Maryam al-Khawaja awarded human rights prize
Peter Stanners – 16 October, 2012 – The Copenhagen Post

Maryam al-Khawaja – daughter of the jailed Danish-Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja – will be awarded the Stieg Larsson Prize on November 8 in recognition of her work to promote democracy and human rights.

25-year-old Maryam al-Khawaja played a vital role in reporting the crackdown on pro-democracy and civil society groups before and during the Arab Spring uprisings.

“With the internet and social media as a tool, and through untiring activism and the power of the word, she turns the spotlight on injustices in her home country. In spite of threats and harassment against herself and her family she continues to work for a tolerant and more democratic state of Bahrain,” a press release from the Stieg Larsson Foundation stated. “Her achievements are entirely in the spirit of Stieg Larsson.”

Her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, was granted political asylum in Denmark in 1991 and he and his family eventually became Danish citizens. He returned to Bahrain in 1999 and established the pro-democracy organisation Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) in 2002. He was arrested for his work in April 2011 and jailed since June of that year. He protested against his sentence with a high-profile 110-day hunger strike that he called off in May. His life sentence was upheld this September.

Maryam al-Khawaja started working at the BCHR at a young age. At the age of 21, she testified before the US Congressional Human Rights Commission about the suppression of the Shia majority in Bahrain.

After returning from studying in the US, she became BCHR’s international liaison and deputy head. Her base of operations is in Denmark as she risks arrest if she were to remain in Bahrain.

The Stieg Larsson Foundation was established after the author’s death in 2004. Larsson was most famous for the Millennium Trilogy, a set of thrillers following the protagonists Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander as they attempted to unravel a dark conspiracy.

The foundation’s website states that Larsson was as much an activist as he was a writer, who fought “for freedom of expression, against racism and against the oppression of women”. …source

White House mulls how to strike over Libya attack
16 October, 2012 – By Kimberly Dozier – Associated Press

WASHINGTON: The White House has put special operations strike forces on standby and moved drones into the skies above Africa, ready to strike militant targets from Libya to Mali – if investigators can find the Al-Qaida-linked group responsible for the death of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya.

But officials say the administration, with weeks until the presidential election, is weighing whether the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on al-Qaida is worth the risk that such strikes could elevate the group’s profile in the region, alienate governments the U.S. needs to fight it in the future and do little to slow the growing terror threat in North Africa.

Details on the administration’s position and on its search for a possible target were provided by three current and one former administration official, as well as an analyst who was approached by the White House for help. All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the high-level debates publicly.

The dilemma shows the tension of the White House’s need to demonstrate it is responding forcefully to al-Qaida, balanced against its long-term plans to develop relationships and trust with local governments and build a permanent U.S. counterterrorist network in the region.

Vice President Joe Biden pledged in his debate last week with Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan to find those responsible for the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.

“We will find and bring to justice the men who did this,” Biden said in response to a question about whether intelligence failures led to lax security around Stevens and the consulate. Referring back to the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last year, Biden said American counterterror policy should be, “if you do harm to America, we will track you to the gates of hell if need be.”

The White House declined to comment on the debate over how best to respond to the Benghazi attack.

The attack has become an issue in the U.S. election season, with Republicans accusing the Obama administration of being slow to label the assault an act of terrorism early on, and slow to strike back at those responsible.

“They are aiming for a small pop, a flash in the pan, so as to be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re doing something about it,'” said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rudy Attalah, the former Africa counterterrorism director for the Department of Defense under President George W. Bush.

Attalah noted that in 1998, after the embassy bombing in Nairobi, the Clinton administration fired cruise missiles to take out a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan that may have been producing chemical weapons for al-Qaida.

…more

Open letter to president-elect of a country with 100 dead or missing journalists
16 October, 2012 – Reporters without Borders

Dear President-Elect Peña Nieto,

You are ending a European tour with a visit to Paris before being sworn in as your country’s next president on 1 December. Tomorrow you will meet with French President François Hollande and the next day you will address the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on “Changes in Mexico and their role in the panorama of global change.”

Will the changes your refer to include the tragic toll of a decade of extreme violence in your country? Are they the proposals you plan to submit to you embattled country during your six years in office”

Culminating with outgoing President Felipe Calderón’s federal offensive, the Mexican tragedy has had a toll of more than 60,000 of your fellow citizens killed in the cross-fire between the drug cartels and security forces that are often infiltrated by organized crime.

The victims include more than 100 journalists killed or missing in the past decade. The latest are Ramón Abel López Aguilar, 53, photographer and editor of the Tijuana Informativo website, murdered yesterday in Tijuana, and “Ruy Salgado” also know as “El 5anto,” a Mexico City-based blogger who disappeared mysteriously on 8 September amid a controversy about last July’s federal elections.

The country you will lead from 1 December onwards is also scarred by the terrible repression in San Salvador Atenco in May 2006, when you were Mexico state’s governor. What justice will be rendered? What sustainable judicial system will allow the rule of law to be restored?

And which constitutional guarantees will at last be applied so that journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders, civil society representatives and now also electoral transparency activists are able to exercise their freedom to obtain and impart information and question the authorities without fear of being harassed or killed?

The way the investigation into López Aguilar’s murder in Tijuana is already developing reminds us of all the other police and judicial investigations that were either rushed or became bogged down in endless bureaucracy and just sustained the prevailing impunity. …more

U.S. official in Ankara for Syria talks
16 October, 2012 – Agence France Presse

ANKARA: A senior US official will hold talks in Ankara on Tuesday on a range of issues including the Syrian crisis amid heightened tensions between Ankara and Damascus, an embassy spokesman said.

“We continue to consult with our partners in the region including Turkey on a variety of issues related to Syria,” U.S. embassy spokesman in Ankara T.J. Grubisha told AFP.

U.S. Acting Under Secretary for arms control and international security Rose Gottemoeller will meet Turkish officials in Ankara to discuss bilateral and regional cooperation on arms control, non-proliferation, disarmament and other international security issues.

The US official’s visit comes after Turkey forced a Damascus-bound Syrian airliner from Moscow to land in Ankara last week, inflaming tensions with Syria and Russia.

Turkey grounded the passenger plane upon intelligence that it was carrying military cargo. Turkish officials declined to reveal by whom or which country the intelligence had been provided.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the cargo contained military equipment for the Syrian defence ministry, but Russia said it was dual-purpose radar equipment which was not banned by international conventions.

Turkey and Syria closed their airspace to each other’s civilian flights at the weekend.

Ankara has taken an increasingly strident line towards its southern neighbour since a shell fired from the Syrian side of the border killed five Turks on October 3.

On Monday, Ankara ordered an Armenian humanitarian aid plane headed for Syria’s city of Aleppo to land for routine security checks. The plane resumed its journey through Turkish airspace later Monday after it got Ankara’s clearance.

…more

Iraqi Shiite militants fight for Syria’s Assad
16 October, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

BAGHDAD: Scores of Iraqi Shiite militants are fighting in Syria, often alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s troops, and pledging loyalty to Iran’s supreme Shiite religious leader, according to militia fighters and politicians in Iraq.

Iraqi Shiite militia involvement in Syria’s conflict exposes how rapidly the crisis has spiralled into a proxy war between Assad’s main ally Shiite Iran and the Sunni Arab Gulf states supporting mostly Sunni rebels fighting the president.

The conflict has already drawn in a stream of Sunni Islamist fighters from across the region attracted to the rebel cause, while on the other side Syrian rebels accuse Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah of supporting Assad’s troops on the ground.

For Iraqi Shiites who follow Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the uprising in Syria threatens Shiite influence and Iraqis fighting there say they see a duty to help Assad because of their loyalty to the Islamic Republic’s highest authority.

Among them are defectors and former fighters from anti-U.S Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army, the Iran-backed Badr group and Asaib al-Haq and Kata’ib Hezbollah, militias who once waged a bloody war on American troops, Shiite militants and Iraqi politicians say.

Shiite politicians say militants fighting in Syria have no official sanction from their militia leadership or from Iraq’s Shiite-led government which is caught in a delicate balancing act between its ally Tehran, and Western and Arab powers calling for Assad to go.

Some of the Iraqi militants are former Mehdi Army fighters who took refugee in Syria after 2007 when their group was crushed by Iraqi forces. Others, loyal to Khamenei as a religious authority, crossed over recently, fighters and Iraqi politicians say.
…more

At least five arrested as thousands rally in Kuwait
16 October, 2012 – Reuters

KUWAIT (Reuters) – At least five protesters were arrested and several injured in Kuwait as police tried to break up an opposition protest late on Monday, witnesses said.

Authorities had asked opposition lawmakers to call off the demonstration over political reforms, but at least 5,000 people gathered in a square near parliament that has been the site of several anti-government protests since last year.

Although major oil producer Kuwait has not experienced the mass Arab Spring protests seen elsewhere across the region, tensions have escalated between an elected parliament and a cabinet chosen by the prime minister, who is appointed by the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Monday’s protesters, who included opposition politicians and political activists, called on the emir to set a date for upcoming parliamentary elections. They have voiced concern that Kuwait may change its electoral law in a way that would favor pro-government candidates.

Witnesses at the protest, where riot police were deployed, said they saw five protestors arrested. Several people, including police, were injured when demonstrators clashed with police as they tried to spread into a barricaded street.

Security is tighter than usual in Kuwait as the country hosts Asian leaders for a summit. The palace appealed to opposition lawmakers earlier this week to call off the protest.

Although U.S. ally Kuwait has the most open political system in a region ruled by autocratic families that tolerate little dissent, the ruling al-Sabah family dominates politics. …more

The Truth About the 2007 Invasion of Iran and the Woman Who Stopped It
by Gordon Duff – Veterans Today – 28 August, 2102

Five years ago, an American woman serving in Bahrain single handedly stopped the United States government from a criminal attack on Iran and a series of “false flag” terror attacks on American troops and ships in the region.

American Neocons and Israeli lobby decided this was their last chance to start a war, one that would saddle the next president with a disaster of unprecedented proportions, fighting 3 wars during America’s Bush driven economic collapse.

The plans were in motion, plans that would have eventually collapsed the United States, plans also aimed at the destruction of Iran and the enslavement of her people. One person, known to few, played a key role in stopping this disaster.

This is Gwyneth Todd, former member of President Clinton’s National Security Council and top Middle East advisor. Stopping the Bush invasion would end her career and nearly cost her life.

Todd, though a ranking Navy official in 2007, was forced to flee Bahrain for her life, settling in Australia. Those who aided her were murdered, jailed, hunted.

Today she is raising a family, taking care of wildlife and serves as an editor for Veterans Today. This is part of a story few know, a desperate time and the heroic acts of one person, one who made a difference.

_________________________
BUSH’S LAST OPPORTUNITY FOR A THIRD SIMULTANEOUS WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST

In 2007, an American armada, troop ships, aircraft carriers, guided missile cruisers and destroyers sailed into the Persian Gulf. Their plan was to land Marines on Iranian soil, a plan hatched by Vice President Dick Cheney and White House officials including Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Clarke.

Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff

Military command of this invasion, to be done without consultation of congress or the United Nations was left to Vice Admiral Kevin J. Cosgriff and Admiral Will J. Fallon, both career opportunists with extremist political views, willing to do anything for promotion and the curry favor from the powerful criminal figures in US government.

Their “cover story” was to sale a frigate up the Shatt al Arab, a disputed waterway between Iraq and Iran, hoping to stimulate a “response” from Iran.

Their real plan was to create the response themselves, as was done by the Navy during the Tonkin Gulf Incident in 1964 when America “invented” an attack by North Vietnam as a prelude to a 10 year war America eventually lost.

Their plans were to create phony radio traffic simulating an Iranian attack in order to push America into authorizing hostilities that they, themselves, had perpetrated in as part of a conspiracy.

The official version of story is in a 5 page article in Washington Post last Sunday titled:

“Why was a Navy advisor stripped of her career?”

What is important here is not just the quality of the story that is told, but the more important story that could never be told. There was a second part of the plan. Admiral Cosgriff informed Todd, on December 13, 2007, while Todd was his chief advisor, that Iran planned on attacking Bahrain and had total control of Shiites in the region.

This is how the Washington Post reports her response to the Admiral:

“The report, which she guessed originated with the local CIA station, said the attacks were to be led by Bahrain’s top Shiite religious figure, Isa Qassim.

Todd thought the report was fishy. Although Bahrain’s Shiites did oppose the U.S.-backed Sunni monarchy, they’re Arabs, eternal enemies of the Persian Iranians. And Qassim himself, it happened, had warned Todd just the previous day that anti-monarchy demonstrators might attack places frequented by U.S. personnel.

The report “looked like a fabrication by someone trying to kill two birds with one stone, by making the Bahraini Shia appear to be anti-U.S. terrorists who also happened to be taking orders from Iran,” Todd said. “I knew, really knew, that the Bahraini Shia were trying to ensure U.S. personnel were nowhere near the possible violence.” She suspected the intelligence report was cooked up by Bush administration hawks.”

Todd was sent to meet with intelligence sources who said the report was bogus. Private sources told a different story.

They indicated that Bahrainian secret police, aided by special operations units answerable to the Joint Special Operations Command under Vice President Cheney, planned to stage an attack on US facilities.

The would be timed to attacks on US naval personnel, terror bombings, staged by Americans but blamed on Isa Qassim, a popular religious figure who was known to oppose the local monarchy.

Through him, false claims of naval attacks would flood in to Washington and Marines would land in Iran.

Hundreds of Americans would be murdered by fellow Americans to serve “political necessity and the greater good,” as the slogan so often used by the “neocons” goes, especially when criminal acts are involved. …more

Bahrain arrests activist in ongoing crackdown
16 October, 2012 – Al Akhbar

A leading Bahraini rights activist, Mohammed al-Maskati, was arrested on Tuesday for taking part in an unauthorized Manama protest, his lawyer and other activists said.

Al-Maskati, president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, will likely be charged with participating in an “illegal gathering.”

“He went to the police station with his lawyer after being summoned and was immediately arrested,” Said Yousif, a fellow activist, told Al-Akhbar. “Tomorrow, he will be taken to the public prosecution office.”

Police Tuesday also summoned activist Nader Abdulemam. Abdulemam, whose face was left severely bruised earlier this year after police fired a projectile directly at him, will go in to the police station the following day, Yousif said.

The two activists are only the latest to be targeted by authorities for organizing or taking part in demonstrations calling on the kingdom’s autocratic rulers to introduce democratic reforms.

“We are facing a crackdown on human rights activists,” Yousif said. “This is the price for protecting human rights inside a country with a repressive regime. We knew this from the beginning, and we are willing to pay that price.”

Bahrain has witnessed ongoing opposition protests since February, 2011. It began with protesters calling for more civic freedoms, but many are now calling for the overthrow of the monarchy after it responded by launching a bloody crackdown.

Saudi troops were ushered into Bahrain in March, 2011 to help crush the movement, but protests against the regime persist.

At least 80 people have been killed since the uprising began, according to activists.

Medics have also been targeted for treating injured protesters.

Last week, Human Rights Watch and a group of US congressmen separately called on the country’s monarch to release nine medics who treated activists injured during the uprising.

The medics were all charged earlier this year and released on bail, but re-arrested after an October 1 court decision upheld their charges. …more

Lawyer: Bahrain court postpones activist’s appeal
16 October, 2012 – CBSNEWS

MANAMA, Bahrain — A defense lawyer in Bahrain says a court has prolonged the appeal of an imprisoned human rights activist by ordering another hearing next month.

Nabeel Rajab is challenging his three-year prison sentence for allegedly encouraging illegal protests and violence in the strife-wracked Gulf nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet.

He is among the most high-profile prisoners in Bahrain’s crackdowns. The country has been hit by near-daily unrest since February 2011, when its Shiite majority began an uprising demanding a greater political voice in the Sunni-ruled nation.

Attorney Mohammed al-Jishi says the court on Tuesday set Rajab’s next hearing for Nov. 8.

Also Tuesday, authorities detained another rights campaigner, Mohammed al-Maskati, the president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights. …source

11-Month-old Bahraini ‘Huda Sayyed Nima Sayyed Hassan’ was martyred Tuesday by poisonous tear gas used by Saudi-backed Bahraini forces.

16 October, 2012 – Moqawama

According to agencies, Bahraini troops heavily relied on tear gas and stun grenades to disperse peaceful anti-government protesters.

Several Bahraini civilians, mostly senior citizens and kids, have died from asphyxia after regime troops fired tear gas in residential areas and into homes in violation of international standards, that Bahrain is a signatory to.

Bahraini demonstrators hold King Hamad al-Khalifa responsible for the killings during the popular uprising in the country.
Meanwhile, protesters marched in Manama and several other towns near the capital on Monday.
They also expressed solidarity with imprisoned medics who announced earlier that they had begun a hunger strike.

There were reports of clashes between the protesters and the security forces.
More than 90 people have also been killed and many others have been injured in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protesters in Bahrain. …more

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei : Iran will not give in to “bullying”
16 October, 2012 – Albawaba business

Iran will not give in to “bullying” at the negotiating table with world powers over its disputed nuclear program, despite new economic sanctions, its supreme leader said on Tuesday.

The West “keeps saying pressure against Iran is aimed at forcing the Islamic Republic to return to the negotiating table” about its nuclear program, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks carried on state television.

“But when did we leave the table that now we need to return?” he asked during his visit to the northeastern province of North Khorasan.

“Their real objective is [forcing] the Iranian nation to surrender to their bullying at the negotiating table…[but] you are too weak to bring Iran to its knees,” Khamenei said.

His remarks came a day after the European Union toughened sanctions against Tehran, targeting its dealings with Iran’s banks, shipping and gas imports and banning trade in metals.

Without directly mentioning the sanctions, Khamenei accused the European leaders of seeking to bully Iran.

“European officials are still stuck in the bullying mindset of the colonial 19th century, but they will face many problems in the face of the resistance of the Iranian nation and officials,” he said.

Khamenei has called the Western sanctions “barbaric” and said they amount to “a war against a nation.” But he has said Iran can overcome problems caused by the sanctions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast also denounced the sanctions on Tuesday, describing them as “illegal, unwise and inhumane,” while vowing not to retreat on the country’s nuclear program.

The West is involved in talks with Tehran on the nuclear impasse, but those negotiations have stalled for years. Efforts to restart them this year failed, despite three rounds of face-to-face talks between representatives of Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany. …more

Despite sanctions & restriction to the World US export to Iran increases by US$50 Million
16 October, 2012 – Jafria News

JNN 16 Oct 2012 Tehran ; Despite increased sanctions against Iran this year, US exports to the Islamic Republic have increased by about a third, bringing earnings nearly $50 million higher in the first eight months of this year than in all of 2011.

The US Census Bureau found that from January through August, exports to Iran totaled $199.5 million, an increase of about one third from last year’s $150.8 during the same period. Most of the exports came from the sale of wheat and other grains, which were valued at $89.2 million and comprised 45 percent of all US exports to Iran, Reuters reports.

Dairy products and medical equipment have also continued to enter Iran, with sales of milk products more than doubling since last year. The sale of such goods is permitted with a Treasury Department export license.

But had the US stopped exporting wheat to Iran, exports would have declined overall.

American companies have also complained that it is difficult for them to get paid for their sales, since many of Iran’s largest banks have been blacklisted by the US for involvement in terrorism or the country’s nuclear program. Some Americans, especially religiously affiliated or non-profit groups, have argued that banking sanctions could prevent humanitarian trade.

“The administration’s sanctions against Iran have created a de-facto humanitarian banking blockade,” Kate Gould of the Friends Committee on National Legislation told Reuters.

But the news comes at a time when the European Union has just agreed to increase the already-tight sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, two and a half months after US President Barack Obama threatened increased action. …more

Iran Foreign Ministry dismisses Bahraini interference allegations
16 October, 2012 – Voice of Bahrain

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has dismissed Bahraini claims about Tehran interfering in Manama’s internal affairs.

During his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Mehmanparast said the stance of the Islamic Republic toward Bahrain is clear and Tehran has repeatedly announced that paying attention to people’s demands is the only way to ensure stability in any country.

“Suppressing people only complicates the problems,” the Iranian official said.

Bahrain summoned the Iranian Charge d’affaires Mahdi Islami on Monday over claims that Tehran is interfering in Manama’s internal affairs.

Mehmanparast said providing ground for the participation of the Bahrainis in the political affairs of their country would eliminate the need for accusing others of interference.

“Accusing other countries so that popular demands may be ignored and suppressed would bear no fruit,” Mehmanparast said.

Bahrain’s revolution started in mid-February 2011, when demonstrators, inspired by the revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt, started holding massive anti-regime protests.

Dozens of people have been killed in the regime’s crackdown and the security forces have arrested hundreds, including doctors and nurses accused of treating injured protesters.

A report published by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry in November 2011 found that the Al Khalifa regime had used ‘excessive force’ in the campaign of suppression and accused Manama of torturing political activists, politicians, and protesters. …source