And more news from the Arab uprisings:
Syria
Syrian security police cheif in Banias removed-group
AMMAN, April 20 (Reuters) – The head of the security police in the restive Syrian city of Banias has been removed from his post, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday, citing sources in Damascus.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/syrian-security-police-cheif-in-banias-removed-group
Syrian opposition figure arrested in Homs
Mahmuod Issa held while students in Aleppo reportedly stage protest, a day after ministry says rallies must be licensed.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/20114209712147450.html
Syrian reform pledges ring hollow as more protesters killed
The concessions now being made by the Syrian government have been achieved at a very heavy cost in human lives. Syria’s President must back up his pledge to introduce reforms with immediate, concrete action to end the continuing wave of killings of protesters by his security forces, Amnesty International said today.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/syrian-reform-pledges-ring-hollow-more-protesters-killed-2011-04-19
Syria Lifts Emergency Law as Protesters Come Under Fire in Syrian City of Homs
Syrian police reportedly opened fire and used tear gas today on thousands of anti-government protesters who occupied a key square in the Syrian city of Homs. More than 10,000 protesters gathered there Monday after funerals for an estimated 25 activists killed over the weekend. They demanded the immediate lifting of Syria’s longstanding emergency laws, the release of political prisoners, and the immediate resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, newly released diplomatic cables from the online whistleblower WikiLeaks show the United States has secretly financed Syrian opposition groups and activities since at least 2005. We speak with Bassam Haddad, director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/19/syria_lifts_emergency_law_as_protesters
Cal Perry reports from Syria
After a night of protest turned violent, several people in the Syrian city of Homs were left injured. With gunfire reported at a sit-in protest on Monday night, demands that President Bashar al-Assad have been growing. Al Jazeera’s Cal Perry, reporting from Damascus, has the latest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcLj6cRnScM&feature=youtube_gdata
Inside Story: US funding Syrian opposition?
Cables released by Wikileaks have revealed that the US has been financing the Syrian opposition. The reports claim the US State Department has given at least $6 million for anti-government programmes in Syria. The money was allegedly given to the Movement for Justice and Development, which is a Syrian opposition group based in London. Reformist satellite channel Barada TV is also said to have also received funding. This all comes as 20,000 demonstrators gathered in Homs demanding Bashar al-Assad step down – a move his government claimed amounted to “armed insurrection”. Demonstrators claim troops loyal to al-Assad opened fire in an attempt to disperse the crowd forcibly. Inside Story, with presenter Dareen Abughaida, discusses with guests: Nadim Shehade, from the Middle East Programme at Chatham House; and Malik al-Abdeh, a memeber of the Syrian Movement for Justice and Development, also editor-in-chief of Barada TV. This episode of Inside Story aired on Tuesday, April 19, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rJDhkpQROQ&feature=youtube_gdata
Bahrain
Bahraini man on trial for alleged ties to Iran (AP)
AP – A Bahraini man is on trial in the tiny Gulf kingdom for alleged ties to Iran.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110420/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain
‘Bahrain police abduct 6 female teachers’
Bahrain police have abducted six female teachers from school in Muharraq following the regime’s crackdown on anti-government protesters.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/175710.html
Bahrain arrests more doctors, opposition says (Reuters)
Reuters – Bahrain has detained a number of doctors and other medical staff as part of a crackdown on mainly Shi’ite pro-democracy protesters in the Sunni-led Gulf Arab kingdom, the opposition and an activist said on Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110419/wl_nm/us_bahrain_arrests
Mosques razed in Bahrain’s Bu Quwah
Amid growing clampdown on Bahrain’s anti-government protesters, police have reportedly destroyed mosques in northern city of Bu Quwah. Police also arrested people in the city on Tuesday, witnesses said.Also on Tuesday, tanks, armored vehicles and thugs attacked the western town of Eker.Earlier on Monday, Saudi-backed Bahraini forces demolished two more mosques.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/175672.html
Saudis offer to ‘expand’ arms deal in return for more Washington’s mumnesia
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 19 (UPI) — As Saudi Arabia’s confrontation with Iran swells amid claims Tehran is exploiting political turmoil in the Arab world, Riyadh reportedly has offered to expand its $60 billion arms deal with Washington to keep it on the kingdom’s side…. Middle Eastern sources said the Saudis offered to expand that deal when U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Riyadh April 6…. Gates flew to Riyadh seeking to patch things up with King Abdallah, and concluded (in Riyadh min you! that there was indeed “evidence” of Iranian interference in Bahrain. This fitted neatly into Riyadh’s allegations of Iranian efforts to stir up Sunni-Shiite animosity in a centuries-old religious schism and to usurp the Sunni states of the region. The Americans’ abandonment of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, leading to his resignation as president, alarmed Riyadh. It feared that signaled Washington might ditch the Saudis too one day. “This growing sense of isolation prompted the Saudi leadership to invoke its ultimate reserves of influence in Washington — the Pentagon,” Indian analyst M. K. Bhadrakumar noted in Asia Times Online… Bhadrakumar, a former ambassador to the Soviet Union, Kuwait and others, maintained that a “long-standing objective of the Saudi national security strategy remains … to exercise its quasi-hegemony in the Arabian Peninsula.”
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/04/saudis-offer-to-expand-arms-deal-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+friday-lunch-club+%28%22friday-lunch-club%22%29
How Bahrain’s crackdown is pushing both sides to extremes
By cracking down on dissent and refusing to negotiate with the opposition, Bahrain’s ruling monarchy has pushed some protesters into the arms of more hardline groups.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/AT5Mv7VkN1I/How-Bahrain-s-crackdown-is-pushing-both-sides-to-extremes
Hassan Alama, “The Revolution of Anger” (Music Video)
“To the arrogant rulers, say No! O Bahrain, never fear! A revolution of the people, and a cry for their rights. I am an Arab and will avenge your blood.” Hassan Alama is a Lebanese nasheed singer.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/alama190411.html
If you’re a Bahraini, protesting in the UK can have ‘grave consequences’
After a student protest I lost my scholarship for taking part in an ‘illegal’ demo and was threatened by my education ministry. I’m a Bahraini student doing my final year in mechanical engineering at a university in Britain. Last month I participated in a protest of solidarity with my people, family, and friends in Bahrain. It took place in front of the BBC building in Manchester. The protest was peaceful, and most of the demonstrators were holding Bahraini flags. We were supporting the call for democracy, equal rights and constitutional reform that promotes basic human rights and peaceful coexistence between all religious and ethnic communities in the kingdom. Three days after the protest my family received a phone call from the ministry of education in Bahrain telling them that my scholarship had been revoked. My family inquired about the reasons and justifications for this decision but nothing was mentioned apart from the fact that I had taken part in an illegal demonstration against Bahrain and that I violated the rules of the ministry of education.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/20/bahrain-student-protest-threats
Egypt
Egypt report depicts violence that killed 846
The head of a fact-finding commission says former President Hosni Mubarak, now detained, was at least indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of protesters at the hands of security forces. A new Egyptian government investigation into the nearly-three-week revolution that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in February paints a sinister portrait of a desperate police state relying on snipers, thugs and other forces that led to the deaths of at least 846 people.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/MgP6_L5k8MY/la-fg-egypt-uprising-20110420,0,4635815.story
Egyptian Soldiers Join Protest Demanding End to Military Dictatorship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j4c8zysyig&feature=player_embedded
O Zionists: cry for Mubarak non-stop
“The state-owned Middle East News Agency reported on Sunday that Israel’s ambassador to Cairo, Itzhak Levanon, has left the country on his way to Tel Aviv for a visit that will last several days. The agency gave no details on the reasons behind the departure, which comes nearly one week after dozens of Egyptians organized a protest outside the Israeli Embassy to demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. The demonstrators had gathered on Friday, 8 April outside the embassy in Giza to protest against the air strikes and artillery shells launched by the Israeli military into the Gaza Strip. The raids on Thursday, 7 April killed ten people, including two women, and injured nearly 48 others. The protesters said the Egyptian people will stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers until they gain their freedom and declare their own state.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/o-zionists-cry-for-mubarak-non-stop.html
Zionists will freak out some more
“Iran and Egypt’s new government signaled Monday they were moving quickly to thaw decades of frosty relations, worrying the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia that the overtures could upset the Mideast’s fragile balance of power. Iran said it appointed an ambassador to Egypt for the first time since the two sides froze diplomatic relations more than three decades ago, the website of the Iranian government’s official English-language channel, Press TV, reported late Monday. Also Monday, officials at Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that new foreign minister Nabil Elaraby is considering a visit to the Gaza Strip—an area controlled by Hamas, a militant Palestinian Islamist group backed by Tehran and until now shunned by Cairo.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/zionists-will-freak-out-some-more.html
Arab Awakening – The fall of Mubarak
A day-by-day account of how a protest became a people’s revolution and brought down one of the most durable leaders in the Arab world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWJK1mK4H3I&feature=youtube_gdata
Libya
LIBYA: Fleeing violence in Adjabiya
BENGHAZI, 20 April 2011 (IRIN) – The Libyan city of Ajdabiya, 120km south of Benghazi and one of the closest urban areas to the frontline where armed opposition fighters are battling government troops, has turned into a ghost town because most of the residents have fled, eyewitnesses said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libya-fleeing-violence-in-adjabiya
Libyan opposition fortifies Ajdabiya
Opposition forces are fortifying their gains in the eastern town of Ajdabiya. But without NATO air strikes, they say they are struggling to advance on government strongholds. Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton has more from Ajdabiya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hXMMShn6Js&feature=youtube_gdata
NATO says it cannot stop shelling of Libyan city of Misrata
Britain to send advisory team to opposition forces in Banghazi but will not supply weapons to rebels; EU proposes deploying armed force to ensure delivery of humanitarian supplies; World Food Program already bringing food for 50,000 people.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/nato-says-it-cannot-stop-shelling-of-libyan-city-of-misrata-1.356796?localLinksEnabled=false
Libyan rebels on front line frustrated by stalemate
Fighters are stuck in Ajdabiya, on the border of eastern and western Libya. They could be there for a while.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/oBmfzQE0Kpg/la-fg-libya-east-20110420,0,2229363.story
Misurata rebels show ingenuity in Libya war
Young gangs living on borrowed time use wits and captured weapons to protect streets from Moammar Kadafi’s forces. The five rebel gunmen crept tensely along the side road’s shuttered storefronts, past the dark furniture shop with the broken windows and the streetlamps decorated with plastic flowers. Perpendicular to them was Tripoli Street, the heart of Misurata, where Moammar Kadafi’s snipers hide in office buildings and rake the city with bullets.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/gKYDC2U0gow/la-fg-libya-misurata-20110419,0,4003433.story
Libya mortar shells land in Tunisia – report
TUNIS, April 19 (Reuters) – Four mortar shells fired from Libya fell across the border into Tunisia on Monday, Tunisian state news agency TAP said on Tuesday, quoting the Defence Ministry. Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are fighting rebels in the remote western region bordering Tunisia, residents say, and thousands of people have poured across the border over the last week fleeing the violence. TAP said the shells fell in an isolated area near the town of Dehiba in southern Tunisia. No one was wounded, it added.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libya-mortar-shells-land-in-tunisia-report
Potential EU military role in Libya
Facing humanitarian crisis in Misurata, European nations could send up to 1,000 soldiers into Libya to help deliver aid. The troops could only operate with a specific UN mandate, said Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign and security policy chief. Baroness Ashton spoke to Al Jazeera’s Folly Bah Thibault in our Doha newsroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnEmOO7q2KE&feature=youtube_gdata
Former Libyan Diplomat on His Defection and Call for Intensification of NATO Operations
NATO intervention in Libya has been ongoing for four weeks, and the country appears locked in a military stalemate. We are joined by Ibrahim Dabbashi, the Libyan deputy ambassador to the United Nations who defected after Gaddafi’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and now represents the Transitional National Council of Libya. “[Gaddafi] is leaving,” says Dabbashi, “but how long he will stay in power, this is the question… If the operations of NATO intensify with the coming back of the U.S., I think it will take only some weeks. But if it continues at the same level as it is now, I think it will take some months.” [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/19/former_libyan_diplomat_on_his_defection
Misurata school turns to battleground
A playground has turned into a battlezone in Misurata. Gun battles have been taking place in a school in the besieged town. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHsUZ_1azTw&feature=youtube_gdata
Inside Story: Siege of Misrata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu1vrCrirBw&feature=youtube_gdata
Opposition under seige in Misurata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOj4totwtNw&feature=youtube_gdata
Libya’s postponed democracy
Larbi Sadiki examines the liberation movements in Libya, both internal and external, and how they benefit civic life.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/2011415163618467700.html
The Libyan mission is creeping, no doubt
With Britain sending a ‘military liaison advisory team’ to Libya, how many more boots on the ground will follow? Mission creep is an unpleasant condition brought on by a surfeit of military ambition and lack of self-knowledge. Symptoms include fantasy-like delusions such as the highly contagious belief, known as Sarkozy-itis, that the sufferer alone knows what’s best for the world. This is typically followed by cold sweats and hot flushes when political reality proves otherwise. Mission creep is not treatable and hindsight is the only cure. It usually ends in disaster.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/19/libya-mission-military-advisory-team
Yemen
UN council members call for restraint in Yemen
UNITED NATIONS, April 19 (Reuters) – Members of the U.N. Security Council called for restraint and political dialogue in Yemen as the 15-nation body discussed the violence there for the first time on Tuesday, diplomats said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/un-council-members-call-for-restraint-in-yemen
UNICEF says 26 children killed in Yemen protests
UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said Tuesday that most of the children killed in clashes between security forces and anti-government demonstrators died of wounds from live ammunition.
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article366059.ece
Yemen Police Fire On Protesters, Killing Three
SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters on Tuesday, killing at least three amid rising international concern over the strategically located nation. The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to meet later Tuesday to discuss the deteriorating situation in Yemen, where rights groups say two months of protests calling for the president to step down have claimed 120 lives.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/19/yemen-protesters-killed_n_851149.html
UN meets on Yemen amid continuing violence
Police kill at least four people and wound hundreds, as UN Security Council holds first meeting to discuss crisis.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/201141917134761300.html
Other Mideast/Analysis
Tunisian Court Drops Case at Heart of Protests
A Tunisian court dropped charges Tuesday against a policewoman whose dispute with a fruit vendor sparked a chain of events that unleashed uprisings around the Arab world.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/04/19/world/middleeast/AP-ML-Tunisia.html
Baghdad protest ban is undemocratic: Sadr (AFP)
AFP – Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday blasted a ban on public rallies in the Iraqi capital, saying it was “undemocratic” and based on fear of rising protests.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110420/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsunrestdemossadr
Saudi Arabia: Dissident Writer Arrested
(Munich) – Saudi authorities have arrested over 160 peaceful dissidents in violation of international human rights law since February 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged the interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abd al-?Aziz Al Sa’ud, to order the immediate release of peaceful dissidents, including Nadhir al-Majid, a writer and teacher arrested on April 17.
Allies of Saudi Arabia have not publicly protested these serious and systematic violations. The European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said on April 18 that she had been “very pleased” with her two-day visit to Riyadh and made no public comments about the political prisoners. Neither Tom Donilon, the US national security adviser who visited Riyadh on April 13, nor Robert Gates, US defense secretary who visited on April 6, publicly commented on the kingdom’s human rights violations.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/saudi-arabia-dissident-writer-arrested
UAE’s repression
“The arrest of Nasser bin Ghaith, a lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of the University of Paris IV (Paris-Sorbonne) who has participated in the Doha Debates, a respected regional political forum, leaves observers asking what freedoms the academics working at new Western branch campuses in the emirates will enjoy. “Are professors only protected in the 90 minutes when they are giving seminars, and after that they are fair game?” asks Samer Muscati, a researcher on the United Arab Emirates for Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch and the New York chapter of the American Association of University Professors have called on the New York University administration to publicly ask for the release of Mr. bin Ghaith and three other political activists who have been detained. The latest arrest occurred on Friday, according to a group known as the Gulf Discussion Forum. ”As the foreign university with the largest and most visible presence in the U.A.E., the NYU administration should speak out firmly against these violations of basic rights,” said a letter signed by the leaders of the New York chapter of the American Association of University Professors, including Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/uaes-repression.html
Conspiracies, conspiracies
The conspiracy that the Bahrain regime is blaming for protests in Bahrain is different from the conspiracy that the Syrian regime is blaming in Syria. By the way, our statement in support of the Syrian people upset many people. People tell me about a Saudi conspiracy. Yes, there is a Saudi conspiracy against Syria but the Syrian regime refuses to even accuse Saudi government so it talks about unidentified external hands. But more importantly, even in the presence of a real Saudi conspiracy in Syria, and even in the presence of a real Salafite movement in the country (supported by Saudi Arabia too), there is a real and popular protest movement in the country. People are fed up with the Ba`th rule: they got neither the Golan Heights back nor social justice (not to mention Arab unity). I know for a fact that there are many communists active in the protests too: in Homs yesterday, the communists turned out in full force, and the sit-in attracted many from the brave Communist Action Party, which opposed the regime for decades, and waved a campaign against regime after the Syrian military intervention in 1976 (it was then named Communist Action League). But I have to say: House of Saud is acting uncharacteristically: it is acting not cautiously but recklessly. That is good. House of Saud will fuck up, big time.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/04/conspiracies-conspiracies.html
