Grand Mufti of the Lebanese Republic, Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani condemned on Saturday Achrafiyeh blast that targeted the head of the intelligence branch of the ISF, General Wissam al-Hassan.
20 October, 2012 – Moqawama.org

In his statement to the Lebanese people, Qabbani highlighted that “the statehood is led by the blood of the martyrs in Lebanon while the hand of treachery and criminality still lurks this country. ”
As he slammed the perpetrators of this crime, the Mufti confirmed that “the goals of this crime are clear, the people who benefit from it are known and the crime is a murder of all Lebanon,” he said.

In parallel, he prayed that God protects Lebanon and its people from more dangerous coming incidents.
Qabbani called on the Lebanese to maintain calm and wisdom, so that the martyrdom of General Hassan “proves the immunity of Lebanon in face of discord.”
“General martyr Wissam Hassan had foiled several criminal plans, he protected the national formula so that Lebanon remains a country of justice,” he viewed.

He further assured that “martyr Hassan’s blood will not go in vain and the criminal will be punished sooner or later. ”
“We call on political, judicial and security authorities to take part in revealing the parties involved in the killing,” the mufti concluded. …source

Shocked by Ashrafiyeh Terrorist Crime: Hizbullah Denounces Blast, Urges Lebanese to Foil Conspiracy
20 October, 2012 – Moqawama.org

Commenting on the blast, which targeted Ashrafiyeh region in Beirut, Hizbullah issued the following statement:

Hizbullah expresses its great shock by this tragic terrorist crime that hit Ashrafiyeh area and killed and wounded dozens of innocent people.

As Hizbullah condemns this terrorist blast, it calls the competent authorities to mobilize all their capacities to unveil the perpetrators and hand-cut those who seek to tamper with the homeland and people’s security.

In parallel, Hizbullah urges all Lebanese parties, political forces and citizens to foil any conspiracy against the security of the country and the safety of its citizens. …source

Hezbollah Hedges Its Bets on Assad
By Giorgio Cafiero – 19 October, 2012 – FPIF

When the Arab Awakening began last year, Hezbollah’s leadership expressed solidarity with revolutionary movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain. However, this support was not extended to those demanding political reform in neighboring Syria.

This double standard must be understood in the context of Damascus’ relationship with Lebanon’s Shiite “Party of God.” As Bashar Al-Assad’s regime has been a vital strategic ally of Hezbollah that provides it with logistical, economic, and military support, the prospects of regime change in Damascus gravely alarm Hezbollah.

In a tone of jubilation, some of Hezbollah’s adversaries have asserted that the Arab Awakening will constitute the Shiite organization’s demise. These voices, however, underestimate Hezbollah’s legitimacy among Lebanon’s largest sect as a provider of social services and a force of resistance against Israel and the United States.

The Party of God will not disappear even if the Assad regime does. Nonetheless, if the Ba’athist order in Damascus falls, Hezbollah will be compelled to operate in a more challenging environment, both domestically and regionally.

However, a post-Assad order in Damascus will likely continue to maintain cooperative ties with Hezbollah to ensure Syria’s strategic posture vis-à-vis Israel. Randa Slim, a Lebanese scholar at the Middle East Institute, summarized this point: “Irrespective of the makeup of the new Syrian regime, absent a peace agreement between Syria and Israel, this new Syrian regime will have to rely on Hezbollah’s military arsenal as an important component of its deterrent strategy.”

Sectarian Spillover

Lebanon has long been susceptible to political turmoil in the broader Levant. Numerous events in recent years—including Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003, Rafik Al-Hariri’s assassination in 2005, the Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, the Lebanese Army’s bloody confrontation with Fatah al-Islam militants in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in 2007, and Hezbollah’s incursion into West Beirut in 2008—inflamed Lebanon’s sectarian tensions. Nevertheless, the fragile peace in Lebanon survived each dramatic development. However, analysts have raised concerns about Lebanon returning to civil war if the spillover effect from Syria continues or intensifies. …more

Bahrain Prosecutes Human Rights Activist for his UN Work
18 October, 2012 – CIHRS

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) strongly denounce the arbitrary arrest, detention, and politically motivated charges brought against human rights defender Mohamed Al Maskati in Bahrain.

Yesterday, 17 October 2012, Mohamed Al Maskati, a well-known human rights activist and president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), appeared before Bahrain’s public prosecution on charges of participating in illegal protests. A day prior, he had been summoned to Al Hoora police station, where he was kept overnight before being referred to the prosecutor’s office. Although he has since been released, the prosecution may raise his case again at any time, which we view as a clear form of intimidation against the activist.

We fear that the arrest of Mr. Maskati and the charges leveled against him for taking part in “illegal protests” and “gatherings” are an attempt to intimidate and punish him for his engagement with the UN Human Rights Council, and, as such, constitute a reprisal for cooperating with the United Nations.

The arrest of Mr. Maskati follows his participation in the 21st session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva one month ago in September, 2012, during which time the activist received a number of threats via Twitter and in local Bahraini newspapers for his participation at the UN, including warnings of legal measures against him upon his return to Bahrain. From the period between 10-18 September, Mr. Maskati also received dozens of anonymous phone calls threatening his life and the safety of his family in Bahrain.

On 13 September, Maskati delivered an oral intervention before the Geneva council, informing its members of the acts of reprisals to which he was subjected for his participation at the session. He stated, “I have received more than a dozen anonymous phone calls threatening my life and the safety of my family for my engagement here. Nonetheless, I have chosen to speak today because my case is not unique.” …more

Steps Towards Greater Unity in Syrian Opposition an Opportunity for U.S. Policy
18 October, 2012 – Human Rights First

Washington, DC- In response to an announcement by rebel leaders on the formation of a joint command structure to coordinate ongoing efforts to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad Human Rights First today urged the U.S. government to welcome and encourage steps towards greater unity among these forces. A conference is scheduled to take place on November 4 in Qatar to further advance unity and cooperation between opposition forces. The meeting will include the “Friends of Syria,” an international group of countries including the United States that convenes periodically to address the crisis in Syria.

“The U.S. government should welcome this progress towards unity, inclusiveness and cooperation in the Syrian opposition,” said Human Rights First’s Sadia Hameed. “It should seize this opportunity to express its readiness, in cooperation with its allies in the Friends of Syria, to provide more support to a united Syrian opposition that is able to demonstrate capacity to exert control over military forces on the ground in Syria. In doing so foreign governments supplying weapons to the opposition must recognize that they bear as much responsibility for the prevention of atrocities as the fighters on the ground.”

Currently weapons are reaching opposition forces from a variety of sources, including private religious sources that are empowering extremist groups. By being able to deal directly with a more centralized authority, supporters of the opposition in the Friends of Syria, including the United States, could take practical steps to ensure that weapons supplied to the opposition do not fall into the hands of extremists and are not used to carry out sectarian killings or other mass atrocities.

The organization noted the Friends of Syria, could provide an incentive for the Syrian opposition to unify by linking the provision of military support to clear criteria, including pledges by opposition forces not to engage in war crimes, sectarian violence or other violations. This would be attractive to political leaders and fighters on the ground. By adhering to these criteria the Syrian opposition will develop the capacity to rule a united Syria, protecting the rights of all Syrians, after the eventual fall of the regime. This criteria also contributes toward due diligence requirements of foreign governments arming the opposition, who are obligated to ensure that any material support they provide will not enable atrocities in Syria or elsewhere. Such due diligence measures will be what set the Friends of Syria, apart from those countries currently arming the regime and knowingly enabling mass atrocities in Syria. …more

Mexico: Torture Reports Triple, Group Finds
By ELISABETH MALKIN – 11 October, 2012 – NYT

Amnesty International said Thursday that reports of torture and mistreatment by Mexico’s federal police and military forces had tripled from 2008 to 2011, evidence of an “alarming increase” in the use of torture by the authorities at every level of the drug war. Although the government has pledged to reduce torture, the report found that “the record of prevention, investigation and punishment has been extremely poor.” Despite judicial reforms, Mexican courts still accept evidence and confessions obtained through torture, which the report said encourages its continued use. The United Nations Committee Against Torture is scheduled to study Mexico’s compliance with international treaties next month. …source

Man arrested after plotting Federal Reserve bomb, authorities say
From Susan Candiotti – CNN – 18 October, 2012

New York (CNN) — Federal authorities running a sting operation arrested a 21-year-old Bangladeshi man, who came to the U.S. on a student visa and was allegedly planning to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with what he believed was a 1,000-pound bomb, officials said.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis was detained Wednesday after an alleged attempt to detonate the device, which was inert and part of an elaborate investigation by federal authorities and NYPD detectives.

Prosecutors say Nafis was apparently motivated by al Qaeda and traveled to the United States in January under the pretext of attending college in Missouri in order carry out “a terrorist attack on U.S. soil” and to recruit members to form a terrorist cell.

Accused 9/11 mastermind says U.S. tortured in name of national security

It’s not clear whether Nafis maintained al Qaeda ties, but authorities say he apparently claimed that the plot was his own, and that it was his sole motivation for the U.S. trip.

One of the people Nafis apparently contacted was an FBI source to whom he proposed multiple targets, including a high-ranking U.S. official as well as the New York Stock Exchange, authorities said.

At one point, the suspect contemplated President Barack Obama as a target, but that idea never progressed, a U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation said.

While the details surrounding the suspected plot remain murky, prosecutors say Nafis indicated that he wanted to “destroy America” by going after the nation’s financial institutions and ultimately settled on the landmark bank.

The undercover agent, authorities say, also provided 20 bags of 50 pounds each of purported explosives to Nafis, who then stored the material in a warehouse in preparation for the strike.

They say Nafis further divulged a “Plan B” that involved carrying out a suicide attack should police thwart his initial effort.

Packing his van with what he apparently believed were explosives, Nafis then allegedly traveled with the undercover agent to Manhattan’s financial district, attached a detonator to the material and recorded a video statement in a nearby hotel. …more

Probe Finds Police Fusion Centers Smother Freedom Waste Millions
17 October, 2012 – NOVA News – By Mark Anderson

The post 9-11 network of law-enforcement fusion centers set up in every state to help fight the “war on terror,” funded through a grants process Congress set up,is getting terrible grades in a 141-page report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

That panel reviewed more than 600 unclassified reports over a one-year period, concluding that most of the operations carried out, after the expenditure of well over $1B, had virtuallynothing to do with terrorism.

“The subcommittee investigation could identify no reporting which uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot,” the October 3 report says, in part.

“It’s troubling that the very ‘fusion’ centers . . . designed to share information . . . have become part of the problem. Instead of strengthening our counter-terrorism efforts, they have too often wasted money and stepped on Americans’ civil liberties,” said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). Coburn initiated the investigation that resulted in this report, called “Federal Support for and Involvement in State and Local Fusion Centers.”

In other words, the United States has a mega-expensive anti-terror apparatus that really doesn’t fight terrorism but becomes another self-perpetuating bureaucracy that tries to smother freedom.

And yet this startling Senate report was followed by something perhaps even more eye-opening—the October 8 release of a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligencereport, entitled, “Investigative Report on the U.S. National Security Issues Posed by Chinese Telecommunications Companies Huawei and ZTE.” So, while the U.S. security bureaucracy has been looking for the slightest signs of pending sabotage and terror from domestic patriots and Muslims, China has continued making major inroads into the United States.

The House report follows an 11-month investigation into the business practices of Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp., two of the world’s largest makers of telecommunications equipment. These firms develop and sell telecom gear like routers, handsets and switches. The report recommends that Huawei and ZTE be excluded from expanding their businesses in the U.S. because of “cyber-espionage risks and connections to the Chinesegovernment.”

The House report notes a threat is posed to U.S. national security “by vulnerabilities in the telecommunications supply chain . . . given the country’s reliance on interdependent critical infrastructure systems . . . and the growing dependence all consumers have on a small group of equipment providers,” although Congress, as usual, seems tone deaf to the fact that its financial and trade policies are tailor-made for monopolies to take root.

Nor has Congress said much, if anything, about Foreign Trade Zones—entire Chinese industrial and residential communities transplanted into Idaho and elsewhere in the United States, while much of America’s original industrial base has been dismantled and “parted out” to China and many other foreign locales. Some of America’s industry is rebounding, but it’s a long, hard process.

Among other important things, the House report obtained by AMERICAN FREE PRESS underscores the sheer fragility of an over-centralized system developed without regard to local control by individuals and communities, even when handy, clean technology that would make the average home or factory less reliant on the grid for electricity is more accessibleand more affordable than ever before.

“The risk posed to U.S. national-security and economic interests by cyber-threats is an undeniable priority,” the House report warns. It further states:

First, the country’s reliance on telecommunications infrastructure includes more than consumers’ use of computer systems. Rather, multiple critical infrastructure systems depend on information transmission through telecommunications systems —[including] electric power grids; banking and finance systems; natural gas, oil and water systems; and rail and shipping channels; each of which depend on computerized control systems. Further, system inter-dependencies among these critical infrastructures greatly increase the risk that failure in one system will cause failures or disruptions in multiple . . . systems. Therefore, a disruption in telecommunication networks can have devastating effects on all aspects of modern American living, causing shortages and stoppages that ripple throughout society,”observes the report. “[China’s] cyber- and human-enabled espionage efforts often exhibit sophisticated technological capabilities,” and these capabilities include inserting “malicious hardware or software implants into Chinese-manufactured telecommunications components and systems marketed to the United States. …more

Iran to reach self-sufficiency producing radioisotope drugs
By Trend – October, 2012

Iran will become self-sufficient in producing radioisotope drugs in the next calendar year which will begin on March 21, 2013, ISNA quoted the National Security Committee spokesman Hossein Naqavi Hosseini as saying.

Once the first phase of the Arak nuclear power plant comes on stream, the country will be self-sufficient in producing radioisotope drugs for over one million patients suffering from various types of cancers and brain tumours, he noted.

In August, deputy head of the Iranian Ministry of Health for Research and Technology Mostafa Qanei said Iran plans to unveil six new homemade hi-tech medicines in the next few months, the Fars News Agency reported.

The official further stressed that the new drugs are as effective as the foreign versions of the medication, but cheaper.

In a landmark pharmaceutical progress, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) announced in January that Iranian scientists have managed to synthesise two new types of radioisotope medicines to treat malignant types of cancer.

“Iranian scientists and researchers at the AEOI’s Nuclear Science and Technology Research Centre succeeded in producing two new radioisotope drugs for the first time to cure malignant cancers,” AEOI spokesman Hamid Khadem Qaemi said. …source

Saudi troops carry out pre-dawn raid in Awamiyah
17 October, 2012 – PressTV

Saudi Arabian troops have opened fire in the town of Awamiyah in the kingdom’s Eastern Province, spreading panic among people.

The incident occurred around 3 a.m. local time (00:00 GMT) on Tuesday when regime forces in armored vehicles started to patrol the streets around the town, the Al Jazeera Magazine reported.

Many were panicked after they were woken up by a sudden launch of gunfire by the troops who went on a shooting spree.

A number of civilian cars were damaged in the incident, which drew condemnation from human rights groups.

Since February 2011, Saudi Arabia has experienced anti-regime demonstrations on an almost regular basis in oil-rich Eastern Province, mainly in Awamiyah and the town of Qatif.

The protesters are calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination as well as an end to the despotic rule of the Al Saud regime.

Anti-regime sentiments hiked after November 2011, when the Al Saud regime forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province. Security forces have also arrested dozens of people including prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr.

The crackdowns have been condemned by various human rights organizations.

Human Rights Watch has said the Saudi regime “routinely represses expression critical of the government.”

On Tuesday, Amnesty International called on Saudi authorities to stop excessive use of force “to stifle people’s attempts to protest against the widespread use of arbitrary detention in the country.”

According to the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, there are about 30,000 political prisoners in the kingdom.
…source

Arab Spring fallout: More sophisticated weapons in Gaza
By Talal Abu Rahman and Sara Sidner – 18 October, 2012

Jerusalem (CNN) — Militant sources in Gaza tell CNN that a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile was used to try to shoot down an Israeli helicopter flying east of Gaza last week.

It is significant because it is the first time a weapon of this type has been used against an Israeli aircraft, though the missile did not manage to hit its target. Hamas, which controls Gaza, has not commented on the incident.

The weapon is said to be a Strela SA-7 and was smuggled in from the Sinai desert but originally came from Libya, according to a source in Gaza.

Libya has been grappling with a huge number of unaccounted for weaponry since the revolution that toppled its dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, and left everything from mines and mortars to anti-aircraft missiles in the hands of its citizenry. No group has taken responsibility for firing the surface-to-air missile from Gaza.

So far the Israeli military has declined comment and has not publicly acknowledged the provocation.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior Israeli Army official told CNN there has been a significant change in the kind of weaponry being used by militant groups in Gaza since the Arab Spring. The weapons are more powerful and sophisticated than have been used in times past.

In the past week, there has been an increase in rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel and subsequent air strikes by Israel on targets in Gaza. …more

Bahrain: Judicial crackdown continues on human rights defenders and activists
17 October, 2012 – Gulf Center for Human Rights

17 October 2012- The Gulf centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and Bahrain Centre for human rights (BCHR) express their deepest concern over the escalated judicial crackdown on activists as several human rights defenders and political activists have been summoned for interrogation or arrested in the past few days, due to their legitimate peaceful activism for rights and democracy. The GCHR and BCHR believe that the silence of the international community on the continued judicial harassment and detention of some activist is leading to escalation to a wider group of activists and an immediate action is required to put an end to these violations.

On 16 October 2012, human rights defender and president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights Mohamed Al-Masktai has been summoned for interrogation at Al-Naem police station. He was then arrested and kept in custody to be brought the following day before the public prosecution office on charges of “rioting and participating in an illegal gathering.” in reference to the Friday protest in Manama (12 October 2012) entitled “Self determination”. On 17 Oct 2012 he was released after interrogation.

Human rights defender Mohamed Al-Masktai has been active in documenting and reporting the violations committed by the Bahraini authorities in recent months. In September 2012 he has been subjected to intimidation campaign as he received more than a dozen anonymous phone calls threatening his life and the safety of his family, which followed an oral intervention he delivered at the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, during a panel discussion focused on intimidations and reprisals, where he informed the (HRC) about the massive intimidation campaign against him.

On 16 October 2012, human rights defender Nader Abdulemam was summoned for interrogation at the public prosecution office. At the time of writing this appeal Nader Abdulemam has not appeared at the public prosecution office as yet.

In addition to her previous 13 plus lawsuits, activist and human rights defender Zainab Al-Khawaja was summoned again for a new case that includes the charge of “insulting a police officer”. The case goes back to 6 May 2012, however it has been activated just now and a trial was scheduled on 17 October 2012, but postponed to 2 November 2012 in order to summon Al-Khawaja.

Al-Khawaja was recently released on 3 October 2012 after she spent two months imprisonment sentence on the charge of “ripping photo of king of Bahrain”. She is expecting verdicts on several cases in the coming weeks.

On 16 October 2012, the court refused to release leading human rights defender Nabeel Rajab; during a session of his appeal trial against 3 year imprisonment sentence which has he received on charges of “participating in illegal gatherings” and “calling for gatherings over social media”.

In addition, the court refused to provide assistance to allow foreigner witnesses to enter Bahrain and testify on behalf of Rajab. On 15 October 2012, Stephanie David, a representative from FIDH has been denied entry to Bahrain to testify for Rajab, as she was required to provide an authorization from the court. Rajab’s lawyers objected to the manipulation of evidences and the trial records. A paragraph was included in the previous session log, although it was not discussed during the session, and a CD which included videos showing Rajab participating in various events and demos, has disappeared from the case records. This CD was provided by the public prosecution to convict Rajab, but the lawyers found it was evidence of the peaceful nature of his activities. The next session of trial will be on 8 Nov 2012. …more

In the midst of disinformation campaigns on the crisis in Syria – largely based on nameless witnesses giving indeterminate figures – Ammar Bagdach, secretary general of the Syrian Communist Party, shared with Cuba’s Granma International a reality far removed from many of the biased media versions.

Interview with Ammar Bagdach, secretary general of the Syrian Communist Party
Voltaire Network – Havana (Cuba) – 15 October, 2012

Syrian Communist leader Ammar Bagdach was interviewed by Granma International in Havana, Cuba. He made it clear that Syria is in the throws of an imperialist plot aimed at regime change.

Granma: What have been the Syrian CP’s principal tasks since the crisis erupted?

Ammar Bagdach: In the first place, the struggle to preserve Syria’s national independence, sovereignty and anti-imperialist patriotic line, and for the interests and demands of the most disfavored popular masses.

There is another very important task, above all given the situation imposed on us, the defense of national production. We always implement the great slogan held high by the historic leader of the Party, Khaled Bagdach: defense of the homeland and defense of the bread of the people.

Our Party is undertaking a very important mobilizing role with the people in order to expose the nature of the conspiracy mounted against us. The initial mass mobilizations which took place last year outside the embassies of the major powers, were organized by and had the key participation of our Party. Outside the diplomatic headquarters of France, the people made it clear that they have not forgotten the crimes committed against our country by French colonialism. We held up a placard with General de Gaulle’s phrase, “It is illusory to believe that Syria can be broken.”

Granma: What has been the impact on the country of the measures adopted by the government in the wake of the crisis?

AB: Many measures have been adopted to guarantee the extension of democratic liberties, the most important being the one which repealed martial law. Moreover, the [political] parties law was proclaimed and very advanced press legislation. Our Party has fought for many years for the restoration of Syrian nationality to those Kurds deprived of it as the result of the exceptional census undertaken by the reactionary government in 1962. There are close to one million Kurds in Syria and the majority of them have their nationality, but it was restored to 136,000 Kurds who didn’t have it. A new Constitution was declared and some analysts consider that the most significant aspect of it is the modification of Article 8, which established that the head of state had to belong to the Ba’ath Party.

The majority of the democratic measures adopted and reforms undertaken were included in the Syrian CP program, which strongly called for their adoption.

Granma: The Human Rights Council passed a resolution containing a censure motion against Damascus for the Houla tragedy and has extended by six months the mandate of the Investigative Commission in Syria. What is your assessment of this and the role of Russia, China and the UN in this conflict?

AB: In relation to the Houla massacre, the information in the hands of the Communist Party in the region is that it was not perpetrated by government forces, but by insurgents, and they did it three days before the issue was discussed in the Security Council in order to put pressure on the organization.

The role of Russia and China has been positive in relation to the Syrian crisis; they are defending their geostrategic interests, taking into account the tremendous pressure the United States is exerting on them, and for that reason, the interests of these two countries converge with the interests of the Syrian people in defense of their homeland and national sovereignty.

In relation to the UN role, given the positions adopted by the Secretary General, it is clear that he is responding in a disciplined manner to the instructions of the United States. In terms of the activity of its special representatives Kofi Annan and now Lakdar Brahimi, as a political party we are against this initiative because its essence has been to strip the Syrian government of the instruments its has to assume the defense of the country’s sovereignty.

Granma: Looking ahead, what does the Communist Party consider the outcome of the crisis in Syria should be?

AB: In the first place, a firm, severe posture has to be maintained in the face of the subversive actions and sabotage of the insurgents. Those who are not perpetrating acts of terrorism have to be confronted with the same means they use, but from other points of view and approaches. Subversion, killings and terrorist operations have to be confronted by implementing the law.

The fundamental guarantee of Syria’s firmness lies in meeting the needs of people, this means that many economic and social laws have to be reviewed. Any attempt to reach a solution of compromise between patriotic and non-patriotic forces signifies retracting from patriotic interests, a regression. We do not support that. …more

People hold funeral in Bahrain for victim of toxic tear gas
18 October, 2012 – PressTV

People in Bahrain have held a funeral procession for Haj Mahdi Ali Marhun, who died due to inhalation of tear gas fired into his house by Saudi-backed regime forces.

The funeral for Ali Marhun, who spent the last two months of his life in hospital after the attack, was held in the village of Ma’ameer on Wednesday.

In Bahrain, many have died after regime forces fired poisonous tear gas into their homes to crush anti-regime protests.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the country people took to streets to express solidarity with five imprisoned medics on hunger strike.

The medics, who have been in prison since early October, went on hunger strike on Sunday to urge international efforts for their release.

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 Photos HERE

Bahrain charges four men with defaming king on Twitter
by Rania El Gamal – 18 October, 2012 – Reuters

(Reuters) – Bahraini authorities have detained four men on charges of defaming the Gulf Arab country’s king on Twitter, according to the state news agency BNA.

The four men in their 20s were arrested on Wednesday morning after security forces confiscated their computers and other electronic equipment, Mohammed al-Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said.

Criticizing King Hamad and other members of the Al Khalifa ruling family is a red line in the Gulf island kingdom.

Bahrain’s public prosecution office had questioned four defendants and charged them with the “crime of insulting his majesty the king on their personal accounts on Twitter,” prosecutor Ahmed Bucheeri said on Wednesday, according to BNA.

The defendants, who have been detained for a week, will face “an urgent trial before the criminal court”, he said, but no date has been given.

Bahrain, a U.S. ally which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has been in political turmoil since pro-democracy protests led by its Shi’ite majority erupted last year and were put down by the Sunni rulers.

Last month, Zainab al-Khawaja, the daughter of an imprisoned Bahraini activist was jailed for two months for damaging public property in a police station, which included the picture of King Hamad, the government’s information authority said.

Khawaja’s lawyer said her sentence was handed down for tearing up a picture of the king.

In July, prominent protest leader Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to three months in jail over a tweet against the prime minister, a member of the ruling family, which the court said insulted Bahrainis. He was later acquitted on appeal.

The ruling family used martial law and help from Gulf neighbors to put down last year’s uprising, but unrest has resumed.

Protesters and police clash almost daily and Washington has called on its ally to talk to the opposition.

Bahraini authorities accuse regional Shi’ite power Iran of encouraging the unrest and has vowed a tough response to violent protests as talks with the opposition have stalled. …source

Bahrain: Five medics on Hunger strike in protest against their unjust detention
18 October, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) is extremely concerned over the health condition of the five medics on hunger strike in Bahraini prisons. Ali Al Akri, Ebrahim Al Dumistani, Ghassan Dhaif, Saeed Al Samahiji and Dhiaa Ebrahim began an open hunger strike from food and medicine in protest to their unfair detention.

In 2011, 20 medics were arrested from Samaniya Hospital, some from the operation room, merely for treating injured protesters. They were subjected to severe torture during their detention and forced into confessions. They were found guilty in the Military Court and sentenced from 5 to 15 years’ imprisonment to later be reduced to acquittal and sentences from 1 month to 5 years’ imprisonment. On 1 October 2012, the Cassation Court upheld the sentences against 9 medics, while 3 had already served their sentences, 6 were arrested the next day during house raids. Dr. Mahmood Asghar was released 4 days later because of time already served.

On 13 October 2012, the 5 detained medics announced their open hunger strike, refusing to take food and medicine:
1. Ali Al Ekri – five years sentence
2. Ebrahim Al Dumistani – three years sentence
3. Ghassan Dhaif – one year sentence
4. Saeed Samahiji – one year sentence
5. Dhiaa Ebrahim – two months sentence

In a statement issued by the medics behind bars, they stated that “after the unfair politicized verdicts by the Cassation Court without considering the evidences presented by the defense, we will start an open hunger strike.” They called their action “The Lost Justice” and began their strike on 14 October 2012. …more

Commander: If Iran is attacked, Israel will be hit
18 October, 2012 – Associated Press

TEHRAN: Israel will “definitely” face fierce retaliation if it attacks Iranian nuclear sites, the acting commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Thursday.

The remarks by Gen. Hossein Salami appear to be part of Iranian efforts to portray any strike against it as the trigger for a regional conflict that could draw in Iranian proxies, such as Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, on Israel’s borders.

Iran’s suspect nuclear program has topped the international agenda and pressures on Tehran are mounting.

Israel has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities if Tehran doesn’t stop uranium enrichment – a process that can be a pathway to nuclear arms. The West and its allies fear Iran’s ambitions mask a pursuit of atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, saying its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes such as power generation and cancer treatment.

Salami was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying Iran has prepared for “global battles.”

“An attack by the Zionist regime would be an opportunity to destroy that regime,” he said, speaking of Israel. “Their defense mechanism is not planned for big and long wars. Their threats are only psychological and if they cross the limit or act upon those threats, (Israel) will definitely be destroyed.”

Salami spoke on the sidelines of urban combat drills in Tehran by some 15,000 paramilitary fighters known as Basiji, who are controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.

The exercises were dubbed “Ila Beit ol Moqaddas,” or Toward the Holy City, meaning Jerusalem. The war games include drills on defending against mock air raids and other threats.

“We have prepared our security and defense infrastructures for global and big battles,” Salami said. “There is no failure in our defense system.”

He also reiterated statements by other Iranian officials who this week insisted that Iran can ride out Western economic pressures aimed at reining in the uranium enrichment.

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In signal to Iran, U.S. and Israeli forces to stage drill
18 October, 2012 – By Mathieu Rabechault -Agence France Presse

WASHINGTON: The United States and Israel are set to launch a major military exercise in a show of unity aimed at Iran, despite friction between American and Israeli leaders over how to counter Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The air defense drills, dubbed “Austere Challenge 2012,” will unfold later this month and last about three weeks, with 3,500 US troops and 1,000 Israeli forces taking part, officers said Wednesday.

“This is the largest exercise in the history of the longstanding military relationship between the US and Israel,” said Lieutenant General Craig Franklin, 3rd Air Force Commander, who is overseeing the drill along with his Israeli counterpart, Brigadier General Nitzan Nuriel.

“This exercise will improve the cooperative missile defense of Israel and will promote regional stability and help ensure a military edge,” Franklin told reporters in a teleconference.

But the drill is about more than missile defenses.

The elaborate exercise takes place at a politically-charged moment, amid speculation about a possible Israeli pre-emptive attack on Iran, a hotly-contested US presidential election weeks away and parliamentary polls expected in Israel within a few months.

The drill’s “scenario is to deal with threats from all fronts,” Nuriel, the Israeli commander, told the same phone conference.

“Anybody can get any type of message he wants from this exercise. The fact we are practicing together and working together is a strong message by itself.”

Although Israel faces rocket attacks out of Gaza and missile threats from Syria and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, the main worry for the Jewish state is Iran’s growing arsenal of ballistic missiles.

In a report this year to Congress, the Pentagon warned that Iran’s missiles could hit Israel and Eastern European countries, including an extended-range version of the Shahab-3 and a medium-range ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers.
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Texas man pleads guilty in plot to kill Saudi ambassador
The Associated Press – 17 October, 2012

NEW YORK — A Texas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, agreeing to hire what he thought was a drug dealer in Mexico last year for $1.5 million to carry out the attack with explosives at a Washington restaurant.

Manssor Arbabsiar, 57, entered the plea to two conspiracy charges and a murder-for-hire count in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where Judge John F. Keenan repeatedly asked Arbabsiar whether he intended to kill the ambassador. Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen who holds an Iranian passport, said he did.

Sentencing was set for Jan. 23, when defense lawyers are likely to cite their claims that Arbabsiar is bipolar in asking for leniency. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Kim asked Arbabsiar if Iranian military officials based in Iran were involved in the plot. Arbabsiar said they were.

In a news release issued after the plea, Attorney General Eric Holder cited the efforts of law enforcement and intelligence agencies in disrupting “a deadly plot approved by members of the Iranian military to assassinate a sitting foreign ambassador on U.S. soil.”

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara noted that the harm likely would have extended beyond the ambassador, calling Arbabsiar “the extended murderous hand of his co-conspirators, officials of the Iranian military based in Iran, who plotted to kill the Saudi Ambassador in the United States and were willing to kill as many bystanders as necessary to do so.”

He said Arbabsiar “was in telephone contact with his Iranian confederates while he brokered an audacious plot.”

Arbabsiar admitted that he was directed by Iranian military officials to go to Mexico on multiple occasions from the spring to the fall last year to arrange the assassination.

Arbabsiar, who lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, for more than a decade, said he met a man in Mexico named Junior, “who turned out to be an FBI agent.” He said that he and others had agreed to arrange the kidnapping of the ambassador, Adel Al-Jubeir, but Junior said it would be easier to kill the ambassador. The agent was actually a Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source posing as a representative of a drug cartel.

The government said in a news release that Arbabsiar had described to the DEA source how his cousin in Iran, a “big general” in the Iranian military, had requested that Arbabsiar find someone to carry out the ambassador’s assassination. It said Arbabsiar rejected as “no big deal” the DEA’s worries about bystanders in a restaurant bombing, including the possibility that U.S. senators who dine there could be killed.

Arbabsiar has been held without bail since he was arrested Sept. 29, 2011 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was brought into court Wednesday in handcuffs. He spoke English and did not use a translator, despite saying he understood only about half of what he read in English. Bearded and bespectacled, he smiled several times during the proceeding, including in the direction of courtroom artists who were seated in the jury box when he entered court.

Kim said that if the government had proceeded to trial, it would have presented a jury with secretly recorded conversations between Arbabsiar and the confidential source, along with Arbabsiar’s extensive post-arrest statement to authorities and emails and financial records.

Authorities have said they secretly recorded conversations between Arbabsiar and the DEA informant after Arbabsiar approached the informant in Mexico and asked his knowledge of explosives for a plot to blow up the Saudi embassy in Washington. They said Arbabsiar later offered $1.5 million for the death of the ambassador.

Arbabsiar admitted Wednesday that he made a $100,000 down payment wired from an overseas account through a Manhattan bank in two wire transfers on Aug. 1, 2011, and Aug. 9, 2011.

After his arrest, Arbabsiar confessed that he was recruited, funded and directed by men he believed were senior officials in Iran’s Qods Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that in 2007 was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a supporter of the Taliban and terrorist organizations, the government said.

It said he claimed that he met several times in Iran with Gholam Shakuri, a co-conspirator and Iran-based member of the Qods Force, and another senior Qods Force official. After his arrest, Arbabsiar made phone calls at the direction of law enforcement to Shakuri in Iran and Shakuri confirmed that Arbabsiar should move forward with the ambassador plot, the government said.

Shakuri, also charged in the plot, remains a fugitive.

Arab rights group slams Bahraini regime’s repression
15 October, 2012 – PressTV

ANHRI condemns the use of the excessive force, by the Bahraini authorities, to suppress the peaceful demonstrations that took place in several regions in Bahrain.”

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has censured the Bahraini regime’s use of “excessive force” against peaceful protests in the Persian Gulf country.

“[The] ANHRI condemns the use of the excessive force, by the Bahraini authorities, to suppress the peaceful demonstrations that took place in several regions in Bahrain,” the Arab rights organization said in a statement on Saturday.

The Cairo-based rights group said that “the continuation of clear hostility against the peaceful demonstrations and the use of force and violence against demonstrations who call for reform, are an attempt to infanticide the Bahraini uprising.”

The rights group also added that Bahraini authorities should release all political prisoners and stop arresting rights activists.

Suppressing anti-regime protesters “proves that there is no indication that Bahrain intends to change its suppressive policy again[st] freedom of expression, opinion and people’s right of peaceful demonstrations,” it said.

It also called on the international community to pressure Bahrain to respect human rights conventions.

“The international society has to interfere to press the Bahraini regime to make sure it applies the obligations binding to it in accordance with the international covenants and human rights’ charters, in addition, to execute the recommendations stipulated in the report of the universal periodic review in Geneva,” the ANHRI said.

Bahrain’s revolution started in mid-February 2011, when demonstrators, inspired by the revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt, started holding massive anti-regime protests.

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

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 campaign of suppression and accused Manama of torturing political activists, politicians, and protesters. …more