Posts from — October 2012

U.S. FBI team arrives to help Lebanon probe blast
25 October, 2012 – Agence France Presse

BEIRUT: A U.S. investigation team arrived in Beirut on Thursday and began gathering evidence at the scene of a bombing that killed the country’s police intelligence chief, the Lebanese interior minister said.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation team is at the scene of the crime and has begun collecting evidence,” Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told AFP.

“The team was sent to Lebanon at the request of the Lebanese government,” he added.

The United States announced on Monday it would send an FBI team to help Lebanon probe the rush-hour Beirut car bombing that killed police intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan and two others.

Washington has condemned the blast as a terrorist strike but said it would wait for the results of the investigation before determining any further response.

The opposition has widely blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Friday’s attack, as it did in 2005 when former premier Rafiq Hariri was killed in a huge Beirut blast.
….source

Suspect in Libya US mission attack killed in Cairo: police
25 October, 2012 – Agence France Presse

CAIRO: A gunman killed during a police raid on an apartment in northern Cairo is suspected of involvement in a deadly attack last month on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, police said Thursday.

Various media reports meanwhile suggested that the man who died in Wednesday’s raid was a Libyan citizen who is believed to be an Al-Qaeda militant.

“The gunmen who was killed when police raided an apartment in Madinat Nasr… is suspected of having connections with the group that carried out the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi,” an Egyptian police official said.

US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the September 11 attack on the US consulate in the eastern Libya city.

At the time, social networks blamed the hardline Salafist group Ansar al-Sharia for the attack.

The independent Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, quoting interior ministry official General Mohieddin al-Sayyed, said the suspect killed on Wednesday could be an Al-Qaeda militant.

“The Madinat Nasr police department received information indicating that a terrorist, a member of Al-Qaeda, was present in an apartment in Madinat Nasr,” Sayyed is quoted as saying.

As a result police raided the apartment and clashed with the suspect who was killed when he activated an explosive device, he said.
…more

U.S. offers $12 million reward for Iran-based Al-Qaeda members
18 October, 2012 – By RFE/RL

WASHINGTON – The U.S. State Department is offering up to $12 million in rewards for information on two men it describes as members of an Al-Qaeda network operating in Iran.

The State Department said on October 18 that they were “key facilitators” in sending extremists to Iraq and Afghanistan.

It says it will provide $7 million for information on Muhsin al-Fadhli and $5 million for information on Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi.

Also on October 18, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions against Harbi.

The move freezes any U.S. assets held by Harbi and also prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging in transactions with him.

Fadhli is already subject to similar restrictions.

The U.S. government says Iran gives the Al-Qaeda network on its soil “freedom of operation.” …source

Women Join Bahrain’s Uprising
By Jen Marlowe, The Progressive – November 2012

A woman I call m strode down the main road of her village in a burqa, with a large red and white Bahraini flag wrapped around her shoulders, fluttering vigorously in the breeze. She carried a poster, which she allowed me to look at. It had four small plastic dolls glued to the surface. One doll, wrapped in a white shroud, lay inside a small yellow box. Two other dolls had black hoods covering their heads and faces. One of the hooded dolls hung from its feet. The other’s arms were bound behind its back. The fourth plastic doll was imprisoned behind strips of black tape and was next to some rubber bullets and a small plastic cylinder.

“They kill our children,” she explained, referring to the kingdom’s security forces. “They suffocate them. They use all kinds of weapons.” Her hand swept over the rubber bullets and the cylinder, which represented a tear gas canister. The bound and hooded dolls in stress positions didn’t require much interpretation, but she emphasized how commonly both male and female youth are tortured in Bahrain’s prisons.

Then M. flipped the poster over, revealing three black cutout figures hanging from nooses with paper bags over their heads. “We won’t accept anything but a death sentence,” was written in Arabic in black marker across the top. The effigies were identified with signs on their torsos: Salman, Khalifa, and Hamad, the crown prince, prime minister, and king of Bahrain, respectively.

“Hang them,” she insisted.

I had arrived in Bahrain five days earlier through Witness Bahrain, an initiative comprised of international observers reporting on the human rights abuses that the Bahraini regime has committed since many of its citizens began protesting eighteen months ago.

On February 14, 2011, inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, a group of anonymous youth put out a call to gather at the Pearl Roundabout monument in Bahrain’s capital city of Manama. Protesters were largely calling for political reforms, with a focus on instituting a constitutional monarchy and challenging the discrimination that the Shi’a majority faces at the hands of the Sunni monarchy.

The regime responded with violence, killing one protester. The demonstrations swelled, and the security forces responded with more violence. Demonstrators took over, were violently expelled from, and then returned to Pearl Roundabout, camping there until 1,500 troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates entered Bahrain, shoring up the Bahraini regime with the tacit support of Washington. The Pearl Roundabout monument, an iconic symbol of the uprising, was cleared of demonstrators and destroyed. King Hamad declared a state of emergency. All who had been involved in the demonstrations were targeted. There were mass dismissals from government jobs, thousands imprisoned, and hundreds of cases of severe torture and dozens of deaths.

Today, the uprising is characterized by near-daily demonstrations in villages all over Bahrain, where mainly nonviolent protesters are met with a barrage of tear gas and bird shot. House raids and arrests occur nightly.

It was at one such protest that I met M. Her hardliner sentiment seems to be growing more common. As young boys tipped over garbage dumpsters and dragged palm-tree logs and chunks of concrete to the middle of the road, trying to thwart riot police from entering the village, another woman told me vehemently that the only solution for Bahrain was overthrowing the ruling al-Khalifa family.

“You don’t believe in reforms?” I asked.

The woman made a dismissive motion with her head. “We’ve been hearing about reforms since the days of our ancestors.”

The protest began then, with call-and-response chanting:

“Oh, Prisoners of the country . . .”

“Your heads are not bowed!”

“Despite the increasing hardship…”

“Your heads are not bowed!”

Women, waving Bahraini flags and marching behind the men, made up approximately 50 percent of the demonstration. When tear gas canisters and bird shot ripped through the crowd, the women ducked inside the nearest houses, but as soon as the riot police retreated, the women slipped their shoes back on and went back to the village center to resume their protest.

“Women are the prominent partner in the Pearl Revolution,” Jihan Kazerooni, a member of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and vice president of the Bahrain Rehabilitation and Anti-Violence Organization, told me the next day as she poured two cups of sugary, milky tea. “They take part in each single event happening. You can find them protesting. You can find them as doctors and nurses treating protesters. You can find them doing the documentation. They are human rights activists, photographers, lawyers. The women are the power and the strength of our revolution.” …more

Bahrain acquits officer on charges of torturing a journalist
24 October, 2012 – Committee to Project Journalist

New York, October 24, 2012–CPJ is alarmed by a Bahraini court’s acquittal of a police officer accused of torturing a journalist in custody in 2011.

A criminal court in Manama on Monday acquitted police officer Sara al-Moussa on charges of torturing Nazeeha Saeed, a reporter for France24 and Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya, while the journalist was in custody in May 2011, according to the official Bahrain News Agency (BNA). The agency reported that the court ruled that Saeed’s testimony was full of “contradictions” and not “consistent.” Saeed told CPJ that she and her lawyer are urging prosecutors to reopen the case.

Police arrested Saeed while she was covering anti-government protests in the capital on May 22, 2011, according to news reports. Saeed told CPJ that during her 13-hour detention, al-Moussa and the other officers blindfolded her, beat her repeatedly with a hose, pulled her hair, slapped her in the face, dunked her head in a toilet, kicked her, and forced her to sign papers she was not allowed to read. The journalist, who was later examined by a doctor, submitted several medical reports to the court proving she had sustained bruises from the incident, she said.

Saeed told CPJ that the government had not taken any serious steps to investigate the case for several months. In January 2012, she filed her own complaint against al-Moussa, two other female police officers, and two male officers on torture accusations, news reports said. The court only tried al-Moussa, according to news reports. The officer’s trial began on June 6 and the verdict was reached on Monday, after five months of legal back-and-forth, the reports said. No action has been taken against the other four police members, news reports said.

Last year, Saeed was a witness in the trial of two police officers who were charged with killing two protesters, news reports said. The officers were acquitted in September, the reports said.

“Bahrain’s failure over the past 20 months to fully investigate attacks against journalists covering protests and prosecute those responsible calls into question the verdict of this court,” said CPJ Deputy Director Rob Mahoney. “Prosecutors should not let this case rest. Nazeeha Saeed deserves justice.”

CPJ research shows that since February 2011, independent and opposition journalists in Bahrain have endured the worst conditions since King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa assumed the throne in 1999. CPJ has documented three journalist deaths, including a shooting death in April; dozens of detentions; arbitrary deportations; government-sponsored billboards and advertisements smearing journalists; and numerous physical assaults. In April, authorities denied CPJ and several other press freedom and free expression groups visas to enter Bahrain. …source

How Fear of Cyber Attack Could Take Down Your Liberties and the Constitution

Will the Apocalypse Arrive Online?
By Karen J. Greenberg – Tom Dispatch – 21 October, 2012

First the financial system collapses and it’s impossible to access one’s money. Then the power and water systems stop functioning. Within days, society has begun to break down. In the cities, mothers and fathers roam the streets, foraging for food. The country finds itself fractured and fragmented — hardly recognizable.

It may sound like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie or the first episode of NBC’s popular new show “Revolution,” but it could be your life — a nationwide cyber-version of Ground Zero.

Think of it as 9/11/2015. It’s Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s vision of the future — and if he’s right (or maybe even if he isn’t), you better wonder what the future holds for erstwhile American civil liberties, privacy, and constitutional protections.

Last week, Panetta addressed the Business Executives for National Security, an organization devoted to creating a robust public-private partnership in matters of national security. Standing inside the Intrepid, New York’s retired aircraft-carrier-cum-military-museum, he offered a hair-raising warning about an imminent and devastating cyber strike at the sinews of American life and well being.

Yes, he did use that old alarm bell of a “cyber Pearl Harbor,” but for anyone interested in American civil liberties and rights, his truly chilling image was far more immediate. “A cyber attack perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups,” he predicted, “could be as destructive as the terrorist attack of 9/11.”

Panetta is not the first Obama official to warn that the nation could be facing a cyber catastrophe, but he is the highest-ranking to resort to 9/11 imagery in doing so. Going out on a limb that previous cyber doomsayers had avoided, he mentioned September 11th four times in his speech, referring to our current vulnerabilities in cyber space as “a pre-9/11 moment.” …more

Cowardly Terrorists Murder Syrian Civilians
8 October, 2012 – Mostly Water – by Stephen Lendman

Aleppo murders are the latest example. Western-recruited death squads ruthlessly target civilians. They’re armed and directed to do so. They’re merciless cowards.

Innocent men, women and children die. Murdering children, raping women, and beheading men are their specialities. So are other atrocities. Since winter 2011, many thousands of Syrians were slaughtered. Dozens more succumb daily.

That’s what terrorism is all about. Imperialism operates that way. Barbarism best describes it. It’s longstanding US practice in all its direct and proxy wars. Respect for human life isn’t America’s long suit. It never was.

Ravaging one country after another is official policy. It’s been longstanding since WW II. Post-9/11, it intensified. Peace, stability, and human rights aren’t in America’s vocabulary. The very notions are abhorrent.

Across the region, millions of corpses attest to Washington’s viciousness. Aleppo is the latest example. Fighting raged there on and off for weeks. It continues.

On October 3, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) headlined “People’s Assembly Condemns Aleppo Bombings and Terrorists-backing States.”

People’s Assembly Speaker, Mohammad Jihad al- Laham, opened the session, saying:

“Aleppo woke up today on a heinous crime, as horrible terrorist bombings targeted innocent civilians in fulfillment of the terrorists’ scheme who do not have any humane values.”

“We condemn these terrorist bombings and the conspiring countries which are backing the terrorists.”

He hopes God will have mercy on the souls of martyrs. He wished quick recovery to those injured and expressed solace for families of those killed.

Most Syrians understand America’s conspiracy against their country. They know and say so. Law Professor Daoud Khairallah told Russia Today that 95% of militants in Syria are foreigners.

SANA said 34 died, 122 were injured, and both totals may rise. Other victims are trapped under rubble.

Three blasts occurred. At 7:50AM, in Saadallah al-Jabri Square, two booby-trapped cars with an estimated 1,000 kg of explosives were detonated. Suicide bombers are suspected.

A second explosion happened at 8:17AM. The Governate Building was targeted. Another booby-trapped car with about 500 kg of explosives detonated. Two mortar shells also fell near the Municipal Palace.

At 10:35AM, a third blast took place. It occurred when engineering units were trying to dismantle a 1,000 kg explosive device in a car terrorists detonated remotely near the al-Amir Hotel, Aleppo’s Chamber of Commerce, and the Central Bank.

SANA said “the terrorist bombings have caused great damage to public and private property, public buildings, hotels and residential places, indicating that 250 public and private cars were destroyed.”

“The competent authorities at the Interior Ministry rushed to the area to trace evidence, taking samples of human remnants and the explosive material to be sent to specialized laboratories to establish the identity of the perpetrators and ascertain the type of the explosive material.”

Investigations continue. Responsible parties and supporters are sought. Web site photos show extensive damage. They make disturbing viewing.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the bombings, saying:

“We renew utter condemnation of all forms of terrorism and rejection of using terrorist acts under any circumstances.” It added that “initiators and the perpetrators of such acts must be severely punished.”

SANA said Syrian political parties condemned the killings. The Baath Arab Socialist Party blamed “criminal gangs and mercenaries,” adding:

“This terrorist act is a new episode of a series of similar bombings that hit several Syrian cities not to mention massacres against civilians, elderly men, women and children.”

The National Reform Party called what happened “treason because targeting military, public and private properties and institutions (amounts to) targeting the Syrian people and Syria’s territorial integrity.”

Syria’s Arab Socialist Union Party called Aleppo killings “an escalation of the organized terrorism aiming to break the Syrians’ will.” ….more

Two hurt as Bahrain police clash with protesters
24 October, 2012 – Agence France Presse

DUBAI: Bahraini police and anti-government protesters clashed in a Shiite village outside the capital Manama overnight leaving at least two people wounded, the police said on Wednesday.

Protesters attacked police with Molotov cocktails and iron rods on Tuesday night, according to a police statement carried by Bahrain’s official BNA news agency. At least “two suspects” were injured.

The police said they were searching for “other suspects who participated in the attack.”

Witnesses meanwhile said police used tear gas and birdshot to disperse demonstrators who had gathered in Bani Jamra, just outside the capital, to protest a government siege of the Shiite village of Akar.

On Sunday, authorities announced the arrest of seven people suspected of being responsible for a roadside bombing that killed a policeman during clashes in Akar.

Police say the tightened security around the village was aimed at capturing suspects involved in the deadly attack in which an improvised explosive device was used.

The opposition has condemned the “siege,” saying police have been denying entry to activists and doctors.

Regular unrest and demonstrations have shaken Bahrain since it crushed Shiite-led popular protests in March last year. The kingdom came under strong criticism from international rights groups over the deadly crackdown.

According to the International Federation for Human Rights, a total of 80 people have been killed in Bahrain since the violence began on February 14, 2011.
…source

Police attack anti-regime protesters near eastern Bahrain village
24 October, 2012 – PressTV

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have attacked anti-regime protesters attempting to enter a besieged village in the east of the country.

The security forces used toxic teargas canisters and rubber bullets to prevent the protesters from breaking the now-four-day-long siege of the village of Eker.

Several protesters were arrested and dozens more injured in violent clashes with the regime forces.

Meanwhile, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, a Cairo-based NGO devoted to promoting freedom of expression across the Middle East and North Africa, condemned the Manama regime’s use of systematic violence against peaceful demonstrators.

On Monday, clashes erupted between regime forces and protesters near the village, during which at least three human rights activists, including Zainab al-Khawaja, the daughter of jailed opposition leader, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, were arrested.

Khawaja said earlier that the protesters were taking food and medical supplies to the village’s residents.

Bahrain’s revolution began in mid-February 2011 when oppression-weary public, inspired by popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, started holding massive demonstrations against the ruling regime.

The Bahraini government promptly launched a brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests and called in Saudi-led Arab forces from neighboring Persian Gulf states to help crack down on the demonstrations. …source

Bahraini regime ‘terror stunt’ to step up repression
23 October, 2012 – Voice of Bahrain – Finian Cunningham

The Western-backed Bahraini regime is stepping up its vicious repression in a bid to terrorize the mainly Shia population to enter into a fake dialogue process. The political dialogue, which is endorsed by Washington and London, is designed to give the appearance of reform, but in reality it is framed to not bring about any democratic change.

The so-called political process is aimed at consolidating the Al Khalifa regime, which is described as a “key partner” by the US and Britain. Bahrain is the base for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, its security forces are headed up by American and British personnel, and the island is seen as a military garrison that is key to projecting Western aggression towards Iran in the Persian Gulf.

Since the uprising began in February 2011, the Bahraini majority has pointedly refused to enter into a negotiated compromise with the unelected Sunni dynasty, headed by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. Decades of empty promises of reform, deception, lies and violent repression have shown Bahrainis that the despotic regime cannot be trusted or indulged any longer. Most Bahrainis see the ruling clan as incorrigibly corrupt – exploiting the wealth of the Persian Gulf island to enrich just one family and its hangers-on while the majority live in poverty without decent jobs and housing.

That is why Bahrainis remain steadfast in their demand for the Khalifa elite to be removed and to be replaced by an elected government that would represent the needs of the population.

Now it seems that the impudent regime, and its Western backers, are ratcheting up state violence and repression in order to coerce the people into accepting the chimera of political dialogue. The dialogue is framed so as to retain the legitimacy of the Khalifa rulers even though these rulers have for decades treated the Shia population like second-class subjects; and even though the regime has over the past 18 months committed acts of murder against peaceful protesters, incarcerating and torturing thousands, including doctors, nurses, teachers, journalists, children and human rights defenders.

To justify this outrageous repression, the regime is embarking on yet another propaganda campaign to criminalize and smear the pro-democracy movement, alleging that it is engaging in acts of violence on behalf of a foreign power, which implicitly refers to Iran.

It’s an overused and ridiculous formula that has been wheeled out down through the decades by the unelected Sunni monarchs to disguise their despotic rule, by creating a heightened atmosphere of sectarian tension and national insecurity. The formula of fabricating terrorism involves breathless accusations that “foreign powers” are trying to subvert the “Kingdom of Bahrain” (a grandiloquent description for the “fiefdom of Khalifa”).

The latest propaganda stunt was staged in the village of Eker, some 20 kilometers south of the capital, Manama. Last Friday morning, a Pakistani national serving in the state security forces, named as Omran Ahmed Mohammed, was allegedly killed in a bomb blast. A second police officer was reported by state media to be suffering serious injuries.

Within hours of the incident, there were choreographed and bombastic condemnations of “an act of terrorism” from the prime minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the interior minister, Lieutenant-General Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, and the heads of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Bahrain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Shaikh Humood bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, was quoted by state broadcaster BNA as describing the perpetrators as “proxies manipulated like puppets by external sides to serve foreign agendas”. (Note the recurrence of the name Al Khalifa in Bahrain’s so-called government.)

Ambassador Khalifa “slammed the campaign of terror attacks as contravening consensus and damaging national unity, accusing the perpetrators of collusion with foreign sides preying on Bahrain”.

The state broadcaster added that the ambassador “considered the terror attacks in Bahrain as part of the conspiracy endangering the [P]GCC security, stressing solidarity to confront mounting challenges and threats”. And – wait for the bottom line – Shaikh Humood “paid tribute to the wise leadership for its patience and wisdom in dealing with events, pointing out that the doors of dialogue remain open for all parties”.

The extended quote is worth studying because its not-so-subtle nuances betray the real agenda and perpetrators behind this latest alleged attack in Bahrain. The “doors of dialogue remaining open” is the telling point. …more

Kissinger, US intelligence community endorse “World Without Israel”
30 Septemebr, 2012 – By Kevin Barrett – PressTV

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been vilified in the Western media for daring to imagine “a world without Israel.”

But according to news reports, Henry Kissinger and sixteen American intelligence agencies agree that in the near future, Israel will no longer exist.

The New York Post quotes Kissinger “word for word”: In 10 years, there will be no more Israel.

Kissinger’s statement is flat and unqualified. He is not saying that Israel is in danger, but could be saved if we just gave it additional trillions of dollars and smashed enough of its enemies with our military. He is not saying that if we elect Netanyahu’s old friend Mitt Romney, Israel could somehow be salvaged. He is not saying that if we bomb Iran, Israel might survive. He is not offering a way out. He is simply stating a fact: In 2022, Israel will no longer exist.

The US Intelligence Community agrees, though perhaps not on the precise 2022 expiration date. Sixteen US intelligence agencies with a combined budget over USD70 billion have issued an 82-page analysis titled “Preparing for a Post-Israel Middle East.”

The US intelligence report observes that the 700,000 Israeli settlers illegally squatting on land stolen in 1967 – land that the entire world agrees belongs to Palestine, not Israel – are not going to pack up and leave peacefully. Since the world will never accept their ongoing presence on stolen land, Israel is like South Africa in the late 1980s.

The extremist Likud coalition governing Israel, according to the US intelligence report, is increasingly condoning and supporting rampant violence and lawlessness by illegal settlers. The report states that the brutality and criminality of the settlers, and the growing apartheid-style infrastructure including the apartheid wall and the ever-more-draconian system of checkpoints, are indefensible, unsustainable, and out of synch with American values.

The sixteen US intelligence agencies agree that Israel cannot withstand the coming pro-Palestinian juggernaut consisting of the Arab Spring, the Islamic Awakening, and the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran. …source

Regime keeps AlEker under lockdown on 4th day; suppresses attempts to break the siege
24 October, 2012 – Shia Post

The regime forces set military roadblocks and an exaggerated number of troops spread widely in streets surrounding the area, although official claims declared that the area is not besieged. The main entrance, all sub-entrances and streets that led to the area were blocked with patrols or barriers, causing big traffic jams.

Bahrain regime forces attacked protesters who attempted to break the security siege on al-Eker village for the fourth consecutive day, since Thursday night. The protesters were confronted with toxic teargas and stun grenades. A number of injuries were reported, one protester was hit by a stun grenade in the face.

A group of opposition figures and activists had tried to visit the village under lockdown on Monday, and people gathered in the area demanding the security siege be lifted and protesting against the inhumane treatment and terror within the regime’s policy of collective punishment and systematic suppression.

The regime forces set military roadblocks and an exaggerated number of troops spread widely in streets surrounding the area, although official claims declared that the area is not besieged. The main entrance, all sub-entrances and streets that led to the area were blocked with patrols or barriers, causing big traffic jams.

The protesters carried food and humanitarian aids to the people inside al-Eker, but were confronted with force. The regime forces chased protesters and even raided a trade store, going after protesters.

Protests took to streets in neighboring villages and areas like Nuwaidrat, Ma’ameer, Sitra and Nabih-Saleh demanding to lift the state of lockdown on al-Eker. These protests, however, were attacked by the forces with Birdshot and toxic teargas.

Armored vehicles were used to attack the people inside al-Eker who wanted to welcome their visitors.

The forces are tightening the lockdown even more, by preventing basic needs, ambulances and garbage-collection trucks from entering the village. Schools in the area are disrupted by the unstable situation.

The area of al-Eker is in security cordon in what looks like a large prison for all the people of the village including the elderly, women and children. …source

Draft Communications Data Bill could lead to ‘police state’
BBC – 23 October, 2012

Plans to monitor all Britons’ online activity could move the UK closer to becoming a “police state”, a parliamentary committee has been told.

Journalist Henry Porter told MPs and peers transparency was needed on the use of the powers to avoid too much power being in the hands of the police.

Ministers want to strengthen the law on internet data retention to help the police tackle security threats.

They say law enforcement agencies need to keep pace with changing technology.

Under the government’s plans, currently being scrutinised by Parliament, service providers will have to store details of internet use in the UK for a year to allow police and intelligence services to access it.

Records will include people’s activity on social network sites, webmail, internet phone calls and online gaming.

Civil liberties campaigners have described the proposals as a “snooper’s charter”.

The draft Communications Data Bill requires any request for this kind of data to be “necessary and proportionate” and verified by a senior police officer.
‘Not fit for purpose’

But Mr Porter, a regular columnist for the Observer who was giving evidence to a joint committee of MPs and peers, said this safeguard was not good enough and the bill was “really dangerous”.

“I don’t believe this entire nation should subject itself to massive surveillance campaign by a few people who appear to be unscrutinised and the methods untransparent,” he said.
Continue reading the main story
Data Communications Bill

The Bill extends the range of data telecoms firms will have to store for up to 12 months
It will include for the first time details of messages sent on social media, webmail, voice calls over the internet and gaming in addition to emails and phone calls
The data includes the time, duration, originator and recipient of a communication and the location of the device from which it is made
It does not include the content of messages – what is being said. Officers will need a warrant to see that
But they will not need the permission of a judge to see details of the time and place of messages provided they are investigating a crime or protecting national security
Four bodies will have access to data: Police, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the intelligence agencies and HM Revenue and Customs
Local authorities will face restrictions on the kinds of data they can access

He raised concerns about a recent spread of numberplate recognition technology and face recognition CCTV cameras without proper scrutiny by parliament.

This spread, together with the proposed bill, was “part of a very, very serious move towards what could easily become the structure for a police state,” he said.

“It seems mad for a democracy to even be considering this kind of behaviour. I amazed we’re in this room actually countenancing this legislation.”

“If we let it get through in it’s current vague terms and then things are just added on and nobody pays any attention we won’t have a democracy,” he added.

Fellow witness Duncan Campbell, an investigative journalist, also expressed concerns about whether the bill would achieve what it set out to, and whether evidence gathered from the internet under the new system would be admissible in court.

He said: “It is fit proper and necessary that interception of communications and processing of communications data be available as part of the armoury. …more

Syria says army still undecided on ceasefire move
24 October, 2012 – By Oliver Holmes, Shaimaa Fayed – The Daily Star

Reuters BEIRUT/CAIRO: Syria said on Wednesday its military command was still studying a proposal for a holiday ceasefire with rebels – contradicting international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi’s earlier announcement that Damascus had agreed to a truce.

The statement threw Brahimi’s efforts to arrange a pause in the bloodshed in Syria into even more confusion, as the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad have given no indication they would be willing to sign up to it.

A previous ceasefire arrangement in April collapsed within days, with both sides accusing the other of breaking it.

Brahimi, the joint U.N.-Arab League special envoy, had crisscrossed the Middle East to push the warring factions and their international backers to agree to a truce over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha – a mission that included talks with Assad in Damascus at the weekend.

“After the visit I made to Damascus, there is agreement from the Syrian government for a ceasefire during the Eid,” Brahimi told a news conference at the Arab League in Cairo.

Within an hour, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the proposal was still being studied by the armed forces’ leadership. “The final position on this issue will be announced tomorrow,” a ministry statement said.

The holiday starts on Thursday and lasts three or four days. Brahimi did not specify the precise time period for a truce.

Nor did the initiative include plans for international observers and rebel sources had earlier told Reuters there was little point if it could not be monitored or enforced.

The two sides are now locked in a battle with huge potential ramifications in the northwest.

Syrian warplanes carried out bombing raids on Wednesday on the strategic northern town of Maarat al-Numan and nearby villages while rebels surrounded an army base to its east, an activist monitor said.

Five people from one family, including a child and a woman, were killed in the air strikes, according to Rami Abdelrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Maarat al-Numan has fallen to the rebels, effectively cutting the main north-south highway, a strategic route for Assad to move troops from the capital Damascus to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city where the insurgents have taken a foothold.

…more

Syria threatens to use chemical weapons against possible attack
By Agence France-Presse – 23 July, 2012 – The RawStory

Syria admitted Monday it has chemical weapons and warned of using them if attacked, though not against its own civilians, as regime troops reclaimed most of Damascus after a week of heavy clashes.

Fighting was still raging in Syria’s second-biggest city of Aleppo, however, as rights activists reported violence across the country killed at least 52 people, including 24 civilians.

And President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the Syrian regime’s main international ally, warned of a protracted civil war should rebels be allowed to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.

At a Damascus news conference, foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi warned Syria would use chemical weapons if attacked by outsiders, although he backtracked later to say that, if Damascus has them, they would be secured.

His remarks come amid growing international concern that Damascus is preparing to deploy its chemical arsenal in the repression of a 16-month uprising against the Assad regime.

“Syria will not use any chemical or other unconventional weapons against its civilians, and will only use them in case of external aggression,” Makdissi told reporters.

“Any stocks of chemical weapons that may exist, will never, ever be used against the Syrian people,” he said, adding that in the event of foreign attack, “the generals will be deciding when and how we use them.” …more

Russia says Syrian rebels have shoulder-fired missiles
24 October, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

MOSCOW: Syrian rebels have acquired portable surface-to-air missiles including U.S.-made Stingers, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia’s senior general as saying on Wednesday.

Like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has laid most of the blame for continuing violence on armed government foes it says are aided by encouragement and arms from abroad.

Russia’s military has learned “that militants fighting Syrian government forces have portable missile launchers of various states, including American-made Stingers,” Interfax quoted general staff chief Nikolai Makarov as saying.

“Who supplied them must still be determined,” he said.

NBC News reported in late July that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, also known as MANPADs. A political adviser to the Free Syrian Army denied it.

In contrast to the Libya crisis, the West has shown little appetite to arm the Syrian rebels, worried that weapons would fall into the hands of Islamic militants.

Russia sold the government in Syria $1 billion worth of weapons last year and has made clear it would oppose an arms embargo in the U.N. Security Council because of what it says are concerns rebels fighting Assad’s government would get weapons illegally anyway.

The West has criticised Russia for vetoing, along with China, three Security Council resolutions aimed at putting pressure on Assad to end a 19-month conflict. Moscow says it opposes foreign interference in Syria’s affairs.

Activists say the conflict has killed more than 30,000 people since protests against Assad erupted in March 2011.
…source

19 Iranian Channels taken Off Air By Intelsat on US order
22 October, 2012 – Jafria News

JNN 22 Oct 2012 Brussels : The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Intelsat) has taken a number of Iranian channels off the air in Europe based on an order by the United States.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has ordered the international broadcast services provider to shut down the Iranian channels, including Sahar, Jam-e-Jam, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network and al-Kowsar.

Press TV was not included in the list of the channels that have been removed.

However, the EU later told Press TV that Eutelsat had taken the decision on its own. Press TV has learned that Israeli lobbies have stepped up their pressure on international satellite companies to ban Iranian channels.

One of Europe’s leading satellite providers on Monday said it would terminate its contract with Iran’s broadcast company, IRIB, immediately pulling 19 state-owned television and radio channels off the air. saying that the decision was made by the European Union.

Viewers in the Middle East, Iran’s main cornerstone of influence, and Europe as well as those inside Iran who accessed the channels through the popular Hotbird satellite no longer have access to the channels.

Eutelsat Communications SA ETL.FR +0.52% said it stopped broadcasting the Iranian channels in light of European sanctions approved in March and a French regulatory decision. The move comes a little over a week after Iran escalated the jamming of Eutelsat satellites to censor broadcasts during recent protests over a plunge in the local currency.

The announcement came as the European Union on Monday approved new sanctions on Iran targeting financial institutions, trade, energy and shipping to urge Tehran to comply with its international obligations on its nuclear program. That was the latest effort by the bloc to bring Iran back to negotiations after a half-year of deadlocked talks. It was not those Monday sanctions that led to Eutelsat’s decision.

It also emerged Monday that the U.S. and the EU are looking to close loopholes in sanctions designed to impede Iran’s oil exports after they discovered that Tehran is secretly using offshore tax havens to help ship its crude.

Though Eutelsat’s decision to remove Iran’s government-owned channels isn’t related to the nuclear standoff, the move serves to isolate the Islamist Republic further. …more

Persian Perspective: A Chat with Ali Akbar Salehi, Foreign Minister of Iran
22 October, 2012 – World Policy Blog

Two days ago, The New York Times reported that the United States and Iran had agreed in principle to hold bilateral talks after the American presidential election was decided. Although the agreement seemed to reflect the devastating effectiveness of economic sanctions on Iran and a recognition that the current path of escalation is untenable, it was soon denied by both sides, with the Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi telling Fars News Agency, “We do not have anything called negotiations with the U.S.” In light of the final home stretch of the U.S. presidential election and today’s foreign policy-focused debate in Florida, it is easy to speculate as to why news of an agreement was both leaked by unnamed Obama administration officials and subsequently denied by the White House. But as always, many in the United States question the motivations of the Iranian power elite. The desire to pull back the curtain on Iran’s intentions regarding Israel, Turkey, Syria, and its own nuclear program only grows. Earlier this month, World Policy Journal editor David Andelman and World Policy Journal managing editor Christopher Shay sat down with Ali Akbar Salehi in New York to discuss Iran’s relations with the outside world. In an excerpt here, Salehi discusses Iran’s civilian nuclear hopes, the patriotism of the Iranian Jewish community, and how he felt about Benjamin Netanyahu’s ticking time bomb cartoon at the UN General Assembly. The full interview can be seen in the Winter 2012 issue of World Policy Journal, which will be released in mid-December.

WORLD POLICY JOURNAL: Your government has suggested that you’re interested only in obtaining a domestic nuclear fuel cycle, a self-contained fuel source for civilian reactors. In Saudi Arabia, the concern is that you will break out of that at some point, that something will happen and that you will develop a nuclear weapon. At that point, then, Saudi Arabia, perhaps Egypt, or others will then feel, in turn, compelled to do the same, to develop a nuclear capability. Are you concerned that this would touch off a dangerous spiral of nuclear competition in the Middle East?

ALI AKBAR SALEHI: To be very honest and open with you, Iran has already acquired nuclear technology in all its domains, from mining, conversion, turning it into fuel rods, nowadays fuel plates, designing reactors, research reactors, building, manufacturing centrifuges, enriching uranium, producing heavy water, and constructing our own heavy water reactor indigenously. So there’s nothing in the nuclear field that we have not really achieved, and the technology is within our reach. Those who think that we may be using this technology for other purposes, this is their own, I would say, ill-thinking. What can we do? We have already stated over and over that we have not intended to do anything else. If we wanted to take that approach, we would have detached ourselves from the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty]. There is in the treaty an article which says whoever is in the NPT, if they wish, they can get out of it with three months notice, and then free of the NPT, we could do whatever we wanted to do. But on the contrary, we are stressing the preservation of the integrity of the NPT, because we believe that the NPT is in our interest. The stronger the NPT becomes, the more immune we become to possible proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region and in other places in the world. And here our Supreme Leader has issued a fatwa, which says the production, accumulation, and the use of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons is forbidden and is against religion. But you see, we have the right to enrich to any percentage we want under the NPT.

WPJ: Right of course, as long as it’s not weaponized.

SALEHI: But we had previously, voluntarily taken it upon ourselves to enrich up to five percent. But then when we demanded 20 percent enriched fuel because we were about to run out of fuel for the TRR [Tehran Research Reactor], we submitted our petition to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] so that they would disseminate it to countries that have the capacity to produce these fuel plates. Then the whole thing started—the fuel swap, the conditions. And then eventually that made Iran take its own approach to producing the fuel enriched to 20 percent plus the fuel plates, which we already have produced and are now using in our TRR. In other words, our Tehran Research Reactor is now running with the fuel, which is supplied by Iran, which is manufactured indigenously. …more

National: Amnesty International presents report regarding use of torture in Mexico

On 11 October, Amnesty International (AI) presented its sixth report regarding the use of torture in Mexico, entitled “Known criminals, ignored victims: torture and abuse in Mexico.”

In a press-conference, Alberto Herrera, director of AI Mexico, affirmed that torture in Mexico is a “systematic and generalized” practice, that it has increased “scandalously” due to the so-called war on organized crime as launched by Felipe Calderón and the total impunity enjoyed by those who prosecute it.

Herrera indicated that “the majority of [cases] are not ever investigated in an exhaustive manner, and those responsible are almost never handed over to the courts; for this reason, the victims do not have the possibility of obtaining recognition or compensation.” He affirmed that “it is incredibly difficult to determine the true magnitude and extensiveness of torture and other abuses in Mexico. This difficulty has to do in part with the weak system of denunciation and investigation, which basically never takes account of those responsible, leaving victims and witnesses exposed to suffer reprisals. One consequence of this is that there are far fewer cases than there should be.”

He noted that the lack of precise registration of this phenomenon has resulted in the fact that between 2008 and 2011 the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) said it had 58 preliminary investigations into torture and 4 cases with formal accusations, while the Council of the Federal Judiciary registered 12 processes and 5 condemnatory sentences. The National Institute for Statistics and Geography claimed it had no news of any sentence at all.

In its report, AI puts forth more than 40 recommendations to the Mexican State, among which it stresses the harmonization of internal legislation regarding torture with those of international accords, the establishment of a base of data on this phenomenon, the exhaustive investigation of public officials implicated in this crime, the rejection of evidence obtained through torture, and the restriction of military tribunals so that all abuses committed against civilians by soldiers be analyzed by civil courts.

For its part, the Federal Government said it would analyze the AI report. In a joint communique, the Ministries for Governance and External Affairs indicated that they maintain a policy of punctual observance of their international obligations in this matter. The communique announces that the departments will present a report regarding the observance of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment (signed by Mexico in 1986) on 31 October and 1 November at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, in which it will highlight progress in the struggle against torture and challenges in these terms. …more

PROTEST AT THE MEXICAN EMBASSY IN LONDON
October 2012

International Campaign: “Worldwide Echo in Support of the Zapatistas”
sanmarcosavilesen.wordpress.com

PROTEST AT THE MEXICAN EMBASSY IN LONDON: WORLDWIDE DECLARATION DELIVERED

Today, being the first day of the second phase, “From Truth to Action, Stopping the Repression”, of the “Worldwide Echo in Support of the Zapatistas” campaign, and also the Day of Indigenous Resistance, a protest was organised at the Mexican Embassy in London, England, by activists from Bristol and Dorset, against the attacks by the bad government of Mexico against the Zapatista communities. News had just broken of a new attack on the community of Guadalupe los Altos, and the imprisonment of 6 Zapatistas.

The following document was delivered to the Embassy:

THE WORLDWIDE DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF THE ZAPATISTAS

The UK Zapatista Solidarity Network, representing groups, individuals and collectives from throughout the United Kingdom, hereby send this message to accompany our presentation of the ‘Worldwide Declaration in support of the Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico’ to the Embassy of Mexico in London, England. We are delivering the Declaration today, Friday 12th October, 2012, because it is the Day of Indigenous Resistance, and marks the 520th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, and the start of the colonial endeavour to destroy the indigenous peoples of these lands. This date also marks the beginning of the second phase of the ‘Worldwide Echo in Support of the Zapatistas’ campaign.

The Declaration has been signed by 112 organisations and 162 individuals from 24 different countries, all of whom are shocked and appalled at the blatant acts of violence, abuse, intimidation, harassment and attrition currently being directed against the Zapatista support base communities in Chiapas, Mexico, in violation of their inalienable right to autonomy as indigenous peoples, as enshrined in the internationally recognized ILO Convention No. 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, both of which the government of Mexico has signed.

Since this Declaration was issued in July 2012, there has been an alarming escalation in acts of aggression against Zapatista communities, and 83 members of two villages remain displaced more than five weeks after being attacked by paramilitary groups with firearms, openly supported by the local authorities and police force. We wish to reiterate our horror and dismay that a government which seeks to portray itself as a model of liberty and justice could openly support such hostilities against its own indigenous people.

WORLDWIDE DECLARATION DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES AND FREEDOM FOR FRANCISCO SÁNTIZ LÓPEZ

We view with profound concern, and demand an immediate end to, the continued acts of intimidation and aggression and the human rights abuses being committed against members of the Zapatista support base community in San Marcos Avilés, official municipality of Chilón, Chiapas, Mexico. We also call for the immediate liberation of the Zapatista political prisoner Francisco Sántiz López, who has been jailed since December 2011 in a flagrant abuse of justice. Responding to the numerous denouncements and calls issued by the Zapatista Good Government Junta of Oventic and the community of San Marcos Avilés, we manifest in this declaration our solidarity with our brothers and sisters there, as well as with Francisco Sántiz López.

We are aware of the very serious new threats being made against the community of San Marcos Avilés by representatives of political parties in the area. Of particular concern are the open and blatant threats of displacement, physical violence, and the on-going climate of hostility promoted by these individuals. We consider such reprehensible aggression to be extremely serious in light of the events of September 2010, when vigilantes from the Green Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), led by Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez and Vicente Ruiz López, attacked Zapatista support bases, displacing 170 people and destroying their property and crops.

In relation to the case of Francisco Sántiz López, a Zapatista support base from the Banavil ejido of Tenejapa, who was originally detained in December 2011 under false charges of having orchestrated a conflict in Banavil, we affirm the evidence collected by the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Centre and recounted by several witnesses, that he indeed was not present at the location where the events took place on 4th December 2011. His false imprisonment and the continued refusal of local authorities to examine this evidence are, in our view, further indication that the judicial system in Chiapas is wielded as tool of political repression against those who struggle for justice.

In respect to current events in San Marcos Avilés, we demand:

– An immediate end to all death threats, verbal and physical harassment, and threats against the property and well-being of the Zapatista Support Base members by elements of the political parties in the San Marcos Avilés ejido.

– Protection for the life and safety of the Zapatista support base members of San Marcos Avilés.

– Respect for the Zapatista Support Base community’s inalienable right to autonomy as indigenous peoples, as enshrined in the internationally recognized ILO Convention No. 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, both of which the government of Mexico has signed.

In respect of the case of Zapatista support base Francisco Sántiz López, we demand his immediate and unconditional release, as well as a swift investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of violence in Banavil, Tenejapa Municipality, Chiapas.

To our brothers and sisters suffering injustice and violence in Chiapas, we remind you that your struggle is not carried out in silence, nor is it invisible. Indeed, countless individuals, organizations, and communities from around the world remain vigilant regarding your situation and have joined an international campaign in solidarity with your struggle. For our part, from cities across the world we send you a warm embrace, to let you know that we know who you are and what you are fighting for, and to say that we will do whatever we can to support you. We will all continue to make an echo of your just demands, an echo that resonates with the collective heartbeat of the earth. …more

This Is Not A Revolution
Hussein Agha and Robert Malley – The New York Review of Books

All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
—Paul Simon

Darkness descends upon the Arab world. Waste, death, and destruction attend a fight for a better life. Outsiders compete for influence and settle accounts. The peaceful demonstrations with which this began, the lofty values that inspired them, become distant memories. Elections are festive occasions where political visions are an afterthought. The only consistent program is religious and is stirred by the past. A scramble for power is unleashed, without clear rules, values, or endpoint. It will not stop with regime change or survival. History does not move forward. It slips sideways.

Games occur within games: battles against autocratic regimes, a Sunni–Shiite confessional clash, a regional power struggle, a newly minted cold war. Nations divide, minorities awaken, sensing a chance to step out of the state’s confining restrictions. The picture is blurred. These are but fleeting fragments of a landscape still coming into its own, with only scrappy hints of an ultimate destination. The changes that are now believed to be essential are liable to be disregarded as mere anecdotes on an extended journey.

New or newly invigorated actors rush to the fore: the ill-defined “street,” prompt to mobilize, just as quick to disband; young protesters, central activists during the uprising, roadkill in its wake. The Muslim Brothers yesterday dismissed by the West as dangerous extremists are now embraced and feted as sensible, businesslike pragmatists. The more traditionalist Salafis, once allergic to all forms of politics, are now eager to compete in elections. There are shadowy armed groups and militias of dubious allegiance and unknown benefactors as well as gangs, criminals, highwaymen, and kidnappers.

Alliances are topsy-turvy, defy logic, are unfamiliar and shifting. Theocratic regimes back secularists; tyrannies promote democracy; the US forms partnerships with Islamists; Islamists support Western military intervention. Arab nationalists side with regimes they have long combated; liberals side with Islamists with whom they then come to blows. Saudi Arabia backs secularists against the Muslim Brothers and Salafis against secularists. The US is allied with Iraq, which is allied with Iran, which supports the Syrian regime, which the US hopes to help topple. The US is also allied with Qatar, which subsidizes Hamas, and with Saudi Arabia, which funds the Salafis who inspire jihadists who kill Americans wherever they can. …more

Arms sales and human rights don’t mix, UK told
The Guardian – 23 October, 2012 – Richard Norton-Taylor

MPs have finally recognised what has been blatantly obvious for a long time: human rights and arms exports do not go well together.

This conflict always made a nonsense of the Labour government’s call for an “ethical dimension” in foreign policy though the late Robin Cook did his best to try and reconcile Britain’s role as one of the biggest sellers of weapons with its stated aim of protecting human rights around the world.

Now, the House of Commons foreign affairs committee has called on ministers to be “bolder in acknowledging contradictions between the UK’s interests overseas and its human rights values”.

The government should not be trying to assert that the two can co-exist freely, said the crossparty committee of MPs. It should instead explain publicly its judgments “on how to balance them in particular cases”.

The MPs pointed out that the Foreign Office human rights reports name Saudi Arabia a “country of concern” adding that there have been “incremental improvements” in the country’s human rights (albeit, as the MPs observe,”from a very low base”.)

Yet the FO does not include Bahrain as a “country of concern” despite the fact that significant number of people were killed there in 1911 in the violent repression of demonstrations which included widespread use of torture.

And despite being designated as a “country of concern”, Saudi Arabia is described by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), as being a priority market for UK arms exports.

The value of arms-related goods for which licences for export to Saudi Arabia were granted in 2011 was £1.7bn, greater than the value of comparable licences for export to any other single country, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

BAE, Britain’s biggest manufacturing company in terms of number of employees reeling from the failed merger with EADS, Europe’s biggest arms company, is currently trying to negotiate a £7bm arms deal involving the sale and maintenance of 48 Eurofighter/Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia, for long one of the most lucrative markets for British arms.

The latest official figures show that Whitehall approved a further £8m military exports to Saudi Arabia in the second quarter (April to June) this year. It sold nearly £3m to Bahrain over the period.

It included some assault rifles and pistols. A footnote on the list now on the BIS website, states: “HMG exceptionally agreed to a number of firearms and associated accessories to Bahrain for personal sporting use. They are not for use by the Bahraini security services, law enforcement agencies, or armed forces.”

The government at least seems to be sufficiently “concerned” to negotiate conditions on the sale of arms to Bahrain. Indeed, so sensitive is it that when it signed a defence cooperation agreement with Bahrain earlier this month it did so with the absolute minimum of publicity. What publicity there was came from the Bahraini side with the Crown Prince, Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, hailing it as “mirroring deep-rooted historic relations bonding Bahrain and the UK”.

With friends like that… …source

Where’s the News Coverage of Bahrain?
22 October, 2012 – World Affairs, Millennial Letters – Kristin Deasy

Don’t hear much about Bahrain?

Thousands of opposition demonstrators hit the streets there little over a week ago, while security forces faced off with activists at a flashpoint village just yesterday as unrest continues to roil the Gulf kingdom, a nation so strategically located it plays host to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

Wait a second. Geopolitically critical nation—check. Protests against the government—check. Sexy Twitter feed about demonstrations—check. Youth bulge—check. Key activists imprisoned—check. Demand for a more representative government—check.

Isn’t this where CNN starts panning massive crowds like those seen in Egpyt’s Tahrir Square last year? Isn’t this where the microphone is held up to the lips of a cute female twenty-something protester? Where’s the love?

There are a few reasons why Bahrain has emerged as the Arab Spring’s neglected child: for one, heavyweights like Sunni Saudi Arabia disapprove of the protest movement there. Riyadh’s ties to the Sunni royal family in the Bahraini capital of Manama go way back. And naturally, the Sunni nation is not enamored with the prospect of a new government sympathetic to the nation’s overwhelmingly Shiite population. No friend for the movement there—but they don’t have to look far for support. Nearby Iran, where a Shiite theocracy runs the show, has been vocal in its support and is rumored to be close with one of the main Bahraini opposition parties. The Islamic Republic’s politically radioactive profile has complicated public relations for the opposition despite its efforts to distance itself. Add rumors that protesters are getting weapons from the Iran-allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and it’s a real tough sell.

Then there was the perceived “Arab Spring” fatigue on the part of the Western public. They saw governments toppled in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and then, hardly stopping for breath, the crisis in Syria started to unfold into the catastrophe it is today. The media narrative moved on, leaving the interested parties—among them Iran’s state press—to monitor developments.

Bahrain is a sensitive issue in the region, and the West knows it. Why should the United States and Europe risk enraging oil-wealthy Saudi Arabia, which feels so strongly about Bahrain that it sent 1,000 troops there to aid the government’s suppression of dissent? Saudi Arabia lashed out on October 15th against a British parliamentary inquiry into UK relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in light of the unrest, with “insulted” Saudi officials saying they were “re-evaluating” UK relations. Clearly the probe had touched a nerve. Meanwhile, support for the embattled opposition from, say, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has hardly been robust—especially after the US resumed weapons sales to Bahrain’s rulers last May.

As for the more altruistic argument in favor of civilian-led governments, what if Saudi Arabia is right and the protests in Bahrain are really just a move for power by Shiite Iran, a longstanding rival for dominance in the region?

Frederic Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace visited Bahrain four months ago and says that’s not the case. “Bahrain is not a proxy battlefield” between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he said, adding that the main opposition accused of cooperating with the Islamic Republic has made a point of keeping “Iran at arm’s length.”

He says there is “very little evidence” of concrete Iranian assistance to Bahrain’s mostly Shiite opposition, whom he describes as “nationalists.” Yes, Saudi Arabia does not want the situation in Bahrain to “give Iran an opening,” Wehrey said, “but the Iran issue is mostly used as an excuse—the real issue is democratization.”

Not everyone shares Wehrey’s position. The Council of Foreign Relations’ Ed Husain raised eyebrows after he wrote a series of tweets seen as friendly to the royal family during a visit there several months ago. His neutrality on Bahrain has since been called into question, but he insists the situation there is not “just a straightforward demand for democracy,” asking the US: “Do we really want to hand over Bahrain to the Iranian sphere of influence?” That, he claims, “is the bottom line in Bahrain.”

Well, the bottom line is really that every “Arab Spring” protest movement has been fueled by a variety of actors, not all of whom would have passed muster under Western scrutiny. Plus, isn’t that what good reporting is all about? Who exactly is behind Bahrain’s protest movement? Fewer journalists seem interested in that part of the story.

Wehrey says there are basically two main groups: the February 14 Youth Movement and the pro-Shia establishment opposition party Al-Wefaq. The two are increasingly at odds, he says, with the youth-led February 14, a group active on the ground as well as on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, seeking bolder reforms than those called for by Al-Wefaq, a group that has been careful to keep its demands within the context of the ruling monarchical system.

Indeed, there is plenty going on in Bahrain these days, as evidenced by the alarming number of human rights reports protesting the Sunni monarchy’s brutal crackdown on the opposition. Despite the outcry and the bravery of young protest leaders like Zainab Al-Khawaja and Naji Fateel, who was reportedly arrested yesterday, the media—and thus, the rest of us—are left to buy the ruling monarchy’s line. …source