Posts from — December 2012

Washington floats chemical weapons charge as pretext for Syria buildup
World Socialist Web Site – 4 December, 2102

The Obama administration and the corporate media have cited unspecified “intelligence” about the movement of chemical weapons to issue new threats of direct intervention in Syria, where Washington and its allies have been backing so-called “rebels” in a bid to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both made public statements Monday alleging a danger of Syria using chemical weapons and threatening US retaliation.

Appearing before a military audience at the National Defense University in Fort McNair, Obama declared, “I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and anyone who is under his command… If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.”

“This is a red line for the United States,” Clinton said earlier in the day after a meeting in Prague with Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

“I’m not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people, but suffice it to say that we’re certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur,” Clinton warned.

Schwarzenberg told the media that Czech troops specializing in chemical weapons had been sent to Jordan and were “training” with forces there.

Citing unnamed senior officials who claim to have seen unspecified intelligence on Syrian chemical weapons, the New York Times, CNN and other media have joined forces with the Obama administration in promoting the chemical weapons justification for another US war of aggression.

What becomes clear in examining these reports, as well as the statements from the administration, is that the alleged threat from Syrian “weapons of mass destruction” is entirely concocted. Not a single piece of hard evidence is cited by any government official or any media source.

In a breathless report on Monday, CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr quoted an unnamed “senior US official” as describing “worrying signs” of supposed activity around chemical weapons sites in Syria in “the last few days.”

“The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitiveness of the information discussed, declined to specify the exact intelligence that the United States has gathered in the past few days,” Starr said.

The CNN report quotes one US official as saying that “this puts us into the contingency of potential US action.”

The chemical weapons story was initially broken on Sunday by the New York Times in a front-page article co-authored by David Sanger, the Times’ chief Washington correspondent, and Eric Schmitt, its national security correspondent. Writing that “what exactly the Syrian forces intend to do with the weapons remains murky,” the Times correspondents cited as their source unnamed “officials who have seen the intelligence from Syria.”

Syria’s Foreign Ministry categorically denied that the country’s military is preparing to use chemical weapons. A statement released in Damascus said that Syria “would not use chemical weapons—if there are any—against its own people under any circumstances.”

What is particularly significant in the statements of Obama and other US officials is the absence of any expression of concern over the Syrian military’s chemical weapons stockpile falling into the hands of the so-called rebels whom Washington is supporting. …more

The USG deceived the US Public in its lead up to the invasion of Iraq. Just prior to the invasion there was an ominous public relation blitz using Mushroom Clouds and alleged pictures of Mobile Weapons Factories and chemical weapons caches. Rice, Powell and Bush bull-shitted the American public into a lemming like acceptance of the implosion of Iraq. The lemmings complained a little and Obama did a partial withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq. Both nations still “enjoy” a strong technical and logistics presence by the US.

Obama managed to avoid provoking America’s distaste for war in Libya by using letting proxies and Allys do the “heavy lifting”. Over the past year the US has been actively engaged in the training, funding and equipping “mercenary extremists” to deploy in Syria with its partners in Saudi Arabia. These have included known al Qaeda operatives. Eric Prince (Black Water) has been in Saudi Arabia providing “services” during this time – not a random coincidence. The recipe for war in Libya was repeated in Syria but it has gone down all too well.

The “blow-back” for the US adventurism in Syria is already evident as the US prepares to name Nusra Front – Jabhat al Nusra as a terrorist group operating in Syria in oppostion to the al-Assad regime. It seems the Nusra Front has managed to “take point” in the struggle for revolution. This is notable because it follows on the heals of Obama’s “warnings” and Pentagon warnings of preparations for chemical weapons attacks against Syrian population by al Assad.

Because of the “chatter” in the US, a false flag chemical weapons attack by the USG on Nusra Front or an affiliated “extremist group” fighting the al Assad regime seems imminent. A false flag operation of this nature would place the blame squarely on al Assad and provide Obama with the “moral justification” to launch an US-NATO(Turkey) invasion of Syria. It would also go a long way to neutralizing any response to a US lead invasion of Syria by Hizbullah or Iran. The historical conduct of the USG in these matters lends a lot of credence of this notion. It seems much more a reality at this point than does a chemical weapons attack by the Assad against his own country. Phlipn Out.

Syria loading chemical weapons into bombs: report
6 December, 2012 – Agence France Presse – The Daily Star

WASHINGTON: The Syrian military has loaded precursor chemicals for the deadly nerve gas sarin into aerial bombs and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar al-Assad, NBC News reported Wednesday.

If confirmed, the move would mark a step further in Syria’s progression toward possibly using chemical weapons.

US officials told NBC News that the loaded aerial bombs could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter jets.

But they stressed that the sarin bombs had not yet been loaded onto planes and that Assad had not yet issued a final order to deploy them. However, if he goes ahead, “there’s little the outside world can do to stop it,” one official said.

CNN reported that the Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese and Turkish intelligence services were in close contact with their US counterparts to decide on the next steps.

The Syrian government, fighting to prevent the capital Damascus from falling to rebel forces, has insisted it would never resort to chemical weapons.

But a US official told AFP on Tuesday that Syria had begun mixing chemicals that could be used to make sarin, while CNN reported Damascus could use the gas in a limited artillery attack on advancing rebels.

Washington fears that battlefield advances by rebels could prompt Assad to use chemical arms, or that such stocks could become insecure or find their way into the hands of groups hostile to the United States and its allies.

US President Barack Obama on Monday warned Assad of “consequences” if he uses chemical weapons against his own people, in a new warning as the conflict approaches the 21-month mark with more than 41,000 people killed.
…source

Syria: Why is it Taking So Long?
By: Nahed Hattar – 4 December, 2012

Time and time again, promises made by the Syrian regime and its armed opposition to deal a decisive blow to the other side have failed to materialize. Is this savage war destined to go on forever?

Both sides have a long list of justifications for their failure to resolve the situation. All of these seem to be military or technical, but may really have more to do with politics and ideology. Warring sides can never achieve military victory if their ideas do not prevail first.

Syrian opposition groups became embroiled in an armed rebellion and therefore lost the moral high ground needed to succeed. They became proxies, used against their own country in a regional and international war. Since they chose the path of war, it became easier for local criminal gangs and terrorist groups from all over the world to manipulate them.

This is what underlies the armed groups’ failure to reach a decisive victory. They are unable to offer a national alternative which could win over a critical mass of Syrians.

Their ideology and their operations became tainted, revealing a repulsive image of intentional killing and destruction, of authoritarianism and obscurantism. With this, the armed opposition had to resort to rallying support around a sectarian and religious agenda to justify its insane war.

It became the militia of the oppressed Sunnis in Syria. Seeing as those who have rushed to raise the Sunni banner include the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafis, and Jihadis, Syrian Sunnis will have no choice but to become fully compliant with Brotherhood and Salafi authoritarianism in all its forms.

This is what underlies the armed groups’ failure to reach a decisive victory. They are unable to offer a national alternative which could win over a critical mass of Syrians belonging to various religions, sects, ethnic groups, and political orientations.

For the Syrian regime, sectarianism is not a suitable framework for a political ideology. It may use it implicitly for effective rallying, but it cannot officially adopt it without losing its national legitimacy. If it does, it will condemn itself to a very rapid and inexorable downfall.

However, the Syrian regime is waging war without a clear message. The regime’s approach is to react to the opposition’s ideology; when the latter was liberal, the regime responded with reforms along those lines. It spoke of constitutional changes, elections, widening the framework of the government, and calling for dialogue. Whether these solutions were enough is not what’s important here. The crux of the matter is that the regime played the game according to the opposition’s rules. It then tried to deal with the rebels’ sectarianism by denying it, refusing to acknowledge the presence of a civil war.

The regime’s approach is to react to the opposition’s ideology; when the latter was liberal, the regime responded with reforms along those lines.
Meanwhile, Hamas dealt a blow to the Syrian government by abandoning Damascus without attracting scorn from the other two sides of the Resistance triangle, Iran and Hezbollah. Even the government’s inspired idea to promote opposition figures, Communist Qadri Jamil and Social Nationalist Ali Haidar, to become ministers was wasted because even they could not galvanize public support for a regime waging a war that had not been defined.

On two very separate occasions, President Bashar Assad revealed positions which could be the basis for a decisive victory. He described the war in Syria as “a struggle between Arab nationalism and political Islam.” Then he stated that the conflict was “in defense of the only secular state remaining in the East.” However, both these positions turned out to be vacuous; neither developed into the regime’s central message, and they failed to rally support. …more

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall. – Che Guevara

Opposition Leader Urges Bahrainis to Expand Popular Protests
5 December, 2012 – Islamic Invitation Turkey

The imprisoned President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, on Wednesday called on the Bahraini people to rely on their own and expand and increase popular protests against the Al Khalifa regime, reiterating that pinning hope on the international community would be wrong.

“Sitting at homes and pining hope on international organizations to rescue us is a mistake, do not pin your hope on a mirage and rely on the presence of yourselves on the scene and in the squares,” Rajab said.

He further described as “worthless”, the Bahraini regime’s decision to ban protests, reiterating that all the political spectrums should challenge the decision and take to the streets.

Hundreds of Bahrainis staged large demonstrations across the country on Sunday, calling for the ouster of the al-Khalifa regime and the establishment of a democratic ruling system in their tiny Persian Gulf island.

The protesters asked for the downfall of the Bahraini regime, establishment of a democratic system, and voiced support for people in Mahza village, southern capital City of Manama, which has been under siege by the Bahraini security forces since two weeks ago.

According to the Bahraini media, the security forces have launched several night raids on the village residents.

The Bahraini government, facing protracted unrest by an overwhelming majority of the people, has resorted to any harsh measure to suppress popular protests and arrest political activists. It also revoked the nationality of 31 men on charges of harming national security earlier this month.

The men include London-based dissidents Saeed al-Shehabi and Ali Mushaima, the son of jailed opposition leader Hassan Mushaima, as well as clerics, human rights lawyers and activists.

Also on the list published by Bahraini News Agency (BNA) were two former parliamentarians from the leading Shiite party Wefaq, Jawad and Jalal Fairooz.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule, end of discrimination, establishment of justice and a democratically-elected government as well as freedom of detained protesters.

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

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

The Wahhabi War On Indonesia’s Shiites – Analysis
By: FPIF – December 6, 2012 – By Rossie Indira and Andre Vltchek

Indonesia’s Shi’a minority is under heavy attack. Men, women, and children have been assaulted, schools damaged, and villages burned to the ground. Many have been killed.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Saudi Arabia’s intolerant brand of Wahhabi Sunni Islam—propagated far and wide by Saudi oil money—is behind most of assaults.

Naila Zakiyah, a lecturer at a Shi’a school for girls in the city of Bangil, East Java, recently explained to us:

“In light of recent events, we are naturally worried about the safety of our students… We feel discriminated against. Before this year’s Ramadan, the Sunni mosque across the street broadcasted their sermon twice a week. They had their loudspeakers directed towards our school. They were shouting that Shi’a teaching is misguided, and that spilling our blood is halal. It is said that those who are attacking us are being funded by money from Saudi Arabia. In 2007, for example, 500 people demonstrated in front of our boarding school; the Saudis gave each person $2.”

When we visited the neighboring mosque, our hosts showed us anti-Shi’a pamphlets and said that they couldn’t talk to their Shi’a neighbors “in a subtle way anymore.” They added, “If they don’t want to convert, then we have to use violence. In our opinion, they are kafir. We will not be at peace with them until we die, even if our lives are at stake. They have already insulted Islam! If the police do not take action against the Shi’a, we will resort to violence.”

And violence they use.

In late December 2011, a mob of over 500 Sunnis drove 300 Shiites from their houses in the village of Nangkernang, Madura Island. Countless dwellings, including a boarding school and a place of worship, were destroyed. …more

‘Gulf’s stability requires dialogue’
By Habib Toumi – 6Decemebr, 2012 – Gulf News

Manama: The protection of the Gulf’s security and stability is a shared responsibility that calls for dialogue between all stakeholders, Bahrain’s foreign minister has said.

“Dialogue and understanding are crucial for a more secure and stable future for the peoples of the region and for the international community,” Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa said, one day ahead of the Manama Dialogue, a security and political conference hosted by the Bahraini capital over three days.

“The issues of security and stability in the region top international priorities in light of their strategic significance both politically and economically and their influence on international interactions,” he said.

Bahrain, assuming its pioneering and leadership role in the region, endeavours to provide the appropriate setting to discuss core matters that are related to security in the area and help form a clear vision on how to deal with present and future challenges, Shaikh Khalid said.

Syria will be given special attention at the dialogue on December 7-9.

The opening session will be devoted to “Global Views on Syria” and one of four special sessions will be on “Syria and Regional Security”.

Sectarianism in the region will also receive wide attention with a session on “the influence of sectarian politics in regional security”.

Countries in the Middle East have been badly affected by the seemingly inexorable rise of sectarianism while several analysts have noted it has become the “dominant dynamic in the region today”.

Other plenary sessions at the Manama Dialogue in its eighth year will address “the US and the region”, “priorities for regional security”, “intervention and mediation” and “Middle East security in a global context.”

The other simultaneous special sessions will debate “counter terrorism”, “strategic reassurance and deterrence” and “security in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“The Manama Dialogue has since its launch in 2004 been steadily gaining in stature for offering opportunities to meet and exchange views and opinions that help draw up regional and international strategies and orientations on critical issues of political, economic and security concern to the international community,” Shaikh Khalid said.

“The Dialogue has now become a reflection of Bahrain’s moderate diplomacy that is invariably keen on reinforcing international relations and ties based on the principles of dialogue, understanding and mutual respect,” he said.

The timing of the Manama Dialogue coincides with fast-paced and complex regional and international developments that require consultations and interactions with centres and people of power and influence, including experts, politicians and military leaders, he said.

“We welcome all the participants who will undoubtedly enrich the dialogue with their views and ideas that will contribute to reaching a common understanding on several issues. We hope that the Manama Dialogue will reinforce security and stability in the region and will help avert tension and violence.”

The Manama Dialogue, co-organised by Bahrain’s foreign ministry and the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), an international authority on political-military conflict, has evolved into a pivotal regional gathering.

“The Manama Dialogue offers participating states unparalleled opportunities for security diplomacy,” the IISS said. “As usual there is the necessary blend of involvement from the foreign, defence and interior ministries as well as the national security councils, intelligence agencies and military establishments.”

The conference, in which participation is by invitation only, comprises “a carefully selected group of individuals who can inform, instruct and influence security policy in the region, and of the non-government delegates.”

The annual event hosted by Bahrain did not take place last year due to the unusual conditions in the country.

At the last summit in December 2010, King Abdullah of Jordan delivered the keynote address while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the opening speech. …source

Egypt military orders rival crowds to quit palace area
6 December, 2012 – By Marwa Awad and Edmund Blair – Reuters

CAIRO: Egypt’s Republican Guard ordered rival demonstrators to leave the area around the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday after fierce overnight clashes that killed seven people.

Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Mursi withdrew, but the opposition promised more protests there.

The presidency announced that the Republican Guard, whose duties include protecting the palace, had set a 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) deadline for supporters and opponents of Mursi to quit an area they had turned into a battleground.

The military played a big role in removing President Hosni Mubarak during last year’s popular revolt, taking over to manage a transitional period, but had stayed out of the latest crisis.

Mursi’s Islamist partisans had fought opposition protesters well into the early hours during duelling demonstrations over the president’s decision last month to expand his powers to help him push through a mostly Islamist-drafted constitution.

A Reuters witness said the hundreds of Mursi supporters who had camped overnight near the palace perimeter left before the military deadline passed. Dozens of Mursi’s foes remained, but were kept away by a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks.

An official of the opposition National Salvation Front, who asked not to be named, said more protests would take place.

“We are planning marches later today, most probably taking off from Tahrir Square, disregarding the Republican Guard’s decision. We had many injuries last night, and we are not going to have their blood wasted.”

The commander of the Guard, which has deployed tanks and armoured troop carriers to help police pacify the area, said the intention was to separate the adversaries, not to repress them.

“The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators,” General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency.

Mursi himself, silent in the turbulence of the last few days, will address the nation later in the day, state television quoted a presidential adviser as saying.

The president discussed how to stabilise Egypt with the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is also defence minister, and cabinet ministers, the presidency said.

After the sustained clashes of Wednesday night, the streets around the palace were much calmer in the morning, apart from a brief bout of rock-throwing between the hundreds of Islamists and dozens of opposition partisans still at the scene.
…more

Tunisia’s Islamists attack union activists
5 December, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Supporters of Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party on Tuesday attacked a demonstration by the country’s main labor union, in the latest unrest two years after the revolution.

Several dozen assailants attacked members of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) who were gathered outside the union’s headquarters in Tunis to mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination of its founder, Farhat Hached.

The police intervened to separate the two sides, but 10 demonstrators were wounded in the attack, according to the trade union.

The interior ministry confirmed clashes had taken place between trade unionists and members of the League for the Protection of the Revolution.

In October, an opposition party accused the League, which claims as its mission to protect the aims of the revolution that toppled former dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, of beating a party official to death.

UGTT secretary general Houcine Abassi blamed the “enemies of democracy” for Tuesday’s violence and denounced what he said was an unprecedented attack against his organization.

“They want to assassinate the UGTT on the day that it commemorates the assassination of Hached, who sacrificed his life for his people and his country,” Abassi told private radio station Shems FM.

He said such an attack had never been witnessed before, “neither during the time of (Tunisia’s first president Habib) Bourguiba, nor of Ben Ali.”

The League hit back, accusing the UGTT of provoking the clashes by attacking its members with batons when they tried to participate peacefully in the demonstration.

“Whenever there is a protest by the left, they insult us, they insult the government and al-Nahda, even though no one has touched them. The reality is that they (leftist groups) are professional criminals,” the group said on its Facebook page.

Rights organizations such as The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) and the National Union of Journalists are to hold urgent meetings to discuss the implications of the incident. …more

Egypt on Precipice: Silence is not an option
Cario Institute for Human Rights Studies – Nadine Sherif – 5 December, 2012

Standing at the precipice of history, Morsi has a choice to make: be president of Egypt or be a leader in the Muslim Brootherhood.

At this moment, two persons have been reported died, including a female protestor. Petrol bombs and birds shots are being used by Morsi supporters against his opponents in front of the presidential palace. Reporters have been attacked, and cameras have been damaged.

A coalition of well respected opposition figures and political parties unified behind ElBaradei, Mousa, and Sabahi to demand an inclusive Constitutional Assembly and withdrawal of the Constitutional Declaration, and mobilize hundreds of thousands in more than 7 governorates to protest for more than a week. In press conference today they all came together announcing Dr. Elbaradei as the leader of the coalition.

Before the election at Fairmont Hotel agreement, president Morsi promised more than 72 of the revolutionary and liberal force to be inclusive and include them in executive decsisions as well as to reform the Constitutional Assembly. Yet he recent actions have been anything but inclusive.

Today at a press conference the Vice President announced that even he wasn’t consulted on the Constitutional Declaration. Previously, the Minister of Justice stated the same. Two of the Presidents advisers, including the Advicer on Democratic Transition resigned in protest. Four members of the National Human Rights Council resigned due to Islamist intervention into council business and absence of institutional independence.

Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have closed all avenues for peaceful dissent. With the Constitution Declaration Morsi closed all legal means to challenge his decisions and hold him accountable. A measure that wasn’t taken by any other Egyptian president.

Yesterday, Egypt’s most prominent independent newspapers staged a one day media blackout, followed by major Egypt’s Satelite channels, in protest continuous violations and threats to freedom of expression. These are not limited to violations committed since Morsi took presidency but extends to oppression soon to be enshrined in the newly drafted constitution.

The Muslim Brother have gone as far as to used force to stop government institutions from functioning. The Constitutinoal court has not be able to convene for five days. Muslim Brotherhood supporters have stop judges from entering building by force. Police forces haven’t intervened in time to regulate the protests and allowing a peaceful passage of the judges into the court. There has been no comment from the president regarding hampering the functioning of state institutions.

Today, pro-democracy protestors, respected the institution of the presidenacy and didn’t prevent the President or the Vice President from entering the presidential palace. Yet, pro-Morsi supporters, who were rallied by Muslim Brotherhood beginning at 10 pm yesterday, have violently attacked the protestors. Near by churches have been declared field hospitals to deal with injured. This is an alarming turn of events.

Egypt is on the edge of an irreversible path. If Morsi does not step up to the role of President of all Egyptians the peace revolution of Jan 25, 2011 is at risk of becoming blood drenched.

Please publicly and privatly urge President Morsi to live up to his responsibility, and to take action to prevent further escalation by the Muslim Brotherhood and/or the police.

…more

Wikileaks, Anonymous: ?
By Ryan O’Neill – Global Research – 4 December, 2012

Throughout early 2011, the European liberal left were in a frenzy over the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings that were sweeping across the region. The Mainstream Media supplied around the clock coverage of the mass demonstrations in Tahrir Square as we were told that the people of the Arab world were standing up to tyranny and demanding the democratic freedoms and human rights that are held in such high esteem in the west.

However, this hysteria took a dark turn in February and March of that year when armed gangs managed to take control of Benghazi in Libya and everyone from FOX News to far left political organizations immediately began to hail these events as part of some progressive revolution. In London, demonstrations began to break out in support of these rebel groups and members of the Socialist Workers Party even scaled the walls of the Libyan Embassy and replaced the Libyan flag with that of the King Idris flag which represented the Benghazi rebels.[i]

It’s incredibly problematic when organisations in the West feel they not only have a right to attach themselves to developments and struggles throughout the third world but that they can instinctively and egotistically act on them. This type of behavior rarely considers the importance of contextualization and takes sides in such conflicts depending on which narrative fits their romantic notions of ‘global revolution’ and which version their newly assumed role would sit more comfortable with. Wikileaks and Anonymous for instance, despite being relatively new organisations, are merely a new form of such behavior.

The problem is that most of these groups in the west are based on the liberal ideas of individualism and human rights formed in more privileged societies that exist in comfort at the expense of oppressed nations. Whilst following a neo-colonial agenda, countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom are able to portray themselves as progressive, philanthropic nations delivering democracy, aid and human rights to poorer nations and their apparent protection and tolerance of such free and democratic values amongst their own populations only serve to support such claims.

The type of dissent that these organisations represent and attempt to address are always with regards to ‘authoritarianism’, ‘libertarianism’, ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘democratic rights’ that merely frame the issue to the extent that the rights and injustices that are at the center of third world struggles go largely ignored. Whistleblowing in this sense serves the same purpose as the publishing of political memoirs, or the occasional negative self reflection of the press on past events that are always too little, too late. They do not hold any real clout to make a difference politically yet serve the notions that “dissent” is tolerated, and published in the west.

In 2012, Wikileaks released 2.4 million emails that showed correspondence between political figures, ministries and associated companies in Syria from between 2006 and 2012. Sarah Harrison of the Associated Press claimed that the

“material is embarrassing to Syria” but claims that Syria’s opponents will equally be ashamed. “It helps us not merely to criticize one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts. It is only through understanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it.”[ii]

The problem with such action from Wikileaks is how it completely failed to take into account the already established campaign by western governments and media outlets to slander Bashar Al Assad’s government in Syria and how this could, and would be used to give support and legitimacy to their claims. When the most powerful country in the world with the most powerful media agencies at its disposal are targeting Syria, slandering its government and constantly pushing for “Humanitarian Intervention”, this irresponsible lack of contextualization can only serve Syria’s enemies.

For instance, the emails revealed arms trading between Russia and Syria despite the UN (under pressure from the US) imposing sanctions on the country. These leaked documents were then used by the Mainstream Media to support Hilary Clinton’s claims that Russia were blocking their resolutions at the UN Security Council based on a desire to continue to sell weapons to Syria. However, no mention was obviously made of the high tech weapons and support given to the Free Syria Army by western nations or the Saudi and Qatari mercenaries at the heart of their struggle, nor did it mention Russia’s reservations that the same scenario had led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Libyans less than a year earlier.

Wikileaks and Julian Assange, as a figure who is no stranger to the power of media propaganda certainly know how dangerously convenient these actions are to those conducting war against Syria and this irresponsible conduct as if Syrians are struggling on a level playing field and that Wikileaks have a right, or even a responsibility to act in such a way is incredibly damaging.

Dollar-Less Iranians Discover Virtual Currency
By Max Raskin – 29 November, 2012 – Bloomberg

Under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies, dollars are hard to come by in Iran. The rial fell from 20,160 against the greenback on the street market in August to 36,500 rials to the dollar in October. It’s settled, for now, around 27,000. The central bank’s fixed official rate is 12,260. Yet there’s one currency in Iran that has kept its value and can be used to purchase goods from abroad: bitcoins, the online-only currency.

Created in 2009 by a mysterious programmer named Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoins behave a lot like any currency. Their value is determined by demand, and they can be used to buy stuff. Bitcoin transactions are encrypted and handled by a decentralized global network of tens of thousands of personal computers. Merchants around the world accept the currency, from a bakery in San Francisco to a dentist in Finland. Individuals who own bitcoins and wish to exchange them for physical currencies like euros or dollars can use exchange sites such as localbitcoins.com, a Finland-based site founded by Jeremias Kangas. “I believe that bitcoin is, or will be in the future, a very effective tool for individuals who want to avoid sanctions, currency restrictions, and high inflation in countries such as Iran,” Kangas wrote in an e-mail.

The advantage for Iranians is that bitcoins can be swapped for dollars that can then be kept outside the country. Another plus: Regulators can’t easily track the transactions, since bitcoins aren’t issued from a central server. Bitcoin users can conduct business on virtual private networks, which hide customers’ identities.

At online store coinDL.com, shoppers can use bitcoins to buy Beyond Matter, the latest album from Iranian artist Mohammad Rafigh. Anyone in the U.S. downloading songs, which fetch .039 bitcoins or 45¢ each, risks violating U.S. sanctions. That doesn’t bother Rafigh, who’s studying computer engineering as well as playing music. “Bitcoin is so interesting for me,” Rafigh wrote in an e-mail. “I wish the culture of using digital money spreads all over the world, because it does not have any dependency on anything like politics.” Rafigh has translated some bitcoin software into Farsi for his friends. “I love Iran, and if bitcoin is good for me, it can be good for more Iranians like me.” …more

This is Part 2 of a four-part series, “How Petraeus Created the Myth of His Success.” Part One: “How the Myth Began – Petraeus in Mosul” was published November 27, 2012.

How Petraeus Quietly Stoked the Fires of Sectarian War Without Getting Burned
4 December, 2012 – By Gareth Porter – Truthout

Introduction

The discovery of his affair with Paula Broadwell has ended David Petraeus’ career, but the mythology of Petraeus as the greatest US military leader since Eisenhower for having engineered turnarounds in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars lives on.

A closer examination of his role in those wars reveals a very different picture, however.

As this four-part series shows, Petraeus represents a new type of military commander, whose primary strength lay neither in strategy nor in command of combat, but in the strategic manipulation of information to maintain domestic political support for counterinsurgency wars of choice, while at the time enhancing his own reputation.

The series shows how Petraeus was engaged from the beginning of the Iraq war in creating a myth about himself as a commander with unique ability to defeat insurgents, that he had failed in his first two commands in Iraq and that he did not believe that war was winnable.

But the account also shows that Petraeus seems to have eventually begun to believe his own myth of himself as successful counterinsurgency strategist. The shift from deception of others to self-deception is the dominant theme of his command of the war in Afghanistan.

Sectarian Militias and “Frago 242”

In April 2004, the US-supported Iraqi Civil Defense Corps units, recruited from Sunni communities, collapsed in the face of insurgent offensive, shrinking overnight by more than 50 percent – including 82 percent of the troops in the Sunni stronghold of western Iraq. The US military and the Bush administration suddenly realized that they could not rely on the Sunni troops and police to fight the Sunni insurgency.

That event propelled David Petraeus into a new level of responsibility. He was given a new command to oversee the creation of a new Iraqi military and police force, along with his third star. Petraeus told Newsweek that he had met with President George W. Bush and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and they had told him, “Whatever you need, you’ve got it.”

The decision to name Petraeus commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I) was accompanied by another momentous decision: the Defense Department abandoned its previous public policy of requiring that sectarian militias disband – a policy it had not actually carried out. In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 19, 2004, Wolfowitz said, “The approach to those militias is to try over time to integrate them into new Iraqi security forces.”

The militias in question were both Shi’a and Kurdish, and the idea of using them to fight Sunni insurgents raised the specter of sectarian and ethnic warfare. But that was consistent with the larger strategy of Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy: a de facto alliance with the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and its military arm, the Badr Organization.

Their friend Ahmad Chalabi, head of the anti-Saddam Iraqi National Congress who was aligned with SCIRI and Badr, had promised them that that a Shi’a government would normalize relations with Israel. Along with the rest of the neoconservative elite, Wolfowitz and Feith refused to believe Chalabi’s allies intended to pursue a sectarian Shi’a political agenda, with support and direction from Iran.

A third consequential Bush decision followed the Petraeus command decision and the new reliance on Shi’a troops: an order to US commanders not to interfere, in effect, with the torture of prisoners by Iraqi security forces. On June 26, 2004, the US military command in Baghdad issued “Frago [fragmentary order] 242,” regarding the handling of incidents of detainee abuse by Iraqi troops and police. The order said, “Only an initial report will be made for apparent LOAC [Law of Armed Conflict Violations] … not involving US personnel. No further investigation will be required unless direct by higher HQ.”

That order, issued a few weeks after Petraeus had set up the new training command, opened the door for the use by newly formed Iraqi security forces of brutal interrogation techniques on suspected insurgents. It came shortly after the Abu Ghraib scandal over mistreatment of Iraqi detainees by US troops had blown up in April, raising serious questions about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s previous approval of the use of torture by the US military to obtain intelligence on the Iraqi insurgency from detainees. …more

Urgent Appeal: Political Prisoner Ali Radhi’s Health Rapidly Deteriorating on 4th Day of Hunger Strike
4 December, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The 23 year-old political prisoner Ali Radhi from Al-Eker village is on the fourth day of a hunger strike to protest being placed in a solitary confinement for the last four days without any explanation. His health is rapidly deteriorating.

Following his arrest last October, Ali Radhi has been allegedly beaten, tortured, and forced into signing a confession against his will as well as implicate a list of people in other alleged crimes; Ali did not know many of the people on the list. During his interrogation, one of the main interrogators and torturers, Isa Al-Majali, told Ali “You will say what we want you to say, or you will be taken into the ‘black room’”. Ali continued to demand to see a lawyer, and he was taken into the ‘black room’ where he was brutally beaten.

Radhi was taken to the office of the Public Prosecution, and initially was relieved to be in a location where there is not supposed to be any facilities for torturous interrogation. When Radhi spoke to the Public Prosecutor, he informed him that the confession was made under duress, that he was tortured, and that he wanted to see a lawyer. The Prosecutor warned Ali to not continue with these claims, and when Radhi repeated his demand for a lawyer, according to information received by the BCHR, he was taken behind some stairs in the public prosecution building, and severely beaten.

When Ali was sent to the Dry Dock prison, he could barely walk and required the use of crutches. During the attack on prisoners few days ago, Ali’s cell has been raided by prison guards, and he was severely beaten before being moved from to Alnabih Saleh police station and put in solitary confinement without giving him any explanation. According to what he has told his lawyer during a quick phone call yesterday, Ali has started a hunger since 1 Dec 2012 to demand that he is taken out of solitary confinement and is returned to the Dry Dock where he was originally being held. On the 4th of December, his family received an update on his health, after a doctor was allowed to examine his conditions: his blood sugar level is low, and he is urinating blood.

Radhi was arrested in Al-Eker village, which has recently been the site of an intense government crackdown in association with the incident of a policeman’s death in which the government has accused the protester. Police officers and civilian militias raided homes and beat and arrested people without warrants, and blocked the supply of food and medical supplies to the injured. (See BCHR article from October 21st, 2012: bahrainrights.org/en/node/5487 and bahrainrights.hopto.org/en/node/5486 )

The BCHR has received reports that many other prisoners are on a hunger strike, but because of the lack of transparency and communication, it has not yet been possible to confirm these other cases.

BCHR believes these acts are in violation of the prisoners’ rights and aim at discouraging other prisoners from speaking out against the abuses they are subjected to. BCHR believes that the Bahraini authorities are taking extra measures, including placement in solitary confinement, to control the hundreds of political prisoners, in absence of regular and independent monitoring of the prisons. …more

UN calls on Israel to open nuclear facilities
4 December, 2012 – By Edith M. Lederer – Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Israel to quickly open its nuclear program for inspection and backing a high-level conference to ban nuclear weapons from the Middle East which was just canceled.

All the Arab nations and Iran had planned to attend the conference in mid-December in Helsinki, Finland, but the United States announced on Nov. 23 that it wouldn’t take place, citing political turmoil in the region and Iran’s defiant stance on nonproliferation. Iran and some Arab nations countered that the real reason for the cancellation was Israel’s refusal to attend.

The resolution, approved Monday by a vote of 174-6 with 6 abstentions, calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty “without further delay” and open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Those voting “no” were Israel, the U.S., Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.

Resolutions adopted by the 193-member General Assembly are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion and carry moral and political weight.

Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has nuclear bombs though it is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal. It has refused to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, along with three nuclear weapon states – India, Pakistan and North Korea.

The Arab proposal to create a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone in the Mideast, and to pressure Israel to give up its undeclared arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear warheads, was endorsed at an NPT conference in 1995 but never acted on. In 2010, the 189 parties to the 1970 treaty called for convening a conference in 2012 on the establishment of a WMD-free zone in the Middle East.
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Royal Guard patrol cars could be used to crush ‘popular dissent’ in the Gulf Kingdom

Storm over German plan to supply Saudi Arabia with armoured vehicles
Tony Paterson – 3 December, 2012 – The Independent

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is reported to be considering a request from Saudi Arabia for the supply of several hundred German-made “Boxer” armoured patrol vehicles which are purpose built to help the military combat rebel forces and could be used to crush popular dissent.

In a report on the proposed arms deal which was leaked to Der Spiegel magazine, it was said that the request was discussed last week at a secret session of Germany’s federal security council which had previously given the go ahead for the controversial supply of anti-tank rocket launchers to Israel.

The magazine said the Saudi government had requested the Boxer vehicles for the Saudi Royal Guard – a unit whose role is confined mainly to protecting the Saudi royal family. “The Boxer is roadworthy and suitable for combating uprisings,” it noted.

It said that in the event of the “Arab Spring” spreading to Saudi Arabia, the Royal Guard would almost certainly be used to defend the royal family to the last. “Then there would be the possibility of German armoured vehicles being used against the masses,” the magazine wrote.

The Boxer is currently used by German forces in Afghanistan as an armoured troop transporter and patrol vehicle. It can also be used as a mini field hospital. The Saudi demand for the vehicles comes on top of a request for the supply of 270 German-built Leopard 2 tanks, which rate as the most sophisticated of their kind in the world.

The Leopard 2 “A7” version Saudi Arabia has requested is specifically designed for use in close combat situations such as house-to-house fighting. The deal could earn the manufacturers, the German arms producer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, up to €2bn.

Krauss-Mafffei is reported to have sent a Leopard 2 “A7” to Saudi Arabia for test purposes in July this year. A German army tank specialist was also sent along to monitor firing tests. However, Ms Merkel’s government is reported to have postponed any decision about the Saudi request for both the Leopard 2 tanks and Boxer armoured vehicles until next year.

The supply of German Leopard 2 tanks to Saudi Arabia was dismissed as “morally indefensible” by German opposition parties when news of the request emerged last year. Critics pointed out that the Saudi government had helped to crush a popular uprising in Bahrain in 2011. Volker Rühe, a former conservative defence minister, protested that Saudi Arabia needed “far-reaching reforms not weapons”.

Germany’s federal security council, which Ms Merkel presides over in person, was said to have secretly waived through the supply of anti-tank rocket launchers to Israel after first postponing the idea.

The German manufacturers, Dynamit Nobel Defence, advertise the weapons as being ideal for use over short distances or for firing from inside buildings. “They would be perfect for use against Hamas in the Gaza strip,” Der Spiegel wrote.

The security council decided against taking any decision about an Israeli request for anti-tank rocket launchers in June this year because of German Foreign Ministry concerns that they might be used for house-to-house fighting in areas of civilian unrest. However, on Monday their export was agreed because Israel was perceived to be under serious threat from Hamas, Der Spiegel said.

Like all her post-Second World War predecessors, Chancellor Merkel has insisted that for Germany the security of the state of Israel is “not negotiable”. Earlier this year the German government was reported to have supplied Israel with submarines capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads. …source

President Bush said: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear-weapons production.”

But Thielmann disagreed with Powell’s statement: “My understanding is that these particular vehicles were simply fire trucks. You cannot really describe as being a unique signature.” ….more

Alarm over Syria’s secretive chemical weapons
4 December, 2012 – Agence France Presse – The Daily Star

WASHINGTON: Activity around Syria’s chemical weapons is ringing alarm bells in Washington and other world capitals, but secrecy surrounding the stockpile makes it difficult to gauge its nature and size.

US President Barack Obama on Monday warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “there will be consequences” if he unleashed those weapons in the civil war wracking his country.

A US official told AFP that Syria had begun mixing chemicals that could be used to make sarin, a deadly nerve agent, while CNN reported Damascus could deploy the gas in a limited artillery attack on advancing rebels.

Experts, though, are unable to define the extent of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, emphasising that little public information exists. Syria is one of the few countries that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Damascus has however signed the Geneva protocol, which bars the first use of chemical and biological weapons, though it does not make stipulations about production, storage and transfer.

“We are closely following information about Syria… but we can’t say more without sending inspectors on the ground,” Michael Luhan, a spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told AFP.

Intelligence services also have little to say on the subject.

“Syria’s well-established chemical warfare program includes a stockpile of nerve agent, which can be delivered by aircraft or ballistic missiles,” Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lieutenant General Ronald Lee Burgess said in March 2011 testimony before a Senate panel.

“Syria continues to seek chemical warfare-related precursors and expertise from foreign sources.”

Syria is stockpiling “hundreds of tons” of various chemical agents, according to Leonard Spector of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

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Nearly two years on from Bahrain’s uprising, protests continue on a daily basis and human rights violations are rampant. Roshan Muhammed Salih argues the revolution has proven an inconvenient one not only for a complicit West but for the region’s Sunnis too.

Despite Western complicity and Arab indifference, Bahrain’s revolution goes on
By Roshan Muhammed Salih – 2 December, 2012 – Ceasefire

Bahrain has all the ingredients of the typical Arab Spring uprising – mass protests against pro-western despotic rulers, human rights violations, unlawful detention, military courts, foreign intervention, heroic resistance and bravery.

This cocktail has proven to be an effective mobiliser of the so-called Arab street, encouraging millions to support “good against evil, the “people versus the regime”. But not in Bahrain.

The truth is that much of the Arab and wider Muslim world remains indifferent to the situation there, buying into the sectarian propaganda bandied about by satellite TV stations and media commentators.

This uprising is seen by many as a Shia revolt which might extend Iran’s influence in the region. This attitude, in my view, is a serious error which will only entrench US-led imperialism through its Saudi proxy, and will poison Sunni-Shia relations when Muslim unity is a pre-requisite for Arab Spring success.

Rather, the uprising in Bahrain should be seen as a mutiny against despotism and western imperialism. And it should be supported by Sunnis whose own schools of thought have always considered Shias to be their brothers, and who should realise that western imperialism is the major obstacle to true and meaningful change.

Yet the fact is that nearly two years after the uprising first broke out in February 2011, not much seems to have changed in the country itself. Protests take place every day (largely unreported), human rights abuses and discrimination remain rampant, and the so-called reform process remains stalled.

The uprising has also been overshadowed by events in Syria, and more recently in Gaza, while regional and international support for Bahrain’s despotic rulers remains firm. And the Sunni world, it seems, just doesn’t care.

Human rights

A year ago the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) excoriated the country’s rulers for using “excessive force” during a crackdown on protests in early 2011.

The head of the commission, Cherif Bassiouni, said many detainees were subjected to “physical and psychological torture” and their basic human rights had been violated. Many inmates, he added, had been blindfolded, whipped, kicked, given electric shocks and threatened with rape to extract confessions.

Sayyid Ahmad, who was recently granted asylum in Britain, says he has direct experience of this.

“Masked men beat me, they blindfolded and cuffed me when I was in detention,” he told me. “They made me chant slogans against Shia leaders, they pulled my hair, spat in my face. But the worst thing was when they sexually abused me – that was the only time when I felt I couldn’t take it anymore. That made me hate myself.”

Ahmed obtained his degree in electrical engineering from Brighton University before going back to Bahrain to find work in 2010. But on his return, he says, he couldn’t find a job because the best ones were reserved for Sunnis.

So after a frustrating 8 months unable to find the job he felt he deserved, Ahmad was more than ready to join the protests when they erupted in February 2011. …more

Bahraini Activist: Al-Khalifa Regime Powerless to Suppress Popular Revolution
3 December, 2012 – Bahrain Freedom Movement

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Bahraini opposition figure said that the incapability of the Al-Khalifa to suppress the popular uprising in the tiny Persian Gulf island shows that the regime lacks the power to confront people’s peaceful revolution.

“Some security and military bodies of Bahrain, whose decision-makers are not known and are involved in the suppression of the nation, are now facing internal differences emanating from power-mongering,” Jamil Kazzem, a senior member of Bahrain’s National al-Wefaq party, told Al-Alam television channel on Saturday.

He further lashed out at the Bahraini media for censoring the news coverage of the regime’s suppressions and besieging many regions of the country, specially Mahza village near the capital Manama.

Yesterday, hundreds of Bahrainis staged large demonstrations across the country, calling for the ouster of the al-Khalifa regime and the establishment of a democratic ruling system in their tiny Persian Gulf island.

The protesters asked for the downfall of the Bahraini regime, establishment of a democratic system, and voiced support for people in Mahza village, southern capital City of Manama, which has been under siege by the Bahraini security forces since two weeks ago.

According to the Bahraini media, the security forces have launched several night raids on the village residents.

The Bahraini government, facing protracted unrest by an overwhelming majority of the people, has resorted to any harsh measure to suppress popular protests and arrest political activists. It also revoked the nationality of 31 men on charges of harming national security earlier this month.

The men include London-based dissidents Saeed al-Shehabi and Ali Mushaima, the son of jailed opposition leader Hassan Mushaima, as well as clerics, human rights lawyers and activists.

Also on the list published by Bahraini News Agency (BNA) were two former parliamentarians from the leading Shiite party Wefaq, Jawad and Jalal Fairooz.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule, end of discrimination, establishment of justice and a democratically-elected government as well as freedom of detained protesters.

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

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

Bahrain: ANHRI calls the Bahraini regime to respect the freedom of expression and the religious belief
Cairo – 2 December, 2012

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) today condemned the Bahraini security forces use of excessive force to address the demonstrations that took place in several villages near Manama on Friday, November 30, 2012.

Several villages near Manama had witnessed mass demonstrations to protest on the security siege imposed by the security forces since three weeks on “Mahza” village, in an answer to the call of the February 14 coalition. They carried banners include slogans opposes the regime and pictures of the detainees in the Bahraini prisons. Bahraini security have addressed the demonstrations by dense tear gas, sound bombs and shut gun bullets which resulted in several injuries among the protesters; such as “Ahmed Mohamed El-Elwani” who was arrested from the village of El-Mosli with a group of his friends then they were tortured before his releasing his friends and he still in the El-Khamis police station.

In a related context the Bahraini security forces destroyed some Shiite mosques in the some villages, among them “Abutaleb” mosque in “Hamd Dawar 19” city and the military mosque of El-Hussien in the city of Hamd Dawar 22. In addition to destroying a wall of Fadak mosque as well as tearing some religious banners and slogans in some regions.

ANHRI said that “the repressive policy of the regime, which escalated recently, begin to clear that it discriminates between the people. The regime started to follow the Shiite activists and villages in addition to destroying their worship houses and assaulting their special ceremonies. The regime also prosecuted the preachers due to their speeches in Friday prayers in order to represent the revolution as if its sectarian not popular in addition to increasing the intransigence of the regime in dealing with the legitimate requests of Bahraini people”.

ANHRI called the Bahrini regime to respect the freedom of expression and the freedom of belief to all the people. …source

330 Houses Raided in Mehazza, 90 arrested
4 December, 2012 – Shia Post

Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society held a forum Sunday in solidarity with the Mehazza village under siege, in Sitra island, in which it demanded the siege be lifted and an immediate stop to daily house raids. Al-Wefaq sees these practices as part of the regime’s collective punishment against villages and areas where any opposition exists.
Al-Wefaq stated that the regime bears full responsibility of the abuses against citizens in the village of Mehazza.

Sayed Jameel Khadim, head of al-Wefaq Shura Council, said during the forum that abuses and violations are perpetrated in bright day light in Mehazza by the regime forces with no shame whatsoever. He denounced the immoral behavior of the forces and the regime’s silence.

Khadim questioned the role of the international community that has limited its condemnation of violence to the opposition. ” The authority is the one responsible for violence and incitement against and targeting of the opposition. Where is the international community from this? Is it only going to be concerned?”, he said. He also called on everyone that has been subjected to abuse or any kind of violation to document such incidents.

Sadeq Rabea, a municipal member representing Sitra who has been dismissed, mentioned in his speech at the forum that 330 houses in Mehazza village have been raided, some of which were houses of families of martyrs of the revolution. Rabea said that more than 90 citizens were arrested during these house raids, some have been released while others remain in detention.

Rabea also pointed out that the detainees have been forced to sign on confessions they knew nothing of. He mentioned, “A detainee’s wife said that her husband has been subjected to immoral torture,” he added, ” this is no exaggeration”. …source

Bahrain: Reports of Abuse, Threats & Beatings of Political Prisoners at the Dry Dock prison
02 December, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses its grave concern over the wellbeing and safety of the Dry Dock political prisoners, especially the prisoners of section 3, who have been reportedly attacked on more than one occasion after the release of a statement by a newly formed Prisoners of Conscience Coalition (PCCB).

The statement was released on 27th, Nov 2012 and concentrates on the need for starting a new phase to object the injustices experienced by the political detainees. It also asked for the support of political societies, human rights and international movements. The statement ends with a promise of announcing more details in the coming few days.

On Thursday 29th Nov, the BCHR received information that section 3 was stormed by riot police and attacked. The families of section 3 detainees have had no communication with their sons since the day of the reported attack and there are worrying reports of political prisoners being beaten and some transferred to solitary confinement.

According to the information received by the BCHR, the prisoners were first attacked on the 27th of November less than 15 minutes after the release of the statement, which spoke of the worrying conditions of Bahraini political prisoners and vowed to take action in demanding their rights. PCCB stated that “the abuse” of prisoners “starts from the first stages of the usually brutal arrests carried out by security forces and secret agents, to the physical and psychological torture during interrogations, where prisoners are forced to sign confessions which are then used against them in courts that lack any form of justice and independence”

The BCHR has documented thousands of cases of abuse of political prisoners since the start of the February 14th mass protests, including physical and psychological torture, lack of medical treatment of injured prisoners, and imprisonment of minors. The BCHR fully supports the prisoner’s right to form a coalition to call for their rights and an end to violations.

Based on the above, the BCHR calls on the US, the UK, the UN and all other allies and international institutions to put pressure on the Government of Bahrain to:

1. Immediately grant access to the prison to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other independent human rights organizations with qualified and honest inspectors to examine the situation. Also, to reform the situation and to prosecute those involved in any violations and to punish or isolate delinquent administrative authorities.
2. Immediately release all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience who were detained for merely exercising their rights as granted in the universal declaration of human rights.
3. Immediately drop all trumped up charges, especially those relating to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
4. Immediately stop systematic torture of prisoners & allow them to call their families.
5. Hold all those within the government, it’s ministries and employees who are responsible for human rights violations accountable.

…source