U. S. Representatives Lee, Kucinich comment on NATO show

U.S. Reps Lee and Kucinich
speaking to the press
file photo

Paying for this lying, Cold War relic makes no sense

Excerpt, editing by 
Carolyn Bennett

CALIFORNIA CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA LEE minces her words

“I will remain steadfast in my efforts for an accelerated withdrawal and am heartened that a majority of Democrats and 12 Republicans in the House joined me last week in an effort to end the war [on Afghanistan] now and safely and responsibly bring our troops home.”

Enough is enough, Lee says. 

Rep. Barbara Lee, center
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, right
Stand against war on Iraq

“There is no military solution in Afghanistan.”

Approaching ten years of war have cost the deaths of “almost two thousand U.S. troops; more than $530 billion in direct costs.

“Two-thirds of Americans say the war is not worth fighting [and] it is past time for our policy to catch up with the American people.… While NATO leaders and President Obama took an important step toward ending the war, we need to bring our troops home now – not years from now.”    

OHIO CONGRESSMAN DENNIS KUCINICH

minces no words

“The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is no benevolent organization [but] a cost-sharing organization that finances aggressive military action.…”

Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Activist Cindy Sheehan
 and others

Endless unlawful war

While hiding behind the claim of providing “for ‘common defense’,” NATO “allows us to wage wars of choice under the guise of international peacekeeping”: the most recent example being the “unconstitutional war on Libya” where NATO operated “under a United Nations mandate of protecting civilians” while in reality “backing one side in a civil war and pursuing a policy of regime change.”

War on Libya’s estimated cost to the United States: $1.1 billion.

Milking the cow

Participation in NATO exacts great financial cost to the United States, Kucinich said. “We contribute the majority of funds for NATO’s common budget — including 25 percent of the military budget”; and we incur significant costs deploying U.S. forces in support of NATO missions. 

The United States “contributed more than $1.3 billion to NATO’s military budget between FY 2010 and 2012.” 

End the sham, end the show

U.S. Reps Lee and Kucinich
Left, 2nd from right

“NATO is an anachronism,” Kucinich concludes.

“Instead of trying to bolster the organization, we should begin serious discussions to dismantle it.”

Sources and notes

Oakland, California: “Barbara Lee Releases Statement on NATO Summit and Afghanistan,”

May 21, 2012, http://lee.house.gov/press-releases/barbara-lee-releases-statement-on-nato-summit-and-afghanistan/

Washington, D.C.: “NATO Talks a Sham: War in Afghanistan is Not Ending — Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) releases a statement as world leaders meet in Chicago for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit,” May 21, 2012, http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=296347

____________________________________


Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

___________________________________

Basic rights perspective sees “marriage-equality,” politician-pandering sham

Women in prison, the suffering defenseless, raped and ridiculed by people in positions of authority — thes indisputably are breaches of human rights without lobbyist or pandering politician

By Carolyn Bennett (excerpts, editing, comment) 

Reported yesterday to the U.S. Department of Justice were results of an Equal Justice Initiative, “Investigation into Sexual Violence at Tutwiler Prison for Women”

Finding One

Correctional staff are raping incarcerated women

Based on its investigations, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) concluded that, between 2004 and 2011, officials of Tutwiler Prison for Women and the Alabama Department of Corrections received dozens of complaints of sexual misconduct involving male staff and women prisoners.

“The most visible and striking evidence of Tutwiler staff members’ illegal sexual contact with incarcerated women is the resulting pregnancies.

“In 2010, a woman in custody gave birth to a baby after being raped by a correctional officer at Tutwiler Prison.

“Over the past five years, [the Equal Justice Initiative] received numerous complaints from women who became pregnant after having been raped by male correctional staff.”

Finding Two

Correctional staff are sexually assaulting incarcerated women

“From 2006 to 2011, several women incarcerated at Tutwiler Prison were sexually assaulted by male correctional staff, sometimes with another male officer serving as a lookout.

“Women also have been coerced by male correctional staff who smuggled contraband items, including food and toiletries, and required women to perform sexual ‘favors’ in exchange for the contraband goods.”

Universal Declaration of Human Rights [1948] Preamble

excerpt

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is [people are] not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law…

Equal Justice Initiative continues

Finding Three

The system and officials are subjecting incarcerated women to

pervasive sexual harassment

“Unwelcome sexual touching, harassment and taunting, verbal abuse, and other forms of sexual misconduct by male correctional staff [against] female inmates are commonplace.

“Incarcerated women who complained about being sexually harassed reported that the warden’s response was to call them liars, to accuse them of trying to get the officers in trouble with their wives, and to threaten them with segregation and loss of privileges.”

Finding Four

Evidence shows Alabama officials are under-reporting

the number of incidents of sexual assault

Since September 2010, the Alabama Department of Corrections has provided NO data on sexual misconduct.

During 2011, at least four Tutwiler employees were indicted on charges of custodial sexual misconduct or custodial sexual abuse.

Though in 2009, the Department of Corrections reported NO incidents of sexual misconduct or harassment, court records show two officers in women’s facilities were indicted for custodial sexual misconduct that year.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Articles pertaining

Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person.

Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his [her] privacy …, nor to attacks upon his [her] honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Equal Justice Initiative continues

Finding Five

Allegations of sexual abuse are met with punitive responses, creating an atmosphere of intimidation,

discouraging inmate complaints of sexual misconduct

Women who report sexual abuse at Tutwiler Prison for Women are routinely placed in segregation by the warden; and while in segregation, these women are treated as “women held there for punitive reasons: deprived of telephone, mail, and visiting privileges; denied access to recreation, programs, or work assignments.

Incarcerated women sexually abused by correctional officers are denied the right to know the results of Department of Corrections’ investigations into their cases — even when the claims of sexual abuse have been substantiated and formal action has been taken to fire the offending correctional officer.

UDHR

Finding Six

Tutwiler Prison for Women fails to enforce restrictions on male correctional officers’ viewing nude inmates creates

an increased and unnecessary

risk of sexual misconduct and abuse

Defenseless naked to impunity of the depraved

Women incarcerated at Tutwiler Prison for Women have virtually no means of preventing male guards or other staff from viewing their nude bodies while they change clothes, shower, or even use the bathroom.

There is evidence that some male officers exploit their authority and unbridled access to incarcerated women’s nude bodies by standing in the dorm or shower areas, watching women undress and bathe, commenting on their bodies. Witness reports affirm that male officers frequently stand in toilet and shower areas watching women undress, bathe, and use the toilet.

Inmates reported to Equal Justice Initiative investigators that their complaints of these depraved toilet/shower voyeurs were met with laughter.

 Universal Declaration of Human Rights [1948] Preamble

Excerpt continues

… Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge —

Now, therefore proclaimed in 1948 by nations assembled at the UN General Assembly: “this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.”

One would think that the U.S. States of Alabama, Illinois, California, New York and others, states domestic and international, and their politicians and citizens are not exempt from the rule of this universal declaration nor are they unable to figure out the difference between mere “desires” of individuals and basic rights due to human beings as — and for no other reason than because they are — human beings.

Sources and notes

“In Alabama, accounts of sexual violence in women’s prison draw call for investigation,” May 22, 2012, http://fsrn.org/

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Preamble and 30 articles at Britannica

Equal Justice Initiative, “Investigation Into Sexual Violence at Tutwiler Prison for Women” (findings), May 2012, http://eji.org/eji/files/EJI%20Findings_from_Tutwiler_Investigation.pdf

“Complaint Filed Today with Department of Justice Finding Widespread Pattern of Officer-on-Inmate Sexual Violence at Prison for Women in Alabama,” May 22, 2012

EJI STAFF

“…The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department calling for a swift and thorough federal investigation into widespread sexual abuse of women prisoners by male guards at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.

“In interviews with more than 50 women incarcerated at Tutwiler, EJI uncovered evidence of frequent and severe officer-on-inmate sexual violence.

“EJI is now asking the Department of Justice to investigate the Alabama Department of Corrections’ failure to adequately protect prisoners from sexual violence by Tutwiler employees.…” http://eji.org/eji/node/637

Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)

The Equal Justice Initiative litigates on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders and people wrongly convicted or charged with violent crimes; poor people denied effective representation and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct.

EJI works with communities marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment.

EJI prepares reports, newsletters and manuals to assist advocates and policymakers in the critically important work of reforming the administration of criminal justice.

The Equal Justice Initiative is a private, nonprofit organization providing legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment within the legal system.

Contact information: Equal Justice Initiative, 122 Commerce Street, Montgomery, Alabama 36104; Phone: 334-269-1803; Fax: 334-269-1806; Email: contact_us@eji.org

Tutwiler Prison for Women

According to its website, this prison is “named in honor of the ‘Angel of the Stockades,’ Julia S. Tutwiler, a noted Alabama educator and crusader for inmate education, classification, and improvement of prison conditions” [astonishing]; and is a “death-row,” “maximum-security prison”…

Receiving unit for all in-coming female inmates; nine dormitories, segregation and isolation units, medical infirmary, units for inmates who are pregnant, HIV positive, or aged and/or infirmed; an auditorium, a chapel, substance-abuse treatment, and administrative ancillary services; clothing factory manufacturing inmate clothing items for the Department and county jails. Capacity: 956

Opened in 1942, later expanded: 8966 U.S. Highway 231 North, Wetumpka, AL 36092

Warden: Frank Albright, Phone: (334) 567-4369

Alabama Department of Corrections

Kim T. Thomas, Commissioner

301 S. Ripley Street

P.O. Box 301501

Montgomery, AL 36130-1501

Phone: 334-353-3883 (Central Office Switchboard)

Other Officials: Deputy Commissioner Maintenance & Construction

 Greg Lovelace, 353-3872; Treatment Director, Ron Cavanaugh, 353-3887; Community Corrections Director, Jeffery Williams, 353-4633; Supervised Reentry Program, Steve Watson, 353-9702; Victim/Constituent Services, Janet LeJeune, 353-3871; General Counsel, Anne Hill,

353-3885; Public Information Manager, Brian Corbett

Robert Bentley, Governor

http://www.doc.state.al.us/facility.asp?id=18

_________________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
_________________________________

Passé persists — U.S./NATO “Cold War”

Lethal entrenchment in a world needing policies, movement nonviolently forward

Editing by Carolyn Bennett 

“The Cold War has been over for more than 20 years,” says Global Zero addressing member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Keeping U.S. nuclear weapons in Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy makes no sense.” 

These weapons are dangerous, useless, expensive, unresponsive to today’s actual security threats. They are relics of a bygone age. Remove them from Europe.  

Pakistanis protest NATO

Seize this historic opportunity to take the next critical step toward a world without nuclear weapons.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) opposes all nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction: their development, manufacture, testing, deployment and use or threatened use by any country; and campaigns nonviolently to rid the world of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and to create genuine security for future generations.

Antiwar and antinuclear activist Kate Hudson (Dr. Katharine Jane Hudson) is part of The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. She is a UK academic and political activist and General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 2003 through 2010, she was CND’s chairperson.

Hudson is a Visiting Research Fellow in the department of Social and Policy Studies at London's South Bank University and founding editor of the journal Contemporary Politics and member of the editorial board of Debatte: the journal of contemporary central and eastern Europe.

These are edited notes on the entrenched and lethal collusion of the United States and NATO discussed in Dr. Hudson’s recent article variously titled “Are NATO’s days numbered…” and “Time for NATO to face new realities.”

"Cold War Cheerios"
By Teacher Luke Piwoni

Ailing giant 

Behind times

Inspires Cold War itch

“The United States and Europe are experiencing massive economic crises, and the United States has been fundamentally weakened by its poor economic performance and lack of internal investment over decades,” Kate Hudson writes. 

Dynamic economic rivals have emerged; and, in an increasingly multi-polar world, it is clear that the United States cannot maintain its status as the single global superpower. Nor is it desirable that it should do so.”

Image at CND

While the ‘hostile-camp’ tension that existed with the Soviet Union has vanished, at least in theory, Russia remains the chief military counterweight and rival on a global scale to the Unites States and NATO. 

Many people fear that the U.S. missile defense emboldens U. S. impunity, attacking countries without fear of retaliation; and that U.S. adherence to missile defense threatens survival of the new START Treaty.

Though it has declined in many respects, Hudson writes, the United States “has increasingly used NATO to support and advance its global power projection; [and] whatever the changing rationale or the nature of its supposed enemies in the post-Cold War era, NATO’s core function has remained to advance U.S. global interests and foreign policy goals.” This was apparent when, at the end of the Cold War, the Warsaw Pact dissolved but the North Atlantic Treaty Organization did not.

“Rather than scaling back its military presence, the United States moved to fill the positions vacated by its previous rival. As countries of Eastern Europe embraced free-market economics and multi-party democracy, the United States moved rapidly — faster than Western Europe embraced Eastern Europe via the European Union — to integrate these countries into the U.S. sphere of influence via NATO expansion.”

NATO at Prague 2002

A big question is, Hudson says, “whether NATO states will continue to foot the bill.… How long can it go on like this?”

Contrary to established law

In face of concerns, fears of regress to Cold-War tactics

The nuclear policies of NATO are in conflict with the legal obligations of the signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), she observes. “Articles 1 and 2 of the NPT forbid the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear weapon states; [but] US/NATO nuclear weapons in Europe are located in non-nuclear weapons states.”

Image at CND

Despite a recent softening of language on nuclear issues and gestures towards a nuclear-free vision, particularly from the Barack Obama government, “NATO has continued to assert its need to retain nuclear weapons: ‘The supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies is provided by the strategic nuclear forces,’” states the new Strategic Concept. With it, NATO also hangs on to a policy of “first use” of nuclear weapons. “In other words,” she writes, “NATO would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in a first strike,” a position not lost on the Russians.

The 2010 NATO summit decision to integrate the U.S. missile defense system with a European-theatre missile defense program under NATO auspices has caused major relations problems with Russia, Hudson says. Moreover, in 2012, concerns persist among many peoples and nations “that missile defense will enable the United States to attack countries without fear of retaliation; and U.S. adherence to missile defense continues to threaten the survival of the New START Treaty on bilateral US/Russia nuclear reductions.” 

The STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was a bilateral treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. Signed July 31, 1991, and entered into force on December 5, 1994, the treaty barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs (Intercontinental ballistic missiles), submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers. 

 The START I treaty expired December 5, 2009; and on April 8, 2010, the replacement New START Treaty was signed in Prague by U.S. and Russian presidents. After ratification by the U.S. Senate and the Federal Assembly of Russia, the New START Treaty on January 26, 2011, went into force. (Wikipedia)

“The mood is changing at many different levels —

Image at
Stop the War Coalition

“The mood is changing at many different levels, Dr. Hudson concludes, and it is “time for the NATO leadership to face the new realities.”

Sources and notes

Global Zero, http://nukesout.org/

Image at CND

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

As a British campaign, The CND concentrates as first priority on British nuclear weapons but it also works with anti-nuclear groups in other countries to eliminate the global threat. CND is also present at the United Nations and other international disarmament conferences.

Among its external strategic objectives

Global abandonment of space weapons and missile defense programs; and an international agreement on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space
Elimination of British nuclear weapons and global abolition of nuclear weapons
Withdrawal of all U.S. military bases and nuclear weapons from Europe and no nuclear or other expansion of NATO
Establishment of Formal Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones in Europe
Withdrawal of Britain from NATO
Closure of all foreign military bases on British soil
Independent control and verification of plutonium, uranium and depleted uranium stocks http://www.cnduk.org/about/aims-a-policies

Image at CND

Funded entirely by its members and supporters, CND aims to

Change Government policies to bring about the elimination of British nuclear weapons as a major contribution to global abolition
Stimulate wide public debate on the need for alternatives both to the nuclear cycle and to military attempts to resolve conflict.
Empower people to engage actively in the political process and to work for a nuclear-free and peaceful future.
Cooperate with other groups (UK and internationally) to ensure the development of greater mutual security (http://www.cnduk.org/about/aims-a-policies)

Kate Hudson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Hudson_(activist)

“Are NATO’s days numbered waging war as the vigilante agent of US global interests?” (Kate Hudson), May 22, 2012, Stop the War Coalition, http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/usa-war-on-terror/1421-is-it-time-up-for-nato-as-a-vigilate-style-agent-of-us-global-interests

“Time for NATO to face new realities: NATO’s core function is still to advance U.S. global interests and foreign policy goals” (Kate Hudson opinion at Al Jazeera), May 20, 2012

Al JAEERA note: “Dr Kate Hudson was chair of the UK-based Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from 2003 to September 2010, when she became general secretary. She is a leading anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigner nationally and internationally. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/05/201252081843426753.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/START_I

Image

Cold War Cheerios WebQuest, By: Luke Piwoni, http://www.kewaskumschools.org/faculty/lpiwoni/cheerios_home.cfm

________________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

________________________________

“ReImagine the World!”— Boggs Center presents…

Detroit 2012: ReImagine the World, Transform Ourselves, Fight for the Future!

8:00 a.m. (Eastern) Monday, July 2, 2012 – Noon Saturday, July 14, 2012, Detroit, Michigan

From Boggs Center announcement and links

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

Why now?

Why Detroit?

Since the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011, the world has seen a sustained period of political protest. In the United States, the Wisconsin labor protests, Occupy Wall Street, and the ‘99 percent Spring’ represent an upsurge in protest not seen in many years.

However, despite the progressive nature of the increased grassroots political involvement in the United States, the protests lack “a clear vision for a new way of doing things and a new way of thinking.” Many of us feel “something is missing.” 

Massive protests and demanding new policies fail to sufficiently address the crisis we face. 

They may demonstrate that we are on the right side politically but they are not transformative enough. 

They do not change the cultural images or the symbols that play such a pivotal role in shaping who we are.  

2012 is the time to move beyond protest, provide a clear vision for alternative ways of living.  

Detroit’s unique setting in historical context is “a space where growing numbers of people have been able to break free of old ideas and undergo a paradigm shift” — torn by crisis ‘Makes a Way out of No Way’ — whereby “organizers and activists have moved beyond protest and toward visionary organizing, building alternative institutions and parallel structures.” 

Detroit 2012: Re-imagine the World, Transform Ourselves, Fight for the Future is a national gathering, a two-week meeting to which participants may come and take part as their time permits. 

Tune in to measures of transformation

Detroit 2012: Re-imagine the World, Transform Ourselves, Fight for the Future (July 2-15) is a setting in which people learn from one another, transform in ways that aid clearer vision of the idea of “beloved community”; and see how using “beloved community” principles can transform individuals, groups, and institutions. 

Assembling people from around the United States, Detroit 2012 aims at building “a national network of visionary organizers” working toward individual and world transformation. 

• What are the qualities of leadership we need to explore? 
• Why is the movement of the twenty-first century different from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’? 
• How do we energize the movement for revolution locally and nationally?

"IMAGINE"

 “Visionary organizers” in panels, workshops, hands-on organizing not only from Detroit but from other U.S. cities will gather at Detroit 2012 and share experiences RE-IMAGINING —

Arts

Community

Education

Food and agriculture

Health

Justice, Restorative justice

Leadership

Neighborhoods

Politics, political action and engagement

Public safety

Technology

Work

The author and activist bell hooks is quoted saying, “If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice, have recognition for difference without attaching difference to privilege.” And in a 1974 article, professors Kenneth L. Smith and Ira G. Zepp Jr. said that underlying Dr. Martin Luther King’s notion of the “Beloved Community” is the assumption that “human existence is social in nature”: often expressed in Dr. King’s phrasing “‘the solidarity of the human family.…

"MUTUALITY"

We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

Sources and notes

“Detroit 2012: ReImagine the World, Fight for the Future!” Monday, July 2, 2012 at 8:00 AM - Saturday, July 14, 2012 at 12:00 AM (ET), http://detroit2012.org/

Detroit, MIwww.detroit2012.org

www.boggscenter.org

http://detroit2012.org/vision

tawana.detroit2012@gmail.com

“Martin Luther King’s Vision of the Beloved Community” (Kenneth L. Smith and Ira G. Zepp Jr.), an article appearing in the Christian Century, April 3, 1974, pp. 361-363; based on the authors’ book Search for the Beloved community: The Thinking of Martin Luther King Jr.  

Images

Boggs Center, Grace and James Boggs
Detroit 2012

__________________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

__________________________________

Self-determination, freedom, independence; not U.S./NATO bombs — Afghan leader Malalai Joya

Truth like the sun

“I am sorry I cannot be in Chicago this weekend physically but I along with millions of other Afghans will be there in heart and in spirit, standing in solidarity with the demand that NATO withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.”

Malalai Joya

Malalai Joya is an Afghan and internationally known political activist, lecturer and writer, a seriously insightful analyst and critic of criminally impaired governance, governments and leaders in Afghanistan and United States, and of foreign relations and domestic affairs on both continents.

Malalai Joya in 2008 in London received the Anna Politkovskaya Award given to courageous women who have defended human rights. In 2009 came recognition from Member of the United States Congress Barbara Lee. In 2010 in Madrid, she received the Yo Dona International award of ‘premio a la Labor Humanitaria’ (from the Spanish daily El Mundo) and the International Award “Donna dell’Anno 2010” (woman of the year 2010) from the Italian Swiss University of Peace. Foreign Policy Magazine in 2010 named her in its annual list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers.” In 2011, The Guardian (UK) listed her among a “Top 100 women: activists and campaigners.”

In Wednesday’s article in the Guardian, Malalai Joya again writes personally, politically and powerfully about foreign aggression in her country and the Middle East-South Central Asia-Africa region, about NATO and the United States war and occupation, about sovereignty and puppet governments.

Excerpt, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett

“No one can believe leaders like [U.S. President Barack] Obama who say they are working for peace even as they continue the bombings, night raids and drone attacks that kill civilians every week – sometimes every day – in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere,” she writes.

“This weekend’s protests will likely face repression… but it is vital that people take to the streets to raise their voices. Here in Afghanistan, peace and women’s rights activists risk their lives to hold protests against both the occupation and the fundamentalist warlords.

“President Obama lived in Chicago for many years; it is practically his hometown.

“Mine is in Afghanistan’s remote Farah province, where I was elected as an MP in 2005, at the age of 26. I faced threats and assassination attempts – and was kicked out of parliament in 2007 because I spoke out and denounced the occupation, the warlords and the Taliban.

“Because I was banished, I was unable to stand in parliament and condemn a NATO bombing in May 2009 that killed about 150 people in Farah.

Afghan children caught in crossfire 

“Most of the victims of this massacre were women and children.

“I would like to ask Obama and his wife, Michelle, how they would feel if their own daughters were killed in this senseless and brutal manner?

“… This is the reality of the war in Afghanistan. This is the reality of what NATO does all around the world; and if NATO is allowed to stay and continue the war in Afghanistan, it will be emboldened to wage more wars against more people – in the Middle East, in Africa and beyond.

NATO tankers - Afghanistan

“We have many problems in Afghanistan – fundamentalism, warlords, the Taliban – but we will have a better chance to solve them if we have our self-determination, our freedom, our independence. NATO’s bombs will never deliver democracy and justice to Afghanistan or any other country.

“The voices of protest in the streets of Chicago will be seen and heard in Kabul, and in Farah, and eventually in every corner of Afghanistan. … The truth is like the sun: when it comes out, nothing can block it.”

Stop the War Coalition

Sources and notes

Stop the War Coalition note on its website accompanying the copy of Joya’s article:

The NO TO NATO demonstration in Chicago is twinned with the May 19 protest in London outside the U.S. Embassy: Joint statement by National United Antiwar Coalition (U.S.) and Stop the War Coalition (UK)

“Malalai Joya: These NATO anti-war protests are the most important of our generation: The protesters remind us that the U.S. government is not representative of the U.S. people. It’s encouraging to see so many willing to stand up against this unjust, disastrous war in Afghanistan,” May 17, 2012, http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/afghanistan-and-pakistan/1410-malalai-joya-the-most-important-anti-war-demonstrations-of-our-generation

Original article

 “Afghanistan’s’ Chicago resistance: NATO’s murderous occupation will feel the strength of American and Afghan solidarity in Chicago this weekend” (Malalai Joya in Kabul, guardian.co.uk), Wednesday, May 16, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/16/afghanistan-chicago-resistance-nato#start-of-comments

Related:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/20/nato-summit-obama-afghanistan-live

_____________________________


Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

_____________________________

Vested in repression — U.S.-Bahrain, Syria relations

Bahraini people
protest tyranny

Crimes against the peace, against the people

Editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

WHY the people suffer

Hillary Clinton at State and Barack Obama at the White House seem to take pride in killing, proudly pushing weapons on tyrannical kingdoms engaged in brutal repression against “their own people” — all the while fantasying themselves champions of somebody’s democracy, freedom, and human rights.

If this state of affairs, this belligerent incompetence, this insensible immorality and lawlessness were not so terribly sad, it would be funny.

A Psychotic diplomacy

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attacks Syrian leader:

We think Assad must go … The sooner the better for everyone concerned… We want to send a very clear message to the people inside Syria … we want to see an inclusive democratic Syria where members of every ethnic group, every religion are given a chance to be full citizens [ABC U.S. interview, April 1, 2012].


[What Syrians demanded that the U.S. president or secretary of state step down in the name of  their notion of democracy? ] 

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice to UN Security Council attacks UN Envoy Kofi Annan’s Syrian peace mission

The Syrian people, like us, know that the deployment of 300 or even 3,000 unarmed observers cannot on its own stop the Assad regime from waging its barbaric campaign of violence against the Syrian people ….  Continued and intensified external pressure on the Assad regime’ [is] … the best way to halt the violence.

[What is the Syrian head of state called U.S. officials barbaric (is that even civil language for a "diplomat") and what if Assad called for the overthrow of the U.S. government?]

U.S. Department of State's entrenched, flawed relations

Adoring Dynasty

In Washington, D.C., May 9, 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton poses with Crown Prince of Bahrain Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland pushing arms to tyrants, against Bahraini protesters

“‘… We have decided to release additional items [ arms] and services for the Bahrain Defense Force, the Coast Guard, and the National Guard for the purpose of helping Bahrain maintain its external defense capabilities.’”

Speaking anonymously to CNN, “Two U.S. officials” reportedly said on May 11, the day of the State Department announcement, that weapons included in the U.S. sale to Bahrain were “air-to-air missiles designed to offer interoperability [?] between the two countries’ militaries.”

Agent Nuland had justified this crime against the peace and the people, saying, “‘Bahrain is an important security partner and ally in a region facing enormous challenges. Maintaining our and our partners’ ability to respond to these challenges is a critical component of our commitment to Gulf security.’”

[How can a country justify murdering defenseless people who never have and never will harm you? You can't.] 

Background: Bahrain, Western “allies”

  

This small Arab state (“al-bahrayn” meaning ‘two seas’) situated in one of the world’s chief oil-producing regions, in a bay on the southwestern coast of the Persian Gulf: an archipelago (an expanse of water with scattered islands) consists of Bahrain Island and some 30 smaller islands.

Many years ago, the strategic importance of these islands was recognized and exploited. Bahrain has been settled and colonized by various groups, including the Khalifah family, an Arab dynasty that has ruled Bahrain since the late 18th century. The Khalifah family opened Bahrain’s port facilities to the naval fleets of foreign countries, including the United States.

Britain and Britain

Monarch to Monarch
Elizabeth - Khalifah
Jubilee  

Britain intervened in Bahrain several times beginning in the early 19th century. In 1861, Britain and Bahrain’s Arab chief completed “a treaty by which the sheikh agreed to refrain from ‘the prosecution of war, piracy, or slavery.’” As protectorate [occupier], Britain assumed responsibility for Bahrain’s defense and foreign relations with major powers. The government of British India briefly in 1947 assumed Britain’s responsibilities but with India’s independence, Britain resumed the protectorate.

In 1968, Britain withdrew its military forces and Sheikh Isa ibn Sulman Al Khalifah proclaimed Bahrain’s independence (August 1971). A treaty with the UK ended the British protectorate. Sheikh Īsa became Bahrain’s ruler and the country joined the United Nations and the Arab League.

Khalifah (Al Khalifa) dynasty (Bahrain)

Tyrant's coat of armsAl Khalifah

The Al Khalifa family (Arabic: Al Khalifah / English: The house of Khalifa, founded in 1766) is the ruling royal family of Bahrain.

The current head of the family is Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who became the Emir of Bahrain in 1999 and in 2002 proclaimed himself King of Bahrain.

As of 2010, roughly half of the serving cabinet ministers of Bahrain have been selected from the Al Khalifa royal family, while the country’s only Prime Minister, Khalifah bin Salman al-Khalifah (serving since independence in 1971), is also from the Al Khalifa family and is the uncle of the current King (Britannica) (Wikipedia)

Vested: USA in Bahrain (a chronology)

The U.S. embassy at Bahrain’s chief city, port, and capital, Manama: September 21, 1971 –

U.S. ambassador ensconced:  1974-

Bahrain embassy established in Washington, D.C.: 1977-

Emir Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa’s state visit to Washington: 1991

Bahrain-United States Defense Cooperation Agreement granting U.S. forces access to Bahraini facilities and ensuring the right to pre-position material for future crises: October 1991

After a 48-year hiatus (1945-1995): United States Fifth Fleet reactivated (replaces COMMIDEASTFOR), directing operations in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and the coast off East Africa as far south as Kenya. Its headquarters are at NSA Bahrain located in Manama, Bahrain (Garrison/HQ: Naval Support Activity Bahrain): 1995-

Emir Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s first visit to the United States: 2001; official visit to Washington: 2003

United States designates Bahrain: “Major Non-NATO Ally”: 2001

King Hamad’s official visit to Washington, meets with U.S. President George W. Bush and his Cabinet: 2004

Crown Prince of Bahrain Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa visit Washington, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: May 9, 2012

HOW they suffer

Khalifah repression

U.S. contributes to rights abuse

Silencing the messengers

According to reports by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, journalists have been “targets of government repression since pro-democracy protests began” last year in Bahrain.

Exiled Bahraini journalist Nada al-Wadi wrote this week, “Since the beginning of protests in February 2011, [Bahrain’s rulers have imposed] restrictions on journalists, proving that freedom of speech and the press in Bahrain has always been a fiction. In little over a year, the crackdown on the press has managed to turn the clock back 10 years – to the 1975 State Security Law and a government that enjoyed powers to summarily arrest and detain its citizens without trial.”

Al-Wadi said, “One of the clearest (and most dire) changes over the past year has been the disappearance of independent voices in traditional media outlets (newspapers, television and radio).

“Local television and radio channels rarely report on ongoing demonstrations, as the government has repeatedly denied licenses to any private channels,” she said.

“Six of the seven daily newspapers are pro-government and regularly describe the protests as acts of terrorism and sabotage. These include the widely read Al-Ayyam, Gulf News, which is owned by the prime minister and publishes in both Arabic and English. Bahrain’s newest daily, Al-Balad, is also close to the prime minister; and Al-Watan is infamous for its hostile depictions of all opposition to the government.”

In a report published last summer at al-Jazeera, Matthew Cassel said, “Bahraini writers, journalists, academics, novelists, poets, bloggers, and others have been targets of state repression since pro-democracy protests began in February.”

Aiding in the repression are “pro-government groups” who have posted on various websites “the names and pictures of individuals ‘wanted’ by the state.  Many were labeled ‘traitors.’ Many were accused of ‘inciting violence’ and ‘promoting sectarianism.’”

In a March 2012 report on conditions in the island country, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights begged the U.S. and Europe to cease weapons sales and help end censorship.

“Because of the likely use of U.S.-origin military equipment by the Bahrain Defense Force against protesters marching to the Pearl Roundabout on February 18, 2011, and by Saudi troops who entered Bahrain to crush the movement,” the report recommended that “the EU and U.S. should cease military sales to Bahrain that could be used to repress the Bahraini people.

“There should be an international moratorium on the lethal use of birdshot and tear gas against civilians if not a ban of sales of such weaponry to governments like the Bahraini government that have fatally used them against their own people.”

On censorship, the report asked “the European Union and the United States to challenge censorship practices under bilateral trade agreements with Bahrain”; and, because potential loss of trade provides a strong incentive for Bahrain to ease censorship of online content and services, “to present to the World Trade Organization a case against Internet censorship.”

Protests in London

Crimes against the peace across Persian Gulf

In today’s news from Persia, Iran’s Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei reportedly said, “Recent developments in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria indicate new schemes aimed at dominating the Persian Gulf and taking control of the region’s oil and gas.”

Indicative of a regional schism and deep distrust of the West, a representative of a Bahraini Shiite leader suggested that “Saudi Arabia and the United States” were “trying to gain access to the military bases in Bahrain to apply pressure on Iran.”

The author and Chicago radio host Stephan Lendman said yesterday on Press TV that “What is going on in Syria has got nothing to do with an uprising [and] everything to do with a

Washington/Western-generated, NATO, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon’s March 14 alliance-involved insurgency to replace [Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad] with a pro-Western puppet regime.

The United States as well as its Western and Arab allies, the analyst summarized, are involved in an “insurgency” in order to replace the Syrian leader with a “pro-Western puppet regime.”

Commenting yesterday on recent news reports that U.S.-Allied Saudi Arabia was planning to annex Bahrain, Sheikh Abdullah al-Dabbaq in an exclusive interview with the Iranian News Agency (IRNA) said, “Saudi Arabia is seeking “to legitimize its criminal acts and policies in Bahrain through taking over the sovereignty of the Persian Gulf country”; however, “Riyadh [Saudi Arabia’s capital] is ignorant of the fact that the Bahraini nation and scholars are vigilant and will never allow it to implement its plan.”

Bahraini protesters have been holding anti-regime demonstrations despite recent constitutional amendments ratified by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on May 3, which give the elected parliament power to reject the government and its programs.

Bahrainis protest tyranny

Two days before the scheduled 13th session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of rights records of 14 countries including Bahrain, Press TV is reporting regime forces attacking anti-regime demonstrators in the western village of Shahrakan, Bahrain; and U.S.-allied Saudi Arabia-backed Bahraini forces continuing their “violent crackdowns on peaceful anti-regime demonstrations.” The rights review will be held in Geneva from May 21 to June 4.

Perpetual chaos, perpetual war

U.S. in Middle East, South Central Asia

U.S drone plane

The U.S. is waging permanent wars, Stephan Lendman said. And as in Pakistan and throughout the region wherever the United States invades and or occupies the charges and counter charges fly, from West to East and back again. And truth amid violence and division, chaos and conflict is hard to discern.

Is this too much to ask?
I don't think so.

United Nations observers in Syria, presumably following a seemingly well-intended peace plan of UN Envoy Kofi Annan, say “violence has been significantly reduced in areas where observers have been deployed.”

Western officials, on the other hand, reference a “Syrian opposition” charging the Syrian government with continuous killings. And the government in Damascus blames “‘outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups’ for the unrest and insists that the violence is being orchestrated from abroad.”

Sources and notes

U.S. diplomats on Syria and Bahrain

U.S. Secretary State on Syria, April 1, 2012, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/secretary-hillary-clinton-syrian-president-assad/story?id=16049737#.T7gGpkXY9PE

“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Crown Prince of Bahrain Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa shake hands at the State Department, on May 9, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Secretary Clinton and the Crown Prince participated in a bilateral meeting on bi-lateral regional issues. (Getty Images), Arabian Business dot com May 10, 2012, http://www.arabianbusiness.com/photos/hillary-clinton-meets-with-crown-prince-of-bahrain-457375.html

“U.S. resumes arms sales to Bahrain” (Elise Labott):  The United States will resume some arms sales to Bahrain after suspending them amid the country’s crackdown on protesters, the State Department announced Friday,” May 11, 2012,  http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/11/u-s-resumes-arms-sales-to-bahrain/

“The U.S. is highly skeptical about the likely success of UN-authorized observers forcing an end to violence in Syria, and is warning it may not back the mission's renewal after 90 days.…  Her remarks came after the UN Security Council, in a resolution sponsored by Russia and China, agreed to send up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria to monitor a ceasefire between the government and rebels” (Brad Norington, Washington Correspondent From: The Australian( April 23, 2012, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/susan-rice-warns-un-on-syria-mission/story-e6frg6so-1226335585515

“Syria: U.S. Running out of Patience, as UN Agrees to 300 Ceasefire Monitors U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told the Council after it unanimously adopted the Russian drafted resolution authorizing the official UN observer mission, April 22, 2012, http://www.talkradionews.com/united-nations/2012/04/22/syria-us-runs-out-of-patience-as-un-agrees-to-300-ceasefire-monitors.html

Further background: Bahrain, Fifth Fleet

Bahrain continued

Bahrain’s chief city, port, and capital, Manama (Al-Manāmah), is located on the northeastern tip of Bahrain Island.

… Roughly two-thirds of the population is Arab, and most are native-born Bahrainis, but some are Palestinians, Omanis, or Saudis. Foreign-born inhabitants, comprising more than one-third of the population, are mostly from Iran, India, Pakistan, Britain, and the United States. About three-fifths of the labor force is foreign.

Several weekly and daily papers are published in Arabic, and a small number appear in English. Most of the press is privately owned and is not subject to censorship as long as it refrains from criticizing the ruling family. The state television and radio stations broadcast most programs in Arabic, although there are channels in English.

The American Mission Hospital affiliated with the National Evangelical Church has operated continuously in Bahrain for more than a century. Since 1947, Bahrain has been a base for United States naval activity in the Persian Gulf. When Bahrain became independent, the U.S.-Bahrain relationship was formalized with the establishment of diplomatic relations.

U.S. Fifth Fleet

The Fifth Fleet of the United States Navy is responsible for naval forces in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and coast off East Africa as far south as Kenya. It shares a commander and headquarters with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT).

Active April 26, 1944–January 1947; July 1, 1995–Present

After a 48-year hiatus, the U.S. Fifth Fleet was reactivated, replacing COMMIDEASTFOR, and it now directs operations in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Arabian Sea. Its headquarters are at NSA Bahrain located in Manama, Bahrain (Garrison/HQ: Naval Support Activity Bahrain)

NAVCENT, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command; CENTCOM, U.S. Central Command

Bahrain and U.S. Fifth Fleet, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain_%E2%80%93_United_States_relations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Fifth_Fleet)

Khalifah Dynasty, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Khalifah

News from Bahrain, Syria

“Crisis has altered Bahrain’s media” (Nada al-Wadi), Daily Star-Lebanon, May 17, 2012, http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2012/May-14/173279-crisis-has-altered-bahrains-media.ashx#axzz1v37dk2pZ

Nada al-Wadi is a Bahraini writer and journalist. This commentary, translated from the Arabic, first appeared at Sada, an online journal published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Nada Alwadi has worked as a journalist since 2002 and “turned to Twitter in order to broadcast the message of the Bahraini people during the protests that have been taking place in Manama since early 2011” (Blog:  http://twitter.com/#!/bentalwadi ). She has taken a graduate degree at the U.S. University of Maryland. http://www.cyberdissidents.org/bin/dissidents.cgi?id=141&c=BH

“Aljazeera: Arrests force Bahrain’s writers into exile,” July 15, 2011, Bahrain Center for Human Rights, http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/4400 ; “Journalists say they have been targets of government repression since pro-democracy protests began earlier this year, published on aljazeera.net, July 15, 2012

Recommendations: “To end arms deals with the Bahraini regime” and “To end arms deals with the Bahraini regime,” March 26, 2012, Post BICI Report: A BCHR report on human rights violations since the BICI Report, published 26, March 2012

This report was the second publication from the BCHR chronicling the events since February 14, 2011. The first “Bahrain: The Human Price of Freedom and Justice, was pivotal in addressing the widespread and systematic violations of human rights and international law”

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, registered with the Bahraini Ministry of Labor and Social Services since July 2002. Despite an order by the authorities in November 2004 to close it, the BCHR is still functioning after gaining wide internal and external support for its struggle to promote human rights in Bahrain.

“U.S. presses ahead with arms sale despite ongoing violations: no investigation into past misuse of U.S.-origin helicopters, armored vehicles, and rifles,” May 16, 2012, http://bahrainwatch.org/press-release-6.html

Bahrain Watch is a monitoring and advocacy group that seeks to promote effective, accountable, and transparent governance in Bahrain through research and evidence-based activismhttp://bahrainwatch.org/about.html

“‘Unrest in Syria, Bahrain, Yemen West tactic to control PG,’” May 19, 2012,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/19/242055/syria-bahrain-yemen-pg-west-control/

“‘U.S., Saudi Arabia seek access to Bahrain bases for anti-Iran purposes,’” May 19, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/241967.html

“Saudi-Bahrain merger plan doomed to fail: Iran cmdr.: A top Iranian military commander says Saudi Arabia’s plan to merge with Bahrain is doomed to fail as regional nations will foil plots hatched by foreign powers,” May 19, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/19/242003/saudi-bahrain-iran-merger/

“U.S., Western, Arab allies seek toppling Syrian leader al-Assad,” May 19, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/19/241981/us-allies-seek-puppet-regime-in-syria/

“Violence down in monitored areas of Syria: UN observer,” May 19, 2012,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/19/241926/violence-reduced-syria-monitored-mood/

Today “A car bomb explosion has hit the Ghazi Ayyash neighborhood in the city of Dayr al-Zawr in eastern Syria killing 9 people and injuring more than 100 others, state television says,” May 19, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/19/241960/car-bomb-explosion-syrian-town/

Bahraini regime forces attack protesters in Shahrakan, May 19, 2012,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/19/242034/bahrain-attack-protesters-shahrakan/

Related

“Queen’s Jubilee guest list sparks controversy: The World’s Kings and Queens are in town. Celebrating 6 decades of Queen Elizabeth’s rule in Britain. But as the Queen shakes hands with monarchs like Bahrain’s King Hamad Al-Khalifa, protestors are condemning her for inviting him,” May 19, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/19/241928/queens-jubilee-guest-controversy/

Images

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Crown Prince of Bahrain Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, speak to reporters at the State Department May 9, 2012

geography‑of‑bahrain0.gif

geography.howstuffworks.com

Bahrain is an island country in the Persian Gulf.

http://culture.yourdictionary.com/bahrain

0M. Arab, Jordanian of Syria

joshuaproject.net

____________________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
____________________________________