This is not about 'bad apples'. This is the horror of war

How many other abuses took place off camera? How many Hadithas? How many My Lais?

By Robet Fisk

"So now it's snapshots of US Marines pissing on the Afghan dead. Better, I suppose, than the US soldiers pictured beside the innocent Afghan teenager they fragged back in March of last year. Or the female guard posing with the dead Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib. Not to mention Haditha or the murder videos taken by US troops in the field – the grenading of an old shepherd by an Iraqi highway comes to mind – or My Lai or the massacre of refugees by US forces in Korea or the murder of Malayan villagers by British troops. Or the Bloody Sunday massacre of 14 Catholics by British troops in Derry in 1972. And please note, I have not even mentioned the name of Baha Mousa.

The US Marines' response to the pissing pictures was oh so typical. These men were not abiding by the "core values" of the Marines, we were informed. Same old story. A "rogue" unit, a few "bad apples", rotten eggs. Maybe.

But if there is one game of pissing on the dead, how many others happened without pictures? How many other shepherds got fragged in Iraq? How many other Hadithas have there been? There were plenty of other My Lais....

For note, it was not the killing of these men that worried the Marine Corps in the US – it was the pissing. Nothing wrong in killing amid the "core values" of the Marine Corps; you just shouldn't urinate on the corpses. And even more to the point: YOU MUSTN'T DO IT ON CAMERA! Too late. It comes to this. Armies are horrible creatures and soldiers do wicked things but when we accept all these lies about "bad apples" and the exceptionalism of crime in war – "there may have been some excesses" is the usual dictator-speak – we are accepting war and going along with the dishonesty of it and we are making it more possible and easier and the killings and rapes more excusable and more frequent.

And how should armies react? With one word: guilty."

Yard may shed light on Blair's role in Libya

Kim Sengupta Friday 13 January 2012
The Independent

"....Those of us journalists who saw the documents in Tripoli after the rebels had swept in were struck by the extent to which the British government was pressing its intelligence service to play a key role in the rapprochement with Gaddafi's regime. Much of the handling of Blair's 2004 "deal in the desert" was delegated by Downing Street to the men from Vauxhall Cross.

And Blair had to thank the SIS and Allen for one of his triumphs of foreign policy which stood in stark contrast to the disaster of Iraq: the negotiations which led to Gaddafi giving up his WMD programme and, crucially, the secret nuclear supermarket for rogue states run by the Pakistani scientist AQ Khan. Such was the MI6 influence that an MI6 official wrote Gaddafi's speech renouncing chemical and biological weapons.....

Having taken the plaudits, Blair and Straw were very keen to deny knowledge of MI6's activities when, post-Gaddafi, the documents began to surface. It will be interesting to see what Scotland Yard uncovers about who knew what was going on...."

David Cameron's Saudi Arabia visit sits oddly with his support of democracy

The repressive kingdom is branding itself as a bulwark against the Arab spring – hardly the ideal customer for British contracts

A GOOD COMMENT
David Hearst
guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 January 2012

"...Saudi Arabia might seem an ideal customer to a British prime minister keen to win contracts. If Barack Obama can sell the kingdom nearly $30bn of F-15 fighter jets, Britain can surely flog its armoured personnel carriers, sniper rifles, small arms ammunition and weapon sights....

However, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are fast learning to play another role in the region. The kingdom is branding itself as a bulwark not just against the Revolutionary Guards in Iran and despots in Syria, but against the Arab spring itself......

Internally, the most authoritarian regime in the Arab world has much to fear from demonstrations – which are illegal. Sporadic protests are not confined to the oil-rich eastern province where the minority Shia community live. The king's response has been to blend small reformist steps, such as the decision in September to allow women to vote and run in municipal elections (but not yet to drive), with larger but less visible acts of repression.....

Another measure is a proposed counter-terrorism law. Last year, Amnesty International published a leaked copy of a draft law that would allow peaceful dissent to be prosecuted as a terrorist crime.

Rothna Begum, Amnesty's campaigner on Saudi Arabia said: "The definition would allow it to criminalise dissent. The embassy wrote to us in September to say that several articles of draft had been amended and some deleted, but we don't know which these were and what stage this legislation has reached. The version we have seen allows the detention without trial of suspects to be extended indefinitely."...."

Kuwait: Don’t Deny Right to Freedom of Expression

Stateless Bidun Ordered Not to Hold Demonstrations

January 13, 2012

"(Beirut) – A government order to Bidun residents, a group the government considers “illegal residents,” not to organize demonstrations denies their rights and should be revoked, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement on January 11, 2012, saying that it will “absolutely not allow the brothers who are illegal residents to organize any rallies, gatherings, sit-ins or demonstrations regardless of their nature, objective and mission.”

“This is a shameful effort to curb the rights to peaceful expression and assembly of Kuwait’s Bidun,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “These universal rights belong to everyone, regardless of whether they are considered citizens or are fighting to gain citizenship.”....."

One year on, Tunisians still waiting for human rights overhaul

Amnesty International
13 January 2012

"Tunisia's interim government is yet to deliver the comprehensive human rights reform that protesters were calling for a year ago, Amnesty International said today.

A year after former President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali fled the country, the authorities have taken some positive initial steps, including signing up to key human rights treaties and allowing greater freedom for media and human rights organizations.

But Amnesty International said that the country's security forces remain largely unaccountable and victims of human rights violations are still waiting for justice.

“There have been some encouraging signals from the interim government in the direction of human rights reform,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director. “But for many Tunisians the pace of change has been too slow.”

“Until we see a new constitution that guarantees fundamental rights, accountability for abuses and the establishment of the rule of law it is too early to tell whether the political will for real human rights change is there.”

Pressing concerns

Amnesty International said that a radical shakeup of the security forces should be an urgent priority for the authorities in 2012.

In March 2011 the feared Department of State Security (DSS), responsible for years of abuse under Ben Ali, was abolished. But there are fears that the members of these forces have simply been integrated into other security forces, which remain opaque and unaccountable......."

Saudi forces shoot dead Shia protester

Al-Masry Al-Youm

"DUBAI — Saudi security forces clashed with Shia protesters in the kingdom's oil-rich east at dawn on Friday, killing one person and wounding three, witnesses and activists said.

Security forces opened fire with live rounds after protesters hurled stones at one of their vehicles in the Shia village of Al-Awamiya in the Qatif region, witnesses said.

Activists said Issam Mohammed, 22, was killed by multiple bullet wounds.

Three other people were wounded by security force fire, one of them a man driving through a checkpoint at the entrance to the village, the activists said.

Security forces sealed off the village after the clashes, witnesses said.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi authorities.

The clashes came after demonstrations were held in four Qatif region villages to call for the "release of political detainees, reform and an end to sectarian discrimination," one activist told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

Protests erupted in the Eastern Province in March when members of the kingdom's Shia minority took to the streets to condemn Saudi military intervention against Shia-led pro-democracy demonstrations in neighboring Bahrain.

Four Shias were shot dead in November. The Interior Ministry said security forces had come under fire from gunmen operating on "foreign orders," in a veiled accusation against Shia Iran.

A total of 400 people were arrested, of whom around 70 remain in custody, according to activists.

Earlier this month, Saudi authorities published a list of 23 suspects wanted in connection with disturbances in Shia districts of the Eastern Province in recent months.

The Interior Ministry said those wanted were suspected of "possessing illegal firearms and opening fire on the public and police, in addition to using innocent people as shields."

Other allegations include taking part in "mobs, blocking traffic [and] damaging public and private property," during confrontations between police and protesters.

Most of Saudi Arabia's estimated two million Shias live in the Eastern Province. They complain of marginalization in the Sunni-dominated kingdom."

Audio Interview With Hossam El-Hamalawy

11 January 2012 – KPFA Interview by Hossam El-Hamalawy

Host: Khalil Bendib

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood enters 'uncharted waters' in new parliament

Islamist party is poised to take 45% of seats amid soaring public expectations but with few concrete powers to deliver reform

Jack Shenker in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 January 2012

"....Philip Rizk, an Egyptian activist and film-maker, echoes the sentiments of many revolutionaries when he argues that the recent elections are designed to stifle meaningful change. "The ballot was used in two ways," he claims. "Firstly there was a very specific discourse from the authorities, from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the transitional government, saying 'stop protesting and go out and vote'. It was a propaganda effect aimed at altering people's perceptions of change. Secondly, the vote was used as a cover for direct physical attacks on the protest movement that were carried out with exceptional violence."

The Brotherhood, Rizk argues, has not been a radical or revolutionary player in the dramatic upheaval this nation has witnessed over the past year, and both its commitment to neoliberal capitalism and its alleged electoral violations – there have been accusations of illegal campaigning and voter intimidation in polling stations, all of which are denied by the FJP – have left it "barely distinguishable" from Mubarak's NDP. "The most significant change that has taken place in Egypt is the one that has taken place inside people," says Rizk. "Not the whole population, but a large proportion of it, have started analysing and thinking and protesting, both within their spheres of daily activity and more centrally in urban squares like Tahrir, as well as other cities like Alexandria and Suez. Elections can come and go but I don't think that is going to shift: the bubble of complacency and fear has been broken."....."

Al-Jazeera Video: حديث الثورة - 2012/1/12

سمير صالحة
العزب الطيب الطاهر
فيصل عبد الستار
رضوان زيادة

Human rights equated with national suicide

Israel's high court upholds a law preventing Palestinians from living with their spouses in Israel.

By Ben White
Al-Jazeera

"The Israeli government has repeatedly demanded that Palestinians recognise Israel as a "Jewish state". Recent developments in the Knesset and High Court are exposing exactly what this means, and in doing so, throw the spotlight on the issue that the ‘peace process’ – and Western governments – refuse to tackle.

On Wednesday, Israel’s High Court rejected a legal challenge to the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, by a six to five vote. The law, first passed as a ‘temporary’ measure in 2003 and renewed ever since, prevents Palestinians from the Occupied Territories (and those from ‘enemy states’) from living with their spouses in Israel.

For thousands of Palestinian families, Israel’s law means a choice between moving abroad, living apart, or living in Israel illegally. No wonder that the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) condemned what it described as a “racist law” for the way it harms “the very texture of the lives of families whose only sin is the Palestinian blood that runs in their veins”.

Legal rights centre Adalah, who have been deeply involved with challenges to the law, said that the High Court had “approved a law the likes of which do not exist in any democratic state in the world, depriving citizens from maintaining a family life in Israel only on the basis of the ethnicity or national belonging of their spouse”.....

But in Israel, demography is by no means a ‘fringe’ concern, as this week’s news shows. Indeed, it has shaped government policy on immigration, land, and planning since 1948, for the brutal fact that the ‘Jewish majority’ was only realised in the first place by the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and their exclusion by both violent and ‘legal’ means. Still lauded as a progressive beacon by some, Israel continues to lay increasingly bare the hollow meaning of its ‘democracy’."

Syrian women, backbone of the revolution

by Rime Allaf


On January 10, while President Bashar Assad addressed his supporters in Damascus, Syrian authorities handed the tiny tortured body of a four-month old baby girl to her uncle in Homs. Arrested with her parents a few days earlier, one can only assume, knowing the Syrian regime's documented brutality, that baby Afaf had been thrown into a cell with her mother and submitted to horrific treatment, terrorizing her and her mother and leading to her untimely death.

In its violent repression of the uprising, the Syrian regime has made no distinction between men and women or between adults and children. There has been equality in oppressing, and equality in suffering. But there has also been equality in protesting, albeit in varying degrees of visibility and in different forms.

For the last ten months of the Syrian revolution, many skeptics have repeated the tired refrain that women have been absent from the uprising and that it seems to be a male- dominated (read "Islamist-leaning") protest movement. Such generalizations, meant to discredit the revolution, do much injustice to the women who have lived the uprising from the start at the side of their compatriots.

It is true that the initial Friday-centric demonstrations were, by default, overwhelmingly comprised of men. With no other possibility to gather freely, protesters met at the mosque and grouped at the end of Friday prayers to start marching and chanting, and week after week the presence of women in these demos was negligible. Moreover, there is little doubt that the sheer brutality of the regime, with its blind random shootings, would have led many men to insist that their female relatives remain at home in an attempt to keep them out of harm's way.

خلال استقبال بيرنز: إخوان مصر يدعون واشنطن للتوازن

Arabs48.com

"قال رئيس حزب العدالة والتنمية المنبثق عن جماعة الاخوان المسلمين في مصر محمد مرسي ، إن حزبه مقتنع بأهمية العلاقات المصرية الأميركية، لكن "هذه العلاقات يجب أن تقوم على التوازن"، وطالب واشنطن بأن تعيد حساباتها وتغير سياساتها مع الشعوب بما يتواكب مع ربيع الثورات العربية.

وأثناء استقباله أمس وليام بيرنز مساعد وزيرة الخارجية الأميركية طالب مرسي الولايات المتحدة بأن يكون موقفها من القضايا العربية والإسلامية إيجابيا، معتبرا أن انحياز الإدارات الأميركية في الماضي ضد القضايا العربية لم يكن في صالحها.
....
كما أكد مرسي أهمية الدور الذي يمكن أن تلعبه الإدارة الأميركية لحل الأزمة الفلسطينية ووقف الاعتداءات على الشعب الفلسطيني،[And these people are going to lead the Egyptian "revolution"?? They only want power and are kissing American ass!]
نظرا لما تمثله هذه القضية من أهمية كبرى للشعب المصري وفي القلب منه حزب الحرية والعدالة، كما دعا الإدارة الأميركية إلي اتخاذ موقف أكثر وضوحا تجاه القتل الممنهج ضد الشعب السوري.

يذكر أن اللقاء الذي يعد الأرفع من نوعه بين الجانبين أقيم بحضور نائب رئيس حزب الحرية والعدالة عصام العريان والأمين العام المساعد للحزب أسامة ياسين، بينما حضره من الجانب الأميركي الوفد المرافق لبيرنز وسفيرة الولايات المتحدة في القاهرة آن باترسون.
"

Al-Jazeera Video: Syrian refugees struggle in Lebanon

"The government's violent crackdown on protesters in Syria is forcing many civilians to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, including Lebanon.

According to the UN, there are now more than four thousand Syrian refugees in Lebanon alone.

Dorsa Jabbari reports from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, where some Syrian families are considering returning home because living conditions there aren't any better."

Al-Jazeera Video: Al Jazeera interview with Hassan Jabareen

"Al Jazeera interviews Hassan Jabareen, a lawyer from Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel, over the controversial law upheld by the Israeli court over citizenship and residency."

Real News Video: Why Did Def. Sec. Panetta Say Iran Not Building Nukes?

Gareth Porter: Panetta's statement could be a warning to Israel not to attack Iran, but it's too weak to be meaningful

A Path to War? Assassination of Iran Nuclear Scientist, New Sanctions Strain U.S.-Iran Relations

"Iran says a nuclear scientist involved in its uranium enrichment program was killed by assassins in Tehran on Wednesday, becoming the latest Iranian scientist to die in a series of similar incidents. Earlier this week, Iran announced it had sentenced a U.S.-born man to death for allegedly spying for the CIA. Meanwhile, the United States is leading a global campaign to shut down Iranian oil exports in order to pressure the country to end its alleged nuclear weapons program. Iran responded by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, a major transit point for one fifth of oil traded worldwide. “If we are increasing the sense of threat, we may be able to prevent [the Iranian’s] capabilities to a certain extent, but we’re also increasing their desire for the nuclear deterrent,” says Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council. “At some point, that desire will overcome the obstacles. In essence, you cannot threaten a country into feeling secure."...."

Palestinian "Reconciliation," by Emad Hajjaj

Why is it open season on Palestinians in US presidential race?

Hasan Abu Nimah
The Electronic Intifada
Amman 12 January 2012

"The pro-Israel rhetoric of some election hopefuls is so extreme that they make George W. Bush seem reasonable by comparison....

Escalating calls for expulsion of Palestinians

Denying Palestinians’ existence comes as an escalation in a frenzied race in which each candidate tries to show more scorn for the Palestinians, or more hostility and warmongering towards Iran, to appease Israel.

Of course, both Israelis and their US lobby welcome declarations that the West Bank is Israeli, but certainly not with the 2.5 million Palestinian Arabs who live there, as Santorum said. The next step we can therefore expect is for US politicians and candidates to start adopting the calls of Israeli leaders who demand the expulsion of Palestinians altogether...."

Palestinian youth call for Ramallah protest against Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Jordan

By Ali Abunimah




"Palestinian youth have called for a silent protest this Saturday outside the headquarters of Palestinian Authority ruler Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah to protest resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Jordan.

An Arabic Facebook page advertising the protest has been set up by a group calling itself “Palestinians for Dignity.” The group has also issued a statement in English.

A two-minute video on YouTube in Arabic juxtaposes recent speeches of Abbas vowing not to return to negotiations unless Israel halts all settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land with images and headlines of Israel’s unprecendented building spree.

Text in the video states:

On 14 January 2012, [Palestinian negotiator Saeb] Erekat meets with [Israeli government representative Yitzhak] Molcho in Jordan, to negotiate.
Because this is a red line for our dignity,
Silent protest to reflect Palestinian youth’s rejection of negotiations over rights.
14 January 2012 at 1 pm at the main entrance of the Muqataa [Palestinian Authority HQ], Ramallah

Settlement construction reaches new highs
....."

What War With Iran Might Look Like

by Philip Giraldi, January 12, 2012

"....Fighters from the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis are immediately launched under standing orders, and they devastate the naval base that the Iranian boat departed from. President Obama holds a press conference and calls the incident an act of war and vows to do everything necessary to support U.S. forces in the region, but he stops short of a commitment to stage a full-scale attack on Iran. A hastily called meeting of the U.N. Security Council results in a 17–1 vote urging the United States to exercise restraint, with only Washington voting “no.” In the General Assembly, only the United States, Israel, Micronesia, and Costa Rica support possible military action.

The United States is effectively alone, but Israel takes advantage of the growing war fervor in the United States to launch an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities. The recently completed nuclear reactor at Bushehr is destroyed, killing 13 Russian technicians working on the site, and the aboveground buildings at the Natanz nuclear research facility are leveled. Russian-supplied Iranian air defenses shoot down six Israeli aircraft. Washington receives no prior warning of the Israeli attack, though it does pick up the signal traffic that precedes it and knows something is coming. It makes no effort to stop the Israelis as they fly over undefended Iraqi airspace.

Congress and the media rally behind the Israelis and demand war. A bill in the House of Representatives calling on the White House to take military action in support of Israel passes 431–4. A similar bill in the Senate receives only two nays. President Obama hesitates but then approves a limited offensive, directed against Iran’s military, its nuclear sites, and, most particularly, its Revolutionary Guard installations. In the first few days, overwhelming American air and naval superiority destroys Iran’s principal air, naval, and army bases. Iranian Revolutionary Guard facilities are obliterated, as are the known Iranian nuclear research and development sites. The limited offensive soon becomes anything but that, with strategic bombers dropping 30,000-pound Big BLU bunker-buster bombs to strike underground labs and processing centers. Population centers are avoided, though smart weapons are used to destroy communications centers and command and control facilities. There are nevertheless large numbers of civilian casualties as many of the targeted nuclear sites are close to or within cities and large towns. Infrastructure is also hit, particularly bridges, roads, and power-generation stations close to known nuclear research centers and military sites.....

.....The United States tells the Iranian government that unless resistance ceases, nuclear weapons will be used on select targets. India and Pakistan are alarmed by the U.S. threat and put their own nuclear forces on high alert, as does Israel. Russia and China also increase their readiness levels to respond to the crisis.....

The United States uses a neutron-type bomb against the main Iranian nuclear research center at Natanz, which both Washington and Israel had already bombed conventionally and destroyed. It vows to bomb again if Iran continues to resist......."