The West Conspires Against Bahrain While Exploiting Syria
By: Ali Mushaima – 21 September, 2012 – Uprooted Palestinian

“If you need something done, then do it yourself.” This saying best describes what many of the oppressed and downtrodden are doing in the region by rising up against their repressive regimes.

These people lived through many years of humiliation, deprivation and discrimination, as well as being subjected to torture and abuse by their tyrannical rulers, who often enjoyed the support and protection of major world powers. Muammar Gaddafi became a close friend to Westen leaders and Hosni Mubarak as seen as a wise ruler.

But as soon as this changed – thanks to the revolution and the strong will of the people – “those who were followed disowned those who followed them, then they saw the torment, and all their relations were cut off from them,” as the Quran says.

The very same world powers now portray themselves as sponsors and backers of the right to self-determination and democracy, providing men and material for these noble goals, while continuing in their old ways by supporting some of the most reactionary and obscurantist regimes in the world – the Saudi and Bahraini ruling families.

The events unfolding in Syrian are proof of this fact. If an observer examines the Western position on the Syrian crisis from the perspective of a Bahraini, they would see with their own eyes how Western attitudes differ under one roof – acting here, while remaining silent over there.

Below are six important facts to consider regarding the Western position on Syria and Bahrain, and the future of the peoples and regimes of both countries – amid Western duplicity and double standards.

Firstly, in Syria, Western governments are putting pressure on the Syrian regime at all levels, in support of democracy and the oppressed, as they purport. The Syrian regime thus finds itself caught in a confrontation with the international community, which repeats slogans about freedom and human rights, ad nauseam.

In Bahrain, meanwhile, the same international powers are battling the people, instead of the regime. Their political leaders rarely condemn, denounce or reject the practices of the house of Khalifa against the people of Bahrain. By contrast, it is all too often said that the Khalifa regime is a strategic ally that must be protected at any cost.

Secondly, for Western political leaders, everything is justifiable for the sake of imposing democracy in Syria. For this reason, armed insurrection is fully sanctioned to attain this goal, and logistical support is readily provided for this aim, with efforts to impose a no-fly zone or even intervene militarily in order to assist the Syrian people.

Meanwhile, in Bahrain one of the biggest taboos of the defenseless people there is for them to resist, burn tires, throw stones or fight bullets with Molotov cocktails. Whenever an American or British delegate visits Bahrain, he or she condemns violence, demands that the opposition do the same, and even expresses support for the regime’s security measures in the name of stability.

These measures include, on a daily basis, raids against homes, the detention of children, assaults against women, violations of holy sites, erecting checkpoints, torture, naturalizing foreigners working for the security forces, expelling students and employees, and prosecuting activists and opposition members.

Ultimately, the goal behind all of these abuses against a defenseless people is to protect the dictatorial regime of the Khalifa ruling clique.

Thirdly, in Syria, the army is completely made up of the country’s own citizens, who are engaging armed rebels and militants that come from various Arab and Islamic countries to fight on Syrian soil.

In Bahrain, the crackdown is carried out by security officers and the Khalifa’s army, both of which consist of a majority of naturalized mercenaries, many of whom do not even speak Arabic. They carry out their campaign of repression with the protection of a foreign Saudi army, and in full sight of the US Fifth Fleet, which is based on this small island-nation.

Worse yet, the Khalifas security forces are overtly led by British and American intelligence officers, such as John Yates and John Timothy.

Fourth, in Syria, the West is heading off any political settlement, dialogue or engagement with the Syrian regime, as this would be inconsistent with their stated goal of toppling the regime and liberating the country.

In Bahrain, the international community heaps pressure on the opposition to force it to engage in a conditional and one-sided dialogue meant to keep the current Khalifa prime minister in the same post he has been occupying for over 40 years. This is while key opposition figures are kept in prison, with no trials for the murderers and torturers – and all violence that has been perpetrated goes unpunished.
This conditional dialogue would involve allowing the Saudi army to remain, as an occupation army, to protect the dictatorship in Bahrain.

The West has also showered praise on the regime in Bahrain for establishing a fact-finding commission, which went on to produce an ambiguous report that practically exonerated the ruling family.

In Syria, the UN observer mission and the efforts of international envoy Kofi Annan failed to bring about any breakthrough. Lakhdar Brahimi will probably not fare much better than his predecessor either.

Fifth, in Bahrain’s uprising, when compared to other “Arab Spring” countries, we have the largest proportion of the population participating. The opposition has been violently suppressed, despite the fact that since the revolt began on14 February 2011, it has remained largely peaceful, as attested to by all international news agencies, without exception.

The irony is that, when it comes to Syria, the most dictatorial, repressive and corrupt regimes, according to Western standards, are at the top of the list of countries supporting the Syrian people’s right to self-determination.

Saudi Arabia occupies Bahrain to preserve the dictatorial regime there, but sends its forces to the Syrian border and supports the armed rebellion to impose democracy there. The victims in both countries are the people.

Finally, in Syria, there is proxy war raging between forces opposed to Western and American policies – led by Iran and Russia – and the United States and its allies, both in the West and the Arab world. This war uses Syrian blood and lives as fodder, and is fuelled by Gulf oil money.

Bahrain is also caught in a geopolitical struggle. But the difference is that the island has no borders to which supporters can flock, or smuggled weapons that the local people can use to defend themselves. There are no military bases except those that are in the hands of the Khalifa regime, supported by foreign armies.

The West perceives its inconsistent position toward the two uprisings as sound, believing that its approach helps engender the kind of stability that favors its dominance of the region.

It is not only Syria – which borders occupied Palestine – and Bahrain – located in the heart of the Gulf monarchies and adjacent to Iran – that the West is targeting. The conspiracy is against all the Arab people, with Western powers using different means and methods that are commensurate with the strategic and economic significance of each country.

Concerning the reactionary regimes of the region, they only support these uprisings with a view to contain them or eliminate them, under the guise of protecting them, for two main reasons.
First, a regime like the Saudi one is horrified by the prospect of these uprisings spreading to its territory. And second, the foundations of the Saudi regime were built with Western support and cover, and not a popular or religious one, as we are led to believe.

For this reason, Riyadh’s interests are closely linked to Western ones. No uprising that began during the “Arab Spring” can achieve its goals with help of such backers, as these regimes are betting against them to begin with.

Ali Mushaima is a Bahraini opposition activist. …Source

Bahrain Monarchy Openly Defies the UN
The Trench – 22 September, 2012

Last Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations Human Rights Council opened its doors for a day of comedy and political theater. Among the orders of business at the UNHRC’s 21st Session: a list of 176 recommendations to help Bahrain’s monarchy “improve the treatment of political activists, offer fair trials and ensure religious freedom.” Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa was on hand to play his part, gladly accepting the majority of recommendations as though he was being handed a trophy for model governance.

“Our actions, more than our words, should dispel any doubts regarding my government’s commitment to upholding human rights through the rule of law,” he said. “Let us follow the path of dialogue, not propaganda.”

Accordingly, Bahrainis shouldn’t follow their Foreign Minister’s trail of disinformation. In terms of strategy and tactics, however, one must give credit where credit is due. One of many pawns deployed by King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister would participate in a full-scale information attack simultaneously coordinated with and directed against the international community. The King led his own assault on the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), “hailing the approval of the Periodic Review Report as a landmark national achievement for Bahraini people and evidence reflecting the international community’s vote of confidence for the Kingdom’s reform steps and commitment to its international obligations.” Numerous ministers (and ally Saudi Arabia) rallied behind him to exploit Bahrain’s guinea pig status, lauding the country’s commitment to human rights amid the open wound of a suppressive counterrevolution. Foreign Minister Al-Khalifa, for example, placed UNHRC Commissioner Navy Pillay in his pocket when “affirming Bahrain’s keenness on continuing the reform process.”

Also entering the fray: the hawkish uncle of King Hamad and Prime Minister of 41 years, Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

A leading critic of Bahrain’s democratic uprising, the Premier, “described the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s approval of the kingdom’s Universal Periodic Review report as an honorable international legal achievement and a new proof of the government’s success in every field, especially regarding the protection of human rights and dignity, stressing that it is a positive and explicit response to the attempts to distort Bahrain’s rich legal record.”

Given these statements and the accumulation of repression since February 2011, Bahrain’s monarchy is demonstrably committed to human rights – abuses. The regime’s pushback against abolishment of the death penalty illustrates the absurd focus of its public defense. This amplified debate conveniently ignores the fact that fair trials and political freedom remain scarce commodities within Bahrain’s opposition, especially when many opposition leaders and their supporters reside in prison cells. Weeks ago a Bahrain High Court struck down a group of activists’ appeals and charged them with plotting an Iranian-sponsored coup. Only one defendant had the latter charge dropped; he was suspected of organizing “40 warships Iran was planning to send to Bahrain to support an attempted coup.”

Meanwhile Nabeel Rajab, possibly the country’s foremost democratic activist, has been jailed for three years (for instigating protests) and abused in prison as he awaits a hollow appeals process. Zainab Al-Khawaja joins her father, opposition leader Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, in prison after being arrested for staging a solitary protest in Manama. She has been jailed at least six times since February 2011 and physically beaten on more than one occasion. Since these efforts to decapitate the opposition’s leadership have failed to stop the streets from mobilizing, the oppositional Al Wefaq has also been banned from holding large-scale protests in the capital and is now being threatened with a government lawsuit. Many of its ranking members, including Secretary-General Ali Salman, have already been assaulted on the streets and at their homes.

All those who protest against Hamad’s rule continue to labor under a gassy, black-clad curtain of security repression. Maryam Al Khawaja, Zainab’s sister and acting president of Rajab’s Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), warned from the UNHRC’s sidelines: “Use of excessive force is still a tool for suppressing daily protests, with unprecedented use of tear gas during protests and inside residential areas.”

“The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) released their report on the 23rd of November, 2011 which was unwavering in its criticism of the regime’s conduct, and highlights the systematic torture, human rights violations, and a culture of impunity which characterized the government’s handling of the protests,” reads the BCHR’s latest account of human rights violations. “King Hamad vowed to address and correct these violations, but to date these promises have proven to be empty. Almost one year has passed since the publication of the BICI report, and the people of Bahrain have seen no progress, and no peace.”

The inability of Bahrain’s monarchy to join its words with actions forced a slightly sharper tone from Washington during Wednesday’s session. Addressing the UNHCR on behalf of America was Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and de facto ambassador during Bahrain’s uprising. Posner welcomed the government’s initial steps to reform and pursue accountability before saying that “much more needs to be done,” even criticizing police for overreacting to protesters and “using excessive force.” This cycle drives peaceful and military resistance alike, and must be ended in order for Bahrain to stabilize. …more

Iran to Host Conference on Violation of Human Rights in Bahraini Jails
23 Septemebr, 2012 – FARS

TEHRAN (FNA)- An Iran-based human rights group plans to hold an international conference on violation of human rights in Bahrain’s jails with different Bahraini opposition groups and human rights activities in attendance.

The International Union of Unified Ummah (Community) announced on Sunday that the conference will be held in five cities of Iran from October 4-6.

Different Bahraini opposition figures and a number of European human rights activists will discuss the ongoing violation of human rights in Al Khalifa jails.

Alireza Komeili, one of the conference organizers, said more than 2,500 people are in Manama regime’s jails, and added that the recent harsh sentences issued for Bahraini protesters and opposition leaders are in “not tolerable at all”.

Earlier this month, a Bahrain court upheld jail terms against the 13, including seven facing life in prison, on charges of plotting to overthrow the monarchy, lawyers said.

The 13 have been arrested during popular protests in the country.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the al-Khalifa dynasty.

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

So far, tens of protesters have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

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

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

Libyan security forces head to a compound which had been taken over by an armed group in Tripoli September 23, 2012. Libya’s army on Sunday ordered rogue armed groups in and around Tripoli to leave state and military premises or be ejected by force, apparently seeking to capitalize on the withdrawal of militias from Benghazi and Derna.

Libya militia crackdown spreads to Tripoli
23 September, 2012 – By Imed Lamloum – Agence France Presse

TRIPOLI: A Libyan crackdown on lawless militias spread to the capital on Sunday after armed groups that have not been integrated into state institutions were ordered to disband and evacuate their bases.

The army said in an online statement that its forces had dislodged a militia from a military complex on the highway to Tripoli International Airport, arresting militiamen and confiscating their weapons.

Gunfire was heard in the area at 9 am (0700 GMT) for less than a minute, an AFP journalist said, but there were no reports of casualties. A military source later said they were only warning shots.

Members of an armed group which had settled into a couple of villas overlooking the Mediterranean were evicted in the afternoon, the correspondent added.

Dozens of pick-up trucks blocked access to the Regata residential compound as members of the so-called National Mobile Unit of the army entered the complex to eject the militiamen.

An AFP correspondent witnessed from a distance as commanders of the brigade negotiated with the armed men who later were seen leaving the compound without putting up a fight.

“Our mission is to evacuate all public installations and private property occupied by groups who are not under state jurisdiction,” Haj Musa, one of the commanders of the unit, later told AFP.

Earlier an army officer had said these operations would last two or three weeks.

On Saturday, the army issued an ultimatum ordering militias and armed groups to evacuate military compounds, state property and the properties of ex-regime members in and around Tripoli.

“All individuals and armed groups occupying military barracks, public buildings or property belonging to members of the former regime… (must) evacuate these sites within 48 hours,” said the official LANA news agency.

Hundreds of former rebels have taken over strategic, state-owned military and civilian facilities and properties of supporters and relatives of the late dictator Moamer Kadhafi in the wake of his ouster and death last year.

The army warned it would “use force if necessary.”

The Tripoli eviction comes hours after national assembly chief Mohammed al-Megaryef announced the decision to dissolve all militias that do not come under state authority.

Speaking in Benghazi, Megaryef said the authorities had decided to set up an “operations room” in the eastern city to include the army, interior ministry forces and defence ministry brigades comprising former rebels.

He also called on the army to place its own officers to head brigades born out of the 2011 revolt, which escalated into the civil war that toppled Kadhafi.

Crackdown follows murder of US ambassador
…more

Call for release of independent journalist accused of insulting president
24 September, 2012 – Reporters without Borders

Harassment of dissidents has never really stopped since Raúl Castro became president in 2006 but, if they are detained, it is usually for short spells. The arrest of Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, a reporter for the independent Hablemos Press agency, could prove to be the exception and could hark back to an era when dissidents were detained for longer periods.

Martínez was arrested on 16 September and has been held ever since on a charge of insulting the president, which could lead to a three-year prison sentence.

“It is hard to see how the investigation into a spoiled consignment of medicines that Martínez was carrying out at the time of his arrest, or his earlier revelations about cholera and dengue, which the authorities confirmed, could result in a charge of insulting the president,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“This charge is totally absurd, just as any attempt to make an example out of this case will be futile. Information of public interest should be disseminated, discussed and debated. Such a debate is clearly lacking in the official media, one of whose journalists is still detained while others have chosen exile. We call for Martínez’s immediate release.”

Reporters Without Borders added: “The Cuban government must accept civil society’s right to ask questions and report information in accordance with the conventions on civil and political rights it signed in 2008, but has not yet ratified. Will the other members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) remind it of the need to respect this principle?”

Hablemos Press editor Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez tried without success on 21 September to obtain permission to visit Martínez, who was arrested near José Martí international airport. Dissident journalists who were present were threatened with arrest and some were briefly detained.

According to the latest information, Martínez was transferred to Enrique Cabrera Hospital on 20 September for treatment to blows he received to the left eye.

WHO monitoring SARS-like virus in 2 men who had traveled in Saudi Arabia; 1 has died
By Associated Press – 24 September, 2012

LONDON — Global health officials are closely following a new respiratory virus related to SARS that is believed to have killed at least one person in Saudi Arabia and left another person in critical condition in Britain.

The germ is a coronavirus, from a family of viruses that cause the common cold as well as SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed some 800 people, mostly in Asia, in a 2003 epidemic.

In the latest case, British officials alerted the World Health Organization on Saturday of the new virus in a man who transferred from Qatar to be treated in London. He had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and is now being treated in an intensive care unit after suffering kidney failure.

Health officials don’t know yet whether the virus could spread as rapidly as SARS did or if it might kill as many people.

“It’s still (in the) very early days,” said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman. “At the moment, we have two sporadic cases and there are still a lot of holes to be filled in.”

Hartl said it was unclear how the virus spreads. Coronaviruses are typically spread in the air but Hartl said scientists were considering the possibility that the patients were infected directly by animals. He said there was no evidence yet of any human-to-human transmission.

“All possible avenues of infection are being explored right now,” he said.

So far there is no connection between the cases except for a history of travel in Saudi Arabia. SARS was first spread to humans from civet cats in China.

Hartl said no other countries have so far reported any similar cases to WHO.

Other experts said it was unclear how dangerous the virus is.

“We don’t know if this is going to turn into another SARS or if it will disappear into nothing,” said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota. He said it was crucial to determine the ratio of severe to mild cases.

SARS hit more than 30 countries worldwide after spreading from Hong Kong. Osterholm said it was worrying that at least one person with the disease had died. “You don’t die from the common cold,” he said. “This gives us reason to think it might be more like SARS,” which killed about 10 percent of the people it infected. …more

* Dozens arrested after protest outside Qassim prison
* Protesters, including women and children, held in desert overnight
* Second small protest takes place in Riyadh on Monday

Dozens arrested after Saudi prison protest outside Qassim prison
By Asma Alsharif – 24 September, 2012 – Reuters

JEDDAH, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Security forces on Monday detained dozens of men who had staged a protest near a prison in central Saudi Arabia to press for the release of relatives, demonstrators and a rights activist said.

The arrests were made after police had confined the protesters, who included women and small children, to a desert area outside the prison where they were kept without food or water for nearly a day, protesters and activists said.

It was a rare demonstration in the world’s biggest oil exporter, where protests are banned.

Saudi Arabia, which has been a target for al Qaeda attacks, say the protesters’ relatives are all being held on security grounds. But activists say some are also held for purely political activity and have never been charged.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said those accused of “terrorism-related” crimes were undergoing fair judicial process.

“As for the the gathering of a limited number of relatives of the detained people at a prison, they have been stopped according to legal procedures and will be dealt with if they are found in violation of the laws,” the spokesman said.

Activists said police with shields and batons persuaded the protesters at the prison to go home, telling them their message had been heard and their demands would be looked into.

“When we left the ‘Emergency Forces’ followed our cars. They chased us and stopped us to detain the men,” said Reema al-Juraish, a protesters whose husband is in the prison.

“I saw them grab five and when I tried to intervene they pushed me and hit me with a baton.”

She said up to 60 men where arrested and taken to an unknown location.

More than 100 people, including women and children, had staged a one-day protest in the desert around Tarfiya prison in the Qassim province but were surrounded by police. They said they had been kept without food or water for almost a full day.

Police set up checkpoints on the two roads leading to the area and deployed patrols in the desert around it, they said.

UNREST THWARTED

The kingdom, which has almost no elected bodies, avoided the kind of unrest that toppled leaders across the Arab world last year after it introduced generous social spending packages and issued a religious edict banning public demonstrations.

King Abdullah has pushed through some economic and social reforms, including cautious moves to improve the position of women and religious minorities, but he has left the political system untouched.

The world’s top oil exporter is an important ally of Western countries in battling al Qaeda, which carried out a campaign of attacks in the kingdom from 2003-06.

Last year the Interior Ministry said it had put on trial 5,080 of nearly 5,700 people it had detained on security grounds.

In April, a court in Riyadh sentenced rights campaigner Mohammed al-Bajadi to four years in prison after he was accused of forming a human rights association, tarnishing Saudi Arabia’s reputation, questioning the independence of the judiciary, and owning illegal books, activists said. …more

Libya attack a “catastrophic intelligence loss” for Amercia
24 September, 2012 – Al Akhbar

The attack that killed the US ambassador to Libya dealt a huge blow to US intelligence operations because CIA agents and contractors were among the Americans evacuated afterward, the New York Times reported late Sunday.

The CIA’s intelligence targets in unstable Libya included an Islamist militia that some have blamed for the September 11 attack in the eastern city of Benghazi and suspected members of al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate, the paper said.

More than two dozen Americans were rushed out of Libya after the attack that killed ambassador Chris Stevens, three other Americans and 10 Libyan security officers.

They included about a dozen CIA operatives and contractors monitoring a variety of armed groups in the city, the paper reported.

“It is a catastrophic intelligence loss,” it quoted an American official who has served in Libya as saying. “We got our eyes poked out.”

However, the paper quoted another official as saying the United States was still collecting information via other techniques such as informants, intercepting mobile phone conversations and use of satellite images.

“The United States isn’t close to being blind in Benghazi and eastern Libya,” the second official said.

The paper also said that contrary to initial accounts, a consulate annex that was also attacked was never meant to be a “safe house” for the CIA.

Last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced an official review of security at the US mission in Libya.

President Barack Obama’s administration initially said it believed extremists had not really planned the attack in Libya but simply taken advantage of a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islamic trailer to mix in and attack.

The White House for the first time Thursday described the assault as a “terrorist attack” and said it could have links to al-Qaeda.

But a Republican lawmaker, Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, cast doubt Sunday over whether the protests even happened.
…source

Bahrainis demand release of political prisoners
24 ShiaPost – 24 September, 2012

Anti-regime protesters have held new demonstrations across Bahrain to express their solidarity with political prisoners and demand the downfall of the Al Khalifa regime, Press TV reports.

Chanting anti-regime slogans, demonstrators took to the streets in several villages and cities, including Sitra near the capital, Manama, on Sunday.

The protesters expressed solidarity with political prisoners in Bahrain, female political detainees in particular, and demanded that they be freed immediately.

Scores of people have been killed and many others arrested by regime forces since the revolution started in Bahrain last year.

The protests have been continuing since then despite the heavy-handed crackdown by the regime. Saudi Arabia has also been helping the Manama regime crush the popular uprising.

The protesters hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the death of demonstrators during the uprising. …source

Rafsanjani returns to Iran from exile
24 September, 2012 – Al Alkhbar

The son of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani returned to Iran from exile to answer charges of inciting unrest after a disputed election in 2009, fuelling speculation that Rafsanjani’s influence in Tehran may once again be growing.

Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani arrived in Tehran late on Sunday, Fars news agency reported, having spent three years in the United Kingdom following his alleged involvement in the widespread protests that followed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mehdi Rafsanjani had spent several days in Dubai and been expected to return to Iran on Sunday, an independent source told Reuters.

Analysts say his return indicates a deal has been agreed with authorities to resolve the charges he faces, and suggests his father’s political fortunes may be reviving.

Akbar Rafsanjani played a central role in the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran last month, being photographed walking alongside Iran’s most powerful authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sat next to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon.

As oil sanctions continue to bite and with a presidential election set for next year, some are tipping the pragmatic yet conservative Rafsanjani as a surprise candidate.

The Rafsanjanis have faced heightened pressure from hardliners since the 2009 vote, which set off the deepest political crisis and worst unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The former president is one of the founding figures of the Islamic Republic and a close aide to the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

But his backing of opposition candidates in 2009 and sympathy for opposition demonstrators incurred the anger of conservatives and led to a decline in his influence.

Mehdi Rafsanjani’s return comes 24 hours after another member of the powerful and wealthy Rafsanjani family, his sister Faezeh, began a six-month jail sentence for “spreading anti-state propaganda”.

Her conviction at the start of this year is believed to be over an interview she gave to an opposition news site in which she criticized human rights violations and economic policy in Iran. …source

Iran blocks access to Gmail
24 September, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Iran blocked access to Google’s popular and relatively secure Gmail service Monday amid first steps by the Islamic republic to establish a walled-off national intranet separate from the worldwide Internet.

Access to Google’s search page was also restricted to its unsecured version, web users in Iran found.

Attempts to access it using a secure protocol (https) were also blocked.

The curbs were announced in a mobile phone text message quoting Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, an adviser to Iran’s public prosecutor’s office and the secretary of an official group tasked with detecting Internet content deemed illegal.

“Due to the repeated demands of the people, Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice,” the message read.

Google’s own website tracking country-by-country access to its services did not immediately reflect the blocks.

But several residents in Tehran told AFP they were unable to get into their Gmail accounts unless they used VPN (virtual private network) software.

VPNs are commonly used by tech-savvy Iranians to get around extensive online censorship, though bandwidth of connections through the software is routinely strangled and occasionally even cut entirely.

Gmail is used by many Iranian businessmen to communicate and exchange documents with foreign companies. Iran’s economy is suffering under Western sanctions that have cut oil exports and made trade more difficult.

Iranian authorities previously and temporarily cut access to Google and Gmail in February, ahead of March parliamentary elections. …more

Salafist Group Begs Funds for ‘Syrian Revolution’ via Bahraini Martyr Photo
Local Editor – 24 September, 2012

Egyptian salafist group posterAl-Dawa Egyptian salafist group has published a picture of the Bahraini martyr Ahmad Farhan on one of its posters to urge donors to support what it called the “Syrian revolution”.

The group has chosen the picture of martyr Farhan while he was carried by one of the demonstrators to be at the top ads of its media campaign, titled “the one Ummah campaign for the relief of our brothers in Syria.”

Farhan was killed in the island of Sitra, south of the capital Manama, a day after Peninsula Shield Forces entered the country in March 2011.

The slogans of “Syria never bows down,” and “we accept alms for the poor of Syria,” have been also written on the poster.

Martyr Ahmad Farhan, 30, was killed by the Peninsula Shield forces in March by a live bullet which blew his head. Al-Khalifa security forces also arrested the citizen who then brought him to the hospital. …source