Why is no one protecting Saudi Arabia's child brides?

The support of the Saudi monarchy and its apologists in the west means the barbaric practice of child marriage is unchallenged

Ali al-Ahmed
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 November 2011

"Atgaa, 10, and her sister Reemya, 8, are about to be married to men in their 60s. Atgaa will be her husband's fourth wife. Their wedding celebrations are scheduled for this week and will take place in the town of Fayaadah Abban in Qasim, Saudi Arabia.
The girls are getting married because their financially struggling father needs the money that their dowries will provide: young girls of this age can fetch as much as $40,000 each.
Many readers might be shocked at this news. How can it be legal? The answer is that Saudi Arabia has no minimum age for marriage, and it is perfectly legal to marry even an hour-old child.....

So far, no UN body, such as Unicef or the human rights council, has issued a single statement condemning child marriages in Saudi Arabia. In fact, not one country has made a statement in the human rights council on this issue, and not a single western government has asked the Saudi monarchy to stop the practice. The ugly tradition of child marriage thus continues with the help of the monarchy and its apologists in the west.

If any governments, especially in the west, are seriously concerned with this barbaric and medieval practice, they should ban the heads of Saudi justice, interior and health ministries from entering their countries. If this action were taken against government leaders facilitating crimes against children we would soon see a resolution of this issue.

Saudi Arabia must be pressured to set a minimum age for marriage and save children like Atgaa and Reemya."

Sarkozy calls Netanyahu a liar

Microphones accidently left on after G20 meeting pick up private conversation between US, French presidents. Sarkozy admits he 'can't stand' Israeli premier. Obama: You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told US PresidentBarack Obama that he could not "stand" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he thinks the Israeli premier "is a liar."

Islamists on Probation

The Ghosts of the "Islamic Menace"

By Ramzy Baroud
CounterPunch

"Following Tunisia’s first fair and free elections on 27 October, the Western media responded with a characteristic sense of fear and alarm. For many, it seemed that the ghost of the Islamic menace was back to haunt Western Values throughout the Arab world. The narrative employed by media outlets was no more than cleverly disguised Islamophobia, masquerading as genuine concern for democracy and the welfare of women and minority groups.

The victory of the Al-Nahda (Renaissance) Party was all but predictable. Official results showed that the party won more than 41 per cent of the vote, providing it with 90 seats in the 217-member new Constituent Assembly, or parliament......

The Middle East “really worries me”, said Congressman Dan Burton. He asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton what the Obama administration “plans to do make sure that we don’t have a radical government taking over those places”.

“I think a lot of the leaders are saying the right things and some are saying things that do give pause to us,” she said. “We’re going to do all that we can within our power to basically try to influence outcomes.”

Is any further comment necessary?"

Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Flotilla; Dozens Detained Including Democracy Now! Correspondent

Democracy Now!



"Israeli forces intercepted two Gaza-bound boats in international waters on Friday to prevent the boats from breaking the naval blockade of Gaza. The Canadian and Irish boats made up the "Freedom Waves to Gaza" flotilla. Israel detained the 27 activists on board, as well as all of the journalists — including Democracy Now! correspondent Jihan Hafiz. According to flotilla organizers, 21 people remain in Israeli custody, including Hafiz. The flotilla marked the latest failed attempt by international activists to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. We speak to journalist Lina Attalah, who was on the Canadian boat named "Tahrir" in the flotilla and was deported to Egypt yesterday. She is the managing editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm, English edition, an independent news website. The Israeli navy "cornered our boats from all sides... We were all equally put at gunpoint. Even before they boarded our boat, everyone was put at gunpoint from Israeli ships," Attalah says. "Although we were clearly showing that we are journalists, Jihan Hafiz, for example, who is a Democracy Now! journalist, had her press card out and clear, but she was one of the first people asked to kneel on her knees and to raise her hands." Attalah said some passengers were tasered...."

Egypt’s Military Widens Crackdown As Prominent Blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah Remains Imprisoned

Democracy Now!



"The mother of prominent Egyptian political activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah began a hunger strike yesterday protesting her son’s detention by the country’s military council. Abdel Fattah was arrested last week after being accused of instigating clashes between military forces and Coptic Christians nearly a month ago at the state television building, Maspeero. At least 28 people were killed in the incident. As calls among activists grow for limiting U.S. military assistance to Egypt, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said that the United States is not in favour of imposing any conditions on American aid. Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat is in Cairo and filed this report. Special thanks to Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films and Mosireen for foot...."

حنين زعبي تنهي تقديم شهادتها أمام محكمة راسل: "نحن لسنا أمام سياسة عنصرية، وإنما أمام نظام عنصريّ"

"النائبة زعبي تنهي تقديم شهادتها أمام "محكمة راسل" في جنوب أفريقيا:

- "نحن لسنا أمام سياسة عنصرية، بل نحن أمام نظام عنصري".

- "في الوقت الذي يقوم العالم فيه في الكشف عن إسرائيل كدولة عنصرية، تقوم فيها إسرائيل بمطالبة العالم الإعتراف بها كدولة يهودية".
- "إسرائيل تطالب العالم بالاعتراف بحقها في أن تكون عنصرية".
- هيئة القضاة والطاقم القانوني للمحكمة أعلن عن دعمه للنائبة زعبي.

- تقرير خاص بعرب 48 -

....
إسرائيل لم تكتف بسرقة الأرض كما الأبرتهايد، إنما تسرق وطننا أيضا عبر التهويد

وأكملت زعبي قائلة: "الأبرتهايد سرق الأرض من السود، أما إسرائيل فتحاول سرقة الوطن منا، هي تحاول مصادرة علاقتنا مع الوطن، فتمحو الأسماء العربية من فضاء الوطن، وتعبرن الشوارع والمفارق، وتمحو أي إشارة للقرى والمدن العربية، وتهود المكان برمته."

وأضافت: "يريدون أن يسرقوا منا وطنا وليس فقط أرضا"، وتابعت "أكثر من هذا، في الكنيست وفي بعض قرارات المحكمة، يبررون مصادرة الأرض بأننا غزاة للأرض، وليس أصحابها الأصليين. كما أن جنوب أفريقيا لم تقم بهندسة هويات، ولم تحاول تشكيل أو محو هوية السكان الأفارقة، السود أو الملونين، ولم تنكر عليهم هويتهم، ولم تحاول خلق هوية جديدة مشوهة، وتختلف طبيعة الصراع على مستوى الهويات التي تتقاطع بشكل مركب في أفريقيا، أما السياسات الاسرائيلية، فقد قامت بشكل عنيف وهمجي بتشكيل هوية <صهيونية>، وفي الوقت نفسه تحارب الهوية الفلسطينية، وتمنع تدريس كل ما يتعلق بها، وتحاول تشويهها، وتشكيل ما يعرف بـ <عرب-إسرائيل>".

سياسات الولاء والهوية

وأوضحت النائبة زعبي أن سياسات الولاء هذه "تطورت" بدرجات، وتم تقنينها بما أصبح يعرف بقوانين الولاء، إذ أن إسرائيل هي الدولة الوحيدة في العالم التي تطالب مواطنيها بالولاء لأيديولوجية الدولة، وليس فقط احترام قوانينها، وتابعت: "إسرائيل تريد أن تكون عنصرية تجاهي، وتطالبني بأن أقتنع بأن هذا جزء من قناعاتي الخاصة أيضا!"
....."

Finding Freedom in Handcuffs

By Chris Hedges

Posted on Nov 7, 2011

"Editor’s note: Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges, an activist, an author and a member of a reporting team that won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize, wrote this article after he was released from custody following his arrest last Thursday. He and about 15 other participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement were detained as they protested outside the global headquarters of Goldman Sachs in lower Manhattan.

Faces appeared to me moments before the New York City police arrested us Thursday in front of Goldman Sachs. They were not the faces of the smug Goldman Sachs employees, who peered at us through the revolving glass doors and lobby windows, a pathetic collection of middle-aged fraternity and sorority members. They were not the faces of the blue-uniformed police with their dangling cords of white and black plastic handcuffs, or the thuggish Goldman Sachs security personnel, whose buzz cuts and dead eyes reminded me of the East German secret police, the Stasi. They were not the faces of the demonstrators around me, the ones with massive student debts and no jobs, the ones whose broken dreams weigh them down like a cross, the ones whose anger and betrayal triggered the street demonstrations and occupations for justice. They were not the faces of the onlookers—the construction workers, who seemed cheered by the march on Goldman Sachs, or the suited businessmen who did not. They were faraway faces. They were the faces of children dying. They were tiny, confused, bewildered faces I had seen in the southern Sudan, Gaza and the slums of Brazzaville, Nairobi, Cairo and Delhi and the wars I covered. They were faces with large, glassy eyes, above bloated bellies. They were the small faces of children convulsed by the ravages of starvation and disease.
I carry these faces. They do not leave me. I look at my own children and cannot forget them, these other children who never had a chance. War brings with it a host of horrors, including famine, but the worst is always the human detritus that war and famine leave behind, the small, frail bodies whose tangled limbs and vacant eyes condemn us all. The wealthy and the powerful, the ones behind the glass at Goldman Sachs, laughed and snapped pictures of us as if we were a brief and odd lunchtime diversion from commodities trading, from hoarding and profit, from this collective sickness of money worship, as if we were creatures in a cage, which in fact we soon were...."

Mr Amano goes to Washington

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Asia Times

"The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, is in Washington ahead of a new report on Iran's nuclear program that is being released into the less-than-rarefied air of disinformation. Not since 2002-2003, when United States officials willingly lied to the world community about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, has there been such a deafening noise surrounding an IAEA country report....

According to a well-placed source in Washington, who didn't want to be identified, Israel's real intention is not war, but rather to accelerate the Iran sanctions, particularly by the US Congress, which is mulling energy sanctions and the like. If so, Israel is doing a good job, even though its bluff may backfire next time around, especially with the Iranians having warned Israel of very dire consequences if it were to attack Iran.

To be successful, an Israeli strike at Iran has to target dozens of sites, some in or around populated areas, which simply means a strong likelihood of high civilian casualties. That would trigger a tsunami of Iranian popular anger that would in turn impel the political leaders to try to respond as hard as possible at Israeli and US interests. It is a sure bet that the conflict would spread to the Persian Gulf and adversely affect the flow of oil from the region....."

War and the Word Cloud

Why the usual war propaganda won’t save the American empire

by Justin Raimondo, November 07, 2011

"An alleged “nuclear weapons” site in Syria has been revealed to be a textile factory – and another of the War Party’s tall tales is debunked. To those of a skeptical mindset – i.e., nearly anyone outside of Washington – this throws fresh doubt on the claim that the Israeli raid on a supposed Syrian nuclear weapons facility at Deir ez Zour, in 2007, destroyed anything more dangerous than an empty warehouse.
The War Party doesn’t give up quite so easily, however: now we are being told that the International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, has a new report coming out with satellite photos of a supposed nuclear facility in Iran – just as in the case of the two Syrian sites.
Get out your bullshit detector, press the “on” button, and watch it light up like a fourth of July fireworks display......

This is not something to be celebrated. Empires can fall gracefully, with minimum damage to the imperial power – but only if they are dismantled quite deliberately, rather than simply lost. Because losing implies a fight to retain it, a battle that slowly (or rapidly) drains the very lifeblood out of us. The political class has no intentions of relinquishing its vaunted role as the World’s Sole Superpower, and so what we are in for is a ruinous and protracted implosion that pulverizes the social order and flattens longstanding political institutions. What’s left is a void, an enormous vacuum waiting to be filled – but with what?........"

Reports: Israel, Saudis United in Desire to See Attack on Iran

Saudis, GCC Members Seen as 'Cornerstone' for US Moves Against Iran

by Jason Ditz, November 06, 2011

"Though Israel’s traditional rhetoric suggests any Arab nation is automatically at odds with their position, media reports tonight are marveling at the growing unity between Israel and the Saudi leader GCC nations in their desires to see Iran attacked.

Both Israel and the Saudis are long time enemies of the Iranian government, and even if they both came by this in very different ways it should come as no surprise that the Sunni-dominated regimes of the Gulf nations are fine with Israel attacking a major Shi’ite nation.

Of course the Israeli preference remains seeing the US starting the war, but increasingly Israel’s current far-right government is mulling attacking unilaterally. Either way, Gulf officials seem to hope starting a war with Iran will quiet their respective Shi’ite populaces, which they are convinced are being roused to protest primarily by Iran...."

Over 200 Killed Since Syria Agreed to Stop Crackdown

Arab League to hold emergency meeting

by Jason Ditz, November 06, 2011

"Early last week the Syrian government agreed to an Arab League plan that would have them removing all troops and tanks from cities and releasing thousands of political prisoners detained for participating in pro-democracy rallies.

Today, the Arab League is calling an “emergency meeting” on Syria, as the crackdown in the nation has continued and even escalated, with over 200 slain just since the regime agreed to the Arab League’s plan.

The violence continued again today, as protesters took to the streets along with many others to celebrate the festival Eid al-Adha, and troops killed at least 16 of the celebrants. After Eid prayers many of the worshipers launched new protests against Assad....."

Syria's rebuff threatens the Arab League with relegation

The Assad regime's disdain for the Arab League's peace initiative is another blow to the organisation's credibility

Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 November 2011

"The Syrian regime's refusal even to pretend to implement last week's peace "road map" has provoked a portentous response from the deal's diplomatically challenged progenitors, the Arab League. "The failure of the Arab solution will have disastrous consequences in Syria and the region," the 22-nation organisation's secretary general, Nabil el-Araby, warned. What Araby did not say is that the apparent collapse of the initiative, only days after its launch in Cairo last week, is a potential catastrophe for the league, which was forced to call an emergency meeting after further deaths on Sunday.....

The Arab League faces a momentous, possibly make-or-break decision. To avoid a big split involving the likes of Iraq, it either goes on pretending a peace process is in place and the regime is genuinely engaged – at the risk of destroying what little credibility it has left. Or it takes the courageous step of expelling Syria, one of the league's six founding members in 1945, imposing additional, punitive sanctions – and in effect sending a message to the west that Arabs cannot manage Arab problems.

There is a third option, of course: collective Arab military intervention to bring Assad to book. Sadly, this sort of Lawrence of Arabia fantasy is out of fashion."

Al-Jazeera Video: Rula Amin reports on ongoing Syrian violence

Real News Video: Denying Civil Rights is a Crime

Paul Jay on austerity, mass protests and mass arrests (TRNN Replay)

The globalisation of protest

Protesters around the world say they are part of a generation that played by the rules but has no hope for the future.

Joseph E Stiglitz
Al-Jazeera

"The protest movement that began in Tunisia in January, subsequently spreading to Egypt and then to Spain, has now become global - with the protests engulfing Wall Street and cities across America. Globalisation and modern technology now enables social movements to transcend borders as rapidly as ideas can.

And social protest has found fertile ground everywhere: A sense that the "system" has failed, and the conviction that even in a democracy, the electoral process will not set things right - at least not without strong pressure from the street.

In May, I went to the site of the Tunisian protests; in July, I talked to Spain's indignados; from there, I went to meet the young Egyptian revolutionaries in Cairo's Tahrir Square; and, a few weeks ago, I talked with Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York. There is a common theme, expressed by the OWS movement in a simple phrase: "We are the 99%.".....

On one level, today's protesters are asking for little: A chance to use their skills, the right to decent work at decent pay, a fairer economy and society. Their hope is evolutionary, not revolutionary. But, on another level, they are asking for a great deal: A democracy where people, not dollars, matter, and a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do.

The two are related: As we have seen, unfettered markets lead to economic and political crises. Markets work the way they should only when they operate within a framework of appropriate government regulations; and that framework can be erected only in a democracy that reflects the general interest - not the interests of the 1%. The best government that money can buy is no longer good enough."

Empire: A revolution for all seasons

Empire asks what has become of the Arab revolutions after the initial euphoria has passed.

"The winds of change have swept the Arab world, with uneven results. Progress in places like Tunisia and Egypt, repression in Syria, bloody stalemate in Yemen, and unfinished business in Libya: the Arab Spring is at a crucial stage.

The impressive achievements since January have also highlighted new challenges. Islamist movements, long banned during decades of repression, are out in the open and face new types of political challenges and responsibilities. Will political changes in the region pass the test of national unity in the likes of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya?

Whilst the Syrian regime attempts to crush the growing opposition, killing thousands from Homs to Dar'a, the Syrian people continue their marches calling for change and democracy. As the Arab League enters the fray and Syria asks for international protection, where is the country heading? Militarisation of the revolution and growing sectarianism is threatening the unity of the country.

Meanwhile, as Libya emerges from NATO's aerial bombardment and Muammar Gaddafi's death, much work has to be done to avoid anarchy and civil war.

As the contest between democracy and dictatorships continues apace, what has become of the Arab revolutions after the initial euphoria?"

GUESTS ON THIS MONTH'S SHOW

Nir Rosen, author, Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World
Seumas Milne, associate editor, The Guardian
Professor Nadje Al-Ali, Gender Studies, SOAS
Dr Radwan Ziadeh, Human Rights Center, Harvard University.

Al-Jazeera Video: Bahrain security forces clash with protesters

Syria: Homs military attacks continue, say activists

BBC

"Syrian military forces have resumed attacks in the city of Homs, activists say, despite agreeing to withdraw from urban areas under an Arab League deal.

Tanks have been shelling parts of the city, and medics at the main hospital told the BBC more than 100 bodies had arrived in the past two days.

Activists say at least 19 people were killed in protests in Homs and other cities on Friday.

Wednesday's Arab League deal had called for an end to suppression of protests....

'Machine-gun fire'

Homs has been a focus of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against him began in March.

Local human rights groups report continued operations against opposition strongholds, including artillery bombardments of residential areas.

The killings over the past two days have mostly been in the Baba Amr district. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said the area had been "raked with heavy machine-gun fire" on Friday, with a number of deaths.

It also reported that troops had opened fire in the city's Ghuta neighbourhood, killing two civilians and wounding four.

At least seven protesters were also killed by troops in the town of Kanaker, outside Damascus, the Observatory said....."

Is Netanyahu bluffing once again?

By Trita Parsi - Special to CNN

"Should the latest episode of Israeli calls for bombing Iran be taken seriously, or is it – like the many cases prior to it – yet another (politically motivated) false alarm? Like clockwork, Israeli alarm bells have gone off in the past fifteen years with predictable regularity. Bellicose statements by Israeli officials have been followed by alarmist analyses describing military measures as both necessary and inevitable. And then, without any explanation, the bellicosity recedes and Iran and Israel return to their more normal levels of animosity.

By now, as WikiLeaks documents show, U.S. officials tend to view the Israeli threats as a pressure tactic to get the United States and Europe to adopt tougher measures against Iran, and to refrain from any compromise with Tehran over the nuclear issue. These intense periods of Israeli warnings about its imminent intent to bomb Iran have indeed tended to coincide with times when the international community has been debating additional sanctions on Tehran.

This latest call for war is no different....."