Posts from — July 2012

Saudi protesters rally in Qatif to demand release of Shia cleric
13 July, 2012 – Shia Post

Tension has been high in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province since last week after security forces detained Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr with almost daily protest rallies in the oil-rich region.

At least three people have been killed and many others injured in Riyadh’s crackdown on demonstrations against the detention of al-Nemr.

There has been no word on al-Nemr’s condition and whereabouts. The cleric was injured when regime forces attacked his car in Awamiyah to arrest him.

Since February 2011, Saudis have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province, mainly in Qatif and Awamiyah, calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to economic and religious discrimination against the eastern region.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the Al Saud regime, especially since November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province. …more

Bahrain Feature: The “Security” Web — The Kingdom Talks with Saudi Arabia, Britain, and the US
12 July, 2012 – John Horne in EA WorldView

Bahrain’s Commander-in-Chief Hosts US CENTCOM CommandersWhilst meetings are part of every government’s day, a series of encounters in the past week suggest that security and Saudi union is again very much on the mind of Bahrain — and its allies.

The backdrop to this activity took place on Sunday, when the Bahrain Interior Minister, Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, visited his Saudi counterpart, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The Saudi Gazette reported, “The talks focused on the recent raids by the Bahraini security forces that resulted in the uncovering of ‘terrorist hideouts’ and seizure of materials used for manufacturing explosive devices.” The Prince “lauded the cooperation between the two countries in security aspects”. Interestingly, the regime’s Bahrain News Agency buries this comment, following three paragraphs of what it describes as a “brotherly visit” by the Bahrain minister.

On Monday, US CIA Director David Petraeus was in Saudi Arabia for separate meetings with King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, discussing “matters of common concern”.

On his return from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the Bahrain Interior Minister met with the UK Ambassador Iain Lindsay, along with Deputy Ambassador Russ Kick. This follows a series of meetings the Interior Minister had in the UK a fortnight ago, during which the alleged bomb-making equipment was discovered in Bahrain. Scotland Yard subsequently sent specialist detectives to help with the investigation.

The Interior Minister saw Ghanim bin Fadl Al Buainain, Bahrain’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs who “lauded the pioneering role of the Saudi diplomacy, describing it as a successful model of the GCC joint political and diplomatic work regarding various regional and international issues.”

On the same day, the US Deputy Ambassador Stephanie Williams sat down with Prime Minister Court Chief Shaikh Hussam bin Isa Al Khalifa, who “underlined both countries’ keenness to further solidify strategic relations of cooperation in the political, economic, trade and security fields”. Yesterday, Deputy Ambassador Williams met with Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, the Deputy Prime Minister to discuss “current progress in bilateral friendly relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United States of America”.

Concluding this curious flurry of meetings, yesterday USA-CENTCOM’s Commander Lt-General David L. Goldfein met with Bahrain Defence Force Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa. State media reports the BDF Commander-in-Chief as having “explored with him bilateral cooperation relations and military coordination between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the friendly (sic) United States of America. Also during the meeting, the two sides explored various topics of mutual interest”. …more

International NGOs denounce the new arbitrary detention of Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab
11 July, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The Observatory
The Observatory denounces the new arbitrary detention of Mr. Nabeel Rajab, which seems to merely aim at hindering his human rights activities and at stifling his attempts to fight corruption in Bahrain. The Observatory also recalls that normally, Courts issue fines for cases of libel, and not imprisonment sentences.

The Observatory calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Rajab, and is extremely concerned about the fact that four cases have been filed against him since May 2012.

The Observatory more generally urges the Bahraini authorities to put an end to all acts of harassment – including at the judicial level – against Mr. Rajab, and to comply with the relevant international norms and standards, in particular the United Nations (UN) Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, and international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by Bahrain.
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Bahrain must immediately release a prominent human rights activist and prisoner of conscience sentenced to three-month’s in prison following his conviction for libel, after the authorities took exception to a post he made on Twitter, Amnesty International said today.

“Nabeel Rajab’s imprisonment is the latest example of how, despite government promises to introduce reforms following its violent crackdown on protesters in 2011, few improvements have been seen on the ground. It’s clear that repression of freedom of expression is continuing with impunity in Bahrain,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Programme Director.

“Like many others in Bahrain, Nabeel Rajab is a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. He should be released immediately and all other charges or convictions against him dropped or overturned. The authorities must also act to ensure that all human rights defenders are able to carry out their work without fear of reprisal.”
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HRW – The Bahraini authorities should immediately release the prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab and overturn his conviction for posting an “insulting” tweet, which violates his freedom of expression. The authorities should immediately suspend, and then abolish, the use of any criminal laws that violate freedom of expression, including those that criminalize “insults” and peaceful criticism of the government.

“If anyone is guilty of insult today, it is the Bahraini government, which has reminded citizens they’re not free to express political views,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Using masked men to arrest Rajab, a champion of peaceful protest and human rights, would be laughable if the reality wasn’t so tragic.”

(More)

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the latest conviction and three-month sentence imposed on the activist Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, for posting messages on Twitter on 2 June that were alleged to be libellous.

The eagerness with which the authorities have pursued Nabeel Rajab, whose only crime was to express himself freely, is yet another affront to human rights activists,” the press freedom organization said. “The international community must step up its pressure on the kingdom, which is pursuing its crackdown against dissident voices with impunity.

“We urge Bahrain’s judicial authorities to concentrate its efforts on the cases of torture and serious human rights violations of the past few months and to call the perpetrators to account.”
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Commander Blames US, British, Israeli Spy Agencies for Bahraini People’s Suffering
12 July 2012 – The Islamic Invitation Turkey

Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi took the US, British and Israeli spy agencies responsible for the Bahraini people’s agony and the suppression of their uprising against the tyrannical rule of the al-Khalifa regime.

“What has stood against the integrated campaign of the Bahraini people is not al-Khalifa and al-Saud but the US, Britain and the Zionist regime,” Naqdi said, addressing a ceremony in Ahwaz city on Thursday.

“These are the US and Britain that identify the Jihadi groups by their spy networks and provide the Wahhabi torturers with (information about them),” he added.

Naqdi reiterated that if the US, British and Israeli spy agencies hadn’t helped the al-Khalifa regime with the suppression of the Bahraini people’s uprising, the Bahraini and Saudi rulers had fled their strongholds long time ago.

Bahrain, a US ally ruled by the Al Khalifa family, has been in turmoil since protests broke out in February last year.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, more than 69 people have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

Police clampdown on protesters continues daily. Authorities have tried to stop organized protests by opposition parties over the past month by refusing to license them and using tear gas on those who turn up.

The opposition coalition wants full powers for the elected parliament and a cabinet fully answerable to parliament. …source

Erdogan to visit Russia next week
12 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves for Russia next Wednesday to discuss the developments in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his office announced Thursday.

“Significant regional and international developments led by Syria are on the table to be discussed thoroughly,” during Erdogan’s visit, the written statement said.

The talks are a new link in the chain of effective dialogue at the highest level between Turkey and Russia, the statement added.

Ankara and Moscow remain at odds regarding the armed conflict between President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opposition that has claimed thousands of lives since mid-March last year.

Erdogan’s one-day visit comes after Ankara clashed with Damascus over the downing of a Turkish warplane on June 22 by Syrian fire over the Mediterranean and the death of its two crew.

Turkey viewed the incident as a hostile act and has taken steps to fortify its border with Syria, while Russian media outlets, citing unnamed Russian officials, placed the blame on the “provocative” Turkish fighter, which illegally entered Syrian airspace.

Turkey, a one-time ally of Damascus, has actively supported Syrian rebels, including providing them sanctuary on Turkish soil. Moscow has previously criticized foreign powers arming rebel groups as undermining peace efforts.

Turkey shelters more than 37,000 refugees on its side of the border with Syria, where rebel forces made up of Syrian army defectors are also based. …source

The First International Festival of Independent Filmmakers “NEW HORIZON”
5 July, 2012

It is our pleasure to announce the first international festival of Independent Filmmakers (NEW HORIZON). In collaboration with the Cinematic Organization of I.R.Iran, the festival will focus on social and political issues addressed over the recent surge of change and awakening throughout America, Europe and Islamic countries. The event will take place on September 1st, 2012 in Tehran.

Mission & Objective

Our mission is to create a platform where independent filmmakers and scholars from around the world can gather and feature their films. The festival also aims to provide academic grounds for profound debates on various aspects of world cinema and to encourage confrontations with the realities of our global society.

Key dates and deadlines

* Submission deadline August 10th, 2012

* Announcement of results August 15th, 2012

Festival/ Conference opening September 1st, 2012 *

* Closing Ceremonies September 5th, 2012

Festival Sections:

* Primary competitions

Short and Semi-feature Films (maximum 52 minutes)

Feature Films (60 minutes or longer)

* Peripheral meetings and Workshops

Topics

The Occupy movement in Wall Street America and Europe

The fall of regional monarchies and awakening movements in Islamic countries
The economic crisis in Europe and America
The role of Lobbies in the current American and European crisis
Resistance against occupation
Anti-war movements
Islam phobia and Iran phobia
A world toward sustained justice
A World without terrorism and nuclear weapons

…more

US still seeks dominance over post-revolutionary Mideast, North Africa
9 July, 2012 – By Colin S. Cavell – PressTV

Many observers, jaded by years of US indifference to the tyrannical rule of its autocratic client states, dismissed Obama’s proclamation as mere propaganda without substance. Subsequent US actions to support ‘democratic’ transitions since have both surprised regional analysts in some ways while confirming the worst of American intentions to others. However, one thing most are becoming increasingly in agreement on is the further articulation of a new US democratic model for the MENA countries in an attempt to perpetuate its continued dominance over the region.”

In the center along the North Africa coast is Libya. To its west sits Tunisia and Algeria. Facing Libya from its south is Niger, Chad, and Sudan. And to its east lies Egypt.

Flanked by six fellow African countries, Libyans are psychologically oriented towards its north which is rimmed by the Mediterranean Sea. In the northwest of the country lies the capital city of Tripoli. To the northeast sits Benghazi. And in the north center of the country, along the Mediterranean, and about midway between these rival locales, is the city of Sirte, birthplace of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, as well as the town in which he was slain in October of 2011 after 41 years of rule. Muslim-oriented for centuries, Libya and its North African neighbors, are now acting out, each in its own manner, the Arab Spring of democratic revolts.

In the far west of the Maghreb, or the western most countries which fell to the Islamic conquests of the seventh century, King Mohamed VI of Morocco acted quickly, following the self-immolation of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, to defuse the growth of a nascent domestic oppositional movement and proposed constitution reforms which were overwhelmingly approved by the country’s citizenry on July 1, 2011. The reforms give more powers to the parliament and prime minister and specifically require the king to appoint the government’s Prime Minister from the party which wins the most seats in competitive elections, rather than, as previously, appointing whomever he pleased. For his quick action, Mohamed VI may indeed have bought some time for the prolongation of Morocco’s 340-year-old Alaouite royal dynasty, though the democratic restructuring demanded by the Arab Spring cannot be put off indefinitely, and more power will need to be grasped by citizens’ elected representatives before there is genuine social peace.

Following the forced departure of Tunisia’s 23-year dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, who fled to Saudi Arabia, democratic elections for a new Constituent Assembly were held later that year in October. The contested elections were won by the Islamist Al Nahda party (also known as Ennahda, which translates as “The Awakening”) with 41% of the vote for a total of 90 seats in the new 217-member parliament. Its nearest rival was the secularist Congress for the Republic (CPR) party which garnered almost 14% of the vote, securing 30 seats in the assembly. More importantly, the new democratic atmosphere ushered in a proliferation of newspapers where freedom of inquiry and speech are no longer taboo subjects.

Adjacent to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez, the people of Egypt cast their votes in a run-off presidential election on June 24, 2012 catapulting Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi to victory over his secularist rival former General Ahmed Shafik. With a narrow three percentage point advantage over the ex-dictator’s henchman, Morsi ushered in the first democratic elections for the country’s leader, as citizens looked forward to a new democratic social contract after the 30-year dictatorial rule of Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February 2011. The pro-democracy demands of the hundreds of thousands of protesters who daily jammed Tahrir Square in Cairo, the focal point of the rebellion, have unleashed a fury of pent-up emotions from a population sick and tired of autocratic or one-person rule.

And, this past weekend, the National Transition Council in Libya held its first democratic elections following the downfall of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, established by the General People’s Congress (GPC) under the direction of Gaddafi in 1977. The NTC’s July 7th vote will establish a new 200-member General National Congress (GNC) whose task is to draft a new constitution before calling for a new round of general elections. With 80% of its nearly three million voting-age citizens eligible to vote, early poll results are indicating a victory by a coalition called the National Forces Alliance (NFA), led by former Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril el-Warfally, who chaired the executive board of the National Transitional Council from March to October of 2011 during Libya’s civil war. The oppositional Muslim Brotherhood allied Justice and Construction Party, led by Mohamed Sowan, is presenting the biggest challenge to the NFA’s self-declared non-ideological “inclusive” coalition. Final results are expected later this week. …more

Bahrain closes Islamist party, cites “violent” cleric
10 July, 2012 – By Andrew Hammond – Reuters

DUBAI: A Bahrain court has dissolved a Shi’ite Islamist political party which has played a role in the Gulf Arab state’s wave of unrest, on the grounds that it answers to a religious authority who calls for violence.

Bahrain, a U.S. ally ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa family, has been in turmoil since protests, led mainly by majority Shi’ites, broke out in February last year.

The Islamic Action party, Amal, follows a “hostile clerical authority who blatantly calls for violence and instigates hatred”, the Information Affairs Authority said in a statement on Tuesday. The court order came on Monday, it said.

The statement appeared to refer to the Iraq and Britain-based cleric Sayed Hadi al-Modarresi, an Iraqi who lived in Bahrain until he was accusing of plotting a coup in the island state after the 1979 Iranian revolution.

He directed video messages from abroad to Shi’ite protesters in Bahrain during last year’s uprising.

The statement said Amal had also broken regulations by failing to submit a copy of its annual budget to the ministry of justice, by not holding a public convention in four years, and by holding its last convention in a house of worship.

It also said the group had failed to give a “clear and definitive rejection and condemnation of acts of setting fires, sabotage, terrorising citizens, endangering their lives, jeopardising their freedoms and putting them and their property in direct danger”.

Authorities threatened to close Amal and the leading opposition group Wefaq last year during a crackdown on protests that erupted in the wake of uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Intervention by U.S. officials appeared to thwart the plan.

A spokesman for Amal was not available for comment but Wefaq said the court’s action was part of a campaign to intimidate opposition parties.

“It is another indicator of the slow crackdown that’s going on. Bahrain is swimming against the current; I’m sure this policy will fail,” said Matar Matar, a former Wefaq member of parliament.

Amal has often set itself apart from a coalition of opposition parties led by Wefaq. It has complained of being targeted because it rejected out of hand the idea of a national dialogue with the government aimed at ending political crisis.

Clashes between protesters and police continue daily. Authorities have tried to stop organised protests by opposition parties over the past month by refusing to license them and using tear gas on those who turn up.

The government says youth protesters attack police without provocation and hold unlicensed protests in villages.

The opposition coalition want full powers for the elected parliament and a cabinet fully answerable to parliament. The government, dominated by the Al Khalifa family, has increased parliament’s powers of scrutiny over ministers.

…source

Angry Throngs at a Funeral in Saudi Arabia
Reuters – By KAREEM FAHIM – 10 July, 2012

CAIRO — Thousands of people attended a funeral in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for a man killed during protests in a restive region of the country’s Eastern Province, a show of popular anger that came amid fears of a renewed crackdown on dissent.

Activists said the man, Muhammed el-Filfil, had been protesting the shooting and arrest on Sunday by government security forces of a prominent Shiite cleric in the Qatif region. Mr. Filfil was one of at least two people killed when security forces fired live ammunition at the protesters in the village of Awamiya, the activists said. A government official denied that any such clash had occurred.

The oil-rich Eastern Province, the stronghold of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, has long been a focal point of anger at the rigidly conservative Sunni monarchy, and for Shiite complaints about a policy of entrenched, official discrimination.

Over the last year and a half, fearing the spread of the Arab uprisings, the government, using a mix of money and arms, moved forcefully to quell the discontent in places like Qatif. Jafer al-Shayeb, a member of Qatif’s municipal council, said despite offers of development from the government, “There have been no solutions to the major issues that people are complaining about.”

The unrest has persisted, fueled by detentions of dissidents and growing calls for political freedoms and civil rights. At least nine people have been killed since February 2011 in bouts of violence that seem to occur every few months, according to human-rights activists.

The latest clashes came after the arrest of the cleric, Sheik Nimr al-Nimr, who was known as a protest leader and a fierce critic of the royal family. There were conflicting accounts about how he was injured, with the government asserting that he was shot during an exchange of gunfire as he resisted arrest. Mr. Nimr’s brother told Reuters the cleric was detained while driving from a farm to his house.

In a short video said to show Mr. Nimr immediately after his arrest, he is lying in the back seat of a car, with blood on his white robe and a uniformed man holding his head. The government said Mr. Nimr had been charged with “sedition.”

During the large protests in Awamiya after the arrest, Mr. Filfil and another man, Akbar el-Shakhoury, were fatally shot during clashes with security officers, according to Waleed Sulais, a human-rights activist in Qatif. Mr. Sulais said that the government was often quick to resort to live ammunition and said that in addition to the deaths over the last year and a half, at least 35 protesters had been injured by gunfire in the same period.

In a statement to Reuters on Monday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said the number of protesters on Sunday was “limited” and “there was no security confrontation whatsoever.”

Mr. Shayeb, the Qatif council member, said that the unrest had come after months of relative calm in the region.

Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo. …source

Russia proposes UN Syria mission extension
11 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Russia circulated among UN Security Council members on Tuesday a draft resolution to extend a UN mission in Syria for three months so it can shift focus from monitoring a non-existent truce to securing a political solution to the conflict.

The deeply divided council must decide the future of the mission, known as UNSMIS, before July 20 when its initial 90-day mandate expires. International envoy Kofi Annan is due to brief the council on Wednesday on his bid to broker peace in Syria.

The Russian draft resolution is unlikely to satisfy the United States and European council members, who have called for a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.

US officials have said they are talking about sanctions on Syria, not military intervention.

Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Alexander Pankin said a resolution under Chapter 7 would be “counterproductive” in what he described as a “delicate situation.” Russia and China have previously vetoed Western-backed UN resolutions designed to pressure Assad.

“There is no mention of Chapter 7 (in the Russian draft) and that’s a matter of principle for us because we believe the special envoy is doing a commendable job,” Pankin told Reuters. “(The draft) is a continuation of the mission bearing in mind the recommendations of the Secretary-General.”

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has recommended the emphasis of UNSMIS’ work shift from military observers – who suspended most of their monitoring activities on June 16 because of increased risk amid rising violence – to the roughly 100 civilian staff focusing on a political solution and issues like human rights.

The mission would keep its current mandate for up to 300 unarmed observers under this option, but significantly fewer likely would be needed to support the new focus.

The Russian draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, does not specify a number but “stresses the need for UNSMIS to have a military observer capability to conduct effective verification and fact-finding tasks.”

It also “calls upon all Syrian parties to guarantee the safety of UNSMIS personnel without prejudice to its freedom of movement and access, and stresses that the primary responsibility in this regard lies with the Syrian authorities.”

The resolution also strongly urges all parties to cease all violence and stressed “that it is for the Syrian people to find a political solution and that the Syrian parties must be prepared to put forward effective and mutually acceptable interlocutors” to work with Annan toward an agreement.

One Security Council diplomat, who did not want to be named, described the Russian draft as “basically a rollover.”

“At the very least it needs to be combined with some real pressure on the parties,” he said. “The council will need to address the Syria situation in a more comprehensive way.”

Annan met with Assad in Damascus on Monday before traveling to Iran and Iraq for talks on the conflict. Annan said Assad had suggested easing the conflict on a step-by-step basis, starting with districts that have suffered the worst violence. …more

…PHOTO GALLERY OF FUNERAL

Thousands mourn slain Saudi protester
11 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Thousands took to the streets on Tuesday night in Saudi Arabia’s restive Eastern Province for the funeral of a protester shot dead by Saudi police on Sunday.

Mohammad al-Filfil was killed on Sunday evening along with blogger Akbar Shakhouri in the village of Awamiyeh in Qatif during protests against the violent arrest of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Tuesday’s peaceful march descended into Riyadh Street and Al-Quds Street, the two main streets in Qatif, with no reports of clashes with Saudi police.

…more

…SEE PHOTO GALLERY HERE

Sure, we as a nation have always killed people. A lot of people. But no president has ever waged war by killing enemies one by one, targeting them individually for execution, wherever they are. The Obama administration has taken pains to tell us, over and over again, that they are careful, scrupulous of our laws, and determined to avoid the loss of collateral, innocent lives. They’re careful because when it comes to waging war on individuals, the distinction between war and murder becomes a fine one. Especially when, on occasion, the individuals we target are Americans and when, in one instance, the collateral damage was an American boy.

The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama
July 9, 2012 – By Tom Junod – Esquire Magazine

Anwar al-Awlaki was nowhere near his son. He was in the mountains of Jawf province, hundreds of miles away. Over the previous year and a half he had survived two drone attacks that had killed thirty-two of the wrong people. Now he was with Samir Khan, another American citizen who’d betrayed his country and was working as an Al Qaeda propagandist. He was not on a kill list, but it didn’t matter. On September 30, Khan was riding in a convoy taking al-Awlaki and others down a mountain road. They had heard and seen Predator drones scouring their refuges before. They probably didn’t hear the one that killed them … or maybe they did. “They fired seven rockets into those cars,” Nasser al-Awlaki says. “They destroyed the cars and everything of the car and the people in the car. The people there told us they were all cut to pieces. They collected their remains and put them in two graves. At least they were given a proper Muslim funeral.”

The next day, Abdulrahman called his mother from the ancestral village near the Arabian Sea. He had heard about what happened to his father. He was coming home.

You were proud that you were able to kill Anwar al-Awlaki. You were proud because his death marked “another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat Al Qaeda and its affiliates”; because by killing him you almost certainly saved American lives; and because you obeyed the law.

This is the consuming irony of the Lethal Presidency. You have become the Lethal President because you are also the Rule-of-Law President. You have been able to kill our enemies because you have forsworn waterboarding them. You have become the first president to execute without trial an American citizen because you hired David Barron and Martin Lederman — the constitutional lawyers renowned for their blistering attacks on the legal memos that justified the Bush administration’s use of torture — to write the legal memos that justified the execution without trial of an American citizen.

“President Bush would never have been able to scale this up the way President Obama has because he wouldn’t have had the trust of the public and the Congress and the international community,” says the former administration official familiar with the targeting process. “That trust has been enabling.”

There have been thousands killed as the result of direct orders of the Lethal Presidency. How can each death be said to be the end product of rigorous review when there are so many of them? And most importantly, how can the care given to the inclusion of individual terrorists on CIA and DOD kill lists be extended to those who are killed without the administration ever knowing their names — those who are killed in “signature strikes,” based on data, rather than “personality strikes,” based on human intelligence?

The simple answer: It can’t, especially when, in the words of a former senior CIA official, “the increase in signature strikes is what accounts for most of the increased activity.” The Lethal Presidency is using intelligence to put people to death, but when the official familiar with targeting is asked about the quality of the information, there is a long pause before the answer.
…more

Distorted Morality: America’s War on Terror?
Noam Chomsky – Delivered at Harvard University – February 2002

[excerpted]

…the hypocrite is the person who applies to others standards that he refuses to apply to himself. So if you are not a hypocrite you assume that if something is right for us then it’s right for them and if it is wrong when they do it, it is wrong when we do it. That is really elementary and I assume that the President would agree and all of his admirers as well. So those are the principles that I would like to start with.

…unless we can rise to that minimal level of moral integrity we should at least stop talking about things like human rights, right and wrong, and good and evil, and all such high afflatus things because all our talk should be dismissed, in fact, dismissed with complete repugnance unless we can at least rise to that minimal level. I think that’s obvious and I hope there would be agreement on that, too.

…let me formulate a thesis. The thesis is that we are all total hypocrites on any issue relating to terrorism. Now, let me clarify the notion “we.” By “we,” I mean people like us — people who have enough high degree of privilege, of training, resources, access to information — for whom it is pretty easy to find out the truth about things if we want to. If we decide that that is our vocation, and in the case in question, you don’t really have to dig very deep, it’s all right on the surface. So when I say “we,” I mean that category. And I definitely mean to include myself in “we” because I have never proposed that our leaders be subjected to the kinds of punishment that I have recommended for enemies. So that is hypocrisy.

…what is terrorism? Got to say something about that. That is supposed to be a really tough question. Academic seminars and graduate philosophy programs and so on — a very vexing and complex question. However, in accordance with the guidelines that I mentioned, I think there is a simple answer, namely, we just take the official U.S. definition of terrorism. Since we are accepting the pronouncements of our leaders literally, let’s take their definition. In fact, that is what I have always done. I have been writing about terrorism for the last twenty years or so, just accepting the official definition. So, for example, a simple and important case is in the U.S. army manual in 1984 which defines terrorism as the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious or ideological in nature.

…what they called state-supported international terrorism a “plague spread by depraved opponents of civilization itself” in a “return to barbarism in the modern age” — I’m quoting [Secretary of State] George Shultz who was the administration moderate. The other guideline is that we will keep to the moderates, not the extremists.

…full text

A recent comment made by Syria’s Information Minister, Adnan Omran, frames these problems in a provocative, yet also precise and urgent, way: “The Americans say either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. That is something God should say.” The original title given to the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan ? “Operation Infinite Justice” ? seems to confirm Omran’s concern.

Defining Terrorism
29 November, 2001 – by Phillip Cryan – CounterPunch

“Terrorism” may be the most important, powerful word in the world right now. In the name of doing away with terrorism, the United States is bombing Afghanistan and talking about possible attacks elsewhere. Political leaders from many countries are at once declaring support for the new U.S. war and seeking to re-name their own enemies as “terrorists.”

According to polls, many people in the U.S. believe that war on the al’Qaeda network is justified in retaliation for the September 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. The defined enemy of the U.S. military campaign has not, however, been just the people responsible for the September 11 attacks, but “terrorism” in general. The U.S. has declared a “War on Terrorism”–a war which also includes as enemies, as President Bush has made clear since his first public address on the afternoon of the 11, “all those who harbor terrorists.” What exactly do these words, “terrorism” and “harboring,” mean? What definitions are we using?

Legal definition: seeking international consensus

The difficulty of answering this question was stated concisely in a recent New York Times article: “immediately beyond al’Qaeda, the high moral condemnations of global terrorism rapidly become relative, and the definition blurred.” The international community has been actively seeking consensus on the definition of “terrorism” for many years, to no avail.

Twelve separate international conventions have been signed, each covering a specific type of criminal activity ? seizure of airplanes, political assassination, the use of explosives, hostage-taking, etc. Broad ratification of these treaties has been difficult to achieve; and the more fundamental issue of creating a comprehensive, binding international convention against terrorism has been set aside, after repeated efforts, as practically unresolvable. As the UN puts it, “the question of a definition of terrorism has haunted the debate among States for decades.”

One of the points of heated contention in this debate has been whether the term “terrorism” should apply to the actions of States in the same way that it applies to the actions of non-State groups. It’s easy to see why this question would be so contentious: whatever one’s overall view of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, for example, it’s pretty easy to admit that unjustifiable acts of terror and murder have been committed by both sides. Should the two sides be held equally accountable, even though one is an already-recognized State and one is a national liberation movement? These kinds of questions have been repeatedly raised ? as will be described below ? not only in regard to the Middle East but in regard to State-sponsored acts of terrorism throughout the world. …more

No Wonder So Many Drone Strikes Gang Aft Aglay
By Russ Wellen – 11 July, 2012 – FPIP

In a July 6 piece for the New York Times on the training of drone operators titled The Drone Zone, Mark Mazzetti wrote: The increased use of drones in warfare has led the Air Force to re-engineer its training program for drone pilots.

Aside from the inevitable landing accents that result when you rush a pilot — virtual or not — into action, other problems have arisen.

Then there is the fact that the movement shown on a drone pilot’s video screen has over the years been seconds behind what the drone sees — a delay caused by the time it takes to bounce a signal off a satellite in space. This problem, called “latency,” has long bedeviled drone pilots, making it difficult to hit a moving target. Last year senior operatives with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula told a Yemeni reporter that if they hear an American drone overhead, they move around as much as possible. (Military officials said that they have made progress in recent years in addressing the latency problem but declined to provide details.)

Jeez, as if drone strikes weren’t already enough of a guessing game what with signature strikes* and all.

*”Signature strikes target groups of men believed to be militants associated with terrorist groups, but whose identities aren’t always known. The bulk of CIA’s drone strikes are signature strikes.” …more

President Obama the agency extraordinary authority in Pakistan. Now it wants these powers in Yemen too.

Expanding CIA Drone Strikes Will Likely Mean More Dead Innocents
By Conor Friedersdorf – 19 April 2012 – Reuters

An eye-opening report published last November in the Wall Street Journal revealed that the Obama Administration was permitting the CIA to kill people in Pakistan without even knowing who they were: “Signature strikes target groups of men believed to be militants associated with terrorist groups, but whose identities aren’t always known. The bulk of CIA’s drone strikes are signature strikes.” As I noted at the time, this is the same CIA that is known to have jailed innocent people, subjecting them to harsh interrogation tactics and years of wrongful imprisonment. Despite those errors, and the CIA’s lack of transparency and accountability, the Obama Administration loosed it in Pakistan, where we’ve killed lots of innocent people. And while it’s been operating in Yemen for some time, the CIA now wants official permission to kill people whose identities it can’t confirm in that country either.

Is President Obama going to agree? “If approved, the change would probably accelerate a campaign of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen that is already on a record pace, with at least eight attacks in the past four months,” The Washington Post reports. “For President Obama, an endorsement of signature strikes would mean a significant, and potentially risky, policy shift. The administration has placed tight limits on drone operations in Yemen to avoid being drawn into an often murky regional conflict and risk turning militants with local agendas into al-Qaeda recruits.”

It’s worth pausing at that line about the “tight limits” on current drone operations in Yemen. Here’s how Jeremy Scahill, who reported on the ground there, described the reality of American policy:

For years, the elite Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA had teams deployed inside Yemen that supported Yemeni forces and conducted unilateral operations, consisting mostly of cruise missile and drone attacks. Some of the unilateral strikes have killed their intended targets, such as the CIA attack on Awlaki. But others have killed civilians–at times, a lot of civilians. And many of these have been in Abyan and its neighboring province of Shebwa, both of which have recently seen a substantial rise of AQAP activity. President Obama’s first known authorization of a missile strike on Yemen, on December 17, 2009, killed more than forty Bedouins, many of them women and children, in the remote village of al Majala in Abyan. Another US strike, in May 2010, killed an important tribal leader and the deputy governor of Marib province, Jabir Shabwani, sparking mass anger at the United States…

The October drone strike that killed Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, a US citizen, and his teenage cousin shocked and enraged Yemenis of all political stripes. “I firmly believe that the [military] operations implemented by the US performed a great service for Al Qaeda, because those operations gave Al Qaeda unprecedented local sympathy,” says Jamal, the Yemeni journalist. The strikes “have recruited thousands.” Yemeni tribesmen, he says, share one common goal with Al Qaeda, “which is revenge against the Americans, because those who were killed are the sons of the tribesmen, and the tribesmen never, ever give up on revenge.” Even senior officials of the Saleh regime recognize the damage the strikes have caused.

Put another way, the status quo, with its relatively greater protections, resulted in dozens of dead innocents and, according to some experts, created the conditions for blowback. And since Scahill did his reporting, the pace of drone strikes has increased, “with about as many strikes so far this year as in all of 2011,” the Post reports. “Which U.S. entity is responsible for each strike remains unclear.” Also secret are the identities of the people targeted and the people killed, a confluence of opacity that make abuses likely and more dead innocents all but certain.

China backs Annan’s call for Iran role in Syria talks
11 July, 2012 – By Douglas Hamilton – Reuters

BEIRUT: China threw its weight behind U.N. envoy Kofi Annan on Wednesday, backing his call to include Iran in internationally-brokered talks to resolve Syria’s crisis, in the face of strong Western opposition.

“China believes that the appropriate resolution of the Syria issue cannot be separated from the countries in the region, especially the support and participation of those countries that are influential on relevant sides in Syria,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in Beijing.

U.N. Security Council veto-holders China and Russia have for the past year blocked efforts by Washington and its European and Gulf Arab allies to turn the screws on Syrian President Bashar Assad, fighting to defend his mostly Alawite ruling establishment against an uprising dominated by Sunni Muslims.

Assad’s opponents say just under 13,000 armed and unarmed opponents of Assad, and around 4,300 members of security forces loyal to Damascus, have been killed since he launched a crackdown 16 months ago, using tanks and helicopter gunships to attack rebel strongholds inside Syria’s biggest cities.

Activists on Wednesday reported a new bombardment of rebel areas of Homs, a hotbed of opposition to Assad, as well as fighting in many other parts of the country.

Annan was due to brief the Security Council at 1530 GMT on Wednesday on the results of a lightning diplomatic shuttle this week to Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad – three capitals forming a Shi’ite Muslim axis of power in the Middle East.

Annan plunged into a tussle between the major powers on Tuesday, insisting that Iran, which strongly backs Assad and is regarded as an adversary of the West and Gulf Arabs, had a role to play in the drive to relaunch stalled peace efforts and begin talks towards a political transition.

In Baghdad, Annan also won backing from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who like Assad has close ties to Tehran.

Washington’s reaction was not encouraging for the envoy.

“I don’t think anybody with a straight face could argue that Iran has had a positive impact on developments in Syria,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

…more

Russia refuses to budge on Assad, Syria clashes kill 9
11 July, 2012 – Agence France Presse

DAMASCUS: Syria’s main opposition group on Wednesday failed to convince Russia to drop its support for long-time ally President Bashar Assad, as fresh clashes in Damascus challenged his beleaguered regime.

Russia refuses to shift its controversial position on the crisis in Syria, the exiled opposition Syria National Council (SNC) said after talks in Moscow with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“We have not seen a development in the Russian position. I was here one year ago and the position has not changed,” Burhan Ghalioun, SNC executive committee member and its former chief, told reporters after the meeting.

Abdel Basset Sayda, the SNC’s new head, earlier compared the conflict in his country to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

“The events in Syria are not disagreements between the opposition and the government but a revolution,” Sayda told Lavrov, whose country has seen itself cast as the last protector of its Arab ally, Syria.

Underlining the gulf between the SNC and Moscow, Lavrov said Russia wanted to understand in the talks if there were “prospects” of the opposition groups uniting and joining a platform for dialogue with the Syrian government.

On Tuesday, Moscow proposed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria that would extend the U.N. observer mission in the country without any threat of sanctions, diplomats in New York said.

The resolution was sent to the council’s other 14 members ahead of a briefing on Wednesday by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on efforts to revive his peace plan, Russia’s deputy U.N. envoy Igor Pankin told reporters.

Russia is Assad’s main ally apart from Iran and has fiercely resisted international action against the Damascus government as proposed by Washington and European powers.

Moscow has repeatedly said Assad’s fate is up to the Syrian people and defied calls by the West and the SNC to urge him to step down.

On Tuesday, Annan warned that the conflict could spread across the region as he held talks in Iran and Iraq aimed at shoring up support for his tattered peace plan, starting with an April ceasefire that has failed to materialize.

But in an implicit rebuff, the United States renewed its opposition to any role for Tehran in resolving the conflict.

“I don’t think anybody with a straight face could argue that Iran has had a positive impact on developments in Syria,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

…more

Obama stand on Syria marked by Islamophobia: Larijani
7 July, 2012 – Daily Messenger

The people of Bahrain are under extreme hardship; they are not demanding anything extraordinary but merely want the right to a ballot in which there is no difference between Shia and Sunni vote, but the parliament of this state (Bahrain) only conforms to the American version of justice.”

Speaker of Iran’s Majlis (parliament) Ali Larijani has described the US intervention in the Syrian affairs as a clear instance of US President Barack Obama’s Islamophobic policies.

Comparing Obama’s outright support for anti-Syria armed gangs in the name of democracy while backing the dictatorial regime in Bahrain, Larijani insisted that “such dual standards cannot be justified by any reason,” IRIB reported Friday.

“The people of Bahrain are under extreme hardship; they are not demanding anything extraordinary but merely want the right to a ballot in which there is no difference between Shia and Sunni vote, but the parliament of this state (Bahrain) now only conforms to the American version of justice,” he said.

The top Iranian lawmaker, speaking Friday night in the holy city of Qom, also blasted Obama’s contradictory statements and policies regarding Islam before and after his 2008 election as the American president.

Obama has been the only US president throughout the American history that has implemented the most number of threats and sanctions against the Islamic Iran, while continually talking of peace and dialogue with nations and claiming to defend human rights, he said.

Larijani further censured “unreasonable American positions” with respect to Iran’s nuclear energy issue, adding that “the US accuses Iran of violating (the International Atomic Energy) Agency regulations” while its representatives at the P5+1 nuclear negotiations “first travel to Israel and finalize the outcome of the talks there before the [actual] summit gets underway.” …source

Bahrain: Terrorising citizens into submission
by Bahrain Freedom Movement – Global Research – 7 July, 2012

Tension is rising as the regime decides to throttle the people to death, denying them the rights of speech, assembly and association. Despite getting along with the regime’s political agenda for several years, the political societies were snubbed this week when they announced that they were holding a peaceful demonstration scheduled for this afternoon. The ruling family rejected the request and threatened to kill demonstrators. Two weeks ago Alkhalifa Death Squads fired at demonstrators causing injuries and panic. Their policy is to terrorise the people so that they submit to their will. The situation has become so polarised that Bahrain has entered the final phase of the struggle for change. The situation is likely to escalate from now onward.

The sentencing by the Alkhalifa court yesterday of a child to one year imprisonment has shocked the human conscience and exposed the real nature of this oppressive regime. Ali Hassan is only 11 years of age, yet the regime decided to lock him up for one more year for taking part in a peaceful demonstration. He had already been detained for 25 days before international condemnation forced his release. The latest decision is a clear violation of the most basic of human decency, dignity and human rights.

This tragic development came on the day when another child was summarily hanged by members of the Death Squads, operated by the royal court. He was found dead by his family, hanged in his room shortly after Death Squads had been reported to have attacked houses and ransacked some of them. It has now been confirmed that the dictator, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, has a fully-fledged team of special forces whose aim is to target key figures in the opposition. Among their victims is Salah who was kidnapped, tortured and skinned on the day Formula 1 started the race in Bahrain on 21 April 2012. They are also responsible for kidnapping, torturing to death Yousuf Mawali earlier this year. His body was then dumped on seaside while the regime claimed that he had drowned. Post-mortem carried out by a special Turkish doctor confirmed that he had received electric torture before his death.

At the World Conference on Human Rights, the American delegation on 3 July delivered a statement outlining US policy in the world. The statement said that the Bahrainis Government “needs to hold accountable officials responsible for human rights violations, including deaths in custody resulting from torture, to drop charges against all persons accused of crimes based on their political expression, and to ensure fair and expeditious trials in appeals cases, such as those of the medical professionals. The Government of Bahrain also needs to prevent the use of excessive force by the police and to diversify police forces to reflect the communities in which they serve. We also urge the Government to respect its citizens’ rights to free expression, free association and free assembly, and to facilitate access to Bahrain for journalists and civil society organizations.”

Another victim of state terrorism is Abdulla Zain, a young Bahraini citizen who was kidnapped earlier this week. He was taken to a horse stable at Budayya Road, severely tortured and then dumped at a remote area. Meanwhile Ali Mawali who was shot two weeks ago at a peaceful demonstration is still fighting for his life as doctors struggle to get him out of coma. He was targeted as he tried to defend a senior political figure at a demonstration on Friday 22 June.

Collective punishment has continued unabated. Death squads are roaming the streets, attacking Bahrainis, targeting their homes, ransacking their contents and arresting citizens. The towns of Jid Ali, Duraz, Sitra, Samaheej and other places were savaged by regime’s brutality. Many citizens were arrested from their homes in the past few days.

…source