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

Bahrain: 21 medics cleared in closely watched case
By Emily Alpert – 28 March, 2013 – Los Angles Times

A Bahraini court on Thursday cleared 21 medics who had been convicted in connection with protests against the government, a victory for rights activists in the closely watched case.

The exonerated doctors, nurses and other medical personnel were among scores of health professionals arrested and charged during the unrest that erupted two years ago in the island monarchy.

Bahrain faced intense criticism from human rights groups and the U.S. State Department for pursuing the charges; many of the accused medics claimed they were tortured and forced to confess to charges such as “instigating hatred” and “taking part in illegal assemblies” after treating injured protesters.
Rights activists celebrated the court decision but said Bahrain must go further to ensure justice for the medics and investigate their alleged torture. “If we agree these guys are innocent, it needs to explain why it got a stack of signed confessions from them and how they were produced,” said Brian Dooley of the U.S.-based group Human Rights First.

Government spokespeople could not be reached immediately for comment by phone or email as of Thursday evening in Bahrain.

The 21 medics who were cleared Thursday were among a group of 23 medical professionals convicted of misdemeanors after the 2011 protests. Two did not appear in court to appeal; a score more were convicted of felonies in another case, though some were acquitted.

Thursday’s ruling was “the first step toward justice,” said rheumatologist Dr. Fatima Haji, who was convicted and later cleared of felony charges that included spreading misinformation about protest injuries. Now that the 21 medics are cleared, “they need to have some accountability for those who made false accusations against them.”

Haji cautioned that state prosecutors could still challenge the decision. Three medics remain imprisoned in the felony case, one of them sentenced to five years.

Unrest erupted in Bahrain two years ago as protesters challenged the Sunni Muslim monarchy, pressing for greater democracy and more of a voice for Shiite Muslims. The ensuing state crackdown was marked by beatings, torture and other abuses, an independent commission initiated by the government found.

Bahrain has since pledged reforms, retraining police and pursuing charges against officers. Government spokesmen say the state is working diligently to address the problems laid out by the commission; it recently launched a national dialogue on reform.

But local activists and rights groups abroad say change has been slow and persecution has continued. Police, frequently accused of using excessive force against demonstrators, have defended their actions as protecting officers who face deadly Molotov cocktails on the streets.

Beyond the street battles, Dooley pointed out that dissidents remain imprisoned on charges of trying to overthrow the government, convictions that rights groups say resulted from solely peaceful protest. Human rights activist Abdulhadi Khawaja, sentenced to life in prison in one such case, has been on a hunger strike for more than a week and a half along with his daughter, Zainab, who was sent to jail for three months on charges of insulting a public employee.

In an impassioned letter published by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, she wrote that she wondered what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would say about the U.S. “turning a blind eye to the blood and tears being split in the quest of freedom” in Bahrain, a longtime ally seen as a strategic bulwark against Iran.

The U.S. has expressed concern about human rights in Bahrain, but activists say its words have been too muted. Last year Washington resumed some arms sales to the country, stressing that the allowed items “are not used for crowd control.” Dooley argued that the victory for the medics, whose case received more attention abroad, shows more pressure is needed. …more

Bahrain: Alkhalifa killings, torture continues in preparation for F1 race
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 5 April, 2013

As the Bahraini people continue their revolt against staging the Formula 1 race under the patronage of the Alkhalifa, the regime has intensified its crackdown against the pro-democracy activists, detaining and torturing them in revenge.

At least fifteen people were arrested on Wednesday, taken to the torture dungeons and abused. More were snatched from Duraz, Sitra and other towns as pre-emptive desperate steps to stop people exposing Alkhalifa crimes to the world during the race. The walls in several towns and villages were decorated with paintings and cartoons highlighting the people’s predicaments as the regime’s mouthpieces went into full swing to present deceptive image of a country ravaged by Revolution. “Don’t race on our blood” is the main message to the teams and drivers of the F1, with cartoons depicting Bahrain’s dictator using people’s blood as fuel to the cars.

One of the victims of the decision to hold F1 race in Bahrain is Abdul Ghani Hassan Al Rayes, 66 from Duraz Town. He was martyred on Monday night 31st March as he waited for his son to be released from the torturers hands. The son had been arrested earlier in the day together with other young boys for chanting anti-regime slogans. They were taken to Budayya’s police station where they were interrogated, tortured and abused as their families waited outside. The martyr was in agony as he heard the cries of his son being tortured. He was suffering in silence. As the cries of the victims intensified, he started feeling pain in his chest. When his other son requested his father be seated or offered water the torturers refused. He was rushed to hospital by his son but died on the way. The way he lost his wife has touched Bahrainis who are dying in silence as their anger boils inside them at the way their country is being raped by the Alkhalifa dictators and Saudi occupiers. His funeral was savagely attacked by members of the Death Squads operated by the dictator’s royal court.

Meanwhile, the Saudi regime has put one of its most famous victims on trial. Sheikh Nimr Al Nimr is accused of “spreading corruption on earth” for calling for democratic rights and an end to the Al Saudi hereditary dictatorship. On 8th July 2012 he was arrested after being seriously wounded by the regime’s forces. He was taken to hospital under military guard where he was surrounded by soldiers. He was then transferred to jail where he was abused and ill-treated. He is accused of opposing the regime and plotting to overthrow the tyrannical AlSaud dynasty. This serious development comes at a time of heightened tension in the land of Arabia as a result of regime’s intensification of repression and dictatorship. The Prosecution has called for beheading Sheikh Nimr Al Nimr, who is from the down-trodden Eastern Province and who had wholeheartedly supported the Bahraini Revolution. Scholars in several countries have issued statements warning the Saudis of dire consequences if the respected spiritual leader is executed by a regime that has always lacked popular legitimacy. The Saudis must release Sheikh Al Nimr lest they inflame the situation further. The country is facing increasing tension as the people, both Shia and Sunni, continue their calls for release of their prisoners. …more

“The ruling elite in Bahrain has always found a way to engineer means of escaping accountability”

Marc Owen Jones: Bahrain’s history of political injustice
1 April, 2013 – You Middle East – Marc Owen Jones

In Bahrain, members of the ruling Al Khalifa family, or those responsible for protecting their interests (i.e. the security forces) have historically been afforded a large degree of impunity. This is despite evidence that points to their participation in gross acts of oppression. In the recent uprising, no member of the state security forces has been found guilty of torture or murder, and no high-level government officials have been questioned for their complicity in the crackdown.

Following the ‘democratic’ reforms of 2001, Royal Decree 56 absolved any of the state security forces from being prosecuted for crimes committed during the brutal crackdown of the 1990s Intifada. Indeed the ruling elite in Bahrain has always found a way to engineer means of escaping accountability. This tradition of impunity is rooted in Bahrain’s history, yet even in excellent academic scholarship there remains the perpetuation of erroneous facts that understate the degree of impunity that the Ruling Family has enjoyed.

This is particularly true with regards to the trial of Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa and his sons Khalid and Salman, who were found guilty of instigating and carrying out two attacks on the village of Sitra in 1923 (Khalid bin Ali was the nephew of the previous ruler, Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa). The attack left several Shia villagers dead, including women and children. The trial of the Khalids, (who are sometimes referred to as the Khawalid), recently featured in a front-page article on the Wall Street Journal:

When Shiites sought greater rights in the early 1920s, Khaled Ben Ali led the crackdown. At British prodding, he was tried for murder and jailed. The trial left wounds that festered for decades.

The writer of the article, Charles Levinson, may have been a little over zealous in his assertion that the jailing of the Khalids left a festering wound that lasted decades. In actual fact, Khalid bin Ali was never jailed. He was fined and his property confiscated. It was his sons Ali and Salman who were exiled to India. However, before they could be deported, Ali and Salman escaped to mainland Arabia. …more

Angelina Jolie: Bimbo and the Beast
Finian Cunningham – 31 March, 2013 – Strategic Culture Foundation

Angelina Jolie, the American screen idol and one of the highest paid actors ever, is famous for her sultry looks and a femme fatale presence. She’s a dangerous woman, the embodiment of smoldering, mercurial menace.

Which, when you think about it, sounds a lot like her real life role as UN Special Envoy on human rights. In her latest «starring role», she is cast alongside British Foreign Minister William Hague. The «location»’ is the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both travelled to the war-ravaged Central African country this week to highlight the harrowing crime of rape against women as a result of conflicts.

This is not the first time that the unlikely pair has teamed up for this purpose. Previously, actress Jolie and Britain’s most senior diplomat have collaborated to ‘focus public attention’ on violence against women in Libya, Mali and Syria, among other international war zones.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper while onboard a RAF aircraft courtesy of Mr Hague, the Hollywood star said: “There were hundreds of thousands of women raped during the Rwandan genocide. There are hundreds of thousands of people being raped in the Congo. Tens of thousands of women raped in Bosnia. God knows how many people raped in Syria».

Asked what she wanted to achieve by working with the British government to champion this appeal, the action-movie siren replied: “An end to impunity».

At which point Angelina Jolie, if she really understood the causes of these conflicts and the violence against women, should have reached over to slap handcuffs on the British foreign secretary and make a citizen’s arrest of a top war criminal.

In every instance of war that the actress cited, the British government has had a hand in either fomenting or fuelling. William Hague, in particular, has personally overseen British-sponsored terrorism in Libya, Mali and Syria.

It was Hague’s British regime that led the NATO blitzkrieg during 2011 in Libya to topple the government of Muammar Gaddafi. For seven months, British Typhoon fighter bombers engaged in over 10,000 sorties along with other NATO forces, to demolish that North African country. As many as 50,000 people were killed during the aerial bombardment. Countless numbers among Libya’s six-million nation were turned into refugees and now live under an anarchic regime of extremists and deprivation that NATO installed.

The same brand of Al Qaeda bandits and cut-throats that NATO warplanes paved the way for in Libya is being armed, trained, funded and directed in Syria by Britain and its allies.

As with Libya, Britain has taken a lead role in Syria along with France in arming a terror network – that the Western media euphemistically call «rebels» – to overthrow the sovereign government of Bashar Al Assad. British Special Forces have long-established training camps in Jordan from where graduated death squads can then ply their terror trade across the border in Syria.

Up to five million people have been displaced in the violence unleashed over the past two years in Syria by Britain and its NATO allies, the US and France, and their proxies, Turkey and the Gulf Arab dictatorships. In fleeing British-sponsored death squads and car bombers, up to a million Syrian civilians now reside in tents along the borders with Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Rape, of course, has been used as a weapon of terror by the militants in Syria to sow fear and dislodge popular support for the Damascus government. …more

As two more Afghan children are liberated (from their lives) by NATO this weekend, a new film examines the effects of endless US aggression

The message sent by America’s invisible victims
Glenn Greenwald – 29 March, 2013

Yesterday I had the privilege to watch Dirty Wars, an upcoming film directed by Richard Rowley that chronicles the investigations of journalist Jeremy Scahill into America’s global covert war under President Obama and specifically his ever-growing kill lists. I will write comprehensively about this film closer to the date when it and the book by the same name will be released. For now, it will suffice to say that the film is one of the most important I’ve seen in years: gripping and emotionally affecting in the extreme, with remarkable, news-breaking revelations even for those of us who have intensely followed these issues. The film won awards at Sundance and rave reviews in unlikely places such as Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. But for now, I want to focus on just one small aspect of what makes the film so crucial.

The most propagandistic aspect of the US War on Terror has been, and remains, that its victims are rendered invisible and voiceless. They are almost never named by newspapers. They and their surviving family members are virtually never heard from on television. The Bush and Obama DOJs have collaborated with federal judges to ensure that even those who everyone admits are completely innocent have no access to American courts and thus no means of having their stories heard or their rights vindicated. Radical secrecy theories and escalating attacks on whistleblowers push these victims further into the dark.

It is the ultimate tactic of Othering: concealing their humanity, enabling their dehumanization, by simply relegating them to nonexistence. As Ashleigh Banfield put it her 2003 speech denouncing US media coverage of the Iraq war just months before she was demoted and then fired by MSNBC: US media reports systematically exclude both the perspectives of “the other side” and the victims of American violence. Media outlets in predominantly Muslim countries certainly report on their plight, but US media outlets simply do not, which is one major reason for the disparity in worldviews between the two populations. They know what the US does in their part of the world, but Americans are kept deliberately ignorant of it.

What makes Dirty Wars so important is that it viscerally conveys the effects of US militarism on these invisible victims: by letting them speak for themselves. Scahill and his crew travel to the places most US journalists are unwilling or unable to go: to remote and dangerous provinces in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, all to give voice to the victims of US aggression. We hear from the Afghans whose family members (including two pregnant women) were slaughtered by US Special Forces in 2010 in the Paktia Province, despite being part of the Afghan Police, only for NATO to outright lie and claim the women were already dead from “honor killings” by the time they arrived (lies uncritically repeated, of course, by leading US media outlets).

Scahill interviews the still-traumatized survivors of the US cruise missile and cluster bomb attack in Southern Yemen that killed 35 women and children just weeks after Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. We see the widespread anger in Yemen over the fact that the Yemeni journalist who first exposed US responsibility for that attack, Abdulelah Haider Shaye, was not only arrested by the US puppet regime but, as Scahill first reported, has been kept imprisoned to this very day at the direct insistence of President Obama. We hear from the grandfather of 16-year-old American teenager Abdulrahman al-Awlaki (he is also the father of US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki) – both before and after a CIA drone killed his son and then (two weeks later) his teenaged grandson who everyone acknowledges had nothing to do with terrorism. We hear boastful tales of summary executions from US-funded-and-directed Somali warlords.

There is an unmistakable and singular message sent by these disparate groups and events. It’s one particularly worth thinking about with news reports this morning that two more Afghan children have been killed by a NATO air attack.

The message is that the US is viewed as the greatest threat and that it is US aggression and violence far more than any other cause that motivates support for al-Qaida and anti-American sentiment. The son of the slain Afghan police commander (who is the husband of one of the killed pregnant woman and brother of the other) says that villagers refer to US Special Forces as the “American Taliban” and that he refrained from putting on a suicide belt and attacking US soldiers with it only because of the pleas of his grieving siblings. An influential Southern Yemeni cleric explains that he never heard of al-Qaida sympathizers in his country until that 2009 cruise missile attack and subsequent drone killings, including the one that ended the life of Abdulrahman (a claim supported by all sorts of data). The brutal Somali warlord explains that the Americans are the “masters of war” who taught him everything he knows and who fuel ongoing conflict. Anwar Awlaki’s transformation from moderate and peace-preaching American cleric to angry critic of the US is shown to have begun with the US attack on Iraq and then rapidly intensifying with Obama’s drone attacks and kill lists. Meanwhile, US military officials and officers interviewed by Scahill exhibit a sociopathic indifference to their victims, while Awlaki’s increasingly angry sermons in defense of jihad are juxtaposed with the very similar-sounding justifications of endless war from Obama. …more

Security Forces Abduct, Severely Beat and Verbally Assault 5 Citizens, Including 3 Minors
31 March, 2013 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses its grave concern over the security forces’ continuation in the practice of abducting and beating of citizens, including minors.
The BCHR’s Head of Monitoring and Documentation Unit, Said Yousif Al-Muhafdha, documented disturbing incidents that took place in different areas within the same week which involved abducting civilians from the street or private homes, subjecting them to severe beatings and verbal assaults, including attacks on their sect and religious beliefs.

Three minors under the age of 14 informed Al-Muhafdha that they were abducted on the 28th of March 2013 at around 11 pm. They stated that there was a protest in the village and security forces started collectively punishing the village by shooting excessive teargas. This caused them to suffocate and therefore seek shelter in one of the houses nearby. Police forces noticed them and raided the house, abducted them and they were reportedly severely beaten inside the police vehicle with batons and gun butts while being verbally assaulted by the security forces by insulting their religious sect. One of the abducted showed cigarette burn marks on his arm stating that it was done by security forces. …more

Father dies after hearing his son’s arrest, torture, screaming
Shia Post – 30 March, 2013

A 66-years-old Bahrain man AbdulGhani AlRayyes, father of detained Ahmed AbdulGhani AlRayyes (36-years-old) has been died after he was not allowed to see his son who he heard screaming, and fell unconscious inside the local police station, The Shia Post reported.

AbdulGhani AlRayyes (66 years old) went to Budaiya police station at 11:24pm (Bahrain Local Time) on Sunday to ask about his son, reportedly heard him screaming inside and being beaten.

He was not allowed to see Ahmed, and forced out of the police station. He fell unconscious and was moved to the International Hospital of Bahrain.

The death certificate stated “dead on arrival” as the immediate cause of death without mentioning the fact that he has hypertension.

Ahmed AlRayyes was shortly released after news of his fathers death. AbdulGhani AlRayyes’s daughter fainted after hearing news of her fathers death, and had to be moved to the hospital.

Ahmed AbdulGhani AlRayyes (born in 1986) was arrested from his home in Duraz during a house raid on 31 March 2013, his brother, Hussain, had recently been injured with pellets due to use of excessive force by security forces.

He was shot in the abdomen approximately two months ago by security forces and left bleeding; he has so far needed two operations.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its grave concern at the continuation of beatings inside police stations, excessive use of force and the effect it has on the families of victims. …source

Family Friend Consoles one of AbdulGhani AlRayyes Sons

Bahrain: 16, Including Minors, Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison in Unfair Trial
29 March, 2013

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses grave concern over the detention and sentencing of 16 Bahraini citizens to 15 years imprisonment without clear evidence of the charges brought against them. The authorities in Bahrain have been arbitrarily arresting, detaining and sentencing citizens from protest areas in sham trials.

The Ministry of Interior claims that in July 2012 a police patrol was attacked in an attempt to kill policemen.

A MOI vehicle was burned and no causalities or injuries were announced by the ministry. The event was followed by an arrest campaign in a nearby village and many were taken into custody.

On 21 March 2013, the higher criminal court sentenced 16, some of them minors, to 15 years’ imprisonment and BD10,508 fine after charging them with attempted murder of policemen while on duty, arson of a vehicle owned by the MOI, illegal gathering and possession of Molotov cocktails.

The BCHR documentation and monitoring team met with some of the families of the 16 sentenced to document their cases:

Ahmed Yousif is only 16 years old. He was arrested after his house was raided early morning on 15 July 2012. Ahmed was reportedly beaten and tortured during arrest and interrogation in roundabout 17 – Hamad Town police station.

Hussain Mohammed, 17 years old, was kidnapped by a civilian car on 10 July 2012 when he was with his friend in their neighborhood. His family searched for him but did not hear from him until many hours later. According to his family, Hussain was tortured at the police station and in a prison visit he told them not to talk about the political situation because they record the conversations and whoever discusses such topics is then reportedly subjected to beatings and torture. …more

Bahraini court refuses to drop charges against two medic
28 March, 20130 – Islamic Invitation Turkey

A Bahraini court has refused to drop the charges against two medical personnel over their participation in protest rallies against the ruling Al Khalifa regime.

Defense lawyer Abdullah al-Shamlawi said the pair did not appear in court on Thursday.

He added that the court ordered charges against 21 other medical staffers to be dropped.

Last October, five doctors lost their appeals against convictions of protest-related offenses.

Dozens of doctors and nurses, mostly from Salmaniya Hospital, have been arrested by Bahraini forces for treating wounded protesters and taking part in anti-regime demonstrations.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights says authorities have denied medical help to jailed nurse, Haleema al-Sabagh.

Sabagh was sentenced to one year in prison after being arrested in Salmaniya Hospital.

The Bahraini uprising began in mid-February 2011. The Bahraini government promptly launched a brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests and called in Saudi-led Arab forces from neighboring states.

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

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

The protesters say they will continue holding anti-regime demonstrations until their demand for the establishment of a democratically elected government is met. …source

Bahraini Protests starts Paying Off , as 21 Medics convictions reversed By Court , Pledges to get others freed
30 March, 2013 – Jafria News

Bahriani Medic Released from JailJNN 30 Mar 2013 Manama , An appeals court in Bahrain has reversed the convictions of 21 medics arrested in connection to anti-government protests in 2011. Along with dozens of others, some of whom are still jailed, they helped treat the wounded in the mass unrest.

The physicians, nurses and other hospital workers were convicted last November on misdemeanor charges over their treatment of injured protesters, and for participating in “illegal assemblies.” Some of the accused said their convictions were based on false confessions extracted under torture.

They are now cleared from having to spend three months in prison or paying 200 dinars ($530). Two more similar cases remain open, as the suspects failed to appear in court.

The international medic community hailed the decision as a victory, but said the fight for justice is not yet over.

“The kingdom must now demonstrate a renewed commitment to civil and human rights by compensating the health professionals who were wrongly arrested, mistreated, and convicted; restoring all of those wrongly dismissed to their jobs; freeing others still serving prison sentences on similarly spurious convictions; and fairly prosecuting the officials responsible for these outrageous rights violations,” Dr. Deborah D. Ascheim, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) board chair said.

“We need to see the accountability established. And those who are responsible of torturing the doctors and arresting the doctors and putting forth charges and crimes against the doctors and giving them all this pain, they should be brought to justice. This is the priority,” Dr. Nada Dhaif, one of the acquitted doctors told RT.

Dr. Nabeel Tammam, a surgeon at Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama, is one of the 21 whose conviction was overturned. “We will continue our pressure until we gain the freedom of all the rest of the medics still in jail,” Dr. Tammam told PHR, “because we believe that they are innocent and that all they did was to perform their humanitarian duty.”

The acquitted medics were among the 82 workers arrested between February and March 2011 for providing medical treatment to protesters. The charges against them went as far as claiming they attempted to overthrow the regime.

In September 2011, 20 of the medics were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. However, in 2012 they were retried by a civilian court. Nine of them had their sentences reduced to 1 to 3 years in jail; two, who remain at large, had their sentences sustained; nine were acquitted after being found innocent.

Anti-government protests have rocked Bahrain since February 2011, as demonstrators call for an end to the Al-Khalifa monarchy, which has ruled the country since 1974. Hundreds have been arrested, and thousands have lost their jobs. Scores of people have also testified that they were tortured during their arrest.

Bahraini human rights activists have unsuccessfully called on the international community to intervene, over what they have called a suppression of the country’s opposition. A common thread of discontent among protesters is over discrimination against the country’s Shiite majority at the hands of the predominantly Saudi Backed Wahabi government.

Nearly 100 people have been killed since the start of the uprising. ..source

Behind the Scenes at the UN Arms Trade Treaty Conference
By Alberto Estevez – 27 March, 2013 – Amnesty International

This post is part of a special series on the Arms Trade Treaty. From March 18-28, world leaders from more than 150 countries are gathering for the UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in New York. An Amnesty International delegation with representatives from every world region is participating and will be pressing leaders to agree to a strong treaty that upholds international human rights law.

By Alberto Estévez, Advocacy Coordinator on the Arms Trade Treaty, International Secretariat of Amnesty International

It’s crunch time for human rights.

On Friday evening, the second draft of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was made public in the midst of the UN Final Conference on the ATT. The negotiations continued Monday and Tuesday and the final text will be made public sometime today.

The key issue for Amnesty International is whether the Treaty will have a preventive approach to prohibit an arms transfer when the State authorizing it knows that they will be used to commit atrocities. In legal jargon, this means whether it will prevent human rights violations constituting crimes under international law, i.e., extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture. This is what we in Amnesty International call the “Golden Rule.”

When I became an Amnesty member 26 years ago, above all I wrote letters – first handwritten, then on a typewriter and, years later, a computer – Urgent Actions to governments around the world about cases of extrajudicial executions, torture and disappearances.

At some point I wondered whether it would be better to prevent rather than cure the abuses I was writing about, in other words, how I could ensure that as time went by, I would need to write fewer letters and, at the same time, help save lives. That is how I learned about Amnesty’s position on military, security and police transfers, agreed in the 1980s in the organization’s International Council Meetings. In short, this policy is the “Golden Rule,” which will be the litmus test for the ATT.

Last Thursday in the negotiations room at the UN in New York, Finland submitted a proposal reflecting the Golden Rule in international human rights law. The UK supported this formulation. Spain and Liechtenstein made similar proposals on Friday morning, making clear their commitment to this principle. On the other hand, others like Norway, Japan and Costa Rica made proposals solely focused on the prohibition of transfers linked to violations of International Humanitarian Law during armed conflicts. We will continue to work to convince these and other States so that to put human rights first. In the meantime, the USA is waiting, listening and leaving itself open to discuss how to improve the text on the table, but with some limits. Other states, including some powerful ones, oppose the Golden Rule.

Amnesty International wants the treaty to include at least two basic principles:

a) No state will authorize arms transfers where such a transfer would aid or assist in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or a consistent pattern of violations of international human rights law constituting crimes under international law – such as extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture;

b) No state will authorize arms transfers where there is a real danger, or substantial risk, that those arms would be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law.

We will also continue to lobby states to carry out rigorous risk assessments as part of their national export control systems, to control munitions, parts and components, and to control arms brokering and transport activities. The ATT should also include strong implementation mechanisms and comprehensive and regular public reporting by all States, to allow scrutiny of whether governments are carrying out their international arms transfers responsibly.

We will keep fighting as “keepers of the flame,” until the final draft text is made public because, as Amnesty International founder Peter Benenson said:

“The candle burns not for us but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who ‘disappeared’. That is what the candle is for.”

Bahraini man dies of inhaling tear gas fired by regime forces
27 March, 2013 – Shia Post

A 35-year-old Bahraini man has died due to inhaling tear gas fired by the Saudi-backed regime forces during a demonstration in the northeastern island of Sitra.

Reports say Jafar Jassem Ali al-Taweal lost his life when Bahraini forces fired toxic gas to disperse protesters during an anti-regime demonstration in Sitra on Monday.

Scores of Bahrainis, including children, have died due to asphyxia after inhaling poisonous tear gas fired by police.

Last year, Amnesty International warned about the Manama regime’s misuse of tear gas against protesters and called for an investigation into the tear gas-related deaths.

On February 15, Aminah al-Sayyed Mahdi, 35, also died a month after inhaling toxic tear gas in an anti-Al Khalifa protest in the village of Abu Saiba.

Also in January, Qasim Habib Ja’far, an eight-year-old child, and another Bahraini man, Haj Habib Ibrahim Abdullah, died the same way when regime forces fired toxic gas to disperse protesters near the capital, Manama.

Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, demanding political reform and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.

The Manama regime has arrested many rights activists, doctors and nurses since the uprising began.

Bahrainis say they will continue holding anti-regime demonstrations until their demand for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to rights violations is met. …more

Rockefellers, Crown Cocaine & Haitian Slavery
By Dean Henderson – 26 March, 2013 – Veterans Today

With 2,100 people dead from cholera since the devastating January 2010 Haitian earthquake and another 650,000 expected to contract the disease within the next six months, the last thing Haiti needed was another rigged election. But the nation’s role as wage floor for multinational corporations, combined with its geographic importance to the CIA-orchestrated Columbian cocaine trade, made the November 28th 2010 election fraud which provoked fiery protests all too predictable.

The shortest route from Columbia’s San Andres Island to Miami passes through the island of Haiti, where Bank of Nova Scotia subsidiary Scotia bank dominates finance. The Zionist Bronfman family-controlled Bank of Nova Scotia is the leading gold dealer in the cocaine-infested Caribbean Silver Triangle. It owned the 200 tons of gold recovered beneath the rubble of the World Trade Center in late 2001. Gold is the currency of choice in the British Crown-controlled global narcotics trade.

From the 1970′s until 1986 Haiti was ruled by Jean-Claude (Papa Doc) and son Baby Doc Duvalier. The dictators were propped up by the US, which sent them over $400 million. What didn’t end up in Duvalier pockets was used by US corporations to set up factories to take advantage of super-cheap Haitian labor. Haiti was the centerpiece of the Caribbean Basin Initiative, launched by David Rockefeller’s International Basic Economy Corporation, which aimed to create a low-wage manufacturing platform in the Caribbean for its multinational corporate tentacles.

Real wages in Haiti declined 56% from 1983-1991 after the Caribbean Basin Initiative kicked in. Haitian exports boomed with companies like Rawlings sending sweat shop manufactured baseballs to the US. Dallas oilman and Intercontinental Hotels owner Clint Murchison operated meat packing plants in Haiti, which he entrusted to the watchful eye of the later-assassinated CIA agent and Lee Harvey Oswald handler George de Mohrenschildt. The devastated US textile industry has been largely outsourced to Haiti. Nowhere in the world is labor cheaper.

Baby Doc Duvalier fell after a popular revolt in 1986 and retired on the French Riviera, alongside other US tin cup dictators. That year the CIA created the Haitian National Intelligence Service (SIN). The acronym, which it shares with Peruvian intelligence, is likely a tongue-in-cheek M16 Freemason joke. SIN was created under the guise of fighting drug trafficking, but its officials simply took over the Columbian coke transshipment trade from Duvalier’s cronies- the Tonton Macoutes. Haitian gangs took over the drug trade in many US cities.

Despite a US Congressional ban on aid to Haiti, SIN received $1 million/year from the CIA, while the Company set about training and equipping the new Haitian military. The CIA was trying to put a lid on the leftist revolution which swept Baby Doc from power- the Lavalas Family Movement. SIN set about on a reign of terror against the Haitian left, taking over where Duvalier’s Tonton Macoutes left off. In 1989 the head of SIN Colonel Ernesto Prudhomme led a brutal interrogation of progressive Port-au-Prince Mayor Evans Paul. Former SIN chief Colonel Leopold Clerjeune was also present. Mayor Paul came away with five broken ribs and serious internal injuries.

A US Embassy official said of SIN, “It was a military organization that distributed drugs in Haiti. SIN never produced drug intelligence. The Agency gave them money under counter-narcotics and they used their training to do other things in the political arena.” …more

Shia Saudi cleric Sheikh Nimr charged with instigating unrest
26 March, 2013 – PressTV

A court in Saudi Arabia has charged prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr with “instigating unrest” and “seeking foreign meddling” in the kingdom.

Sheikh Nimr appeared in court on Tuesday, nearly eight months after he was arrested for criticizing the ruling Al Saud family and demanding the release of political prisoners, AFP news agency quoted a witness as saying.

The prosecutor also accused the cleric of supporting uprising in Bahrain, where Saudi troops are assisting the ruling Al Khalifa family in its brutal crackdown on demonstrations.

The court panel adjourned the hearing until a lawyer is appointed.

Sheikh Nimr was shot and arrested by regime forces in Awamiyah in July 2012 after he demanded the “release of all those detained in anti-regime protests, and all prisoners of conscience.

His family members said he was badly tortured in jail. Nimr’s sister has recently said through her Twitter account that prison authorities are denying her brother medical care.

Saudis have staged several demonstrations in the Eastern Province to demand the release of Sheikh Nimr since he was arrested.

Saudi activists say there are more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, in jails across the Kingdom.

According to the activists, most of the detained political thinkers are being held by the government without trial or legitimate charges and that they were arrested for merely looking suspicious.

Some of the detainees are reported to be held without trial for more than 16 years. Attempting to incite the public against the government and the allegiance to foreign entities are usually the ready-made charges against political dissidents. …more

Malaysia Invaded – 100′s of Terrorists Land on Beaches, Western Media Mute
Tony Cartalucci – 25 March, 2013 – Liberty Roundtable

(LD) – Hundreds of heavily armed terrorists have crossed from the Philippines and landed in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. Dozens are already dead, and the Malaysian military has brought in aircraft and armor to confront the audacious, bizarre invasion, scattering militants into the jungles of Borneo island. A seemingly headline news event, the invasion has been downplayed and spun by the Western media, many calling militant Al Qaeda-linked terrorists, an “armed Filipino clan.”

The West’s woeful, irresponsible coverage of a burgeoning region-wide destabilization, fits in nicely with its coverage of US-Saudi funded/armed terrorism around the world, including in Syria where US-funded terrorists of the so-called “Free Syrian Army” have just taken dozens of UN peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights – just days after the US announced it would fund the terrorists further, to the tune of $60 million and the West’s Arab partners have just granted the terrorist faction Syria’s seat at the “Arab League.”

Terrorists are US-Saudi Funded Extremists – Part of Engineered Destabilization.

While the West pleads ignorance over the identity of the militants held up in the jungles of Malaysia’s Sabah state, the militant organizations themselves have declared thousands more in reinforcements are being arranged in the Philippines to join and exasperate the conflict. The Free Malaysia Today newspaper reported in its article, “10,000 Tausugs to sail to Sabah,” that :

Thousands of Tausug from Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi have sailed to Sabah to reinforce members of the so-called royal army of the sultanate of Sulu who are fighting it out with Malaysian security forces, a Moro National Liberation Front official said Tuesday.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of course, is one of several of Al Qaeda’s franchises in Southeast Asia, and spun off the notorious terrorist organization, Abu Sayyaf, a US State Department-listed foreign terrorist organization with direct ties to Al Qaeda.

The Philippines’ terrorist organizations, located amongst the country’s southern islands have long held ties to Al Qaeda and receive funding and support from Saudi Arabia. AFP reported in their 2010 article, “WikiLeaks: US suspected Saudi ambassador to the Philippines of terror link,” that:

The United States suspected a Saudi Arabian ambassador to the Philippines of potential involvement in funding terrorists, according to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks this week.

The report would also state:

Francis Townsend cited Waly’s intervention to secure the release of two members of an Islamic charity detained in the Philippines, the cable showed.

The group was suspected of funnelling funds to Al-Qaeda-linked groups based in the southern Philippines.

It continued stating:

The February 24, 2007, US embassy cable named the charity suspected of terror financing in the Philippines as IIRO, which stands for the International Islamic Relief Organisation.

Intelligence agencies have said IIRO was set up by Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, a brother-in-law of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The report concluded by stating:

Overall, the WikiLeaks cables singled out Saudi Arabia as the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hamas.

Saudi Arabia is of course is the chief financier of Al Qaeda, and is currently leading efforts to fund, arm, and fill the ranks of Al Qaeda’s franchises from Mali and Libya, to Syria and Iraq. A multitude of reports from across the West have identified Saudi Arabia as the lynch pin in Al Qaeda’s global terror campaign, including the US Army West Point Combating Terrorism Center.

Its reports “Al-Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq” and “Bombers, Bank Accounts and Bleedout: al-Qa’ida’s Road In and Out of Iraq,” identify a vast terrorist network maintained by the Saudis that recruits, arms, and funds terrorists from across the Muslim World, and can funnel a mercenary army into any desired nation. At the time, the desired nation was Iraq. In 2011, it was Libya. Today it is Syria. The same network that US soldiers fought in Iraq is verifiably in use today, in support of US regime-change operations in Syria. …more

Summary:Bahrain, British Imperialism
12 October 2012 – Bahrain Center for Studies in London

The Bahrain Centre for Studies in London (BCSL) has issue a paper under the title of: “Bahrain, and British Imperialism”by the British journalist Chris Bambery.

The author indicates that the deep links between the ruling circles of Britain and Bahrain were demonstrated by the presence of King Hamad at Queen Elizabeth 11’s diamond jubilee celebration dinner held at Windsor Castle in the spring of 2012. Hamad’s visit went ahead despite the killings, torture, sackings and demolitions being administered to those demanding democracy and self-determination for the Bahraini people.

Britain was the key force in shaping modern Bahrain and in installing and defending the Al Khalifah ruling house. That and its continuing support for the regime mean it must accept a large responsibility for the kingdom’s current problems.

In 1967 Harold Wilson’s government in London announced they would withdraw all British forces east of Suez. The British were quitting HMS Juffair in Bahrain. Worried about Iranian and Iraqi ambitions to control the Gulf the US stepped in. In 1970 they reached agreement with the Sheik to take over HMS Juffair. The American negotiator reported:

“His Highness was very clear that Bahrain desired a continued US presence.”

The British author sees that the Al Khalifa’s were now under US ‘protection’ but the British continued to run the security forces through appointees.

The presence of a former Scotland Yard senior policeman, John Yates, as the current adviser to King Hamad upholds a tradition established by Belgrave and Henderson – it constitutes a living legacy of British imperialism. It is a tradition which should not be upheld in the 21st century by the Queen, Prime Minister David Cameron and the British banks and corporations who make a tidy penny in Bahrain. …source full report