Thursday, April 07, 2011
Video: Bahrain police trying to run over protesters
We're not being told the truth on Libya
The most plausible explanation is that this is a way of asserting raw Western power and trying to arrange the fallout in our favour
By Johann Hari
The Independent
"Most of us have a low feeling that we are not being told the real reasons for the war in Libya. David Cameron's instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to jump on a plane and tour the palaces of the region's dictators selling them the most hi-tech weapons of repression available. Nicolas Sarkozy's instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to offer urgent aid to the Tunisian tyrant in crushing his people. Barack Obama's instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to refuse to trim the billions in aid going to Hosni Mubarak and his murderous secret police, and for his Vice-President to declare: "I would not refer to him as a dictator." Yet now we are told that these people have turned into the armed wing of Amnesty International. They are bombing Libya because they can't bear for innocent people to be tyrannised, by the tyrants they were arming and funding for years....
For the first time in more than 60 years, Western control over the world's biggest pots of oil was being rocked by a series of revolutions our governments couldn't control. The most plausible explanation is that this is a way of asserting raw Western power, and trying to arrange the fallout in our favour. But if you are still convinced our governments are acting for humanitarian reasons, I've got a round-trip plane ticket for you to some rubble in Pakistan and Congo. The people there would love to hear your argument. "
By Johann Hari
The Independent
"Most of us have a low feeling that we are not being told the real reasons for the war in Libya. David Cameron's instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to jump on a plane and tour the palaces of the region's dictators selling them the most hi-tech weapons of repression available. Nicolas Sarkozy's instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to offer urgent aid to the Tunisian tyrant in crushing his people. Barack Obama's instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to refuse to trim the billions in aid going to Hosni Mubarak and his murderous secret police, and for his Vice-President to declare: "I would not refer to him as a dictator." Yet now we are told that these people have turned into the armed wing of Amnesty International. They are bombing Libya because they can't bear for innocent people to be tyrannised, by the tyrants they were arming and funding for years....
For the first time in more than 60 years, Western control over the world's biggest pots of oil was being rocked by a series of revolutions our governments couldn't control. The most plausible explanation is that this is a way of asserting raw Western power, and trying to arrange the fallout in our favour. But if you are still convinced our governments are acting for humanitarian reasons, I've got a round-trip plane ticket for you to some rubble in Pakistan and Congo. The people there would love to hear your argument. "
US embassy cables: King of Bahrain discusses Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel/Palestine
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 7 April 2011
".... ISRAEL-PALESTINE: GOOD FOR STABILITY IN THE REGION --------------------------------------------- ----- 4. (C) The King spoke at some length on Israeli-Palestinian developments, expressing satisfaction at the positive turn of events. This is a good moment, he said, that can be important for stability in the region. He said that he had instructed newly-appointed Minister of Information Dr. Mohammed Abdul-Ghaffar to make sure that official announcements or statements coming out of the Ministry of Information do not refer to Israel as the "enemy" or "Zionist entity." He revealed that Bahrain already has contacts with Israel at the intelligence/security level (i.e., with Mossad), and indicated that Bahrain will be willing to move forward in other areas, although it will be difficult for Bahrain to be the first. When asked if Bahrain might look into developing trade contacts at some point, he said that this would have to await the establishment of "side-by-side" states. He added that he planned to travel to Jordan on February 19 to meet with King Abdullah and show his support for moving forward....."
Egypt's youth leaders vow continued protests
Between a reluctant military still in power and religious parties gaining steam, upcoming elections in Egypt are murky.
Evan Hill
Al-Jazeera
"Ahead of what organisers hope will be a huge march in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday, one of the young leaders of Egypt's new protest movement has vowed to continue escalating demonstrations, ranging from sit-ins to mass civil disobedience, if the country's military rulers don't accede to protesters' evolving demands. "What we call the forces of evil are still there," said Ahmed Maher, the 30-year-old co-founder of the April 6th Youth Movement, which helped lead the upheaval that began on January 25. Members of the old regime are reconstituting themselves, high-ranking officers in the feared Interior Ministry remain free from prosecution, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – which has run the country since ex-President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February – is becoming less and less responsive, Maher told an audience at the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar on Monday.....
The hardened tone comes after weeks of lessening goodwill between the people and the army. Military police have recently been accused of baseless arrests, abuse and torture, incommunicado detentions and slapdash trials that may result in multi-year prison sentences for protesters. Meanwhile, the unelected civilian leadership led by former Transportation Minister Essam Sharaf has drafted a law, subject to the military's approval, that would give the state power to ban strikes and protests – a nod toward both the generals' and the ruling cliques' interest in protecting their business interests.....
In Cook's view, Egypt's near-term politics could unfold three ways: An ideal liberal democracy with checks and balances, a old regime under a new name, or a period of unstable pluralism. The ideal democracy – a "rainbows and unicorns" scenario – is unlikely, and a reconstitution of Mubarak's long-ruling National Democratic Party only slightly less so, Cook said. Most probable is the creation of a vigorous but unstable political atmosphere with a constantly changing constitution, a flashback to the 1930s and 1940, when Egypt witnessed multiple vying political parties but suffered from a constantly dissolving parliament......
Maher's task is perhaps easier, since April 6th isn't interested in forming a party – at least not yet. He sees the organisation acting as a political watchdog and pressure group for the next two to five years, harnessing its power to put thousands of demonstrators in the streets on short notice. The movement will support whoever pushes its goals, which include putting members of the old regime, such as Mubarak himself, on trial. "We don't care about who, we care about how," he said."
Evan Hill
Al-Jazeera
"Ahead of what organisers hope will be a huge march in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday, one of the young leaders of Egypt's new protest movement has vowed to continue escalating demonstrations, ranging from sit-ins to mass civil disobedience, if the country's military rulers don't accede to protesters' evolving demands. "What we call the forces of evil are still there," said Ahmed Maher, the 30-year-old co-founder of the April 6th Youth Movement, which helped lead the upheaval that began on January 25. Members of the old regime are reconstituting themselves, high-ranking officers in the feared Interior Ministry remain free from prosecution, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – which has run the country since ex-President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February – is becoming less and less responsive, Maher told an audience at the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar on Monday.....
The hardened tone comes after weeks of lessening goodwill between the people and the army. Military police have recently been accused of baseless arrests, abuse and torture, incommunicado detentions and slapdash trials that may result in multi-year prison sentences for protesters. Meanwhile, the unelected civilian leadership led by former Transportation Minister Essam Sharaf has drafted a law, subject to the military's approval, that would give the state power to ban strikes and protests – a nod toward both the generals' and the ruling cliques' interest in protecting their business interests.....
In Cook's view, Egypt's near-term politics could unfold three ways: An ideal liberal democracy with checks and balances, a old regime under a new name, or a period of unstable pluralism. The ideal democracy – a "rainbows and unicorns" scenario – is unlikely, and a reconstitution of Mubarak's long-ruling National Democratic Party only slightly less so, Cook said. Most probable is the creation of a vigorous but unstable political atmosphere with a constantly changing constitution, a flashback to the 1930s and 1940, when Egypt witnessed multiple vying political parties but suffered from a constantly dissolving parliament......
Maher's task is perhaps easier, since April 6th isn't interested in forming a party – at least not yet. He sees the organisation acting as a political watchdog and pressure group for the next two to five years, harnessing its power to put thousands of demonstrators in the streets on short notice. The movement will support whoever pushes its goals, which include putting members of the old regime, such as Mubarak himself, on trial. "We don't care about who, we care about how," he said."
Who are the supporters of the Torturer Bashar ??
THE TORTURER SMILING AND WAVING.....
HIS TURN WILL COME.
Daraa kid who was tortured by the Syrian regime
You can not liberate Golan or Palestine when your foundation does this to its children...
5 Palestinians killed in Gaza attack
["ISRAEL" will launch a new operation against Gaza tonight. GoldStone has blood on his hands and he should be taken to the hague along with the other zionist war criminals.]
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli fire killed five Palestinians and injured dozens more after a projectile from the Gaza Strip hit a school bus in southern Israel, injuring two people, medical and security officials said.
Witnesses said artillery fire injured four relatives of Mahmoud Al-Manasra, 50, who was killed when shells landed near his home in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.
Two people were injured after shells struck near the former Yasser Afarat International Airport in Rafah. Another round of shelling struck Khan Younis, but there were no reports of injury in that attack.
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli fire killed five Palestinians and injured dozens more after a projectile from the Gaza Strip hit a school bus in southern Israel, injuring two people, medical and security officials said.
Witnesses said artillery fire injured four relatives of Mahmoud Al-Manasra, 50, who was killed when shells landed near his home in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.
Two people were injured after shells struck near the former Yasser Afarat International Airport in Rafah. Another round of shelling struck Khan Younis, but there were no reports of injury in that attack.
Ali Ferzat: The New (Syrian) government
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
By Joseph E. Stiglitz Vanity Fair
".....The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late."
Al-Jazeera Video: Inside story: Power change in Yemen
"There is mounting pressure for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to go before the end of year elections.
Inside Story with Kamahl Sanatamaria discusses with: Shiraz Maher, a senior fellow at the centre for the study of radicalization at King's college London; and Hakim Almasmari, Editor in Chief of the Yemen post.
This episode of Inside Story aired from Wednesday, April 6, 2011."
Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Assault on Social Spending, Pro-Rich Tax Cuts Turning U.S. Into Nation "Of the 1 Percent, by the 1 Percent, for the 1
"This week Republicans unveiled a budget proposal for 2012 that cuts more than $5.8 trillion in government spending over the next decade. The plan calls for sweeping changes to Medicaid and Medicare, while reducing the top corporate and individual tax rates to 25 percent. We speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who addresses the growing class divide taking place in the United States and inequality in a new Vanity Fair article titled, "Of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent." Stiglitz is a professor at Columbia University and author of numerous books, most recently Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. "It is not just that the people at the top are getting richer, Stiglitz says. "Actually, they are gaining and everyone else is decreasing... Right now, we are worse than old Europe."...."
The sweet smell of counter-revolution
A VERY GOOD PIECE
By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
"The House of Saud pulled its partner in the counter-revolution double act over from the right side to the wrong side of history. As United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates meets Saudi King Abdullah to discuss the intricacies of "US outreach" and "regime alteration", the current juncture spells out that Washington/House of Saud winning, hands down, against the great 2011 Arab revolt.....
The House of Saud and Qatar are now (subtly) dictating the "transition" in Libya. This Qatari-Saudi alliance now mirrors the Israeli-Saudi alliance. The House of Saud is also dictating the transition in Yemen - now that the Barack Obama administration has decided to throw President Ali Abdullah Saleh to the dogs (because he was incompetent enough to not kill enough of his people and thus smash their peaceful revolution). Saleh is now worthless as "our bastard" in the American war against al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula (AQAP) even as the Yemeni opposition - which does not trust the Saudis - is being co-opted by corrupt, al-Qaeda-friendly General Ali Mohsen. The US Central Intelligence Agency is merrily accepting bids for Saleh's successor.....
Qatar and UAE are part of the small, unrepresentative "coalition of the willing" involved in the NATO no-fly zone scam in Libya. Now the British are "urging" these two Arab paragons of democracy to train that motley crew - the eastern Libya "rebels", so they can annex and hold to a few grains of desert sand before some kind of ceasefire is negotiated. Translation: good business for British "private security companies", as in mercenaries, some of whom have special services experience. Their salaries soon should be paid by Qatar, UAE and Jordan, that land infested with "security officers" and ruled by King Playstation. This proves once more there's only one, non-United Nations resolution 1973-authorized game in town; regime change....."
Real News Video: The Libyan Intervention: Humanitarian or an Aggression?
Hamid Dabashi and Nader Hashemi debate the US/NATO intervention in Libya
A VERY GOOD DEBATE
A VERY GOOD DEBATE
MSF calls for end to Bahrain military crackdown on patients
The use of Salmaniya Hospital by protestors as a venue for demonstrations, and its subsequent occupation by the military, followed by the targeting of other health facilities and medical workers, have undermined the ability of health facilities to provide impartial medical care.
"MANAMA, BAHRAIN/BRUSSELS - The international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today condemned the use of medical facilities in Bahrain to crack down on protestors, which is making it impossible for those wounded during clashes to seek treatment. A report released today by MSF illustrates how Bahrain’s hospitals and health centers are no longer safe havens for the sick or injured, but rather places to be feared. “Wounds, especially those inflicted by distinctive police and military gunfire, are used to identify people for arrest, and the denial of medical care is being used by Bahraini authorities to deter people from protesting,” said Latifa Ayada, MSF medical coordinator. “Health facilities are used as bait to identify and arrest those who dare seek treatment.”.....
The police, military, and intelligence services must stop using the health system as a way to crack down on protestors, and must allow medical staff to return to the primary duty of providing health care regardless of patients’ political or sectarian affiliations."
Download Report (pdf-6 pages)
Gambling with the planet
Japan's disaster and the global recession provide stark lessons on societies' failure to manage risks, economist says.
Joseph E Stiglitz
Al-Jazeera
"....In the end, those gambling in Las Vegas lose more than they gain. As a society, we are gambling – with our big banks, with our nuclear power facilities, with our planet. As in Las Vegas, the lucky few - the bankers that put our economy at risk and the owners of energy companies that put our planet at risk - may walk off with a mint. But on average and almost certainly, we as a society, like all gamblers, will lose. That, unfortunately, is a lesson of Japan’s disaster that we continue to ignore at our peril."
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Divided and disorganised, Libyan rebel military turn on Nato allies
Feuding leadership of revolutionary forces fails to capitalise on coalition air strikes THE POOR LIBYAN PEOPLE.....
THEY ARE GETTING SCREWED FROM ALL SIDES!
By Kim Sengupta in Ajdabiya
The Independent
"General Abdel Fattah Younes was scathing in his condemnation of Nato. "They have disappointed us. Nato has become our problem. Either Nato does its work properly or we will ask the Security Council to suspend its work." That was on Tuesday night at a packed press conference in Benghazi. Yesterday General Younes was on one of his rare visits to the frontline, with an escort of Western security guards as the row over his remarks rumbled on. The head of the rebel forces apparently does not like travelling through risky areas without his recently acquired foreign protection team.... Behind the recriminations over the performance of the coalition lies the fact that Libya's opposition administration is itself deeply divided and engaged in internecine feuding involving leading personnel. General Younes has sought to take on the mantle of the nationalist commander who is prepared to make a stand against powerful international states. But the man who referred to Colonel Gaddafi as his personal friend and served as his interior minister has been viewed with suspicion by many in the protest movement.....
Following the disastrous performance of the rebel fighters, who had continued to lose ground despite Western air strikes destroying much of the regime's armour and artillery on the eastern front, a crisis meeting held in the rebel capital, Benghazi, descended into accusations and insults....."
Ignoring its imperial history licences the west to repeat it
The former colonial powers who now fly the flag of protection and rights as they go to war will not deliver either
AN EXCELLENT COMMENT
Seumas Milne
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 April 2011
"......Because the argument about empire isn't so much about the past, but about the renewed drive to western intervention in the present. And facing up to the colonial record isn't unpatriotic, as Cameron's critics insist, or "anti-western", but a necessity if the danger posed by the imperial revival is to be avoided. The United States has of course long preferred an informal empire of indirect control, punctuated by military intervention and temporary occupations. And the former European colonial powers, notably Britain and France, now follow a similar approach. So it is that the British military has found itself back in its old colonial haunts, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Palestine, and now over Libya, which Britain occupied in the 40s and 50s, maintaining its military presence until Colonel Gaddafi came to power in 1969. They've been joined by Italy, which carried out its own genocidal campaign of repression when it ruled the country before the second world war.....
Just as the European powers built their empires in the name of Christian civilisation, modern liberal imperialism flies the banner of human rights. Nicolas Sarkozy has hailed the new drive for western intervention triggered by the Libyan uprising as offering a new model of "world governance" based on the "responsibility to protect". So long as it remains a pretext for the same powers that have dominated and divided the world selectively to enforce their will, it will deliver neither protection nor rights – but only reinforce the imperial legacy."
The "Rebels" Will be Owned by Britain and Paid For by the House of Saud!
Libyan rebels should receive training funded by Arab countries, says Britain
British defence sources are also looking to hire private security companies to help strengthen rebels' position on the battlefield
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 April 2011
"Britain is to urge Arab countries to train the disorganised Libyan rebels, and so strengthen their position on the battlefield before negotiations on a ceasefire, senior British defence sources have indicated. The sources said they were also looking at hiring private security companies, some of which draw on former SAS members[Why not Israeli companies while you are at it? They know Libya very well.], to aid the rebels. These private soldiers could be paid by Arab countries to train the unstructured rebel army...."
He is Sounding and Acting More and More Like the Real Karzai: Libya rebels 'pressured into Lockerbie apology'
Leaders say Libyans not to blame for Gaddafi's acts, accusing Britain of trading document for seized funds
Chris McGreal in Benghazi
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 April 2011
"Libya's rebel administration has said that it signed an apology for the Gaddafi regime's role in IRA attacks and the Lockerbie bombing under pressure from the British government, and that the document is the result of "misunderstanding". After initially denying that the document existed, the revolutionaries' governing council acknowledged that its chairman, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, had indeed signed an apology on behalf of the Libyan people for Gaddafi's provision of semtex used in IRA bombings and for the blowing up of the Pan Am flight in 1988. It also promised compensation. Amid division and confusion over the declaration, which some blamed on a translation mix-up, council officials said that the issue of the Libyan government's responsibility for attacks in the UK came up only because it was pressed on the revolutionary administration by the British......"
نعم، وسوريا بحاجة للديمقراطية والحريات
علي جرادات
"..... في سياق كل ما تقدم، وحول علاقة الديمقراطية بمنعة الدول بخاصة، تحضرني مطالعة بهذا الشأن، كان قدمها المرحوم الدكتور جورج حبش في أواسط ثمانينيات القرن المنصرم، وتم نشرها في كراس تحت عنوان "نحو فهم أعمق وأدق للكيان الصهيوني"، أكد فيها على ضرورة عدم قياس عوامل قوة هذا الكيان بما يمتلكه من عوامل قوة عسكرية وأمنية فقط، بل ضرورة النظر إلى ما يمتلكه ككيان غاصب من عامل ديموقراطي داخلي، يتيح تفجير كامل طاقاته كمجتمع، بدءا بإشراك المرأة في المواجهة وعدم حبسها في البيت والمطبخ، مروراً بإعلاء شأن البحث العلمي ودعمه بموازنات خيالية، وتحويل إنتاجه النظري إلى تطبيقات عملية في كافة المجالات العسكرية والأمنية والصناعية والزراعية ألخ...عرجاً على إطلاق حريات الصحافة والتنظيم والمعتقد والتفكير والتنوع والتعدد ألخ...، وتوظيف كل ذلك في معارك المواجهة الخارجية، وصولاً إلى ممارسة لعبة الديمقراطية السياسية الليبرالية بأعلى أشكالها، عبر التداول السلمي للسلطة، ورهن تبدلاتها بصندوق الاقتراع، الذي يعطي السلطة ويراقبها وينزعها بشكل دوري، بعيدا عن وراثتها أو توريثها أو رهنها بـ"الحزب الواحد" وبـ"القائد الأوحد"، وما يفضي إليه ذلك من تعفن واحتقان واحتراب داخلي، كظواهر تلد كل أشكال التفتيت السياسي والطائفي والمذهبي والاثني، وكتربة خصبة للاستثمار الخارجي وتدخلاته، بحسبان أن القلاع لا تقتحم إلا من داخلها. ما يثير سؤال: ألم يكن هذا هو حال ما شهدته، (وللأسف ما زالت تشهده)، العديد من الأقطار العربية، التي شكَّل غياب الشرط الديمقراطي الداخلي في حياتها، ذريعة لإشعال الفتن بين مكونات تنوعها الطبيعي بنيران بدعة الفوضى الخلاقة الأمريكية، التي لم تنجح في تدمير النظام السياسي العراقي وسلطته فقط، بل ونجحت في تدمير الدولة العراقية ومؤسساتها أيضاً، الأمر الذي لم يكن ليتم بأدوات داخلية، لو أن نظام صدام البعثي كان ديمقراطيا مع شعبه، وفي أقله لو أنه كان أقل دموية في تعامله مع معارضيه. وفي هذا، درس كبير، نراه يتكرر في ليبيا، وعلى كل نظام رسمي عربي، وعلى النظام السوري تحديداً، التعلم من هذا الدرس قبل فوات الأوان ....."
"..... في سياق كل ما تقدم، وحول علاقة الديمقراطية بمنعة الدول بخاصة، تحضرني مطالعة بهذا الشأن، كان قدمها المرحوم الدكتور جورج حبش في أواسط ثمانينيات القرن المنصرم، وتم نشرها في كراس تحت عنوان "نحو فهم أعمق وأدق للكيان الصهيوني"، أكد فيها على ضرورة عدم قياس عوامل قوة هذا الكيان بما يمتلكه من عوامل قوة عسكرية وأمنية فقط، بل ضرورة النظر إلى ما يمتلكه ككيان غاصب من عامل ديموقراطي داخلي، يتيح تفجير كامل طاقاته كمجتمع، بدءا بإشراك المرأة في المواجهة وعدم حبسها في البيت والمطبخ، مروراً بإعلاء شأن البحث العلمي ودعمه بموازنات خيالية، وتحويل إنتاجه النظري إلى تطبيقات عملية في كافة المجالات العسكرية والأمنية والصناعية والزراعية ألخ...عرجاً على إطلاق حريات الصحافة والتنظيم والمعتقد والتفكير والتنوع والتعدد ألخ...، وتوظيف كل ذلك في معارك المواجهة الخارجية، وصولاً إلى ممارسة لعبة الديمقراطية السياسية الليبرالية بأعلى أشكالها، عبر التداول السلمي للسلطة، ورهن تبدلاتها بصندوق الاقتراع، الذي يعطي السلطة ويراقبها وينزعها بشكل دوري، بعيدا عن وراثتها أو توريثها أو رهنها بـ"الحزب الواحد" وبـ"القائد الأوحد"، وما يفضي إليه ذلك من تعفن واحتقان واحتراب داخلي، كظواهر تلد كل أشكال التفتيت السياسي والطائفي والمذهبي والاثني، وكتربة خصبة للاستثمار الخارجي وتدخلاته، بحسبان أن القلاع لا تقتحم إلا من داخلها. ما يثير سؤال: ألم يكن هذا هو حال ما شهدته، (وللأسف ما زالت تشهده)، العديد من الأقطار العربية، التي شكَّل غياب الشرط الديمقراطي الداخلي في حياتها، ذريعة لإشعال الفتن بين مكونات تنوعها الطبيعي بنيران بدعة الفوضى الخلاقة الأمريكية، التي لم تنجح في تدمير النظام السياسي العراقي وسلطته فقط، بل ونجحت في تدمير الدولة العراقية ومؤسساتها أيضاً، الأمر الذي لم يكن ليتم بأدوات داخلية، لو أن نظام صدام البعثي كان ديمقراطيا مع شعبه، وفي أقله لو أنه كان أقل دموية في تعامله مع معارضيه. وفي هذا، درس كبير، نراه يتكرر في ليبيا، وعلى كل نظام رسمي عربي، وعلى النظام السوري تحديداً، التعلم من هذا الدرس قبل فوات الأوان ....."
Behind bars in Syria
On Friday, March 25, 25-year-old Khaled El Ghayesh, an Egyptian engineer working in Lebanon, took advantage of a three-day weekend to travel to Syria. On Sunday he was arrested on the border trying to get back into Lebanon and didn’t resurface until one week later. Here is the story behind his eight-day stay in Syrian prison, during which little was known, even to his family, of his whereabouts.
Did he seem to believe you?
Ghayesh: In the first 10 minutes, he was very respectful. But after, he kept on insisting, yelling, slapping me and punching me… “Why are you lying?”
It was about the psychological treatment. Sometimes he was calm, other times, very aggressive, trying to find anything to accuse me. “We’ve been watching you,” he said. “I have everything that proves you’re a liar.”
Did you give into the pressure?
Ghayesh: I was getting scared and frustrated, but I never lost confidence because I was saying the truth...
He slapped me and threatened to take me away and rip off my nails. I believed him, but there was nothing I could do. I would never confess to something I was not guilty of.
I was scared, but I didn’t break down. He asked me everything about my company… about all my trips between Cairo and Beirut. He accused me of working with certain anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and claimed my bank was an espionage company.
Nothing I could say would change his mind.
I was furious… but the Syrian people, they are living in denial; they are genuinely convinced the uprisings are coming from outside… For them I was the perfect candidate.
How did the interrogation end?
Ghayesh: After two hours… I asked what my status was.
“Let you go?” he laughed. “People like you stay here for a year… For now, you’re forgotten here.”
Do you think the Assad regime will fall?
Ghayesh: No. Major changes, but that’s all. People are saying there is unrest… but it’s nothing like in other countries: Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain…I don’t think the regime will fall.
It’s 1984, have you read it? Like the novel’s most famous slogan: Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, war is peace.
Did he seem to believe you?
Ghayesh: In the first 10 minutes, he was very respectful. But after, he kept on insisting, yelling, slapping me and punching me… “Why are you lying?”
It was about the psychological treatment. Sometimes he was calm, other times, very aggressive, trying to find anything to accuse me. “We’ve been watching you,” he said. “I have everything that proves you’re a liar.”
Did you give into the pressure?
Ghayesh: I was getting scared and frustrated, but I never lost confidence because I was saying the truth...
He slapped me and threatened to take me away and rip off my nails. I believed him, but there was nothing I could do. I would never confess to something I was not guilty of.
I was scared, but I didn’t break down. He asked me everything about my company… about all my trips between Cairo and Beirut. He accused me of working with certain anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and claimed my bank was an espionage company.
Nothing I could say would change his mind.
I was furious… but the Syrian people, they are living in denial; they are genuinely convinced the uprisings are coming from outside… For them I was the perfect candidate.
How did the interrogation end?
Ghayesh: After two hours… I asked what my status was.
“Let you go?” he laughed. “People like you stay here for a year… For now, you’re forgotten here.”
Do you think the Assad regime will fall?
Ghayesh: No. Major changes, but that’s all. People are saying there is unrest… but it’s nothing like in other countries: Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain…I don’t think the regime will fall.
It’s 1984, have you read it? Like the novel’s most famous slogan: Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, war is peace.
Al-Jazeera Video: Yemen protesters hold firm
GO.....YEMEN!
I STILL HAVE A LOT OF HOPE FOR THE REVOLUTION IN YEMEN.
DOWN WITH THE DICTATOR!
"Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Yemen, demanding an end to the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
More than a hundred people have been killed in anti-government demonstrations since February.
Our special correspondent has this report from the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
We are not naming her due to security reasons. "
I STILL HAVE A LOT OF HOPE FOR THE REVOLUTION IN YEMEN.
DOWN WITH THE DICTATOR!
"Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Yemen, demanding an end to the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
More than a hundred people have been killed in anti-government demonstrations since February.
Our special correspondent has this report from the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
We are not naming her due to security reasons. "
Ali Ferzat: Government Reforms
Al-Jazeera Video: Egypt military trying political prisoners
"Mohamed Ibrahim Soliman, Egypt's former Housing Minister, has been arrested on corruption allegations, becoming the latest member of the former Mubarak government to be detained over allegations regarding deals worth billions of dollars.
Much less publicised in Egypt, however, are the cases of political activists who have been detained since the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Many have been charged with spreading "false information" and insulting the country's powerful military, which currently controls the state.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports on one such case from Cairo. "
Al-Jazeera Video: Gaddafi forces accused of torture
"Libyan anti-government soldiers are reportedly being tortured and executed in an underground prison in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, according to one prisoner who since escaped.
More and more stories are emerging of abuse and suffering at the hands of the Gadaffi forces.
And it has provoked people in Ajdabiya to call for NATO to increase their air strikes in the hope they could bring an end to this conflict much quicker.
Al Jazeera's Sue Turton has the story from Ajdabiya."
Intervention Could Make Things Worse: New York Times’ Anthony Shadid on Rebellions in Libya and the Middle East
"In Libya, government and rebel forces remain locked in a deadly stalemate as rebels fight for an end to Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s nearly 42-year rule. We speak with New York Times correspondent and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony Shadid, who covered the conflict between government and rebel forces before he and three colleagues were kidnapped and beaten by Gaddafi’s forces. They were released two weeks ago. We speak with Shadid about the situation in Libya and the popular rebellions rising up across the Middle East and North Africa. "There’s going to be a desire to intervene, I think, as this gets more dangerous and more complicated and more violent, but I think that intervention [by allied forces], that very intervention, could very well make things worse," says Shadid...."
Freed from Captivity in Libya, Anthony Shadid of the New York Times Recounts Ordeal under Gaddafi’s Forces
"Anthony Shadid is one of four New York Times reporters who were captured in Libya last month by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. They were held for nearly a week, during which they were beaten and threatened before ultimately being set free. Just two weeks after their release, Shadid joins us for an extensive interview on his ordeal in Libya, the outlook of the conflict, and his thoughts on the rolling rebellions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. A two-time Pulitzer winner, Shadid is the New York Times Beirut bureau chief....."
Turkey: The sultans of swing
By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
"While Turkey's "strategic depth" envisions an informal empire ranging from the Eastern Mediterranean to Western China, from the Balkans to the Middle East, Anatolia is the ultimate Pipelineistan crossroads for the export of Russian, Caspian-Central Asian, Iraqi and Iranian oil and gas to Europe. Much to Washington's dismay, the Arab revolt is opening a sublime portal to a new "global, political, economic and cultural order."......."
Asia Times
"While Turkey's "strategic depth" envisions an informal empire ranging from the Eastern Mediterranean to Western China, from the Balkans to the Middle East, Anatolia is the ultimate Pipelineistan crossroads for the export of Russian, Caspian-Central Asian, Iraqi and Iranian oil and gas to Europe. Much to Washington's dismay, the Arab revolt is opening a sublime portal to a new "global, political, economic and cultural order."......."
French Fraud Behind Libya War Drive
Fake ‘intellectual’ with delusions of grandeur: Bernard Henri-Lévy
by Justin Raimondo, April 06, 2011
"The Libyan war has the French, of all people, in the forefront, with President Nicolas Sarkozy’s smug, self-satisfied face mugging for the camera as French fighter jets scream in the skies over Tripoli. The French, who sat out the Iraq war with haughty disdain, are now even more eager than the Americans to get into the thick of it: Sarkozy, in trouble at home, is hoping to distract critics from France’s ever-worsening domestic economic woes and his own party’s diminishing electoral prospects, with a good old-fashioned dollop of Napoleonic tonic. France – once again thrusting into North Africa in search of its former imperial glory! It’s enough to make one nostalgic for the Ugly American. If the insufferable Sarkozy isn’t enough to make you vow never to eat French fries again, then the man behind Sarkozy’s grandstanding, Bernard Henri-Lévy, the French “public intellectual” and renowned phony, will push you over the edge into outright Francophobia. As the New York Times reports: “It was Mr. Lévy, by his own still undisputed account, who brought top members of the Libyan opposition — the Interim Transitional National Council — from Benghazi to Paris to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy on March 10, who suggested the unprecedented French recognition of the council as the legitimate government of Libya and who warned Mr. Sarkozy that unless he acted, ‘there will be a massacre in Benghazi, a bloodbath, and the blood of the people of Benghazi will stain the flag of France.’”...."
Where now for the Goldstone report?
In short, there are no new facts which could possibly have lead Richard Goldstone to change his mind.
Posted by John Dugard - 06 April 2011
(John Dugard is Professor of Law, University of Pretoria; Emeritus Professor, University of Leiden; former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.)
New Statesman
".....The Goldstone report is a historical milestone. It is a credible, reasoned, comprehensive and thoroughly researched account of atrocities -- war crimes and crimes against humanity -- committed by Israel in the course of Operation Cast Lead and of war crimes committed by Hamas in the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel. It is a serious attempt to secure the accountability of a state that has for too long been allowed by the West to behave in a lawless manner. That the credibility of the Goldstone report has been undermined by Richard Goldstone's strange op-ed in the Washington Post cannot be denied. Although the Report was authored by four experts with the backing of a team from the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights it has undoubtedly come to be associated with the name of Richard Goldstone. Inevitable the misgivings he has expressed about his own role in the Report will weaken its impact as an historical record of Operation Cast Lead.....
Richard Goldstone has devoted much of his life to the cause of accountability for international crimes. It is sad that this champion of accountability and international criminal justice should abandon this cause in such an ill-considered but nevertheless extremely harmful op-ed."
Assange: "WikiLeaks is the intelligence agency of the people"
The WikiLeaks chief discusses radical journalism and WikiLeaks's main threat in an exclusive New Statesman essay.
New Statesman
"In an exclusive essay for the New Statesman, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, argues that WikiLeaks is a return to the days of the once popular radical press. He also discusses why the New York Times dislikes the whistle-blowing website, and reveals the biggest threat to WikiLeaks today. "WikiLeaks is part of an honourable tradition that expands the scope of freedom by trying to lay 'all the mysteries and secrets of government' before the public," writes Assange, who compares WikiLeaks to the pamphleteers of the English Civil War and the radical press of the early twentieth century. "We are, in a sense, a pure expression of what the media should be: an intelligence agency of the people, casting pearls before swine."....."
Video: Brega hit by Gaddafi forces' shells - dramatic amateur video footage
A video posted on a social media website shows what unknown uploaders say is a 31 March strike on Brega by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 April 2011
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 April 2011
Syria: Stop Shooting Protesters
At Least 8 Killed in Douma
Human Rights Watch
"(New York) - President Bashar al-Asad should immediately order Syrian security forces to stop using unjustified lethal force against anti-government protesters, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should investigate each shooting, and hold accountable anyone responsible for the unlawful use of force, Human Rights Watch said. At least eight demonstrators and possibly as many as fifteen were killed on April 1, 2011, when men dressed as civilians opened fire at a largely peaceful anti-government protest in Douma, a suburb of Damascus. Two Douma protesters told Human Rights Watch that they believed the gunmen were from security services because they were standing with their weapons behind the riot police. Some of the protesters threw rocks at the police, but none carried any firearms, the two protesters said. "I saw a man that looked like mukhabarat [security services] use a Rusiye - with my own eyes," one of the protesters told Human Rights Watch. Rusiye, Arabic for Russian, is commonly used in Syria to refer to a Kalashnikov. "For three weeks, Syria's security forces have been firing on largely peaceful protesters in various parts of Syria," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead of investigating those responsible for shootings, Syria's officials try to deflect responsibility by accusing unknown ‘armed groups.'"....."
No News is Good News
Abuses against Journalists by Palestinian Security Forces
Human Rights Watch
April 6, 2011
"This report documents cases in which security forces tortured, beat, and arbitrarily detained journalists, confiscated their equipment, and barred them from leaving the West Bank and Gaza. .... ....
Summary
Security forces of the Palestinian Authority (PA) have arbitrarily detained scores of West Bank journalists since 2009, and in some cases abused them during interrogation in a manner that amounted to torture. Like other Palestinian victims of abuse by the PA’s security services, these journalists confront a virtual wall of impunity when they try to hold their abusers accountable, leaving the victims feeling vulnerable to further harassment and abuse. The combination of abuse and impunity has, according to some journalists, produced an intended “chilling effect” on free expression and led to increasing self-censorship. This report documents how the PA’s Preventive Security and General Intelligence security agencies arbitrarily and repeatedly detained journalists, prevented them from seeing lawyers or family members while in detention, confiscated or damaged their equipment, and in some cases tortured them. In the seven West Bank cases that Human Rights Watch investigated, the harassment and abuse of journalists reflected attempts to prevent free speech and inquiry into matters of public importance, and to punish writers solely because of their statements critical of the PA or their perceived support of its political rivals. In four cases, the security services targeted journalists whom they perceived as sympathetic to the PA’s bitter rival, Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement), which controls the Gaza Strip and also counts many supporters among West Bank Palestinians. In three incidents, the PA’s security services abused politically independent journalists who had been publicly critical of Hamas but also had criticized the PA. In one case, security forces arrested a journalist on suspicion that he was preparing critical articles about subjects such as corruption among PA officials. The PA has directed its abusive practices against not only Hamas supporters among journalists but also against Islamist-leaning and independent journalists who engage in critical reporting.
Journalists in the Gaza Strip have also faced arbitrary detention, assault, and other forms of harassment from the Hamas authorities there. The focus of this report is on PA abuses in the West Bank, but that focus is not meant to imply an absence of abuses by Hamas in Gaza. Although reported abuses against journalists have been less frequent in Gaza, Human Rights Watch continues to monitor the situation there closely and includes in this report two cases of abuse by Hamas authorities to demonstrate that problems do exist....."
Download Full Report (pdf-41 pages)
Video: Egypt releases 13 Gazan prisoners
Press TV
"Families of 13 Palestinians from Gaza were finally reunited with their loved ones at the Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt. They had to wait three days to see their sons. On Sunday, Egyptian security sources announced the release of fourteen Palestinians. But only thirteen of them made it to the Gaza Strip. At least twenty five Palestinians are still in Egyptian prisons. A woman whose three sons and husband are still in Egyptian custody had this to say. The government of Hamas has welcomed the move by Egypt, expressing appreciation for the Egyptian military council. Senior Hamas officials who met with Egyptian officials last week, requested the release of the detainees. The political prisoners had been in prison without charges or trial. Since former Egyptian president Husni Mubarak's ouster more than 20 Palestinian detainees in Egypt have returned to the Gaza Strip, some of whom escaped during the uprising in the country and others were released."
"Families of 13 Palestinians from Gaza were finally reunited with their loved ones at the Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt. They had to wait three days to see their sons. On Sunday, Egyptian security sources announced the release of fourteen Palestinians. But only thirteen of them made it to the Gaza Strip. At least twenty five Palestinians are still in Egyptian prisons. A woman whose three sons and husband are still in Egyptian custody had this to say. The government of Hamas has welcomed the move by Egypt, expressing appreciation for the Egyptian military council. Senior Hamas officials who met with Egyptian officials last week, requested the release of the detainees. The political prisoners had been in prison without charges or trial. Since former Egyptian president Husni Mubarak's ouster more than 20 Palestinian detainees in Egypt have returned to the Gaza Strip, some of whom escaped during the uprising in the country and others were released."
Bahrain's hospital of ghosts
Bahrainis with protest-related injuries are reportedly being kept away from family in a hospital guarded by soldiers.
By Shenaz Kermalli
Al-Jazeera
"Salmaniya Medical Complex, once one of the most renowned medical facilities in the Gulf and a jewel in the crown of Bahrain's public healthcare system, has been transformed into a virtual ghost town. Its gates and front entrance are barricaded with checkpoints and masked military officers, armed with rifles. Its emergency room, once the busiest in the country, is empty. And, according to eyewitness reports collected by Human Rights Watch, hospital staff say security and military forces have sought out and threatened, beaten and detained patients with protest-related injuries. These patients are then systematically segregated from the rest of the patient population and transferred to the sixth floor, where they are virtually inaccessible to anyone, including family. "There are more military officers in the hospital than patients," says Faraz Sanei, a Human Rights Watch observer who has recently been inside Salmaniya. "It is not a normal environment or safe haven for patients. Patients and staff have told us there's a security lockdown and doctors from there are very frightened to speak. "The fact that it's empty means there's not much of an inflow of patients going in. People don't want to go there because they're afraid," he adds. Saeed, a member of a Bahraini political society, has taken more than 100 patients with protest-related injuries to hospital and says that government intervention in hospitals was previously unheard of. "Salmaniya has been besieged by the army," he says. "When we take patients, and if they have a bullet or pellet in their body, they put them directly in emergency and operate. After the operation the patient is taken to the sixth floor. No one is allowed to come see them. Even the hospital employees on the sixth floor - the doctors, the nurses and the people bringing food from the kitchen - have been replaced with military staff."....."
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
The "Revolution" of NATO: Libyan rebels 'disappointed' by NATO
Rebel commander says coalition forces are not doing enough to protect civilians, as Gaddafi's forces take key oil town.
Al-Jazeera
"Abdul Fatah Younis, the head of the Libyan opposition's armed forces, has accused NATO of acting too "slowly", or not acting at all, to protect civilians in their fight against Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader. Younis' comments came as the rebels were forced out of the oil town of Brega in the country's east by a renewed offensive launched by Gaddafi's forces. The rebels were forced to retreat to Ajdabiya, ending a stalemate over the last five days over who controlled Brega. Speaking at a press conference in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi, Younis, who was formerly the country's interior minister, said that NATO had "disappointed" the rebels [What a strange "Revolutionary Leader" this one is!], even though it is helping them....."
Update from my Cousin regarding the 14 boys arrested for chanting against the regime in school
[For those who don't know it was their arrest that sparked the uprising in Daraa.]
"This is what I heard from people on the ground in Daraa. The 14 kids were finally released few days ago. The youngest kid is 7 years old. Needless to say they were beaten, one of the kids who is 13 years old was beaten to a point that he is back in diapers. They are missing teeth, finger nails, and more. I am crying as I write this, not only for what happened to them, but for what happened to my country"
"This is what I heard from people on the ground in Daraa. The 14 kids were finally released few days ago. The youngest kid is 7 years old. Needless to say they were beaten, one of the kids who is 13 years old was beaten to a point that he is back in diapers. They are missing teeth, finger nails, and more. I am crying as I write this, not only for what happened to them, but for what happened to my country"
Libya gives spies a chance to shine
British intelligence officers have a firm foothold in Libya. Their subtle moves may be more explosive than the bombing campaign
Richard Norton-Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 April 2011
"....Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, is in the thick of it and the Libyan conflict should be right up its street....
CIA and MI6 officers are active in Libya, doing what they are trained to do – encouraging influential people to come over, to defect. Both agencies have a special relationship with Muammar Gaddafi's Libya. They monitored it closely when Gaddafi was funding and supplying terrorists in western Europe, including the IRA. Their senior officers, Sir Mark Allen of MI6, Stephen Kappes of the CIA, were deeply involved in talks with Tripoli over compensation for the victims of Libyan-sponsored terrorism, including Lockerbie. In 2003, they celebrated months of talks leading to Gaddafi's decision to give up weapons of mass destruction with a long lunch at the Travellers Club in Pall Mall. A year later, and after failing to get the top job at MI6, Allen joined BP, a company that was to benefit from trade deals agreed between Libya and the Blair government. On the Libyan side, heading the negotiations that culminated in the Travellers lunch was Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi's wily head of foreign intelligence who also gave the UK and US information about al-Qaida's presence in North Africa......"
Richard Norton-Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 April 2011
"....Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, is in the thick of it and the Libyan conflict should be right up its street....
CIA and MI6 officers are active in Libya, doing what they are trained to do – encouraging influential people to come over, to defect. Both agencies have a special relationship with Muammar Gaddafi's Libya. They monitored it closely when Gaddafi was funding and supplying terrorists in western Europe, including the IRA. Their senior officers, Sir Mark Allen of MI6, Stephen Kappes of the CIA, were deeply involved in talks with Tripoli over compensation for the victims of Libyan-sponsored terrorism, including Lockerbie. In 2003, they celebrated months of talks leading to Gaddafi's decision to give up weapons of mass destruction with a long lunch at the Travellers Club in Pall Mall. A year later, and after failing to get the top job at MI6, Allen joined BP, a company that was to benefit from trade deals agreed between Libya and the Blair government. On the Libyan side, heading the negotiations that culminated in the Travellers lunch was Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi's wily head of foreign intelligence who also gave the UK and US information about al-Qaida's presence in North Africa......"
Yemen protests intensify
Protests against the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, continue in the capital, Sana'a, despite more deaths
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 April 2011
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 April 2011
دروس الأمة للطغاة ودروس الطغاة للأمة
A VERY GOOD PIECE
".... الرسالة التونسية: مهما كنتَ بارعا في القمع والتزييف والكذب فستجد الشارع يوما يصرخ "الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام" وسيسقط نظامك، ولن ينقذك لا وعد ولا وعيد. أما فسادك وفساد عائلتك، فسيكون أكبر مِعْول لحفر قبر سلطانك وقبر شرفك على فرض أنك أعطيت يوما قيمة لشيء مثل هذا. الرسالة المصرية: لا تحالفاتك مع أقوى قوة في الأرض، ولا خدماتك المتعددة لها، وتفريطك في كرامة شعبك ومصالحه، قادرة على منعك من السقوط، وحماتك الأجانب هم أول من سيغسلون أيديهم منك. الرسالة السورية: مهما كانت قسوة قبضتك الأمنية وفظاعة سجونك، فإنك ستجد الشعب يوما في الشارع مطالبا برأسك. الرسالة الليبية: مهما كانت شراسة الرد العسكري على انتفاضة شعبك، ومهما أرقت من الدماء فستسقط في آخرة المطاف، لا العالم ولا الشعوب أصبحت تسكت على أي نيرون جديد. الرسالة اليمنية: مهما كنت بارعا في اللعب على القبلية لا بدّ أن تحين ساعة دفع الثمن وستدفع. الرسالة البحرينية: لن تنجح الطائفية في إنقاذ حكمك، حيث سيصرخ متظاهرون ويحاصرونك الوقت الكافي لإسقاطك "لا سنية لا شيعية وحدة وحدة وطنية"، ولن تصمد طويلا أمام شعب هذا خياره الإستراتيجي ......."
Leading Palestinian Peace Activist & Theater Director, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Killed in Jenin
"Palestinians, artists and peace activists worldwide are mourning the loss of a leading figure in Palestinian creative non-violence resistance. Juliano Mer Khamis, the founder of a theater for Palestinian children, was killed Monday by masked assailants in the West Bank town of Jenin. He had received a number of death threats from extremist Palestinians for his work with the Jenin Freedom Theatre. The theatre has helped Palestinian youths deal with the hardships of life under Israeli occupation by expressing themselves through the arts—film, photography, art and theater. We are joined in Jenin by Nabeel Raee, director of the acting school at the Jenin Freedom Theatre, where he worked closely with Mer-Khamis for many years, and by Constancia "Dinky" Romilly, founder and president of the board of the New York City-based Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre, who also worked closely with the program in Jenin...."
Al-Jazeera Video: Deaths in Yemen protests
"Renewed violence has broken out in both capital Sanaa and the city of Taiz, with supporters of embattled president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his opponents blaming each other for at least three deaths and hundreds of injuries.
UN officials have urged government forces not to attack protesters, while president Saleh has called for negotiations with his opponents.
Al Jazeera's Tarek Bazley has more on the deepening divisions in Yemen."
Al-Jazeera Video: Egypt's emergency law
"Egypt's former leaders ruled the nation with what many deemed "excessive force", locking up people without due process and keeping them incarcerated even after courts demanded their release.
Since the fall of Mubarak, however, concern has been growing at the army's use of military tribunals and quashing of dissent.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Cairo on the calls to scrap Egypt's emergency law."
Real News Video: Jihan Hafiz on Reporting From Libya Part 3
Recently returned from Benghazi, Hafiz reports on rebel fighters, supporters and early stages of the Libyan uprising
Cracks Appear In Mubarak-Era Labour Body
(Suez Canal Labor Strike, February 9.)
By Cam McGrath
"CAIRO, Apr 5, 2011 (IPS) - The state-controlled trade union federation that for over half a century was employed by Egyptian rulers to suppress workers' protests and mobilise voters for sham elections appears to be crumbling with the recent ouster of president Hosni Mubarak. "There is a movement against state control of unions," says Mohamed Trabelsi, a regional specialist on union activities at the International Labour Organisation (ILO). "You now have many strikes and labour protests in Egypt, and workers in many sectors have started to organise and form free and independent unions." Until recently, all labour union activities and finance in Egypt fell under the umbrella of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF). Membership in the state-controlled body was mandatory for most public sector employees, and union dues were automatically deducted from their salaries......
Given the pressure to reform, it appears unlikely that ETUF's leadership will remain in place until board elections, scheduled for November. Labour activists say no progress can be made until the regime loyalists are removed and a freely elected board is installed in their place. "
Yemen: Stop Shooting Protesters
At Least Six, Possibly Ten (actually more than 19 by now) Killed After Security Forces Open Fire in Taizz
April 4, 2011
"(New York) - President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen should immediately order security forces to cease using unlawful lethal force against protesters, Human Rights Watch said today. At least six and possibly more than 10 people were killed on April 4, 2011, when security forces who report directly to Saleh's relatives opened fire on a largely peaceful anti-government protest in the highland city of Taizz. "For two months Yemen's security forces have shown a reckless disregard for protesters' lives, shooting and killing them with impunity during largely peaceful rallies," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "President Saleh's calls to resolve the crisis mean little when his forces are firing on demonstrators." Human Rights Watch has documented repeated armed attacks by security forces and government supporters in civilian clothes on protesters who have been seeking Saleh's resignation since mid-February. At least 82 people have been killed and hundreds injured during the attacks, according to Human Rights Watch investigations......"
Gadhafi’s Sons Have Eye on Seizing Power
Rebels Reject 'Solution' Involving Gadhafi Son Taking Power
By Jason Ditz
Antiwar.com
"Two of Moammar Gadhafi’s sons are said to be pushing a “solution” to the ongoing civil war that would allow the long-standing dictator to step down and be replaced by Saif al-Islam al-Gadhafi. The news came amid reports that one of Gadhafi’s overseas envoys was “testing the waters” for the idea among the Western nations currently bombing Libya, to see if the change in leadership would be enough to stop the bombs from falling. It is being sold to the West as a “respectful solution” for the aging dictator that would lead to the gradual introduction of democratic (??) reforms. There was no indication how soon any reforms would be introduced....."
Billion-dollar Obama rocks Yemen
A VERY GOOD PIECE
By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
"Protesters are being killed, a dictator refuses to step down, al-Qaeda is thriving, the CIA is on the ground, and civil war looms. Welcome to the curious case of Yemen, undeserving of Libyan-style humanitarian imperialism, yet where President Ali Abdullah Saleh has just been dropped from Washington's roster of "our bastards" as Barack Obama launches a US$1 billion re-election bid.....
Our cunning bastard Yemen festers with George W Bush-era special forces-led counter-terrorism - widely expanded under Obama. Saleh is the local contractor. The target is bogeyman al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula (AQAP), which is hit by frequent bursts of "kinetic military action" (in White House speak). "Collateral damage" may have reached the low hundreds.....
Saleh has been very clever into instrumentalizing AQAP against his domestic enemies, while using the AQAP threat to extort weapons, intelligence and hundreds of million of dollars from the Americans. It worked, up to now. Obama ramped up "military assistance" for Yemen from $67 million in 2009 to $150 million in 2010. WikiLeaks widely exposed dirty deals between Washington and Saleh - including General David Petraeus lying to Yemenis about who was killing Yemeni civilians during the "war on terror". But unlike demonized terrorist/rehab/thug Gaddafi, Saleh is one of "our bastards". He's cunning enough to smash Zeydis, southern Yemenis, journalists and peaceful student protesters instead of smashing his golden egg, AQAP.....
For its part, the House of Saud has been fighting tooth and nail for Saleh to stay; he is as much a House of Saud lackey as the al-Khalifas in Bahrain. But without support from the Obama administration, the best the House of Saud can hope for is the usual "stability" and "smooth transition of power" - as in yet one more Saudi Arabia-friendly General. Saudi Arabia wants a "smooth" military coup. They would not be exactly displeased with hard line commander Major General Ali Mohsin Saleh Ahmar as the new leader.....
The vicious 2011 Arab counter-revolution keeps working its mysterious ways. Turkey and the BRIC countries are perplexed that the US is now arming the AQIM-infested "rebels" - and may be showering them with juicy bits of the $32 billion in frozen Libyan government assets, plus a share in upcoming oil sales. Talk about a hot Club Med. Under the Bush administration, al-Qaeda was used as the perfect excuse for bombing and pre-emptive wars. Now, under Obama, al-Qaeda - as in AQIM and AQAP - is being used in the balkanization of selected nations, facilitating the breakdown along tribal, sectarian and criminal lines. The ghost of Osama bin Laden continues to pull a Cheshire cat. The al-Qaeda franchise is booming like never before. It may even be back in the game in its original status - as a CIA guerrilla army. There's no war like an endless war."
Asia Times
"Protesters are being killed, a dictator refuses to step down, al-Qaeda is thriving, the CIA is on the ground, and civil war looms. Welcome to the curious case of Yemen, undeserving of Libyan-style humanitarian imperialism, yet where President Ali Abdullah Saleh has just been dropped from Washington's roster of "our bastards" as Barack Obama launches a US$1 billion re-election bid.....
Our cunning bastard Yemen festers with George W Bush-era special forces-led counter-terrorism - widely expanded under Obama. Saleh is the local contractor. The target is bogeyman al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula (AQAP), which is hit by frequent bursts of "kinetic military action" (in White House speak). "Collateral damage" may have reached the low hundreds.....
Saleh has been very clever into instrumentalizing AQAP against his domestic enemies, while using the AQAP threat to extort weapons, intelligence and hundreds of million of dollars from the Americans. It worked, up to now. Obama ramped up "military assistance" for Yemen from $67 million in 2009 to $150 million in 2010. WikiLeaks widely exposed dirty deals between Washington and Saleh - including General David Petraeus lying to Yemenis about who was killing Yemeni civilians during the "war on terror". But unlike demonized terrorist/rehab/thug Gaddafi, Saleh is one of "our bastards". He's cunning enough to smash Zeydis, southern Yemenis, journalists and peaceful student protesters instead of smashing his golden egg, AQAP.....
For its part, the House of Saud has been fighting tooth and nail for Saleh to stay; he is as much a House of Saud lackey as the al-Khalifas in Bahrain. But without support from the Obama administration, the best the House of Saud can hope for is the usual "stability" and "smooth transition of power" - as in yet one more Saudi Arabia-friendly General. Saudi Arabia wants a "smooth" military coup. They would not be exactly displeased with hard line commander Major General Ali Mohsin Saleh Ahmar as the new leader.....
The vicious 2011 Arab counter-revolution keeps working its mysterious ways. Turkey and the BRIC countries are perplexed that the US is now arming the AQIM-infested "rebels" - and may be showering them with juicy bits of the $32 billion in frozen Libyan government assets, plus a share in upcoming oil sales. Talk about a hot Club Med. Under the Bush administration, al-Qaeda was used as the perfect excuse for bombing and pre-emptive wars. Now, under Obama, al-Qaeda - as in AQIM and AQAP - is being used in the balkanization of selected nations, facilitating the breakdown along tribal, sectarian and criminal lines. The ghost of Osama bin Laden continues to pull a Cheshire cat. The al-Qaeda franchise is booming like never before. It may even be back in the game in its original status - as a CIA guerrilla army. There's no war like an endless war."
Western leaders looking for an exit should be wary of the obvious quick fix
Analysis: A further obstacle is the role that Saif has played. His public appearances have hardly been those of a statesman
By Donald Macintyre
The Independent
"The emergence of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi as a player in the current, if opaque, moves to end the Libyan crisis poses some sharp questions for the Western powers – including Britain. That he convinced several people in the previous British government that he was – to use the New Labour phrase – a "moderniser" is not in doubt. "He talked a very good game," one party member said recently. There have even reportedly been suggestions in Saif's own circle that his openness to constitutional change has been – unfairly – blamed by some hardliners in Tripoli for fuelling the uprising in the first place. As the Europeans – and perhaps to an even greater extent, the Americans – look for an exit, it may be tempting to see Muammar Gaddafi's second son and his reform project as part of any solution. Some on his pre-crisis reform committee are now siding with the opposition and could theoretically offer some common ground....
Maybe the Western officials who used to hold shares in Saif have already all unloaded them, but any who didn't would do well to look at that and other recent performances."
UK paves way for flight of Libyan defectors
Libyan officials who abandon the Gaddafi regime would 'be treated with respect' in the UK, William Hague tells MPs
Harriet Sherwood in Tripoli
The Guardian, Tuesday 5 April 2011
"Britain will lift its ban on members of the Libyan regime entering the UK if they renounce their loyalty to Muammar Gaddafi, the foreign secretary, William Hague, told MPs as western governments continued to try to engineer a political solution to the deadlocked conflict....."
Harriet Sherwood in Tripoli
The Guardian, Tuesday 5 April 2011
"Britain will lift its ban on members of the Libyan regime entering the UK if they renounce their loyalty to Muammar Gaddafi, the foreign secretary, William Hague, told MPs as western governments continued to try to engineer a political solution to the deadlocked conflict....."
Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll
This poll asks:
Do you support the immediate stepping down of the Yemeni president?
With over 1,700 responding, 92% said yes.
Monday, April 04, 2011
RIP Juliano Mer Khamis
Report claims that Dahlan supplied Gaddafi with Israeli weapons .
(Dahlan is to the left of the puppet Abbas and Muhammad Rashid is on his right. Meeting with Israeli military officials to coordinate Israeli security objectives.) AN IMPORTANT STORY
Middle East Monitor
COMMENT:
This sure sounds like the Iran-Contra affair, all over again!
"A report in the Algerian newspaper Al-Shuruq claims that the former Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan was one of a number of Palestinians "involved in a deal to supply weapons from Israel to Muammar Gaddafi". The secret deal was facilitated using a ship which sailed from Greece. The source for the information was Libyan dissident Omar El-Khadraoui. In a communiqué to Al-Shururq from the Libya-Tunisia border on Sunday, El-Khadraoui said, "The former leader of the Fatah movement, Muhammad Dahlan, and someone known as 'Muhammad Rashid', a Kurd from Iraq whose real name is Khalid Salam and who used to be an advisor to the late Yasser Arafat, are behind a deal to supply internationally proscribed weapons to Colonel Gaddafi, who used them to shell civilians in Misrata in western Libya." Mr. El-Khadraoui, who is part of the revolutionary political leadership in Libya, confirmed that the 'Muhammad Rashid' accompanied the ship carrying the Israeli weapons from Greece to the port of Tripoli; he added that the revolutionaries in Misrata were able to loot some of the shipment. Al-Jazeera news channel broadcast footage of these weapons, which included cluster bombs marked with the Star of David, an emblem of Israel and the Jews. "Colonel Gaddafi expresses antipathy toward Israel but in reality the closest of links bind him to Israel via Muhammad Dahlan, the former Minister of Security for the Palestinian Authority," said El-Khadraoui. Dahlan is accused by Hamas and many from within Fatah itself, of being involved in unsavoury dealings which, claims El-Khadraoui, include "a mafia network to smuggle weapons from Israeli companies, including weapons which are proscribed internationally"."
COMMENT:
This sure sounds like the Iran-Contra affair, all over again!
"A report in the Algerian newspaper Al-Shuruq claims that the former Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan was one of a number of Palestinians "involved in a deal to supply weapons from Israel to Muammar Gaddafi". The secret deal was facilitated using a ship which sailed from Greece. The source for the information was Libyan dissident Omar El-Khadraoui. In a communiqué to Al-Shururq from the Libya-Tunisia border on Sunday, El-Khadraoui said, "The former leader of the Fatah movement, Muhammad Dahlan, and someone known as 'Muhammad Rashid', a Kurd from Iraq whose real name is Khalid Salam and who used to be an advisor to the late Yasser Arafat, are behind a deal to supply internationally proscribed weapons to Colonel Gaddafi, who used them to shell civilians in Misrata in western Libya." Mr. El-Khadraoui, who is part of the revolutionary political leadership in Libya, confirmed that the 'Muhammad Rashid' accompanied the ship carrying the Israeli weapons from Greece to the port of Tripoli; he added that the revolutionaries in Misrata were able to loot some of the shipment. Al-Jazeera news channel broadcast footage of these weapons, which included cluster bombs marked with the Star of David, an emblem of Israel and the Jews. "Colonel Gaddafi expresses antipathy toward Israel but in reality the closest of links bind him to Israel via Muhammad Dahlan, the former Minister of Security for the Palestinian Authority," said El-Khadraoui. Dahlan is accused by Hamas and many from within Fatah itself, of being involved in unsavoury dealings which, claims El-Khadraoui, include "a mafia network to smuggle weapons from Israeli companies, including weapons which are proscribed internationally"."
Another war on Gaza?
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2011
"....Whether Israel is deliberately laying the ground for a new assault on Gaza, or stumbles into one -- if the current escalation does not stop -- any such attack must be understood in political terms. It would be an effort to finish the unfinished business of destroying Hamas and any other island of Palestinian resistance. The commitment of any significant Palestinian group to resistance -- political or military -- remains a major obstacle to the full legitimation of the warm embrace between Israel and the Abbas-led PA, whose extent was recently laid bare in the Palestine Papers. Indeed the relationship is so friendly that last October the top echelons of the PA in Bethlehem received then Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi -- who commanded Operation Cast Lead -- as their honored guest, even providing him with a guided tour of the Church of the Nativity ("Israeli army chief visits Bethlehem," Ma'an News Agency, 3 October 2010).....
Without exaggerating the risks, the constraints on Israel may be loosening. In the wake of the revolution in Egypt and amid the political upheaval in the Arab world, some Israelis may think they have a "last chance" to act in the interregnum before a new and less friendly government is seated in Cairo. Western and Saudi military interventions in Libya and Bahrain respectively have also provided new respectability to using military force for political ends. International complicity also continues to send Israel a clear message that its impunity is guaranteed. The Obama administration's recent veto of a UN Security Council resolution that merely restated US policy on Israel's settlement construction in the West Bank was one sure sign that Israel still has a blank check from the United States. Tragically, the biggest contributor to renewed confidence in Israel that it could once again get away with murder in Gaza, may be Judge Richard Goldstone himself......"
Goldstone's shameful U-turn
A GOOD COMMENT
Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2011
".....Professionally, both Morris and Goldstone tried to retreat to a position that claimed, as Goldstone does in The Washington Post article, that Israel can only be judged by its intentions not the consequences of its deeds. Therefore only the Israeli army, in both cases, can be a reliable source for knowing what these intentions were. Very few decent and intelligent people in the world would accept such a bizarre analysis and explanation. Goldstone has not entered as yet the lunatic fringe of ultra-Zionism as Morris did. But if he is not careful the future promises to be a pleasant journey with the likes of Morris, Alan Dershowitz (who already said that Goldstone is a "repentant Jew") between annual meetings of the AIPAC rottweilers and the wacky conventions of the Christian Zionists. He would soon find out that once you cower in the face of Zionism -- you are expected to go all the way or be at the very same spot you thought you had successfully left behind you. Winning Zionist love in the short-term is far less important than losing the world's respect in the long-run. Palestine should choose its friends with care: they cannot be faint-hearted nor can they claim to be Zionists as well as champions of peace, justice and human rights in Palestine."
Al-Jazeera Video: Debating Gaddafi's options
Contagious illusions of Gaddafi's power
The resilience of the Libyan regime is creating a false sense of security among other Arab despots, analyst argues.
A GOOD PIECE
By Soumaya Ghannoushi
Al-Jazeera
"The mayhem in Libya has given rise to many illusions. Among Arab dictators, it revived hopes of the possibility of escaping the fates of Ben Ali and Mubarak through the use of brutal force. Gaddafi’s model of the iron fisted ruler, who fights to the last drop, has been emboldening Arab dictators to brutally suppress any form of dissidence. In Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh has unleashed his thugs to massacre protesters in Taghyeer Square at the heart of the capital. In Syria, Bashar al-Assad has opened fire randomly on demonstrators in Daraa and Latakia, while in Jordan next door security services have violently dispersed a peaceful picket demanding reform. Gaddafi has been inspiring fellow despots to shift fear to the people’s camp through the use of terror.....
But the Libyan quagmire is not only reviving Arab rulers’ hopes of survival. It is also breathing life into the corpse of “humanitarian interventionism”. This thoroughly discredited notion is being resurrected from the dead to serve as a vehicle for riding the wave of change sweeping across the region and redirecting its course.....
While Tunisia and Egypt have presented Arabs with an inspiring model of change at minimal cost, Libya has stirred hopes among their rulers of the possibility of clinging on to power through naked violence and the threat of civil war. For their allies on the outside the brutal conflict has been a golden opportunity to wash their hands off their past and turn the course of change in their favour. The likelihood, however, is that the hopes pinned on Libya will turn out to be little more than illusions. The Arab political order, rotten to the core as it, is beyond salvation....."
Judge Goldstone Retracts Part of His Report on Israeli Assault on Gaza, Leaves Rest Intact
"The lead author of The Goldstone Report on the 2008-2009 Israeli assault on Gaza has backtracked on one of his key findings. In an editorial run Friday by the Washington Post, Judge Richard Goldstone said, “Civilians were not intentionally targeted [by Israel] as a matter of policy.” Now Israel has called on the United Nations to retract the report on the devastating war that led to the death of about 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis. To discuss the implications of Judge Goldstone’s position, we are joined by Adam Horowitz and Lizzy Ratner. They are co-editors of an abridged version of U.N. investigation, titled, The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict. “The judge only comments on one small part of the report,” Horowitz says, “which I take as an implication that the rest of the report stays intact and he is still in support of that.”...."
Real News Video: Egyptian Democracy Movement Continues Revolution
Protesters defy law making demands on military rulers
COMMENT:
I can't say often enough how proud I am of the Egyptian people and their courage!
This is the example to follow (Tunisia did it before) by all Arabs: Mass, relentless, peaceful, civil resistance. Libya has already gone terribly wrong; the Syrians are too terrified and cowed; there is still a lot of hope in Yemen and Bahrain.
COMMENT:
I can't say often enough how proud I am of the Egyptian people and their courage!
This is the example to follow (Tunisia did it before) by all Arabs: Mass, relentless, peaceful, civil resistance. Libya has already gone terribly wrong; the Syrians are too terrified and cowed; there is still a lot of hope in Yemen and Bahrain.
Real News Video: Jihan Hafiz On Reporting From Libya Part 2
Recently returned from Benghazi, Hafiz reports on rebel fighters, supporters and early stages of the Libyan uprising
The Arab Awakening, Hijacked?
Haftar, the CIA's man in Benghazi
The long hand of Washington reaches into Libya
A GOOD PIECE
by Justin Raimondo, April 04, 2011
"News of a rift in the Libyan rebel ranks, as reported in the Washington Post, underscores much about what is wrong with US/NATO intervention in Libya......
Watched by whom, and for what? Falls Church isn’t far from the CIA’s Langley headquarters, but then again it seems Col. Haftar’s relationship with the CIA is hardly one of captive to jailer, although perhaps that’s how it started out. Haftar, it turns out, is not exactly a defector from the regime. According to this United Nations report on the rebel movement he led from Chad in the 1990s, Haftar joined the Libyan National Salvation Front, a group set up by the Central Intelligence Agency, “in March 1987, after he was captured in the Chadian war. His goal was to create an army to fight against the Libyan authorities.” His rebel force “disappeared,” according to the report, ‘with the help of the CIA” after the US-friendly regime in Chad was overthrown, and the next thing anybody knew the Colonel showed up in Falls Church, not a stone’s throw away from his new bosses. The Benghazi authorities, after initially embracing Haftar, are now distancing themselves from him, saying that he is free to join up with the structure they have already put in place, but the confusion on the ground is clear enough. This is a potential disaster in the making for the rebels, who are already out-gunned and up against a professional force that shows no sign of cracking. The rift dramatizes, in cameo, the role of the United States government as the underminer of revolutionary movements throughout the region. In Egypt they sought, at first, to deny what was happening and affirm support for Hosni Mubarak (Biden). The switch to support for Mubarak’s designated successor, head of the secret police, wasn’t much more successful. The pattern repeated itself in Yemen and Bahrain, but in Libya the Americans are prepared: they already have the resources in place to hijack the Benghazi rebellion, and that no doubt motivated in part the decision to intervene. After all, here is Col. Haftar, their Manchurian candidate, an apparent victim of Stockholm Syndrome, all ready to go: the infrastructure was in place. Why not use it?..... "
BBC Video: شام - مداخلة الحقوقي هيثم مناع على قناةالـ BBC 4-4-2011
Protesters shot dead in southern Yemen
At least 15 anti-government protesters die as troops stationed on rooftops open fire.
Al-Jazeera
"Yemeni security forces have shot dead at least 15 anti-government demonstrators and wounded 30 in the city of Taiz, south of the capital Sanaa, medics said. "At least 15 people were killed with live bullets and dozens wounded," said Sadeq al-Shujaa, head of a makeshift field hospital at a square in central Taiz. The violence began when thousands of protesters marched through Taiz toward Freedom Square, where demonstrators have been camped out. As the march passed the governor's headquarters, troops stationed there blocked the procession, and clashes broke out, with some protesters throwing stones, witnesses said. Troops on nearby rooftops opened fire with live ammunition on the crowd and the marchers then turned to besiege the governor's headquarters, said Bushra al-Maqtara, an opposition activist in Taiz, and other witnesses. The bloodshed in the city of Taiz further stoked the more than month-old uprising against Yemeni president Abdullah Saleh's 32-year-rule......"
