World in transition toward new power balance: Ayatollah Khamenei
shiapost – 13 August, 2012

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the world is in transition toward a “new political, economic and social structure and geometry,” which involves a balance in power.

“The direction of the future world developments is … toward the transfer of the general powers and capabilities of some parts of world nations to other parts,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted in a meeting with academics and researchers on Sunday.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the sweeping wave of Islamic Awakening across the region and the failure of the West, led by the US, to dominate West Asia are two signs of the coming new world order.

“America’s unsuccessful leap for dominating this important and sensitive region, which became evident in the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of the other signs of the deep changes that the world is facing.”

“Europe’s status quo, which will finally bring it down, stems not from tactical or strategic errors but from a fundamental flaw in worldview,” the Leader added.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the decline of the US is the fourth sign, indicating that the world is witnessing a transition into a new state.

“As a leading power in wealth, science as well as military and non-military technology, the US had a very good public image among the nations; however, today, this country not only does not have that credit, but has turned into the symbol for bullying, oppression, interference in other nation’s affairs and warmongering.”

Ayatollah Khamenei added that the Iranian nation plays a very important and sensitive role in this transitional phase.

“Contrary to the infertile West, the Islamic Republic has new and wave-inducing suggestions for the human community in various political, administrative, ethical, cultural, social and economic spheres,” the Leader said.

“Iran, its elites and officials resist the Western threats, warmongering, assassinations, mass killing, and divisive [policies] and this reality has conferred a special prominent on this country.” …source

Congress of the United States
10 August, 2012

His Majesty King Hamad Bin Isa AI-Khalifa
The Amiri Court, Riffa Palace
P.O. Box 555
Manama, Bahrain

Your Royal Highness,

We write to express our concern regarding Nabeel Rajab and other Bahrainis who have been prosecuted foi crimes related to freedom of expression. We understand Mr. Rajab was imprisoned for calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister via Twitter, an Internet-messaging program. We respectfully request that you use your authority to order Mr. Rajab’s release under the universal principle that all citizens should have the right to
peacefully express disagreement with their government.

Reports indicate many Bahrainis have been imprisoned for peaceful political activities since the start of pro-democracy demonstrations in February 2011. According to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), the National Safety Courts convicted approximately 300 people for exercising their right to free expression and
peaceful assembly. Since Your Excellency’s endorsement of the BICI report and its recommendations, Bahraini officials have repeatedly stated that individuals prosecuted for political speech would be released, and that no one would face prosecution for exercising these rights.

We recognize that the Bahraini government has taken positive steps to implement certain BICI recommendations. These steps represent important progress. However, recent charges against Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, run counter to the government’s assurances that individuals will not be prosecuted for peaceful political speech. Bahraini authorities have prosecuted Mr. Rajab five separate
times, and in each case the charges appear to have been based on peaceful dissent and peaceful protests. Mr. Rajab was sentenced to three months in prison after “tweeting” that the Prime Minister should resign.

Mr. Rajab is also facing three other active prosecutions related to “illegal gatherings”; however, reports indicate prosecutors have produced no evidence that the protests at issue were violent or threatened violence.

In sum, we remain very concerned about the ongoing prosecution of peaceful opposition activists such as Nabeel Rajab for taking part in activities protected by international law and the Bahraini Constitution, notwithstanding Your Excellency’s acceptance of the BICI recommendations and the government’s reassurances that it does not conduct political prosecutions. We therefore respectfully urge the government to unconditionally and immediately release all Bahrainis being held for crimes related to freedom of expression.

Sincerely,

see signators and source HERE

More Than 250 First Nations and Allies From Across North America Gather In Alberta To Raise Awareness
First Nations delegations from British Columbia and Ontario show growing concern and resolve against tar sands infrastructure projects across Canada.

First Nations march against tarsands
4 August, 2012 – Censored News

FORT MCMURRAY ALBERTA (August 4, 2012) – Hundreds of First Nations leaders from BC, Alberta, the NWT and Ontario along with First Nation actress Tantoo Cardinal and allies from across North America, gathered in Fort McMurray today, to walk 13-kilometres through the visceral landscape of tar sands operations to bring attention to the destructive impacts of tar sands projects and pipelines on surrounding communities and the environment.

First Nation representatives from the Heiltsuk (BC), Yinka Dene (BC), Coastal First Nations (BC), the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Six Nations (Ontario) and Aamijiwnaang (Ontario) joined with local First Nations leaders in a traditional mixing of the waters ceremony, bringing water from their respective territories as a symbol of importance of the protection of water and the sacred connection to mother earth.

Local elders led the group in prayers along the route that was once valuable northern Boreal forest and fertile traditional hunting, fishing and gathering grounds, stopping in the four directions to lay down tobacco as an offering for healing of the land.

“We have come from all over North America to walk together through the heart of the destruction caused by the ever-expanding tar sands and offer prayers for the healing of the land and its people,” said Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus. “For more than 500 years governments have fought over our lands and resources. It’s time the provincial and federal governments sit down with the First Nations, the rightful owners of these lands and resources, to decide if and when these lands should be developed.”
The third annual healing walk was organized by Keepers of the Athabasca, a network of First Nation, Metis and allied communities along the Athabasca River that includes people whose lives have been directly impacted by tar sands operations.

“The places where we used to pick berries and find our medicines have been destroyed by rapid tar sands projects,” said Anthony Ladouceur, Councillor of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. “Our people have lived here for thousands of years, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue to live off the land with industry expanding all around us.”

The Alberta tar sands currently produce approximately 1.8 million barrels of oil per day; if industry and government’s expansion plans are approved that number could reach six million barrels per day. Local opposition to Shell’s two proposed open pit mine applications is growing, along with North American-wide resistance to pipeline proposals. Four pipelines are being proposed to transport tar sands oil: Enbridge Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain, Trans Canada Keystone XL, and Enbridge Line 9 reversal.

“I am deeply honoured to have the opportunity to participate in the 3rd Annual Tar Sands Healing Walk,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. “This sacred walk serves to remind us that we, as parents and grandparents, have the unconditional responsibility to safeguard and pass on the legacy of respecting and caretaking Mother Earth, entrusted to us by our ancestors, to our children and grandchildren.”
“This walk creates strength and unity among the people who have to live with the destructive impacts of tar sands. Together, we are more empowered to ensure a clean and healthy world for future generations,” said Roland Woodward Chair of the Keepers of the Athabasca.

The walk was not a protest, but a spiritual gathering to offer prayers for the healing of Mother Earth and all those negatively impacted by tar sands projects and associated infrastructure. Participants walked along Highway 63 past Suncor and Syncrude’s operations to help heal what has been destroyed and to give each other the spiritual strength to carry on. …more

The West and the Glorification of Terrorism By Thierry Meyssan
3 August, 2012 — Voltaire Network – crosspost on WilliamBowles.info

The U.N. Security Council met shortly after the July 18 attack that decapitated the command of the Syrian security forces. The two sessions that followed addressed the Resolution proposals submitted by the Western powers and Russia. It was incumbent upon the Council to condemn terrorist action on principle, as it does in all similar circumstances. The practice is to unanimously adopt a declaration and have it read by the sitting president of the Council, in this case the Columbian, Nestor Osorio. Protocol dictates that he present his condolences to the member state under attack.

However, the Council remained silent. The Western members refused to apply to the attack in Syria one of the most basic principles of international relations: the condemnation of terrorism. Even worse, in their respective declarations German, British, American and French leaders instead condemned the victims, making them responsible for the violence they had been the targets of and reaffirming support for the forces that perpetrated the attack. Immediately, the Western media set about defiling the memory of the victims as if their deaths were still insufficient to quench their thirst for Syrian blood.

No one doubts that terrorism in Syria is being sponsored by NATO and the GCC but until now it was being carried out behind a veil of hypocrisy. Unable to bombard and raze the country because of the Russian and Chinese double veto, the Western powers and their Arab partners decided to bleed the country while setting it up for an attack by mercenaries. Then on February 12 came the call to jihad issued by Ayman al-Zawahiri. Suddenly, NATO, the GCC and al-Qaeda found themselves pursuing the same objective. Notwithstanding, Brussels took the view that the Egyptian sheik’s declarations were his alone and were therefore unworthy of comment as if to underline that NATO doesn’t revise its positions in response to such fatwas. This rationale remained unconvincing because it ignored the issue of the common objectives shared by the self-proclaimed advocates of democracy, on the one hand, and Islamism, on the other. It did allow appearances to be preserved. The masks are now off. The Western powers have acknowledged their links with terrorists.

The turning point occurred during the 3rd Conference of the “Friends” of the Syrian people in Paris on July 6. President Francois Hollande accorded a place of honor to individuals who had previously been paid in secret while taking care to deny knowing them. He elevated war criminals to the rank of heroes without eliciting the least discomfort among his foreign partners.

Without waiting for al-Qaeda to be invited to yet another conference of the “Friends” of the Syrian people, Sergei Lavrov expressed surprise at this behavior: “This signifies that [the West] will continue to support this kind of terrorist attack until the Security Council fulfills its obligations. It is a terrifying position.” He continued, “We do not know how we are to interpret this.”

Beyond the moral questions, what does this doctrinal turnaround signify in that for over a decade the Western powers have touted themselves as the champions of the “war on terrorism” while today they openly proclaim their support for terrorists?

Many authors, among them U.S. strategists such as Zbignew Brzezinski, have emphasized that the notion of a “war on terrorism” is an absurd concept. One can conduct a war on terrorists but not against their strategy. Be that as it may, the slogan has had the double advantage of placing certain states on the side of Good while justifying a “” against all others. …more

Mike Macnair examines the paradox of the rational irrationalism of US foreign policy

Imperialism, capitalism and war

2 August, 2012 – Weekly Worker 925 – Mike Macnair

For some years now the USA and its allies have been carrying out a blockade, or siege warfare, against Iran, under the euphemistic name of ‘sanctions’. In July, the sanctions siege was significantly intensified and alongside it the US and Israel have been organising semi-clandestine sabotage operations (most notably the Stuxnet computer virus) and assassinations.

Also parallel to the siege has been the running threat of direct bombardment – with its own set of euphemisms: the ‘surgical strike’ to ‘take out’ Iran’s potential nuclear capability. The level of media attention paid to this threat varies: very recently Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has given his backing to an Israeli ‘strike’, while publicity has been given to the arrival in the region of US super-bunker-buster bombs.

There is something obviously irrational about this policy. The suggestion that Iran getting the bomb threatens an immediate attack on Israel, which has 100 or more warheads and complete delivery systems, etc, is ludicrous. The arguments that president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a madman or can be analogised to Hitler are both equal nonsense, and scarily reminiscent of similar claims about Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Moreover, one might imagine that the US would be a bit more cautious, given that its budget has been tightened by the results of the 2008 crash, and it spent billions failing either to find weapons of mass destruction or to create a shining beacon of democracy in Iraq, and has equally failed to defeat the Taliban in 11 years of war in Afghanistan.

The apparent irrationality – in a certain sense real irrationality – has substantive present political implications. On the one hand, an important section of the anti-war movement has seized upon it with the aim of persuading the capitalist class, or at least sections of it, to act more rationally: it is not really in their interests to pursue such wars.

(Or perhaps the idea is that we could have capitalism without US hegemony (or any other hegemon state): the United Nations as a proto-world-state, the ‘law-governed world order’ which Peter Gowan promoted before his death. The reality is that the UN, though an entity with which the US is often partially at odds, is an agency of the US’s alliance systems; and the ‘law-governed world order’ is precisely a regime in which the security council can authorise siege warfare, bombing and invasions.)

On the other hand, an equally important section of the left argues that behind the irrational arguments are real, rational reasons for the US to act as it does – chiefly concerned with the price and control of oil and with maintaining US geopolitical dominance through surrounding Russia and China. This latter view is associated with the idea that the left and the workers’ movement has a stake not merely in the defeat of the war drive, but positively in the victory of the US’s ‘anti-imperialist’ opponents.

This idea is a bastardised form of the ‘anti-imperialist united front’ of the colonial workers’ movement and the nationalists and/or pan-Islamists, which was promoted by the early Communist International. ‘Bastardised’, because in its modern form it is filtered through the diplomacy of the old USSR-led ‘socialist bloc’. The underlying idea is that the overthrow of imperialism (identified in modern practice with US-led imperialism) can precede and provide the basis for socialist revolution.

The view that the irrational explanations conceal real rational reasons of imperialist interests is associated with the ‘anti-imperialist united front’ conception, but is not essential to it. Rather, it offers supporting grounds for it: if the imperialists have a real economic or geopolitical interest at stake in creating puppet regimes in the Middle East, then the ‘resistance’ offered by nationalists can potentially actually undermine the imperialist order.

How should we judge these questions? In my view the siege warfare and bombing threats against Iran are part of a larger pattern of US policy and the nature and incidence of wars since the US defeat in Indochina in the 1970s. This US behaviour is neither simply irrational, nor, on the other hand, do the irrational explanations conceal real decisive interests which explain the war decisions.

I propose to explain, or to contribute to an explanation of, this US behaviour by three elements. The first is the political effects of the business cycle. The second is the relative decline of the United States, which partially repeats the previous experiences of older ‘leading capitalist states’. The third is the decline of capitalism as such, which is reflected in differences between the present relative decline of the US and the decline of British world hegemony in the late 19th century.
The pattern

Before the 1970s, US Middle East policy had a clear and rational character as part of the general policy of the cold war. This was an orientation involving state-to-state alliances, ‘containment’ of ‘communism’ – ie, of the USSR and its alliance system – and US-Soviet competition in development aid within the framework of managed trade and limited import-substitution industrialisation in ‘developing countries’. US military interventions and those of the US’s British side-kick were directed to supporting existing state regimes and used quite limited force. The 1967 Arab-Israeli war and 1973 Yom Kippur war were fought wholly within this strategic framework.

After Vietnam, the US gradually broke with this policy and embarked on a new orientation. Financial globalisation is the most discussed aspect of the changed orientation; but other aspects of it include the ‘human rights’ offensive; increased use of US support for guerrilla and militia operations to destabilise regimes seen as hostile to the US, with some tendency to produce ‘failed states’ (most strikingly Afghanistan after 1980); and episodic large-scale military operations that are merely destructive.

There is an apparent indirect connection to financial crises. The point at which the 1987 stock market crash began to feed through into the real economy around 1990 was followed by the first Gulf war of 1991. The point at which the economy was affected by the dot-com crash of 2000-02 (as opposed to mere financial difficulties), was followed by the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

It looks to me (I may be wrong) as though, although the sheer severity of the crash of 2008-09 has delayed the process, nonetheless this crash has already been followed by an escalation of siege and sabotage operations against Iran, while a large-scale bombing campaign against Iran appears to be in the offing. …more

History’s Greatest Terrorist: Harry Truman
By Steve Fake – August 10, 2012 – FPIP – Cross-posted from Scramble for Africa.

The motives for dropping nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were political, the targets civilian — a textbook case of terrorism.

Harry Truman and Secretary of War Henry Stimson in the lull between the storms of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Harry Truman and Secretary of War Henry Stimson in the lull between the storms of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Terrorism, despite continual abuse, is a word like any other. It has an actual definition: violence against a civilian target undertaken to send a political message. It is not merely a slur to be affixed willy-nilly to whomever, as geopolitical needs dictate.

On August 6th 1945 Washington dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. One hundred fifty thousand civilians were incinerated or condemned to slow and terrible deaths by radiation exposure (as immortalized in the Japanese manga and animated film Barefoot Gen). On August 9th, the Truman Administration released a plutonium core atomic bomb over Nagasaki, killing an additional 75,000 people.

A justifying mythology was immediately crafted and remains firmly lodged in popular understanding — at least in the U.S. The bombs were dropped, reluctantly, to save the lives of U.S. servicemen fighting Japan. Perhaps a half million (Truman’s claim) would have died before Japan would have unconditionally surrendered had the U.S. not deployed the bombs. The story has long been debunked, but with little popularization. If fact, Japan was already prepared to surrender, having only a few (trivial next to hundreds of thousands of lives) conditions. The actual reasons the bomb was dropped, included, as Gar Alperovitz has long argued, intimidating Russia and to demonstrate U.S. power on the world stage. Any street gangster would recognize the dynamic. There was also a concern to forestall any further Soviet influence in Asia. Thus the motive was political and the target was civilian. It is a textbook case of terrorism. Perhaps the preeminent example.

Truman’s successor continued developing the arsenal. In 1954, the federal government, in a secret test, detonated a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb — the most powerful device the country ever exploded — on the Bikini Atoll island range in the Pacific Ocean. Rongelap Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, was downwind. The people were temporarily relocated, only to be sent back a few years later to their now radioactive homelands. …more

Review: Cultures of Resistance
By Conn Hallinan – August 10, 2012 – FPIP

cultures-of-resistance-film-reviewWhen we think of “resistance,” what mostly comes to mind is guerrilla warfare: Vietnamese closing in on the besieged French at Dien Bien Phu, Angolans ambushing Portuguese troops outside of Luanda, or Salvadorans waging a war of attrition against their military oligarchy. But resistance doesn’t always involve roadside bombs or military operations. Sometimes it is sprayed on a Tehran wall or rapped in a hip-hop song in Gaza. It can be a poem in Medellin, Colombia—arguably one of the most dangerous cities in the world—or come from a guitar shaped like an AK-47. In short, there are few boundaries or strictures when it comes to the imagination and creativity that people bring to the act of defiance.

That art can be powerful stuff is the central message that Brazilian filmmaker Iara Lee brings to her award-winning documentary Cultures of Resistance. Her previous films include Synthetic Pleasures, about the impact of technology on mass culture, and Modulations, on the evolution of electronic music. Her most recent film is The Suffering Grasses, about the civil war in Syria.

Lee began Cultures in 2003, just before the Bush administration invaded Iraq, and her six-year odyssey takes her through five continents and 35 countries: Burma, Brazil, Rwanda, Iran, Burundi, Israel, Nigeria, the Congo, and Liberia, to name a few. In each case she profiles a grassroots movement that embodies the philosophy of nonviolent resistance to everything from political oppression to occupation.

Lee, a co-founder of the Cultures of Resistance Network, is a social activist in her own country, where she has aided Amazonian Indians resisting the destruction of their lands and organized against the plague of violence—from both criminals and the police—in Brazil’s slums or Favelas. She is also a member of the Greenpeace Foundation, a member of the advisory board of the National Geographic Society, and a part of the worldwide campaign to ban cluster munitions.

She was also on the MV Mavi Marmara in 2010, the Gaza-bound Turkish ship boarded by Israeli commandos. Nine human rights campaigners were killed in the confrontation, and Lee’s crew managed to smuggle out video footage of the incident. However, U.S. media outlets refused to air it. Lee’s view of the world is not the sometimes distant lens of many documentarians, but the prism of an activist. …more

Astounding hypocrisy, self-censorship, and complicity by the West regarding one of the most regressive regimes on Earth.

10 Facts about Saudi Arabia; and an Introduction to the Gulf Despots Supported by the West
Tony Cartalucci – Activist Post

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) comprises of 6 nations, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. In principle, Kuwait and Bahrain are considered “constitutional monarchs;” in practice, all 6 are despotic autocracies with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman overtly “absolute monarchs.” Devoid of even a feigned semblance of representative governance, these regimes brutally repress not only their own subjects, but play active roles in repressing the people of other nations, both on their borders and well beyond them.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are playing an active role in crushing dissent in neighboring Bahrain – an opaque uprising obscured by a lack of Western media coverage – apparently the result of Western press houses conveniently ignoring unrest targeting governments linked to Western interests, while intentionally subverting nations opposed to Western interests.

Likewise, the collective efforts of the GCC’s regimes have torn North Africa’s nation of Libya apart, leaving it under the control of roving bands of NATO/GCC-armed and funded genocidal sectarian militants with the Tripoli government dominated by Western proxies. A similar operation is now underway in Syria, also fully funded, armed, and directed by the GCC and its Western minders.

The term “pro-democracy” has been disingenuously used to describe the militant legions that very “undemocratic” nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are underwriting. Clearly, even at face value, this is an untenable narrative. Under closer scrutiny, it unravels further, exposing a criminal, murderously violent, terroristic conspiracy of vast international proportions.

Of the GCC, perhaps the two most prominent members are Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with the House of Saud leading, and the Qataris playing a supporting role, mainly in terms of propaganda via state-owned Al Jazeera, by hosting “defectors,” and hosting the regional headquarters of Western corporate-financier funded think-tanks like the Brookings Institution’s Doha Centre.

Saudi Arabia: 10 Truths Self-Censored by the West’s Media Houses

1. Saudi Arabia is so utterly autocratic it is literally named after the ruling dynasty, the House of Saud. Thus it is Arabia of the House of Saud, or “Saudi Arabia.”

2. To this day, Saudi Arabia carries out barbaric executions against both criminals and political enemies, including victims accused of “sorcery and witchcraft” in the aptly named, “Chop-Chop Square” located in the capital of Riyadh where heads are literally chopped off by hooded swordsmen.

3. Women are banned from driving in Saudi Arabia, and most likely would also be banned from voting in national elections, if such a phenomenon even occurred – which it does not – as Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy and its leaders are determined by heredity, not even the feigned pretense of elections. There are local elections, however, in which woman are not permitted to vote (perhaps in 2015?).

4. Saudi Arabia has been and to this day is the primary underwriter of the notorious international terror organization, Al Qaeda. Created along with Saudi Arabia’s long-time ally, the United States, money, weapons, and directives are laundered through the Saudis to maintain both plausible deniability for the Americans, and to maintain a degree of credibility for Al Qaeda’s sectarian extremist foot-soldiers across the Muslim World.

5. Saudi Arabia maintains an extensive “re-education” program internationally to pervert the tenets of Islam as a means of keeping Al Qaeda’s ranks full and fueling Wall Street and London’s engineered “Clash of Civilizations.”

6. Saudi Arabian corporate-financier interests (run by the royal family) are tied directly to Wall Street and London via conglomerations like the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council and representation upon the JP Morgan International Council (Khalid Al-Falih of Saudi Aramco, amongst the highest valued companies on Earth).

7. The alleged most notorious terrorist in modern history, Osama Bin Laden, was a creation of US-Saudi machinations, with the Bin Laden family to this day being a premier member of of both Saudi and Western elitist circles. The multi-billion dollar Saudi Binladin Group is an active member of the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council and plays a central role in deciding bilateral policy for the benefit of collective US-Saudi corporate-financier and corresponding geopolitical interests.

8. The autocratic House of Saud maintains Al Arabiya, along with a extensive list of unsavory investors from across the GCC and its sphere of influence, including Lebanon’s Hariri faction. It is a propaganda outlet masquerading as an objective journalistic organization, working in tandem with state-owned Al Jazeera in Qatar. Occasionally admitted to be “state media” by the West, “state media” in Saudi Arabia actually means “Saud family-owned propaganda.”

9. Saudi Arabia has played an active role in the violent destabilization of governments around the world, including most recently Libya and Syria. The use of sectarian-extremists indoctrinated at Saudi-funded faux-mosques and madrasas, armed and funded by Saudi cash, is the standard method of operation for these destabilizations.

10. Saudi Arabia’s brutally repressive internal security apparatus is a creation of US advisers and operators. Its military, both covert and conventional, is also armed through astronomically large weapons sales (including a recent sale considered the largest in US history) by its Wall Street and London allies. The atrocities committed by the despotic Saud regime are directly facilitated by US advisers, operators, and arms. Saudi Arabia also hosts the US military, a sizable force until it was spread out amongst the orbiting despotic regimes of Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

Of course, not everyone in Saudi Arabia is a barbaric, treasonous, meddling despot. This includes people all across Saudi Arabia’s population of 28 million and even throughout its government. Many of these people have attempted to protest or reform the current state of the “kingdom,” albeit very unsuccessfully.

This failure can be in part blamed on the vast, draconian police state created for the House of Saud despots by their Western sponsors as well as a Western media complicit in censoring crackdowns on protesters, most recently unfolding in the eastern city of Qatif, and a virtual media “black hole” in regards to covering anything, good or bad, regarding Saudi Arabia.

The key to breaking this self-imposed Western media blockade is for the alternative media to conduct the research and cover developments themselves. This includes reaching out to activists and reformers within Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other GCC autocracies and giving the people the platform denied to them by the corporate-funded Western media. …source

Embassy Row: Berating Bahrain
By James Morrison – The Washington Times – 9 August, 2012

The ambassador from Bahrain is defending her country against allegations that the Persian Gulf kingdom is still abusing its citizens, more than a year after the government crushed an uprising led by majority Shiite protesters against the minority Sunni royal family.

King Hamad has “undertaken an expansive program of political and economic reform unprecedented for the region in which we live,” Ambassador Houda Nonoo said in testimony prepared for a recent congressional hearing on Bahrain.

Mrs. Nonoo, who noted that she was not invited to the hearing before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission last week, explained that the king is implementing nearly all of the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, which he established to investigate the police crackdown on mostly peaceful protests that were marred by some violent demonstrators.

The protests by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in February and March 2011 “remain painful for all Bahrainis,” she said.

“In the government’s efforts to restore law and order after the outbreak of violent protests, many mistakes were made. We particularly regret the unfortunate loss of life of all Bahrainis who mobilized to take advantage of their right to free speech and free expressions,” Mrs. Nonoo said.

The United States and many human rights organizations criticized the Bahraini government, which also imposed martial law at the beginning of the protests.

“Many of these accusations were based in truth, but many were hypersensationalized and false,” the ambassador said.

Mrs. Nonoo said the government has adopted most of the commission’s recommendations, including stripping the National Security Agency of arrest powers and restricting it to intelligence gathering only, strengthening anti-torture laws, dropping charges against protesters for shouting anti-government slogans, reinstating government workers who were fired for protesting, and establishing a victims’ compensation fund.

At the congressional hearing, a member of the Bahraini opposition dismissed the government’s claims of reform.

“After 16 months since the imposition of martial law … more violations were committed and not fewer,” said Matar Ebrahim Matar, who resigned his seat in parliament last year to protest the crackdown on the demonstrators.

He called the king’s government an “authoritarian regime” and denounced Hamid as an “absolute monarch.”

Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, complained that the “root causes of the severe unrest” in Bahrain “remain unaddressed and unresolved.”

“The government is continuing to arrest and imprison Bahraini citizens for expressing political views the government doesn’t agree with,” he said.

Mr. Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance subcommittee on international trade, suggested applying pressure on Bahrain to meet labor union commitments under a free-trade agreement with the United States.

A State Department official told the commission that Washington sees improvements in Bahrain and noted its strategic value to the United States as home to the U.S. 5th Fleet, which allows the Navy to project U.S. power in the Persian Gulf and confront Iranian threats to the region.

“In a number of ways, Bahrain today is more stable than it was a year ago,” said Michael H. Posner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.

However, he added, the country is still a “deeply divided nation struggling to regain its equilibrium.”

Tom Malinowski, director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, said much of the tension in Bahrain comes from its position “right on the fault line between the Sunni and Shiite Muslim worlds.”

The Sunni minority, aligned with Saudi Arabia, is fearful that the rival Shiite majority has links to Iran.

Mr. Malinowski said the official media have “convinced many Sunni supporters of the monarchy that opposition calls for democracy are an Iranian plot to impose a Shiite theocracy on Bahrain.”
…source

No real surprise since the hype of Iran’s Nuclear Program is simply “smoke and mirrors” used to justify Western and Israeli aggression in their strategy of containment and the West imposes it hegemonic designs on MENA, while Israel moves forward with its own expansionist agenda. – Phlipn

US: Iran not on verge of nuclear weapon
10 August, 2012 – Al Akhbar

The United States still believes that Iran is not on the verge of having a nuclear weapon and that Tehran has not made a decision to pursue one, US officials said on Thursday.

Their comments came after Israeli media reports claimed US President Barack Obama had received a new National Intelligence Estimate saying Iran had made significant and surprising progress toward military nuclear capability.

Later, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested that the new US report, which he acknowledged might be something other than a National Intelligence Estimate, “transforms the Iranian situation into an even more urgent one.”

But a White House National Security Council spokesman disputed the Israeli reports, saying the US intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear activities had not changed since intelligence officials delivered testimony to Congress on the issue earlier this year.

“We believe that there is time and space to continue to pursue a diplomatic path, backed by growing international pressure on the Iranian government,” the spokesman said. “We continue to assess that Iran is not on the verge of achieving a nuclear weapon.”

US officials would not directly comment on whether there was a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which is a compilation of views of the various US intelligence agencies.

The last formal NIE on Iran in 2007, partially made public by the administration of President George W. Bush, became highly controversial because it said Tehran had halted nuclear weaponization work in 2003, although other aspects of the overall program continued.

A later update to that report retained that central assessment, sources have previously said.

James Clapper, US director of national intelligence, said in congressional testimony in January: “We assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons, in part by developing various nuclear capabilities that better position it to produce such weapons, should it choose to do so. We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons.”

Another US official said the United States regularly exchanges intelligence reporting with its allies, which would include Israel.

The United States has been concerned that Israel may conduct a unilateral strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, adding to turmoil in the Middle East.

Israel – the only nuclear power in the Middle East – sees an atomic armed Iran as a threat to its regional supremacy and there is persistent speculation over whether it will launch a preemptive military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Tehran denies it is trying to build nuclear bombs, saying it is enriching uranium only for peaceful purposes. …more

Charge or release Saudi cleric: Amnesty
10 August, 2012 – Al Akhbar

A leading Saudi cleric must be either charged or released after a being detained for over a month without charge, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric, was violently arrested on July 8 after leading a number of pro-reform protests in the restive Qatif region.

Nimr was attacked by police and a photo after the arrest appeared to show he had been shot, sparking protests in the country’s fractious Eastern Province in which at least two people were shot dead.

He has since been detained for a month without formal charge and Amnesty demanded he be released.

“It has been a month since his arrest and Amnesty International is not aware of any charges being brought against him,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Program Director at Amnesty International said.

“Amnesty calls on the Saudi Arabian authorities to either charge him with a recognizably criminal offense or release him,” he added.

The Ministry of Interior announced Sheikh Nimr had been arrested as an “instigator of sedition” and was shot at as “he and those with him resisted security forces at a check-point, opened fire at security forces and crashed into a car belonging to security forces as he sought to escape.”

But they have provided no evidence for the claim that he resisted arrest, while his family said he was not armed, did not own a gun and was on his own at the time of his arrest.

His family also told Amnesty International they had been worried about him following his arrest and that they were not allowed by security officials to see him or talk to him in hospital until mid-July, when they were permitted just 15 minutes. …more

Ms Clinton’s schizophrenic discourse on Syria
Voltaire Network – 9 August 2012

On 7 August 2012, following a meeting with the Foreign Minister of South Africa, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Hillary Clinton who was asked about the situation in Syria had this to say: “I do think we can begin talking about and planning for what happens next, the day after the regime does fall. I’m not going to put a timeline on it. I can’t possibly predict it, but I know it’s going to happen, as does most observers around the world. So we have to make sure that the state’s institutions stay intact. We have to make sure that we send very clear expectations about avoiding sectarian warfare. Those who are attempting to exploit the misery of the Syrian people, either by sending in proxies or sending in terrorist fighters, must recognize that that will not be tolerated, first and foremost by the Syrian people.”

Clearly stated,

– The U.S. Secretary of State rebuffs any involvement by intermediaries, yet she is preparing to cadminister a country that does not belong to her.

– Clinton condemns terrorism, even though she hailed the July 18 attack in Damascus which decapitated the Syrian military command, and her President, Barack Obama, signed a secret directive to practice terrorism in Syria. …source

UK opens probe into EADS unit Saudi defence deal
9 August, 2012 – Reuters

PARIS, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has formally launched a criminal probe into allegations that European defence group EADS bribed Saudi Arabian officials to win a communications contract.

The allegations involve a $3.3 billion contract awarded to the EADS unit, GPT Special Project Management, to provide communications and intranet services for the Saudi National Guard, which protects the Kingdom’s royal family.

Serious Fraud Office spokesman David Jones on Thursday confirmed a single-sentence statement on the UK prosecutors’ website that the investigation was underway but declined to elaborate.

“The Director of the Serious Fraud Office has decided to open a criminal investigation into allegations concerning GPT and aspects of the conduct of their business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” a statement on the website said.

An EADS spokesman in the UK did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment about the probe being launched.

The investigation’s existence was first reported in May 2011, but the U.K’s Telegraph newspaper reported in October that it had been halted while the British government considered the political implications.

The allegations surfaced in employment tribunal proceedings and were made by a former GPT employee who claimed Saudi officials were given luxury cars, jewellery and large sums of cash from London accounts through intermediaries, a source previously told Reuters.

The SFO in 2006 halted an investigation into alleged bribes paid by BAE Systems in connection with a huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia amid fears that it would threaten UK national security. …more

New Middle East super-virus uncovered
9 August, 2012 – A Akhbar

A new “state-sponsored” cyber surveillance virus dubbed “Gauss” has stolen passwords and key data from thousands of bank users in the Middle East, the top IT security firm Kaspersky Lab said on Thursday.

According to Kaspersky, Gauss was a complete and “complex, nation-state sponsored cyber-espionage toolkit,” which aims to steal sensitive data, with a specific focus on browser passwords and online banking account details.

It has similarities to Stuxnet and Flame, the Russian company said in a statement, noting that although the new malware program was discovered in June 2012 it appears to have been in use since September 2011.

Gauss has the same source code as Flame, which was apparently designed to steal information from Iran’s suspected nuclear program, with the United States and Israel suspected of being behind its origination

Stuxnet was used to attack Iran’s nuclear centrifuges.

Kaspersky said Gauss had a specific focus on banking and financial data and its Trojan capability was used to steal detailed information about infected PCs including browser history, cookies, passwords, and system configurations.

“It is also capable of stealing access credentials for various online banking systems and payment methods,” said Kaspersky, whose virus detection experts discovered and named Gauss.

In July 2012, command and control servers used by Gauss’s unknown originators stopped functioning, according to the statement.

“Analysis of Gauss shows it was designed to steal data from several Lebanese banks including the Bank of Beirut, EBLF, BlomBank, ByblosBank, FransaBank and Credit Libanais,” and also “targets users of Citibank and PayPal,” it added.

Gauss’s main module was named by its creators after the German mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss, according to Kaspersky. …more

Hot, Hot Summer in the Middle East
By: Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D. – 6 August , 2012

August temperatures in the Middle East get very hot. From the mid-90s Fahrenheit (i.e. 35+ C) at night to the high 120s F (i.e. 50+ C) during the day, one is constantly aware that their daily actions will be dictated by the environment. Exacerbating this extremely oppressive temperature is the nearly total lack of rainfall during the summer months, thus rendering all and sundry dry and devoid of moisture. Only the spiny tailed lizards or dhubs which inhabit the region are content with the scorching sun and subsequent heat, hence their tendency to perch on a rock and bask in the sun during these glory days of summer.

In fact, many attribute the death of the famous British officer, writer, archaeologist, linguist, and spy Gertrude Bell, who lived a good while in Iraq until her death in 1926, to the overwhelming heat. On July 13, 1917, she described the heat in Baghdad thusly:

We have had a week of fierce heat which still continues, temperature 122 odd and therewith a burning wind which has to be felt to be believed. It usually blows all night as well as all day and makes sleep very difficult. I have invented a scheme which I practise on the worst nights. I drop a sheet in water and without wringing it out lay it in a pile along my bed between me and the wind. I put one end over my feet and draw the other under and over my head and leave the rest a few inches from my body. The sharp evaporation makes it icy cold and interposes a little wall of cold air between me and the fierce wind. When it dries I wake up and repeat the process (The Letters of Gertrude Bell, Vol. II, 1927).

And, again, on August 3rd, 1917, Bell wrote of a visit by a Colonel Willcox:

Well, he told me some interesting things about the heat wave and its consequences. It began on July 10 quite suddenly with a temperature of 112 and ended on July 20 with a temperature of 122.8. In between it was frequently over 120. He notes that 115 is the limit of human endurance. The moment the temp. rises above that point, heat strokes begin, and when it drops below, they end. We could have saved many lives if after the crisis was over there had been any cool place to put the men in. But there wasn’t and after fighting through the heatstroke they died of heat exhaustion. I suppose if we had had masses of ice we could have made cool places, but ice was lacking. It happened once or twice that we well people went without it because the hospitals needed all there was. I don’t think I shall stay through the whole of next hot weather unless there is any very strong reason for it. I shall come to England for a month and return in September. But who knows what we shall be all doing by then. I don’t believe we shall still be fighting. Some way or other peace will have to come about (The Letters of Gertrude Bell, Vol. II, 1927).

Historically, military campaigns in the region have occurred either in the spring months (February through June) or in the fall (September through December).

For example, the most recent rebellions occurring under the nomenclature of the ‘Arab Spring’ or ‘Islamic Awakening’ began in Tunisia in December 2010 and spread throughout the Arab world from January to March 2011. Current fighting in Syria is reported to be reaching a crescendo for a major assault by early September of 2012.

In January of 2012, the Yemeni government declared open warfare against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and sporadic fighting continues to this day for control of many rural areas in the country. The October 2000 al Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, the 2008 September attack on the US Embassy in Sana’a, and the June 2011 bombing of the presidential palace in Sana’a, have proven that the opposition remains strong and that the successor regime to former dictator Saleh has a ways to go before civil peace is recognized in the southern Arabian Peninsula.

Fighting broke out at the beginning of May 2008 when the Lebanese government attempted to shut down Hezbollah’s telecommunication network, a move which was reversed by the Lebanese Army by the end of the month after Hezbollah fighters defeated opposition militiamen around West Beirut.

The US war on Iraq began in March 2003 with American troops remaining in country until December 2011.

The anti-government uprisings against the government of Saddam Hussein following the 1990 Gulf War occurred from March to April 1991 and were crushed by Hussein’s government.

The Iraq-Iran War, or the First Persian Gulf War, commenced in September of 1980 and lasted until August of 1988.

The historic Iranian Revolution overthrew the regime of Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi in February of 1979, and the US has been outraged ever since.

The Lebanese Civil War began in April of 1975 and lasted until October of 1990.

The Six-Day War lasted from June 5-10, 1967.

And while there have been many other violent conflicts in the Middle East, they usually break out in either the spring or the fall months. Yes, if fighting is to occur in the Middle East, war strategists usually plan for either the winter or fall months, because the summer months of July and August are just too much for humans to endure.

And while modern means of refrigeration and air conditioning have transformed life in much of the Middle East into the 21st century, these accoutrements can seldom be brought to bear on the front lines of battle. Nature has thus set up a barrier between June and September which precludes much outdoor human activity in the Middle East, save for swimming. To ignore this natural bulwark and run offensive operations during this time—as the Gulf monarchies are doing in Syria currently—is an act of folly, as the heat will discombobulate and confuse their Salafist fighters who are already operating on three eggs short of a dozen, as they are being manipulated by some of the most unholy miscreants on the Earth. As well, in this summer of 2012, it appears that our Gulf monarchs have forgotten that the month of Ramadan should be reserved for reflection and renewal and not conflict and murder.

Such befuddlement was recently witnessed with the video-taped executions of captured prisoners by the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) who are mostly al Qaeda insurrectionists flown into Turkey or Jordan by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other Gulf monarchies in an attempt to divert the Arab Spring from seeping into the cracks of their decrepit kingdoms.

The video was posted online and graphically depicted the summary executions of more than a dozen Syrian army prisoners after a kangaroo trial conducted on the back of a pick-up truck in Syria’s second largest city of Aleppo. Labeled a “war crime” by human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch, the incident was confirmed by a reporter with the Turkish newspaper Milliyet.

Reporters Hannah Allam and Austin Tice, with the McClatchey Newspapers, write of other incidents of summary executions by these Gulf monarchy-backed insurgents including the capture of 45 Assad loyalists in Al Tal, north of Damascus with eight being executed, 25 said to be released, and the rest held for prisoner exchange. As reporters Allam and Tice conclude regarding the growing list of executions and incidents of torture being carried out by these FSA mercenaries, they are “muddying the Western narrative of a heroic resistance force struggling against a vicious regime.”

Whether one attributes such FSA idiocy to the failed and bizarre premise of autocratic monarchs backing an external aggression to allegedly advance “democracy” in Syria or not, the fact remains that the intense summer heat is creating a fog of war which will continue to perplex and mystify the FSA puppeteers as they continue to issue bombastic statements and shrill ultimatums. —30—

…more on PressTV

Bahrain finds an off-label use for tear gas as chemical warfare.

Bahrain: the Tear Gas Regime
By Steve Fake, August 9, 2012

Physicians for Human Rights just released a report on the Bahraini government’s pervasive use of tear gas to repress its restive civilian population. Bahrain has raised the global bar on the usage of tear gas to unprecedented heights. It has become the Tear Gas Regime.

Consider this excerpt from the PHR report:

“PHR investigators visited one home in which residents provided “guest gas masks” to visitors exposed to toxic chemical agents in and around the home. “We’ve been exposed to tear gases almost every day,” said one resident of a Shi’a neighborhood. “We’ve had canisters shot in the house, on the doorstep, and on the roof. We’ve had so many attacks, I can’t count the number of times. You don’t need to go outside to smell the ‘tear gas.’”

The report continues:

“Preliminary analysis of data suggests that the majority of Shi’a neighborhoods (comprising 80% of all neighborhoods in Bahrain) have been exposed to toxic chemical agent attacks at least once per week since February 2011.”

That is a remarkable record of sustained gassing. What does this mean for the neighborhoods and villages affected? As PHR details:

“Symptoms of CS [the most commonly used chemical agent in contemporary ‘tear gas’ worldwide] exposure include severe tearing, burning in the nose and throat, eye spasms, chest tightness, coughing, and wheezing among other signs of oral and respiratory distress.”

Imagine encountering that on a daily or weekly basis as many Shia neighborhoods in Bahrain now are.

There is plenty of reason to question the legitimacy of tear gas usage in virtually any context. PHR medical investigators noted in a report published the AMA’s journal in 1989 that:

“[T]he evidence already assembled regarding the pattern of use of tear gas, as well as its toxicology, raises the question of whether its further use can be condoned under any circumstances… [T]here is an important role for the independent [health] professional: to study, document, analyze, and report on such hazards and to advise government on what does and does not carry an acceptable risk. If a weapon is found to present too serious a risk, it is then the responsibility of those in charge of public safety to decide on alternatives.”

Note the ‘pattern of use’ analysis from even the late ‘80s. When is ‘tear gas’ used in an appropriate and proportionate manner? Can a protestor or bystander among us think of an instance? International law permits its use under the category of ‘riot control’. Thus, it is properly deployed to disperse ‘riots’, not nonviolent gatherings, and not some scattered projectile throwing and minor property destruction.

The very label ‘tear gas’ is a euphemism which obscures that its use on humans: “poses serious health risks and even causes death.” The proper term for ‘tear gas’ is ‘toxic chemical agent’ as PHR employs. As PHR notes, ““Tear gas,” implying that these chemical agents merely cause tearing, is a misnomer.“

Perhaps the roots of the crowd control method should give us pause. The origin of tear gas derives from chemical weapons that became so infamous in WW1.

Lest anyone continue to regard ‘tear gas’ as a mere inconvenience, it has also been implicated as a carcinogen, and may even damage DNA, thus impacting one’s future children and family lineage.
…more

Bahrain court cuts jail terms for attack
AFP/Manama – 8 August, 2012

A Bahraini court yesterday cut jail sentences against 11 people convicted of attacking a soldier and acquitted four others, a lawyer said.

The appeals court reduced the main charge against 15 defendants from attempted murder to “physical attack” on the soldier, while charges of taking part in illegal assemblies and rioting during a month of Shia-led protests last year remained unchanged.

Five of the defendants had their sentences reduced to two years. The sentences against two other defendants were dropped to one year and six months respectively, the lawyer said requesting anonymity.
The 16th defendant lost his right to appeal for remaining at large, he said.

Bahrain’s interior ministry says more than 700 people, including some police officers, have been injured in the protests since the beginning of the year.

Sporadic demonstrations have intensified since a March 2011 crackdown ended month-long protests in Pearl Square demanding democratic reforms.

Meanwhile, the kingdom’s prosecution referred two adolescents to a juveniles centre after charging them with burning tyres to block a street in a Shia village.

Protesters from the Shia community tend to block main roads in their villages outside Manama with burning tyres and garbage containers.

“The prosecution questioned three defendants, including two adolescents, over burning tyres on a main road,” said Nawaf al-Awadi, the public prosecutor in the Northern Province, in a statement. …more

PRESS RELEASE – THE OBSERVATORY

BAHRAIN: Ongoing arbitrary arrests and judicial harassment of human rights defenders

Paris-Geneva, August 9, 2012 – As new cases of arbitrary arrests and ongoing judicial harassment have been reported in Bahrain, the Observatory remains extremely concerned with the very repressive climate faced by human rights defenders in the country.

On August 2, 2012, Ms. Zainab Al-Khawaja was once again arrested while she was protesting alone at Al Qadam roundabout against the arbitrary detention of her father Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), and former MENA Director at Front Line. While arresting Ms. Al-Khawaja, police officers verbally assaulted her and threatened her with reprisals as she was legitimately resisting their orders to give a blood sample. She was finally forcibly led to the Fort Prison Hospital before being transferred to Isa Town Detention Center, where she was kept handcuffed despite a serious leg injury sustained after security forces shot her with tear gas canisters at close range. On August 4, 2012, the Public Prosecution remanded her into custody for seven days.

The Observatory further recalls that Mr. Nabeel Rajab, President of the BCHR, Director of the GCHR and FIDH Deputy Secretary General, has faced constant judicial harassment, as four cases have been brought against him since May 2012 in relation with his human rights activities. Mr. Rajab is still facing three of this cases. In particular, he has been detained since July 9, 2012 and sentenced to 3 months’ imprisonment for alleged libel after he tweeted the following on June 2: “Khalifa, leave the residents of Al Muharraq, its Sheikhs and its elderly. Everyone knows that you are not popular here, and if it wasn’t for the subsidies, they wouldn’t have gone out to welcome you. When will you step down?”

After his arrest and sentencing, his lawyers immediately filed two appeals. One of them requests the suspension of the sentence on the grounds that the investigation did not provide any solid legal basis to convict Mr. Rajab. After several postponments, this appeal was scheduled to be considered by the Higher Appeal Court on August 5, 2012. However, on that day, the judge decided again to postpone the hearing to August 12, officially in order to call the police officer who was in charge of the investigation procedure to the stand.

The Observatory is deeply concerned about this new postponement, as its only aim seems to be to keep Mr. Nabeel Rajab in detention as long as possible, by delaying the examination of the request filed by his lawyers against his 3-month imprisonment sentence. The Observatory reiterates its call on the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him as his detention is arbitrary and only aims at sanctioning his human rights activities.

The Observatory firmly denounces these new developments against human rights activities in Bahrain, and recalls the authorities’ obligation to comply with the international human rights instruments ratified by the Kingdom of Bahrain, and with the 1998 Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Iran hosts Syria talks, calls for national dialogue
9 August, 2012 – By Mohammad Davari – Agence France Presse

TEHRAN: Iran on Thursday hosted a 29-nation conference on Syria with the aim of stopping bloodshed there and forging a role for Tehran as peace-broker for its beleaguered Arab ally.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi opened the meeting by calling for “national dialogue between the (Syrian) opposition, which has popular support, and the Syrian government to establish calm and security,” according to state television.

He added that Iran was prepared to host any such dialogue.

Salehi said Iran was opposed to “any foreign interference and military intervention in resolving the Syrian crisis” and supported efforts extended by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

He said Iran had sent humanitarian aid to Syria to make up for international sanctions on Damascus that he said “are not in the interest of the Syrian people but have added to their suffering.”

Excluded from the Tehran meeting were Western and Gulf Arab nations that Iran has accused of giving military backing to the bloody near 17-month insurgency seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.

State media said the foreign ministers of Iraq, Pakistan and Zimbabwe were present.

Lower-ranking diplomats, most of them ambassadors, represented the other nations.

Salehi listed those nations as: Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Benin, Belarus, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Oman, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

A representative of the United Nations was also present.
…more

Iran denies hostages killed in Syria
9 August, 2012 – Al Akhbar

All the Iranians kidnapped by Syrian rebels last week are alive and well, an Iranian foreign ministry official said, contrary to statements by rebels holding them that three of the captives had been killed in an air attack.

Syrian rebels waging an uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad seized a busload of 48 Iranians in Damascus on August 4. Iran, an ally of Assad, says they are religious pilgrims.

The rebels said on Monday that a government air attack in Damascus province had killed three of the Iranians, and they threatened to kill the remaining captives unless the army stopped its attack.

“Contacts we have made to get information about the fate of the kidnapped pilgrims indicate that all of them are in sound health and there is no indication that some of them were martyred,” Mojtaba Ferdowsipour, head of the Iranian foreign ministry’s Middle East office, told Iran’s Al-Alam television, Fars News Agency reported on Wednesday.

“The published reports in this regard are false,” he said. No details were given about the source of his information. …more

Monarchies of the Arab World in time of Revolution
By Shafeeq Ghabra – Professor of Political Science at Kuwait University – Morocco News

ARAB TIMES

The Arab rebellions which began in December 2012 pressured the monarchies to offer reforms and changes. Although the monarchies have more legitimacy than the long-time rulers of the Arab republics had. But the populations they rule have lived with some of the same lack of political expression, freedoms, and accountability as Arabs under other systems of government. Movements in Jordan and Morocco are trying to gain traction, which is why it is important for the monarchies to present the people with road maps for reform. Moroccan King Mohammed VI has been the most forthcoming in constitutional and political reforms among all the region’s monarchs and has in the short term been able to absorb the energy of the street. This has helped Morocco avoid major instability while also electing a prime minister and a government based on competition between various political parties.

In Jordan King Abdullah II has formed four governments since the Arab spring. Reforms have been limited, however, and challenges from the street movement have gained strength. In May 2012, the resignation of Awn Khasawneh, a reform-oriented prime minister, contributed to the fragmentation of the regime’s political base. Khasawneh had objected to the limitations on his reforms coming from the security apparatus and from the king’s inner circle.
Issues such as unemployment, corruption, democratization, the voting system, and social justice, along with the power of the monarch versus the power of the parliament, stand at the core of the present movement in Jordan. Jordan currently sits at the crossroad of a total system collapse or far-reaching reforms that could lead to a constitutional monarchy. Attempts to avoid major reforms will only exacerbate the situation, plus Jordan’s stability could be shaken once the Syrian rebellion concludes.

In the Gulf, Bahrainis filled the streets to protest discrimination, centralization of power, marginalization of the Shia majority, and policies of politicized naturalization directed against the Shia majority. They also expressed their dissatisfaction with having had the same prime minister for forty years. Bahrainis had agreed through a national document in 2001 with King Hamad Al-Khalifa to turn Bahrain into a constitutional monarchy but it never came to fruition. Bahrainis rebelled in February 2011 but where suppressed and the GCC intervened militarily for the first time ever to support the Bahraini government.
The situation in Bahrain is currently in an uneasy state of paralysis and tension between the people and the regime. Only through reform, rotation of power, and a popularly elected government and prime minister can Bahrain regain true peace. The militarization of the conflict, with some activists taking up arms, is not a remote possibility if the existing stalemate continues. …more

Bahrain and the Gullible Washington Post
John Glaser – 8 August, 2012 – AntiWar.com

In an editorial this week, the Washington Post displays incredible ignorance of US foreign policy. “When the Obama administration resumed military sales to the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain in 2012,” the editors naively write, “it explained the decision as an effort to bolster moderate elements in the monarchy, whose Sunni ruling family has resisted demands for greater democracy from the mostly Shiite population.” Since the brutal Bahraini monarchy has continued abusing its citizens and rejecting democratic reforms, the Post wonders “whether the concession to a regime that has been a close U.S. ally paid off.”

It really doesn’t take a Master’s degree in international relations to know that the Obama administration had no intention of “bolstering moderate elements” in Bahrain. The Nobel Peace Prize winner continued giving money and arms to the Bahraini regime precisely so the movement for democratic reforms could be crushed. Common sense leads to this realization – since when does giving riot gear, tanks, helicopter gunships, and a million pounds of ammunition to dictators encourage moderation?

US support for Bahrain doesn’t bolster anything except US control of the Persian Gulf. The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet directs military operations in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Arabian Sea and secures the Straits of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil passes. It is one of the largest military forces in the region, with 40 vessels and close to 30,000 personnel. It also sticks in the craw of Iran, the primary bogeyman in the region – i.e., the one who doesn’t follow US orders.

But the Post, along with most in the media, can’t manage to utter the obvious, which is that Washington is interested in propping up dictatorships, not opening up societies with democracy and moderates. But at least the Post is complaining about some of the right things:

As Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner reported in testimony to Congress’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission last week, the Bahraini government has continued to prosecute 20 leading political activists; “despite assurances to the contrary,” it obtained the conviction of nine medical professionals who treated opposition activists during demonstrations last year. The country’s best-known human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, is serving prison time for a tweet that called for the resignation of the hard-line prime minister.

Security forces continue to employ harsh tactics to put down demonstrations in Shiite villages, including what a new report by Physicians for Human Rights calls the “indiscriminate use of tear gas as a weapon.” It said police regularly fire tear gas canisters “directly at civilians or into their cars, houses or other closed spaces” in an effort “not just to disperse crowds but to harm, harass, and intimidate the largely Shia neighborhoods that are home to many protesters.” …source

Press Release: UK Company Helps Bahrain Government Spy on Activists

08 August, 2012- by Jadaliyya Reports – SHOAH

UK COMPANY HELPS BAHRAIN GOVT SPY ON ACTIVISTS

Malicious E-Mail Attachments Sent to Activists Steal Passwords, Record Skype Calls

Bahrain’s government is spying on Bahraini activists with a malicious computer program apparently supplied by a UK firm.

Bahrain Watch founding member Bill Marczak, and Citizen Lab security researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire analyzed a string of suspicious e-mails sent to activists over the past two months. The e-mails promised exclusive images or documents about the political situation in Bahrain. Upon closer examination, the e-mails were found to contain attachments that installed a malicious program on a victim’s computer. Some of these e-mails impersonated Al Jazeera English reporter Melissa Chan.

The malicious program was found to record keystrokes, take screenshots, record Skype calls, and steal passwords saved in web browsers, e-mail programs, and instant messaging programs. The malicious program sent this data to an internet address in Bahrain.

The analysis suggests that the malicious program is “FinSpy,” a product of UK firm Gamma International. FinSpy belongs to the FinFisher suite for “Governmental IT Intrusion and Remote Monitoring Solutions.” Gamma International was criticized for apparently selling the same product to Mubarak’s regime in Egypt. Before technology giant Apple closed the security gap, FinSpy would infect computers by tricking users into thinking that it was an iTunes update. London-based NGO Privacy International has threatened to take the UK government to court for failing to control the export of surveillance technology to repressive foreign regimes.

During the analysis of FinSpy, a stolen GMail password was later used in an attempt to access the GMail account, suggesting that the Bahraini government is actively monitoring and exploiting the information captured by FinSpy.

A detailed report of the technical analysis of the program can be read at:
https://citizenlab.org/2012/07/from-bahrain-with-love-finfishers-spy-kit-exposed/3/.

A non-technical report of the analysis by Bloomberg News can be read at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-25/cyber-attacks-on-activists-traced-to-finfisher-spyware-of-gamma.html.

Bahrain Watch would like to extend its gratitude to all of the activists, researchers, and journalists, including those at Bloomberg News, who contributed to this story.

Have I Been Infected?

The malicious e-mails analyzed were sent from the following addresses:

melissa.aljazeera@gmail.com
freedombhrtoday@gmail.com
mkhalil1975@gmail.com

The malicious e-mails analyzed had the following subject lines:

Existence of a new dialogue – Al-Wefaq & Government authority
Torture reports on Nabeel Rajab
King Hamad planning
Breaking News from Bahrain – 5 Suspects Arrested

The malicious attachments display images or documents when opened. If you have received e-mails with these subject lines or from these addresses, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENTS. If you opened one of the attachments, your computer may be infected. STOP USING THE INFECTED COMPUTER IMMEDIATELY.

If you have received these e-mails, or any other suspicious e-mail about Bahrain with an attachment, please contact bill@bahrainwatch.org with details.

Tips for Safe Internet Usage

Do not open unsolicited attachments received via email, Skype or any other communications mechanism. If you believe that you are being targeted, be especially cautious when downloading files over the Internet, even from links that are purportedly sent by friends. .…source