Posts from — August 2012

Point of information: CS gas, AKA Tear Gas comes in a variety of grades. It is not actually a “weaponized gas” but it is a “weaponized chemical” dispersed as an aerosol just as “weaponized Anthrax” would be. In its civilian grade – mildest form – it is used for dispersing crowds. In its most dangerous form – military grade – it is used as a combat weapon. The military grade CS Gas was used to clear tunnels in Vietnam and against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The military grade CS Gas is being used in the streets in Bahrain against political opposition groups. It is supplied by the US, UK and Brazil.

To aggravate matters in Bahrain, its poorly trained and unsupervised “police” are let lose in the Villages where they fire Combat Grade CS gas into home while people sleep, transforming them into “gas chambers”. The victims that die are usually infants, elderly and the disabled who can’t get out of harms way quickly enough. They often use CS gas grenades as a lethal projectile against protesters. This too has been a cause of numerous deaths – direct shots to the head and face. One of the more notable leaders, Zainab AlKhawaja, is now imprisoned with a leg injury after being shot at close range with a CS Gas grenade weeks ago during a protest. – Phlipn.

Tear gas causing death, serious injuries in Bahrain
8 August, 2012 – The Media Line Staff

Bahrain Linda Gradstein/The Media – Last year, Miriam Abdullah was looking forward to the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, and had planned a festive meal for her family.

But that celebration never happened. Her 14-year-old son Ali was on his way home from the mosque when he encountered a demonstration calling for “freedom and dignity,” she said.

“The youth were not doing anything and the police fired on them from very close-range,” she told The Media Line. “Ali was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and he became a martyr.”

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights say that 35 people have been killed either by being hit with tear gas or from respiratory complications from the tear gas. They also say that dozens of people have lost an eye after being hit by a tear gas canister.

“Mohammed (not his real name) attended a peaceful protest in al-Juffair, a Shi’ite village, very close to where the US Fifth Fleet is housed,” Said Yousef of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights told The Media Line. “The police came and fired from a short distance and he lost his eye.”

Almost every night, the acrid smell of tear gas hangs in the air all over the tiny Gulf state of Bahrain. The country’s Sunni minority is using tear gas to tamp down protests by the Shi’ite majority, especially in villages around the capital of Manama.

“We don’t call it tear gas, we call it toxic gas,” Dr. Taha al-Derazi told The Media Line. “This gas can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea, muscle cramps and seizures,”

The Sunni rulers of Bahrain have cracked down hard on the pro-democracy protests that have come to be called the Arab Spring. Human rights groups say that the way they are using tear gas violates human rights.

“They do not use it to disperse protestors but like a gun,” Said Yousef, of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) told The Media Line. “They shoot it directly at people’s heads.”

Dr. Terazi said that police also yank open windows of people’s homes and cars and shoot tear gas directly inside. Tear gas is meant to be fired in the open air and to quickly disperse. It can be lethal when fired at short-range.

Some Bahrainis are even moving to be away from neighborhoods with frequent demonstrations and frequent tear gas.

“I moved from Budaiya Road, where I was living, to a safer area when I was in my last trimester of pregnancy,” Amira Hussein, a journalist wrote The Media Line in an email. “I also don’t go out on weekend because that is when the tear gas bonanza kicks off.”

Now Physicians for Human Rights has unleashed a new report on the use of tear gas by Bahraini authorities.

“So-called tear gas, often considered a crowd control method with no lasting harmful effects, can cause permanent injuries, miscarriages and even fatalities as used by Bahrain’s security forces,” the report warns. “Those tactics include firing tear gas canisters directly at civilians or into their cars, houses or other closed spaces where toxic effects are greatly exaggerated.”

The report documents a number of examples based on interviews with more than 100 Bahrainis. In one case, a 27 year old bystander suffered a fractured skull and intracranial bleeding when struck in the head with a tear gas canister. In another, an asthmatic man routinely exposed to tear gas died of respiratory failure.

Said Yousef of the BCHR said the tear gas comes from the United States, France and Holland. He urged these countries to stop selling tear gas to the government.

The US has hesitated to be critical of the Bahraini government. Bahrain is home to the Fifth Fleet, which keeps an eye on Iran just 120 miles across the Persian Gulf. The US considers Bahrain an important strategic ally and has provided the government with $20 million dollars annually in aid.

Human rights groups want the US to pressure the government of Bahrain to stop using tear gas. …source

Sitra, Bahrain – August 2012 – Protesters under attack with Chemical Gas as Youths of the February 14 Coalition came out in military-style parade. Riot police and members of the security forces later broke up the rally.

Venezuela Rejects the False and Defamatory Content of the “Country Reports on Terrorism 2011″
8 August, 2012

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects most firmly and categorically the false and defamatory content of the “Country Reports on Terrorism 2011″ published by the State Department of the United States of America on July 31, 2012.

The government of the United States, once again, presents these unilateral and interventionist reports which express a tendentious and distorted opinion of the policies of other countries, on a matter such as terrorism about which, moreover, that country has no moral ground on which to make pronouncements.

It is precisely the government of that country and its double morality which has been widely denounced by Venezuela at the United Nations for giving shelter and protection to recognized international terrorists, as is the case with Luís Posada Carriles, sought by Venezuelan justice for placing a bomb on flight 455 of Cubana de Aviación, which cost the lives of 73 people in 1976; and the case of Raúl Díaz Peña, a terrorist sentenced under Venezuelan law for having placed explosives in the diplomatic missions of Spain and Colombia in Caracas in 2003. Both are protected by the hypocritical anti-terrorist policy of the U.S. government.

It is lamentable that for those countries such as ours that are truly committed to the anti-terrorist struggle on an international level, that countries like the United States maintain the practice of issuing reports that have no validity because they contain no verified information, and, therefore, are obviously political instruments for defamation. An example of their malicious lies is the list of “State Sponsors of International Terrorism,” which is unilaterally and arbitrarily includes the Republic of Cuba, a country that complies with periodically presenting true and exact information to the pertinent mechanisms of the United Nations for matters relating to confronting terrorism.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela considers the publication of this defamatory document an unfriendly act and rejects it in its totality, while reiterating its complaint against the United States for continuing to allow its territory to serve as a refuge for international terrorists sought by Venezuelan justice.

Caracas, August 2, 2012

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
1099 30th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
(202) 342-2214
…source

Resistance axis more potent against enemy: Nasrallah
shiapost – 8 August, 2012

Hezbollah’s Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah says the resistance front in the region will counter the US and Israeli plots more forcefully as it has successfully weathered their previous schemes.

“At the current juncture when nations have awakened and taken a stand against the American and Zionist (Israeli) plots, the resistance axis will, with popular support, react more forcefully in confronting the enemy,” said Nasrallah in a Tuesday meeting with visiting General Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of National Security Saeed Jalili in Beirut.

Reiterating that Hezbollah has all along been aware of the “American and Zionist conspiracies” against the resistance front, the Hezbollah secretary general added, “We have already experienced such crises and been able to overcome them with resistance and endurance.”

Nasrallah further voiced gratitude for the unwavering support and position of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei as well as the Iranian nation and government “against Western and Zionist schemes” and emphasized the significance of the role the Islamic Republic can play during the current sensitive circumstance in the region.

Jalili in turn described Iran’s support for “the oppressed nations in the region against ploys by the global hegemony and international Zionism” as an underlying principle of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and said, “Just as we have supported the oppressed Palestinian people despite all difficulties regarding the Palestine issue, we will extend our support to regional nations amid the Islamic Awakening trend and the revolution against the global hegemony.”

The senior Iranian national security official also described the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance against Israeli aggressions as “an honor for the Arab world,” adding that the ongoing Islamic Awakening movements are among the accomplishments of such resistance.

Referring to the situation in Syria, Jalili said, “The Syrian nation and authorities are the ones that must make the decision for the fate and future of their country and democracy is the only solution to the Syrian troubles.”

During their meeting Jalili and Nasrallah reviewed the recent regional developments, particularly the renewed Western plots against the resistance front, specifically targeting Lebanon and Syria. …more

The slogan “Bashar must go!” was supposed to be chanted by crowds of protesters in Damascus and Aleppo. In the absence of such demonstrations, it has been taken over by Western leaders themselves even though it goes against all the conventional rules of diplomacy. Why?

Western leaders slip back into their childhood
by Thierry Meyssan – Voltaire Network – 8 August 2012

In 1985, a social scientist, Gene Sharp, published a study commissioned by NATO on Making Europe Unconquerable. He pointed out that ultimately a government only exists because people agree to obey it. The USSR could never control Western Europe if people refused to obey Communist governments.

A few years later, in 1989, Sharp was tasked by the CIA with conducting the practical application of his theoretical research in China. The United States wanted to topple Deng Xiaoping in favor of Zhao Ziyang. The intention was to stage a coup with a veneer of legitimacy by organizing street protests, in much the same way as the CIA had given a popular facade to the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh by hiring Tehran demonstrators (Operation Ajax, 1953). The difference here is that Gene Sharp had to rely on a mix of pro-Zhao and pro-US youth to make the coup look like a revolution. But Deng had Sharp arrested in Tiananmen Square and expelled from the country. The coup failed, but not before the CIA spurred the youth groups into a vain attack to discredit Deng through the crackdown that followed. The failure of the operation was attributed to the difficulties of mobilizing young activists in the desired direction.

Ever since the work of French sociologist Gustave Le Bon in the late nineteenth century, we know that adults behave like children when they are in the throes of collective emotion. They become susceptible, even if for just a critical fleeting moment, to the suggestions of a leader-of-men who for them embodies a father figure. In 1990, Sharp got close to Colonel Reuven Gal, then chief psychologist of the Israeli Army (he later became deputy national security adviser to Ariel Sharon and now runs operations designed to manipulate young Israeli non-Jews). Combining the discoveries of Le Bon and Sigmund Freud, Gal reached the conclusion that it was also possible to exploit the “Oedipus complex” in adolescents and steer a crowd of young people to oppose a head of state, as a symbolic father figure.

On this basis, Sharp and Gal set up training programs for young activists with the objective of organizing coups. After a few successes in Russia and the Baltics, it was in 1998 that Gene Sharp perfected the method of “color revolutions” with the overthrow of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. …more

Backfire in Bahrain
By Editorial Board – 7 august, 2012 – Washington Post

WHEN THE Obama administration resumed military sales to the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain in 2012, it explained the decision as an effort to bolster moderate elements in the monarchy, whose Sunni ruling family has resisted demands for greater democracy from the mostly Shiite population. In particular, the aim was to strengthen Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, who was visiting Washington at the time and who had led an abortive effort to negotiate a settlement with opposition leaders.

Three months later, it’s worth asking whether the concession to a regime that has been a close U.S. ally paid off. Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding “no.” Bahrain remains locked in a standoff between a largely intransigent government and a slowly radicalizing opposition — and the regime has failed to fulfill its repeated pledges to end repression of peaceful dissent and undertake meaningful reforms.

As Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner reported in testimony to Congress’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission last week, the Bahraini government has continued to prosecute 20 leading political activists; “despite assurances to the contrary,” it obtained the conviction of nine medical professionals who treated opposition activists during demonstrations last year. The country’s best-known human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, is serving prison time for a tweet that called for the resignation of the hard-line prime minister.

Security forces continue to employ harsh tactics to put down demonstrations in Shiite villages, including what a new report by Physicians for Human Rights calls the “indiscriminate use of tear gas as a weapon.” It said police regularly fire tear gas canisters “directly at civilians or into their cars, houses or other closed spaces” in an effort “not just to disperse crowds but to harm, harass, and intimidate the largely Shia neighborhoods that are home to many protesters.”

Bahrain’s repression doesn’t approach the murderous violence used by the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad against its opponents. But many in the Middle East understandably wonder why the United States demands the removal of Mr. Assad, an ally of Iran whose Alawite sect is close to Shiism, while continuing to back a Sunni regime that represses its Shiite opposition. The administration’s answer is that it is not, like Bahrain’s neighbor Saudi Arabia, pursuing a sectarian agenda, but attempting to steer its ally toward peaceful reform. …more

Protesters across Bahrain demand release of women prisoners
8 August, 2012 – ABNA

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – Bahraini people have staged protest rallies across the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom in a show of solidarity with female political prisoners.

On Monday night, Bahraini protesters took to the streets in more than 21 districts across the country, and condemned the Al Khalifa regime’s crackdown on peaceful protests.

Shouting slogans in support of political prisoners, they demanded an immediate and unconditional release of women protesters held in jail, including senior human rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja.

They also condemned Bahrain’s Supreme Council for Women for its silence for the continued detention of female activists and the violation of their rights.

The demonstrators blocked main streets by burning tires and called for unity among the Bahraini nation. Our might lies in our solidarity, they chanted.

Bahraini security forces rushed to disperse the protests by firing teargas, rubber bullets and birdshot pellets at the demonstrators.

The Saudi-backed regime forces also attacked civilian houses.

A large number of demonstrators were injured in the attacks. Opposition activists published photos of the protesters who were injured on social networking websites.

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 suppression of popular protests since they erupted in February 2011 in demand of the Al Khalifa regime’s downfall.

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

Bahrain: Verdict Expected for 57 Opposition Activists and Pro-democracy Demonstrators
8 August, 2012 – Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights expresses its deep concern regarding the verdicts are expected in 12-14 August of Court of Appeal against the prominent activists, political leaders and pro-democracy demonstrators.

The Court of Appeal will issue its final ruling against the 57 convicted among them Mr. Nabeel Rajab (director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, and president of the Bahrain Center for Human rights) …source

Russian general denies report he died in Syria
8 August, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

MOSCOW: A Russian general met reporters at the Defence Ministry in Moscow on Wednesday to deny reports that he had been killed by rebel forces in Syria and was shown on television looking well.

“I want to confirm that I am alive and well. I am in good health and I’m living in Moscow,” Vladimir Petrovich Kuzheyev, a reserve general, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency.

Russian television briefly showed footage of Kuzheyev, in a blue shirt and no tie, at the Defence Ministry.

A Syrian rebel group said it had killed a Russian general working as an adviser to Syria’s defence ministry in an operation in the western Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.

The video, sent to Reuters, showed what the rebels said was a copy of the general’s ID, as issued by the Syrian military, and named him as Vladimir Petrovich Kochyev.
…more

Jordan king fears breakup of Syria
Reuters – 8 August, 2012 – by Tom Perry

(Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad could seek to establish an enclave for his Alawite sect if he cannot keep control of the whole of war-torn Syria, an outcome that would be the “worst case scenario” for its neighbors, King Abdullah of Jordan has said.

Any such move could prompt decades of further problems for the region, King Abdullah told U.S. broadcaster CBS.

“I have a feeling that if he can’t rule greater Syria then maybe an Alawi enclave is plan B,” King Abdullah said in an interview published on the channel’s website on Tuesday.

“That would be, I think for us, the worst case scenario because that means then the breakup of greater Syria, and that means that everybody starts land grabbing, which makes no sense to me. If Syria then implodes on itself that would create problems that would take us decades to come back from,” he said.

The rebellion against Assad’s rule is predominantly made up of Sunni Muslims who form the majority of Syria’s population. The Alawites are a minority sect whose beliefs are an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

King Abdullah, whose mainly Sunni Muslim kingdom borders Syria to the south, forecast that Assad would not give ground. His administration has deployed military force in an effort to crush the uprising, drawing on air power and heavy artillery.

“I think that in his mentality he is going to stick to his guns. He believes that he is in the right. I think that the regime feels that it has no alternative but to continue,” Abdullah said.

He added: “I don’t think it’s just Bashar, it’s not the individual, it’s the system of the regime. So if Bashar was to exit under whatever circumstances, does whoever replaces him have the ability to reach out and transform Syria politically?

“So for Bashar at the moment, if I am reading the way he is thinking, he is going to do what he is going to do indefinitely.”

US accused of “anti-British bias” over Standard Chartered
8 August, 2012 – Al Akhbar

A threat by a New York regulator to strip Standard Chartered Plc of its state banking license and its description of the British bank as a “rogue institution” that hid $250 billion in Iranian transactions, has touched a nerve with some in London.

Several of the bank’s top shareholders and a leading opposition lawmaker have questioned whether US authorities are seeking to undermine London as a global financial center.

They note Standard Chartered is the third British bank to be ensnared in US law enforcement probes in recent weeks. The New York state’s Department of Financial Services said the bank hid the transactions that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in fees over nearly a decade.

The accusation comes after Barclays Plc agreed in June to pay $453 million to settle US and British probes that it rigged Libor, a global lending benchmark.

A month later, a US Senate panel issued a scathing report that criticized HSBC Holding’s efforts to police suspect transactions. It said HSBC did regular business in countries tied to drug cartels, terrorist funding and tax cheats.

“I think it’s a concerted effort that’s been organized at the top of the US government. I think this is Washington trying to win a commercial battle to have trading from London shifted to New York,” said John Mann, a member of parliament’s finance committee who also called for a parliamentary inquiry.

Mann, from the center-left Labour party, has become a public scourge of London bankers’ greed and immorality during the financial crisis. But he told Reuters he saw “anti-British bias” behind “disproportionate publicity that’s given to British banking problems, as opposed to American banking problems”.

“This is a political onslaught,” he said.

However, there are signs that US regulators themselves are not in lockstep.

Sources told Reuters that US federal regulators feel angry and blindsided by the way the New York banking regulator took action against Standard Chartered, including the publication of embarrassing communications from senior executives of the bank.

The US Treasury Department declined to comment on the views from London. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in London also declined to comment on Mann’s remarks.

But a number of British fund managers holding shares in Standard Chartered also expressed consternation about the New York broadside and questioned what it might mean.

A British executive at an institution, which ranks among the top 25 shareholders in Standard Chartered, saw a politically motivated move by US officials irked by the major role London plays in the global financial industry.

“Are we starting to see an anti-London bias in US regulatory activities?” the executive asked. “Oh yes. Is there any subtle form of banking sector protectionism going on? Yes.”

Another British investment official at a top 20 shareholder in the bank suggested US politics might be an element in the threat by the New York regulator to pull Standard Chartered’s state banking license.

“I wonder if this has more to do with the point we are at in the U.S. election cycle or if this is just an accident of the U.S. legislative system in terms of timing,” the investor said.

Skepticism in Britain of US motives was not universal, however. An executive at a top 10 investor in Standard Chartered said he was reviewing his shareholding and that the depth of the issues needed to be acknowledged by the City of London.

“London is looking like a pretty disreputable place at the moment,” he said. “Rather than fall into the British them-versus-us-mindset, let’s really bang our chests and figure out just how dirty London really is as a place to do business.” …source

Times Photographer Is Arrested on Assignment
By THE NEW YORK TIMES – 5 August, 2012

A freelance photographer for The New York Times was arrested on Saturday night while on assignment with two reporters who were conducting street interviews in the Bronx.

The photographer, Robert Stolarik, 43, who has worked regularly for The Times for more than a decade, was charged with obstructing government administration and with resisting arrest. He was taking photographs of a brewing street fight at McClellan Street and Sheridan Avenue in the Concourse neighborhood.

Mr. Stolarik was taking photographs of the arrest of a teenage girl about 10:30 p.m., when a police officer instructed him to stop doing so. Mr. Stolarik said he identified himself as a journalist for The Times and continued taking pictures. A second officer appeared, grabbed his camera and “slammed” it into his face, he said.

Mr. Stolarik said he asked for the officers’ badge numbers, and the officers then took his cameras and dragged him to the ground; he said that he was kicked in the back and that he received scrapes and bruises to his arms, legs and face.

The Police Department said in a statement that officers had been trying to disperse the crowd and had given “numerous lawful orders” for both the crowd and Mr. Stolarik to move back, but that he tried to push forward, “inadvertently” striking an officer in the face with his camera.

The police said that Mr. Stolarik then “violently resisted being handcuffed” and that, in the process, a second officer was cut on the hand.A video of the episode taken by one of the reporters who was with Mr. Stolarik shows Mr. Stolarik face down on the sidewalk, beneath a huddle of about six officers.

Mr. Stolarik was taken to the 44th Precinct station and was released at 4:40 a.m. On Sunday, he checked himself into NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center for X-rays. Later, he said he had no broken bones or internal bleeding. …more

“Anti-Occupy” Law Ends U.S. Right to Protest
7 August – The Washington Times – by Paul A. Samakow

Thanks to almost zero media coverage, few of us know about a law passed this past March, severely limiting our right to protest. The silence may have been due to the lack of controversy in bringing the bill to law: Only three of our federal elected officials voted against the bill’s passage.

The First Amendment to our Constitution guarantees us the rights of free speech and assembly. A fundamental purpose of our free speech guarantee is to invite dispute. Protests can and have been the catalyst for positive change. Thus while we despise that protestors can burn our flag as protected political speech, and we hate that Neo-Nazis can march down our streets, we recognize the rights of these groups to do what they do and we send our troops across the world to fight for these rights.

Last year’s “occupy movement” scared the government. On March 8, President Obama signed a law that makes protesting more difficult and more criminal. The law is titled the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act, and it passed unanimously in the Senate and with only three “no” votes in the House. It was called the “Trespass Bill” by Congress and the “anti-Occupy law” by everyone else who commented.

The law “improves” public grounds by forcing people – protestors – elsewhere. It amends an older law that made it a federal crime to “willfully and knowingly” enter a restricted space. Now you will be found guilty of this offense if you simply “knowingly” enter a restricted area, even if you did not know it was illegal to do so. The Department of Homeland Security can designate an event as one of “national significance,” making protests or demonstrations near the event illegal.

The law makes it punishable by up to ten years in jail to protest anywhere the Secret Service “is or will be temporarily visiting,” or anywhere they might be guarding someone. Does the name Secret tell you anything about your chances of knowing where they are? The law allows for conviction if you are “disorderly or disruptive,” or if you “impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions.” You can no longer heckle or “boo” at a political candidate’s speech, as that would be disruptive.

After you swallow all of this and correctly conclude that it is now very easy to be prosecuted for virtually any public protest, you should brace yourself and appreciate that it is even worse. Today, any event that is officially defined as a National Special Security Event has Secret Service protection. This can include sporting events and concerts.

The timing of the law was not coincidental. The bill was presented to the Senate, after House passage, on November 17, 2011, during an intense nationwide effort to stop the Occupy Wall Street protests. Two days before, hundreds of New York police conducted a raid on the demonstrators’ encampment in Zucotti Park, shutting it down and placing barricades.

This law chips away our First Amendment rights. Its motivation is 100 percent politically based, as it was designed to silence those who would protest around politicians giving speeches. Both Republicans and Democrats agreed they did not want hecklers at their rallies. If you want to protest a politician speaking to a crowd now, you can do so maybe a half mile or so away. …more

Watchdog’s Iran ambush leaves StanChart reeling
7 August, 2012 – Reuters – By Lawrence White and Steve Slater

(Reuters) – A New York bank regulator’s broadside against Standard Chartered Plc for allegedly hiding $250 billion in transactions tied to Iran left investors and the bank questioning the motive for the ambush, which wiped $17 billion off its value.

London-based Standard Chartered hit back at the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) threat to tear up its state banking license on Tuesday, dismissing the charge that it was a “rogue institution” that “schemed” with the Iranian government as a distortion of the facts.

Bank insiders were as shocked as investors by the ferocity of the DFS accusations over its involvement with Iran, which is subject to U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program.

Chief Executive Peter Sands scrambled back from his vacation as the bank held hastily convened conference calls to plan its defense and try to limit the damage caused to its reputation.

The U.S. agency said Standard Chartered hid 60,000 secret transactions to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in fees over nearly 10 years.

Shares in Standard Chartered closed down 16.4 percent at 12.28 pounds, taking their losses to 24 percent since the news surfaced just before Monday’s close. They had earlier slumped as low as 10.92, their lowest for three years.

“Even the so-called ‘safe’ banks like StanChart and HSBC seem to be crumbling, with their reputation in tatters. No one, it seems, is immune,” said one institutional investor, who asked not to be named.

“Some of the language used is very disturbing. Of course, it could be that the Americans are exaggerating, but somehow that doesn’t seem to be the case here,” the investor said.

A fund manager for a major institutional shareholder in the bank, however, commented that “sensational language” used by the regulator “diminished” its allegations. …more

Come-on Pepe, the issue regarding Iran Nuclear Weapons is really about “containing Iranian” and its regional influence as well as curbing the influence or Russia and China. The nukes are just a scare tactic that helps grease the skids of ‘popular support’ to make war more acceptable to the people who will have to foot the bill and suffer the consequences of Western oil greed and weapons market adventurism. – Phlipn.

Bomb Iran fever
Pepe Escobar – THE ROVING EYE – 8 August, 2012 – Asia Time

Where’s the great Christopher Walken when we need him? “I’ve got a fever! And the only prescription is … Bomb Iran!” That’s the story, at least in Israel. Fever pitch will rule at least for the next six months.

This past weekend, the Israel Hayom newspaper – financed by casino mogul and Mitt Romney groupie Sheldon Adelson – dedicated a whole supplement to the fever. Lead articles had titles such as “Bomb or Bombing: Poker with the Cards Close to the Vest.”

Yet earlier last week, a leak to the Yediot Ahronot daily revealed that the cream of Israel’s military leaders are against war on Iran – known in its aseptic version as “preemptive strike”.

It’s an impressive cast of characters. Here we have chief of the general staff Benny Gantz; the chief of operations of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Ya’akov Ayash; Tamir Pardo, the head of Mossad; Aviv Kochavi, in charge of Aman, the military intelligence directorate; the department heads of Mossad; the head of the Israeli Air Force Amir Eshel; not to mention at least four ministers of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s eight-man “kitchen cabinet”.

There are qualifiers. Some admit they would only support an attack on Iran if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei – or International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors – announced a major weaponization game changer. Some others admit they will only support an attack if the US is on board; that’s the case of retired Mossad heads Meir Dagan and Efraim Halevy and former chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi. …more

URGENT REPORT: IMMINENT DISPLACEMENT PLANNED, GROWING TERROR IN SAN MARCOS AVILÉS
From the Movement for Justice in El Barrio, New York

August 6, 2012

Compañer@s:
Greetings to you all from Movement for Justice in El Barrio, the Other Campaign New York.
In view of the seriousness of the latest acts of hostility and aggression in the community of San Marcos Avilés, the Zapatista support bases (BAZ) have urged us to share this report with you:

FIRST: We report that, at this very moment, a NEW FULL DISPLACEMENT of the BAZ community of San Marcos Avilés is being planned, to be carried out within the next few days by local party supporters, members of the ‘attack group’ that has plagued the BAZ of San Marcos Avilés since 2010. The party supporters are meeting in extraordinary assemblies to discuss these matters.

With arrogance and hatred, they have made public this violent plan of displacement. At the same time, according to information sent from San Marcos Avilés, it is reported that these party supporters are trying to get more people from the communities of Panteló, Corralito, and La Providencia to help them carry out the displacement. Furthermore, they have boasted that they feel very capable of doing this, as the candidate Leonardo Guirao Aguilar (PVEM) won the recent local elections in the Municipality of Chilón, and the PRI won at the federal level.

Here we publish the names of the members of this ‘attack group’, according to the reports, and their respective political affiliations:

· Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez of the PVEM; Vicente Ruiz López of the PRI; José Cruz Hernández of the PRI; Manuel Díaz Ruiz of the PVEM; Carmelino Hernández Hernández of the PRI; Ernesto López Núñez, Ejidal Commissioner, of the PRI; Manuel Vázquez Gómez, Security Board, of the PRI; Aristeo Núñez Ruiz of the PRI; Alejandro Núñez Ruiz of the PRI.

Recently, in addition to the announcement of the plan for displacement, there has been a worrying increase in abuse, destruction of flowers and crops, and theft in the community. As a result of these acts of aggression, the BAZ do not have enough food for this year.

These reports confirm once again what we have always known, that these attacks are part of the plan of extermination which has been carried out since 1994 against the indigenous Zapatista population. Today it is more urgent than ever to disseminate the truth about the situation in San Marcos Avilés, the repression from the bad government, and the dignified resistance of all the Zapatistas.
SECOND: We report that many people from around the world have already joined our worldwide campaign, forming “Committees of the True Word” in their respective communities. A direct result of this is that we now have content on the San Marcos Avilés website in NINE LANGUAGES! : Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, German, Bulgarian, Japanese, Italian, and Greek. …more

A mosque burned to the ground in Missouri on Monday, in what worshippers suspect was a hate attack, less than a day after six people were killed in a shooting at a Sikh temple.

US mosque burned to ground
6 August, 2012 – Telegraph UK

Firefighters and police were called to a blaze at the Islamic Center in Joplin, Missouri – where around 125 members of the local Muslim community pray – at around 3:40am (0840 GMT), according to the FBI’s Kansas City office.

“The building was completely destroyed,” said Sharon Rhine, a spokesman for the local Jasper County Sheriff’s office. No one was wounded in the incident.

“No one was apprehended. They don’t want to call it a hate crime without information or knowledge of having someone to charge,” Rhine said.

Monday’s fire followed an attack on July 4, when an unidentified suspect threw a petrol bomb onto the roof of the same mosque, causing minor damage.

The mosque’s surveillance cameras captured an image of the assailant’s face, and the FBI offered a $15,000 (£9,600) reward for information related to the July incident, but no one has been apprehended.
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“It does seem coincidental that there was a fire a month ago and there was another one this month,” Rhine said.

FBI spokesman Bridget Patton said both incidents occurred in the middle of the night, but said the FBI would “wait to determine the cause of the fire.”

“If it is determined that the attack was intentional, we will conduct and investigation to see if there is any correlation between this fire and that of July 4,” Patton added.

Local community members say this is one of a series of attacks on their mosque since it was founded in 2007.

“Since the establishment of the mosque, we’ve been constantly under attack,” said former mosque board member Navid Zaidi, 47. “Our sign has been burnt … Our mailbox was smashed multiple times. We had bullets shot at our sign.”

Zaidi says the local community is lucky the attack occurred in the early morning, when no one was there.

“During Ramadan is a time when more people attend the services. We are fortunate that no one was hurt today,” he said, referring to the ongoing Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer.

Zaidi complained that no suspects have been apprehended in the month since the July 4 attack. “I don’t recall in my 27 years in the US, ever seeing perpetrators apprehended,” he said. …source

Bahrain: Pregnant woman attacked by regime forces whilst breaking fast
7 August, 2012 – Global Movement of Resistance

Bahraini regime forces raided two homes in Sanad last night, brutally assaulting a woman in the process. They verbally insulted another women whilst aiming their guns at others.

On Friday 3rd August the Darkness Gangs raided a home at dusk, as people were preparing to break their fast, insulting, attacking and humiliating those inside.

In an inhumane and outrageous way, Darkness Gangs brutally attacked a pregnant woman by kicking her in the stomach and insulting her with all manner of disrespectful words, showing a lack of any moral or religious values. Such actions reveal the appalling mentality of the security forces that behave more as thugs in a gang than a decent security system.

The gang that raided the home consisted of both civil police and riot police, with one member pointing a gun at a group of people who had gathered near the house.

The regime forces, raiding homes, assaulting citizens and more, are continually perpetrating such violations.

The regime is consistently targeting women in a disrespectful manner that is angering the Bahraini community.

Last night’s attack comes less than 24 hours after the authorities stopped Ahlam Al-Khozaei from travelling to Tunisia to participate in a human rights conference organised by Amnesty International. They arrested her from the airport and transferred her to a police station to be interrogated, before releasing her some hours later.

In addition, the regime forces arrested activist Zeinab Al-Khawaja whilst she was protesting peacefully yesterday evening, as well as a large number of other protesters for participating in a protest that had been banned by the regime. …source

Bahraini-U.S. Relations Dripping With Delusion
4 August, 2012 – The Trench

Several days ago Bahrain’s Crown Prince, Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, praised the virtues of compassion and tolerance during an Iftar dinner with his fellow citizens at the Interior Ministry. Religion has always made for good politics and the communal symbolism of Iftar would conceal the Prince’s true objective: speaking to the United States Congress.

Evidence of a coordinated politico-info assault is strewn across this week’s information battlefield. Syncing ahead of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, which “assessed Bahrain’s progress in implementing the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI),” a lobbyist op-ed from Bahraini Ambassador Houda Ezra Nonoo would copy and paste the essence Salam’s speech to the U.S. media. Multiple U.S. officials answered the monarchy’s call on Wednesday, rushing to King Hamad Isa bin Al-Khalifa’s defense and going through comical lengths to polish his statue. Indiana Congressmen Dan Burton announced that “acts of violence perpetrated by extremists and protestors prompt reaction from the Government,” arguing, “The subjective concept of unjustified attacks, often used by the media, plays into the hands of one side solely.”

Congressman Burton, through no coincidence, lobbied for his Royal Highness the Crown Prince “to engage a fruitful multiparty national dialogue, a step which was rejected by the opposition.”

Yet no U.S. official could top the prepared statement of Michael Posner, Assistant US Secretary of State and de facto ambassador to Bahrain. Treating the island’s uprising with the same subjectivity that Washington accuses the opposition and international media of (as if Bahrain receives excessive coverage), Posner would regurgitate the monarchy’s own PR campaign instead of forming an independent assessment. Bahrain, he claims, is more stable than it was a year ago and King Hamad “deserves great credit” for implementing the BICI. Of grotesque interest is the open-face duplicity of Washington and Manama – overt authoritarian statements that “the U.S.-Bahrain relationship is particularly important in the face of rising threats from Iran.”

According to reports displayed prominently by state media, “Posner also asserted that his country’s longstanding alliance with Bahrain is based on shared political, economic, and security interests, noting that ‘because of this important strategic relationship that we have devoted so much attention to Bahrain in the last 18 months.'”

Self-determination and universal rights need not apply.

Posner claimed that normality is gradually returning to Bahrain as the monarchy implements its “reforms,” another statement that triggered a large amount of ridicule from activists. The Secretary has dug himself into a deep hole by regularly defending the monarchy and his timing only throws more dirt on his face. “Normal” happened on Friday: security forces smothering “The People Demand Self-Determination” demonstration held across Manama, resulting in dozens of arrests and injuries. Multiple opposition sources and journalists report that the majority of protests were met with force, contrary to the Prince’s appeal to “last resort.” In a particularly inflammatory act, security forces arrested leading activist Zainab al-Khawaja after she began a solitary sit-in and allegedly burned a picture of King Hamad.

Oppositional sources claim that she was harassed after being detained.

The monarchy’s violent response to Salman’s speech demonstrates the marginal influence that he continues to wield beneath Bahrain’s hawkish personalities, along with the futility of Washington’s own position behind him. Conversely, the brave and ceaseless actions of al-Khawaja, who has been arrested multiple times for “illegally protesting,” point to a distressing reality. Having been the first bloc to demand total regime change, the February 14th Coalition’s network now counts independent activists such as the al-Khawajas and Nabeel Rajab amongst their ideological supporters, in turn forcing the oppositional Al Wefaq to support a deeper level of change than its current platform adopted. Given this escalating trend, the monarchy is dangerously close to pushing Bahrain’s opposition past the point of no return.

The conflict will then expand beyond Washington or Manama’s contingencies, turn increasingly lethal and potentially generate a real threat to the King’s throne. …more

Iranian FM to deliver warning to Turkey
7 August, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi will pay a snap visit to Turkey late Tuesday for talks on the Syrian crisis and 48 Iranians kidnapped in Syria, officials and the media said.

The Iranian foreign minister wanted to visit Turkey “at his own request,” which was conveyed through diplomatic channels late Monday, a Turkish diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Salehi will have talks with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara, with the Syria conflict topping the agenda, he added.

“Considering that the Free Syrian Army – which claims to have abducted the Iranian pilgrims – is backed by Turkey, the visit by the foreign minister aims to warn and remind the Ankara government of its responsibilities in this matter,” the Iranian foreign ministry said as cited by the official news agency IRNA.

The Iranians were kidnapped on Saturday by unidentified “armed terrorist groups” as they were traveling in a bus to the airport in Damascus, according to the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital and the Syrian state news agency SANA.

It was the single biggest abduction of Iranians since the start of the Syrian uprising in March last year.

Syrian rebels said on Monday that three of the kidnapped Iranians had died during the abduction, and threatened to kill the remaining 45 unless the Syrian army halts its operations.

Salehi telephoned his Turkish and Qatari counterparts, Davutoglu and Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir Al Thani, late Saturday to request their assistance.

And Davutoglu responded by promising “to study the issue and to carry out efforts as in previous cases,” the Iranian media reported.

Turkey and Iran are at the opposite ends of the Syrian crisis. Ankara has been at the forefront of the international criticism against the Damascus regime’s deadly response to the popular uprising, while Tehran is one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s few allies.

In addition to taking in more than 45,000 Syrian refugees in several camps along its southern border provinces, Turkey is also providing sanctuary to members of the rebel forces made up of army defectors, as well as the hardline Muslim Brotherhood. …source

Bahrain policeman hurt in petrol bomb attack
7 August, 2012 – Agence France Presse

DUBAI: A Bahraini policeman was injured when his patrol was petrol-bombed in a village where Shiites frequently stage protests and clash with security forces, the BNA state news agency said on Tuesday.

It said a policeman “suffered medium burns in several parts of his body when a group of terrorists attacked” his foot patrol in Bani Jamra late on Monday, adding that the assailants threw Molotov cocktails.

“The injured policeman was rushed to hospital to undergo treatment,” it quoted a police official as saying. “Police have launched an investigation to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

The authorities often accuse Shiite protesters in the Gulf kingdom of using petrol bombs against security forces during demonstrations in villages outside the capital Manama.

Sporadic protests have intensified since a March 2011 crackdown ended month-long protests in Manama’s main Pearl Square demanding democratic reforms in the Sunni-ruled Shiite-majority state.

On Friday, authorities said an interior ministry bus was attacked by petrol bombs near Bani Jamra, as witnesses reported clashes there between security forces and demonstrators.

Rights group Amnesty International says 60 people have been killed since the protests first erupted in Bahrain in February last year.

…source

Three Iranians abducted by armed gangs in Syria killed
shiapost – 6 August, 2012

Three of the Iranian pilgrims, who were kidnapped by armed insurgents near the Syrian capital of Damascus, have been killed, Reuters reports.

The so-called Free Syrian army has threatened to kill the rest of the pilgrims if the Syrian military does not stop attacking them.

Forty-eight Iranian pilgrims, who were traveling on a bus from Damascus International Airport to the shrine of Hazrat Zainab (AS) on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, were abducted by insurgents on August 4.
The insurgents who have abducted the Iranian pilgrims had claimed that the hostages are members of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) by simply referring to their military discharge cards.

An informed official at Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday vehemently dismissed the reports by certain Arabic-language news networks that the Iranian pilgrims were military members.

On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called his Turkish and Qatari counterparts Ahmet Davutoglu and Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir Al Thani and asked for their assistance in securing the release of the hostages. …more

Iran Says West Manipulates Concepts Of Human Rights And Democracy
6 August, 2012 – eurasiareview

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has lashed out at the West for manipulating the concepts of human rights and democracy to achieve its political objectives.

“The West talks of human rights, but has kept silent on the killing of the people of Palestine and Bahrain; and wherever there is a terrorist incident, the footprints of Western intelligence organizations can be traced,” said Mehmanparast.

“The Americans abuse the concept of democracy,” he noted.

The Iranian diplomat lashed out at the Western double standards on democracy, saying the West only lends support to democratic rights wherever its interests necessitate.

Mehmanparast pointed to the US invasion of Afghanistan under the pretext of countering terrorism and noted that Afghanistan is still grappling with the issue of terrorism in spite of the fact that over 110,000 Afghans have lost their lives over the course of the US-led war in the country.

He warned of Washington’s media tactics aimed at achieving its hegemonic objectives, saying, “If the US seeks to invade a country, it will first take the preliminary measures in the media; [therefore] we should not allow the Western media to distort the realities of the world.” …source

Bahrain societies urged to renounce violence
5 August, 2012 – Khaleej TImes

Bahrain has called upon political societies to completely renunciate street violence at disturbed villages.

During a meeting with political societies on Saturday, Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Minister, Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, called for an unequivocal condemnation of violence, stressing the necessity not to harbour the perpetrators or condone their heinous acts.

The heads and representatives of political societies outlined their vision regarding political development in Bahrain, stressing the need to reach common understandings towards ensuring further progress through constitutional institutions.

Shaikh Khalid stressed the need to steer internal affairs away from regional conflicts, sectarian polarisation, foreign mediation and interference. “The Kingdom is capable of addressing its affairs and working hand in hand to promote its fledgling democratic experience and consolidate national achievements for the sake of all citizens”, he said.

Meanwhile, US Congressman Dan Burton has accused Bahrain’s opposition societies of misleading the US public opinion. The remarks were made during a recent meeting of a US Congress Committee that hailed the progress achieved by the Government in the Kingdom of Bahrain last year.

He urged the US leaders and media to monitor the situation in deep insight, not to be misled by those who are adamant on tampering with the truth.

“The subjective concept of unjustified attacks, often used by the media, plays into the hands of one side solely — the opposition in this regard — thus ignoring the causality between actions and reactions at lesser level,” he said.

Dan Burton takes detour around ethics
3 August, 2012 – IndyStar

Rep. Dan Burton hit a low point in a congressional career riddled with embarrassing errors in judgment when he cast the only negative vote on sweeping ethics legislation passed by the U.S. House in 2007.

The retiring veteran’s high-flying ways as a junketeer don’t seem to have been much affected by the law he so brazenly opposed.

Abetted by a House Ethics Committee that seems unable to wield the club it’s been given, Burton in April took a $20,966 trip to Bahrain with his wife on the tab of an organization created by a lobbying group.

Burton, in turn, took to the House floor to plug Bahrain’s government, which has been on a public-relations offensive amid widespread criticism of its harsh treatment of pro-democracy demonstrators.

Hair-splitting cleared Burton for takeoff. The rules adopted in 2007 in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal forbid lawmakers from accepting travel funds from anyone who employs a lobbyist. The Bahrain American Council, which paid for the trip, employs no lobbyists. But it was formed by, and shares offices with, Policy Impact Communications, a lobbying outfit with which Burton has had dealings before.

To Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen, the ethics committee has “turned the rules on their head” by allowing this end run. To be sure, the committee has built a reputation for extending such leniency to both parties.

Neither the committee nor Burton’s office would respond to ProPublica, the news agency that prepared the story, published Friday in The Star, about the 5th District congressman.

Burton, as third-ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, would be a decent catch for the embattled Bahraini regime — but for the fact he’s in his last year in office after losing the support of his own party in large part because of his self-serving, polarizing behavior.

If he nevertheless felt his host’s cause and his own influence were so weighty, Burton could have asked taxpayers to pay for his travel expenses and avoided one more plunge into the pool of perks offered by foreign interests that obviously want something in return. At least that would have capped his 30 years with a show of independence and sound judgment. Instead, he went for consistency. …source