Long Live “Our” Gulf Bastards by Pepe Escobar / May 12th, 2012 Life is a golden gift from Allah if you’re a certified member of the Gulf Counter-Revolution Club (GCC), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can torture, [...]
Bahrain Formula One PR Disaster 25 April 2012 The Bahraini government’s persistence on hosting the Formula One Grand Prix was intended to create an illusion around theworld that Bahrain is both stable and secure. The sleight-of-hand failed and the Bahraini opposition seized the opportunity by drawing the world’s [...]
The Grand Prix, Western Hypocrisy and the Gulf States By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey April 21, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — Let us be perfectly clear. Qatar has emerged as the main western puppet State in the Gulf, while Bahrain receives favoured treatment despite a despotic crackdown on activists and Saudi Arabia, despite having a [...]
Robert Fisk: This is politics not sport. If drivers can’t see that, they are the pits Supposing it was Assad shelling out £40m for a race. Would Ecclestone be happy to give him a soft sporting cover for his repression? ROBERT FISK SATURDAY 21 APRIL 2012 When the Foreign Office urges [...]
Bahrain protester found dead on eve of grand prix Bahrain to investigate death of Salah Abbas Habib, who was allegedly beaten by riot police on eve of grand prix Jo Adetunji, Peter Beaumont and agencies guardian.co.uk, Saturday 21 April 2012 15.30 BST Article history Bahrain protester’s family: ‘we were not allowed to see the body’ Link to this videoAn [...]
THE ROVING EYE The fast and furious Sunni revenge By Pepe Escobar And the winner is … the Gulf Counter-revolution Club (GCC), also known as Gulf Cooperation Council. Their collective celebration party is this weekend’s Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix – complete with buckets of Moet and Ferraris oozing by. [...]
If there is a difficulty with what Escobar is saying it goes to a fatal assumption that there is an Arab Spring as opposed to actions in separate countries being a struggle by those people in their own name and not as part [...]
Arab League observers have visited several cities in Syria to ‘monitor the situation’, but repression continues [AFP] Princeton, NJ - Looking back to 2011, the effect of the Arab Spring is still lingering. People have risen in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Syria and initiated a worldwide quest for political rights and social justice. Once [...]
Britain’s Prince Edward, and his wife, the Countess of Wessex, visit Bahrain’s Grand Mosque in April Photograph: Ali Fraidoon/AP Gems accepted by the Countess of Wessex from Bahrain‘s royal family should be sold to benefit victims of the regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners, according to a former foreign office minister. The countess received two suites of [...]
Silhouettes of family members of Sayed Hashem Saeed are seen as they perform prayers during the funeral [Reuters] Riot police in Bahrain fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades as they clashed with hundreds of opposition supporters following the politically charged funeral of a 15-year-old boy. Thousands of opposition supporters carrying Bahraini flags and chanting [...]
The year 2011 saw the rise of a new country, the fall of long-time leaders and the tragedies and triumphs in between This was perhaps the biggest news year in the last two decades. In 2011, protesters overthrew entrenched autocracies, the US caught its most wanted man, a devastating earthquake and tsunami thrashed Japan, a new [...]
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – The premier of the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip is to depart via Egypt on Sunday for the first time since the enclave came under siege. Haniyeh is scheduled to visit Egypt, then Sudan and a number of other countries, according to sources in Gaza. The tour could include Turkey, [...]
The final U.S. convoy prepares to leave Iraq / AP The U.S. is finally drawing down its military presence from Iraq, but why stop there? Why not reduce or outright remove our military presence from the entire Persian Gulf? The U.S. has been waging war in the Gulf for more than two and a half [...]
Arne Weychardt / DER SPIEGEL http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,802317,00.html German companies play an important role in the market for surveillance technology used by Arab despots to spy on their people. In this industry worth billions, the companies also earn their money using methods that have been outlawed in their home country. He lives in Bahrain, the small island [...]
Manama‘s landmark Pearl Roundabout was the focal point of Bahrain’s protests [Ben Piven/Al Jazeera] Protesters in Bahrain say police have fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators who were trying to take back the site of the Pearl roundabout – the symbol of the protest movement that erupted in February. Bahrainis were marking Ashoura, a [...]
Scott Horton Interviews John Glaser Scott Horton, November 29, 2011 Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the imminent departure of President Saleh in Yemen (and why it hardly matters); the Egyptian model of counterrevolution, where cosmetic changes obscure the authoritarianism and US influence that remains; how international [...]
Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr Iran MP: CIA Spy Ring Broken, 12 Arrested Spy Ring Was Following Iran’s Deployment of Missiles Against Possible Attack by Jason Ditz, November 24, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Having already lost two distinct spy rings earlier this week in the Pizza Hut fiasco in Beirut, Lebanon, an Iranian MP [...]
Israeli FM Rules Out Future Negotiation With Palestinians Insists Israel Will Continue to Withhold Tax Funds by Jason Ditz, November 23, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Speaking today in a meeting with his Montenegrin counterpart, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ruled out any future negotiations with the upcoming Palestinian unity government, saying Israel won’t [...]
Leaked UN Report: Torture and Lynchings in Post-Gadhafi Libya Estimated 7,000 ‘Disappeared’ by New Regime by Jason Ditz, November 23, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum NATO officials are continuing to trumpet the regime change in Libya as a great military success for the alliance. But while we wait for the current regime to [...]
Pakistan to Complain to UN Human Rights Council About Drones Parliament Confirms Intent to Collect, Submit Data to Council by Jason Ditz, November 23, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Following a debate yesterday, Pakistan’s parliament has announced that they intend to collect data about civilian deaths in the US drone strikes against Pakistani [...]
Anti-government protesters confront riot police on a flyover near the Pearl Square in Manama in March. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/REUTERS Bahrain inquiry accuses security forces of brutality and torture King accepts inquiry’s findings blaming Bahrain security forces for excessive force during crackdown on Pearl revolution reddit this Ian Black, Middle East editor guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 November [...]
Many migrant workers are lured to the Gulf with promises of ‘petro-dollar-lined-streets’ [GALLO/GETTY] For a man who carries a heavy weight on his shoulders, Rafeek Ravuther is remarkably upbeat as he shows me around his studio. For the past 11 years, he’s directed and produced a unique weekly television programme broadcast on Kairali TV, a Malayalam-language [...]
Scott Horton Interviews John Glaser Scott Horton, October 27, 2011 Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum John Glaser, Assistant Editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Obama’s “let this be a lesson to the rest of you dictators (except the ones we like)” comment about the beaten, sodomized, executed Gadhafi; the doctors and nurses in Bahrain who [...]
Warmonger and liar. It is difficult from this side of the planet to imagine the depths of despair Obama has introduced into the lives of decent US citizens. It is not just a matter of breaking promises, but he has done far more often than not the exact opposite of what he [...]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gestures with Libyan soldiers upon her departure from Tripoli in Libya on Oct. 18, 2011. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque) By Keith Weir LONDON (Reuters) — Russia, the United States and European countries ignored fears over human rights abuses and sold large numbers of weapons to governments in the Middle East [...]
US Arms Bahrain While Decrying Russian Weapons in Syria by Thalif Deen, October 12, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Peeved at Russia’s Security Council veto derailing a Western-sponsored resolution against Syria last week, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice implicitly accused the Russians of protecting the beleaguered government of President Bashar al-Assad primarily to safeguard their [...]
Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a Uprising Causes Jitters in the Gulf 6 October 2011 The Saudi authorities are exerting gigantic efforts in order to prevent the waves of protest, which are storming several Arab countries, from arriving inside the Saudi borders. This is done either by improving the living conditions of the Saudi citizen, or by offering [...]
Reporter in Bahrain Last Modified: 09 Oct 2011 14:33 Thousands of Bahrainis came out to mourn the killing of 16-year-old Ahmed Jaber al-Qattan on Friday, October 9. Bahraini police sealed off roads and prevented people from attending the funeral in the Abu Saiba area where the funeral was held, and where the boy had been [...]
Saudi Police Open Fire on ‘Seditious’ Protesters Interior Ministry Blames Iran for Growing Unrest by Jason Ditz, October 04, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Violence has once again broken out around al-Qatif on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, with police opening fire on pro-democracy [...]
Reporter in Bahrain Last Modified: 04 Oct 2011 09:21 Dr Haji was tortured and threatened while being detained by government forces [Al Jazeera] Far away from the crowded village streets covered in debris from the protests and clashes with police still happening on an almost nightly basis, are the streets lined with the Bentleys, Mercedes, Range [...]
Twenty one opposition activists were sentenced for involvement with a months-long protest movement [EPA] Bahrain court upholds sentences for activists Appeals denied to 21 opposition activists held in June after Gulf state crushed an uprising by majority Shia Muslims. A special Bahrain security court has rejected appeals by 21 opposition activists who were convicted [...]
Bahraini Protesters Jailed in Harsh Crackdown After Election Boycott Obama administration sells Bahrain monarchy $53 million in arms as false praise of democratic progress continues by John Glaser, September 26, 2011 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Bahrain jailed 46 Shiite protesters after clashes amid an election boycott on Saturday, sentencing 32 of them to [...]
In photos: Rio cartoonist becomes hero of Arab Spring Published Monday 29/08/2011 20:08 Click the image to enlarge or see more. [MaanImages/Reuters] Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff, a 42-year-old leftist whose only family link to the Middle East is a Lebanese grandfather he never knew, has become a hero of the tumultuous Arab Spring with [...]
Cables Reveal Propaganda, Disinformation Efforts by US One cable explains US policy as “making the stories and bringing them to journalists – and not the other way around” by John Glaser, August 24, 2011 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum State Department diplomatic cables released this week by WikiLeaks reveal propaganda efforts aimed [...]
JUAN GONZALEZ: Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, a rolling rebellion continues to unfold across North [Africa] and the Middle East, often amid violent repression by state security forces. During an overnight raid in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain, heavily armed riot police surrounded thousands of demonstrators who were sleeping in the central square [...]
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to the 25th anniversary of FAIR, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, the media watch group in New York, which just celebrated the 25 years of the reports they’ve come out, documenting media bias and censorship, and scrutinized media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. One of those who addressed [...]
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US officials and their counterparts in Bahrain, which crushed month-long protests in mid-March, have renewed a defense pact, officials said Friday. The two countries inked a 10-year defense agreement on October 28, 1991, seven months after the Gulf War, that was renewed in October 2001 for the same duration. As early as [...]
Bahrain’s largest shia bloc, Wefaq, withdrew from government-initiated National Dialogue last week [AFP] Bahrain’s king has approved parliamentary reforms after the suppression of pro-democracy protests in March, but they fall short of demands made by opposition groups. The process “reflects the determination [of the participants] to rise above the latest incidents,” King Hamad bin Isasaid in [...]
The video is available at http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/2011/07/201172683320461554.html Fault Lines’ Seb Walker travels to the Perisan Gulf to look at US policy in the region, and to explore why the US has taken an interventionist policy in Libya, but not in Bahrain, where there has been a brutal crackdown on protesters. Why does the White House [...]
Anti-government protests that often broke along sectarian lines erupted in the island kingdom in February [EPA] Bahraini security forces attacked doctors and nurses, lay siege to hospitals and clinics, detained protesters who sought treatment, and arrested and prosecuted dozens of medical personnel over the past four months of unrest in the island kingdom, a prominent human [...]
Born on June 15,1951 into a working class family in the south-western city of Ahvaz in the Khuzestan province of Iran, Hamid Dabashi received his early education in his hometown and his college education in Tehran, before he moved to the United States, where he received a dual Ph.D. in Sociology of Culture and Islamic [...]
I sent the following email to George Monbiot and the Guardian. I will keep you posted if there is any response. George Ikners ikners.com Related articles Monbiot on Sydney (ikners.com) Monbiot on putting a price on nature and the environment (ikners.com) A Piece from ‘UK Government Watch’ (not me) about ‘The Hidden Economy’ (ukgovernmentwatch.wordpress.com) Monbiot [...]
Atro-city Posted: 30 Jun 2011 05:05 AM PDT As Sydney residents are being paid to leave the city, the case for compact, high-density settlement becomes clearer than ever. By George Monbiot. Published on the Guardian’s website, 30th June 2011 For at least a century, governments have tried to urbanise their nations. Communist states sought to [...]
Riyadh will build nuclear weapons if Iran gets them, Saudi prince warns Prince Turki al-Faisal: he said that if Iran came close to developing nuclear weapons Riyadh would not stand idly by. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AFP/Getty Images A senior Saudi Arabian diplomat and member of the ruling royal family has raised the spectre of nuclear conflict [...]
Bahrain activists jailed for life Court issues life sentences for eight prominent activists for allegedly plotting coup during protests. Bahrain’s government says it has only tried a small number of those involved in recent mass protests [Reuters] Bahrain has sentenced eight prominent activists to life in prison for plotting a coup during protests that rocked the Sunni-ruled Gulf island kingdom [...]
Bahrain’s Dictatorship and the Pentagon by Jacob G. Hornberger Sometimes it’s good to look at foreign dictatorships to see what the president and the U.S. military have done to our country. Consider, for example, the trial of 20 doctors that is currently taking place in Bahrain. As most everyone knows, Bahrain is ruled by a [...]
JUAN GONZALEZ: In the midst of an intensifying crackdown on anti-government protesters in the tiny Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain, President Obama met Tuesday with the visiting Crown Prince. Salman bin Hamad Khalifa’s visit to the White House was not announced beforehand. Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also met her Bahraini counterpart, Foreign Minister [...]
White House affirms relationship with Bahrain, detentions and prosecutions continue Marian Wang | ProPublica | Jun 08, 2011 As the Bahraini government continued its crackdown on largely Shiite pro-democracy groups, the Obama administration reaffirmed its friendship with Bahrain this week. More Shiites were arrested and about 50 medical workers were charged by the Bahraini government this [...]
The West’s Hypocrisy Towards Arab Uprisings 30 May 2011 The stand of the West, particularly Britain, towards the uprisings and revolutions in the Arab world is remarkably inconsistent and should be condemned. Yesterday, British newspapers disclosed that British military personnel have been regularly training Saudi National Guard forces in the most up-to-date ways and means [...]
Obama Praises Bahrain Tyrant on Visit, Dims Awakening’s Prospects John Glaser, June 08, 2011 Email This | Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum There have been various moments since the start of the Arab Spring where the level of blatant, outright support for Middle Eastern dictatorship on display should have embarrassed Obama and his team, but yesterday [...]
