…from beneath the crooked bough, witness 230 years of brutal tyranny by the al Khalifas come to an end

….source

Bahrain activist says charge over tweets ‘vindictive’
16 May, 2012 – Agence France Presse

DUBAI: Prominent Bahraini rights activist Nabeel Rajab told a court on Wednesday that a charge that he tweeted insults against the government were “vindictive,” as dozens of lawyers turned up to defend him.

“The charge against me is vindictive and is due to my rights activism,” Rajab told a judge at Manama’s Minor Criminal Court, insisting the decision to arrest and try him was political, according to witnesses.

“I only practiced my right to free expression. I did not commit a crime. The decision to arrest me and put me on trial was a political decision,” he said.

More than 50 lawyers, both men and women, gathered at the court to defend Rajab, who has been leading protests following a brutal crackdown on Shiite-led demonstrations against the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty in March 2011.

Rajab, who heads the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was detained on May 5 for “insulting a statutory body via Twitter”. He also faces a trial for taking part in a Manama demonstration three months ago.

The activist has insisted on demonstrating inside Manama, unlike the main Shiite opposition which now stages its protests in Shiite villages, after last year’s clampdown on protesters who occupied the capital’s Pearl Square for a month. …more

Foreign affairs, the corner stone in enhancing Bahrain’s image abroad, says Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
15 May, 2012 – Bahrain News Agency

Manama, May 15 (BNA) — Foreign affairs assumes a greater role in showcasing the Kingdom of Bahrain to the world audience – especially the right picture of the country – after all the negative publicity it received, said the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs, Ghanem Fadhul Al Buainain.

In an interview given to the Bahrain News Agency, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said that going forward the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a significant role since attempts to sully the good name of the nation is not from within but from external sources.

“It is important at this juncture to correct the picture and at this a greater effort is needed,” the minister said. It is important for the world to see the true picture – the reality — and see it with a clear vision, he added. “The negative media propaganda has cast its slur on the achievements of the nation,” he added.

Asked about the methods being adopted by the ministry to achieve this goal, Al Buainain said that Bahrain has built up friendly relations with many a nation even prior to becoming an independent country. “From our independence to now that number has only been increased and so is the quality of our friendship with many other nations.

We are joining hands with our friends. With this, not only will be able to enhance our image in these countries, but also convince nations outside of the clique the good intentions and the friendly nature of Bahrain the nation,” he added. At this point he looked at the GCC summit in Riyadh and said that he was happy that Bahrain and Saudi Arabia had inked the deal, but he sincerely hoped that all the Gulf Cooperation Council members could have joined in and strengthened the union.

The diplomatic missions, these friendly nations have opened in Bahrain and the foreign missions of Bahrain in those countries are used as channels to bring home the right picture and ensure that the international community sees Bahrain as a friendly nation.

“To my mind the media has a major role to play and I guess the government has pushed on the right track appointing Samira Rajab as Minister of State for Information Affairs.

It is also important to utilize the services of non-governmental agencies (NGOs) – those who are willing to see the clear and true picture and not the one painted in some colour,” said Al Buainain.

He added that here the government took an appropriate step by appointing Dr Salah Ali as the Minister of State for Human Rights.

On May 21, Bahrain will be represented in Geneva at the Human Right workshop entitled ‘Media Empowerment on Human Rights’ and Dr Salah Ali will represent the Bahraini delegation. He will lead a delegation of 14 organisations – that will comprise over 20 people, said the minister of state.

The achievements of the country in human rights arena is to be presented to the world in its true light and Dr Salah is expected to do that, he said. …more

PHR Decries Postponement in Bahrain Medics Retrial
15 May, 2012 – POMED – PHR

The retrial of twenty Bahraini medics, which was already delayed once in March, has been delayed yet again until June, drawing criticism from human rights groups such as Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). PHR called for the charges to be dropped against all medics, in addition to an investigation into their allegations of torture while being detained. Nabeel Hameed, one of the doctors facing trial, said he was arrested and brutalized after treating protesters. ”We became automatic witnesses,” Hameed said, “That’s a problem. When we saw protesters, straightaway we became automatic witnesses. And to take our credibility away, accuse us of a crime.” Richard Sollom of PHR says the prosecution of the doctors “epitomizes a disturbing sectarian chasm that must be addressed and breached,” and adds, “President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron could lend their support in this regard with more outspoken criticism of their ally’s human rights record.” The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland also spoke out for the medics, writing, “We believe the future for Bahrain has to be one of dialogue and reconciliation. We will continue to contribute through education and continue to advocate for just outcomes.”

In other news, the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) released a statement condemning the Bahraini government’s decision to revoke permission to visit the Gulf kingdom, and signed a joint letter to Bahrain’s director of human rights organizations. …more

Jaffar Salman, has been injured on 15 March 2011 and detained then sentenced in unfair military trial and denied treatment. Jaffar lost both his eyes after being shot with birdshot gun at close range by riot police. Because the Bahraini regime targets injured protesters he was detained when he was taken to Salmaniya hospital. He was then taken to one trial, without the presence of his family or a lawyer, and without giving him the chance to speak, he was sentenced to two years in prison. Jaffar is currently detained at Jaw prison. …more

Two passports and still no way out
Ray Weaver – 15 May, 2012

There is not much that the government can do to help Danes with dual citizenship who find themselves detained in their second country.

The Foreign Ministry has received several requests for help from people who were prevented from leaving their other country of citizenship. Ole Mikkelsen from the ministry said that since the detainee is also a national of another country, the Danish government has limited authority.

“Under international law, countries are not even required to give us what is called consular access or even allow us to talk to the detainee,” Mikkelsen told DR news.

Thami Najim, the Danish-Moroccan citizen who has been imprisoned in Morocco since February, was recently denied permission to see his Danish attorney, Bjørn Elmquist. Najim is charged with threatening the security of Morocco and receiving foreign funds intended to be used for terrorist activities. Elmquist said he plans to ask the foreign minister, Villy Søvndal (Socialistisk Folkeparti), to pressure Moroccan authorities to allow him to see Najim.

Even PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Socialdemokraterne) has not been able to prevail in the case of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, perhaps the most well known dual-citizenship Dane being imprisoned in his original homeland. Al-Khawaja, who holds dual Danish and Bahraini citizenship, is serving a life sentence in Bahrain for demonstrating against the incumbent government and organising protests during the Arab Spring uprisings. He has been on a hunger strike and was recently granted a new trial. Thorning-Schmidt said that she has written a letter to both the king and the prime minister of Bahrain demanding al-Khawaja’s release to no avail.

The state-run Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported that Bahrain’s Supreme Judiciary Council had decided that Denmark’s demands were not in keeping with international law. …more

Byron Sonne not guilty on G20 explosives charges
15 May, 2102 – The Star – Brendan Kennedy

Byron Sonne, the so-called “G20 geek” accused of plotting to bomb the 2010 summit of world leaders in downtown Toronto two years ago, was found not guilty Tuesday of all charges.

Sonne’s verdict comes nearly two years after the 39-year-old Internet security expert was arrested on June 22, 2010, as the first high-profile detention of the chaotic G20 weekend.

After Justice Nancy Spies delivered her final verdict and left the University Ave. courtroom, the body of the court, filled with friends and supporters of Sonne, erupted in clapping and cheers.

Sonne shook hands with defence lawyers Joe Di Luca and Peter Copeland, pumped his fist and then made a beeline to his teary-eyed mother in the second row. He hugged both his parents, who had attended every hearing throughout the case.

Of all the G20 accused, the computer hacker from Forest Hill seemed the least likely to be a terrorist when he was pulled off a Bathurst St. bus and accused of assembling explosives in his basement laboratory while inciting others through social media to disrupt the G20 security apparatus.

He was first charged with six offences, including mischief, weapons possession and intimidating justice officials. But by the time the case reached trial, most of the charges were dropped and Sonne was left with four counts of possessing explosive materials and one count of “counseling the commission of mischief not committed.”

Sonne’s wife, Kristen Peterson, was arrested two days after her husband but was released after spending two nights in jail and eventually had all the charges against her dropped. Peterson cut off all contact with Sonne after his arrest, and the couple divorced in December.

Sonne, who had no criminal record, spent 330 days in pre-trial custody and was twice denied bail before he was released last May.

Although Sonne had not assembled any explosive devices and police found neither bomb-making plans nor a detonator, the Crown argued that the fact he possessed the ingredients to build a bomb and was criticizing the G20 through his Twitter and Flickr accounts showed he had the motive to violently disturb the summit.

Sonne, a hobby chemist, admitted to having materials that could be made into an explosive, but said he hadn’t combined them and hadn’t intended to. …more

Bahrain activists’ trouble with trolls
15 May, 2012 – by Marc Owen Jones

On 5 May the Bahraini regime arrested prominent human rights activist and 2012 Index award winner Nabeel Rajab for inciting violence on social networking sites. This is the second time Rajab has been arrested for so-called “cyber crimes”, and last year the regime accused him of publishing false information on Twitter.

These attacks on free speech illustrate how authoritarian regimes can use social media as a convenient “evidence-gathering” tool to prosecute those who dare speak out. Indeed, Rajab’s arrest is a warning shot to others: a reminder that engaging in online activism could result in a prison sentence.

While the fear of arrest is an important concern for many activists using social media, there are other factors at work that might deter people from criticising the Bahraini regime. One of these is trolling, an aggressive form of online behaviour directed at other web-users. It usually comes from anonymous accounts, and its severity can range from death threats and threats of rape, to spiteful comments and personal abuse. It is particularly common on Twitter. Here’s a little taster of what I’ve experienced:

@marcowenjones: ‘don’t you worry, we’ll cross paths one day. You’ll see, and I’ll remind of these days while my cock is inside u’ – Anonymous Troll

Human rights activists and journalists often find themselves being targeted by Bahrain’s internet trolls. Al Jazeera journalist Gregg Carlstrom tweeted: “Bahrain has by far the hardest-working Twitter trolls of any country I’ve reported on”. J. David Goodman of the New York Times writes about how internet trolls are attempting to ‘cajole, harass and intimidate commentators and journalists’ who are critical of the Bahrain government. Bahraini journalist Lamees Dhaif says that much of this trolling panders to Gulf Arab audiences, and that women are often accused of being promiscuous while men are accused of homosexuality.

For the thick-skinned, trolling might have no effect, but not everyone can brush it off so easily. Some users I have interviewed in the course of my PhD research have admitted that trolling has stopped them tweeting anything critical of the regime. Others have “protected” their Twitter accounts, which means that what they write can only be read by users approved by the author, thereby limiting their audiences. Trolling can therefore be seen as a type of bullying, one that uses intimidation to force people to engage in self-censorship. It is especially effective in times of political upheaval, when there is the constant threat of arbitrary detention or even torture. As Global Voices‘ MENA editor Amira Al Hussaini once said: “cyberbullying = censorship! Welcome to the new era of freedom in #Bahrain”.

Trolling in Bahrain has became so severe that a report commissioned to investigate human rights abuses in the country last year actually mentioned it. In particular, it focused on the actions of @7areghum, a Twitter account that “openly harassed, threatened and defamed certain individuals, and in some cases placed them in immediate danger”. The legal experts charged with compiling the report concluded that @7areghum broke Bahraini law and international law. Despite this, the Bahrain government do not appear to have asked the US government to subpoena Twitter to release information about the account.

Even harsh new laws designed to punish those guilty of online defamation seem little more than an attempt to intimidate those thinking of engaging in dissent. The insincerity of such laws is highlighted by the fact that the government are paying enormous amounts of money to PR companies to engage in clandestine activities to improve Bahrain’s image. Indeed, it appears that the managing director of one such company, which received 636,000 USD (approximately 385,000 GBP) to do PR work for the Bahraini government, runs a blog which routinely defames activists. The government seems happy to let this slide, further fuelling the belief that some internet trolls work for PR companies paid by the regime to spread propaganda and marginalise dissent. …more

What do imprisoned mothers in Iran fear the most? ‘Being forgotten’
Elahe Amani with Lys Anzia – WNN – 14 May, 2012

(WNN) Tehran, IRAN: Built in 1971 Evin prison, in Iran’s capital city of Tehran, is a place where incarceration for prisoners brings with it depression, frustration and isolation. Prisoners who are mothers often have a secret, but haunting fear of ‘being forgotten’ by the children they have left behind at home.

Imprisonment is not easy in Iran. It impacts women differently than it does men, where impunity can cause women to face increased fears of sexual advance, violence and intimidation in prison. Many women prisoners also have specific needs that relate to female health and psychological trauma. Prisoners who are also mothers have added needs because of worry about their children.

Worldwide the sentence for mothers in prison may, or may not, include their children being allowed to stay with them while they are incarcerated. In the Netherlands women prisoners may keep their children close during their detention, but until their child’s fourth birthday. But after this their children must find a place to stay outside the prison settings.

In Sweden children and babies are rarely allowed to stay with their imprisoned mothers. An exception is made though for babies up to three months old. This means, even with a special exception, no child is allowed to stay with their mother past the first year.

Afghanistan’s prison law allows children to stay in prison with their mothers up to the age of seven. In contrast, many women prisoners of conscience in Iran are not allowed to see or visit their children for weeks following their arrival in prison. If children and relatives are allowed, they may only come to see their mother on very limited visits.

In Cape Town, South Africa a new initiative to make mothers in prison and their children ‘child-friendly’ environments where children and mothers can be together in a natural and creative environment. The goal is to keep mother and child together and happy for at least two years.

With increasing women prisoners in Federal and State prisons, mothers are often sent to detention facilities that are too far away for their families to come visit them very often. Inside the U.S., an epidemic of mothers who have been incarcerated in private prisons because of their ‘illegal status’ as immigrants (most from Mexico or other regions in Latin America) are also causing children to be separated immediately from their mothers while they await deportation. Some mothers choose instead to wait for the U.S. government to process their legal plea against deportation.

Iran human rights defender Narges Mohammadi

In the middle of the night on June 9, 2010, thirty-nine-year-0ld human rights advocate Narges Mohammadi was taken away under arbitrary arrest by Iran security officials as they raided her home. The invasion came without a search warrant. Mohammadi was then taken away and placed in solitary confinement for three weeks. This prison confinement was broken only after Narges began suffering from a debilitating and mysterious condition which still plagues her. Today, even with hospital visits, she suffers from an undiagnosed ‘epilepsy-like’ disease that causes uncontrolled fainting, paralysis and injury.

A mother’s stress in prison can be overwhelming. “The rights of mothers and children to family life require special consideration,” says a handbook on good prison management by the International Centre for Prison Studies, which works with experts in human rights and prison reform. “Punishment [in prison] shall not include a total prohibition on family contact,” emphasizes the handbook. “In most societies women have primary responsibility for the family, particularly when there are children involved. This means that when a woman is sent to prison the consequences for the family which is left behind can be very significant,” added the report. …more

Chomsky on Palestine: Hunger Strikes Successful Protest Against “Israeli” Violations
Local Editor – 15 May, 2012 – moqawama.com

World-renowned political dissident, linguist, author, Noam Chomsky, said that “The [Palestinian detainees’] hunger strikes are a protest against violations of the elementary human rights.”

In an interview with Democracy Now, Chomsky said that “Among the many atrocities going on in the Occupied Territories, is administrative detention and punitive prison conditions.”
“Israel” acknowledges several hundred prisoners under administrative detention. Some of them have been there for years without any charges. According to Chomsky, the hunger strikes are a protest against these violations of elementary human rights and of law.
About approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike since April 17th.
On the situation in the Gaza Strip, Chomsky said it remains a prison. “It’s completely under siege.They can’t export their produce. They can’t have a live economy. The “Israeli” navy pretty much bars fishing. The place is – nothing can be reconstructed, because you can’t bring any construction material,” he elaborated.
He went on to say “The way the “Israeli” officials put it a couple years ago is pretty accurate: we don’t want to kill them all, as it won’t look good, but we’ll keep them on a diet, so just at a survival level.”

As for the situation in the West Bank, the political analyst said that the “Israeli” entity is systematically taking over whatever is of value there, noting the illegal annexation wall which has engulfed Palestine’s land and water resources.
Also in the Jordan Valley, Chomsky said that Palestinians are being slowly driven out and “Israeli” settlements are being built, also hundreds of wells are being sunk. …source

Muslim toddler removed from U.S. flight on security grounds
15 May, 2012 – Jafria News

JNN 15 May 2012 Washington : An 18-month-old girl has been taken off a JetBlue Airways plane in the United States because her name appeared on a no-fly security list.

The parents of the toddler, who were also taken off the plane, said on Friday that they were humiliated by the security officials’ action.

“We were put on display like a circus act because my wife wears a hijab,” Riyanna’s father told WPBF 25 News, ABC’s local affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida.

He said the incident was motivated by prejudice because they are Muslims and of Middle Eastern descent.

A JetBlue spokeswoman called it a “computer glitch” and stated that the airline was investigating the May 8 incident, which occurred at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida. JetBlue also issued an apology to the family, who live in New Jersey.

“We believe this was a computer glitch,” JetBlue said in a statement. “Our crewmembers followed the appropriate protocols, and we apologize to the family involved in this unfortunate circumstance.”

The family was eventually allowed to re-board the flight, but the family instead left the airport in protest.

The Transportation Security Agency said the little girl could not have been on the government watch list because she’d already been issued a boarding pass.

A poll by the Pew Research Center conducted last year showed that abuse of Muslims by U.S. airport security, law enforcement officers, and others has increased considerably since American Muslims were first polled in 2007.

Almost 43 percent of American Muslims reported experiencing harassment in 2010, a three percent increase in the number reported in 2007. …more

Fighting Erupts in Lebanon: US, Israeli, and Saudi-funded terrorists destabilizing Syria now under fire
Tony Cartalucci, 14 May, 2012 – Activist

According to a 2007 New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh, “The Redirection,” the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia had been assembling a region-wide army of extremist-mercenaries to battle Hezbollah in Lebanon, destabilize and overthrow Syria, and create a united front against Iran.

The forces recruited for this effort would come from the ranks of the CIA-created “Arab foreign legion,” Al Qaeda itself – extremist groups fresh back from fighting US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, including listed terror organizations like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) from Libya.

Hersh’s 2007 report exposed the groundwork for the very violence unfolding in Syria today, and now Lebanon. Forces to destabilize Syria were primarily to be staged in northern Lebanon, as explained in the article, and indeed the heaviest fighting over the last year has been seen in the Syrian city of Homs, just across the border from northern Lebanon. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his government have been, since the beginning of the violence, attempting to illustrate just this – explained in detail in 2007, and demonstratively being carried out today, with responsibility for deadly bombings being claimed by terrorists, the Pentagon itself admitting Al Qaeda is present in Syria, and reports indicating foreign fighters, weapons, and cash are flowing over Syria’s borders.

Lebanon’s Turn?

Now, the very staging ground in northern Lebanon being used to destabilize neighboring Syria has erupted into violence. Not by Syrian troops crossing the border, but by indigenous Lebanese factions facing off against each other. News is trickling out slowly and the Western media appears intent on keeping the violence as nebulous and confused as possible, but initial information indicates that extremist groups backed by the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are fighting factions connected to Hezbollah. Extremist leaders across the region are attempting to frame the violence as “Sunni verses Shi’ia,” a ploy Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned against back in 2007:

Nasrallah accused the Bush Administration of working with Israel to deliberately instigate fitna, an Arabic word that is used to mean ‘insurrection and fragmentation within Islam.’

‘In my opinion, there is a huge campaign through the media throughout the world to put each side up against the other,’ he said. ‘I believe that all this is being run by American and Israeli intelligence.’ (He did not provide any specific evidence for this.) He said that the U.S. war in Iraq had increased sectarian tensions, but argued that Hezbollah had tried to prevent them from spreading into Lebanon. (Sunni-Shiite confrontations increased, along with violence, in the weeks after we talked.) – The Redirection, Seymour Hersh

Far from genuine sectarian violence, it was planned since 2007, to use terrorist proxies in a battle stretching from Lebanon to Iran with Arab nations from North Africa to the Middle East aiding the effort, dominated by freshly installed US proxies (Tunisia & Libya) and the Muslim Brotherhood, stated in Hersh’s 2007 article to be wards of the West.

Violence has raged for nearly a week, in and around Lebanon’s northern port city of Tripoli.

While being depicted as violence “spilling over” from Syria, it is clear that the violence is indigenous, sectarian in nature, and directly related to the larger conflict envisioned by US-Israeli-Saudi machinations in 2007 – pitting Sunnis against Shi’ia.

An editorial from NOW Lebanon reveals the “sectarian” nature of the violence in Lebanon and how both sides identify as either supporters or opponents of the neighboring Syrian government. …more

U.S. Arms Sale Sends Wrong Signal to Bahrain, Groups Say
By Jim Lobe – 14 May, 2012 – IPS

WASHINGTON, (IPS) – The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is sending the wrong signal to the government of Bahrain in proceeding with a partial sale of new arms to Manama, according to human rights activists and some lawmakers here.

Their reaction followed Friday’s announcement by the State Department that it had cleared a number of items for transfer out of a 53- million-dollar arms package that the administration originally announced last September but subsequently held up due to opposition from key members of Congress.

In announcing what it called the “renewal of U.S. security cooperation with Bahrain”, the State Department stressed that none of the weapons approved for transfer could be used in the kingdom’s ongoing efforts to suppress growing unrest on the island, especially among its majority Shi’a community.

Demonstrations have been taking place on an almost nightly basis in Shi’a villages in recent weeks and have increased in violence, with some youths throwing Molotov cocktails at police, and with police firing tear gas and birdshot to disperse the protests, with sometimes fatal results.

“Given the continued deterioration in the human rights situation there, we think it’s a bad call to be releasing arms – any sort of arms – to Bahrain at this time,” Joe Stork, a veteran Middle East specialist at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told IPS.

“We’re very concerned with the signal that this sends both to the Bahraini government and the Bahraini people,” said Stephen McInerney, executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED).

“And we’re very disappointed that this announcement was not accompanied by an announcement of any real progress on reform issues, including the numerous recommendations made by the Bassiouni Commission that have yet to be implemented,” he said.

He was referring to the Bahraini Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) that was chaired by the noted Egyptian-American jurist, Cherif Bassiouni and which last November issued a nearly 500-page report on serious human rights abuses committed by government forces during its Saudi-backed crackdown against the pro-democracy movement last winter and spring. …more

Civilians killed in Yemen onslaught
15 May, 2012 – Al Akhbar

At least 44 people, including 12 civilians were killed in Yemen, officials and residents said on Tuesday, as the government pressed ahead with a new US-backed offensive against insurgents in the south of the country.

Washington has stepped up its drone attacks in Yemen since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in February, and the Pentagon said last week it had recently resumed sending military trainers to the Arab state.

Several Al-Qaeda suspects were killed in the first airstrike while 12 civilians who had gathered around the residence right after the attack died in a second air raid, witnesses said.

It is unclear where the airstrikes came from, but the United States routinely carries out drone and air raids on Yemen, with the Yemeni government frequently taking responsibility to cover US actions in the impoverished Arab country.

The strike comes two days after a visit by US counterterrorism advisor, John O. Brennan, to Yemen as Washington fights to maintain strong influence over a country racked by a year of mass pro-democracy protests, a splintered army, and a growing Islamist insurgency in the south. …more

Iran: talks with IAEA “constructive”
15 May, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Iran’s talks with the UN nuclear watchdog about Tehran’s atomic program are going well, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, the second day of discussions.

The talks will test Iran’s readiness to address UN inspectors’ concerns over military links to its nuclear work, ahead of wider diplomatic talks on the program’s future in Baghdad next week between Tehran and world powers.

The nuclear watchdog aims at the Vienna talks to gain access to Iranian sites, documents and officials involved in suspected research activity that could be used to develop atomic bombs.

“We had good talks. Everything is (on the) right track. The environment is very constructive,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters as he entered an Iranian diplomatic mission for talks with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA, the UN agency tasked with preventing the spread of nuclear arms in the world, has made clear that its priority is to visit the military site.

Iran, which rejects Western accusations it seeks nuclear arms, has resisted requests by the IAEA to go to the Parchin complex southeast of Tehran. The issue was expected to be raised during the talks in Vienna.

Iran’s state television said Monday’s talks have “been evaluated as positive”. It did not elaborate.

Israel, the Middle East’s only nuclear power, and the United States have not ruled out military action to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities if diplomacy fails to achieve this goal peacefully.

Iran, for its part, has criticized Western double standards toward Israel, which has avoided international scrutiny over its nuclear arsenal due to its privileged status as a US ally.

An IAEA report last November found that Iran had built a large containment vessel in 2000 at the Parchin site in which to conduct tests that the UN agency said were “strong indicators of possible (nuclear) weapon development.” …more

Secret prison still open in Baghdad, group claims
15 May, 2012 – By Bushra Juhi – Associated Press

BAGHDAD: Iraqis are still being held illegally at a Baghdad prison that the government was supposed to have shut down in 2011 after allegations that detainees were tortured and abused there, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

The report by the New York-based rights group raises fresh concerns about the government’s treatment of detainees after Iraqi authorities took over the country’s prison system following the departure of U.S. troops last December.

Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry has denied the Human Rights Watch claim as inaccurate, saying the detention center in question, known by its former U.S. military designation as Camp Honor, was shuttered more than a year ago.

The prison is located inside the Green Zone in central Baghdad, which also houses government offices and foreign embassies.

…more

Iran: Rapper faces death threats and fatwa for ‘blasphemous’ song
15 May, 2012 – Index on Censorship

An Iranian rapper has been issued with fatwas and faced death threats after releasing a controversial song. Shahin Najafi, an Iranian singer based in Germany, released a song containing references to one of the 12 Shia Muslim Imams. The song, which was posted on YouTube, offended some who claim it insults their beliefs, while others claim the song breaks taboos on expressing views about religious personalities. A religious Iranian website has offered a reward of $100,000 (£62,000) for anyone who kills the rapper.
…source

The Numbers on My Arm

THE NAKBA – THEN AND NOW

Today, more than ever, STAND WITH PALESTINE – On the 15th of May of every year, Palestinians and the whole world remember how it all started. How the Israelis’ ethnic cleansing of a people and the destruction of a society – the Nakba – was met with global indifference.

Israel’s Buffoon: The UN Nakba
By Vacy Vlazna

On May 15, 1948 the unilateral proclamation of the State of Israel which erupted into the brutal Palestinian Nakba or Catastrophe was also catastrophic for United Nations (UN) ringing the death knell for its stature and authority.

Like medieval kings, the US and Israel employed the UN to be its fool running around with a cap o’ bells and sceptre (rendered useless by US veto) beginning with the 1947 Resolution 181, passed on 29 February by members (under coercion) recommending the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states which was understandably rejected by Palestine but accepted by Israel as a step toward its Zionist expansionist goal for the full realisation of a Jewish Eretz Israel.

Ironically, on 30th February Menachem Begin, head of the terrorist gang, Irgun, brazenly announced the Zionist immutable dogma, “The partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognised… Jerusalem was and forever will be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And forever.”

Disregarding Begin’s rant, apart from having no mandate to approve or enforce the partition, ‘the United Nations had no business offering the nation of one people to the people of many nations. Its General Assembly had neither the legal nor the legislative powers to impose such a resolution or to convey title of a territory; Articles 10, 11 and 14 of the UN Charter bestows the right on the General Assembly merely to recommend resolutions.’

The Nakba marks the onset of Israel’s systematic ethnic cleansing strategy with the destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages and the forced expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian civilians fleeing Haganah, Irgun and Lehi units that carried out the savage and systematic military offensives codenamed Plan Dalet:

These operations can be divided into the following categories:

Destruction of villages (setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris), especially those population centers which are difficult to control continuously.

Mounting search and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the village and conducting a search inside it. In the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state.

Forced to leave their cherished lands, the Palestinian exodus dispersed to 58 squalid refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank as well as in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. All 4.9 million Palestinian refugees come under the authority of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA). Its provision of health, education and humanitarian aid is vastly inadequate to the needs of the camps’ three generations of desperate people.

UNRWA is funded mainly by the USA, the EU Commission, UK and Germany. This cabal of collaborators which has ignored Palestinian human and political rights since 1948, are in fact, the camps’ prison guards perpetuating the normalisation of the Israeli occupation thus relieving Israel of its obligation to honour the Palestinian right of return set down in Resolution 194 (December 1948 ) of which Article 11 reads;

(The General Assembly) Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible. ….more

Wife visits jailed Bahraini hunger striker
13 May, 2012 -Bahrain Freedom Movement

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) – The wife of a jailed Bahraini activist on hunger strike for more than three months says his condition appears better, but he is still only taking water and juice in his protest against government crackdowns in the Gulf kingdom.

Khadija al-Musawi says she visited her husband, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, for about two hours Sunday.

Al-Khawaja and seven other activists were sentenced to life in prison by a military-led court last year for participating in the uprising by Bahrain’s majority Shiites, who seek to end the political dominance of the ruling Sunni dynasty. The convictions for the group – and about a dozen others – are now being reviewed by a civilian court.

At least 50 people have died in Bahrain’s unrest since February 2011. …source

US intensifies confrontation with Iran
14 May 2012 – WSWS

Negotiations next week in Baghdad between Iran and the P5+1—the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany—will be a turning point in the dangerous confrontation over Iranian nuclear programs. Washington is putting intense pressure on Tehran to make major concessions, even as the US prepares to impose crippling sanctions and threatens war.

Speaking last week in Vienna, US nuclear negotiator Robert Wood demanded that Iran take “urgent, practical steps” in order to comply “with all its international obligations.” He criticised Iran for failing to grant “the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] access to all relevant sites, documents and persons necessary to resolve questions about its nuclear program.”

Iran has repeatedly declared that it has no intention of building nuclear weapons. Its nuclear facilities, including its Natanz and Fordo enrichment plants, and stockpiles are under IAEA inspection and monitoring as required by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, the US and its allies are insisting that Iran end uranium enrichment, which is permitted under the NPT, and ship its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium out of the country.

The likelihood of any firm deal emerging from the Baghdad talks is slim. The US demands that the IAEA be granted access to personnel and facilities is an endless process requiring Iran to prove a negative—that nowhere in its large territory are there programs related to nuclear weapons. The IAEA, which is meeting with Iranian officials this week, is demanding admission to Iran’s Parchin complex—a military base—where allegedly high-explosive testing of the type required for a nuclear device took place, nearly a decade ago. Like similar claims, the IAEA “evidence” comes from foreign intelligence sources—most likely from the US or Israel.

Israel, which is threatening to take unprovoked military action against Iran, has put more pressure on negotiations by pressing for a complete end to Iran’s uranium enrichment programs. According to Associated Press, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told EU policy chief Catherine Ashton last week that Iran would have to commit to a timetable to end enrichment and to dismantle its Fordo plant for Israel to accept the outcome—demands that Tehran has already rejected.

Ashton was in Israel to ascertain the stance of the newly formed coalition that brought the opposition Kadima party into the government. Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz, a former internal security chief, had been critical of Netanyahu’s threats to attack Iran. But his entry into the cabinet makes an Israeli attack on Iran more, rather than less, likely. The coalition gives the government an overwhelming parliamentary majority, and Mofaz’s presence will be used to blunt widespread domestic opposition to a war on Iran. …more

IAEA refuses Iran cooperation pact
By Gareth Porter – 15 May, 2012 – Asia Times

WASHINGTON – Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano has signaled that there will be no agreement with Iran in meetings in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday on the terms for Iranian cooperation in clarifying the issue of alleged nuclear weapons work.

Amano indicated in an interview with The Daily Beast on Friday that he intended to hold up an agreement on Iranian cooperation in responding to allegations of military involvement in its nuclear program until the IAEA was allowed to visit to Parchin, the military complex about 30 kilometers southeast of Tehran.

Amano told journalist Michael Adler the “standoff” over access to Parchin “has become like a symbol” and vowed to “pursue this objective until there’s a concrete result”.

Adler cited an “informed source” as saying that the IAEA rejected any linkage between a visit to Parchin and the rest of the plan for cooperation being negotiated, and insists that a visit to Parchin must come first before any agreement.

But the actual draft negotiating text of the agreement on “Clarification of Unresolved Issues” with Iran’s proposed changes from the original IAEA proposal, which has been posted on the website of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, shows that the major conflict over their cooperation was whether the process had a definite endpoint, not access to Parchin.

Iran’s permanent representative to the IAEA, ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh, has said that Iran was willing to grant access to Parchin, but only under an agreed plan for Iranian cooperation with the IAEA.

Amano and Western officials have justified the insistence on immediate access to the Parchin site to investigate an alleged explosive containment vessel for testing related to a nuclear weapon by suggesting that satellite photographs showed Iran may be trying to “clean up” the site.

Amano hinted at that accusation in the interview with Adler without making it explicitly. “We have information and there are some moves – there’s something moving out there,” he said. “Going there soon is better.” …more