and other news from the Arab Spring!!!
Bahrain
Bahrain updates: or what does not bother Obama
“Today was the appeal for the 4 protestors who got death sentences for supposedly killing the policemen. Two got their sentences changed to life, two others are getting the death penalty. I can’t believe they are actually going threw with this. The four men are so young. In another trial today, Shaikh Al Muqtad, one of Bahrain’s most important religious figures that was imprisoned, told the judge that drilled a hole into his leg and showed the judge the hole. He then said he has even more torture marks but he’s not allowed to show them. Oh they also arrested a high school girl from the Al Khawaja family (they really can’t stand that family). She called her family and told them to bring her clothes. She says they tortured her.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/bahrain-updates-or-what-does-not-bother.html
Bahrain court upholds death sentences
Special court upholds death sentences for two men convicted of killing policemen during anti-government demonstrations.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011522112055924720.html
Bahrain insists open to dialogue with opposition (AFP)
AFP – The Bahraini government insisted on Friday it remains open to dialogue with the opposition, in line with a call by the US president that was praised by the kingdom’s main Shiite opposition group.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110520/wl_mideast_afp/mideastusdiplomacyunrestbahrain
How Bahrain is oppressing its Shia majority
Bahrain’s parliament once gave me a standing ovation, now I’ve been banned from the kingdom – both for pursuing human rights
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/22/bahrain-change-view-human-rights
Egypt
In Egypt, anger grows over Mubarak’s health reports
The former president insists, with the help of state medical evaluations, that he has a heart condition too complex to be treated in prison. Activists say the medical reports in question can’t be trusted.It has been more than three months since former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted and more than a month since he was detained, yet he has not set foot inside Tora prison, where his two sons have been held during a corruption probe.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/PYbFLaXtrq4/la-fg-mubarak-doctors-20110522,0,7341156.story
Death sentence for Egyptian policeman
Officer convicted of shooting dead 20 protesters during upheaval that led to Mubarak’s fall.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011522154824715521.html
The trial of Egypt’s Khaled Said, adjourned
The trial of two policemen accused of beating 28-year-old Khaled Said to death has been postponed to June 30. Khalid Said died almost a year ago, but it was his death which contributed to growing discontent in the weeks leading up to the Egypt’s revolution. While Said’s mom waits for justice to be served, so do thousands of Egyptians across the country. Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reports from Alexandria, Egypt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SidsA8U5HtY&feature=youtube_gdata
Former Mubarak minister’s trial postponed
Case against Mubarak’s former interior minister adjourned amid courtroom chaos as lawyers scuffle with police.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/20115211816200964.html
Egyptian Military Cracking Down On Journalists
CAIRO — Military prosecutors summoned and then released the editor and two journalists of an independent newspaper for reporting on an alleged deal to offer amnesty to ousted president Hosni Mubarak. The three were released after they signed a pledge agreeing not to report on issues involving the armed forces that might cause “confusion” in the streets, Egypt’s state news agency and a rights activist said Friday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/egyptian-military-crackin_n_864745.html
In new Egypt, police talk to human rights groups
CAIRO, May 20 (Reuters) – Egypt’s police, whose credibility was shattered for using excessive force against anti-government protesters who toppled President Hosni Mubarak from power, will give more focus to human rights, the government said on Friday. police, who in Mubarak’s era, routinely took bribes, used torture to get confessions and crushed opposition, have been on a charm offensive to regain credibility and deal with a security breakdown threatening the country’s economic recovery.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/in-new-egypt-police-talk-to-human-rights-groups
Why Saudi King was outraged: he wanted to Mubarak to kill them all
“It is not an easy sell in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where King Abdullah was outraged by Mr. Obama’s abandonment of President Hosni Mubarak. (He told Mr. Obama that he needed to support the Egyptian leader even if the protesters in Tahrir Square were fired upon.) Saudi Arabia’s drive now is to stop the threat to established governments — even as Mr. Obama seeks partners in helping integrate a new Egypt into the world economy.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-saudi-king-was-outraged-he-wanted.html
Egypt official: Obama misreading unity deal
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Egypt will counter any external pressure that could endanger the progress of the Palestinian unity process, Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Yasser Othman said Monday after the US president raised concerns. In his Thursday speech about the “Arab spring,” and again during a Sunday speech to an American-Israel lobby group, Obama said the unity agreement between rival Palestinian parties “raised profound and legitimate questions for Israel: How can one negotiate with a party that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist?”
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390271
Regarding #SCAF Again and Again
Today is the #NoSCAF where Egyptian bloggers and tweeps speak and criticize the supreme council of armed forces in Egypt aka our military junta. Some are doing this in solidarity with Maikel Nabil while others are doing in solidarity with the victims of the military trials. I talked and criticized the SCAF before and I will not stop doing it till ends its emergency meeting , I will not stop doing it till we have transparent answers about the allegations surrounding the practices of the military police against our own civilian citizens whether in the military prison and in the Egyptian museum. Up till now we have not got any answer about the investigation done in issues concerning the allegations of abuse whether against women protesters or what happened in Cairo university or lately at the Israeli embassy. I will not stop till we got an explanation why the SCAF claimed that it was not detaining any “so called revolutionary” youth in its prisons but later we found that the SCAF is starting to release these young men after denying in the first time !? How can we have a real trust then !?
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/05/regarding-scaf-again-and-again.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29
Hossam el-Hamalawy, “Now Overthrow the Workplace Mubaraks”
So this is phase two of the revolution, the phase of socio-economic change. What we need to do now is take Tahrir to the factories, the universities, the workplaces. In every single institution in this country there is a mini-Mubarak who needs to be overthrown. In every institution there are figures from the old state security regime who need to be overthrown. These guys are the counter-revolution.
http://bit.ly/msJhIW
Libya
Fighting continues on Libya-Tunisia border
NATO has stepped up its bombing campaign in Libya with air raids on Tripoli and a residence of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. In the west of the country, pro and anti Gaddafi forces are battling for control of a border crossing between Libya and Tunisia. Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid reports from the border crossing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_PM6PXD1uc&feature=youtube_gdata
EU opens Libya office in Benghazi
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton opens an EU office in the rebel-held Libyan city of Benghazi.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13494248
‘Forced to gang-rape’
Captured Libyan soldiers tell of campaign of abuse in Misrata
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13502715
Libyan women demand louder voice
For women who took a prominent role in an uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, the lack of female rebel leaders points to a long struggle.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/feature-through-din-of-war-libya-women-demand-louder-voice
Morocco
Moroccan police beat up protesters
Protesters calling for more rights and economic benefits dispersed by police in Rabat and Casablanca.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/05/2011522204645915126.html
Saudi Arabia
Saudi woman arrested after defying driving ban
Saudi authorities detained a female activist who uploaded a video of herself behind the wheel of a car on to YouTube, in a campaign to overturn a ban on female drivers in the deeply conservative kingdom.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-woman-arrested-after-defying-driving-ban-2287817.html
Saudi women: why they are not on the agenda of Western feminists
Can you imagine if this happened in Iran? Can you imagine the world reactions? Can you imagine the outrage that would pour from Western capitals? ”RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Authorities detained a Saudi woman on Saturday after she launched a campaign against the driving ban for women in the ultraconservative kingdom and posted a video of herself behind the wheel on Facebook and YouTube to encourage others to copy her. Manal al-Sherif and a group of other women started a Facebook page called “Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself,” which urges authorities to lift the driving ban. She went on a test drive in the eastern city of Khobar and later posted a video of the experience.” Western governments have as much credibility on democracy and human rights as much as Dominique Strauss-Kahn has credibility on gender issues.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/saudi-women-why-they-are-not-on-agenda.html
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri calls for uprisings in Saudi Arabia
NICOSIA — Ayman al-Zawahiri, the longtime Egyptian number two to Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader killed earlier this month, has called on Saudis to take up this year’s wave of Arab revolt.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/22/al-qaeda-chief-ayman-al-zawahiri-calls-for-uprisings-in-saudi-arabia/
House of Saud’s contributions to civilization
“Islamic charities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates financed a network in U.S. ally Pakistan that recruited children as young as eight to wage holy war, a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Wikileaks. A U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said financial support estimated at $100 million a year was making its way from those Gulf Arab states to a jihadist recruitment network in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Dawn newspaper reported.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/house-of-sauds-contributions-to.html
Saudi women are being driven to rebellion | Nesrine Malik
The driving ban in Saudi Arabia does little to actually protect women, it is merely a backward, pre-emptive act of repression. While all eyes are on Libya, Syria and Yemen, a different kind of rebellion is taking place in Saudi Arabia. A group of Saudi women have set up Women2Drive, a right-to-drive campaign, with a launch date of 17 June. Last week one of its members, Manal al-Sharif, took to the streets and drove a car for a couple of hours, filming her trip (her father assisted) and posting it on YouTube. On Sunday, she was arrested along with her brother, who reportedly has now been released.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/23/saudi-women-driving-ban-rebellion
Syria
55 Dead in Syria’s Weekend of Rage, Juan Cole
The protest began as a funeral procession for demonstrators killed on Friday, when 10 died in Homs and some 44 died at government hands throughout the country. In Homs on Saturday, an AFP reporter and eyewitness said that tens of thousands were in the streets.Despite a heavy government crackdown in past weeks and hundreds of deaths, the protests in Syria appear to be spreading. On Friday, they broke out in the Kurdish city of Qamishli, in Banias and Latakia to the west, in Deir al-Zor (a small petroleum-producing area) and in Damascus suburbs.
http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/55-dead-in-syrias-weekend-of-rage.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29
Syria mourners ‘attacked by security forces’
At least 11 dead and 27 injured in Homs, activists say, as thousands attend funerals for those killed on Friday.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/20115211441542189.html
Protester who exposed lies at the heart of Syria’s regime
In most countries it would have been inconsequential. But for Ahmad Biasi, a young man from a small town in north-west Syria, the simple act of filming himself in his home town captivated the Syrian protest movement, made him a symbol of the nationwide insurrection – and may have put his life in danger.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/protester-who-exposed-lies-at-the-heart-of-syrias-regime-2287789.html
Syrian protesters defy crackdown
Thousands turn up for funerals of pro-democracy demonstrators and chant slogans seeking President Assad’s removal.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/201152222164736736.html
Syrian authorities set free human rights activist
DAMASCUS, May 22 (Xinhua) — The Syrian authorities on Sunday released Anwar al-Bunni, a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist, after he finished the five-year jail term, local news website Day Press reported. Al-Bunni, who was sentenced to five years in jail by the criminal court on charges of spreading false news that might weaken the nation’s morals, has often called for democratic reforms in Syria and spoken out on behalf of detainees and Kurdish activists, the report said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/23/c_13888455.htm
Yemen
The crucible of Yemen
The two opposing forces of unity and disunity are helping to shape the future of the struggle against Saleh in Yemen.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115228013977326.html
Yemen transition deal collapses
Gulf nations suspend mediation efforts after Saleh fails to sign exit pact and warns of civil war.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/201152216373928689.html
Obama’s Speech/Other Op-ed & Analysis
Report: Nasrallah to address Obama position
BEIRUT (Ma’an) — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak about the US push for a return to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in an address to be televised Wednesday, Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar reported Monday. The newspaper said Nasrallah would “snap back” at US President Barack Obama, who on Sunday accused Hezbollah of carrying out “political assassinations” during a speech to American pro-Israel group AIPAC.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=390220
Obama and the Israeli lobby
“When even Israel-devoted stalwarts such as former IDF Corporal Jeffrey Goldberg and the ADL’s Abe Foxman are dismissive of the condemnation of Obama’s statements, it’s crystal clear that they pose no challenge to the dominant pro-Israel orthodoxy that has shaped American policy (and political discourse) for decades. At most, Obama’s public endorsement of this position was a symbolic gesture to chide Netanyahu for his overt indifference to U.S. interests (and, more so, belligerence toward Obama), and a small rhetorical fig leaf to the populist forces driving the Arab rebellion. Yet even the most microscopic deviation from the dictates of the Israel Government produce shrill and ludicrous backlash from The inside-the-U.S. Israel Lobby.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/obama-and-israeli-lobby.html
Can you imagine if an Arab leader were to urge the US president to draft his speech differently??
“The Israeli government immediately protested, saying that for Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders would leave it “indefensible.” Mr. Netanyahu held an angry phone conversation with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday before the speech, officials said, in which he demanded that the president’s reference to 1967 borders be cut. Israeli officials continued to lobby the administration until right before Mr. Obama arrived at the State Department for the address. White House officials said he did not alter anything under Israeli pressure, though the president made changes in the text that delayed his appearance by 35 minutes.” If you believe that the president did not alter the text under Israeli pressure, you would believe that Obama did not stand by Mubarak.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/can-you-imagine-if-arab-leader-were-to.html
Egyptian revolt leaders react to Obama’s speech
This is what Egyptian youth leader, Asma’ Mahfuz, said about Obama’s speech to the pro-American Saudi mouthpiece of Prince Salman, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat: ”I don’t understand the reason for Obama’s glorification of Arab revolts as his administration and previous administrations of the US have supported dictatorial regimes in the Middle East over the past years. And we heard such words from Obama’s speech in Cairo. We say to Obama: go play another game…And we believe that this speech comes as an attempt to break the isolation of Israel and to support it after it has felt a total siege. And he has repeated more than once and stressed the friendship between the US and Israel while expressing his fear from the reconciliation agreement between Fath and Hamas which Egypt played a big role to achieve.” This is a representative reaction: if you read other reactions by Arabs in Maryland or in Virginia by people favored by spokespeople of US administration in mainstream US media you may ignore.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/egyptian-revolt-leaders-react-to-obamas.html
Obama’s lousy speech
Comrade Joseph writes: ”Opposition to the United States and Israel in fact is something espoused by the peoples of the Arab world, not by their leaders, who have been insisting for decades that the US and Israel are the friends of Arabs. Indeed the people of the region have been the only party that insisted that US policies and domination in the region and constant Israeli aggressions are what make these two countries enemies of the Arab peoples, while Arab rulers and their propaganda machines insisted on diverting people’s anger toward other imagined enemies, which the US conjured up for the region, while making peace with Israel. Obama’s attempt to deny the hatred that Arabs feel towards the United States and Israel because of the actions of these two countries is nothing short of the continued refusal of the United States and Israel (not of Arabs) to take responsibility for their own actions by shifting the blame for the horrendous violence they have inflicted on the region onto their very victims. When Obama and Israel call on Arabs to take responsibility for the state of the region and not blame the US and Israel for it, what they are essentially doing is to refuse to take responsibility for what they have inflicted on Arabs.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/obamas-lousy-speech.html
Obama’s speech and divisions in the Arab world
“President Obama, in his speech on Thursday about the changes in the Arab world, spoke directly to that feeling. “Divisions of tribe, ethnicity and religious sect were manipulated as a means of holding on to power, or taking it away from somebody else. But the events of the past six months show us that strategies of repression and strategies of diversion will not work anymore.”” Look at this sentence: as a quotation in a front page article in the New York Times and as a passage in Obama’s speech. I mean, there is no need for a comment? No need to address the external factors in deepening and stoking Arab divisions? I mean, has there been any government (internal or external) that has done more to instigate sectarian, ethnic, tribal, and religious conflict in Iraq than the US itself? I love how Western colonial powers operate. They go to a country and they prop up half-dead tribal elders, and then they say: those societies are tribal. I saw that in South Lebanon in 1982. Leftist and Arab nationalist organizations have taken over most villages in South Lebanon in the 1970s and have marginalized the old traditional familial and tribal leaders, so the first thing that Israeli terrorist occupiers do is to prop up those old traditional leaders and give them powers. Many of those folks were men in their 80s—kid you not. And after Wikileaks, do we have doubts about US manipulation of sectarian divisions in the Middle East in cooperation with Saudi Arabia? Who are you kidding?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/obamas-speech-and-divisions-in-arab.html
Obama’s Arab Spring Silence on Saudi Arabia Is Deafening
Barrack Obama’s headland speech ‘A Moment of Opportunity’ has pledged billions of dollars in aid supporting the recent uprisings referred to as the Arab Spring. Obama pledged continuing aid for Egypt and Tunisia, pledged support for democratic reform Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, signaled out particular criticism Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, confirmed the imposition of sanctions on al-Assad and six senior officials because of human rights abuses, and called on the world’s financial institutions to underpin the region’s economies.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/05/obama%e2%80%99s-arab-spring-silence-on-saudi-arabia-is-deafening/
Obama’s favorite Arabs
Of course, I have maintained from day one that there will be no difference in foreign policy between Obama and Bush. The same Zionist fanatics who ran Middle East policy, for example, in the Bush White House are either still there or there are people with similar views. You can tell that the same Zionist hoodlums are there by looking at the most favored Arabs in both White Houses. Not only in terms of House of Saud, for example, but even individual Arabs. Look at this piece. Was it not sexy to invite bloggers from Bahrain or UAE or Saudi Arabia?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/obamas-favorite-arabs.html
Osama bin Laden’s Death: There Is Much More To Say, Noam Chomsky
We are left with two choices: either Bush and associates are guilty of the “supreme international crime” including all the evils that follow, crimes that go vastly beyond anything attributed to bin Laden; or else we declare that the Nuremberg proceedings were a farce and that the allies were guilty of judicial murder.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28161.htm
