since 2000. The rise of the so-called “Tea Party” movement-funded mostly by the billionaire Koch brothers and the like-initiated a faux populist movement which labeled Obama a socialist, a communist, a Marxist-Leninist, an atheist, a Muslim, a left-winger, an anti-capitalist, un-American, etc., etc., etc. in an attempt to discredit him and his policies. Indeed, this billionaire-funded revanchist movement continues to this day to maintain that Obama was not born in the United States and, legally, therefore, is not eligible to be the president of the United States. …more

Saudi police fire on Shiite protest
27 July, 2012 – Agence France Presse

DUBAI: Saudi security forces opened fire on Shiite protesters in the tense Qatif district of Eastern Province on Friday, wounding several as hundreds marched to demand the release of detainees, witnesses said.

Live rounds fired by anti-riot police wounded a number of protesters who took to the streets in the early hours, the witnesses said, without specifying a figure.

The interior ministry said security forces dealt with “rioters who burned tyres” in parts of Qatif, arresting several people, including Mohammed al-Shakhuri, whose name figures on a list of 23 wanted people.

“There were no casualties,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Witnesses said Shakhuri had been taken to the military hospital in nearby Dhahran with bullet wounds to his back and neck.

The demonstrators carried posters of Shiite detainees, including prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who was arrested earlier this month, witnesses said.

In recent days, confrontations have intensified between police and protesters from the kingdom’s marginalized Shiite minority — estimated at about two million and mostly concentrated in the oil-rich Eastern Province.

Two Shiite protesters were killed earlier this month, triggering attacks on government buildings in Qatif.

The district witnessed a spate of protests after an outbreak of violence between Shiite pilgrims and religious police in the Muslim holy city of Medina in February last year.

The protests escalated when the kingdom led a force of Gulf troops into neighboring Bahrain the following month to help crush a Shiite-led uprising against the Sunni monarchy.

Meanwhile, the family of Nimr said the cleric had been transferred from the military hospital in Dhahran, where he was receiving treatment for a bullet wound, to another in the capital.

And Shiite writer Nazir al-Majed, who was arrested in March last year for taking part in protests, was released on Thursday, relatives said, adding that he was never charged or put on trial.

…source

The US “democracy wars” has made center its piece a strategy of “bombing them back tot he stone age”. When a sympathetic “democracy” cannot be obtained it simply facilitates the destruction of “unfriendly states” through agitating subversion and “civil insurrection” or in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq, the US actually used aerial bombardment and boots on the ground to achieve the goal. The strategy is simply leave “unfriendly states” infrastructure and technical capabilities in ruins so they will be decades in recovery. This is the effective neutralization of the “unfriendly state”, giving the US and its “friends” a dominant position through stability and growth. – Phlipn

Mood: Syria may be worse after Assad
27 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

The former head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Robert Mood, said on Friday that President Bashar al-Assad’s fall was only a matter of time but that his exit might not end the conflict and that the violence could even get worse afterwards.

“Sooner or later, the regime will fall,” said the Norwegian general, whose mandate to lead a 300-strong misson ended last week amid a sharp spike in violence.

“The spiral of violence, the lack of proportion in the regime’s reactions, its incapacity to protect the civilian population, mean that the regime’s days are numbered, but will it fall in a week or in a year? That is a question I do not dare answer,” he told AFP.

But Mood warned that Assad’s fall may not lead to the end of the conflict, hinting that the country could be drawn further into a civil war.

“Many think that if Bashar al-Assad falls or that if he is given an honorable exit… the problem will be solved. That is an over-simplification one should be wary of. The situation could even get worse,” Mood told a news conference.

“On the other hand, it is important to say that it is impossible to imagine a future Syria with the current power holders still in place.”

Mood,who left Damascus on 19 July, has been replaced by Senegalese Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, who has taken over a drastically reduced mission with just 150 observers and a mandate of only 30 days.

The UN Supervision Mission in Syria was deployed in April to oversee a ceasefire that was largely not respected and in mid-June stopped carrying out patrols as fighting intensified. …source

Kurds force Iraqi troops from Syrian border
27 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Kurdish-Iraqi forces have prevented Iraqi military troops from reaching the border region between the Kurdistan region of Iraq and Syria, the secretary general of the Ministry of Peshmerga told AFP on Friday.

Jabbar Yawar said: “Two days ago the Iraqi government sent military forces to the areas of Talafir and Sanajar in Mosul to protect the Iraqi-Syria border.”

“They are the tenth group to have come from Nasiriyah, southern Baghdad. The 32 regiment of this group tried to access Mosul at 6 o clock coming from Rabia (North West Iraq) to Zamar, but were prevented by the Eighth brigade of the ministry of Peshmerga (Kurdish military) who asked them not to enter the territory.”

There informal border crossing between Syria and the Kurdistan region of western Iraq is near the town of Dohuk, which has been controlled by the Peshmerga since 1992.

Yawar cited the reason for preventing the military form reaching this area as a lack of “prior coordination.”

“They did not come after having previously coordinated with us. These are disputed areas in which the second brigade of the Peshmerga forces and well as the 15th brigade of border police are present.”

These areas do not need any additional troops. They are safe and stable, and nothing happens with the Syrian side,” he added.

Recently, Iraqi authorities have deployed additional troops at the borders with Syria which are witnessing clashes between Syrian pro-regime forces and the armed opposition, who control one of the 3 key crossing between the two countries. …source

Iraq says blocking al-Qaeda moves to Syria
27 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

The Iraqi Interior Ministry denied reports on Friday that al-Qaeda militants were infiltrating Syria from the Iraqi border, days after Islamist militants stormed several border crossings.

The Iraqi Media Network reported the ministry’s undersecretary Ahmad al-Khafaji as saying “border guards in coordination with the Iraqi army closed all the ports that the organization al-Qaeda could have used to pass into Syria.”

The international community has warned of an influx of al-Qaeda militants from Iraq into Syria.

Baghdad also reiterated its decision to welcome Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in many Syrian cities, and has allocated 50 billion dinars ($40 million) for the erection of tents on the border with Iraq to house them.

On Tuesday, German intelligence agency BND claimed that al-Qaeda was responsible for at least 90 terror attacks in Syria. The revelations confirm widespread Western fears of al-Qaeda’s growing involvement in the crisis.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has frequently contended that his forces are fighting primarily an Islamist insurgency, although it is unclear how prominent Islamist insurgents are in the rebellion. …more

Turkey says won’t allow ‘terrorist’ groups at Syria border
27 July, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

ISTANBUL: Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday Turkey would not allow what he called “terrorist” groups like the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or al Qaeda to establish a presence in Syria near the Turkish border.

In a live interview with Kanal 24 television channel, Davutoglu did not specify what steps Turkey would take to prevent activities by such groups along its southeastern border.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey could act against a “terrorist” organisation in northern Syria if it perceived it as a threat – a warning to Kurdish militants believed to be active in the region.

…source

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” …I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence…. I would rather … resort to arms in order to defend … honour than…, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to [our] own dishonor. – Mahatma Gandhi

As usual I’m catching some shit for affirming tactics that are considered violent by some – see side bar videos. All this from some of my “liberal friends” who think standing in line for a camping permit so they can “occupy the park” is the revolution. I really struggle with those who have turned “non-violent resistance” into an infallible religious tenet that now stands as the “eighth deadly sin”. They confuse legitimate anger and subsequent action with Wrath. Recently some have had the audacity to “parrot”, “too bad about Bahrain, the movement has gone violent, no one will listen to them now”. Even the US State Department has uttered such nonsense. Seriously??? – …like anyone in the US was listening to begin with, aside from NGOs who are required to hold such lines in order to maintain funding sources… It would seem many find “violence” as a convenient excuse to abandon moral responsibility for the actions of their own government(USA) and a mechanism to reinforce their own “self righteousness”. Anyway, for those of you who might be struggling with such things, I found the article below to be edifying and affirming… – Phlipn

Against Chris Hedges and Some Others
anon – 24 July, 2012 – Anarchist News dot org

– There is a special hatred reserved for the journalists of moral authority. It appears to be difficult for them to conceive that a revolt may be a revolt against them. Their signs of race, class and establishment undermine their writing and the more they harp on the imperfections of those who riot, the more they make themselves the enemy of the different.

– This is nowhere clearer than in the demand that revolt articulate itself eloquently. The value of the journalist’s critique is lost in a social system of dominance in which the journalist is uncritical of his own situation, and dominates. Thus does the academician fall into step with the fat policeman and the great body of so-called intellectual work conforms to that of the night-stick.
[I’ll do the first two for you: Argument from final Consequences, Confusing association with causation]

There are at least two ways in which Black Bloc anarchists are not cancers: one, in a theory of difference (Deleuze) in which the repetitions of the Black Bloc exhibit a difference which is not compossable with the established left – with consciousness raising; the other, in a theory of symbolic retribution (Baudrillard) in which the Black Bloc assumes its position as a violent and evil yang to the beautiful souls’ – to the Business/ Rulers and their journalists’ – white yin.

In a first scenario, the Black Bloc is criticized for having gone too far: they’re undoing the possibilities and great advances (sic) of the official, professional, pacifist and business left; they aggress rather than accept their historical place of punishment and self-sacrifice; they act upon material conditions rather than mouthing the (rather lame) official platform; they’re dangerous to the children in strollers who’ve been brought to witness and legitimize Daddy’s and Mommy’s discontent.

With Deleuze, we can respond that the Black Bloc is a ‘different’ which is comprehended in its repetitions: it is an anarchic, nomadic minority which does not benefit by integrating; which speaks a language of its own in contrast to the King’s English; and which, as a minority exerts its own selectivity in relation to its affections and its repulsions. There’s as little room for this type of difference as there is, say, in a classroom: if you can’t conform, if you can’t speak properly, you’re a failure. This is in fact the central reason why racial, cultural and class Others find little space in majoritarian protests – the dominant hasn’t been undone.

In a second scenario, the Black Bloc is criticized for not having gone far enough: they haven’t really harmed capital, only bumped up its defense mechanisms; they haven’t achieved a real and lasting change to the system which can only happen in attacks on the brain-centers and at connecting nodes in the system; they lack the proper tools, can only destroy and never build the new society which must replace the present one.

With Baudrillard, it is possible to state that the Black Bloc is simply the projection of the established left’s violent and evil twin. In his explanation of symbolic duality, every light has its shadow, every white its black, every yin its yang. When an entity can’t admit to and accept its own violent and evil tendencies it projects them onto a cultural other who becomes the black sheep – the Black Bloc. In this way, the Black Bloc carries all the violent fantasies and the dark eros to which the beautiful soul can’t admit.

There remains then, at least in logic, two tasks for the Black Bloc: to detach itself from the official, professional and established left, refusing to be its shadow; and as an anarchic, and nomadic minority, to increase its strength in the selection of its affections and repulsions. One would think that since it does not benefit from integration into the majoritarian, dominant reality that it should increase its invisibility to that system and pursue its own desires underneath the establishment’s radar. Along with the Black Bloc’s production of a surface for action, one hopes there will be a surface of recording by which others might share in their joy. The only question is whether one has been careful enough.

Long, Live Anarchy!
…source

tuyo en la lucha. su amigo – Phlipn.