Jordanian Police: 499 policemen are costing Bahrain 1.8 million dollar per month
3 April, 2014 – Bahrain Mirror PDF HERE

Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Bahrain Mirror reached important documents that assure the existence of about 499 Jordanian policemen in Bahrain whose financial allocation mounts to approximately 700000 Bahraini Dinar monthly (about 1.8 million dollar).

The documents issued by the Bahraini Ministry of Interior on February 11, 2014 and fully published by “Bahrain Mirror” unveil the names, salaries and bank accounts numbers of all policemen found in Bahrain. These documents also show that these names were merged within the ministry staff.

Moreover, these critical documents signed by the finance affairs manager related to the Ministry, Khaled Abdullah Ali Almoaili, reveal that transferring the police’s salary happens via Arab Jordan Bank, where the salaries are asked to be paid to those “attributed to the Ministry” who appear to be of the blood of known Jordanian families.

The average salary for each policeman stands at 1200 Bahraini Dinar (about 31000 Dollars)

This new information refutes the announcements of the Jordanian Minister of State for Information Affairs, Official Spokesman of the Jordanian Government, Mohammed Hussain Al-Moumini, who said yesterday on Tuesday, April 1 that “the Jordanian policemen are found in Bahrain for training purposes and for qualifying the Bahraini policemen.”

A letter dated on February 11, 2014 holding the number “A-M-4-6-361” under the title of “Dues to those attributed to the ministry” states that: “enclosed, you will find payment returns of 699.604.073 Dinar (Six hundred ninety nine thousand six hundred four dinar and thirty seven fils) as salaries for February 2014 for those attributed to the ministry.”

These documents states that “the number of accrued persons is 499 one”. All of the names are enclosed within the letter.

This number does not include all the Jordanian security members found in Bahrain, but only those who have been recently recruited.

Another letter holding the same date and the number “A-M-4-6” notices that the dues transferring is conducted through the “National Bank of Bahrain” to the “Arab Jordan Bank” which opened bank accounts to all the Jordanian policemen within “Special arrangements regarding this issue”, as stated in the letter.

Before considering that “the Jordanian policemen existence had nothing to do with the Bahraini crisis”, the Minister of State for Information Affairs, Sameera Rajab, affirmed during a lecture in Jordan on Tuesday that the Jordanian policemen are found in Bahrain pursuant to a security agreement. Ms. Rajab also underlined that “arrangement and security cooperation with an Arab state is better than that with a foreign one”. …source

When CIA Tortured Detainees to Death — And Agents Escaped Accountability and Were Promoted
By: Kevin Gosztola – 2 April, 2014 – FDL

There is not much being reported about CIA torture, as detailed in the major report by the Senate intelligence committee, that has not been reported previously. However, there has been no accountability, and the struggle between CIA and Senate over the report and what parts will be declassified for the public to read offers an opportunity to reckon with some of the horrific acts that were committed.

McClatchy Newspapers spoke with some sources for a story on the contents of the report and was apparently able to confirm that “the CIA’s own internal documents confirm the agency’s culpability in the hypothermia death of one Afghan captive.” The CIA has never had to publicly discuss the incident, even though in 2009 the Justice Department under President Barack Obama opened an investigation into what happened.

As summarized by Larry Siems in The Torture Report: What the Documents Say About America’s Post-9/11 Torture Program, a young agent named “Matt, “a former Naval intelligence officer who joined the CIA and was put in charge of an operation for which he had no experience or training.” At the Salt Pit prison in Afghanistan, he ordered a captive named Gul Rahman to be “dragged around his concrete cell, doused with water and left shackled overnight.”

The temperature plummeted. Rahman, who was in the cell all night half-naked, was found dead. This happened despite the fact that Matt knew the prison was in need of heaters, which he had requested from the CIA’s Afghanistan station chief.

A report by CIA inspector general John Helgerson faulted the agency for “fail[ing] to provide adequate staffing, guidance and support to those involved with the detention and interrogation of detainees.” This report called attention to the poor judgment of Matt and the role of Paul, a CIA station chief in Afghanistan. And Helgerson also recommended that Rahman’s death be “referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.”

However, the Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) refused to prosecute insisting that a “declination memorandum” protected Matt from prosecution because he had no “specific intent.” The memo by Jay Bybee explained that, as manager of the Salt Pit site, if Matt “did not intend for Rahman to suffer severe pain from low temperature in his cell, he would lack specific intent under the anti-torture statute.”

John Sifton, an attorney and private human rights investigator, wrote for Slate, “The declination memo ‘regarding Gul Rahman’s death” was essentially an after-the-fact blessing for Rahman’s killer, in the form of a memo stating that DoJ would not prosecute the officers responsible.”

The Justice Department’s Criminal Division “provided declinations in cases of detainee abuse, thus giving individual officers de facto immunity from criminal prosecution.” Even if the Justice Department wanted to prosecute under Obama, this declination could be cited by defense counsel “as a partial shield.” (Sifton suggested these “declinations” may have been issued as “after-the-fact-immunities” similar to pardons.) …more

Bahrain opposition calls F1 Grand Prix protests
AFP – 1 April, 2014 – Times of India

DUBAI: Bahrain’s influential Shiite opposition bloc Al-Wefaq and a more radical group have called separate rallies for Friday to protest the weekend staging of the Formula One Grand Prix in Manama.

Demonstrations have been held during the annual three-day Grand Prix event every year since 2011 by opponents of the ruling Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty in an attempt to highlight pro-reform demands.

The protests, which first erupted in the wake of a Shiite-led uprising in February 2011, have at times been marred by violence but the race has never been affected.

They are mainly staged in Shiite villages surrounding Manama and away from the Sakhir F1 circuit in the capital’s south.

The Bahrain Grand Prix practice sessions begin on Friday ahead of Sunday’s race.

Al-Wefaq in a Tuesday statement urged its supporters to hold a rally on the main Budaya highway, four kilometres (2.5 miles) west of Manama, which links several Shiite villages.

Al-Wefaq’s peaceful rallies are usually tolerated by the authorities and rarely end with clashes.

But protests by supporters of radical cyber-group the February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition are more violent and often end with clashes between police and demonstrators armed with petrol bombs.

The February 14 group, accused by authorities of links to Shiite-majority Iran, called on its Facebook page for demonstrations Friday in the Al-Seef Junction area, west of Manama, under the slogan: “Stop the blood formula.”

Protests in Shiite villages surrounding Manama began earlier this week, with witnesses reporting masked demonstrators staging rallies chanting: “No, no to Formula 1” and “Down Hamad,” in reference to the king.

The rallies have been broken up by police firing tear gas and sound grenades, with protesters hurling petrol bombs and throwing stones, according to witnesses.

Public security chief General Tariq Hasan said Tuesday the authorities have taken “all measures and plans” to secure the April 4-6 Formula One event.

Police will deploy around the Sakhir circuit and along main roads leading to it, the official BNA news agency quoted Hasan as saying.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Bahrain’s hosting of the event, the race will this year take place at night.

Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet, remains deeply divided three years after the Shiite-led uprising was quashed, with persistent protests sparking clashes with police, scores of Shiites jailed on “terror” charges and reconciliation talks deadlocked.

The International Federation for Human Rights says at least 89 people have been killed in Bahrain since the uprising began in February 2011. …source

Bahrain: Fears of renewed government crackdown ahead of Grand Prix
2 April, 2014 – Amnesty International

As the eyes of the sporting world turn to Bahrain’s Formula One Grand Prix this weekend, Amnesty International urges the country’s authorities not to quash peaceful protests surrounding the event.

The Formula One racing tournament is due to take place in Bahrain from 4-6 April. In previous years, the authorities have taken severe repressive measures against pro-reform demonstrators, activists opposed to the Royal family and human rights campaigners during the event.

“Bahrain’s authorities must not repeat past mistakes by restricting freedom of movement or crushing protests. The rights of people in Bahrain to peacefully to express their opposition to government policies and voice human rights concerns are legitimate and must be respected,” said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International.

Opposition activists calling for a boycott of the Grand Prix have already been branded “traitors” by the government. There are fears that the authorities may use recent unrest, including terror attacks on police, to justify imposing further restrictions during the Grand Prix, such as preventing people from leaving their villages and clamping down on peaceful protests.

During previous Grand Prix events, foreign and local journalists were barred from covering protests, with some deported from Bahrain for attempting to do so without permission.

“Rather than continuing to resort to security measures to deal with anti-government protests, Bahrain’s authorities should mark the Grand Prix by announcing concrete steps to address the dire state of human rights in the country,” said Said Boumedouha.

“Three years on from the 2011 uprising, Bahrain has seen only cosmetic changes and empty promises of reform. Arbitrary arrests, crackdowns on protests and torture in custody continue unabated. Using the Grand Prix to boost Bahrain’s public image is little more than a blatant attempt to gloss over mounting abuses with the hype of an international sporting event.”

Compounding ongoing abuses, there is also a complete absence of accountability for past violations, with a host of victims and their families still awaiting justice for killing and torture that occurred during previous Grand Prix events. …more

Syria accuses rebels of planning gas attack near Damascus
2 April, 2014 – By Michelle Nichols – Reuters

UNITED NATIONS: Syria is charging in a letter to the United Nations that opposition groups are planning a toxic gas attack in a rebel-held area near Damascus so they can then blame it on government security forces.

In a letter dated March 25 and circulated by the U.N. this week, Syria’s U.N. envoy, Bashar Ja’afari, said his government had intercepted communications between “terrorists” that showed a man named Abu Nadir was secretly distributing gas masks in the rebel-held Jobar area.

“The authorities also intercepted another communication between two other terrorists, one of whom is named Abu Jihad,” Ja’afari said. “In that communication, Abu Jihad indicates that toxic gas will be used and asked those who are working with him to supply protective masks.”

Ja’afari said in the letter addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the U.N. Security Council that this information “confirms that armed terrorist groups are preparing to use toxic gas in Jobar quarter and other areas, in order to accuse the Syrian government of having committed such an act of terrorism.”

A senior Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of the Syrian intelligence: “I don’t give any credence to that.”

A United Nations inquiry found in December that sarin gas had likely been used in Jobar in August and also in several other locations, including in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta, where hundreds of people were killed.

The inquiry was only looking at whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them. The Syrian government and the opposition have accused each other of using chemical weapons, and both have denied it. …more

Useful for reference in recognizing and exposing US/Western propaganda – which, given a comprehensive view of the world, is a ridiculously easy task.

Protesters The USA Supports, Protesters The USA Opposes, And Why
By Robert Barsocchini – 02 April, 2014 – Countercurrents.org

Current/Recent Protest movements the USA backs/funds/supports – US state/mass media obediently magnifies cartoonish US propaganda on these:

Venezuela – small minority protest, carried out with extreme violence (using wire for decapitations, etc.); democratically elected government; USA wants to restore traditional order of imperial domination over a subdued native population, for benefit of US companies/hegemony

Ukraine – minority protest, heavily integrated (approx. 30%) by fascist/Nazi parties who are specifically backed and endorsed by the US; End of 2013 Swiss poll finds Ukrainians consider USA the biggest international threat – 33% pick USA, while 5% pick Russia; fascist/Nazi parties backed by US likely committed mass murder against civilians (sniper attacks) to escalate violence; Ukrainian government was democratically elected, then overthrown with US-backing; US openly funds/supports current junta dictatorship, with fascist/Nazis in at least 6 major posts, including Defense, Media, and Education; junta dictatorship has since dictated major economic policy to benefit Western banks and US corporations, while impoverishing and de facto enslaving Ukrainian population

Syria – dynasty allied with non-US major powers; USA has been working to overthrow Syrian government since 1957 and install US compliant dictator, as US did in Iran, Brazil, Guatemala, Chile, etc.; US began current phase of process by training militants, starting in at least 2006, to be sent to overthrow Syrian gov.; US and US dictator allies such as the Saudis currently waging major war of aggression against Syria by proxy – the supreme international crime; approx. 150,000 people killed so far; That Syria is governed by a family dictatorship does not separate it from the many dictatorships heavily supported by Obama/the West; the difference is simply that Syria is non-US compliant, and is allied with non-Western major powers.

Libya – Obama carried out a blitzkrieg against Libya, illegally slaughtering 6,000 people instantly and leading to the slaughter of some 50-100,000 people, as the Al Qaeda linked “protest” forces, for which Obama regime provided air support, overran and destroyed the most prosperous African nation, reducing it to the US-favored state of helplessness and weakness (see Latin American examples above and below for why this state is favored by the USA)

Afghanistan – (not a protest movement, but a country overthrown by Obama/USA) Obama has massively increased US war against Afghanistan to fight back forces installed by the US in the 70s, 80s, and 90s (the Taliban), but opposed by the US in the late 90s once Taliban became uncooperative on US corporate energy projects. Obama/Hillary Clinton have since restarted/continued to pursue US energy projects through the second US-installed regime, and Obama is currently trying to keep US military there indefinitely

In each of the above cases, the USA wants to overthrow or has already helped overthrow the government, and install a US-compliant, or “client”, government. This is illegal and an act of war.
Current/Recent Protest movements the USA opposes/crushes: (US state/mass media obediently censors these events in support of maintenance of US-compliant dictatorships:)

Occupy – violently crushed by Obama, working closely with financial institutions

Currently : 500 person protest in New Mexico against police brutality violently crushed through police brutality; see here

Saudi Arabia – Obama backs Saudi Arabia as it crushes protests against decades-long dynastic theocratic dictatorship; In 2013, Obama sent Saudis 60.6 billion dollars of lethal weapons, some of them internationally banned, making this the biggest weapons shipment in US history; Saudi Arabia is one of world’s last absolute dictatorships; citizens have no human rights; it is the only country on planet where women are not allowed to drive cars.

Bahrain – Obama backs Bahrain as it crushes protests against decades-long dynastic theocratic dictatorship, which is slaughtering and torturing its own people as part of repression, including systematically torturing children, as reported by Amnesty Int’l; Obama continues to support and send weapons to Bahrain dictatorship.

Thailand – While backing Ukraine’s massively violent coup, which has used a wide array of weapons and destroyed numerous public buildings, US says of Thai people protesting US-backed dictatorship: “Violence and the seizure of public or private property are not acceptable means of resolving political differences.” Nice try.

Honduras – military overthrow of democratically elected popular government that was helping the population; Obama/Hillary Clinton/USA, alone on Earth, back the violent overthrow, which they want to restore traditional order of colonialist domination over native population, for benefit of US companies/hegemony; illegal junta, enjoying Obama backing, turns Honduras into murder capital of the world to repress protest, and restores traditional imperial subversion of population.

Paraguay – very similar to Honduras

Crimea – while backing unconstitutional, violent, fascist/Nazi led overthrow of elected government in Ukraine and formation of junta dictatorship, Obama/USA condemn and try to prevent (as Ukraine has done previously by force) Crimeans from voting to secede from Ukraine and re-accede into Russia, of which Crimea was a part for hundreds of years before 1954, when it was given to Ukraine by Soviets.

Ukraine – Obama opposes protests against illegal US-backed junta in Ukraine. Western media censoring.

Okinawa – Obama opposes protests, ongoing for decades, against US imperial bases imposed on Okinawa.

South Korea – Obama opposes protests, ongoing for decades, against US imperial bases imposed on South Korea.

Haiti – Obama backs Haitian government as it crushes protests by poor peasants who are being abused and depopulated from their lands by US-backed Haitian sweatshop dictatorship.

Egypt – Obama supported Mubarak 30-year fascist dictatorship for as long as possible, refusing to even allow him to be referred to as a dictator; USA then backed mass-violent overthrow of elected government that followed Mubarak, and continues to support illegal junta as it slaughters thousands and sentences thousands to death.

Palestine/world – Obama/USA continually increase aid to Israel as it slaughters Palestinian civilians, including with chemical weapons, tortures children (see ABC Australia doc) and ethnically cleanses and colonizes Palestine; the entire world opposes Israel/US actions, as expressed in every authoritative and legal body; for example, these actions are opposed every year since 1974 in the UN general assembly by virtually the entire world, and supported in virtual isolation by the US and Israel

Diego Garcia – Obama refuses to let Chagossians return to their homeland, as required by law; instead he has come up with a new, sleazy method for never letting them return home ; Obama prefers to use their island, which the US and Britain ethnically cleansed, as a center for murder and torture

In each of the above cases, the USA wants to maintain status quo/compliant dictatorship.

Conclusions: The obvious conclusion is that the USA/West is an anti-democracy; a violent military empire that supports anything it can get away with that will further its domination of the planet, and opposes anything that hinders its domination.

The USA has and will support any mass murderer/torturer/absolute theocratic dictator as he massacres his own people (as seen in several of the above, current cases), including in Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, and will laughably condemn and target any entity that stands in its way, no matter how beneficial for and supported by a population (as in government of Venezuela), no matter how democratic (governments of Venezuela, Ukraine, Crimea), and no matter how innocent and spat on by the USA/West are the pitiful victims of US/Western imperial military brutality and terror (Diego Garcia, Syrians, etc.).

To further expand its network of murder and torture bases, the USA will commit mass murder and torture (Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan), and ethnically cleanse/depopulate land masses and exile entire peoples ( Diego Garcia , Palestine ).

Last note: Such behavior is not unusual, but the norm for the USA/West. USA has now overthrown, helped overthrow, or attempted to overthrow about 62 governments , most of them democracies. At least seven of these overthrows/attempts have been carried out by Obama, and five of those have been democracies.

Obama is currently further encircling Russia, China, and Iran with trained killers and killing machines, and re-covering Africa in an imperial military web, including by supporting militants implicated at the UN for mass rape .

US-backed forces in Africa have, since 1994, killed nearly 10 million people. …source

On the New Face of 21st Century Neo-Fascism
Left-White Solidarity?
by AJAMU BARAKA – 2 April, 2014 – counterpunch

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

Some years ago Italian anarchist Camillo Berneri suggested that while not always visible in the social practices of everyday European life, the racist foundation for European fascism was still present, safely confined to a space in the European psyche but always ready to explode in what he called a racist delirium.

Today, white workers and the middle classes in Europe and the U.S., traumatized by the new realities imposed on them by the decline of the Western imperialist project and the turn to neoliberalism, are increasingly embracing a retrograde form of white supremacist politics.

This dangerous political phenomenon is developing in countries throughout the European Union and in the U.S. Just recently, the National Front, a racist, authoritarian party that labored on the fringes of French politics for years, has emerged as one of the dominant forces in French politics. The Tea Party in the U.S., Golden Dawn in Greece, the People’s Party in Spain, the Partij Voor de Vrijheid in the Netherlands – in these and other countries, a transatlantic radical racist movement is emerging and gaining respectability.

The hard turn to the right is not a surprise for those of us who have a clear-eyed view of Euro-American history and politics. In all the 20th Century fascist movements in Europe, two elements combined to express the fascist project: 1) the rise of far-right parties and movements as the political expression of an alliance of authoritarian, pro-capitalist class forces bankrolled by sections of the capitalist class and constructed in the midst of capitalist crisis; and 2) racism grounded in white supremacist ideology.

The neo-fascism that is now emerging within the context of the current capitalist crisis on both sides of the Atlantic has similar characteristics to the movements of the 1930s but with one distinguishing feature. The targets for racist scapegoating are different. The targets today are immigrants: Arab, Muslim and African in Europe; Latinos and the never-ending target of poor and working class African Americans in the U.S.

What makes the rise of the racist radical right even more dangerous today is that it is taking place in a political environment in which traditional anti-racist oppositional forces have not recognized the danger of this phenomenon or for strategic reasons have decided to downplay the issue. That strategy has been tragically played out in the “immigrant rights” movement in the U.S.

The brutal repression and dehumanization witnessed across Europe in the 1930s has not found generalized expression in the U.S. and Europe, at least not yet. Nevertheless, large sectors of the U.S. and European left appear to be unable to recognize that the U.S./NATO/EU axis that is committed to maintaining the hegemony of Western capital is resulting in dangerous collaborations with rightist forces both inside and outside of governments. …more