There is a solution for peace in Syria. All we need is the will to implement it. Yang Jiechi has imagined a way of avoiding France’s hostility to the implementation of the Geneva agreement.

The Chinese solution
by Thierry Meyssan – Voltaire Network – Damascus (Syria) – 7 November 2012

UN-Arab League Special Envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

The truce that was intended to mark the celebrations for the Muslim feast of the Aid was massively broken in Syria. The government had taken care to block the main roads in order to ensure that any incidents would remain isolated and would not spread. It was a waste of time – a number of brigades of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had received orders from their sponsors to launch a series of new attacks, and the Syrian Arab Army did not fail to respond. As a result, although certain regions were able to enjoy four days of relative peace, the final assessment at the national level is particularly disappointing.

Whether the truce was a success or a failure therefore depends on where you live. At the diplomatic level, it allows us to evaluate the difficulties that the peace forces will encounter when the Security Council decides to deploy them. The first is the absence of a representative spokesman for the FSA – the second is France’s duplicity.

The FSA is composed of a number of armed groups, each of which obeys its own logic. The whole organisation is supposed to take orders from a central command which is implanted at a NATO base in Turkey. But this is no longer the case, ever since the emergence of bitter rivalry between the different sponsors – France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Each group dedicates more effort to expanding their influence to the detriment of their allies than to overthrowing the regime. The basic brigades obey the groups who directly finance them, and pay no further attention to NATO coordination. Besides this, despite all declarations, the fighters in Syria have never been subordinated to the political councils who meet in Paris, Istanbul and Cairo.

Western leaders are continually calling for a unified FSA command, but in reality, they are afraid of it. Because while unification would provide an interlocutor for peace discussions, it would also discredit and replace the foreign political councils. It would therefore no longer be possible to hide the true nature of this pseudo “revolution” – none of the armed groups are fighting for democracy, and the vast majority of them intend to impose a Sunnite religious dictatorship.

A “Central Command of Syrian Revolutionary Councils” has just been created in Idlib, and it has been approved by about 80% of the FSA forces. It recognises as its spiritual leader Sheikh Adnan al-Arour, who gave a speech on this occasion. Reading a moderate text, whose style was very different from his usual declarations, he praised his listeners for the creation of the central military command, and called for the unification of the three rival foreign political councils, and also for the constitution of a legislative council. This of course means the transfer of legislative power to religious authorities – of which he would humbly accept the leadership – with the aim of imposing Sharia law. He also reminded his listeners that the prime objective of the “revolution” is not to overthrow the institutions but rather the principles of the regime, in other words, secularism and Arab nationalism.

At this point, it must be noted that while the FSA numbers very few Syrian combatants, it has the support of several million civilians, particularly in the North of the country. However, in the various demonstrations which have been organised, the demonstrators have never brandished the portraits of exiled political leaders (Buhran Ghalioum, Abdulbaset Sieda, etc.), but have often chanted the name of Sheikh Al-Arour. They have also notably used his slogans, such as “Christians to Beirut! Alawites to the grave!” The Syrians who support the FSA do not want democracy, but are calling for a Saudi-style dictatorship, which would cleanse Sunnism of its Sufi elements, and repress all religious minorities.

In order to succeed, the truce should have been negotiated by Lakdhar Brahimi, the special envoy of the UN and the Arab League, and Sheikh Adnan Al-Arour. But such an encounter would have marked the end of the dream of the “Arab Spring”, and revealed the fact that the West is financing and arming the most extreme forms of religious sectarianism. …more

Turkey to request NATO missile defense on Syria border
7 November, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

ANKARA: Turkey is to make an imminent official request to NATO to station Patriot missiles along its border with Syria, a senior Turkish foreign ministry official said on Wednesday.

NATO-member turkey has already bolstered its own military presence along the 910-km (560-mile) border and has been responding in kind to gunfire and mortar shells hitting its territory from fighting between Syrian rebels and Syrian government forces.

“Concerning this topic (Patriot missiles), an imminent official request is to be made,” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The official said there was a potential missile threat to turkey from Syria and that turkey had a right to take steps to counter such a threat. He gave no further details.

“The deployment of these type of missiles as a step to counter threats is routine under NATO regulations,” the official said, adding that they had been deployed in turkey during the second Gulf War.

A NATO spokeswoman in Brussels said: “We haven’t received a request. As the Secretary-General said on Monday, the allies will consider any request that is brought to the North Atlantic Council.”
…more

Ban urges Obama to act on Syria, Mideast peace
7 November, 2012 – Agence France Presse

UNITED NATIONS:UN leader Ban Ki-moon urged President Barack Obama Wednesday to act quickly on ending the war in Syria and reviving the Middle East peace process as he congratulated the US leader on his re-election.

The United Nations “will continue to count on the active engagement of the United States” on key global issues “as it strives to meet the hopes and expectations of people around the world,” Ban said through a spokesman.

Ban said: “Many challenges lie ahead — from ending the bloodshed in Syria, to getting the Middle East peace process back on track, to promoting sustainable development and tackling the challenges posed by climate change. All will require strong multilateral cooperation.”

The UN leader looks forward to working with Obama and his second term administration “in the spirit of the enduring partnership between the United States and the United Nations,” the spokesman added.

Obama strived to improve the US reputation at the United Nations and as a multilateral partner during his first term.
…more

Destroyed by Total Capitalism America Has Already Lost Tuesday’s Election
by Jakob Augstein – 5 November, 2012 – Spiegel Online International

Germans see the US election as a battle between the good Obama and the evil Romney. But this is a mistake. Regardless of who wins the election on Tuesday, total capitalism is America’s true ruler, and it has the power to destroy the country.

The United States Army is developing a weapon that can reach — and destroy — any location on Earth within an hour. At the same time, power lines held up by wooden poles dangle over the streets of Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy ripped them apart there and in communities across the East Coast last week, and many places remain without electricity. That’s America, where high-tech options are available only to the elite, and the rest live under conditions comparable to a those of a developing nation. No country has produced more Nobel Prize winners, yet in New York City hospitals had to be evacuated during the storm because their emergency generators didn’t work properly.

Anyone who sees this as a contradiction has failed to grasp the fact that America is a country of total capitalism. Its functionaries have no need of public hospitals or of a reliable power supply to private homes. The elite have their own infrastructure. Total capitalism, however, has left American society in ruins and crippled the government. America’s fate is not just an accident produced by the system. It is a consequence of that system.

Obama couldn’t change this, and Romney wouldn’t be able to either. Europe is mistaken if it views the election as a choice between the forces of good and evil. And it certainly doesn’t amount to a potential change in political direction as some newspapers on the Continent would have us believe.

A Powerless President

Romney, the exceedingly wealthy business man, and Obama, the cultivated civil rights lawyer, are two faces of a political system that no longer has much to do with democracy as we understand it. Democracy is about choice, but Americans don’t really have much of a choice. Obama proved this. Nearly four years ago, it seemed like a new beginning for America when he took office. But this was a misunderstanding. Obama didn’t close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, nor did he lift immunity for alleged war criminals from the Bush-era, or regulate the financial markets, and climate change was hardly discussed during the current election campaign. The military, the banks, industry — the people are helpless in the face of their power, as is the president.

Not even credit default swaps, the kind of investment that brought down Lehman Brothers and took Western economies to the brink, has been banned or even better regulated. It is likely the case that Obama wanted to do more, but couldn’t. But what role does that play in the bigger picture?

We want to believe that Obama failed because of the conservatives inside his own country. Indeed, the fanatics that Mitt Romney depends on have jettisoned everything that distinguishes the West: science and logic, reason and moderation, even simple decency. They hate homosexuals, the weak and the state. They oppress women and persecute immigrants. Their moralizing about abortion doesn’t even spare the victims of rape. They are the Taliban of the West. …more

Political Rhetoric and Resignation
by JASON HIRTHLER – November 06, 2012 – CounterPunch

A week before the election Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast with tremendous force. Millions were thrown back a century in time to an epoch of candles and cold showers, with no indoor plumbing. A world without the 24-hour distraction of the Internet. Coastal homes were blown apart or swamped with seawater. Half of New Jersey, parts of coastal boroughs and all of lower Manhattan were powerless for a week or more.

It occurred to me that the disaster would provide an opportunity for both candidates to ‘look presidential,’ always a critical component when the voting electorate pulled the lever or punched the chad based on their perception of a candidate’s trustworthiness. Subtle cues, like a strong jawline and a confident gaze into the middle distance were the telegraphic indicators the masses craved.

Barack Obama, the incumbent, was caught in the cross-hairs between a need to go on the offensive against his opponent, and to maintain his milquetoast persona so as not to frighten racist Caucasians. It was a delicate balancing act that he achieved finally by ridiculing his white opponent without appearing angry as he did so. Sarcasm and a smile seemed to do the trick.

Still, such was disdain for the general population that Mitt Romney seemed to think he could win by chanting the endless refrain of “twelve million jobs” without explaining how he would create them; and by promising to reduce the exploding federal deficit, without explaining where he’d find the money.

Many Americans, suspecting the perpetually tanned and Bryll creamed Romney was not particularly trustworthy, summed up their feelings by exclaiming, “This is some bullshit.” About a quarter of the voting population put their faith in half-black Obama, who had dutifully funneled twenty trillion dollars to banks without taxpayer bailouts and low-interest loans. Despite his efforts, Wall Street opted to support Romney, who promised to lower taxes on the ‘wealth creators’ while Obama made periodic allusions to asking the rich to pay a little more. Appeals to selfless altruism usually fall flat in America, an ostensibly Christian nation that seems to want to be saved by Christ but not asked to act like him.

The Voting Public

Voters tended to fall into four categories. First, there were the Republicans, a numerous lot of anti-government, anti-immigrant, anti-poor, anti-gay, and anti-abortion xenophobes allied to an even-tempered educated class with a desire to secure and extend its capital gains, entirely remove a tax burden they regarded as theft, and ignore or marginalize the poor.

According to this narrative, the indigent had themselves to blame for their circumstances. A lack of industry, dishonesty bordering on the mendacious, and a persistent belief in their own victimhood conspired to put these people at the bottom of the social ladder, and rightly so.

Liberals comprised the second group. This was an almost rabidly pro-Democrat clan of self-labeled progressives who appeared to cling to the handful of quasi-progressive measures the Obama administration had passed, spotlighting these to the exclusion of the far larger corporate repressive policies that Democrats had enacted.

This frequently resulted in surreal dialogues in which liberals would passionately proclaim minor measures such as young adults being covered on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26, while making no mention of the several proxy wars the President was carrying out abroad, or the dramatic erosion of civil liberties exceeding even the Bush administration, or any number of other regressive initiatives.

In practical terms, both parties had been fatally compromised by money power, funneled into party coffers by the gigantic machinery of lobbyists. Once in office, representatives felt obliged to serve the interests of corporate entities that had put them in office—interests antithetical to those of the general population.

Embittered leftists comprised the third group. Although of entirely oppositional ideologies, I’ve put them in the same group because they occupy similar position along the American political spectrum. Namely, an angry, disempowered fringe that vacillates between voting for third party candidates with zero chance of winning, or submitting to the implacable logic of the lesser of two evils.

Leftists had their quasi-socialist dreams shattered by the capitulation of the Democratic Party to corporate elites, an inevitable shift led by New Democrats under Bill Clinton (and Third Way Laborites in Britain under Tony Blair).

On the far right, tea part activists had become disillusioned by the rudderless policies, government expansion, and indiscriminate spending of George Bush II. …more

Bahrain’s Relentless Crackdown Continues
5 November, 2012 – Human Rights First

Washington, DC – Human Rights First remains seriously concerned about the detention of Bahraini human rights defender Said Yousif al-Muhafdah, who was arrested on November 2 in the wake of a new policy banning public gatherings across the kingdom.

Al-Muhafdah, the acting vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), was reportedly arrested and detained as he tried to assist a 12-year-old boy who had sustained a head injury from a tear gas canister that police fired at protesters in the town of Bilad al-Qadeem. He was detained just days before explosions in the kingdom killed two men. Human Rights First notes that the explosions should be promptly investigated and that those responsible for the incidents should be held accountable.

“Bahrain continues to target leading human rights activists like Said Yousif and to suppress peaceful dissent. Reform seems an increasingly distant prospect,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley. “Despite those challenges, violence – from the Bahraini government or those seeking reform – is not the solution to Bahrain’s problems.”

This is not the first time al-Muhafdah has been detained by police. The human rights defender was also arrested on August 15 for speaking out against the Bahraini government. In this most recent arrest, the Public Prosecutions office declared that they would detain Al-Muhafdah for a week on charges of “illegal gathering.”

Clashes between police and a minority of protestors are increasing. Human Rights First is concerned that al-Muhafdah’s detention is part of a systematic policy of targeting and arresting prominent civil society representatives in an attempt to intimidate human rights defenders from speaking out. For example, Nabeel Rajab is currently serving a three-year sentence for his “involvement in illegal gatherings.” In addition, Hussain M. Jawad, Chairman of the European-Bahraini Organization for Human Rights (EBOHR), has received a summons from the Public Prosecutions office to appear for questioning on November 11.

Last week, in an attempt to further curtail freedoms, Bahraini authorities banned all public gatherings. In doing so, they cited “repeated abuse” of the right to freedom of speech. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed his concern over these restrictions and said that they “could aggravate the situation in the country” and urged the government of Bahrain to lift the ban “without delay.”

The recent demonstrations came as a civil court sentenced three men on charges of insulting Bahrain’s king in Twitter posts. Today two of these men received sentences of four months and one month in prison and last week another man received six months in prison. The fourth man is expected to be sentenced this month. …source

Bahrainis stage anti-regime demos over woman’s killing
6 November – Shia Post

A large number of Bahrainis have staged anti-regime demonstrations in several towns and villages in the Persian Gulf kingdom to mourn the death of a female protester, Press TV reports.

Angry protesters renewed calls for freedom and democracy and demanded the downfall of the Al Khalifa family of Bahrain, which has been headed by the Al Khalifas since 1783.

Forty-three-year-old Assia Hassan al-Madeh died on Sunday after inhaling toxic tear gas in the town of Jidd-hafs.

The exact details of the incident are not available yet but activists say she was attacked during a pro-democracy demonstration.

The Bahraini revolution began in mid-February 2011, when the people, inspired by the popular revolutions that toppled the dictators of Tunisia and Egypt, started holding massive demonstrations.

The Bahraini government promptly launched a brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests and called in Saudi-led Arab forces from neighboring Persian Gulf 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

Chicago lawyer Valerie Jarrett is leading the effort, although she has no experience in high-stakes diplomacy

Senior Obama Adviser Leads Secret Talks With Iran
by John Glaser – 5 November, 2012 – Anti-war.com

President Obama’s close confidant and long-time friend of First Lady Michelle Obama, Chicago lawyer Valerie Jarrett, is leading behind the scenes negotiations with representatives of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Israeli officials with knowledge of the effort say.

Jarret, who was born in the Iranian city of Shiraz to American parents, is a senior advisor to US President Barack Obama and, Israeli officials claim, initiated and led secret talks with Iran in Bahrain, although she does not have any past experience with such high-stakes diplomacy.

Last month, the New York Times reported that the US and Iran have agreed to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program immediately following the US presidential elections. Officials later tried to deny this, but admitted the secret talks took place for a meeting in principle.

Such high-level, one-on-one negotiations between the Iranian regime and Washington would be unprecedented, and many have hopes that a grand bargain will be agreed up.

But even if the talks do occur in the event of a victory for Obama, it’s not clear they’ll be fruitful. Talks have floundered at various levels throughout Obama’s first term.

The closest the parties came to settlement was a deal in which Iran would halt 20 percent uranium enrichment in exchange for swapping enriched uranium for foreign-made fuel rods. Iran initially rejected the deal, but reluctantly agreed after Brazil and Turkey joined in the discussions. By that point, the Obama administration rejected Iranian acquiescence, in favor of sanctions.

Most of the so-called diplomacy with Iran has been “predicated on intimidation, illegal threats of military action, unilateral ‘crippling’ sanctions, sabotage, and extrajudicial killings of Iran’s brightest minds,” writes Reza Nasri at PBS Frontline’s Tehran Bureau. These postures have spoiled much chance to resolve the issues. …more

State Dept. Concerned over Bahrain Violence, BICI Progress
POMED – 5 Novemebr, 2012

After an explosion claimed two lives in Bahrain, the U.S. State Department condemned the violence, saying, “we remain deeply concerned about the rise of tensions in Bahrain. Recent violence in Bahrain has claimed the lives of protesters, of security forces, of innocent bystanders, and all of this just undercuts the process of national reconciliation that we have strongly been urging on Bahrainis of all stripes for many, many months.”

The State Department spokesperson added, “we’re concerned that a year has gone – almost a year has gone by [since the BICI report was released] and we’ve only seen about half of the recommendations go forward and that dialogue is not going forward between the government and the opposition.” While commenting on the presence of American John Timoney in Bahrain’s police reform efforts, the spokesperson said, “We’ve been concerned that these recommendations of the BICI, particularly in the area of police reform, have not been strongly enough implemented. It is one of the issues that we are continuing to urge on the Bahrainis, in terms of needing to really work on how the police respond to unrest, building a police force that’s representative of all Bahrainis, and taking some of these other steps.”
…more

Officials call bomb blasts that killed 2 in Bahrain terrorism
Newsist – 5 November, 2012

MANAMA, Bahrain – A series of bomb blasts in Bahrain’s capital killed two people Monday, authorities said, a sign that some factions within the opposition may be increasingly turning to violence in the nearly 21-month uprising against the Gulf nation’s Western-backed rulers.

The apparently coordinated string of five explosions in Manama — described by officials as “terrorism” — comes less than a week after Bahrain banned all protest gatherings in attempts to quell the deepening unrest in the strategic kingdom, which is home the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Clashes have not eased, including crowds pelting three police stations with firebombs early Sunday. More than 55 people have been killed Bahrain’s unrest since February 2011 as the nation’s majority Shiites press for a greater political voice in the Sunni-ruled island nation.

Officials also suggested three could be crackdowns against Shiite religious leaders, and that could sharply intensify the clashes. Government spokeswoman Sameera Rajab blamed the attacks on statements by some Shiite “religious figures who haven’t ceased inciting violence against civilians and police.”

She said authorities would show “zero tolerance” in its efforts to stamp out unrest.

In Monday’s violence, two Asian men were killed and a third person was injured as at least five homemade explosive devices were detonated, the Interior Ministry said. One man died after kicking a bomb and triggered an explosion, and the other died from injuries in a separate blast, officials said, but they did not immediately give names or nationalities.

Like all Gulf Arab countries, Bahrain has a large South Asian community of expatriate workers. …more

Two Saudi border guards killed in ambush, blasts reported in Bahrain capital
5 November, 2012 – Albawaba

Two Saudi border guards were killed on Monday at dawn in an ambush by armed elements affiliated to Al-Qaeda. The gunmen were trying to cross the southern border to Yemen, the Saudi authorities conveyed.

Eleven attackers were arrested, including one Yemeni, after an exchange of fire with border guards, according to the spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry. Among the attackers are 10 former Saudi prisoners involved in terrorism cases. According to a source quoted by Saudi “Al Arabiya” television, these former terrorists were recently released after being “rehabilitated.”

Simultaneously, five homemade explosive devices were detonated in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, killing two and wounding another. The authorities said it was terrorism. The Shiite majority in the monarchy, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, is supported by Iran. For nearly two years, Bahrain has been the scene of violent demonstrations, acts of sabotage, and repression. …source

The Opposition Tearerist that did this went to Prison

The al Khalifa Terrorist that did this walked free…

UN: Iran not cooperating on nuclear weapons probe
5 November, 2012 – By Edith M. Lederer – Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. nuclear chief said Monday that Iran is not cooperating with an investigation into suspected secret work on nuclear weapons.

Yukio Amano told the U.N. General Assembly that talks between the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran have intensified this year after an IAEA report in November 2011 said it had “credible information that Iran had carried out activities relevant to the development of a

nuclear explosive device,” he said.

“However, no concrete results have been achieved so far,” Amano said.

While the IAEA continues to verify that Iran’s declared nuclear material is not being diverted from peaceful purposes, “Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable us to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities,” Amano said.

“Therefore, we cannot conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities,” he said.

But the IAEA director general said “the agency is firmly committed to intensifying dialogue with Iran.”

“We will continue negotiations with Iran on a structured approach,” he said. “I hope we can reach agreement without further delay.”

Iran has repeatedly denied any interest in possessing nuclear arms, but the international community fears that Tehran may turn its peaceful uranium enrichment program toward weapons making – a concern that is growing as the government expands the number of machines it uses to enrich its stockpile of enriched uranium.

As those fears grow, so does concern that Israel could carry out its threats to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities before that nation reaches the bomb-making threshold.

Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee reiterated his country’s position, that it has a right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and rejected the claims in the IAEA report saying they are “not credible” and based on “forged reports” provided by Israel and the United States.

In his annual report to the world body, Amano said he also remains “seriously concerned” about North Korea’s nuclear program, calling its statements about uranium enrichment activities and the construction of a light water reactor “deeply troubling.”

…more

The S&M Election
by Chris Hedges – Common Dreams – 5 November, 2012

I learned at the age of 10, when I was shipped off to a New England boarding school where the hazing of younger boys was the principal form of recreation, that those who hunger for power are psychopathic bastards. The bullies in the forms above me, the sadistic masters on our dormitory floors, the deans and the headmaster would morph in later life into bishops, newspaper editors, college presidents, politicians, heads of state, business titans and generals. Those who revel in the ability to manipulate and destroy are demented and deformed individuals. These severely diminished and stunted human beings—think Bill and Hillary Clinton—shower themselves, courtesy of elaborate public relations campaigns and an obsequious press, with encomiums of piety, patriotism, devoted public service, honor, courage and vision, not to mention a lot of money. They are at best mediocrities and usually venal. I have met enough of them to know.(Illustration by Mr. Fish)

So it is with some morbid fascination that I watch Barack Obama, who has become the prime “dominatrix” of the liberal class, force us in this election to plead for more humiliation and abuse. Obama has carried out a far more egregious assault on our civil liberties, including signing into law Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), than George W. Bush. Section 1021(b)(2), which I challenged in federal court, permits the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens, strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military facilities. U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest struck down the law in September. The Obama administration immediately appealed the decision. The NDAA has been accompanied by use of the Espionage Act, which Obama has turned to six times in silencing whistle-blowers. Obama supported the FISA Amendment Act so government could spy on tens of millions of us without warrants. He has drawn up kill lists to exterminate those, even U.S. citizens, deemed by the ruling elite to be terrorists.

Obama tells us that we better lick his boots or we will face the brute down the hall, Mitt Romney. After all, we wouldn’t want the bad people to get their hands on these newly minted mechanisms of repression. We will, if we do not behave, end up with a more advanced security and surveillance state, the completion of the XL Keystone pipeline, unchecked pillage from Wall Street, environmental catastrophe and even worse health care. Yet we know on some level that once the election is over, Obama will, if he is re-elected, again betray us. This is part of the game. We dutifully assume our position. We cry out in holy terror. We promise to obey. And we are mocked as we watch promises crumble into dust.

As we are steadily stripped of power, we desire with greater and greater fervor to be victims and slaves. Our relationship to corporate power increasingly mirrors that of ancient religious cults. Lucian writes of the priests of Cybele who, whipped into frenzy, castrated themselves to honor the goddess. Women devotees cut off their breasts. We are not far behind.

“Anyone who wants to rule men first tries to humiliate them, to trick them out of their rights and their capacity for resistance, until they are as powerless before him as animals,” wrote Elias Canetti in “Crowds and Power.” “He uses them like animals and, even if he does not tell them so, in himself he always knows quite clearly that they mean just as little to him; when he speaks to his intimates he will call them sheep or cattle. His ultimate aim is to incorporate them into himself and to suck the substance out of them. What remains of them afterwards does not matter to him. The worse he has treated them, the more he despises them. When they are no more use at all, he disposes of them as he does excrement, simply seeing to it that they do not poison the air of his house.”

Our masters rely on our labor to make them wealthy, on our children for cannon fodder in war and on our collective chants for adulation. They would otherwise happily slip us rat poison. When they retreat into their inner sanctums, which they keep hidden from public view, they speak in the cold words of manipulation, power and privilege, words that expose their visions of themselves as entitled and beyond the reach of morality or law.

The elite have produced a few manuals on power. Walter Lippmann’s “Public Opinion,” Leo Strauss’ work and “Atlas Shrugged” by the third-rate novelist Ayn Rand express the elite’s deep contempt for the sans-culottes. These writers posit that the masses are incapable of responding rationally to the complexities of power. They celebrate the role of a tiny, controlling elite that skillfully uses propaganda and symbols to, as Lippmann wrote, “manufacture consent.” They call on the power elite to operate in secrecy. The elite’s systems of propaganda are designed to magnify emotion and destroy the capacity for critical thought. Kafka was right: The modern world has made the irrational rational.

“Crowds have always undergone the influence of illusions,” wrote Gustave Le Bon, one of the first pioneers of the study of mass psychology. “Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”

…more

Saudi Arabia confirms 2nd case of SARS-like virus
5 November, 2012 – Associated Press – The Daily Star

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry has confirmed that a second person in the kingdom has contracted a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to three the number of those sickened by it in the Gulf region in recent weeks.

The Ministry in a statement Monday said the unidentified patient was hospitalized with “pneumonia caused by the new virus known as novel Coronavirus.” It said the patient has since recovered from his pneumonia, adding that he had not traveled outside Riyadh. It did not say when, where, or how the person contracted the virus.

The germ is a coronavirus, from a family of viruses that cause the common cold, as well as SARS – the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed some 800 people, mostly in Asia, in a 2003 epidemic.
…source

David Cameron Under Fire Over Gulf Arms Deals With UAE, Saudi Arabia
The Huffington Post UK – 5 November, 2012

Saudi Arabia, David Cameron, Polls, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Gulf States, Arms Trade, Dubai Arms Deal, UAE, UK NEWS, Uk World, UK Politics News

The Prime Minister has been accused of acting like “a traveling salesman for the arms industry” as he begins a visit to Gulf states aimed at selling British-made jets.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph as he arrived in Dubai as part of a three-day tour of the Gulf and the Middle East, David Cameron said: “We do believe countries have a right to defend themselves.

“And we do believe Britain has important defence industries that employ over 300,000 people and so that sort of business is completely legitimate and right.”

Cameron has been open about his desire to sell arms to the Saudis, the UAE and Oman.

But anti-arms campaigners have taken aim at the prime minister for the deals done with states that routinely abuse human rights.

British arms have been in the centre of some of the bloodiest conflicts of the last few years, with weapons exported to Libya under Colonel Gaddafi and to Bahrain, where the government responded with extreme violence against anti-regime demonstrators.

Amnesty International UK’s Head of Policy and Government Affairs Allan Hogarth said: “Selling arms to countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE should only be considered if there are absolutely watertight guarantees over them not being used to commit human rights violations.

“Saudi Arabia has been the recipient of record-breaking arms deals involving the UK, yet these have been highly secretive and there’s been little or no follow-up over how the weaponry was used.

“For example, in 2009 the Saudi air force used UK-supplied Tornado fighter-bombers in attacks in Yemen which killed hundreds – possibly thousands – of civilians.

“In one attack conducted by Saudi forces on the town of al-Nadir in November 2009, so many were killed in just one extended family that witnesses say the family ‘had to create a cemetery for themselves’.

“More than two years ago we called for the UK government to urgently investigate Saudi Arabia’s involvement in this episode and meanwhile suspend any further arms supplies to Saudi Arabia. …more

PNP-NYPD agreement will lead to further US intervention, rights abuses under Aquino regime–CPP
5 November, 20120 – Signal fire

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounced the memorandum of agreement between the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the New York Police Department (NYPD) signed last Wednesday as “part of heightening US government intervention in the Philippines.” The CPP further said that “the agreement with the US NYPD, one of the most notorious fascist police organizations in the world, can only lead to worse human rights abuses by police operatives under the Aquino regime,” said the CPP. The MoA was signed by PNP Chief Nicanor Bartolome and the head of the NYPD’s Singapore satellite office Lt. Gustavo Gutierrez. It purportedly serves to advance “cooperation in addressing transnational crimes” and “capacity building and training” between the PNP and the NYPD. According to information earlier released by the PNP, the NYPD will open a satellite office inside the PNP’s general headquarters in Camp Crame.

“The PNP-NYPD MoA will only serve as an additional legal cover for the US government’s heightening intervention in the Philippines. It will lead to more extensive and intrusive intelligence and other types of operations by US police and military agents in the country,” said the CPP. “Even before the MoA, US police and federal agents have already been operating in the Philippines clandestinely with the cooperation of the local police.” The CPP pointed out that political prisoners detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame were able to uncover the presence of agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) maintaining their own offices within the camp and in a condominium unit nearby.

Several Indonesian nationals accused of being “terrorists” and arrested by US agents in Indonesia and Malaysia have been renditioned by the US government and given false Filipino identities at the behest of the FBI to justify their detention at Camp Crame. This is in violation of Philippine national sovereignty and the Indonesian detainees’ human rights, added the CPP. “The NYPD is notorious for being a fascist tool of suppression against the American people,” said the CPP. “Recently, the NYPD was employed in the suppression of protest actions at Zucotti Park near Wall St. by American workers, students and ordinary people against the pro-big monopoly policies of the American government.”

“In investigations carried out by human rights and law groups, the NYPD was found to have used excessive police force, and guilty of hundreds of other violations, including unjustified arrests, abuse of journalists, unlawful closure of sidewalks and parks to protesters, and pervasive surveillance of peaceful activists, said the CPP. “Following the pattern of its new partner, the PNP is bound to become even more brutal in dealing with protests, urban poor anti-demolition barricades and other mass actions,” said the CPP.

Communist Party of the Philippines November 04, 2012

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The Irrelevance of Arab-Americans in the US Presidential Election
By: Thabit Al-Arabi – 5 November, 2012 – Al Akhbar

When it comes to the US presidential election, the Arab-American community is completely irrelevant. Yet every four years a small clique of Washington-based, self-appointed representatives of Arab-Americans try to convince people otherwise. They overstate the potential impact of an Arab-American electorate on the results of the US presidential election, hoping to sell this unlikely story to Arabs in the homeland.

The claims these individuals make range from simple exaggerations about the potential of Arab-American voters to influence election results to outlandish assertions that Arab-Americans are the one ethnic group within the US that can determine the outcome of the presidential election.

Each election cycle the ADC declares the Arab-American community has finally reached the stage where it can play a role in determining who will be the next US president.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a civil rights organization that describes itself as the largest grassroots Arab-American organization in the US, holds meetings prior to each presidential election urging Arab-American participation in the electoral process. The ADC employs common American clichés like, “Every vote counts,” or, “Make your voice heard.” Each election cycle the ADC declares the Arab-American community has finally reached the stage where it can play a role in determining who will be the next US president.

James Zogby, a regular fixture of the Arab-American scene for decades, helped establish the ADC before opening his own one-man shop, the Arab American Institute (AAI), which he describes as a “national leadership organization.” Each election cycle, the omnipresent Zogby gives us a strikingly similar pep talk about Arab-American political empowerment and a community “coming of age” under his guidance and leadership.

Both the ADC and AAI have no significant support base within the Arab-American community, and maintain much closer relations with the embassies of Arab Gulf states, which provide them with generous support.

Such grandiose claims are more about this elite subset of organizations seeking acceptance within mainstream American politics than providing any objective assessment of the electoral influence of Arab-Americans. Considering this agenda, it becomes impossible for these organizations to challenge any of the basic assumptions of the American political system. These career driven individuals operate within an American political system that leaves no room for any deviation from the strictly defined parameters of acceptable political discourse. What we are left with is a small group of “activists” driven by personal interests.

American presidential elections are quite a spectacle, but American democracy is a fiction. Even before a corporation was granted personhood and huge corporate campaign contributions became protected speech, the corporate elite had gained effective control of the economic and political institutions. Americans were left with a democratic façade. US presidential elections functioned more as a public ritual designed to perpetuate the illusion of democracy.

Despite this corporate domination of all economic and political life in the US, every four years we find a few Arab-Americans eager to participate in the carefully choreographed election charade.

Let’s assume that the US presidential elections are indeed meaningful and the victory of one candidate over the other will lead to implementing different policies. Let’s further assume that Arab-Americans represent a collective political unit that has coalesced around a set of common concerns. What potential impact can an Arab-American electorate have on the election? To answer this question we need to quickly review Arab-American demographics.

According to the US Census Bureau there are at least 1.9 million Americans of Arab descent out of a population of nearly 313 million people. They live in all 50 states but heavily concentrated in New York, Michigan, and California with smaller clusters in Florida, Texas, and Ohio. One million of the 1.9 million Americans of Arab descent are third and fourth generation descendants of earlier waves of Arab immigration to the US beginning in the late 19th century. Although included in the 1.9 million, many of these people do not identify as Arab-American. Their ethnic heritage, if they’re aware of it, doesn’t play any role in their political socialization or consciousness.

According to the official immigration data, about 900,000 Arab-Americans arrived in the US as immigrants over the last two decades. This group does indeed maintain its Arab identity and, despite its diversity of opinions, shares a common set of concerns, such as growing Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism within the US, as well as a barbaric US foreign policy towards the Middle East. Of this group of less than one million living in a country of almost 313 million people, many are ineligible to vote due to age or immigration status. With such a tiny percentage of the population dispersed across different states, one simply has to overlay this Arab-American demographic map atop the US Electoral College map to understand the insignificance of the Arab-American electorate.

Despite this corporate domination of all economic and political life in the US, every four years we find a few Arab-Americans eager to participate in the carefully choreographed election charade.
In this year’s US presidential election, for example, New York, Texas, and California, three states with a relatively high concentration of Arab-Americans, will play no role in determining the outcome of the election.

Of the few swing states, Michigan is one in which there is a relatively large Arab-American presence. However, in order for this community to have even a minor impact in Michigan, it must be mobilized around a common set of issues. This has not happened.

To say that Arab-Americans are irrelevant in the US presidential election is not to say the irrelevance of Arab-Americans to the election results is necessarily a bad thing or that the election results themselves are relevant.

The remarkable consistency of the American regime’s domestic and foreign policy makes clear it isn’t. For Americans, real change on the domestic level will not come from within the electoral process. A change of US foreign policy towards the Arab world can only be forced by revolutionary change from within the Arab world itself. In the meantime the results of the US presidential election, much like Arab-American voters, will remain irrelevant. …source

Wrong fatwas trigger terror attacks in Bahrain
5 November, 2012 – twentyfoursevennews.com

The Minister of State for Information Affairs and Government Spokesperson, Sameera Ebrahim bin Rajab, said that the new spate of attacks in Bahrain were result of inciting religious hatred by some religious fatwas delivered by some disgruntled elements in the society.

She condemned five terrorist explosions on Monday in Gudaibiya and Adliya areas of the Capital, Manama, by homemade bombs, killing two Asian residents and injuring another, currently in a serious condition.

The minister condemned those terrorist acts aiming to terrorize citizens and residents, and to destabilize the country, pointing out that these terrorist operations are due to religious fatwas issued by some religious figures who haven’t shunned inciting violence against civilians and policemen.

Rajab confirmed that international law requires countries to protect the security of citizens and residents on its territory, and called for zero tolerance in the application of the law, to control the religious speech of religious figures, and hold accountable anyone involved with those terrorist acts directly or indirectly, noting that this is the core duty of the government bodies in all countries of the world.

The minister said it was unfortunate that those actions targeted residents in the Kingdom of Bahrain, who have helped, and are still helping to enhance the economic development in Bahrain for decades. …source

Bahrain: Arbitrary detention of human rights defender Mr Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafdha
5 Novemebr, 2012 – Frontline Defenders

On 2 November 2012, prominent human rights defender Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafdha was arrested in the village of Diraz on charges of rioting and participating in illegal gathering.

The charges were brought in connection to a protest that took place the same day in Diraz and to which the human rights defender denied participating. He is currently detained in Hooth Al-Jaff Prison, in the Governorate of Muharraq. Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafdha is the acting vice president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). BCHR is one of the three shortlisted nominees for the 2012 Martin Ennals Award.

On 2 November 2012, Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafdha went to the village of Diraz following reports of the violent dispersal of a protest by security forces. Once in Diraz, he was arrested outside the home of a man who had sustained injuries during the protest’s dispersal and whose case he intended to document. Following the arrest, Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafdha was questioned at Al-Badee police station about the purpose of his presence there. When fellow human rights defender Zainab Al-Khawaja arrived to the police station to collect him, later that day, she was told that he was not permitted to leave yet. He was then informed that he would be held overnight and would be taken to the Public Prosecution office the next morning. On 3 November, the Public Prosecution office ordered his detention for a period of seven days to allow completion of the investigation.

Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafdha’s arrest occurred three days after the BCHR published a report highlighting the climate of impunity for grave human rights violations committed by security officials. …source

Bomb Blast in Bahrain, al-Muhafda Detention Extended
5 November, 2012 – POMED

Two foreign workers were killed in the capitol Manama after five explosions went of November 5. Bahrain’s Prime Minister described the acts as “heinous” crimes, while the country’s top police officer called them “acts of terror.” Matar Matar, a representative for the opposition al-Wefaq party, expressed doubt that opposition activists were behind the attacks. “This incident is strange – why would anyone target workers?” Matar said. Michael Stephens, researcher with the Royal United Services Institute in Qatar, highlighted “increasing evidence that extreme anti-government elements have become radicalized as a result of the slow pace of economic reforms, and political stagnation.”

Meanwhile, Bahrain extended the detention of human rights activist Sayed Yousif al-Muhafda for participating in a demonstration. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, in collaboration with International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture released a letter urging the release of al-Muhafda. Additionally, two activists were sentenced after posting remarks on Twitter “defaming” King Hamad bin Isa al-Thani. One defendant was given a one-month jail term, the other was given a four-month sentence, and a third defendant was sentenced to six months last week on the same charges. …source

Backing up rhetoric with action in Bahrain
By Stephen McInerney – 4 November, 2012 – Washington Post

Stephen McInerney is executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy.

“Our challenge in a country like Bahrain,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last November, is that the United States “has many complex interests. We’ll always have to walk and chew gum at the same time.” The growing problem is that the United States does plenty of “walking” — maintaining our strategic alliance with the Gulf kingdom in the short term — but little or no “chewing,” or taking meaningful steps to spur the political reforms needed to preserve Bahrain as an ally in the long term.

A late September vote on Bahrain’s nominee for the advisory committee of the U.N. Human Rights Council gave Washington an easy opening. In a letter to Clinton early that month, 14 nongovernmental organizations, including the Project on Middle East Democracy, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House, urged the United States to oppose the candidacy in light of Bahrain’s egregious record on human rights.

The nominee, Saeed Mohamed al-Faihani, has been a career official in Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry whose recent tenure as undersecretary for human rights coincided with the government’s brutal suppression of the country’s civilian uprising. Faihani repeatedly denied the government’s countless human rights violations, including torture of political prisoners and violent crackdowns on peaceful protests. His statements directly contradicted the findings of the government’s own Commission of Inquiry and well-documented reports by international human rights organizations.

Although Faihani resigned from his government post — days before the U.N. committee vote to meet eligibility requirements — his previous statements and blatant disregard for human rights in Bahrain gave the United States reason to question his qualifications.

Instead, the U.S. delegation was silent, and Faihani was elected by acclamation.

Bahrain quickly pointed to the election as an endorsement of the kingdom’s human rights record. King Hamad called the vote a “recognition of [Bahrain’s] democratic and political record” and evidence that Bahrain is “an oasis of human rights, co-existence, tolerance and love.” Human Rights Minister Salah Ali — Faihani’s former boss — called the unanimous total “a vote of confidence for the kingdom’s serious steps and positive role in protecting human rights.” Washington did nothing to dispute these interpretations.

The United States joined the Human Rights Council in 2009 promising to fight against “the pernicious machinations of countries seeking to obscure and deny their abuses” through the council. When Washington helped eject Libya from the council in 2011, Clinton said it was “clear that governments that turn their guns on their own people have no place on the Human Rights Council.”

More recently, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice highlighted successful U.S. “efforts to prevent human rights abusers, such as Iran, Syria and Sudan from winning election to the Human Rights Council.” Faihani’s position on the council’s advisory committee compromises the increased legitimacy that this work has bestowed on the council and encourages the widespread perception that the United States will confront human rights violations by Iran or Syria while ignoring the abuses of allies such as Bahrain.

A single vote against Faihani may not have kept him off the committee, nor changed the human rights situation in Bahrain overnight, but it would have demonstrated U.S. seriousness toward both the council and accountability in Bahrain.

In recent weeks, Bahrain’s government has banned demonstrations of any size and upheld lengthy prison sentences given to teachers and medics for expressing their political views. It continues to crack down violently against daily protests. Washington has repeatedly expressed “concern” about the state of human rights in Bahrain, but it is increasingly clear that such statements have little or no impact.

While the Faihani vote was Washington’s latest missed opportunity to take a stand, other openings remain. The U.S. administration could limit military assistance and training to Bahrain; sanction Bahraini officials responsible for gross human rights violations; more strictly enforce the rights requirements of the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement; or call for a special session on Bahrain at the U.N. Human Rights Council. Any of these steps would signal that Washington is finally willing to walk and chew gum, backing up its rhetoric with action.

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Two Bahrainis jailed for ‘defaming’ king on Twitter
5 November, 2012 – Agence France Presse

DUBAI: A Bahraini criminal court on Monday sentenced to jail two Bahraini activists for posting on Twitter remarks deemed insulting to the king, their lawyers said.

The two defendants appeared in court and one was handed a one-month jail sentence while the other was given a four-month sentence for allegedly “defaming” King Hamad bin Isa Al-Thani, the lawyers said on condition of anonymity.

A third defendant facing the same charges was sentenced to sixth months in prison last Thursday, the lawyers added.

They were part of a group of four men arrested on October 17 on charges of “defaming” the king — an accusation which they staunchly denied when the trial opened on October 22.

The verdict against the fourth member is expected later this month.

Regular demonstrations have shaken Bahrain since it crushed a Shiite-led uprising against the ruling Sunni regime in March last year.

The kingdom came under strong criticism from international rights groups over the deadly crackdown.

Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet and strategically situated across the Gulf from Shiite Iran, has continued to see sporadic demonstrations, though mostly outside the capital Manama.

According to the International Federation for Human Rights, a total of 80 people have been killed in Bahrain since the violence began on February 14, 2011.

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