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

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.