'Yemeni pres. seeks Saudi asylum' Isn't This Where the Most Hated Despots End Up? Where Will the Saudi Despots Go??

IF TRUE, THIS IS IMPORTANT

Press TV

"On Monday night, Saleh told Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz during a telephone conversation that he will be forced to give up power and requested him and his family's asylum to Saudi Arabia, nahrainnet reported.

Earlier Tuesday, Saleh had expressed his willingness to step down by the year's end to prepare a peaceful transfer of power in the impoverished Arab nation.

The announcement came as a reversal of Saleh's recent comments in which he had said he would remain in power until the end of his term in 2013.

During talks with the Saudi officials, Saleh discussed the defection of senior military officials to the opposition and the resignation of many other officials from their posts.

A senior Saudi official is expected to visit Sana'a in the next 24 hours to plan Saleh and his family's departure to Riyadh....."

What intervention in Libya tells us about the neocon-liberal alliance

By Stephen M. Walt

".... At one point, I said that "liberal inteventionists are just ‘kinder, gentler' neocons, and neocons are just liberal interventionsts on steroids."

Dean challenged me rather forcefully on this point, declaring that there was simply no similarity whatsoever between a smart and sensible person like U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and a "crazy guy" like Paul Wolfowitz. (I didn't write down Dean's exact words, but I am certain that he portrayed Wolfowitz in more-or-less those terms). I responded by listing all the similarites between the two schools of thought, and the discussion went on from there.....

The only important intellectual difference between neoconservatives and liberal interventionists is that the former have disdain for international institutions (which they see as constraints on U.S. power), and the latter see them as a useful way to legitimate American dominance. Both groups extol the virtues of democracy, both groups believe that U.S. power -- and especially its military power -- can be a highly effective tool of statecraft. Both groups are deeply alarmed at the prospect that WMD might be in the hands of anybody but the United States and its closest allies, and both groups think it is America's right and responsibility to fix lots of problems all over the world. Both groups consistently over-estimate how easy it will be to do this, however, which is why each has a propensity to get us involved in conflicts where our vital interests are not engaged and that end up costing a lot more than they initially expect.

So if you're baffled by how Mr. "Change You Can Believe In" morphed into Mr. "More of the Same," you shouldn't really be surprised. George Bush left in disgrace and Barack Obama took his place, but he brought with him a group of foreign policy advisors whose basic world views were not that different from the people they were replacing. I'm not saying their attitudes were identical, but the similarities are probably more important than the areas of disagreement. Most of the U.S. foreign policy establishment has become addicted to empire, it seems, and it doesn't really matter which party happens to be occupying Pennsylvania Avenue......

But the real lesson is what it tells us about America's inability to resist the temptation to meddle with military power. Because the United States seems so much stronger than a country like Libya, well-intentioned liberal hawks can easily convince themselves that they can use the mailed fist at low cost and without onerous unintended consequences. When you have a big hammer the whole world looks like a nail....."

At defiant march, Syrians shout 'No more fear!'

Like Father, Like Son....
Just Like Gaddafi's Son Saif.

AP

"Syrians chanting "No more fear!" held a defiant march yesterday after a deadly government crackdown failed to quash three days of massive protests in a southern city — an extraordinary outpouring in a country that brutally suppresses dissent.

Riot police armed with batons chased away the small group without incident, but traces of earlier, larger demonstrations were everywhere: burned-out and looted government buildings, a dozen torched vehicles, an office of the ruling Baath party with its windows knocked out. Protesters burned an office of the telecommunications company Syriatel, which is owned in part by the president's cousin.

The unrest in the city of Daraa started on Friday after security troops fired at protesters, killing five people. Over the next two days, two more people died and authorities sealed the city, allowing people out but not in as thousands of enraged protesters set fire to government buildings and massed in their thousands around the city.

Among the victims was 11-year-old Mundhir Masalmi, who died yesterday after suffering tear gas inhalation a day earlier, an activist told The Associated Press. The activist asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.

An Associated Press team was allowed into Daraa, accompanied by two government minders who kept them away from protesters and would not allow photographs of the demonstrations. Army checkpoints circled the city and plainclothes officers were dispatched in key areas

The military tightened security around the old part of the city that witnessed much of the violence. Soldiers were stopping cars trying to go to the old part, checking people's identity cards and searching the vehicles to make sure no one is carrying weapons. The minders prevented the AP team from going to the old quarter....."

Déjà Vu All Over Again: Libya ground forces 'not ruled out'

The Independent

"A Government minister today refused to rule out the deployment of British ground troops in Libya.

Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey said there was a clear distinction between sending in a full-scale occupation force - which is banned under the terms of the United Nations mandate - and a more limited intervention.

He also acknowledged that Libya could be facing a prolonged stalemate - with the rebels securing the east of the country but unable to break Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's stranglehold on the capital, Tripoli.

His comments came after Prime Minister David Cameron last night tried to reassure MPs that Libya would not be "another Iraq" - with international forces "knocking over" the government and then being left responsible for the aftermath......"

Gaddafi's brutality has united Libya

My colleagues and I defected from the Libyan mission to the UN to draw attention to Gaddafi's attacks on unarmed protesters

Adam Tarbah
(Adam Tarbah is second secretary to Libya's delegation to the UN)

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 March 2011

"I am almost the same age as Gaddafi's regime. I was born in 1968, a year before Gaddafi came to power.

The regime in Libya is built on the safety and security of Gaddafi himself. Every aspect of Libyans' lives revolves around him and no one dares to question his orders.

Living in that sort of situation for so long you tend to go with the flow just to be able to achieve basic goals in your life....

We weren't sure what to think or expect until the day Gaddafi's son, Saif, appeared on Libyan TV and made his historic speech to the Libyan people and the world.

I call the speech historic because it made it clear to me and my colleagues in the Libyan mission to the United Nations in New York – and in other parts of the world too – that this man was as crazy and brutal as his father. Call us naive if you wish, but certainly a lot of Libyans were fooled by Saif's previous speeches on reform in Libya and were hopeful that a better future might be possible under his leadership.

Following Saif's speech, all my colleagues and I met at the mission and issued a declaration stating that we were defecting from Gaddafi's regime and that we condemned what the regime was doing to unarmed protesters in Libya. Judging from what we know of Gaddafi and what he is capable of behind closed doors, our aim was primarily to draw the world's attention to what is happening in Libya.....

He is willing to deploy any means to buy himself time and try to contain most of the opposition, especially in the western areas of Libya. He will use whatever collateral damage might occur at the hands of coalition forces to gain sympathy both from Libyans and from the Arab world. I wouldn't exclude the possibility of him using human shields to ensure such tragedies take place. He played the illegal immigrants card (which didn't work) but the al-Qaida card is of some concern to western countries. He and his son tried to incite civil war but have failed so far.

There is a lot of uncertainty but one thing is sure: he will never be able to rule Libya again, at least not the way he used to do. If I will give credit to Gaddafi and his son for anything at all, I'll give it to them for uniting people in all parts of Libya against them, and for inflicting damage upon themselves, every time they appeared on TV, which is much greater than the damage inflicted by their opposition."

A Great Cartoon by Dave Brown: The Arab League as a Human Shield.

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Right across the Arab world, freedom is now a prospect

From the mildewed, corrupted dictatorships is emerging a people reborn. Not without bloodshed and violence. But now at last, the Arabs can hope to march into the bright sunlit uplands

By Robert Fisk

"....What is not in doubt is the extraordinary tempest passing through the region, the spectacular break-up of the Arab world which most of us have known for most of our lives and which most Arabs have known for most of their lives. From the mildewed, corrupted dictatorships – the cancer of the Middle East – is emerging a people reborn. Not without bloodshed, and not without much violence in front of them as well as behind them. But now at last the Arabs can hope to march into the bright sunlit uplands. Every Arab friend of mine has said exactly the same thing to me over the past weeks: "Never did I believe I would ever live to see this."

We have watched these earthquake tremors turn to cracks and the cracks into crevasses. From Tunisia to Egypt to Libya, to Yemen – perhaps only 48 hours from freedom – to Morocco and to Bahrain and, yes, even now to Syria, the young and the brave have told the world that they want freedom. And freedom, over the coming weeks and months, they will undoubtedly obtain. These are happy words to write, but they must be said with the greatest caution.

....I'm not certain, either, that Bahrain is going to be an easily created democracy, especially when Saudi Arabia – the untouchable chalice almost as sacred from criticism as Israel – is sending its military riff-raff across the border bridge.....

....For Israel's government, it now appears, the fall of dictators whom they have many times compared to Hitler is even worse than the dictators' preservation. We can see where the problem lies. A Mubarak would always obey orders – via Washington – from Israel. A new president will be under no such pressure. Voters in Egypt do not like the siege of Gaza. They are outraged by the theft of Arab land for Israeli colonies in the West Bank. No matter how big the bribes from Washington, no elected Egyptian president is going to be able to tolerate this state of affairs for long.

As I said, there is much blood still to flow. And many a meddling hand to turn new democracies into time-serving dictatorships. But for once – just once – the Arabs can see the broad sunlit uplands."

Shameful Syrian Propagandist blames the "unrest" on radical Palestinians

This is a slap in the face to all those morons that believe that Asad supports Palestinians and resistance.
Another slap in the face is the Syrian support to the Saudi intervention/invasion of Bahrain. Shame on you
for whitewashing and apologizing for this regime and for believing for 1 sec that they care about the resistance.

Angry Arab on Syrian opposition

There are two weaknesses for the Syrian opposition that one should bear in mind.  1) Despite all the rhetoric in Israel and the US, both countries prefer the Asad regime to any alternative because they really appreciate the tight control it exercises over the borders.  Israel worries about the consequences of chaos scenario like Iraq in Syria and the impact it would have on Israel; 2) that the Syrian opposition rarely act in unison in Syrian cities and towns.  I was once making a presentation about my paper on the Syrian opposition under Hafidh Al-Asad in a class on Syrian politics and society at Georgetown University taught by the great, Hanna Batatu.  After I finished and in response to a point I made, Batatu looked at me and said: when in the contemporary politics of Syria did Aleppo, Hama, Hums, and Damascus move together?  I did not have an intelligent answer, I remember. 

ثورة الشعب في اليمن .. اليوم الـ 47 .. د. عزمي بشاره

Standing up to the west isn't enough to save Assad

Syria is stable, according to its president. But his regime isn't immune from forces at work across the Arab world

David Hirst
guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 March 2011

"Is Syria's turn now coming? Of all the Arab regimes, none more resembles those of former presidents Mubarak and Ben Ali than President Assad and his ruling Ba'athists; and, after their fall, his 51-year-old "republican monarchy" looked the next most logically in line of candidates to succumb to the Arab democratic revolution.

Yet Assad himself begged to differ.....

Given such things as the weakness and divergences of the traditional Syrian opposition, and sectarian and ethnic divisions in society at large, there are serious doubts whether these scattered outbreaks will coalesce into a single, cohesive, full-scale uprising.

Yet with the Dera'a disturbances now into their fourth consecutive day, this disparate opposition is clearly developing a serious momentum on the streets. There is a growing feeling that it could escalate into something much bigger and more decisive.....

....His regime was chiefly stable, he said, because it was the true embodiment of the Arabs and Syrians' 'ideology, belief and cause' – essentially the struggle against Israel and western powers standing behind it. It thereby boasted a "patriotic legitimacy' which all other regimes, subservient to the US, lacked.

But this argument advanced by a despot in favour of his own survival is turning out to be almost as delusional as those advanced by others – such as the al-Qaida of Colonel Gaddafi's bizarre imagining – for all their woes. The patriotic card clearly counts for little in the eyes of a Syrian public who consider that, in anything other than rhetoric, their rulers have done little more to earn it than their rivals in the "moderate" camp. It is just a diversion from the real issues at stake.....

....Indeed, Bashar has frankly asserted that he didn't envisage such fundamental reforms before 'the next generation.'

That doesn't augur well for dialogue, reconciliation, or a smooth transition of power. So if uprising there is to be it will be more like Libya and Bahrain's. Never would the army and police leaderships abandon the political one as they did in Egypt and Tunisia. For them all, so incestuously linked, overthrow is simply not an option. For the regime they most resemble – and whose fate most surely haunts them — is the late Saddam Hussein's and their brother-Baathists in Baghdad."

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah Speech - March 19, 2011 - Islamic [Correction: He actually said Arab] Awakening

Revolutions and Unrest in Arab Countries
Hezbollah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah Speech

Al-Jazeera Video: Army commanders defect in Yemen

"After weeks of protests and the sacking of his cabinet, Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is now facing the biggest challenges yet to his 32-year grip on power.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports."

Video: Omar Barghouti: 'As our South African comrades did in their fight against apartheid, we must go to international civil society'

Omar Barghouti of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign on why he thinks this type of pressure is needed to make Israel respect international law

Mustafa Khalili and Christian Bennett
guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 March 2011

Yemen needs balance, not another strongman

Yemen is not Egypt – a flood of high-level resignations could trigger a battle for the top

Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 March 2011

"The 32-year rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh appeared almost at an end on Monday as erstwhile stalwarts of his regime queued up to desert him and announce they were joining the opposition.

The writing had been on the wall since Friday, when 52 protesters in the capital were massacred by Saleh loyalists. Even by the violent standards of Yemeni politics, this was viewed by many as a shocking and unacceptable development.

A trickle of high-level resignations over the last few weeks turned to a flood on Monday when the president's kinsman, General Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar, announced he was switching sides.

Ali Muhsin's defection was the real tipping point. Because of his position in the military, it effectively means the end of the Saleh regime....

In Egypt, during the overthrow of President Mubarak, it was possible to view the military as a (comparatively) benign force managing the transition, but it is much more difficult to take a similar view of the military in Yemen.

It is certainly possible that Ali Muhsin will lay claim to the Yemeni revolution and in the process try to establish himself as the country's new strongman. He may be supported in that by those who fear turmoil as a result of ousting Saleh.

On the other hand, though there's little doubt about Ali Muhsin's ambitions, he is not the only powerful player in Yemen....

The need in the current situation is to achieve some sort of collaborative balance among all these competing elements, rather than another period of domination by a single figure at the top."

Yemen military commanders join opposition as tanks take to the streets

Senior officers and troops side with protesters as envoys, editors, party chiefs and governors call on President Saleh to step down

Tom Finn in Sana'a
guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 March 2011

"After 32 years in power Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, looks destined to become the next Arab leader to be toppled as 11 military commanders, including a senior general, defected from the regime, promising to protect anti-government protesters in the capital.

General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a long-time confidant of the president and head of the Yemeni army in the country's north-west, announced he would support "the peaceful revolution" by sending soldiers under his command to protect the thousands gathered in the capital demanding for Saleh to step down.

"According to what I'm feeling, and according to the feelings of my partner commanders and soldiers … I announce our support and our peaceful backing to the youth revolution," Ali Mohsen said via a video statement released before noon.....

Within hours, seven Yemeni ambassadors – to Japan, Syria, the Czech Republic, Jordan, China, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait – announced they were standing down.

"The regime is crumbling, there is very little support left for the president now," said Mohammed al-Naqeeb, head of the ruling party in Aden who resigned this afternoon.

Minutes after Ali Mohsen's defection, tanks belonging to the republican guards, an elite force led by the president's son Ahmed Ali [Sounds familiar? Just like Gaddafi and his sons.], rolled into the streets of Sana'a, setting the stage for a standoff between defectors and loyalists.

Republican guard tanks took up a strategic location across the city at Saleh's residence, the ministry of defence and at the central bank. Meanwhile, tanks of Ali Mohsen's 1st armoured division took positions elsewhere in the city.....

"Unfortunately the president and his sons still have control over powerful sections of the military including the republican guard and the air force," said Yemeni political analyst Abdul Irayani.

"We are all praying that Saleh leaves quickly and quietly to prevent the situation deteriorating rapidly."....."

Framing the narrative of Libya

Despite all the rhetoric, the Gaddafis bear the responsibility for the ills and misfortunes of their country.

Marwan Bishara
Al-Jazeera

"....Make no mistake about it, the battle over Libya did take a turn for the worse with the international intervention to protect the Libyan people and impose no-fly zone among other measures.

The ongoing bombardment is and will remain a controversial subject that has already been criticised by the Arab league. Further escalation could lead to a backlash.

So who bears the responsibility for turning Libya into a war zone and an object of an international military intervention?

Could it be those who confronted a peaceful civil uprising for freedom with lethal force, and when it escalated into a full-fledged revolt, used aerial bombardments, heavy artillery to quell it?

Libya could have and should have gone Tunisia or Egypt's path of change. But while their militaries conceded the need for regime change, in Libya the family-led powerful militias, financed and groomed to defend the regime's "country estate", sided with their pay masters.

While the Gaddafis continue to show images of pro-Gaddafi demonstrators in Tripoli to offset the images of widespread anti-Gaddafi/pro-change, in reality, Libya is not divided between two visions for their country. Rather between a majority that seeks free and prosperous Libya, and a mostly small heavily-armed minority that runs or benefits from a corrupt rule.

Alas, even the worst regimes in history have had following among their subjects that had a stake in the system.

Needless to say, Libyans in general deserve better than to see their country ruled like a ''family farm''. That's why they insist on taking down the regime. But the Gaddafi dynasty would not have it, threatening to take the country down with them.

That is why despite all the inflamed rhetoric and populist propaganda, when all is said and done, it is the Gaddafis who bear the responsibility for the ills and misfortunes of their country."

عندما يمدح ليبرمان القذافي

".....
واللافت أو بالأحرى عدم اللافت، أن الصحافة العبرية نفت هذه الأنباء واختارت أن تطلق عليها قصص ألف ليلة وليلة، ولكن في المقابل لم نسمع نفيا إسرائيليا رسميا، ناهيك عن أن النظام الليبي سمح للعديد من الصحافيين الإسرائيليين بالدخول إلى ليبيا وتغطية الأحداث من طرابلس الغرب، أحدهم، المحلل العسكري، رون بن يشاي الذي استمات في لقاء مع التلفزيون الإسرائيلي في الدفاع عن القذافي ونفى نفيا قاطعا وجود مرتزقة أفارقة في الجماهيرية.

خامسا: من الأهمية بمكان التشديد في هذه العجالة على أن النظام الليبي أجرى مفاوضات مع إسرائيل في السنة الماضية، أي قبل اندلاع الثورة، كما أنه لم يخف إقدامه على إطلاق الإسرائيلي الذي كان محتجزا لديها.

وعندما يقوم النظام بالإقدام على خطوة من هذا القبيل في زمن لم يكن فيه مهددا من قبل الثورة الشعبية، فإنه في هذا الزمن الذي يحارب فيه من أجل البقاء سيتحالف حتى مع الشيطان ليضمن استمراره في الحكم.

فالقذافي، الذي بات منبوذا في العالم، بسبب الجرائم التي ارتكبها نظامه ضد شعبه، بحاجة لإسرائيل، أكثر من حاجة إسرائيل إليه، وبالتالي فإن الدولة العبرية لن تتورع عن تقديم المساعدة له ولنظامه، ما دام الأمر يخدم مصالحها التكتيكية المتمثلة بإثارة الفتن والقلاقل في الوطن العربي، ومصالحها الإستراتيجيّة بتفكيك دول عربيّة وتفتيتها وتحويلها إلى دويلات طائفية ومذهبية وقبلية.

وأخيرا، نورد القضية التالية التي تحمل في طياتها مدلولات عديدة: يعقوب حجاج، مؤرخ يهودي من أصول ليبية مقيم في إسرائيل ورئيس معهد دراسات وأبحاث يهود ليبيا كشف النقاب عن إرسال القذافي قبل عام، عن ممثلين ليبيين من العاصمة الأردنية عمان للالتقاء مع مسؤولي المنظمة العالمية ليهود ليبيا في إسرائيل، وأنه بالفعل تم ترتيب زيارة للوفد الرسمي الليبي إلى تل أبيب، وأثناء اللقاءات التي عقدها نوقش مصير ممتلكات اليهود في ليبيا، مشيرا إلى أن ذلك كانت محاولة من القذافي للتصالح مع المجتمع الدولي وإرضاء الغرب، ولاسيما الولايات المتحدة.

وقال حجاج، الذي كان يتمنى أن يكون أول سفير لإسرائيل في ليبيا في عهد القذافي، إنّه كانت تربطه علاقات جيدة به، وأنّه أرسل جميع مؤلفاته عن تاريخ يهود ليبيا للقذافي، الذي اهتم بها واطلع عليها شخصيا."

Al-Jazeera Video: Top army commanders defect in Yemen

"Senior military figures, diplomats and officials in Yemen are abandoning their president of the last 32 years.

Ali Abdullah Saleh's government has been beseiged for weeks by protests in the capital Sanaa.

On Friday, more than 50 were killed in a crackdown on the streets. By Sunday, president Saleh had sacked all of his ministers.

And in the capital Sanaa, tanks rolled onto the streets, guarding the presidential Palace.

Thousands of people are protesting at the city's university, calling for a revolution.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher has the latest. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Rejoicing in Libya's Benghazi

"Pro-democracy fighters have been celebrating in the second Libyan city of Benghazi after French jets demolished Muammar Gaddafi's heavy armour that was heading their way.

Al Jazeera's James Bays visited the site of the attack to file this report."

No-fly Zone Enacted as U.S. and Allied Forces Launch Air Strikes on Libya Amid Growing Concerns for Civilian Safety

"U.S. and allied forces have launched a second wave of air strikes on Libya to enforce a no-fly zone. Targets have included Libya’s air defenses, forces loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi and Gaddafi’s fortified compound. The attacks on Libya began on Saturday, the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The Arab League had supported the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya, but Arab League Chief Amr Moussa criticized the U.S.-led air strikes. For analysis, we speak to Phyllis Bennis with New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. "The [U.S.] government is going to great lengths to convince the public and world that we are not leading, but right now, at this beginning stage, there is no question the U.S. is in command," Bennis says...."

Corporations Serve the State: Sanction Policies and the Zionist Power Structure

One of the key distinctions between a capitalist and a non-capitalist (socialist, feudal, absolutist state) economy is the separation of state and private enterprise.
"....The Levey Levy: How American Zionists Freeze Financial Profits

In 2004 a little noticed administrative add-on in the US Treasury Department took place that has had world historic significance: AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) pressured Treasury to create the position of “Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence”. Equally important, under strong pressure from AIPAC, a zealous Zionist of immense energy, Stuart Levey was appointed to head the new agency.

Levey used all the administrative mechanisms in the Treasury, from threats of penalties, fines and ostracism, to friendly and hostile persuasion, to line up US federal and state public and private pension funds to sacrifice lucrative investments in targeted countries, most of whom, lo and behold, were adversaries of Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Even as Levey was imposing state constraints over the operations of private investors in the US, he organized his entire staff to police the financial world abroad. Levey and his Zionist allies in the so-called “Israel lobby” called on their Congressional cronies to approve sanction policies which not only affected US banks, manufacturers and construction companies but which penalized any European, Asian and Middle Eastern bank which had economic dealings with Iran and other countries on his list (Cuba, North Korea among others).

Levey extended the sanctions to cover firms and investors with even indirect economic ties to the US: his secret financial police located funds which passed from one private bank to another which had tangential links to US banks and Levey applied and secured hundreds of millions in fines against Swiss, Chinese (Macao) English and other banks. Effectively the US imperial state via its Undersecretary of Treasury, harnessed the entire world’s financial system to serve US and Israeli foreign policy...."

Real News Video: Libya: Libyan No Fly Zone Necessary But Intervention Has Imperialist Objectives

Gilbert Achcar: Slaughter of democratic uprising by Gaddafi was imminent, but killing of civilians and regime change by foreign intervention unacceptable

A GOOD INTERVIEW

The Odyssey Dawn top 10

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"....
1. Democratic Saudi Arabia. To have the holy grail of medievalism and repression - the House of Saud - voting in the Arab League to bring democracy to Libya while quashing any progressive moves inside the kingdom (and invading a neighbor) will forever live in infamy as the Top Hypocrisy of the Great 2011 Arab Revolt. King Abdullah's billionaire package of "reforms", ie bribes, essentially bolster the House of Saud's two strategic pillars; the security/repression establishment (60,000 new jobs for the Interior Ministry), and the religious clerics (more money to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice). Even if they have successfully preempted the kingdom's "Day of Rage", this proves how scared they really are.

What many don't know is that Operation Odyssey Dawn is personal - and has nothing to do with Greek heroism but Bedouin hatred. It revolves around the extremely bad blood between King Abdullah and Gaddafi since 2002, in the run-up to the war on Iraq, when Gaddafi accused Abdullah of selling out the Arab world to Washington. So this is not Operation Odyssey Dawn; it's Operation House of Saud Takes Out Gaddafi. With all the heavy lifting subcontracted to the West, of course, and the eastern Libya protesters posing as extras.

Odyssey Dawn - a "just war" - started exactly eight years after the Iraq war. In 2003, at the start of Operation Enduring Freedom - still ongoing, having "liberated" over a million Iraqis from life - George W Bush said, "American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger".

This Saturday, at the start of Operation Odyssey Dawn, Barack Obama said, "Today we are part of a broad coalition. We are answering the calls of a threatened people. And we are acting in the interests of the United States and the world."

Maybe we should call this whole thing Operation Enduring Odyssey - and send the bill to the House of Saud."

BBC Video: شاهد عيان من مدينة درعا 20-3-2011

Syria: Government Crackdown Leads to Protester Deaths

Authorities Should Halt Use of Excessive Force on Protesters

"(Cairo) - Syria should cease use of live fire and other excessive force against protesters, as it did on March 18 and 20, 2011, in the southern town of Daraa, leaving at least five people dead, Human Rights Watch said today.

Sunday, March 20 marked the third day of protests in Daraa, where government forces yet again fired on protesters and used teargas to break up a public gathering, killing one person and injuring dozens of others, according to media reports. Today's fatality brings the total number of protesters killed in Daraa to at least five.

"The Syrian government has shown no qualms about shooting dead its own citizens for speaking out," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Syrians have shown incredible courage in daring to protest publicly against one of the most repressive governments in the region, and they shouldn't have to pay with their lives."...."

From the Despots America Loves: Bahrain: New Arrests Target Doctors, Rights Activists

In Widening Crackdown on Critics, Four Doctors Among 15 Recently Arrested

March 20, 2011.

"(Manama) - Bahrain should end its campaign of arrests of doctors and human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today.

On March 19-20, 2011, state security forces, often masked and in civilian dress, arrested four medical doctors, and two human rights activists, and sought the arrest of a third. Human Rights Watch also remains concerned about the whereabouts of those doctors and rights advocates still in detention. The arrests, some of which occurred during pre-dawn hours, appear part of a broader government crackdown involving nighttime raids on the homes of those viewed as supporting pro-democracy protesters, Human Rights Watch said.

"Nighttime raids by masked men accompanied by uniformed security personnel have become disturbingly familiar in Bahrain," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The state is now unabashedly terrorizing anyone including doctors who dared to support pro-democracy protesters during the past several weeks."....."

Gaddafi cannot hold out. But who will replace him?

The rebels have shown that they are politically and militarily weak

By Patrick Cockburn

Job Vacancy:


A Libyan Karzai is Needed. Applicants are being interviewed at the US Consulate in Benghazi. Position to be filled in Tripoli in the next couple of months.

".....The first days of foreign intervention mirror the experience of the US and its allies in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, by going extremely well. Air attacks shattered a column of tanks and infantry south of Benghazi. Survivors have fled. The rout may soon resemble the rapid dissolutions of the Taliban and the Iraqi army.

In Iraq and Afghanistan most people were glad to get rid of their rulers, and most Libyans will be glad to see the back of Gaddafi. His regime may well fall more quickly than is currently expected. Pundits have been wagging their fingers in the last few days, saying Gaddafi may be mad but he is not stupid, but this is to underestimate the opéra bouffe quality of his regime.

It is the next stage in Libya – after the fall of Gaddafi – which has the potential to produce a disaster similar to Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases successful war left the US as the predominant power in the country. In Iraq this rapidly turned into an old-fashioned imperial occupation. "The occupation was the mother of all mistakes," as one Iraqi leader is fond of repeating. In Afghanistan the US always called the shots, even if Hamid Karzai headed the government.

The same problem is going to arise in Libya. There will be a lack of a credible local partner. The rebels have shown that they are politically and militarily weak. Indeed, if this had not been so, there would have been no need for a last-minute foreign intervention to save them.

The local leaders who rise to the top in these circumstances are usually those who speak the best English and get on with the US and its allies. In Baghdad and Kabul those who initially rose were those who fawned the most and who were prepared to go before Congress to express fulsome gratitude for America's actions.

There is a further complication. Libya is an oil state like Iraq, and oil wealth tends to bring out the worst in almost everybody. It leads to autocracy because whoever controls the oil revenues can pay for powerful security forces and ignore the public. Few states wholly reliant on oil are democracies.

Aspirant Libyan leaders who play their cards right over the next few months could put themselves in a position to make a lot of money.....

In terms of the exercise of real authority, Gaddafi is likely to be replaced not by Libyans but by the foreign powers which assist in his overthrow. Going by what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq it will not take much for their actions to be seen across the Middle East as hypocritical and self-serving, and resisted as such."

The hypocrisy behind this intervention

The West cannot go on cultivating hideous leaders and then turning on them whenever the winds change

A GOOD COMMENT
By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
The Independent

"....And yet we couldn't do it, couldn't wholly back the Libyan mission, not even on a wing and a prayer. Why? It is to do with trust. As Abdel al-Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper and a friend, wrote last week: "The first reaction was relief ... who would not want to stop a bully intent on 'wiping out' those who oppose him? But any relief should be tempered with serious misgivings. First what motives lie behind this intervention?"

There are the obvious reasons for the hyperactivity around Libya and the concomitant, languid indifference to the agony of people in other places with autocratic rulers. Yemen? Oh, no oil, so why bother? Let the "barbarians" slaughter each other. It's what they do. What about Saudi Arabia, then? As grotesque a regime as you can get. Watch the Newsnight report by Sue Lloyd Roberts tonight on this evil empire which interns its females and decapitates dissidents, which spreads its Islamicist tentacles to Muslims worldwide, including Britain, which has marched into Bahrain to "control" the crowds seeking reform. Ah, but it has much oil and much money to buy our warplanes and guns and mansions in Park Lane......

Look also at who are the people most excited, nay delirious, as the skies over Libya turn black and orange? Worse than tabloid cowboys waving their patriotic guns are fanatical "liberal imperialists" – excitable journalists, think-tank warriors wanting action, Foreign Office wonks, horribly hubristic commentators – jumping at any chance to catch a conflict and bend it to Western will and control. The failure of Iraq, instead of chastening them, has made them frantic for one that will bring glorious victory. M. Junaid Levesque-Alam, an astute observer of the modern Muslim world, blogs: "Some Western pundits have started exercising their shoulders to once again take up the White Man's Burden." Read the well-honed thoughts of ex- British diplomat Robert Cooper and you understand how they long to return to a colonial world order with a modern twist.

Even more disagreeable are the posturing European and US politicians up and about and everywhere. Their swagger and sanctimony should fool nobody. On this, I agree with Pilger, Benn and others including Sami Ramadani, an Iraqi with considerable moral authority. In a letter to a newspaper, they censure Western governments who: "... have prioritised cheap oil, arms sales and support for Israel's oppression of the Palestinians above the rights of Arab peoples." Many of the weapons Gaddafi is using were sold by us to him – thank you very much, Mr Blair. As Tunisians and Egyptians made their bid for freedom, PM Cameron was out there selling to the bastards, colluding with them with a smile on his face. The French have been just as busy. (Their excuse is jobs. If miners and other workers are dispensable, why should those making blood goods be for ever protected? So others will step in to make the devil's tools? Let them.) Now they want to be saviours. Not so fast gentlemen. Could you first apologise? And then promise no more such deals? If not, even if Gaddafi is driven out, Western involvement will be suspect. It will be seen as toxic effluence which contaminated the budding Arab Spring.

At the end of the long coffee-drinking evening, most of us seemed to feel that helping rebels in Libya was necessary. But the real passions were raised over what the West does next. Their movers and shakers cannot go on cultivating hideous leaders and then turning on them when the winds change. They embrace Saudi Arabia and in the same moment shoot down Libya. Such hypocrisies will no longer be swallowed by people who are now globally connected. Realpolitik needs, I know, to prevail over idealism some of the time. However, if the West wants respect for backing democracy and humane standards, it has to put its own houses in order. The Arab revolutions have spread to our shores and are calling out for consistency and honour and for a foreign-affairs reformation. Whatever happens in Libya, our Government must listen or be damned. "

Déjà Vu All Over Again! By Dave Brown

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Top army generals defect in Yemen

Troops and tanks deploy in capital Sanna as three top generals express support for anti-government protesters.

AN IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT

Al-Jazeera

"Three top Yemeni army generals have declared their support for anti-government protesters seeking the resignation of the country's president, Ali Abudullah Saleh.

Brigadier Ali Mohsen Saleh, the head of the north western military zone and the head of the first armoured division, said on Monday that he had deployed army units to protect the protesters.[This sounds just like what the Tunisian and Egyptian armies did.]

Two more generals rallied behind Brigadier Saleh soon after.

Brigadier Saleh said that, "Yemen today, is suffering from a comprehensive and dangerous crisis and it is widespread. "Lack of dialogue and oppression of peaceful protesters in the pubclic sphere, resulted in crisis which has increased each day.

"And it is because of what I feel about the emotions of officers and leaders in the armed forces, who are an integral part of the people, and protectors of the people, I declare, on their behalf, our peaceful support of the youth revolution and their demands and that we will fulfill our duties."

The announcement came days after dozens died when armed men fired at an anti-government protest in the capital Sanaa.

Several ministers resigned from the government after Friday's violence. Abdullah Alsaidi, Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations, also quit in protest over the killings.

Saleh had declared Sunday a national day of mourning for the "martyrs for democracy," while blaming the opposition for "incitement and chaos" that had led to the killings.

Hakim Al Masmari, editor-in-chief of Yemen Post, told Al Jazeera that, "It is officially over, now that 60 per cent of the army is allied with the protesters.

"For Ali Mohsin Saleh to annnouce this, it is a clear sign to President Saleh that the game is over and that he must step down now.

"According to our sources, the president knew that this will happen and he expects Brigadier Saleh to let him leave without further degradation and humiliation....."

Noam Chomsky warns against intervention in Libya

The linguist and philosopher Professor Noam Chomsky talks to Jeremy Paxman about the likely consequences of the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa and the prospects for any western intervention.
He also gives his interpretation of the Obama administration's foreign policy.
Broadcast on Tuesday 8 March 2011.

Remember the civilian victims of past 'Allied' bombing campaigns

People such as Raafat al-Ghosain are often tragically forgotten in the fog of air attacks.

By Robert Fisk

"How life past catches up with life present. The Americans killed Raafat al-Ghosain, pictured above, just after 2am on 15 April 1986. In the days that followed her death, United States officials claimed that Libyan anti-aircraft fire might have hit her home – watch out for similar American claims in the coming hours – not far from the French embassy in suburban Tripoli.

But three weeks later, the Pentagon admitted that three bombs dropped from an F-111 aircraft as part of the US attack on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, in reprisal for an attack by Libyan agents on a Berlin nightclub, had "impacted in the vicinity of the French embassy" and had caused – to use the usual callous euphemism – "collateral damage".

Ms Ghosain was aged 18, a graduate from an English school on holiday from London, a promising and beautiful artist whose individual death went unrecorded in the country that killed her a quarter of a century ago. Her mother was Lebanese and her father Palestinian, working for a Libyan oil company. She is forgotten today.

We remember, as usual, our own dead. But not the dead of others, Libyans or Lebanese, Afghans or Syrians. We blue-eyed folk count. The rest are "collateral damage". I thought of Ms Ghosain yesterday morning as the "Allies" – a phrase trotted out immediately by the television clamouratti, I noticed – started their "ground preparation" against Libya with their "air assets" against Colonel Gaddafi. Then it was Ronald Reagan. Now it was Barack Obama. Better luck this time, I suppose......"

The First Martyr In Daraa Mahmoud Al-Jawabreh

Syria protesters torch buildings

Crowds have set fire to the courthouse and other buildings on a third straight day of demonstrations in the southern Syrian city of Daraa.


Residents said one person was killed and scores injured when security forces used live rounds against protesters. Witnesses said dozens were also taken to be treated for tear gas inhalation at the main Omari mosque.
Thousands took to the streets on Sunday, calling for an end to corruption and 48 years of emergency law and to protest the killing of five civilians in a similar demonstration two days earlier.
The headquarters of the ruling Baath party was set ablaze as well as two phone company branches. One of the firms, Syriatel, is owned by President Bashar al-Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf, who is under specific US sanctions for what Washington regards as public corruption.
"They burned the symbols of oppression and corruption," an activist said. "The banks nearby were not touched."

Friday's protest was fuelled by the arrest of 15 schoolchildren detained for writing pro-democracy graffiti inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.


The children were arrested in Daraa earlier this month after graffiti appeared on school walls and on grain silos with phrases such as "the people want the overthrow of the regime".

[Comment: What kind of regime arrests school children ? they have been detained for over a week. Only Israel had a history of arresting children. This is vulgar and obscene, with all respect to the Resistance in Lebanon, what this regime does to its people CAN NEVER BE EXCUSED, WHITE WASHED or RATIONALIZED simply because they allowed missiles to go to Hizbullah from Iran. It is time to stop the Bull shit and call this dictatorial regime out. Shame on whoever supports the Arab uprising and  is either silent or minimizing what is taking place in Daraa/Syria...]

Daraa protests

Libya Fight Photos

Many Photos, March 20, 2011.

Al-Jazeera Video: Witness phones from Misurata

"As Gaddafi's tanks roll into the rebel-held city of Misurata on Sunday, there are reports of many injuries amid fierce street fighting.

Mohamed, a member of the city's civil community, speaks to Al Jazeera by phone, and describes what has happened in his city over the past day."

Fresh protests break out in Morocco

Amid escalating unrest in Middle East and North of Africa, Moroccans have also taken to the streets to protest corruption in Morocco and demand better civil rights.

Press TV

"Thousands of pro-democracy protesters gathered in Rabat and Casablanca on Sunday shouting "the Moroccan people demand change!" and holding up placards reading "For the freedom and dignity of the Moroccan people."

Protests in Morocco began earlier this year following revolutions in Egypt and Tunis which led to the overthrow of the governments in both countries.

In February thousands of Moroccans staged peaceful demonstrations across the country, prompting Morocco's King Mohammed VI to emphasize his commitment to “pursuing the realization of structural reforms.”

The king announced on March 9 that he had appointed a committee to draft a reform of the constitution widening the prerogatives of elected officials and ensuring officials are accountable and the judiciary independent.

Mohammed VI added that the new proposals would be announced in June and the draft constitution will be put to a referendum.

On March 14, however, Morocco's riot police armed with truncheons broke up peaceful protest in Casablanca in an unusual show of violence, injuring 13 people and arresting 54 others."

Also, see this, which includes a video:

مسيرات مطالبة بالإصلاح في المغرب

Fears of a 'counter-revolution' in Egypt

"It is the old guard who is trying to force trouble between Copts and Muslims like they have always tried to, but Copts have been smarter than that, and we have become more united with them" Ramy Essam

Activist says he is one of many beaten and tortured by police one month after Mubarak's ousting.

By Mark Levine
Al-Jazeera

"As Egypt prepared to vote on a constitutional referendum on Saturday, I caught up with two activists who were at the centre of the revolution for much of the time protests gripped Meidan Tahrir in Cairo.

Ramy Essam is a singer-songwriter, originally from Mansoura, whose song "Irhal", borrowing chants from the protests, became the unofficial anthem of the revolution, with over 500,000 Youtube views. Last Wednesday when troops and armed thugs cleared Tahrir Square, Ramy was seized, brought to the antiquities museum (which in an indication of the reality of Egypt's situation, is still being used by security forces as a detention facility one month after the removal of Mubarak) and severely beaten and tortured.

Amor Eletrebi is a medical student turned poet, who had just returned from Germany when the revolution began, heading from his hometown of Mansourara to Meidan Tahrir, becoming active in one of the facebook groups that became a symbol of the revolution after the New York Times did a profile about the group and the "facebook flat" in which they were based, directly above the roundabout.

ML: How do you both feel about the "revolution" one month later?

Ramy: My feelings are full of worries and fear that we might just lose all what we have achieved. People started to feel cosy at home once again, laying back and forgetting that they still have got a message to go on with, forgetting that the revolution is still not over, and that there are many corrupt old guard who are still out there and a potential for a massive counter revolution that we should watch out for and face.

Amor: Even with the constitutional referendum, there is no way for me not to be alarmed, concerned and watching the scene in great worry. I can see that we, Egyptians are having to confront the fact that democracy is not such a piece of cake, of how long and hard a process it is to obtain and possess. Frankly, things are moving so fast right now and it is very hard to keep our eye on the prize, so to speak, and yet keeping focused on our larger goals is perhaps the most important thing at this moment......"

Even the Arab World's Only Republican Monarchy is not Immune: Syria protesters torch buildings

One person killed as demonstrations in the southern city of Daraa continue for a third straight day.

Al-Jazeera

"Crowds have set fire to the courthouse and other buildings on a third straight day of demonstrations in the southern Syrian city of Daraa.

Residents said one person was killed and scores injured when security forces used live rounds against protesters. Witnesses said dozens were also taken to be treated for tear gas inhalation at the main Omari mosque.

Thousands took to the streets on Sunday, calling for an end to corruption and 48 years of emergency law and to protest the killing of five civilians in a similar demonstration two days earlier.

The headquarters of the ruling Baath party was set ablaze as well as two phone company branches. One of the firms, Syriatel, is owned by President Bashar al-Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf, who is under specific US sanctions for what Washington regards as public corruption.

"They burned the symbols of oppression and corruption," an activist said. "The banks nearby were not touched."

An AFP correspondent said protesters also tried to march on the home of the town's governor, but security forces used warning shots and tear gas to stop them.

"No. No to emergency law. We are a people infatuated with freedom," marchers chanted as a government delegation arrived in the city to offer their condolences for victims killed on Friday....."

Al-Jazeera Video: Bahraini medics recount hospital horror

"The Bahraini authorities have been accused of heavy-handed approach in handling with Shia Muslim protesters.

According to medics at Salmania hospital in Manama, the security forces surrounded the hospital and did not allow ambulances to enter.

The hospital staff have told Al Jazeera doctors and nurses were beaten up and many doctors are still under arrest.

Our special correspondent has this report. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - True democracy for Egypt?

"Millions of Egyptians cast their votes in the country's first fully-free ballot, saying a simple yes or no to a number of constitutional amendments. Will the changes introduce a true democracy? Or could they lead to yet another autocratic system in which little has changed but the faces of those who rule?"

Al-Jazeera Video: Libya intervention comes too late for some

"Opposition forces in Benghazi say 30 people were killed and many more wounded when troops loyal to longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi attacked the western outskirts of the rebel stronghold in the hours after the UN Security Council approved military action against him.

Residents of the city expressed anger with the international community, saying it had acted too slowly to prevent one final assault from Gaddafi.

But opposition fighters more than held their own, driving back the loyalist troops - some of whom may have remained in Benghazi all along as "sleeper cells" - and capturing at least two tanks.

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Benghazi."

Gaza: Stop Suppressing Peaceful Protests

Hamas Police Beat, Threaten Youth Calling for Palestinian Reconciliation

COMMENT:

WITH "LEADERS" SUCH AS THESE, THE PALESTINIANS ARE DOUBLY OCCUPIED AND OPPRESSED!

"(Jerusalem) - Hamas authorities in Gaza should punish those responsible for attacks on peaceful demonstrators calling for Palestinian political reconciliation, Human Rights Watch said today.

Hamas police violently dispersed several peaceful demonstrations in Gaza beginning March 15, 2011, including sealing off access to public squares and universities and beating trapped demonstrators.

"It is a dismal reflection on Hamas that it is violently cracking down on peaceful demonstrators calling for political reconciliation," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "This is just the latest instance of Hamas assaulting Palestinians' fundamental freedoms."

Coordinated protests were also held on March 15 in the West Bank, where men in civilian clothes beat protesters, and the Palestinian Authority police briefly detained two protesters....."

Bahrain and Yemen declare war on their protesters

With 42 killed in Sanaa, regimes show they will keep power at any cost

By Patrick Cockburn

"Abrutal counter-revolution is sweeping through the Arabian Peninsula as Bahrain and Yemen both declare war on reform movements and ferociously try to suppress them with armed force.

In Yemen police and snipers on rooftops opened fire on Friday on a mass demonstration outside the main university, killing at least 42 people. The government has since declared martial law and set up checkpoints throughout the capital, Sanaa.

In Bahrain repression began a few days earlier, when King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa called for military support from other Gulf monarchs and 1,000 troops from Saudi Arabia crossed into the island kingdom. "This was the green light for our army to kill people," says Ali Salman, the leader of al-Wefaq, the main opposition party.

As decisively as in Yemen the Bahraini al-Khalifa royal family has rejected reform and showed that it intends to hold power by armed force.......

The crackdown in Bahrain and Yemen means that the Arabian Peninsula, where so much of the world's oil reserves are located, is becoming a zone of conflict. Mr Salam says that whatever the government does "it will not solve the political problems of Bahrain". Minority rule by the Sunni al-Khalifas means the little kingdom will remain unstable in the long term.

In Yemen even short-term stability is not likely. President Saleh faces a host of well-armed enemies in his impoverished country where 40 per cent of the population try to survive on $2 a day. In addition to pro-democracy reformers, there is a powerful independence movement in the south of the country and rebels barely restrained by a truce in the north.

The struggle in Arabia in future will be on several levels: between kleptocratic ruling elites and disenfranchised and impoverished masses; between Sunni and Shia; and between regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Iran and the US. The price for last week's counter-revolutions is long-term crisis and instability."

Libya conflict: war on Gaddafi is personal – and he is unlikely to retreat

"......Ahhhhh.....The Good Times We Had Together!"

Capturing or killing the Libyan leader has now become an end in itself for the western allies

Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 March 2011

".....The demonisation of Gaddafi has made it impossible for western leaders to countenance his continuation in power. But without the ground invasion they have pledged not to undertake, he could well survive as the overlord of western and southern Libya following a de facto partition, hostile, vengeful and highly dangerous.

This seems to be his plan. Far from giving up or drawing back, Gaddafi escalated the fighting around Benghazi at the weekend. Rather than abandon cities such as Zawiya, as Obama demanded, he is reportedly moving his troops into urban areas where they can less easily be targeted from the air. Meanwhile, his apparent willingness to use "human shields", his threats of retaliation across the Mediterranean area, and his designation of the whole of north Africa as a "war zone" raises the spectre of possible terrorist attacks and an alarming regression to his old ways.

Gaddafi has personalised this war, too. And he is not going to go quietly. Military superiority in the air will count for nothing if pro-regime army and air force units, militia and security forces, and civilian and tribal supporters who have remained loyal refuse to turn on him or kick him out of Tripoli. By its determination to "get Gaddafi", the west has made this a fight to the death – and death may be a long time in coming."

Libya: allied military assets and intial attack sites

As allied missiles rain down on Libyan targets, we look at the military assets in the area, and the first targets hit on the ground

Paddy Allen, Christine Oliver and Richard Norton-Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 March 2011

(It has some useful information, with interactive maps)

From the Despots America Loves: Bahrain hospitals under siege as soldiers maintain Manama crackdown

Doctors arrested or prevented from working as martial law in tiny Gulf state approaches second week

Martin Chulov in Manama
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 March 2011

"..... The tiny Gulf state has the feel of a nation under siege as it approaches a second week of martial law imposed for three months by its besieged rulers. In addition to the troop presence, neighbourhoods remain largely empty; large, glitzy shopping malls have been virtually abandoned and helicopters regularly buzz over the debris-strewn scenes of recent street clashes.

Hospitals, particularly the Salmaniya medical clinic near the centre of town, have received extra attention, largely because of the significance they have taken on since the protests began in January.

As well as being used to treat hundreds of casualties, nearly all of them unarmed protesters, the hospitals served as rallying points for protesters, who took refuge from riot police in the relative safety of their grounds.

Salmaniya was one of several hospitals attacked by security forces during the week. Their entrances clearly show scuffs from rubber bullets and teargas canisters, as well as sound grenades were found well inside hospital grounds.

Images of thousands of protesters, joined by doctors with bullhorns and outraged ambulance drivers, lionised the anti-government movement and contributed greatly to the regime's public relations woes outside Bahrain.

Several doctors have been arrested, among them a leading surgeon, Ali al-Ikri, who has been accused of having contact with foreign agents. Others claim to have been intimidated by security forces and prevented from leaving their homes.

"I live in a neighbourhood surrounded by colonels and senior officers," said one doctor, who did not want to give her name. "If I go out I will be followed. There is a real risk to my safety and those of my colleagues. I have been prevented from returning to work. When I left the hospital, it was in utter chaos."......"

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

This poll asks:

Do you support the ongoing military operations in Libya?

With about 4,000 responding so far, 61% said yes.

Sayyed Nasrallah to Arabs: Your Spring Has Begun

Al-Manar

"Hezbollah Secretary Genetral Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah expressed support to the revolutions and the uprisings of the Arab people, particularly in Tunis, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, and Yemen.

Sayyed Nasrallah was speaking Saturday evening during a festival organized by Hezbollah for the support of the Arab peoples’ revolutions, in the Sayed Shouhada compound in Beirut’s southern suburb....

The main points of Sayyed Nasrallah’s discourse.

1- REVOLUTIONS ARE MADE BY THE PEOPLE NOT U.S.

2- AS LONG AS US BACKS ISRAEL, IT’LL BE REGARDED AS PLAYING THE HYPOCRITE

3- SATELLITES JAMMED DURING SAYYED NASRALLAH’S SPEECH

4- UNITY IN TUNIS AND EGYPT IS A MUST

5- RESISTANCE FIGHTERS IN LEBANON SALUTE LIBYAN FIGHTERS

6- WE PRAISE YEMEN’S PEACEFUL MOVEMENT

7- TO BAHRAINIS: YOUR BLOOD WILL DEFEAT TYRANTS

8- RESISTANCE ARMS POINTED AT ENEMY; JUST STAY AWAY FROM IT

9- WIKILEAKS REVELATIONS EXPOSE LEBANESE CONSPIRATORS

10- HEAVY PRESSURE ON MIKATI AS HE TRIES TO FORM A GOVERNMENT.....

SATELLITES JAMMED DURING SAYYED NASRALLAH’S SPEECH

During his speech, a piece of paper was handed to the Sayyed, and he smiled saying: “I have just been informed that many satellite channels have been jammed; being afraid of a word reflects weakness.”.....

WE PRAISE YEMEN’S PEACEFUL MOVEMENT.....

I tell the revolutionaries in Libya: Resistance fighters who fought the Israeli aggression for 33 days salute their fellow fighters in Mesrata, Benghazi, Ajdabya, and all Libyan cities and towns. Gaddafi’s serious crime against Lebanon was the abduction of Imam Moussa Sadr and his comments on this issue are mere lies that cannot change the truth.”.....

To Bahrainis I say: Do not feel down because there are lots of Sunnis who support you.Your blood and wounds will defeats the tyrants...."