Posts from — August 2012

US responsible for hostages in Syria: Iran
7 August, 2012 – AL Ahkbar

Iran said Tuesday that it was holding the United States responsible for the lives of 48 of its citizens taken hostage in Syria, following an unconfirmed report by a Syrian rebel group that three of them had been killed by shelling.

The foreign ministry, which transmitted its message through the Swiss embassy in Tehran that handles US interests in the absence of Iran-US diplomatic ties, insisted the 48 were pilgrims, not Revolutionary Guards as the rebels claimed.

“Because of the United States’ manifest support of terrorist groups and the dispatch of weapons to Syria, the United States is responsible for the lives of the 48 Iranian pilgrims abducted in Damascus,” Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian quoted the letter as saying.

He told the official IRNA news agency that “we expect the countries that are in a way responsible for the events in Syria to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and lives of the Iranian pilgrims and their return to Iran.”

He stressed that Iran had appealed for help from both Turkey and Qatar, two governments suspected of arming and financing Syrian rebels, including Islamist insurgents.

Iran’s message was issued after a Syrian rebel group, Al-Baraa Brigade of the Free Syrian Army, claimed on its Facebook page that “three of the Iranian prisoners were killed in fierce shelling” by the army in Damascus on Monday.

The page said the group’s leader, Abdel Nasser Shmeir, was threatening to “execute the prisoners who are proven members of the Revolutionary Guard if the shelling continues.”

Iran’s foreign ministry issued a statement in Arabic, cited by Iranian broadcaster Al-Alam, saying it “rejects as invalid the assertions by the so-called Free Syrian Army that the three Iranian pilgrims were killed during a bombardment by the Syrian military.”

The Iranians were taken hostage on Saturday as they traveled in a bus in Damascus.

The rebel group posted a video online on Sunday alleging that the Iranians were elite Revolutionary Guards on a “reconnaissance mission.”

But Tehran insists they are some of the hundreds of thousands of Iranian Shia pilgrims who visit the revered Sayyida Zeinab shrine in the southeastern suburbs of Damascus each year.

Tehran is the staunchest ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces are locked in nearly 17 months of conflict with Gulf-backed rebels.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, said on Tuesday that “the United States and certain countries of the region are responsible for the deaths of the Iranian pilgrims, and they will receive an appropriate response at the right time.” …more

Rights activist Nabeel Rajab victimised by justice authorities
07 August, 2012 – UNHCR

On 5th August, a Bahrain court will hear an appeal by the activist Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, against the conviction and three-month jail sentence imposed on him last month for posting messages on Twitter that were alleged to be libellous.

At the same hearing, the court will consider another case against him for participating in illegal demonstrations, originally due to be heard on 26 September.

Pending the appeal verdict in a few days’ time, Reporters Without Borders deplores the authorities’ harassment of Rajab and expresses concern about the position of human rights campaigners in Bahrain.

“We urge the Bahraini justice authorities to drop the charges against Nabeel Rajab and call for his immediate release,” the press freedom organization said. It condemned the crackdown on dissident voices and called on the international community to step up the pressure on the kingdom.

Rajab was found guilty of libelling the citizens of the town of Muharraq. In his tweets he accused the prime minister – who was visiting the town — of corruption and called on him to resign, saying the people had welcomed him only because they had been offered subsidies.

Soros-funded HRW Awards Soros-funded Prachatai Grant for “Bravery”

Globalization Floats on a Sea of Lies & Ignorance
by Tony Cartalucci – 17 September, 2011 – Land Destroyer

As reported by Thailand’s the “Nation” daily English newspaper, “Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the embattled director of prachaitai.com, has become the first Thai to win the Hellman/Hammett Grant from Human Rights Watch for her commitment to free expression and her courage in the face of prosecution.” The author of the article, “Chiranuch wins award for her bravery,” is Pravit Rojanaphruk, who has recently admitted that he himself is in fact a contributor to Chiranuch’s Prachatai website in another article titled, “Transparency essential for democracy campaigner,” where Pravit attempted to defend and spin Prachatai’s extensive funding by the US government via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, and its dubious claims of still somehow being “independent.”

What Pravit predictably fails to mention in his more recent article is the fact that Human Rights Watch and Prachatai are both funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, completely undermining the legitimacy of either organization, let alone the “significance” of the self-aggrandizing endowment of “awards” on one another for “bravery” in the face of “persecution.” Prachatai is an openly seditious organization funded by a foreign government and foreign corporate-financier interests to specifically undermine Thailand’s national sovereignty, promote international institutions over local Thai institutions, and to faithfully re-post pro-globalist talking points out of Soros’ organizations, including Amnesty International (page 10) and Human Rights Watch, as well as US State Department talking points promoted by the National Endowment for Democracy and the network of organizations it funds, including Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Prachatai itself (listed by NED as the Foundation for Community Educational Media). …source

Hijacking Human Rights
By Michael Barker – 3 August, 2007 – zcommunications

[excerpt] – full article HERE

Abusing the Principles of Human Rights

In an instructive article dealing with human rights abuses in China, Ralph McGehee (1999) draws attention to the links between HRW’s Asia branch and the imperial ambitions of the NED and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He notes that: “US corporate-owned media, in league with government agencies, orchestrate media coverage to demonize states in conflict with corporate plans”. He observed that in China’s case many of those stories “seem to be generated by the ‘privately funded’ US-based Human Rights Watch/Asia” and that this:

“…reveal[s] the current US policy of using (rightly or wrongly) the theme of human rights violations to alter or overthrow non-US-favored governments. In those countries emerging from the once Soviet Bloc that is forming new governmental systems; or where emerging or Third World governments resist US influence or control, the US uses ‘human rights violations,’ as an excuse for political action operations. ‘Human Rights’ replaces ‘Communist Conspiracy’ as the justification for overthrowing governments.”[3]

In a similar vein, Sara Flounders (2002) illustrates how HRW provided the global media with information that enabled them to claim that in the West Bank “no massacre had taken place in Jenin” when in fact much other evidence suggested that a massacre had taken place.[4] She notes how HRW claims that “its reports are objective, balanced and evenhanded”, however:

“When it comes to Palestine this has meant equating the violence of the illegal Israeli occupation with the resistance of Palestinians to overwhelming military force. Once Human Rights Watch declared that ‘no massacre’ had occurred in Jenin, the demand for an inquiry and international action against Israeli crimes virtually disappeared. Media coverage shifted sharply. The Bush administration made a new round of demands on the Palestinians to condemn violence while calling Ariel Sharon ‘a man of peace’ and expressing sympathy for Israeli ‘self-defense’ measures. HRW statements echoed these shifts.”

More recently, HRW’s work in Palestine has come under fire from Jonathan Cook (2006) for seemingly “distorting its findings to placate the Israel lobby”.[5] This provoked HRW’s Middle East policy director, Sarah Leah Whitson, to respond to Cook’s critique whereupon she misrepresented his argument, which in turn invited a reply from Cook who observed that:

“If this is how one of the directors of HRW distorts my arguments and evidence when I carefully set out my case in black and white on the page, one has to wonder how faithfully she and her organisation sift the evidence in the far trickier cases relating to human rights, where things are rarely so black and white.”[6]

Crucially Cook clarifies his observations in his initial article by noting that he was “not challenging HRW’s research, which appears to show unequivocally that Israel did commit major war crimes; I am contesting its distorted presentation of the facts it unearthed to suit what looks suspiciously like a political agenda.”

Just over a month later in November 2006, Cook again highlighted HRW’s hypocrisy and doublespeak in Palestine, drawing attention to their press release Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks; which he observed was a travesty for it “denounce[ed] the Palestinians for choosing collectively and peacefully to resist house demolitions, while not concentrating on the violations committed by Israel in destroying the houses and using military forms of intimidation and punishment against civilians”.[7] Others like Norman Finkelstein (2006) also called upon HRW to retract this press release, which was subsequently withdrawn by HRW just over 2 weeks later.[8]

In a similar vein to HRW’s controversial actions in Palestine, Heather Cottin (2002) questioned the way HRW “equates the actions of the Colombian guerrilla fighters struggling to free themselves from the oppression of state terror, poverty and exploitation with the repression of the U.S-sponsored armed forces and paramilitary death squads”.[9] Taken together these recent examples clearly illustrate that there is more to HRW than first meets the eye. However, it is their promotion of foreign interventions in the name of ‘human rights’ that is potentially their most dangerous activity – as revealed by Edward S. Herman, David Peterson and George Szamuely (2007) in a devastating critique, titled Human Rights Watch in Service to the War Party, which examines HRW’s role in supporting the dismantlement of Yugoslavia. They conclude that:

“Sadly, HRW has… been an important contributor to human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia. HRW helped stir up passions in the demonization process from 1992 onward and actively and proudly contributed to preparing the ground for NATO’s ‘supreme international crime’ in March 1999.”[10]

The first full-length investigation of the people working behind the scenes at HRW was undertaken by Paul Treanor (2004), in which he methodically worked through the elite linkages of their Europe and Central Asia Advisory Committee. Treanor noted that:

“…human-rights interventionism became a consensus among the ‘foreign policy elite’ even before September 11. Human Rights Watch itself is part of that elite, which includes government departments, foundations, NGO’s and academics. It is certainly not an association of ‘concerned private citizens’. HRW board members include present and past government employees, and overlapping directorates link it to the major foreign policy lobbies in the US.”[11]

Indeed, HRW was created in 1978 as the Helsinki Watch (which later became HRW’s Europe and Central Asia Advisory Committee) “at the instigation of [ambassador-at-large for President Carter] Arthur Goldberg” with the start-up costs covered by a $400,000 from the Ford Foundation.[12] Furthermore, as Bruce Montgomery (2002) observes their establishment credentials were fortified by Robert L. Bernstein (the founder of HRW) who “began by recruiting the establishment elite to give the cause clout and visibility.”[13] Kirsten Sellars (2002) also points out that:

“The Ford Foundation played a crucial part in the development of the human rights movement in the seventies and eighties. A graph based on The Foundation Grants Index shows that Ford provided the lion’s share of US foundation grants for international human rights work in the years 1977 to 1991, especially in the first five years. (Kathryn Sikkink, ‘Human Rights, Principled Issue-Networks, and Sovereignty in Latin America’, International Organization, 47(3), Summer 1993, 421.) In particular, Ford was responsible for financially kick-starting many new human rights NGOs in the late seventies, including Helsinki Watch and the other Watch committees, the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, and the International Human Rights Law Group [now known as Global Rights. It also revived older groups such as the International League for Human Rights.”[14]

For activists and researchers familiar with the Ford Foundation’s elitist and anti-democratic history, this in itself should start alarm bells ringing as to the political motivations guiding the financial support which helped bring about HRW’s existence.[15] This is because the Ford Foundation’s backing of HRW is consistent with ‘democratic’ changes occurring within the US foreign policy elites thinking in the 1970s, which was beginning to recognise the importance of soft-power in promoting American hegemony. These changes were no doubt informed by the political experiences gained by the political elites running liberal philanthropic foundations (like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations’), which in 1984 eventually led to the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the United States Institute for Peace (USIP). Ironically, these groups carry out the same disruptive work that the CIA and USAID are well known for, yet under the protective rhetoric of democracy and peace.[16] However, the type of democracy promoted by these organisations is best referred to as low-intensity democracy, or polyarchy. …more

One is left to wonder if this a case of the “pot calling the kettle black”? While the dubious trail of funding and assistance to NGOs should always be brought under scrutiny, it is curious the HRW, a benefactor of NED, would post an article about USAID and its “potential complicity” in Human Rights Atrocities, even as it plays a somewhat enabling role for the Western Mercenary Forces that would have their way in Syria. USAID also funds NED. – Phlipn.

The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote democracy. It is funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress, within the budget of USAID, the U.S. agency for development assistance, which is part of the U.S. State Department. Although administered as a private organization, its funding mostly comes from a governmental appropriation by Congress but was created by The Democracy Program as a bipartisan, private, non-profit corporation. In addition to its grants program, NED also supports and houses the Journal of Democracy, the World Movement for Democracy, the International Forum for Democratic Studies, the Reagan-Fascell Fellowship Program, the Network of Democracy Research Institutes, and the Center for International Media Assistance.

Deadly Aid – How U.S. foreign assistance is helping human rights violators — and how to stop it
by Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno and Naomi Roht-Arriaza – Foreign Policy – August 6, 2012

It’s time for USAID to take bold steps, and make sure its aid programs are used to prevent atrocities, not to promote them.
Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno and Naomi Roht-Arriaza

When Colombian paramilitary leader Carlos Mario Jimenez, known as “Macaco,” tried to reduce his expected prison time in 2008 by turning over his ill-gotten gains to prosecutors, he included on his property list the assets of a major palm oil cooperative. The revelation came as little surprise: The drug-running militias had famously displaced thousands of small farmers across the country through years of massacres, killings, torture and threats, and there had long been rumors that their proxies were developing palm oil projects on the stolen land. Now it was clear that the suspicions were correct.

What came as a shock, though, was that the specific palm oil projects Macaco was delivering had received funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of an “alternative livelihoods” strategy meant to wean farmers off growing coca leaf. The U.S. agency, however, had neglected to look beyond the formal list of members of the cooperative to see the violence and human rights violations associated with the projects. USAID had halted similar projects with another company around the same time after U.S.-based groups raised concerns over its alleged paramilitary ties, and claimed to have instituted better procedures to screen land projects. But its failure to adequately implement them in the Macaco case reinforced concerns that the United States seemed willing to turn a blind eye to rights abuses.

This damaging episode is not merely an isolated example, but the result of U.S. aid agencies’ weak human rights safeguards. President Barack Obama, who laid out “a new comprehensive strategy to prevent and respond to mass atrocities” in a speech at the Holocaust Museum in April, is well aware of the need for the United States to respond to the worst crimes on the planet. But the White House risks missing the bigger picture if it does not address human rights abuses and repression more broadly.

For decades, the human rights community has raised concerns about military support directed at abusive security forces, but it has paid relatively little attention to softer forms of assistance. This aid, however — which is provided largely through USAID and the State Department, adding up to approximately $47 billion in 2011 — can also play a significant role in either abetting or addressing human rights violations.

Fortunately, USAID is starting to recognize the importance of integrating human rights more thoroughly into its work, and has begun to revamp its procedures to achieve this goal. It has strengthened human rights programming and begun to integrate concerns about rights into areas like health and gender rights. But success will require the agency to address a number of areas where its work has failed to meet basic human rights standards, or even worse, supported repression.

Aiding Repression and Abuse

Providing U.S. assistance to countries where booming economic growth is coupled with severe repression — for instance, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda — presents a particularly difficult challenge. In Ethiopia, human rights groups have reported in great detail how the leadership in Addis Ababa has become increasingly authoritarian over the past few years. Since 2003, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented crimes against humanity and war crimes by Ethiopia’s security forces in response to armed insurgencies, both within its own territory and in neighboring Somalia. And following the introduction of two repressive pieces of legislation in 2009, the vast majority of Ethiopia’s independent voices — including journalists, human rights activists, and opposition party supporters — have either fled the country or been jailed on trumped-up charges.

In 2010, the ruling party won 99.6 percent of parliamentary seats after a national campaign of threats and coercion. During the campaign, HRW found that the government was using development and food aid, partially funded by the United States, as a tool for repression — conditioning access to essential government programs, funded through foreign assistance, on support for the ruling party.

Yet even as repression has worsened, development aid has increasingly flowed to Ethiopia. USAID spent almost $740 million on aid to Ethiopia in 2010, the latest year for which solid numbers are publicly available, compared with $588 million in 2005.

Syrian army arrests Turkish, Saudi officers in Aleppo
shiapost – 6 August, 2012

The Syrian army has arrested a group of Turkish and Saudi officers in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo, the state TV says.

The officers were arrested on Monday amid ongoing clashes between government troops and foreign-sponsored insurgents in the city.

The UK newspaper Guardian reported on June 22 that the Saudi regime would pay the salary of the members of the terrorist Free Syrian Army to encourage “mass defections from the military and… pressure” the Damascus government.

On June 21, the New York Times reported that a group of CIA officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey and that the agents are helping the anti-Syria governments decide which gangs inside the Arab country will receive arms to fight the Syrian government.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the Turkish Cumhuriyet daily in an interview in early July that Turkey “has supplied all logistic support to the terrorists who have killed our people.”

Meanwhile, the Syrian media said on Monday an explosion rocked the third floor of the Syrian television headquarters in the capital, Damascus, causing several casualties.

On July 18, a bomb attack on the headquarters of the National Security Bureau in Damascus killed Syrian Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. National Security Bureau chief Hisham Bakhtiar also died of wounds sustained in the attack two days later.

The official Syrian news agency, SANA, said on June 27 that three staff members of the Al-Ikhbariya satellite television channel in Syria and four guards were killed in a “terrorist attack” on the headquarters of the television in Damascus. …more

Far from shying away in the face of the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood in North Africa, Iran has continued to reach out, in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, in the name of Islam. Knowing that relations between the Brothers and Saudi Arabia have not always been on an even keel, Tehran has multiplied its initiatives to prevent the new governments of North Africa from joining Saudi Arabia’s Fitna game of fueling conflict between Sunnis and Shiites. Egypt is the centerpiece of this diplomacy. Ambassador Bhadrakumar analyzes the momentous repercussions of the current fence-mending efforts between Egypt and Iran.

Tehran reaches out to Egypt’s Morsi
by Melkulangara K. Bhadrakumar – Voltaire Network – 6 August, 2012

The strategic navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran passing through the Suez Canal for the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, 19 February 2012.

This is a development that holds the potential to shake up Middle Eastern politics — Iranian vice-president visiting Cairo. The two countries pulled down the shutters following the Iranian revolution in 1979 and a dark period continued right till the end of the Hosni Mubarak era. The revolution on Tahrir Square one year ago heralded a thaw, the first sign of which was the permission granted to an Iranian warship to cross the Suez Canal to visit Syria.

Low-key contacts followed, including a meeting between the two foreign ministers on the sidelines of the NAM meeting in Bali, Indonesia in May last year. Iran pressed hard for the resumption of diplomatic ties. Egypt sought more time. Tehran didn’t press, either, comprehending the complexities of the Egyptian situation.

Meanwhile, the military junta permitted a second Iranian warship to cross the Suez Canal, disregarding the stern rebuke by the United States and Israel (and the annoyance of Saudi Arabia). On its part, evidently with the acquiescence of Cairo, Tehran began inviting a series of Egyptian goodwill delegations from the civil society in a sustained effort to reach out to the various sections — especially the Islamist forces — of Egyptian society. …source

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Saudi protesters hold anti-regime demo in Tarout Island
6 August, 2012 – PRessTV

Protesters have held a demonstration against the repressive regime of Al Saud in Tarout Island of Saudi Arabia.

The demonstrators on Sunday condemned the recent killing of a teenager by the Saudi police.

On August 3, Saudi security forces killed 18-year-old Hussain Yousef al-Qallaf in the Qatif region of oil-rich Eastern Province.

The protesters in Tarout also expressed solidarity with prominent detained Shia cleric Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr, who was attacked, injured and arrested by the security forces of the Al Saud regime while driving from a farm to his house in Qatif on July 8.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in the Qatif region and the town of Awamiyah in Eastern Province, primarily calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination.

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 Eastern Province.

Syed Ali Wasif, the president of the Society for International Reforms and Research in Washington, told Press TV in a recent interview that the Saudi regime is “betraying the common Muslims in the name of Mecca and Medina, and their sacredness.”

According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi regime “routinely represses expression critical of the government.” …more

Bahrain prosecution complicit in torture: rights group
6 August, 2012 – Al Akhbar

A leading Bahraini human rights group rejected on Monday an announcement by the country’s chief prosecutor that 15 police officers would be charged with torturing doctors.

Nawaf Hamza, chief investigator in the public prosecutor’s office, said in a statement he was officially making known that members of the forces of law and order would face torture charges for their role in a crackdown on pro-democracy protests last year.

He said the charges were being brought following an inquiry launched on the basis of a complaint by doctors at Salmaniya hospital, the main medical facility in the capital Manama.

“This procedure confirms the intention of the Bahrain government to bring to account all those found guilty of human rights violations and to recompense the victims,” Hamza said.

The complainants, also numbering 15, had said they were badly treated during their detention. Some of them underwent medical examination during the inquiry.

But Said Yousif, deputy head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, accused the public prosecution of being complicit in the suppression of the protests.

“The public prosecution are part of the torture, we have testimony of detainees who have been tortured inside their building,” he said.

“We also have testimonies of people who have told the public prosecution they have been tortured and they have been ignored. We don’t believe it is an independent institution, it is part of the problem.”

Yousif added that a number of ministers had been accused of being complicit in the torture but had not been investigated.

“Senior members of the ruling elite were involved in torture but they are only charging the low-level officers,” he said.

Bahrain came under strong criticism from international human rights organizations over its crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising which began in February 2011.

Saudi Arabia sent troops in March 2011 to help Bahraini authorities crush the protests.

An international panel commissioned by King Hamad to probe the government’s clampdown found out that excessive force and torture had been routinely used against protesters and detainees, leading to the deaths of a number of protesters. …more

Testimony of Tom Malinowski before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the Implementation of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry Report

by Tom Malinowski – 1 August, 2012 – Human Rights Watch

Thank you Mr. Chairman for holding this hearing and for all the work you have done to keep the Congress focused on Bahrain. There is a powerful moral argument for doing so. Anyone who has been to Bahrain, who has met the people who have tried to bridge the country’s divisions through reasoned dialogue, and who has witnessed the persecution they have suffered as a result, will attest to that. But there is also a strategic imperative for the United States in championing human rights in this cosmopolitan and complex nation. We see today in Syria what can happen when an authoritarian government resists popular demands for justice and reform until it is too late. Imagine if something similar were to happen in Bahrain, a country that not only has a close partnership with the United States, but that sits right on the fault line between the Sunni and Shia Muslim worlds, and between Saudi Arabia and Iran. It is not yet too late for Bahrain to avoid this fate, and many people in the country are working hard to avert it. The United States also has a lot more influence in Bahrain than it did in Syria. But the time to use that influence is running short.

Last November, Bahrain had a golden chance to close the dark chapter that began when its government suppressed a pro-democracy movement earlier in 2011. King Hamad had appointed the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), chaired by the esteemed international jurist Cherif Bassiouni, to look into the human rights violations committed when the country’s pro-democracy movement was suppressed last year. Bassiouni wrote a fair-minded report, documenting the arbitrary arrest and torture of opposition leaders and urging far-reaching reforms to punish those responsible and end human rights abuses. To his credit, the king accepted the report and promised to implement it. The government dropped charges against some dissidents accused of speech “crimes,” reinstated many people who had been dismissed from work and school for attending protests, and reduced abuse of prisoners in formal detention facilities. But since then, the momentum has dissipated.

There has been no real resumption of dialogue between the government and opposition to pursue what moderates on both sides recognize as the solution to Bahrain’s crisis — a constitutional monarchy in which government ministers are chosen by an elected parliament rather than appointed by the king.

The BICI’s call to release political detainees has also not been fully heeded. The courts have agreed to retry key opposition leaders, but the government still refuses to release them, though their convictions were based on nothing more than the content of their speeches and participation in peaceful meetings and rallies challenging the monarchy. These include Abdulhadi al Khawaja, who staged a long hunger strike earlier this year to protest his continuing detention. They also include Ibrahim Sharif, the Sunni leader of a secular-left party, whose detention, and very existence, demonstrates something that hard-liners in the government don’t want us to know – that opposition to their authoritarian rule is not purely sectarian, that many Sunnis joined their Shia compatriots in demanding reform when the Arab Spring came to Bahrain last year. …more

Hezbollah Without Syria
By As’ad AbuKhalil -6 August, 2012 0 Angry Corner – Al Akhbar

The obituaries of Hezbollah are being printed as we speak. It is being assumed that the “inevitable” fall of the Syrian regime will “inevitably” end the career of Hezbollah. Enemies of Hezbollah in Israel and its clients in the region are already popping the champagne bottles. But this is a premature obituary. You are not there yet – far from it.

There are many wrong assumptions and generalizations about Hezbollah. Hezbollah emerged and spread during years of enmity with the Syrian regime. In 1982, when Hezbollah was born, it basically (a main branch of it) split off from the Amal Movement.

Amal was a client of the Syrian regime, and Hezbollah and Islamic Amal – the name of the organization that split off from Amal under the leadership of Hussain Moussawi – was a client of a radical branch of the Iranian regime. The Syrian regime was very unfriendly toward Hezbollah and the party was only able to operate in West Beirut because the Syrian regime had left the city. It was only in 1987 that the Syrian regime re-entered the city and it inaugurated its entry with a massacre of Hezbollah fighters in the Fathallah barracks.

The enmity between the two sides never stopped although Nasrallah and Bashar al-Assad improved relations. But the Syrian regime always pressured Hezbollah to not win outright the parliamentary seats in elections and Hezbollah always grumbled about that.

But as you can see from the historical chronicle, Hezbollah could and did survive without Syrian regime support. If the Syrian regime falls – and it will for sure if only because such a prediction is made at least once a week for over a year – Hezbollah will survive and may grow to be stronger and even more dangerous.

Hezbollah will lose the support of an important regime that did its best to bolster its military organization, while still favoring – politically speaking – the Amal Movement. But it retains a vast organization that – at least as the enemies of Hezbollah say – spans the globe.

The collapse of the Syrian regime may remove restrictions and prohibitions from the activities and movement of Hezbollah and may increase its freedom of maneuverability. Without the Syrian regime, Hezbollah will no longer have to worry about embarrassing or displeasing the Syrian regime. To be sure, Hezbollah will continue to be loyal to the Iranian regime, but will enjoy – certainly under Nasrallah – a great deal of independent decision making powers. …more

Bahraini protesters cover their noses from tear gas during clashes with riot police during a protest in Bilad al-Qadeema, a suburb of the capital Manama, April 21, 2012.

Bahraini security forces attack protesters
6 August , 2012 – PressTV

Bahraini forces have attacked anti-regime protesters in the northeastern island of Sitra and the northern village of Karanah, using tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the rallies.

The protesters had staged the demonstrations on Monday to demand the downfall of the Al Khalifa regime and the immediate release of all political prisoners from jails.

According to activists, at least 30 protesters have been arrested in Sitra and Karanah over the past week.

Anti-regime protests in Bahrain continue despite the heavy-handed crackdown by the Western-backed monarchy.

Scores of people have been killed and many others injured or arrested in the campaign of suppression.

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.

The anti-regime demonstrators hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the deaths of the protesters during the popular uprising. …source

Bahraini People Condemn Al-Khalifa Regime’s Support for Syrian Insurgents
6 August, 2012 – FNA

TEHRAN (FNA)- Bahraini people and political figures deplored the al-Khalifa regime for its support for Syrian insurgents and terrorists.

The outrage broke out after some recent footages showed Bahraini parliament members’ meeting with the Syrian rebels in Syria under the name of a convoy carrying Bahraini government’s aids to Damascus.

In these footages, it was displayed that the Bahraini legislators are rigidly emphasizing their support for the Syrian insurgent groups and provided the Free Syrian Army, the main rebel group fighting against President Bashar Assad’s government, with aid.

Bahrain along with the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have been supporting terrorists and rebel groups in Syria and have practically brought a UN peace initiative into failure to bring President Assad’s government into collapse.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

In October 2011, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of increasing unrests in Syria.
….source

PHR Calls on Bahrain Appeals Court to Free Hospital Worker
3 August, 2012 – Physicians for Human Rights

An appeals court in Bahrain could decide on Monday whether to release a hospital worker sentenced to three years in prison for delivering an oxygen cylinder and other medical supplies to treat protesters.

A military court sentenced Younis Ashoori in June 2011 following his arrest in March; he has allegedly been tortured while in custody. He is in his 60s and has serious medical conditions that put his life in danger without appropriate medical care.

“Imprisoning this health professional for the ‘crime’ of helping wounded protesters is yet another example of the government’s empty promise to implement human rights reform,” said Richard Sollom, deputy director of PHR. “Mr. Ashoori must be released at once—along with all other medical professionals who have been similarly arrested simply for performing their ethical duty to treat the injured.”

Younis is one of several medics tried individually. Ahmed Almushatat was sentenced to two years for providing medications to injured protesters, and Hassan Matooq was sentenced to three years for participating in a public gathering. PHR has been unable to visit these men in prison, despite repeated requests, and has lobbied strenuously for their release.

PHR has also called on courts in Bahrain to drop all charges against other medical professionals convicted in connection with their efforts to treat protesters wounded in demonstrations against the Bahraini regime sparked by the Arab Spring movement. …more

UAE defends crackdown on activists
6 August, 2012 – Associated Press

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates attorney general says suspects detained in an ongoing crackdown on political dissent have confessed to plans to jeopardize security and to having links to foreign groups.

The UAE has sharply increased pressure on political activists and bloggers since the Arab Spring uprisings last year. As many as 54 people are currently detained, according to the Emirates Centre For Human Rights.

Attorney General Ali Salim al-Tenaiji was quoted on state-run Emirates News Agency on Monday as saying the unidentified suspects “revealed plans to jeopardize the security of the state as well as ties” with “suspicious foreign parties and organizations.”

Al-Tenaiji, in some of his first public comments on the case, did not name the foreign groups nor say what plans suspects had to jeopardize state security.
…source

Bahrain: Calls for the immediate release of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab
4 August, 2012 – Gulf Center for Human Rights

Beirut, 04 August 2012- The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), call on the authorities in Bahrain to immediately release Nabeel Rajab, President of the BCHR and director of the GCHR and to drop all charges against him.

On 5 August 2012, the Higher Appeal Court will rule on the appeal submitted by Nabeel Rajab’s lawyers against a three-month prison sentence, which was handed down on 9 July by the 5th Lower Criminal Court. The human rights defender was found guilty of libel based on posts on his Twitter account directed at the Prime Minster of Bahrain where he highlighted his corruption and called on him to step down. (For more information see GCHR appeal dated 7 July 2012 http://gc4hr.org/news/view/190).

Nabeel Rajab’s lawyers filed two appeals the first one, requesting that the three months prison sentence be commuted into community work, was rejected by the Court. The second appeal was a request to have the sentence suspended. This is the third occasion that this appeal will be before the court. The matter had been scheduled to be heard on 18 July 2012 however the court adjourned the hearing until 24 July so that it could examine the case file. On 24 July 2012, Nabeel Rajab appeared before the court for the second time. On that occasion, the Court refused to release the human rights defender on bail and stated that it would issue its verdict on the appeal on 5 August 2012.

The human rights defender is currently being detained in Jaw Central Prison in a cell with no air conditioning despite the high temperatures. He is prohibited from talking to other prisoners apart from the two men whom he shares the cell with. Furthermore it is reported that he is suffering from a skin condition and is being denied access to a doctor and to required treatment. His family was allowed to visit him for the first time on July 19 2012 however, unlike other detainees, he is reportedly brought to the visits centre handcuffed. …more

Iran’s Ahmadinejad to attend Syria summit in Saudi Arabia
DUBAI – 6 August, 2012 – Reuters

(Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend a summit of Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia expected to focus on Syria, Iranian media said on Monday, as tensions between Tehran and Riyadh run high over their opposing stances on regional uprisings.

The extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) is to be held in Mecca next week.

“Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be present at this summit at the invitation of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,” Mohammad Reza Forghani, the director of international affairs in Ahmadinejad’s office, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

Saudi Arabia’s Sunni leaders have accused predominantly Shi’ite Iran of stoking what they see as sectarian unrest in the region. Iran has expressed support for Shi’ite-led protests in Bahrain against the ruling Sunni Al Khalifa family, allies of Saudi Arabia.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said recently the OIC summit should focus on the unrest in Bahrain, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported.

The two regional powers also disagree on the uprising in Syria, where predominantly Sunni rebels are fighting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite power base is an offshoot of Shi’ism.

Iran has steadfastly supported Assad’s efforts to suppress the rebellion, and has accused Western powers and countries in the region of encouraging chaos in Syria by sending fighters and arms there.

Senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Sunday that the summit in Saudi Arabia would be unlikely to yield any results given Riyadh’s “hostile stances” toward Syria, Iranian media reported.

Ahmadinejad made his first official trip to Saudi Arabia in March 2007, when he and King Abdullah agreed to fight the spread of sectarian strife. …source

Inquiry concludes that excessive force had been used against protesters

Bahrain policemen charged over torture
AFP – 6 August, 2012 – Gulf News

Dubai: Bahrain’s chief prosecutor announced on Monday that 15 police officers will be charged with torturing doctors arrested during anti-government protests in the country early last year.

Nawaf Hamza, chief investigator in the prosecutor’s office, said in a statement he was officially making known that members of the forces of law and order would face torture charges resulting from the unrest.

He said the charges were being brought following an inquiry launched on the basis of a complaint by doctors at Salmaniya hospital, the main medical facility in the capital Manama.

“This procedure confirms the intention of the Bahrain government to bring to account all those found guilty of human rights violations and to recompense the victims,” Hamza said.

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The complainants, also numbering 15, had said they were badly treated during their detention.

Some of them underwent medical examination during the inquiry.

The 15 doctors and five staff at Salmaniya had been accused by the authorities of supporting the opposition during the protests.

Bahrain came under strong criticism from international human rights organisations over last year’s crackdown on the protests.

An international panel commissioned by King Hamad to probe the government’s clampdown found out that excessive force and torture had been used against protesters and detainees.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International says 60 people have been killed since the protests first erupted in February last year. …source

Ban says Syria conflict has become ‘proxy war’
3 August, 2012 – Agence France Presse – The Daily Start

UNITED NATIONS: U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said Friday that the Syria conflict has become a “proxy war” and that the international powers must overcome rivalries to end the violence.

Evoking the U.N.’s failure in the Srebenica massacre in Bosnia, Ban warned the divided U.N. Security Council that “the immediate interests of the Syrian people must be paramount over any larger rivalries of influence.”

Ban gave his grim warning ahead of a U.N. General Assembly vote on a resolution deploring the Security Council’s failure to act on the Syrian civil war and condemning the government’s use of heavy weapons.

The U.N. secretary general said growing radicalization and extremism had been predicted at the start of the conflict in March 2011.

“The next step was also forewarned: a proxy war, with regional and international players arming one side or the other. All of these dire predictions have come to pass,” Ban told the 193 member General Assembly.

Ban turned his fire on the Security Council which he said had become “paralyzed” by divisions over Syria.

Russia and China have vetoed three resolutions on Syria. They in turn accuse western nations of seeking to force the downfall of President Bashar Assad.

“Now, with the situation having worsened, they must again find common ground,” he said.

Ban said the Syria conflict “is a test of everything this organization stands for” and recalled a recent visit to Srebenica, site of a massacre he called “one of the darkest chapters in this organization’s history.”

U.N. peacekeepers were accused of not doing enough to stop the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim boys and men in the Bosnian town in July 1995.

“I do not want today’s United Nations to fail that test. I want us all to show the people of Syria and the world that we have learned the lessons of Srebrenica,” the U.N. leader said.
…source

Bahrain disperses protesters, arrests activist’s daughter
ABU DHABI – 3 August, 2012 – Reuters

The daughter of a prominent Bahraini opposition activist and 40 other people were arrested early on Friday, hours after security forces used tear gas and birdshot to disperse hundreds of protesters demanding political reforms, activists said.

At least 45 people were injured in the security forces’ operation to break up the three separate protests across the Gulf Arab island kingdom late on Thursday, they said.

Bahrain crushed an uprising led by majority Shi’ite Muslims last year, after successful popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, but protest marches and rallies continue, leading at times to clashes between police and Shi’ite youths.

Bahraini Shi’ites say they have long been marginalized in political and economic life, which the government denies. Bahrain’s Sunni rulers have rejected the main opposition demand – an elected parliament with full powers to pass laws and form governments.

The head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, Mohammed al-Maskati, said activist Zainab al-Khawaja was arrested early on Friday when she tried to hold a solitary protest sit-in at al-Badei street close to the capital Manama.

Zainab is the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a leading Shi’ite figure in the uprising who ended a more than three-month-long hunger strike in May after drawing attention to the issue of imprisoned activists.

“She had taken part in the protests and then headed to that street to start a sit-in. That is when she was arrested,” Maskati told Reuters by telephone.

“From the information we have managed to gather from lawyers and the families of protesters, at least 40 others have been arrested as well,” he said, adding that police had used tear gas to disperse the protesters. There were no reports of serious injuries.

“All three protests were heavily crushed as tear gas and birdshot was used with reports of at least 40 to 45 people being injured,” Maskati said, adding that injuries ranged from slight to serious.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement on its website that “riot instigators” threw Molotov cocktails at a ministry vehicle in a road near Bani Jamra, but that its driver and his companion escaped uninjured.

Zainab al-Khawaja was previously arrested on April 21 for trying to stage a protest in Manama during Bahrain’s Formula One Grand Prix. She was sentenced in May to one month in jail and fined 200 dinars ($530) on a separate charge relating to insulting a government employee.

“I still haven’t managed to find out exactly what the charges pressed against her are,” said her lawyer Mohammed al-Jishi. …source