Total Surveillance: NYPD Launches New All-Seeing ‘Domestic Awareness System’
theintelhub.com – 2 August, 2012

The New York Police Department already has thousands of cameras aimed all over the island of Manhattan, but this literal surveillance state is about to be brought up a notch. The NYPD is teaming up with Microsoft to track action across the city.

Later this week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to come forth with more details about a new surveillance project the head of the NYPD hinted at last week.

In conjunction with engineers at Microsoft, the NYPD will unleash an advanced “domestic awareness system” that will combine its already extensive city-wide surveillance system with law enforcement’s established databases in order to track the moves of suspected terrorists.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly first commented on the program over the weekend at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, but those close to the project have failed to extrapolate much further other than on the basics.

So far little is known about the Domain Awareness System, but an unearthed Public Security Privacy Guidelines memo dated back to 2009 details some of what is to be expected.

According to the memorandum, the Domain Awareness System is designed to implement “technology deployed in public spaces as part of the counterterrorism program” of the NYPD, and will work in tandem with the closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) already used by the force, as well as license plate readers “and other domain awareness devices, as appropriate.”

Currently there are reported no fewer than 3,000 CCTVs operated by the NYPD on just lower Manhattan. …more

New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance
By Naomi Gilens, ACLU – 27 September, 2012

Justice Department documents released today by the ACLU reveal that federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans’ electronic communications, and doing so without warrants, sufficient oversight, or meaningful accountability.

The documents, handed over by the government only after months of litigation, are the attorney general’s 2010 and 2011 reports on the use of “pen register” and “trap and trace” surveillance powers. The reports show a dramatic increase in the use of these surveillance tools, which are used to gather information about telephone, email, and other Internet communications. The revelations underscore the importance of regulating and overseeing the government’s surveillance power. (Our original Freedom of Information Act request and our legal complaint are online.)

Pen register and trap and trace devices are powerfully invasive surveillance tools that were, twenty years ago, physical devices that attached to telephone lines in order to covertly record the incoming and outgoing numbers dialed. Today, no special equipment is required to record this information, as interception capabilities are built into phone companies’ call-routing hardware.

Pen register and trap and trace devices now generally refer to the surveillance of information about—rather than the contents of—communications. Pen registers capture outgoing data, while trap and trace devices capture incoming data. This still includes the phone numbers of incoming and outgoing telephone calls and the time, date, and length of those calls. But the government now also uses this authority to intercept the “to” and “from” addresses of email messages, records about instant message conversations, non-content data associated with social networking identities, and at least some information about the websites that you visit (it isn’t entirely clear where the government draws the line between the content of a communication and information about a communication when it comes to the addresses of websites).

Electronic Surveillance Is Sharply on the Rise

The reports that we received document an enormous increase in the Justice Department’s use of pen register and trap and trace surveillance. As the chart below shows, between 2009 and 2011 the combined number of original orders for pen registers and trap and trace devices used to spy on phones increased by 60%, from 23,535 in 2009 to 37,616 in 2011. …more

The Ubiquitous New Yorker
by Philip Giraldi – 27 September, 2012 – AntiWar.com

Remember the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel who made his mark saving aristos from the guillotine? “They seek him here, they seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel.” Fortunately Baroness Orczy’s creation lived and worked in the eighteenth century. It’s not so difficult to find people these days given the capabilities afforded by high tech methods of intruding into people’s lives and monitoring their activities. Nowadays the Pimpernel would no doubt be detected and detained when using his cell phone or swiping his credit card at a 7-11.

For New Yorkers nostalgic for a reminder of life in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s city, experiencing something from home is not now nearly so elusive. In fact, New York is pretty much anywhere you turn. A little bit of New York has turned up in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and even Williamsburg, Va. It’s in Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Spain, India, the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, and Israel. No, it’s not in the form of a Broadway deli or a Famous Original Ray’s pizza. It’s the New York City Police Department, which proudly displays the motto “Fidelis ad Mortem,” faithful unto death. The NYPD is everywhere.

In the wake of 9/11, the New York City Police Department decided that it had to have its own CIA, so it hired David Cohen, who had recently retired from the Agency. Cohen was a career intelligence analyst who somehow had been appointed Director of Operations by Bill Clinton’s CIA Director, John Deutch, who had taken a shine to him. Cohen suddenly found himself managing the CIA’s spies even though he had only limited exposure to that type of work. Both he and Deutch, an engineer by training, were not surprisingly very unpopular among the rank and file at the Agency. Cohen was replaced after two years in 1997, following on Deutch who had left six months before under a cloud. Deutch admitted to having in his residence “enormously sensitive material” downloaded to his unsecured home-computer. Deutch’s computer was also used for accessing porn sites and for e-mail exchanges with a Russian scientist.

Apparently Cohen’s somewhat shaky credentials were good enough for NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Cohen was named Deputy Police Commissioner of Intelligence, a position that he continues to hold. The intelligence and counterterrorism budget was boosted substantially, reaching $178 million in 2010. Cohen, inexperienced in running either police or intelligence operations, decided to “Take a big net, throw it out, catch as many fish as you can and see what we get.” He attempted to recreate the CIA in miniature, bringing in former Agency officers Larry Sanchez and Marc Sageman and even sending NYPD officer Steve Pinkall to attend courses at the CIA’s clandestine training center “The Farm” near Williamsburg, Va. He also ordered the creation of the force’s “Demographics Unit,” which targeted Muslim groups and communities all over the Eastern United States. Its first job was to map New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut’s ethnic communities in search of “hot spots.” And for ethnic, read Muslim, not Middle Eastern. Coptic Egyptians and Jews of Sephardic origin were automatically excluded from the program.

Muslims who Americanized their names were particularly targeted, placed on special “suspicion” lists. Police informants were introduced into places of worship, into social groups, and even into restaurants. Islamic student groups at 16 colleges were monitored and in some cases infiltrated. It was all done without any liaison with local police forces but the program was exposed in June 2009 when a building superintendent discovered an NYPD safe house and surveillance point in an apartment close to the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick New Jersey. In a subsequent press conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the NYPD’s right to go anywhere in the United States in search of terrorists without informing the local police. …more

Iran unveils ‘indigenous’ drone
by Staff Writers – Voice of Russia – 27 September, 2012

Witness 129 unmanned drone.

Iran has unveiled its own, “indigenous” drone which it said was capable of flying over most of the Middle East, media report. The Witness 129 unmanned drone has a range of 2,000km and can be equipped with bombs and missiles, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps says.

Last year, the Iranian authorities displayed a US drone which they claimed to have brought down electronically. Iran’s state aerospace agency then said it was trying to build a copy of the American unmanned aircraft.

Its unveiling followed a major naval exercise in the Gulf by the US and its allies, to which President Ahmadinejad responded with an ambiguous “We have all the defensive means at our disposal and we are ready to defend ourselves.” …source

Mitt Romney and his neocon advisers want to confront the Muslim world with a “credible military threat” as if more American “tough-guy-ism” will quell the region’s anti-Americanism. But the reality is that the long history of U.S. intervention has engendered the hostility, says the Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland.

The Price of US Interventionism
26 September, 2012 – consortiunmnews.com – By Ivan Eland

The attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four U.S. diplomats, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, is the latest example of tragic blowback from the U.S. government’s interventionist foreign policy in the Islamic world. That it happened on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an even more severe example of such blowback, is a cruel irony.

After 9/11, President George W. Bush told us that Islamist terrorists attack us for “our freedoms.” This contradicted the conclusion of his own Defense Science Board and other expert opinion — including that of the perpetrator of those attacks, Osama bin Laden — that al-Qaeda attacked us for our foreign policy of intervening indiscriminately in Muslim lands.

A map showing the results of the Arab Spring. Dark blue represents government overthrown; red is for civil war; light blue for civil disorder and governmental change; orange for major protests; beige for minor ones; and dark gray for related disorder in neighboring areas. (Graphic produced by User:Brightgalrs)

The enduring lack of introspection on the part of the American government and people about the ill effects of those needless interventions leads to their continuation and consequent unpleasant blowback. Unfortunately, the killing of American personnel in Libya and the attacks on and violent protests at U.S. diplomatic facilities in 20 Islamic countries are examples of this payback.

At the time, critics of the overthrow of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi rightfully asked during the process exactly who made up the opposition the U.S. was supporting and what kind of government would replace him. They held out the possibility of post-Gaddafi instability, tribal warfare, and maybe even an Islamist takeover of the country.

The attack on the U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya is an example of that instability even in an Islamic country with relatively favorable feelings toward America. The new Libyan government was too weak to protect U.S. diplomats and actually blamed the United States for not evacuating its personnel sooner.

Obviously, some Libyan factions aren’t very grateful for the help of Western air power in Gaddafi’s overthrow and continuing Western aid.

However, some would say that it was the Internet film insulting Islam that caused worldwide anti-American violence, not U.S. intervention. Yet the film was only the trigger, and the real underlying issue is U.S. and Western meddling in Islamic lands and culture.

The U.S. superpower has been pursuing an interventionist policy in the Islamic world since World War II — ramping it up even further after 9/11 with the unnecessary invasion of Iraq — and is roundly hated for it, thus making it the target for such blowback attacks, even among peoples the U.S. tried to “help.”

In addition, the Western overthrow of Gaddafi — a long-time nemesis of the United States and West who had recently given up his nuclear program and had begun cooperating with the West, including holding Islamist detainees in his prisons for a U.S. government that had rendered them there — sent the wrong message to other countries thinking about getting or working on nuclear weapons.

The United States showed no respect for non-nuclear Libya or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq but certainly has for nuclear North Korea.

Yet after the seemingly easy overthrow of Gaddafi — using only Western air power supporting an indigenous opposition force, with no need for boots on the ground — pressure is now building for a repeat in Syria. But the blowback attacks in Libya, Egypt, and other Islamic countries should be a cautionary note about what could come after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

Like the heavily armed and rival tribal militias now roaming Libya, Syria has many heavily armed opposition factions, which continue to commit atrocities against civilians and, according to U.S. intelligence, have been infiltrated, and are sometimes commanded, by al-Qaeda.

To illustrate, a doctor recently back from a humanitarian mission in Syria was shocked at the number of radical Islamist fighters in the opposition forces battling the Assad regime. Post-Gaddafi Islamist radicalism should have been no surprise in Libya, because al-Qaeda had always had a high participation rate from Benghazi and eastern Libya, the cradle of the anti-Gaddafi revolution.

After the doctor’s report in Syria, such an Islamist upsurge should be no surprise to the U.S. government in any post-Assad Syria either. Furthermore, overt U.S. military intervention in Syria will do nothing for America’s already very low popularity in the Islamic world. …more

Assange Addresses UN Members, Lambasts Obama’s UN Address for Rewriting History
By: Kevin Gosztola – 26 September, 2012 – The Dissenter

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange addressed members of the United Nations at an event with Ecuador Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino and Center for Constitutional Rights legal director Baher Azmy. He spoke to members on the current status of his asylum case and how the United States currently is engaged in a wide investigation into members of WikiLeaks and others, who the US believes to be connected.

“Despite having been detained for 659 days without charge, I am free in the most basic and important sense,” Assange began. “I am free to speak my mind. This freedom exists because the nation of Ecuador has granted me political asylum and other nations have rallied to support its decision.”

Thanking Ecuador for providing him a platform to speak again at the UN, he noted the “circumstances” were “very different” in comparison to his participation in the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva in 2010, when he spoke about WikiLeaks’ work “uncovering the torture and killing of over 100,000 Iraqi citizens.”

Assange then told members, “Today I want to tell you an American story. I want to tell you the story of a young American soldier in Iraq.” He proceeded to share his thoughts on how the alleged source of WikiLeaks’ most high profile leaks to date had come to decide to provide documents to WikiLeaks.

The soldier showed early promise as a boy, winning top prizes at science fairs three years in a row. He believed in the truth and like all of us he hated hypocrisy. He believed in liberty and the right of all of us to pursue it and happiness. He believed in the values that founded an independent United States.

He believed in Madison. He believed in Jefferson. And he believed in Paine. Like many teenagers, he was unsure what to do with his life, but he knew he wanted to defend his country and he knew he wanted to learn about the world.

Manning entered the military, trained as an intelligence analyst, deployed to Iraq in late 2009 and in Iraq he saw a US military that “did not often follow the rule of law.” It “engaged in murder and supported political corruption.” Assange added, it was there in Baghdad that he allegedly gave to WikiLeaks and the world “details that exposed the torture of Iraqis, the murder of journalists and the detailed killings of over 120,000 killings of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Assange recounted how he had been imprisoned for nine months and abused in Quantico and suffered treatment that UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez had called torture.

Hillary Clinton’s spokesman resigned. Bradley Manning – science fair all-star, soldier and patriot – was degraded, abused and psychologically tortured by his own government. He was charged with a death penalty offense. These things happened to him as the US government tried to break him, to force him to testify against WikiLeaks and me.

Manning, he noted, had been imprisoned for over 850 days without trial. …more

Why Qatar wants to invade Syria
By Pepe Escobar – 28 September, 2012 – Asia Times

Make no mistake; the Emir of Qatar is on a roll.

What an entrance at the UN General Assembly in New York; Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani called for an Arab coalition of the willing-style invasion of Syria, no less.

In the words of the Emir, “It is better for the Arab countries themselves to interfere out of their national, humanitarian, political and military duties, and to do what is necessary to stop the bloodshed in Syria.” He stressed Arab countries had a “military duty” to invade.

What he means by “Arab countries” is the petromonarchies of the Gulf Counter-Revolution Club (GCC), previously known as Gulf Cooperation Council – with implicit help from Turkey, with which the GCC has a wide-ranging strategic agreement. Every shisha house in the Middle East knows that Doha, Riyadh and Ankara have been weaponizing/financing/providing logistical help to the various strands of the armed Syrian opposition engaged in regime change.

The Emir even quoted a “similar precedent” for an invasion, when “Arab forces intervened in Lebanon” in the 1970s. By the way, during a great deal of the 1970s the Emir himself was engaged in more mundane interventions, such as letting his hair down alongside other Gulf royals in select Club Med destinations, as this photo attests (he’s the guy on the left).

So is the Emir now preaching an Arab version of the R2P (“responsibility to protect”) doctrine advanced by The Three Graces of Humanitarian Intervention (Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power)?

This is certainly bound to go down well in Washington – not to mention Ankara and even Paris, considering French president Francois Hollande has just called for UN protection of “liberated zones” in Syria.

As for the Emir’s Lebanon precedent, that’s not exactly uplifting, to say the least. The so-called Arab Deterrent Force of 20,000 soldiers that entered Lebanon to try to contain the civil war overstayed its welcome by no less than seven years, turned into a Syrian military occupation of northern Lebanon, left officially in 1982 and still the civil war kept raging.

Imagine a similar scenario in Syria – on steroids.

A ‘pretty influential guy’

As for the Emir’s humanitarian – not to mention democratic – ardor, it’s enlightening to check out what US President Barack Obama thinks about it. Obama – who defines the Emir as a “pretty influential guy” – seems to imply that even though “he himself is not reforming significantly” and “there’s no big move towards democracy in Qatar”, just because the emirate’s per capita income is humongous, a move towards democracy is not so pressing.

So let’s assume the Emir is not exactly interested in turning Syria into Scandinavia. That opens the way to an inevitable motive – connected to, what else, Pipelineistan.

Vijay Prashad, author of the recent Arab Spring, Libya Winter, is currently writing a series on the Syria Contact Group for Asia Times Online. He got a phone call from an energy expert urging him to investigate “the Qatari ambition to run its pipelines into Europe.” According to this source, “the proposed route would have run through Iraq and Turkey. The former transit country is posing to be a problem. So much easier to go north (Qatar has already promised Jordan free gas).” …more

‘I can’t cool boiling waters in Russia. I can’t be Picasso. I can’t be Jesus. I can’t save the planet single-handedly. I can wash dishes.’ Rachel Corrie, September 2003, before going to Gaza

Nine years since Rachel’s death – and little has changed in Gaza
By Noreen Sadik – New Internationalist

The death of Rachel Corrie in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, nine years ago is not an unusual occurrence. The circumstances of her death are.

Rachel, a 23-year-old American pro-Palestinian peace activist, was volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), when she was crushed by a US-made, Israeli-driven Caterpillar bulldozer almost two months after arriving to Gaza.

Rachel’s parents filed a suit against the Israeli Ministry of Defense. All they asked for was a symbolic $1 for damages and legal expenses. Their search for accountability amounted to nothing when, contrary to witness reports, Judge Oded Gershon said the driver of the bulldozer did not see Rachel. He described Rachel’s death as a ‘regrettable accident’, and concluded that Israel was void of responsibility.

Many years have passed since Rachel died, and the verdict of ‘not guilty’ came out last month. So, you may ask, what is the point of writing this now? Well, over the years the world has seen many changes – political conflicts, environmental disasters, mass murders, economic disasters – but one thing that has not changed is life in Gaza.

Rather than experience the life endured by Palestinians through a television screen from the comfort of her home in the US, Rachel went to Gaza to protect Palestinian homes from being demolished.

According to the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), since 1967, Israel has demolished over 25,000 homes in the West Bank and Gaza, resulting in over 160,000 internally displaced Palestinians. During Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s three-week war against Gaza in 2008-09, a staggering 6,268 houses and 186 greenhouses (and livelihoods) were destroyed. …more

iPhone’s iOS6 considers Jerusalem stateless
27 September, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Apple iPhone’s widely-anticipated operating system, iOS6, does not label Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and instead lists the city as a stateless one.

A non-Israeli Jerusalem represents a shift from previous iPhone operating systems, and is found on the phone’s Apple Maps and World Clock functions. It abides by Jerusalem’s legal status under international law.

The United Nations rules that the highly religious city be under the aegis of the United Nations Trusteeship Council, a body sanctioned to manage non self-governing territories. A General Assembly resolution adopted in 1980 determined Israeli imposition of laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the city to be illegal and therefore null and void, and called on all states to transfer diplomatic missions out of the city. The assembly renewed the resolution in December 2000. …more

Zainab Al-Khawaja To Jail, Bahrain Forces Raid Houses, Attack Protests
Local Editor – 26 Septemebr, 2012 – Moqawama.org

A Bahraini court on Wednesday sent the activist Zainab al-Khawaja to two months in jail under the pretext of finding her guilty of destroying property belonging to the Interior Ministry, a judicial source said.

Zainab, daughter of prominent jailed opposition activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja who is serving a life sentence after he was convicted, had been released in May after serving a one month jail term for allegedly attacking a policewoman at a demonstration.

She had also paid a 200 dinars ($530) fine for having insulted a police officer.

Zainab is also facing two other cases – obstructing traffic on a main road as well as taking part in a gathering and inciting hatred against the regime – for which she will be tried in November, the judicial source told AFP.

Al-Khawaja has been active in holding anti-government protests.

Meanwhile, the Bahraini regime series of attacking peaceful protests continue.

According to al-Wefaq opposition group, the security forces raided more than 8 houses, and vandalized private belongings.
“The number of vandalized cars by the forces totaled to 22,” the party said in its statement.

It further noted that “five citizens were arrested extra judicially amid the crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests that took place in several areas around the country.”

In parallel, the forces used birdshot (internationally prohibited shotgun) against protesters, alongside the heavy use of toxic tear.
Al-Wefaq has documented a large number of asphyxiation cases due to the repeated attacks in densely populated areas.
A number of injuries caused by the direct targeting with tear gas canisters have also been documented.

However, despite the ongoing suppression of freedoms, the demonstrations went on in many areas across the country.
People demonstrated in solidarity with the prisoners of conscience and their families, and demanded that they be released immediately. …source

Activist arrested in New York for defacing anti-Muslim poster
Guardian – Peter Beaumont – 26 September, 2012

Mona Eltahawy, the prominent Egyptian-American writer and activist, has been arrested in New York after spraying paint over a controversial poster on the subway that has been condemned for equating Muslims with “savages”.

The posters were put up in the city by the anti-Muslim American Freedom Defense Initiative, led by Pam Geller. They were approved by a US court, which ruled that they were “political” statements and protected by the first amendment, which guarantees free speech.

The poster states: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.” Between two Stars of David, it adds: “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”

Eltahawy was arrested after a supporter of Geller’s initiative attempted to prevent her defacing the sign with a purple aerosol.

The posters are now displayed in 10 New York stations – including Grand Central and Times Square – after a court ruled that the local transport authority could not refuse the ads.

In a video posted online of the incident by the New York Post, Mona Eltahawy can be seen attempting to paint over the poster before she is tackled by a woman with a camera, who is identified as Pamela Hall.

“Mona, do you think you have the right to do this?” Eltahawy is asked. “I do actually,” Eltahawy replies, adding: “I think this is freedom of expression, just as [the ad] is freedom of expression.”

As the scuffle continues two police officers appear to then arrest Eltahawy, who says: “This is what happens in America when you non-violently protest.”

Eltahawy, who has written for this paper, was later charged with “criminal mischief” and “graffiti”.

During the Arab spring, Eltahawy was arrested in Cairo and suffered an assault by riot police which left her with two broken arms.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) had originally ruled it would not permit the posters because they were demeaning, but was compelled to take the $6,000 (£3,700) ad after Geller’s group went to court.

Last month US district court judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that it is protected speech under the first amendment.

“Our hands are tied,” New York subway spokesman Aaron Donovan said. “Under our existing ad standards as modified by the injunction, the MTA is required to run the ad.”

The posters have attracted widespread condemnation including from Jewish figures. Among those who have spoken out against them is Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, of Rabbis for Human Rights — North America, who wrote for CNN online: “As a rabbi, I find the ads deeply misguided and disturbing … The coded message makes clear who the savages are: those who support jihad, which in Geller’s mind includes all Muslims. She has called Islam ‘an extreme ideology, the most radical and extreme ideology on the face of the Earth’.

“As a Jew, I know the extreme to which baseless hatred can lead. And the Jewish community has been in the past a target of hatred in the United States. Geller’s message ignores the positive contributions that our Muslim friends, neighbours and colleagues make to our country every single day. …more

Freedom of Association in Bahrain
by Sayed Yousif – 26, September 2012 – Sayed Yousif Shehab

The organizations of labor in Bahrain fall into two categories; Trade Unions, which are subject to Trade Unions Law, and Societies, which form civil society organizations working under umbrella of Non-Governmental Organization Law, and overseen by Ministry of Social Development.

After the signing of the FTA with the US, Bahrain adopted some economic and political legislation to comply with the agreement conditions, though it is presented as reform project led by the ruler Hamad Bin Isa, who issued new laws on trade unions, telecommunication, intellectual property, environment, and governmental procurement.

As for trade union, the law which was issued in 2002 assured the right of labor to establish their own unions, nevertheless, it restricts their rights to strike, which shall be approved by three quarter of general assembly, and involve noticing the employer two weeks before commencement. Moreover, it is prohibited in all vital and important facilities, and shall avoid harming the property of the state, which are all unrealistic conditions.

When the law was issued at first, it was prohibiting setting up more than one union in each establishment. Nonetheless, governmental perception started to change after the general strike, which GFBTU called for in support for the majority of citizens who demonstrated at the Pearl Square, demanding political and socio-economic reform. Until that time, the labor movement was dominated by the opposition factions, mainly Shiite Islamists of Al-Wefaq Society and Leftists who support Wa’ad Society. Therefore, and as part of the comprehensive crackdown, the regime attempted to weaken GFBTU as sole representative and the only umbrella for all trade unions across the state by threatening its board of director members, dismissal, and last but not least, through funding competitive GONGO unions such as the Free Federation of Trade Unions, which was found in July, and comprise trade unions from various industries, which violates Article 8 in the amended law, that involve “similarities” between joined unions.
…more

The following article was written by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya before the non-aligned summit. It helps to understand the issues that were at stake and, in retrospect, to appraise Iran’s success. The Movement has been reactivated and a permanent secretariat established, to be chaired for the next three years by Iran, Egypt and Venezuela. Defying the U.S. verboten, the Egyptian President traveled to Tehran. While he vented his disagreement over Syria, in a significant move he also restored diplomatic relations with Iran. Ultimately, Tehran put Cairo in the limelight to nudge it toward an independent stance where it could act as a counterweight to Riyadh.

The NAM Summit, Iran, and Syria: A Coup against the West?
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Voltaire Network – 26 September 2012

The gathering of NAM leaders will doubtlessly be an important event for Iran’s international prestige and status. For almost a week Tehran will be a key center of the world alongside the offices of the UN in New York City and Geneva. Not only will Iran be the venue for one of the largest international get-togethers of world leaders, but it will also be handed over the organization’s chairmanship from Arab powerhouse Egypt. Iran will retain this position as the leader of the NAM for the next few years and will be able to speak on behalf of the international organization. Up to a certain degree this position will allow Tehran to have more influence in world affairs. At least this is the view in Tehran where none of the significance of the NAM summit has been lost on Iranian politicians and officials who one after another are pointing out the importance of the NAM summit for their country.

The NAM is the second largest international organization and body in the world after the United Nations. With 120 full members and 17 observer members it includes most the countries and governments of the world. About two-thirds of the UN’s member states are full NAM members. The African Union (AU), Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization, Commonwealth of Nations, Hostosian National Independence Movement, Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, Arab League, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), South Center, United Nations, and World Peace Council are all observers too.

The US and NATO which very generously and misleadingly throw around the term “international community” when they are referring to themselves are really a global minority that pale in comparison to the international grouping formed by the NAM. Any agreements or consensuses drilled out by the NAM represent not only the bulk of the international community, but also the non-imperialist international majority or those countries that have traditionally been viewed as the “have-nots.” Unlike at the UN, the “silent majority” will have its voice heard with little adulteration and perversion from the confederates of NATOistan.

The NAM gathering in Tehran signifies an important event. It demonstrates that Iran is genuinely not internationally isolated like the images that the United States and major European Union powers, such as the UK and France, like to continuously project. Atlanticist media are scrambling to explain this situation and the Israelis are clearly upset.

Undoubtedly, Iran will use the international gathering to its advantage and make use of the NAM to garnish support for its international positions and to help try to end the crisis in Syria. The US-supported siege of Syria will be denounced at the NAM conference and diplomatic blows will be dealt against the US and its clients and satellites. Already the hurried ministerial conference about the fighting in Syria organized by the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran before the emergency summit held by the OIC in Mecca was a prelude to the diplomatic support that Iran will give the Syrian Arab Republic at the 2012 NAM summit.

Despite Algerian and Iranian opposition, Syria was expelled from the OIC at the behest of Saudi Arabia and the petro-monarchies. While the OIC emergency summit in Mecca may have been a political and diplomatic blow to Damascus, the situation is expected to be much different at the NAM summit in Tehran. The Syrians will also be present in Tehran and able to face their Arab antagonists from the petro-monarchies of the Persian Gulf.

The Genesis of the Non-Aligned Movement and Third World

The Non-Aligned Movement and concept of a “Third World” have their roots in the period of de-colonization after the Second World War when the empires of Western Europe began to crumble and formally end. This superficially represented an end to the domination of the weak by the strong. In reality, colonialism was merely substituted with foreign aid and loans by the declining empires. In this context, the British would offer aid to their former colonies while the French and Dutch would do the same with their former colonies to maintain control over them. Thus, the exploitation never truly ended and the world was maintained in a state of disequilibrium. The United Nations was also hostage to the big powers and ignored many important issues concerning places like Africa and Latin America.

What brought the formation of the NAM about was firstly the rejection of domination and interference by the countries of the “Global North” – a term that will be defined shortly – and the concept of co-existence that India and China carved out in 1954 when New Delhi recognized Tibet as a part of China.

The NAM started as an Asian initiative, which sought to address the tense relations between China and the US on one hand and China’s relations with other Asian powers on the other hand. The newly independent Asian states wanted to avoid any ratcheting up of the Cold War in their continent, especially after the disastrous US-led military intervention in Korea, or the manipulation of India and Indonesia as buffer states against the People’s Republic of China. This Asian initiative quickly broadened and gained the support of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Egypt, and the various leaders of the nationalist independence movements in Africa that were fighting for their liberation against NATO countries like Britain, France, and Portugal.

Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser were the three main forces behind the organization’s creation. Kwame Nkrumah, the Marxist pan-African leader of Ghana, and Ahmed Sukarno, the leader of Indonesia, would also put their weight behind the NAM and join Tito, Nehru, and Nasser. These leaders and their countries did not view the Cold War as an ideological struggle. This was a smokescreen. The Cold War was a power struggle from their perspectives and ideology was merely used as a justification.

The Different Worlds of the Cold War

The word “non-alignment” was first used on the world stage by Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon, India’s ambassador to the United Nations, while the term “Third World” was first used by the French scholar Alfred Sauvy. Third World is a debated political term and some find it both deregulatory and ethnocentric. To the point of confusion the phrase Third World is inextricably intertwined with the concept of non-alignment and the NAM.

Both the NAM and, especially, Third World are wrongly and carelessly used as synonyms for the Developing and Under-developing Worlds or as economic indicators. Most Third World countries were underprivileged former colonies or less affluent states in places like Africa and Latin America that were the victims of imperialism and exploitation. This has led to the general identification or misidentification of the NAM countries and the Third World with concepts of poverty. This is wrong and not what either of the terms means.

Third World was a concept that developed during the Cold War period to distinguish those countries that were not formally a part of the First World that was formed by the Western Bloc and either the Eastern/Soviet Bloc and Communist World that formed the Second World. In theory most these Third Worlders were neutral and joining the NAM was a formal expression of this position of non-alignment.

Aside from being considered Second Worlders, communist states like the People’s Republic of China and Cuba have widely been classified as parts of the Third World and have considered themselves as parts of the third global force. Chairman Mao’s views defined through his concept of Three Worlds also supported the classification of communist states like Angola, China, Cuba, and Mozambique as Third Worlders, because they did not belong to the Soviet Bloc like Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland.

In the most orthodox of interpretations of the political meaning of Third World, the communist state of Yugoslavia was a part of the Third World. In the same context, Iran due to its ties to NATO and its membership in the US-controlled Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) was politically a part of the First World until the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Thus, reference to Yugoslavia as a Second World country and Iran as a Third World country prior to 1979 are incorrect.

The term Third World has also given rise to the phrase “Global South.” This name is based on the geographically southward situation of the Third World on the map as opposed to the geographically northward situation of the First and Second Worlds, which both began to collectively be called the “Global North.” The names Global North and Global South came to slowly replace the terms First, Second, and Third World, especially since the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union collapsed.

Bandung, Belgrade, and Non-Aligned Institution Building

The NAM formed when the Third Worlders who were caught between the Atlanticists and the Soviets during the Cold War tried to formalize their third way or force. The NAM would be born after the Bandung Conference in 1955, which infuriated the US and Western Bloc who saw it as a sin against their global interests.

Contrarily to Western Bloc views, the Soviet Union was much more predisposed to accepting the NAM. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev even proposed in 1960 that the UN be managed by a “troika” composed of the First, Second, and Third Worlds instead of its Western-influenced secretariat in New York City that was colluding with the US to remove Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba from power in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as other independent world leaders.

Fidel Castro and Cuba, which hosted the NAM’s summit in 1979 when Iran joined as its eighty-eighth member, would actually argue that the Second World and communist movements were the “natural allies” of the Third World and the NAM. The favorable attitudes of Nasser and Nehru towards the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc’s support for various national liberation movements also lends credence towards the Cuban argument about the Second and Third World alliance against the capitalist exploitation and imperialist policies of the First World.

The first NAM summit would be held in the Yugoslavian capital of Belgrade in 1961 under the chairmanship of Marshall Tito. The summit in Belgrade would call for an end to all empires and colonization. Tito, Nehru, Nasser, Nkrumah, Sukarno and other NAM leaders would demand that Western Europeans end their colonial roles in Africa and let African peoples decide their own fates.

A preparatory conference was also held a few months earlier in Cairo by Gamal Abdel Nasser. At the preparatory meetings non-alignment was defined by five points:

(1) Non-aligned countries must follow an independent policy of co-existence of nations with varied political and social systems;

(2) Non-aligned countries must be consistent in their support for national independence;

(3) Non-aligned countries must not belong to a multilateral alliance concluded in the context of superpower or big power politics;

(4) If non-aligned countries have bilateral agreements with big powers or belonged to a regional defense pact, these agreements should not have been concluded in context of the Cold War;

(5) If non-aligned states cede military bases to a big power, these bases should not be granted in the context of the Cold War.

All the NAM conferences to follow would cover vital issues in the years to come that ranged from the inclusion of the People’s Republic of China in the UN, the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, African wars of independence against Western European countries, opposition to apartheid and racism, and nuclear disarmament. Furthermore, the NAM has traditionally been hostile to Zionism and condemned the occupation of Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, and Egyptian territories by Israel, which has earned it the seamlessly never-ending aversion of Tel Aviv.

…more

Two killed as Saudi security forces try to arrest Shiite man
27 September, 2012 – Reuters

RIYADH: Two men were shot dead on Wednesday when Saudi security forces stormed a house to arrest a wanted man in the Qatif region, the focal point of unrest by minority Shiite Muslims.

Shiites have demonstrated against what they perceive as systematic discrimination in the Sunni Muslim-dominated kingdom. But Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producer, has avoided the sort of broad uprising that has ousted Arab autocrats elsewhere.

Saudi authorities were trying to arrest one of 23 men who the government said were wanted for stirring unrest in Qatif, where 15 people have been killed since November in clashes and protests.

“He and his companions opened fire on the security forces and, in dealing with the situation as it required, it resulted in the death of the wanted man … and one of his companions, and the wounding of two others and the arrest of a third,” Saudi Press Agency reported, citing the government security spokesman.

The wanted man was identified as Khaled Abdulkarim Hassan al-Labad. Activists in the village of Awamiya in Qatif, the center of Saudi Shiite unrest, said a third man was killed in a car. They distributed photos showing wounds in his neck.

A Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman described that as an unrelated incident in which one man died and another was injured after their vehicle was fired at by unknown assailants.

“It was a separate incident and an investigation is ongoing,” the spokesman said. Preliminary information suggests a person wanted by the security forces for criminal activity in Qatif may have been involved in the attack, he added.
…more

A Typical Day in Bahrain
27 September, 2012 – By Mohamed Bardastani – The Minaret

A couple of years ago, poverty, corruption, dictatorship, inequality, discrimination, unemployment and economic hardship were the main headlines covering the Arab region. Today, many of these struggles still exist. However, now, with a single big change: hope. This hope stems from the aftermath of the Arab Spring, which is a series of revolutionary protests that took place in the Middle East and North Africa. Protests across the Arab world, generally speaking, shared very similar demands. The people protested primarily against the power balance in the Arab region where the few elites control the wealth and power of the country while the rest of the population is completely sidelined from any real involvement in the political decision-making mechanism. The people also demanded greater freedoms and an end to prolonged years of unelected autocrats and dictators.

Ever since the Arab Spring started, I was distanced from it geographically. However, I kept a close eye on the socio-political changes that swept the region. My participation was confined to observing, reading the news and tweeting about the events that took part in the Middle East and North Africa. Things changed as I headed back home to Bahrain for my break in August this year. I found myself this time at the height of the events, and I feel compelled to share my experience.

Just a week after landing in Bahrain, Hussam Al-Hadad, 16, was killed by Bahraini riot police as a result of excessive use of force; mainly bird’s shotgun, an internationally prohibited weapon. He was apparently taking part in clashes between riot police and protesters. First of all, let me explain that Bahrain, as a part of the Arab Spring has been rocked with pro-democracy protests since Feb. 14, 2011. The government dealt with the protests using sheer brutality, and since then clashes between police and protesters have been the norm of Bahrain for the past year and a half.

I decided to go to Hussam’s funeral to honor him. I purposely went very early to Muharraq, where the funeral took place in order to avoid the hassle of being questioned by the police about my destination. Nevertheless, as my friend and I approached Muharraq, there was a police checkpoint. A policeman asked us, “Where are you going?” We replied with our rehearsed, fully memorized answer: “We’re going to the mall.” As if the police didn’t already know from our faces and names (it is very easy in Bahrain to distinguish people based on their sectarian affiliation) that we intended on going to the funeral. He was very polite and said he’d prefer if we went back home. My friend and I insisted that we would get out of Muharraq quickly, so he let us in. As we continued driving around to pass time, the signs of a police state in Bahrain were too conspicuous. Police cars and checkpoints were everywhere, armed cars barricaded almost every corner and a helicopter hovered over the locked down area where riot police were in a state of alert preparing to face the angry mourners. We finally parked our car somewhere we thought to be smart, between the cemetery, where the martyr is buried, and the Ma’tam (a Shiite religious establishment) where the crowds typically initiate protests in the case of a martyr’s funeral.

The area surrounding the Ma’tam was in complete lock-down. Police were everywhere. We had to walk around carefully and maneuver through Zaraneeg—narrow streets—of Muharraq to get to the Ma’tam. We were completely lost. There were a couple people that seemed to be heading toward the same destination. Nevertheless, it was too risky to ask them for directions, as they might not be Rabu’ena (our allies). We tried to follow the voice of a Quran recitation until one man volunteered to take us to the Mat’am. At last, we were among the crowds of men and women waiting for the procession to begin. We waited for people to gather then headed to the cemetery to honor the martyr. The angry crowds of men and women started shouting the usual slogans, “down with the king; people want to overthrow the regime; we kneel only to God.” As I passed through the narrow streets of Muharraq, I noticed the very expressive graffiti; a culture in Bahrain, whether for pro or anti-government. Given the tight security and censorship of newspapers and opposition websites, many people resort to graffiti to express anger and frustration against the Bahraini government, especially in the more impoverished areas. Most anti-government graffiti read: ‘down with the king, step down Khalifa’ (the prime minister), pictures of martyrs and detainees, or Rumooz (the prominent political and human rights activists). On the other hand, pro-government graffiti read: ‘we are all Khalifa’, ‘Khalifa is the glory of the country’, etc. Graffiti serves as just another proxy of the political friction in Bahrain.

As we continued marching, it was not long before I heard the sound of shots and the crowd retracting. I felt something strange. My eyes, nose and mouth were burning. I was reacting to the infamous Bahraini tear gas. A man offered me a bottle of water and I grabbed it and washed my face thoroughly.

The police dispersed us very well. I, among others, headed back to the Mat’am while the majority of people headed to the cemetery. Though in small groups, defying the role of riot police. We were in a state of anticipation, waiting for imminent danger, because the police-rioters usually end up with a large number of causalities. There were too many events and emotions going on; I had a hard time processing them altogether in a short span of time. I saw one mother with her eyes telling what her tongue couldn’t, wondering whether her son was coming back home safely that night. Bahraini prisons are very notorious; the BICI report documented cases of electrocution, torture and sleep deprivation. I saw a father standing firmly for his beliefs and rights, “Why do they arrest us? We’re only mourning whom they killed! What’s wrong with that?” It was a long day. I spent most of my time back and forth in the Ma’tam and outside of it. I managed to leave with my friend unscathed, after making sure no riot police were close by. …more

Assange: Obama Exploiting Arab Spring in Campaign
By DAVID STRINGER – Associated Press – 27 September, 2012

(AP) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused President Barack Obama on Thursday of seeking to exploit the Arab uprisings for personal political gain, as he addressed a sideline meeting of the U.N. General Assembly via videolink from his hideout at a London embassy.

The Australian activist has sheltered inside Ecuador’s embassy in London — beyond the reach of British police — since June 19, when he sought refuge after he exhausted all legal routes to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crimes allegations.

Assange and his supporters claim that the Swedish sex case is part of a Washington-orchestrated plot to make him stand trial in the United States over his work with WikiLeaks, which has published thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables and other documents. Both Sweden and the U.S. reject that claim.

At a sideline meeting organized by Ecuador, the activist attempted to draw parallels between himself and the instigators of the Arab Spring — claiming that they had all been let down by Obama.

“It must come as a surprise to Tunisians for Barack Obama to say the U.S. supported the forces of change in Tunisia,” Assange said, speaking from Ecuador’s tiny apartment-sized London mission.
UN General Assembly Assange.JPEG
AP
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses a… View Full Caption

He claimed that uprisings across the Arab world had been inspired, in part, by his organization’s disclosures about despotic rulers, including Tunisia’s deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Assange claimed that Obama — whose administration he accuses of building a criminal case against WikiLeaks and of harassing its staff — was seeking to exploit the reforms of the Arab Spring during his reelection campaign.

“Mohamed Bouazizi did not set himself on fire so that Barack Obama could get reelected,” Assange told the meeting, referring to the 2011 self-immolation by a Tunisian fruit vendor which sparked the uprising that toppled Ben Ali.

Assange, who made no reference to the Swedish sexual misconduct case as he addressed diplomats, also accused Britain and Sweden of failing to provide guarantees that he would not face extradition to the U.S. to help preserve close military and intelligence links with Washington.

Both European nations insist that Assange must be sent to Sweden under international and European law, and that they cannot legally offer any pledges to refuse a possible future U.S. extradition request.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has granted Assange asylum, but if he steps outside the country’s London embassy he will be arrested by police who surround the building.

The case has left Britain, Ecuador and Sweden at a diplomatic impasse. Foreign ministers from Quito and London will meet Thursday in New York, as Assange marks 100 days holed up in the embassy.

Ecuador’s foreign minister Ricardo Patino told the meeting that he believed there were “many ways to achieve a solution,” without specifying potential routes. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday that he saw “no sign of any break through” in the saga.

Britain’s foreign ministry said it was “committed to seeking a diplomatic solution” with Ecuador, but insisted that it was legally obliged to send Assange to Sweden. …more