"(Ramallah) - The Palestinian Authority should open criminal investigations into members of its security services who apparently beat, kicked, and sexually molested protesters in Ramallah, Human Rights Watch said today. The US and European Union, which provide direct support to the Palestinian security services, should suspend such aid pending concrete steps by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to end a culture of impunity for security service abuses, including torture, Human Rights Watch said.
The violence on February 5, 2011, was the third instance since January 30 in which Palestinian security officials have harassed, interrogated, arbitrarily detained and viciously beat peaceful demonstrators......"
UK, US Donors Should Cut Aid to Abusive Palestinian Security Agencies
"(Jerusalem) - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas should order an independent investigation into the death of Haitham Amer, Human Rights Watch said today. Amer died 18 months ago, allegedly under torture by Palestinian security agents. A criminal inquiry and subsequent investigation failed to punish anyone for his death.
In recent interviews with Human Rights Watch, three witnesses to Amer's death independently provided graphic accounts of the events that led up to it. All three said they had provided the information in testimony at the inquiry and that they had identified intelligence agents who participated in torture, one of whom was never charged. Countries that provide direct support to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security agencies, notably the UK and US, should suspend aid to these agencies until officials are held accountable for human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said.....
Torture Allegations
The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), the official ombudsman for human rights abuses by Palestinian authorities, received 164 complaints of torture by the General Intelligence Service and other security agencies, notably Preventive Security, in 2009, and 202 torture complaints in 2010, according to information provided to Human Rights Watch.....
The Witnesses' Accounts
Human Rights Watch interviewed at length two witnesses to Amer's death and spoke to a third witness who confirmed their accounts. All three men had given evidence to prosecutors and testified that guards also tortured them while in detention at the intelligence agency center in Hebron.
Ali Rashid, a resident of Yatta, near Hebron, said guards ignored evidence of Amer's worsening medical condition over several days in custody......"
"Discussing any issue very much depends on the starting point. I have been experiencing a huge disconnect relating to what has taken place in Egypt. The usual talking heads, inside the beltway edition, are already opining over what the United States must do to deal with the "Egypt problem." Apart from the conceit that it is up to Washington to "do something," operating under the assumption that anyone will even listen to President Obama, one has to ask what are the interests that can plausibly be construed as vital to the United States. Apart from the usual concern for how Israel might be viewing developments, I can’t find any, and in that context, I can do nothing but welcome enthusiastically the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak and his eventual replacement by a freely elected government.....
The argument about how America’s pundits and politicians are shaping the discussion on Egypt is critically important because Egypt might only be the first of a number of states that could seek regime change from autocracyto at least some form of popular mandate. If the United States decides that it has no vital interests at stake justifying interfering in that process it will be welcomed by many while serving as a benign enabler of change. If it goes the other way and decides it has to shape and guide what is developingthere will only be trouble and bad feeling all around....."
The decapitation of the regime was just the start. The revolution will have to go further if it's going to deliver what people want
A VERY GOOD COMMENT
Seumas Milne The Guardian, Thursday 17 February 2011
"Anyone who imagined that the Egyptian revolution would be settled with the ousting of Hosni Mubarak has already been sorely disabused. The dictator may have been bundled out of the presidential palace and demonstrators temporarily cleared from Tahrir Square. But the social and political upheaval shows every sign of spreading.
It's not just that the protests are now fanning out across north Africa and the Middle East: to Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Iran, Libya and now Bahrain – home of the US navy's fifth fleet. In Egypt itself, as in Tunisia, where the uprisings began, pressure for more far-reaching change is if anything growing, as setpiece street demonstrations have morphed into a wave of strikes.
Industrial action played a central role in the final push to drive Mubarak from power last week – just as it did in sparking resistance to the regime a couple of years ago in the textile production centre of Mahalla.....
The American government is already trying to ride the tiger of democratisation – in a country where 82% of the population has an unfavourable view of the US – and can be expected to use every trick in its playbook to limit the scope of change and prevent Egypt and others dropping out of its orbit.
Far from being a threat to reform, as Egypt's military leaders claim, only relentless pressure in the streets and workplaces can offset such meddlingand deliver the change Egyptians want. Wherever this process ends, we can be sure it is only just beginning."
The strategy was to demonstrate peacefully, but attacking Bahraini activists has ruined hopes of a brokered deal
Abdulnabi Alekry (A member of the Bahraini Society for Human Rights) guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 February 2011
".....Even ambulance workers were attacked, and we hear that so far four people have died, including a medic, and hundreds have been injured. The army has been deployed all over Manama and a security operation has been launched to locate and arrest activists. These events mark a turning point. After what has now happened, it is difficult to imagine the possibility of negotiations. Pearl Square has been cleared, but the funerals of those who were murdered will be full of shocked citizens even more determined to confront the regime. The British foreign minister visited Bahrain last week and did not call openly for serious reforms. The UK has much influence in the country and a great deal of leverage over its rulers. It should use this opportunity and stand with the Bahraini people."
Reports of 38 injured in rioting after water cannon and teargas were used against estimated 6,000 people in Libya's second city
Ian Black, Middle East editor The Guardian, Thursday 17 February 2011
"Hundreds of anti-government protesters clashed with police and government supporters in Libya's second city yesterday as unrest spread across the Arab world.
Reports from the city of Benghazi said 38 people were injured in rioting after a human rights lawyer was arrested on Tuesday. Film footage captured screams and the sounds of gunfire as crowds scattered. Water cannon and teargas were used against an estimated 6,000 people. Some protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs had set fire to vehicles and fought with police in the city's Shajara Square.
Opposition supporters accused the authorities of deliberately provoking trouble to spoil plans for a nationwide "day of rage" that had been called for .....
Libya's experience of the "Arab spring" could be different from that of its north African neighbours for several reasons. Its enormous oil and gas reserves and small population (6.5 million) mean it is relatively wealthy – four times as rich as Egypt – and can afford to buy off dissent.
It is also far less free than either of its neighbours, with a pervasive secret police and little in the way of a free media or independent institutions."
Police shoot dead protester in Aden, while students lead anti-government rally in Sana'a
Tom Finn in Sana'a guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011
"Anti-government protests flared in Yemen for the sixth consecutive day, turning violent as protests sprang up across the country, spurred on by the resignation last week of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
In Yemen's main southern city of Aden, security forces chased hundreds of people who took to the streets of Al-Mansura neighbourhood demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdallah Saleh.At least one protestor was shot dead by policeas demonstrators hurled stones at police, set tyres and vehicles on fire and stormed a municipal building....."
Security forces descend on Pearl Square firing birdshot and teargas in crackdown on anti-government protesters Martin Chulov in Manama guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 February 2011
"At least four people have been killed in an early-morning raid by security forces on Pearl Square, the focal point of anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain, sparking street battles with riot police.
Armoured trucks have been seen in central Manama and key roads are blocked by security forces. The crackdown follows a dramatic and violent turn in three days of protests calling for widespread reform within Bahrain's ruling minority. Dozens of wounded protesters were being taken to hospitals across the city on Thursday morning.
Riot police stormed the rallying point for the demonstrations, a landmark known as Pearl roundabout, at around 3.15am, firing teargas and birdshot, and wielding clubs and knives, which they used to cut through tents set up by demonstrators.
"We were asleep and they started slicing through our tent," said Nabeel Ebrahim, who was sleeping alongside two trauma surgeons from Salmaniya hospital. "They started firing gas from the overpass and attacking us from all directions."
One of the doctors, Sadiq al-Ikri, is receiving treatment in the critical care unit of the hospital he works in. "He was handcuffed and then kicked repeatedly in the head, face and body," one of his colleagues said. "We have nine other seriously wounded patients."....."
".... انفرط العقد في عهد السادات، وأخذت إسرائيل تشهد عصرها الذهبي في علاقاتها السرية وغير السرية مع الأنظمة العربية بمن فيها منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية التي أدخلت الفلسطينيين في متاهات الدبلوماسية ..... لكن الأهم هو أن الشعوب العربية بقيت أبية رافضة التطويع والتطبيع والامتطاء، وهي ما زالت تصر على الحرية والاستقلال، والسير في درب العزة والإباء. عمل قادة وأنظمة كثر على تذليل الشعوب وإخضاعها، لكنها أبت، وأطلت برأسها العظيم في تونس لتطيح بطاغية سمسر على شعبه، وتبع شعب مصر العظيم الذي أعاد الأنفاس إلى صدور الأمة العربية. والخير قادم بإذن الله.
ورطة إسرائيل ستستمر إسرائيل بمراكمة القوة، لكن ذلك الضعف العربي الذي حماها وراهنت عليه قد أفل، أو أن طريق أفوله ليس طويلا. لقد واجهت إسرائيل مقاومة عربية شديدة في لبنان وفلسطين غزة، وبدت عليها الحيرة والتخبط، فماذا هي فاعلة إذا كانت الخيانة العربية في طريقها إلى التقلص والزوال؟ عهد الضعف العربي قد ولى، ومعه انهار العمق العربي الإستراتيجي لإسرائيل. "
Seen as corrupt and impotent, Abbas and Fayyad should handover power before public anger erupts.
Fadi Elsalameen Al-Jazeera
"After two decades of failed political moves, the Palestinian Authority represented by its top leadership are hoping to avoid the inevitable: paying a heavy price for corruption of all kinds, alienating the Palestinian people, and failing to negotiate an end to Israel’s occupation.
Threatened and undermined by the Al Jazeera-Guardian Palestine Papers leak, and dismayed by wrongly siding with Egypt’s ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak, the Palestinian Authority is employing desperate political maneuvers.
Palestinian President Abbas has asked his Chief Negotiator and cabinet in the West Bank to submit their resignation. He has also called for Parliamentarian and Presidential elections in September and deliberately avoided giving a specific date.
Will Abbas and Fayyad succeed in soaking the Palestinian anger by these desperate maneuvers? No. Nothing short of Abbas and Fayyad handing in their own resignations and accepting responsibility for their failures will satisfy the Palestinian streets....."
A loosely organised group of hackers has been targeting oppressive regimes and has said this is just the beginning.
Anonymous Al-Jazeera
".....When a release by WikiLeaks revealed the depravity of just how corrupt and horrid the Tunisian government really was, it prompted Tunisians to step up active dissent and take to the streets en masse for the first time.
In response, a loose network of participants within the international Anonymous protest organisation attacked non-essential government websites - those not providing direct services to Tunisians - at the prompting of our contacts.
Several such sites were replaced with a message of support to the Tunisian people, while others were pushed offline via distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, involving thousands of computer users who request large amounts of data from a website simultaneously, overwhelming it.
Other assistance programmes followed, even after the deposed Ben Ali fled the nation that reviled him, with Anonymous and other parties working with Tunisians - both in-country and abroad - to provide the nation's people with the tools and information resources they needed to begin building up new, reasonable political institutions capable of ensuring a freer civic life.
Our "Guide to Protecting the Tunisian Revolution" series - a collaboration between hundreds of veterans of traditional revolutionary movements as well as practitioners of "new activism" - were disseminated both online and in print; aside from tips on safety during confrontation and the like, these also explain how to establish secure yet accessible networks and communications for Tunisians, as well as instructions on establishing neighbourhood syndicates capable of uniting in common cause.
Already, such organisations are being established across Tunisia, just as they will be established elsewhere as the movement proceeds.
The seeds of cyber revolution
Anonymous is a means by which people across the globe can assist in the hard work being performed by the Tunisian people ......
Although we have made great progress in convincing individuals from across the world to join our efforts in Tunisia, other campaigns, such as those taking place in Algeria and Egypt - both of which have seen government websites taken down and/or replaced by Anonymous, more must be done before the movement takes the next step towards a worldwide network capable of perpetual engagement against those who are comfortable with tyranny.
The revolution will be broadcast
Whatever effort is required, such a goal is not only possible, but rather unambitious.
There is a reason, after all, that those of us who have seen the movement up close have dedicated our lives to what it stands for, and have even violated the modern Western taboo of believing in something.
I have been involved with Anonymous in some capacity or another for about six years.
Looking back at my writing over that time, I have found that my predictions, while always enthusiastic, nonetheless turned out to have been conservative; when Australia became the first state to come under attack by this remarkable force, I proposed that we would someday see such allegedly inevitable institutions begin to crumble in the face of their growing irrelevance.
Someday turned out to be this year.
Today, I predict that Anonymous and entities like it will become far more significant over the next few years than is expected by most of our similarly irrelevant pundits - and this will, no doubt, turn out to be just as much of an understatement as anything else that has been written on the subject.
The fact is that the technological infrastructure that allows these movements has been in place for well under a decade - but phenomena such as WikiLeaks and Anonymous have already appeared, expanded, and even become players within the geopolitical environment; others have come about since.
This is the future, whether one approves or not, and the failure on the part of governments and media alike to understand, and contend with the rapid change now afoot, ought to remind everyone concerned why it is that this movement is necessary in the first place."
Armoured vehicles seen on the streets of Manama after police storm protest site in roundabout, killing at least three.
Al-Jazeera
"Sporadic clashes have broken out in the Bahraini capital of Manama, hours after riot police attacked a makeshift encampment of pro-reform protesters in the centre of the city, killing at least three and injuring dozens of others.
An Al Jazeera correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, said on Thursday that "clashes were no longer limited to one place...they are now spread out in different parts of the city".
Another Al Jazeera online producer said that booms could be heard from different parts of the city, suggesting that "tear-gas is being used to disperse the protesters in several neighbourhoods".
There were also reports of dozens of armoured vehicles moving towards the Pearl Roundabout, the protest site that was raided by the riot police.
Heavily-armed police stormed the traffic circle while the protesters camping overnight were asleep.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Salmaniya hospital, the main medical facility in Manama, Maryama Alkawaka of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said that she saw dozens of injured demonstrators being wheeled into emergency rooms early on Thursday morning.....
An Al Jazeera correspondent in the Pearl Roundabout area, said that he heard loud booms in the square, and felt a strong tear gas in the air.
"The police came in a quick move, using tear gas. It looks like they are trying to move the protesters away from the square, but this is no small protest," he said.
"Authorities are acting because they see clearly how big this is getting."
Matar Ibrahim, an opposition member of the parliament, said that women and children were among the injured.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Salmaniya hospital, he also said that at least that many of the wounded were in critical condition.....
But Alkwaka, the human rights activist, said that the fresh crackdown on peaceful protesters cast a doubt on the king's pledge for investigation and calm.
"People are now asking: is this the investigation that the king promised?" she asked.
A key ally of the US in the region, Bahrain houses a major military base for Washington."
"At least seven pro-reform protesters have been martyred and dozens more injured early Thursday after hundreds of Bahraini riot police, armed with tear gas, rubber bullets and clubs, stormed their makeshift encampment in a violent crackdown in the main traffic circle in the capital, Manama, while they slept. Police refused to let in ambulances to take casualties.
Up to 95 protesters were wounded when police launched the operation in the iconic Pearl Square without warning at around 3.00 am (midnight GMT), sending protesters fleeing in panic. Relatives of the victims gathered outside the hospital, angry and weeping.
During the operation, explosions and ambulance sirens could be heard a few hundred meters (yards) from the central square, which had been sealed off. Demonstrators fled pursued by security forces, as a helicopter flew overhead, AFP reported.
The head of Bahrain's main opposition bloc has described the riot police attack as “real terrorism.”.....
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been occupying the Pearl Square since Wednesday, after days of clashes that resulted in two deaths and an apology from Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
The crowd chanted: "Down with Al-Khalifa", in reference to the country's ruling family and vowed that the blood of the victims will not be in vein.....
The magnitude of the pro-democracy protests in Bahrain is unprecedented in the history of the kingdom and the authorities' efforts to quell them have so far been ineffective. "
Security forces in tiny but strategic Bahrain launched a brutal assault early Thursday against at least 1,000 defiant anti-government protesters, including women and children, camped out in tents in the capital's Pearl Square.
A barrage of tear gas canisters thundered across the square about 3 a.m. as dozens of police cars, armored security vehicles and ambulances converged on a makeshift tent city in the center of Manama that was beginning to resemble a smaller version of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters this month were successful in overthrowing their president.
Most of the protesters in Pearl Square were asleep when the assault began, witnesses said, noting that no steps had been taken to guard the area against the security forces, even though two people had been killed in earlier clashes with them.
"The mass movements which forced the removal of Mubarak reveal both the strength and weaknesses of spontaneous uprisings. On the one hand, the social movements demonstrated their capacity to mobilize hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in a successful sustained struggle culminating in the overthrow of the dictator in a way that pre-existent opposition parties and personalities were unable or unwilling to do.
On the other hand, lacking any national political leadership, the movements were not able to take political power and realize their demands, allowing the Mubarak military high command to seize power and define the “post-Mubarak” process, ensuring the continuation of Egypt’s subordination to the US, the protection of the illicit wealth of the Mubarak clan ($70 billion), and the military elite’s numerous corporations and the protection of the upper class. The millions mobilized by the social movements to overthrow the dictatorship were effectively excluded by the new self-styled “revolutionary” military junta in defining the political institutions and policies, let along the socio-economic reforms needed to address their basic needs of the population.....
....In the case of Egypt the main strategic ally of US imperialism was not Mubarak, it is the military, with whom Washington was in constant collaboration before, during and after the ouster of Mubarak, ensuring that the “transition” to democracy (sic) guarantees the continued subordination of Egypt to US and Israeli Middle East policy and interests.
The intelligence failure complicated Washington and Tel Aviv’s efforts to sacrifice the dictatorial regime to save the state: the CIA ad MOSSAD did not develop ties to any of the new emerging leaders. The Israeli’s could not find any ‘new face’ with a popular following willing to serve as a crass collaborator to colonial oppression. The CIA had been entirely engaged in using the Egyptian secret police for torturing terror suspects (“exceptional rendition”) and in policing neighboring Arab countries. As a result both Washington and Israel looked to and promoted the military takeover to preempt further radicalization.
Ultimately the failure of the CIA and MOSSAD to detect and prevent the rise of the popular democratic movement reveals the precarious bases of imperial and colonial power. Over the long-run it is not arms, billions of dollars, secret police and torture chambers that decide history. Democratic revolutions occur when the vast majority of a people arise and say “enough”, take the streets, paralyze the economy, dismantle the authoritarian state and demand freedom and democratic institutions without imperial tutelage and colonial subservience."
"Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah called on the Resistance fighters to stand ready to occupy the Galilee area in the occupied territories should another war "be imposed on Lebanon,"in a response to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s threats to invade Lebanon once again.
Sayyed Nasrallah also threatened to target Israeli officials and military leaders to avenge the martyrdom of Islamic Resistance top commander Imad Mughniyeh (Hajj Redwan),reiterating that Hezbollah’s decision to avenge Martyr Mughniyeh’s assassination still stands and will be executed at the right time and the right place.
His eminence, meanwhile, denied remarks that Lebanon's new cabinet will be "Hezbollah’s government." He also thanked the people of Egypt and their revolutionthat resulted in freeing ‘brother’ Mohamad Mansour, known as Sami Shehab, who was charged with silly accusations of seeking to overthrow tyrant Husni Mubarak’s regime....."
The president made a weekend call to Jordanian King Abdullah II to assure him of U.S. support, but also to say that Washington wants Jordan to move toward reform.
By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times
"......The interior minister this week acquiesced to another demand of the protesters: Marches will no longer need government permission.
The most alarming element of the political pressure, from the monarchy's viewpoint, has been an attack by some tribal leaders on Queen Rania, breaching long prohibitions against criticism of the royal family.
Last week, 36 leaders of Jordan's tribes, traditionally key supporters of the government, posted a letter on a Jordanian website demanding basic freedoms, condemning corruption and complaining about Jordan's huge debt. The kingdom has taken an economic battering from the global recession.
For the monarchy, the tribal leaders' letter cut too close to home by criticizing Rania for alleged excess in a country suffering dire water shortages and a stressed economy.
It singled out her 40th birthday party, held last September in a luxurious oasis called Wadi Rum. The letter provided no details of the event, but news accounts have recounted that 600 guests were fed fresh lobster in desert tents with no fear of sandstorms because water trucks "had been brought to douse potentially pesky sands," according to a former U.S. official who has been an advisor on the region....."
