Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett
“In none of the Arab monarchies have protesters gone after the king’s head,” writes former Israeli foreign minister now vice president of the Toledo International Centre for Peace Shlomo Ben Ami. “Their demand is for limits on absolute power, not an end to the monarchy.
“The revolutionary map is also influenced by attitudes toward the West. A sad lesson of the West’s duplicity with regard to democratic reform in the Arab world, which both Syria and Iran have been happy to embrace, is that pro-Western moderate leaders who gave ground to pro-democracy protesters ended up being swept away, while those who brutally crushed their opponents are hanging on.
“The West, after all, never put irresistible pressure on any Arab regime to undertake reforms, and deserted its autocratic clients in Tunisia and Egypt only when they failed to nip the revolutionary bud. The lesson is that the West will coexist with tyranny, provided that it is swiftly and efficiently repressive.
“The United States, in particular, has been far more lenient with regard to the repression of democratic movements in the Gulf than it was in Egypt, Tunisia, or Libya. For, in the Gulf, the issue for the U.S. is not democracy versus autocracy. It is one of an Iran-led Shia axis versus the Sunni pro-Western incumbent regimes.
“Given rampant fear of Iranian influence, the movement for democracy in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia is bound to be stifled with U.S. connivance. The Saudi-led intervention in Bahrain aims at curtailing Iran’s effort to make headway in the region on the waves of Shia unrest. … The uprising by Bahrain’s Shia majority has now become a struggle for regional mastery between Iran and the U.S.-backed Sunni monarchies in the Gulf…
“The Saudi monarchy’s immunity from U.S. pressure for democratic reform owes much to fear of the ‘Shia crescent’ looming over the Gulf, with Iran at its centre. … Saudi Arabia views political empowerment of Iraq’s Shia majority as a calamity of historic proportions, a view vindicated by Iraq’s outspoken support of Iranian designs in the Gulf…
“[Though] it has become fashionable to lay blame for the vicissitudes of Arab democratization on the West, historical turning points [are never] characterized by easy choices. Human blunders frequently shape outcomes more than human wickedness. In their … march toward civil liberty, the Arab peoples must face a preliminary test of democracy… assuming responsibility for the consequences of decisions.”
U.S.-led
WAR DEAD
Casualty sites reporting April 12, 2011
(Accurate totals unknown)
Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003
[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration
January 20,2009: 219]
Information out of date
January 20,2009: 219]
Information out of date
•
Wounded 33,003-100,000
U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000
Suicides estimated: 18 a day
Latest update on this site: April 11, 2011
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
•
Iraq Body Count
The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation
Documented civilian deaths from violence
100,445 – 109,739
Full analysis of the WikiLeaks’ Iraq War Logs may add 15,000 civilian deaths. http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
•
ICasualties figures:
AFGHANISTAN:
1534 United States
2,412 Coalition
IRAQ: 4,447 United States
4,765 Coalition
http://icasualties.org/
U.S.-allied, Non-allied AFGHANISTAN
Five foreign and four Afghan soldiers died and many others incurred wounds Saturday when a suicide bomb exploded at the entrance of a military base in eastern province of Laghman. The bomber reportedly wore “an Afghan security-forces uniform.”
Saturday’s attack in Laghman came a day after Kandahar Police Chief Khan Mohammad Mujahid died in a suicide attack.
U.S.-allied, Non-allied PAKISTAN
Conflicts between occupied and occupier
Pakistani officials have asked that more than 300 American personnel be withdrawn from that country. Among them are U.S. CIA officers, contractors and Special Operations forces. Al Jazeera is reporting a New York Times story that quotes Pakistani officials.
“Pakistani officials also want advance notice of CIA drone attacks.” They say that an attack in mid-March hit dozens of civilians, but U.S. officials claimed the dead “were fighters.”
The breach of trust has been growing between the U.S. and Pakistan.
In early April, “Pakistan rejected a White House report’s conclusion that it [Pakistan] was doing too little to stop Taliban fighters’ movements on its soil, and that it lacked a long-term strategy to stop extremist activities. U.S. intelligence and military officials believe factions in the ISI [Pakistan’s intelligence service] support Taliban and other armed groups, which are killing U.S. troops just across the border in Afghanistan.”
“Earlier this year a CIA security contractor shot two Pakistanis dead in Lahore, Pakistan.” In its initial statements following Pakistan’s arrest of the shooter, the CIA had refused “to claim Raymond Allen Davis as its own” thus adding to a breach of trust between the U.S. CIA and Pakistan’s ISI. Pakistani officials say joint counterterrorist operations with the CIA were limited to information sharing after the Davis incident.” U.S. officials dispute the claim.
Fifty-four people died Thursday in an exchange of fire between Pakistan’s army and gunmen in Mohmand, in Pakistan’s tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. In different areas of Mohmand, 40 ‘rebels’ died in another offensive backed by helicopter gunships and jets.
A local official told Al Jazeera, “Two or three civilians died when a mortar shell hit a home in the region.” It was unclear whether domestic or foreign forces had fired the lethal shell. The U.S. blamed Pakistan and Pakistan blamed foreign forces. “Journalists and aid workers do not have independent access to the battlefield, so the deaths could not be confirmed independently.”
U.S.-allied BAHRAIN
U.S.-allied Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait last month deployed troops to Bahrain to reinforce brutal armed clampdowns against mass protests
In a Saturday interview with Press TV, Saeed al-Shahabi of the London-based Bahrain Freedom Movement called Bahrain’s crackdowns on peaceful protesters “crimes against humanity, genocide, sectarian cleansing [and] apartheid.”
In the course of Bahrain’s anti-government protests demanding an end to the decades-long rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty, human rights organizations report, “Bahraini doctors have been arrested, tortured or fired from their jobs,” bodies of detainees collected by families show “bruises and lashing marks,” and Bahraini students have lost scholarships for overseas study. “Scores of protesters have been killed and many others gone missing. The government has blocked most Bahraini media outlets and demolished several mosques.”
On Sunday Zainab al-Khawaja, a Bahraini human rights activist, was hospitalized “after going on a hunger strike in protest to the kingdom’s detention of her father, uncle, husband and brothers-in-law.” Zainab al-Khawaja is reported saying in a recent interview, “‘If my father is going to be killed, I want to die as well… I would rather die with dignity than live as a slave to the Al Khalifa regime.’ The royal family has been ruling the Persian Gulf island for more than 40 years.
The sister of the hunger striker told Press TV, “‘People in Bahrain think that the U.S., in one way or another, is directly complicit in what’s happening in Bahrain.’” Maryam al-Khawaja said, “Washington’s complicity with Bahrain’s state violence was shown in remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had ‘actually said that Bahrain has the sovereign right to invite the [P]GCC troops into the country. But legally and according to the agreement between the [P]GCC countries, these forces are supposed to be used for foreign threats.’”
Led by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain’s Arab neighbors from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council have deployed troops in the country since mid-March to reinforce brutal armed attacks against anti-government protesters. The reinforcements have reportedly contributed to a major hike in the use of extreme violence against popular protests.
Before staging the hunger strike, Zainab al-Khawaja had written an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama to pressure Manama into releasing her father [but] Washington has remained silent over the recent bloodshed.
U.S.-allied BAHRAIN/KUWAIT
“A number of Kuwaiti naval officers have disobeyed orders to reinforce the violent Saudi-backed crackdown on the popular revolution in Bahrain.” One officer is reported saying, “he would not go there and [the government] can do whatever it wants.” Officers who persist in their refusal will face investigation and “severe punishments, namely dishonorable discharge from the military.”
The Bahraini service members have cited a fatwa or religious decree issued by a religious authority condemning enlistment with the Island Shield security forces. The Island Shield was established as the security front for the members of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. Scores of protesters have been killed and many others gone missing during the crackdown, which has intensified with the arrival of the foreign troops.
A Kuwaiti naval unit deploys in Bahraini waters on Saudi orders “to make it look like Riyadh is not the only party invading Bahrain.”
Non-U.S.-allied LIBYA — civilians
“The irony is that the invasion mounted to save civilian lives in Libya is likely to end up making the world more insecure. [And] what about civilian lives in Libya itself? Mahmood Mamdani asks in an opinion piece in Al Jazeera. “How effective will the NATO intervention be in saving these?
“…The intervention … has been about more than just policing Libyan skies to save civilians on the ground. In an obviously coordinated move, the British went for the person of the Libyan leader with a cruise missile, the French targeted his army and the Americans blew the Libyan air force to smithereens. Together the NATO allies have made sure that no matter its identity, the regime that follows its ‘humanitarian’ mission in Libya will be without a credible means of national defense. …
“There can be no quick fix for the people of Libya. Not only will the post-invasion Libyan state lack the means of defending its sovereignty externally; a post-invasion Libyan government — if Libyan society is not to disintegrate into an Afghan-style civil war— will need to accommodate a highly fractured society through patient coalition building.
“That necessary work will have to be political, not military,” Mamdani concludes.“The first prerequisite for the work to begin is an end to the NATO invasion and a ceasefire.”
Non-U.S.-allied LIBYA
Four people (including two children) died and 10 others suffered injuries Friday in Misratah as armed conflict continued between pro and anti-government forces, according to Press TV. Sources said government forces continued firing blindly onto houses in this town 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. The bombardment forced the temporary closure of the city’s port, which is a key route for supplies to civilians.
NATO has been criticized for its “lack of response to the killings of Libyan civilians by the regime forces amid fierce skirmishes in the western city of Misratah,” as well as for its “ air strike on Thursday that claimed the lives of at least five opposition forces between the towns of Ajdabiya and Brega.” This was “the second deadly NATO strike on Libyan ‘revolutionary’ forces in less than a week.…
“UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced serious concern about the worsening conditions for civilians in Brega in the East and Misratah and Zintan, a city of 100,000 about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Tripoli.”
Daughter of Libya
“‘Leave our skies with your bombs,’” CBC reports the daughter of Col. Muammar al- Qaddafi Aisha’s Friday message to the U.S. and NATO. Air strikes had struck Tripoli just hours before her speech.
Speaking from her father’s compound in Tripoli that had been struck by U.S. bombs 25 years ago, she said to a cheering crowd, “Libya was not defeated by air strikes then and won’t be defeated now.”
Non-U.S.-allied PALESTINE
Al Jazeera reports, “Hundreds of Palestinians have died inside Israeli prisons and now an Israeli television channel has aired shocking footage of Israel’s so-called Control and Restraint unit or Masada attacking Palestinian prisoners.
“Activists have demanded people in charge of the operation carried out in 2007 [be prosecuted]. The family of one of the victims told Al Jazeera that they would consider suing Masada.”
The Palestinian Authority has announced that it intends to work on the recognition of an independent Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly this September. According to Al Jazeera, more than 100 countries have officially recognized Palestine as a state based on the 1967 borders that existed before Israel occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier this month reported that the Palestinian Authority’s financial institutions are ready for statehood now that they have carried out a series of economic reforms. The World Bank verified the motion by strongly supporting the recognition of an independent Palestinian state, citing a number of Palestinian achievements, notably in health and education.
However, U.S. Representative Kay Granger (R-Texas) threatens a cut off U.S. funding if Palestinians press for their statehood: “That [demanding unilateral statehood] would be a very very bad thing to do. It will affect U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority. It would be a very serious step. It also could affect our funding at the UN,” said the Congresswoman who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over foreign aid.
Pro-Israeli lobby groups in the U.S. wield major influence in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. An overwhelming majority of members of the U.S. Congress receive campaign funds and other support from the Israeli lobby establishment, which regularly sponsors all-paid luxury tours to Israel for American legislators to meet with senior Israeli officials and purportedly receive briefings on the regime’s security requirements in the region.
Adding to the current amount of annual U.S. aid to Tel Aviv, at about $3 billion, larger than any other foreign recipient does, Representative Granger emphasized that — even as Republicans are adamant about drastically cutting U.S. public funds and social programs — she and other U.S. Republicans remain committed to granting further aid to Israel. Pro-Israeli lobby groups in Washington have been demanding that the annual U.S. funding for Israel becomes part of the United States’ defense budget, which is less likely to face sharp cuts and would thus further secure funding for Tel Aviv.
U.S.-allied UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE)
The statement called for “free elections by all citizens in the method of universal suffrage” made possible through “comprehensive reform of the Federal National Council (FNC) or parliament.” Academics, journalists, and human rights campaigners signed this March 8 petition. “The call coincides with popular anti-government protests in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.”
On Friday, the United Arab Emirates arrested the fourth human rights activist in a month for signing a petition “calling on Abu Dhabi to observe democratic standards.” Abdullah al-Shehhi was one of the 133 people who endorsed the call on Abu Dhabi to hold direct elections and establish a parliament with legislative powers, AFP reported on Saturday. The government refused to release the whereabouts of the petitioner.
U.S.-allied (?) YEMEN
… where some 40 percent of the population lives on no more than $2 a day, a third of the people face hunger
Press TV reported today that at least 30 anti-government demonstrators suffered injuries and 40 others were poisoned when Yemeni security forces used poison gas to disperse rallies in the western city of Dhamar. Tens of thousands of anti-regime protesters took to the streets of the capital, Sana’a, and the city of Taizz, both located in the west, where Yemeni forces fired at protesters injuring ten people in Sana’a. Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in the two cities as well as the city of Aden in the south, calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s removal and the tackling of corruption and unemployment.
“Also on Sunday, Yemeni women held a second day of protests against Saleh after he described the participation of women in protests ‘un-Islamic.’ … Protests have been met by riot police or supporters of Saleh armed with knives and batons. The death toll in the country has surpassed 300 since anti-government protests began in late January.…
“Last week, the opposition rejected an Arab proposal that gave Saleh immunity from prosecution and called on him to pass power to his deputy.”
Former Yemeni Foreign Minister Mohammed Basindwa said, “The president’s resignation is ‘not negotiable … We hope the American and European friends as well as our brothers in the Gulf will support this initiative because there will be no solution without Saleh’s departure.’”
Sources and notes
ARAB/NORTH AFRICA SPRING
“Many faces of the ‘Arab Spring’— The West may back Libyan rebels, but that support won’t be extended to protesters in Yemen, Bahrain or Saudi Arabia” (Shlomo Ben Ami), April 7, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/201141172432515843.html, Article first appeared on Project Syndicate
Shlomo Ben Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, now serves as vice president of the Toledo International Centre for Peace. He is the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy.
AFGHANISTAN
“Suicide bomber kills NATO and Afghan troops — Attack on base in eastern province claims up to nine lives, a day after the assassination of Kandahar city police chief,” April 16, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/04/20114165165273421.html
PAKISTAN
“Pakistan ‘asks U.S. to cut CIA’s role’ — CIA weighs greater co-ordination and information sharing with ISI while Pakistan demands fewer American operatives, April 12, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/04/2011411211740731666.html
“Pakistan air raids kill dozens of ‘rebels’— at least 54, including four soldiers, dead in exchanges between army, backed by helicopters, and gunmen in tribal belt,” April 8, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/04/20114895929794991.html
BAHRAIN/KUWAIT
“Bahrain crackdowns called ‘genocide’” (FF/HJL/MB), April 17, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175237.html
“Bahraini hunger striker hospitalized” (HN/PKH/MMN), April 17, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175304.html
“Kuwaitis defy orders to invade Bahrain” (HN/PKH/MMN), April 16, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175145.html
“Bahrain regime punishes civil servants — Bahrain’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters is taking its toll on the civil servants, who have joined the popular revolution. Over a hundred people among the employees were briefly suspended and face prosecution for their support for the nationwide demonstrations, the Associated Press reported on Sunday” (HN/PKH/MMN), April 17, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175320.html
LIBYA
“Libya after the NATO invasion — there can be no quick fix for a Libya caught between a loose-cannon despot and an opportunistic Western intervention” (opinion: Mahmood Mamdani), April 9, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/201148174154213745.html
Mahmood Mamdani is professor and director of Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, New York. He is the author of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War and the Roots of Terror; Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror
NATO slammed for Libya civilian deaths, April 9, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/173839.html
“No more Canadian jets to Libya mission: Harper—Libya mission still seeks more planes: NATO” (“NATO’s top military commander, U.S. navy Admiral James Stavridis, has said there is a growing need for precision attack aircraft to avoid civilian casualties as Qadhafi’s forces camouflage themselves and hide in populated areas to avoid Western airstrikes. American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the commander is looking for about eight to 10 additional planes. The alliance is struggling to overcome differences over the Libya mission
CBC News) April 15, 2011, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/04/15/libya-gadhafi-nato-rebels.html
The Associated Press at CBC “SITUATION REPORT Libya in crisis,” CBC News, April 14, 2011, http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/02/24/f-libya-topix.html; http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/04/15/libya-gadhafi-nato-rebels.html
PALESTINE
“Israeli prison raid footage released — Television images shows troops using live ammunition in deadly operation at detention centre” (Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh from Seida in the occupied West Bank), April 17, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/04/2011417101015775554.html
“U.S. threatens PA over statehood bid” (MRS/AGB/HJL/MB), April 17, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175221.html
UAE
“UAE arrests fourth activist in one month” (HN/PKH/MMN) , April 17, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175340.html
YEMEN
“Poison gas used on Yemeni protesters” (HN/PKH/MMN), April 17, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175290.html
“Thousands hold anti-govt. rally in Yemen” (HN/PKH/MMN), April 17, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175288.html
“Yemeni women stage massive protest” (LF/PKH/MMN), April 16, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175168.html
“Yemen forces kill one, injure hundreds” (HN/HGH/MMN), April 17, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175353.html
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