Bahrain opposition party launches “Gangs of Darkness Campaign”: “$10 million stolen from citizens in house raids”
26 July, 2012 – BJDM

$10 million worth of property and cash has been stolen during house raids in Bahrain over the past year, said Al Wefaq National Islamic Society during a press conference to launch a new campaign “Gangs of Darkness”.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the “constant attacks on homes” in Bahrain by security forces. According to Al Wefaq’s documentation department 270 homes were “raided, robbed or vandalized” in June and July 2012 alone.

Khalil Almarzooq, a leading figure of Al Wefaq, said in a press conference, “These crimes cannot have been committed without an official will.” He went on to add, “The King of Bahrain is responsible for this number (270 raids).”

The number of raids in homes seems to have increased in the past couple of months, with Al Wefaq regularly reporting of areas that have suffered from such attacks. Last week the opposition party said that a young woman was attacked whilst showering during a raid on her home.

Almarzooq stressed the need for a broad campaign across the political spectrum to condemn the “terrifying raids”. He addressed the Crown Prince of Bahrain in saying “We have condemned all forms of violence from the opposition in all of our speeches, it is now your turn to condemn these unjustifiable raids during your Ramadan visits this evening.”

According to documentation by Al Wefaq in all cases the raids are carried out either by police or armed civilians who are supported by the police. A statement said, “These masked armed civilians, supported by the police, are fixing police badges on their clothing. All documentation proves that police are directly involved in the raiding of homes.” …more

READ ABOUT “Arms Trade Treaty” HERE

5 Bahrainis detained from Sadad Village, several critically injured
27 July, 2012 – Shia Post

5 Bahraini citizens from Sadad Village have been detained after riot police stormed their house without an arrest warrant last nigh, while several Bahraini were also short injured during the raids, The Shia Post reports.

According to sources near about 300 houses in Bahrain has been raided where dozens Bahrainis have been short injured with bird-short gun and teargas fires.

According to sources Mahooz protester suffers from dangerous injuries after he was shot by bahrain security forces with pellets yesterday.

Maryam Al Khawaja, the acting president of Bahrain Center for Human Rights has shown deep concern by Quoting “I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that protesters in Bahrain still do not have access to hospitals due to fear of areas.”

Child Mohammed Mansoor Mattar’s mother was able to see him at the military hospital, said body was covered in pellet.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging regular demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

According to human rights organization Amnesty International, scores of people have been killed since the protests first erupted in February 2011.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on the peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in the crackdown.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have also been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protester. …more

Secret Turkish nerve center leads aid to Syria rebels
27 July, 2012 – By Regan Doherty, Amena Bakr – Reuters – The Daily Star

DOHA/DUBAI: Turkey has set up a secret base with allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar to direct vital military and communications aid to Syria’s rebels from a city near the border, Gulf sources have told Reuters.

News of the clandestine Middle East-run “nerve centre” working to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad underlines the extent to which Western powers – who played a key role in unseating Moammar Gaddafi in Libya – have avoided military involvement so far in Syria.

“It’s the Turks who are militarily controlling it. Turkey is the main co-ordinator/facilitator. Think of a triangle, with Turkey at the top and Saudi Arabia and Qatar at the bottom,” said a Doha-based source.

“The Americans are very hands-off on this. U.S. intelligence are working through middlemen. Middlemen are controlling access to weapons and routes.”

The centre in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 100 km (60 miles) from the Syrian border, was set up after Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Saud visited Turkey and requested it, a source in the Gulf said. The Turks liked the idea of having the base in Adana so that they could supervise its operations, he added.

A Saudi foreign ministry official was not immediately available to comment on the operation.

Adana is home to Incirlik, a large Turkish/U.S. air force base which Washington has used in the past for reconnaissance and military logistics operations. It was not clear from the sources whether the anti-Syrian “nerve centre” was located inside Incirlik base or in the city of Adana.

Qatar, the tiny gas-rich Gulf state which played a leading part in supplying weapons to Libyan rebels, has a key role in directing operations at the Adana base, the sources said. Qatari military intelligence and state security officials are involved.

“Three governments are supplying weapons: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia,” said a Doha-based source.

Ankara has officially denied supplying weapons.

“All weaponry is Russian. The obvious reason is that these guys (the Syrian rebels) are trained to use Russian weapons, also because the Americans don’t want their hands on it. All weapons are from the black market. The other way they get weapons is to steal them from the Syrian army. They raid weapons stores.”

The source added: “The Turks have been desperate to improve their weak surveillance, and have been begging Washington for drones and surveillance.” The pleas appear to have failed. “So they have hired some private guys come do the job.”

President Barack Obama has so far preferred to use diplomatic means to try to oust Assad, although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signalled this week that Washington plans to step up help to the rebels.

…more

Bahrain: Repression intensifies as Revolution re-invigorated
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 27 July, 2012

Since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadhan the Bahraini Revolution has escalated dramatically. At least 25 demonstrations have taken place every day and night with one clear message:

The people want regime change. Chanting like “Down with Hamad” has become the standard slogan uttered by the men and women participating in those protests. The regime’s brutality has also not diminished. The use of chemical gases has intensified dramatically in the past three weeks. While the zeal of the people has intensified, the regime’s repression knows no bounds. Makeshift clinics in towns and villages have offered first aid to the victims who fear for their life to go to the main hospital at Salmaniya which is run by the military. Many observers believe that the situation has reached the point of no-return. The Alkhalifa regime is doomed as the people unanimously refuse to accept to be ruled by tribal hereditary dictatorship. Neither side is in a mood to compromise or engage in any form of dialogue. The hostilities have become so entrenched in the public domain that it is hard to imagine any kind of reconciliation between the two sides.

The Alkhalifa have lost the opportunity to retain any degree of power. They have reduced their choices to one; crushing the people to the ground with no compromise. On 23rd July Amnesty International called on the Alkhalifa to release all political prisoners: Bahrain must release all prisoners of conscience immediately and without conditions, Amnesty, ahead of appeals in the cases of a prominent human rights activist and a group of medical workers. Yet the regime deferred the case of Nabeel Rajab for another session in September. “The charade of justice has gone on too long in Bahrain, and all prisoners of conscience must be set free immediately and unconditionally before these appeals take place,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Programme Director.

“All convictions against them should be quashed.”

Nine months ago the Bissiouni report also recommended that these prisoners be released. None of the serious recommendations of the report has been implemented.

In another development, Bahraini Pro-democracy activists received the malware in Washington, London and Manama, the capital of Bahrain, the Persian Gulf kingdom that has been gripped by tension since a crackdown on protests last year.

Researchers believe they’ve identified copies of FinFisher, (a spyware sold by U.K.- based Gamma Group) based on an examination of malicious software e-mailed to Bahraini activists, they say. Their research, which is being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab, is based on five different e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News from people targeted by the malware.

On Monday 23rd July The Times newspaper published a one page article about Bahrain titled “Police ‘dodge security clean-up by torturing detainees at secret sites” highlighting the tactics adopted by the regime in its repression of activists.

The detainees whose number now exceeds 1200 are now facing severe crackdown. At the Dry Dock Prison detainees have been attacked at the middle of the night as a means of intimidation and repression. The cooling system has been switched off intermittently and the detainees have been subjected to more torture and beating.
…more

Obama fails to bring Bush-era gangsters to justice
26 July, 2012 – By Colin S. Cavell

However, his supporters are upset with him for not following through on his promises to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, bring any of the Bush gang to justice for waging illegal wars, breaking international and national laws forbidding torture, addressing climate change dangers, etc.”

Former US Presidential candidate and one-term Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the US Congress today as an invited guest to voice his opinion before a hearing dubbed as “Taking Back Our Democracy: Responding to Citizens United and the Rise of Super PACs.”

Roemer lambasted the role of corporate money which now controls the US presidential campaign process in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a landmark case decided two years ago in 2010 in which “the Court held that the First Amendment [to the US Constitution] prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.” Commenting on the electoral system in light of this court ruling, Roemer declared: “It’s bought!”

Senator Dick Durban (D-Ill.) said that the court case now allows for “super-secret PACs” set up by billionaires to “control our political agenda” thus disenfranchising the average American voter. This sentiment was echoed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who stated that the Citizens United ruling is turning the US back into an oligarchic system putting all power into the hands of a few millionaires and billionaires.

The Citizens United (2010) ruling is only one of many tactics being utilized by the Republican Party opposition to try and unseat the country’s first African-American president, Barack Obama, in his bid for reelection to a second term in office this coming November. Trying not to appear too radical, Obama has temporarily salvaged the US capitalist economy from a near total economic meltdown, restored a sense of sanity to the Executive Branch of government which former President George W. Bush had almost totally shredded, and provided the US with a cover for its historical record of slavery and discrimination against Blacks and other ethnic minorities.

However, his supporters are upset with him for not following through on his promises to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, bring any of the Bush gang to justice for waging illegal wars, breaking international and national laws forbidding torture, addressing climate change dangers, etc.

Nonetheless, the ouster in 2008 of perhaps the most criminal US regime in American history, the George W. Bush Administration, and his replacement by an avowed liberal and relatively dynamic highly-educated Black man, has infuriated a section of the US ruling class which seeks to maintain a white-dominated political system in order to preserve its asymmetrical control over property, profits, and privileges accumulated over the previous two and a half plus centuries of white European domination on the North America continent.

Not only have death threats against Obama increased by a reported 400% from his predecessor but, as well, the number of white supremacist militia groups in the US has grown by 35% since 2000. The rise of the so-called “Tea Party” movement-funded mostly by the billionaire Koch brothers and the like-initiated a faux populist movement which labeled Obama a socialist, a communist, a Marxist-Leninist, an atheist, a Muslim, a left-winger, an anti-capitalist, un-American, etc., etc., etc. in an attempt to discredit him and his policies. Indeed, this billionaire-funded revanchist movement continues to this day to maintain that Obama was not born in the United States and, legally, therefore, is not eligible to be the president of the United States. …more

Saudi police fire on Shiite protest
27 July, 2012 – Agence France Presse

DUBAI: Saudi security forces opened fire on Shiite protesters in the tense Qatif district of Eastern Province on Friday, wounding several as hundreds marched to demand the release of detainees, witnesses said.

Live rounds fired by anti-riot police wounded a number of protesters who took to the streets in the early hours, the witnesses said, without specifying a figure.

The interior ministry said security forces dealt with “rioters who burned tyres” in parts of Qatif, arresting several people, including Mohammed al-Shakhuri, whose name figures on a list of 23 wanted people.

“There were no casualties,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Witnesses said Shakhuri had been taken to the military hospital in nearby Dhahran with bullet wounds to his back and neck.

The demonstrators carried posters of Shiite detainees, including prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who was arrested earlier this month, witnesses said.

In recent days, confrontations have intensified between police and protesters from the kingdom’s marginalized Shiite minority — estimated at about two million and mostly concentrated in the oil-rich Eastern Province.

Two Shiite protesters were killed earlier this month, triggering attacks on government buildings in Qatif.

The district witnessed a spate of protests after an outbreak of violence between Shiite pilgrims and religious police in the Muslim holy city of Medina in February last year.

The protests escalated when the kingdom led a force of Gulf troops into neighboring Bahrain the following month to help crush a Shiite-led uprising against the Sunni monarchy.

Meanwhile, the family of Nimr said the cleric had been transferred from the military hospital in Dhahran, where he was receiving treatment for a bullet wound, to another in the capital.

And Shiite writer Nazir al-Majed, who was arrested in March last year for taking part in protests, was released on Thursday, relatives said, adding that he was never charged or put on trial.

…source

The US “democracy wars” has made center its piece a strategy of “bombing them back tot he stone age”. When a sympathetic “democracy” cannot be obtained it simply facilitates the destruction of “unfriendly states” through agitating subversion and “civil insurrection” or in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq, the US actually used aerial bombardment and boots on the ground to achieve the goal. The strategy is simply leave “unfriendly states” infrastructure and technical capabilities in ruins so they will be decades in recovery. This is the effective neutralization of the “unfriendly state”, giving the US and its “friends” a dominant position through stability and growth. – Phlipn

Mood: Syria may be worse after Assad
27 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

The former head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Robert Mood, said on Friday that President Bashar al-Assad’s fall was only a matter of time but that his exit might not end the conflict and that the violence could even get worse afterwards.

“Sooner or later, the regime will fall,” said the Norwegian general, whose mandate to lead a 300-strong misson ended last week amid a sharp spike in violence.

“The spiral of violence, the lack of proportion in the regime’s reactions, its incapacity to protect the civilian population, mean that the regime’s days are numbered, but will it fall in a week or in a year? That is a question I do not dare answer,” he told AFP.

But Mood warned that Assad’s fall may not lead to the end of the conflict, hinting that the country could be drawn further into a civil war.

“Many think that if Bashar al-Assad falls or that if he is given an honorable exit… the problem will be solved. That is an over-simplification one should be wary of. The situation could even get worse,” Mood told a news conference.

“On the other hand, it is important to say that it is impossible to imagine a future Syria with the current power holders still in place.”

Mood,who left Damascus on 19 July, has been replaced by Senegalese Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, who has taken over a drastically reduced mission with just 150 observers and a mandate of only 30 days.

The UN Supervision Mission in Syria was deployed in April to oversee a ceasefire that was largely not respected and in mid-June stopped carrying out patrols as fighting intensified. …source

Kurds force Iraqi troops from Syrian border
27 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Kurdish-Iraqi forces have prevented Iraqi military troops from reaching the border region between the Kurdistan region of Iraq and Syria, the secretary general of the Ministry of Peshmerga told AFP on Friday.

Jabbar Yawar said: “Two days ago the Iraqi government sent military forces to the areas of Talafir and Sanajar in Mosul to protect the Iraqi-Syria border.”

“They are the tenth group to have come from Nasiriyah, southern Baghdad. The 32 regiment of this group tried to access Mosul at 6 o clock coming from Rabia (North West Iraq) to Zamar, but were prevented by the Eighth brigade of the ministry of Peshmerga (Kurdish military) who asked them not to enter the territory.”

There informal border crossing between Syria and the Kurdistan region of western Iraq is near the town of Dohuk, which has been controlled by the Peshmerga since 1992.

Yawar cited the reason for preventing the military form reaching this area as a lack of “prior coordination.”

“They did not come after having previously coordinated with us. These are disputed areas in which the second brigade of the Peshmerga forces and well as the 15th brigade of border police are present.”

These areas do not need any additional troops. They are safe and stable, and nothing happens with the Syrian side,” he added.

Recently, Iraqi authorities have deployed additional troops at the borders with Syria which are witnessing clashes between Syrian pro-regime forces and the armed opposition, who control one of the 3 key crossing between the two countries. …source

Iraq says blocking al-Qaeda moves to Syria
27 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

The Iraqi Interior Ministry denied reports on Friday that al-Qaeda militants were infiltrating Syria from the Iraqi border, days after Islamist militants stormed several border crossings.

The Iraqi Media Network reported the ministry’s undersecretary Ahmad al-Khafaji as saying “border guards in coordination with the Iraqi army closed all the ports that the organization al-Qaeda could have used to pass into Syria.”

The international community has warned of an influx of al-Qaeda militants from Iraq into Syria.

Baghdad also reiterated its decision to welcome Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in many Syrian cities, and has allocated 50 billion dinars ($40 million) for the erection of tents on the border with Iraq to house them.

On Tuesday, German intelligence agency BND claimed that al-Qaeda was responsible for at least 90 terror attacks in Syria. The revelations confirm widespread Western fears of al-Qaeda’s growing involvement in the crisis.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has frequently contended that his forces are fighting primarily an Islamist insurgency, although it is unclear how prominent Islamist insurgents are in the rebellion. …more

Turkey says won’t allow ‘terrorist’ groups at Syria border
27 July, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

ISTANBUL: Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday Turkey would not allow what he called “terrorist” groups like the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or al Qaeda to establish a presence in Syria near the Turkish border.

In a live interview with Kanal 24 television channel, Davutoglu did not specify what steps Turkey would take to prevent activities by such groups along its southeastern border.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey could act against a “terrorist” organisation in northern Syria if it perceived it as a threat – a warning to Kurdish militants believed to be active in the region.

…source

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” …I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence…. I would rather … resort to arms in order to defend … honour than…, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to [our] own dishonor. – Mahatma Gandhi

As usual I’m catching some shit for affirming tactics that are considered violent by some – see side bar videos. All this from some of my “liberal friends” who think standing in line for a camping permit so they can “occupy the park” is the revolution. I really struggle with those who have turned “non-violent resistance” into an infallible religious tenet that now stands as the “eighth deadly sin”. They confuse legitimate anger and subsequent action with Wrath. Recently some have had the audacity to “parrot”, “too bad about Bahrain, the movement has gone violent, no one will listen to them now”. Even the US State Department has uttered such nonsense. Seriously??? – …like anyone in the US was listening to begin with, aside from NGOs who are required to hold such lines in order to maintain funding sources… It would seem many find “violence” as a convenient excuse to abandon moral responsibility for the actions of their own government(USA) and a mechanism to reinforce their own “self righteousness”. Anyway, for those of you who might be struggling with such things, I found the article below to be edifying and affirming… – Phlipn

Against Chris Hedges and Some Others
anon – 24 July, 2012 – Anarchist News dot org

– There is a special hatred reserved for the journalists of moral authority. It appears to be difficult for them to conceive that a revolt may be a revolt against them. Their signs of race, class and establishment undermine their writing and the more they harp on the imperfections of those who riot, the more they make themselves the enemy of the different.

– This is nowhere clearer than in the demand that revolt articulate itself eloquently. The value of the journalist’s critique is lost in a social system of dominance in which the journalist is uncritical of his own situation, and dominates. Thus does the academician fall into step with the fat policeman and the great body of so-called intellectual work conforms to that of the night-stick.
[I’ll do the first two for you: Argument from final Consequences, Confusing association with causation]

There are at least two ways in which Black Bloc anarchists are not cancers: one, in a theory of difference (Deleuze) in which the repetitions of the Black Bloc exhibit a difference which is not compossable with the established left – with consciousness raising; the other, in a theory of symbolic retribution (Baudrillard) in which the Black Bloc assumes its position as a violent and evil yang to the beautiful souls’ – to the Business/ Rulers and their journalists’ – white yin.

In a first scenario, the Black Bloc is criticized for having gone too far: they’re undoing the possibilities and great advances (sic) of the official, professional, pacifist and business left; they aggress rather than accept their historical place of punishment and self-sacrifice; they act upon material conditions rather than mouthing the (rather lame) official platform; they’re dangerous to the children in strollers who’ve been brought to witness and legitimize Daddy’s and Mommy’s discontent.

With Deleuze, we can respond that the Black Bloc is a ‘different’ which is comprehended in its repetitions: it is an anarchic, nomadic minority which does not benefit by integrating; which speaks a language of its own in contrast to the King’s English; and which, as a minority exerts its own selectivity in relation to its affections and its repulsions. There’s as little room for this type of difference as there is, say, in a classroom: if you can’t conform, if you can’t speak properly, you’re a failure. This is in fact the central reason why racial, cultural and class Others find little space in majoritarian protests – the dominant hasn’t been undone.

In a second scenario, the Black Bloc is criticized for not having gone far enough: they haven’t really harmed capital, only bumped up its defense mechanisms; they haven’t achieved a real and lasting change to the system which can only happen in attacks on the brain-centers and at connecting nodes in the system; they lack the proper tools, can only destroy and never build the new society which must replace the present one.

With Baudrillard, it is possible to state that the Black Bloc is simply the projection of the established left’s violent and evil twin. In his explanation of symbolic duality, every light has its shadow, every white its black, every yin its yang. When an entity can’t admit to and accept its own violent and evil tendencies it projects them onto a cultural other who becomes the black sheep – the Black Bloc. In this way, the Black Bloc carries all the violent fantasies and the dark eros to which the beautiful soul can’t admit.

There remains then, at least in logic, two tasks for the Black Bloc: to detach itself from the official, professional and established left, refusing to be its shadow; and as an anarchic, and nomadic minority, to increase its strength in the selection of its affections and repulsions. One would think that since it does not benefit from integration into the majoritarian, dominant reality that it should increase its invisibility to that system and pursue its own desires underneath the establishment’s radar. Along with the Black Bloc’s production of a surface for action, one hopes there will be a surface of recording by which others might share in their joy. The only question is whether one has been careful enough.

Long, Live Anarchy!
…source

tuyo en la lucha. su amigo – Phlipn.

Police violence in Anaheim: The class issues
by World Socialist… 26 July, 2012 – Socialist Equality Party

Statement by Jerry White, SEP candidate for US president

As the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate for US president, I condemn the brutal shooting of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz in Anaheim and the subsequent violent crackdown on protesters. These acts of police brutality are an attack on the entire working class and must be met with a unified political response.

The killing of Diaz, who was unarmed, was followed by the use of tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful demonstrators, including children. Barely 24 hours later, 21-year-old Joel Acevedo was shot dead, allegedly in the course of a chase in which he drew a weapon. Acevedo was the sixth person killed by Anaheim police this year.

In response to the second killing, there were even larger protests Tuesday outside City Hall, with as many as a thousand people taking part, and 24 arrested. There was sporadic window-breaking and water bottles thrown, which was seized on by police as a pretext for unleashing nightsticks and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

These protests show the widespread anger among working people, not only over police brutality, but over the deepening economic and social crisis that has driven unemployment in California well into double-digit figures. The plight of Anaheim’s Hispanic working class population, the target of increasingly draconian anti-immigrant policies, is particularly dire.

The police violence, and the social crisis behind it, are not, however, primarily racial issues. They are class questions, manifestations of an economic system in which a relative handful monopolize the wealth, while the vast majority of all races struggle to survive.

According to one recent report, median family income has fallen 6 percent since 2000, the worst drop since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, the top one percent of households has doubled its share of national income, from 10 percent to 20 percent, since 1972. Under Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president, the top one percent has swallowed up 93 percent of all income gains since the beginning of the so-called “recovery.”

Under such conditions, it is impossible for the ruling elite to maintain its wealth and power through democratic and peaceful means. Instead, there has been a systematic buildup of the powers of the police, initially in name of fighting “crime,” more recently using the pretext of the “war on terror.” The real social function of the police, however, is to defend the interests of the corporate and financial elite. …more

Elusive FinFisher Spyware Identified and Analyzed
25 July, 2012 – By Parker Higgins – Electronic Frontier Foundation

The FinFisher spyware, produced by the UK-based Gamma Group, has been for years as elusive as it was notorious. Since protesters found FinFisher company records in an abandoned Egyptian state security building last year, security researchers and activists around the world have been eager to get their hands on a copy of the tools in the FinFisher suite, especially the component called FinSpy. FinSpy has been the subject of particular interest because of its ability to wiretap calls made over the Skype network, which is widely used among activists all over the world, often in the belief that it is more secure than other forms of communication.

Now for the first time, a copy of the spyware has been publicly analyzed. Morgan Marquis-Boire, a security researcher at Citizen Lab, and Bill Marczak, a founding member of Bahrain Watch, have published an in-depth analysis of FinSpy after obtaining a copies of the program used to target pro-democracy activists.1 The targeted activists were each involved with the government transparency organization Bahrain Watch, but were located in different cities around the world. The spyware was included in targeted attachments that purported to come from an Al-Jazeera journalist and contain pictures and information about current events in Bahrain.

It’s not clear that Bahrain Watch was being targeted specifically. “The malware seemed to have targeted people who are involved in activist organizations, particularly activists who have significant contacts outside of Bahrain,” said Marczak.

The activists were suspicious of the email attachments they had received and passed the files along to Bloomberg News, which turned them over to Marquis-Boire. In addition to posting materials on the Citizen Lab site, he will be presenting the results of his analysis at the BlackHat security conference today in Las Vegas. Perhaps the most notable difference Marquis-Boire has revealed between FinSpy and less sophisticated malware tools like those used by the Syrian government is the way in which this software was designed to defy analysis: not only was FinSpy actively avoiding detection by anti-virus programs, but it was also heavily “booby-trapped,” causing many of the most popular debugging programs to crash during attempts to analyze and identify the code.

Gamma and FinFisher have come under heavy international scrutiny for their apparent willingness to export sophisticated surveillance technologies to oppressive government regimes. Hosni Mubarak’s government in Egypt is just one example. According to Privacy International, “there is also evidence that this technology has been deployed in Turkmenistan, a one-party state that Human Rights Watch labelled ‘one of the world’s most repressive countries’ in March 2012.” Privacy International is currently engaged in legal action against the British government. The action arose after Privacy International issued repeated requests for information about why the government has chosen not to exercise its powers under the Export Control Act of 2002 to restrict sales of technical goods or services to governments that could be used to commit human rights abuses. FinFisher’s products appear to fall into that category.

Similarly, EFF has been calling for companies that produce surveillance technology to adopt “Know Your Customer” standards, like those required by Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other export regulations, and avoid becoming “repression’s little helper.” An EFF white paper from April of this year, “Human Rights and Technology Sales,” addresses the problem in greater depth.

For its part, FinFisher has chosen to hide behind claims of client confidentiality. In an article in the Wall Street Journal last year, a lawyer for Gamma said it “cannot otherwise comment upon its confidential business transactions or the nature of the products it offers.” But promotional materials, obtained through the files discovered in Egypt and through Wikileaks releases, are more forthcoming. As reported by OWNI, one 2007 presentation boasted of “Black Hat Hacking tactics to enable Intelligence Agencies to gather information from target systems that would be otherwise extremely difficult to obtain legally.”

Citizen Lab has provided a set of straightforward recommendations that advise against opening unsolicited attachments, even from links that appear to be from friends. And now that security researchers have obtained a copy of FinSpy, work can begin on preparing tools that can detect and remove the program from infected computers. …source

Foreign jihadists swell rebel ranks in Syria
26 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

In restive northwest Syria, the insurgency has found an unlikely new partner in the struggle against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad: foreign Islamists who are arriving in large numbers.

But rather than adopt the revolt’s calls for democracy and the fall of a dictatorial regime, such jihadists have taken a sectarian stance, promoting hatred against the minority Alawi sect, which they consider as “apostates.”

At the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, seized by Islamist militants last week, dozens of men claimed to have traveled from several Arab and Muslim countries.

Some said they were from Algeria, others claimed to be from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. A few say they are from even farther away, including insurgent hotbeds such as Chechnya and Somalia.

From the start of the 16-month uprising – which has grown into an armed insurgency backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey – the Syrian regime has claimed rebels were hosting al-Qaeda fighters, and that the revolt was a foreign conspiracy.

It is unclear just how many foreign jihadist fighters have entered the country.

What is clear is that Syria’s rebels do not want to admit that the jihadist phenomenon exists.

In the central province of Hama, a rebel who identifies himself as Abu Ammar says he commands a 1,200-strong battalion.

“We will never let al-Qaeda take root here – we’ll kill them if they try,” he says. “The revolution belongs to the Syrians.”

But eyewitness accounts suggest those fighters are coming whether he likes it or not, some of them likely to have been spurred by militant websites urging Islamists to join the uprising. …more

Israel’s Barak calls for swifter action against Iran
26 July, 2012 – By Allyn Fisher-Ilan – Reuters

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Wednesday for major powers to speed up efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program, cautioning it would be tougher to confront it once Tehran managed to cross an atomic threshold.

Israeli media interpreted Barak’s comments as pushing for a possible Israeli strike against Iran to stop a project the West sees as a drive to achieve nuclear weapons though Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons, saying its program is intended solely for peaceful purposes.

“I am very well aware and know in depth the difficulties and complexity involved in preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons,” Barak told a graduation ceremony for security officers, in remarks later released by his office.

“But it is clear to me beyond any doubt that confronting that (nuclear) challenge in itself once it ripens if it ripens, will be infinitely more complex infinitely more dangerous and infinitely more costly in human life and resources,” he said.

“This is the time for the entire world to ready for united action, united goal in political desire in order to put a swift and definite stop to the Iranian nuclear project,” Barak said.

In his lengthy remarks, Barak said Israel now faced “its most complex challenges ever”, adding “we may need to make fateful and difficult decisions with regard to Israel’s security,” pointing also to what he called growing instability posed by popular revolts in neighboring Arab countries.

“The events of the Arab spring, which have gradually evolved into an Islamic summer, show that at the ultimate hour of decision we can rely at the moment of truth on ourselves alone,” Barak said.
…more

Bahrain’s Leeds Utd takeover likely in 2 weeks – report
By Shane McGinley – 26 July, 2012 – Arabiain Business

A group of investors, led by a member of the Bahraini royal family, is likely to conclude its takeover of English football club Leeds United within the next two weeks, according to a report in the UK.

Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa, the man who led a failed takeover of the side in 2003, is reportedly part of a consortium close to completing a deal for the Championship side.

“The club has been talks with a group of investors led by the Bahrani royal Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa… [and] are now, as we understand it, on the brink of a takeover which should be completed in the next fortnight,” talkSPORT, the UK’s biggest national commercial sports radio station, said in a report this week.

Sheikh Abdulrahman’s representatives are believed to be carrying out due diligence on the club’s finances and the asking price has been estimated at around GBP£50m (US$77.6m), the report added.

Al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain’s ruling dynasty, was part of a consortium including representatives from Saudi Arabia and Asia which failed to push through a takeover deal just under a decade ago, local newspaper the Yorkshire Post reported earlier this month.

A successful takeover would follow hot on the heels of Nottingham Forest’s sale to Kuwait’s Al Hasawi family. The Kuwaitis were reported to have also considered buying Leeds United.

The Yorkshire club said in a statement: “Leeds United can confirm they have granted an exclusivity period to enable a potential investor to carry out the appropriate due diligence.

“It is anticipated this will be a fairly straightforward process. A confidentiality clause prevents the club from making any further comment.”

The statement did not mention the value of the potential deal or names of anyone involved.

The latest acquisition would give Al-Khalifa automatic membership to an elite club of Gulf investors that own European football teams. Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited, led by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, acquired Manchester City for a reported US$321m in summer 2008.

Qatar Sports Investments bought a 70 percent stake in French football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in June last year. The investment firm became the sole shareholder of the club after purchasing the remaining 30 percent stake in March.

Dubai’s Royal Emirates Group owns the Spanish La Liga side Getafe. …source

Syrian FM: Dabagh Excluded from Office, Hariri and Tahsin not Ambassadors
Local Editor – 26 July 2012

On the backdrop of news circulated on employees at the Syrian Foreign Ministry who chose to quit their diplomatic work and travel to certain Arab countries, Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Thursday, pointing out that not only Dabagh is excluded from office, but also Hariri and Tahsin are not ambassadors and actions will be taken against them.

The News of Syrian Diplomatic Defections is Greatly Exaggerated

“Over the past two days, the media outlets tackled news related to workers at the Syrian Foreign Ministry who chose to quit their diplomatic missions and travel to a specific Arab capital which committed itself to fund and encourage this kind of employees to dissent,” the statement read.

The Foreign Ministry made clear that the Syrian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Abdullatif Dabbagh, has quit work since last June 4, adding that Lamia Hariri “did not hold in previous and currently doesn’t hold the title of Syrian Ambassador, but she is just a diplomat working in the Syrian embassy to Cyprus and committed to manage the embassy on behalf of the pending appointment of an acting chargé d’affaires or ambassador.”

“Mohammed Tahsin al-Faqir does not hold any diplomatic status but he is an administrative officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working at the embassy to the Sultanate of Oman. His mission at the embassy has been completed under the resolution No. 129 issued since 21/05/2012 and is awaiting for retirement within months. He does not have any security status at all,” the statement added.

“The Foreign Ministry has taken the necessary measures against dissident diplomats, noting that the Syrian embassies to the concerned countries are still on regular service for Syrian nationals,” the statement concluded. …more

While this seems to be a great service, it only provides a filter to obscure the faces of those who protest and speak-out against their governments. Keep in mind this is a filter, the unfiltered video still exists, leaving an unprotected copy available and vulnerable to both warranted and unwarranted requests from government agencies and “security contractors”. Phlipn

YouTube Offers a Way to Blur Faces, Protecting Identities in Videos
By JENNIFER PRESTON – 26 July, 2012 – NYT

To help protect dissidents using video to tell their stories in countries with repressive government regimes, YouTube made available a new tool on Wednesday allowing people to obscure faces within videos uploaded onto its platform.

Protecting the identity of activists using social media has become a growing concern among human rights groups as authoritarian governments in some countries, including Syria, have been turning to citizen-generated videos of protests and other user-generated content on social media sites to identify and jail dissidents.

“Visual anonymity in video allows people to share personal footage more widely and to speak out when they otherwise may not,” Amanda Conway, a YouTube policy associate, wrote in a statement about the new tool. She pointed out that “human rights footage, in particular, opens up new risks to the people posting videos and to those filmed.”

Sam Gregory, program director for Witness.org, the leading human rights video advocacy and training organization, praised the move. Witness.org recently began collaborating with YouTube on a new human rights channel.

Mr. Gregory has been trying to raise awareness among dissidents and operators of social media sites about the importance of anonymity for activists when speaking out can put them at risk of retaliation.

In recent years, Mr. Gregory said, government officials in places like Myanmar, Iran and Syria have used videos of protests to identify dissidents. “There have been clear attempts to use citizen-shot footage to target people and punish them for speaking out against the regime,” Mr. Gregory said.

But Mr. Gregory said the tool would help more people than the activists involved in protests. He said that it would also protect the identity of people who want to use video to speak out about subjects like sexual assault and abuse. …more

Iran urges Syrian sides to fully implement Annan’s peace plan
25 July, 2012 – Shia Post

Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow Mohammad Reza Sajjadi has called on sparring sides in the Syrian conflict to support the full implementation of the plan by the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan for a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.

In a meeting between Sajjadi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Wednesday, the two sides called for the settlement of the Syrian issue through peaceful ways and negotiations.

They stressed that the Syrian issue should be resolved without foreign meddling in the country’s internal affairs, urging “foreign players” to refrain from pursuing the approach of interference as it would bear no results.

The Iranian and Russian officials stressed the importance of putting an end to violence in Syria and called on countries which are supporting the opposition to the Syrian government to push them to stop terrorist attacks against civilians in the country.

Bogdanov, for his part, said Russia’s principled stance is based on the joint efforts by the international community with the purpose of implementing Annan’s peace plan.

Tehran has repeatedly reaffirmed its full support for Annan’s six-point plan on ending the unrest in Syria.

On March 11, Annan said he had presented a set of concrete proposals to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during two rounds of talks in Damascus. His six-point plan was to begin with a cease-fire in mid-April between government forces and rebels seeking to topple the Syrian government. …more

Iran ready to share “capabilities” with Assad
26 July, 2012c- Al Akhbar

A high-ranking Iranian official says his country is ready to share “experience and capabilities” with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

In a report published late on Wednesday by official news agency IRNA, Iran’s vice president in charge of international affairs, Ali Saeedlou, described the two countries as powerful nations able to influence regional and global stability.

“Tehran is ready to give its experience and capabilities to its friend and brother nation of Syria,” he said, after meeting with Syria’s deputy prime minister, Omar Ibrahim Ghalawanji.

IRNA said Ghalawanji described Syria as facing serious challenges as a result of “cruel sanctions” imposed by the US, European Union, and Arab countries on Damascus over its handling of a 17-month uprising. …source

Turkey warns it would strike PKK fighters inside Syria
26 July, 2012 – Agence France Presse – The Daily Star

PARIS: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of letting Turkey’s Kurdish rebels operate inside the north of the country and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike against them.

“In the north, it (President Bashar Assad’s regime) has allotted five provinces to the Kurds, to the terrorist organization,” Erdogan told Turkish television late Wednesday, referring to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). Asked if Ankara would strike fleeing rebels after an attack on Turkish soil, Erdogan said “That’s not even a matter of discussion, it is a given. That is the objective, that is what must be done.”
…source

Bahraini forces detain 15 years Ebrahim Al Moqdad
24 July, 2012 – Shia Post

US-Saudi backed Bahraini regime forces have detained 15 years teenager Ebrahim Moqdad on Tuesday 24th July 2012 and shifted him to unknown place. The Shia Post reported.

According to eyewitness Ebrahim Al Moqdad was seen being dragged to a farm brutally beaten in Belad Al-Qadeem village.

After the missing of Ebrahim Al Moqdad, his family is worried about his life and has termed him on risk.

Bahrain Center for Human Rights have also contained the detention Ebrahim Al Moqdad by saying that 38 hours has been passed since riot police kidnapped child Ebrahim Al Moqdad, he was beaten, his screams could be heard.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging regular demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

According to human rights organization Amnesty International, scores of people have been killed since the protests first erupted in February 2011.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on the peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in the crackdown.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have also been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protesters. …more