On target commentary on the cut-off of UNESCO funding by the Congress (and the hidden hands of AIPAC)

And, if you have not viewed the important segment by comedian John Oliver, you should watch it now.

"Any rally or march...at any public place...shall be deemed a riot..." /s/ Bashar al-Asad, August 29, 2011

From a cache of documents carried to Turkey by defecting intelligence official Abdul Majid Barakat.

In Bashar al-Asad's Circle: Hadeel al-Ali

The emails released by the Guardian reveal that Bashar al-Asad's confidantes and advisers include a couple of young Syrian women who attended college in the U.S. and who had developed expertise in PR and social media.  Among other tasks, these inner circle advisers kept Bashar appraised of what was being said (and by whom) on social media, especially Facebook. Hadeel al-Ali [هديل العلي], who posted the above snapshot of a young Bashar on Facebook, is one the advisers.  Another is Sheherazad Ja'afari, the daughter of Syria's ambassador to the UN, who is cited on a previous post.

Al-Ali, who is likely in her mid-twenties, attended Montana State University from 2006-2008.  Here is her posting in the Alumni Directory:

AL-ALI, Hadeel

Political Science, Undergraduate Student, 2006-2008

[email address omitted]

Favorite memories: Oh I have a lot of lovely memories of Bozeman, such as Music on Main, Sweet Pea Festival, almost breaking my leg learning how to ski:), hiking to my favorite "M", Food Bazaar, amazing landscape, gorgeous mountains, the friendly people of Bozeman, having OIP staff as a wonderful family and great friends, attending President Obama's speech and shaking his hand (!), wearing my cowboy boots and hat and feeling like a local :). Well, finding a second home in America pretty much summarizes it all... Thank you Bozeman!

I am currently working on finishing my last year of English Literature at Damascus University. I am also teaching English as a second language at Arab International University, in addition to being a part-time volunteer with the UNHCR/UNICEF.

The Bahrain government has just announced that 20 health professionals who were originally tried and convicted by miliary courts will be will be retried. Their crime: aiding wounded protesters. The quality of justice in Bahrain is revealed in a Human Rights Watch report linked here.

Eva Bellin: People Power and the Possibilities of Democratic Transition in the Middle East, April 12

Remember the fatuous charges by King Hamad that Iran was behind the protests in Bahrain?

Here is the extent of the accusation, according to the former ambassador the Court of Saint James, Shaikh Abdulaziz al-Khalifa:

Al-Khalifa also maintained that Iran was fomenting the protests despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying the U.S. had seen no evidence of that. "The one thing that we can assure you that speeches by Hezbollah and elements of the government in Iran and their TV channels and their religious clerics haven't helped the situation, they've inflamed the situation," Al-Khalifa said. "They've outreached to the more hard-line element of the protesters."

As I have said here before, "poppycock!",

Informed insight on Bahrain--recommended

Justin Gengler is a University of Michigan PhD student.

Human Rights Watch details excessive use of force by Bahraini secruity forces: 18 deaths demand investigation

http://www.bahrainrights.org/enAlso relevant:  Amnesty International details official use of excessive force in Bahrain.  The Bahrain Center for Human Rights is a valuable site.

Human rights abuses.

How the Al Khalifahs are spreading hatred in Bahrain

Pulitzer prize winner Caryle Murphy offers a distressing report from Bahrain, where the Saudi-encouraged monarchy is bent on fomenting sectarian enmity.  The Al Khalifah's path will undermine and discredit precisely the opposition figures that are potential interlocutors.

[Added] Mahmood al-Yousif, the veteran Bahraini blogger was arrested today, March 30, 2011, in his village outside of Manama.  His Mahmood's Den has offered commentary since 2003.  Writing in a gentle tone he has published news of protests, official misbehavior and improprieties by one and all.  He has also shared his affection for Bahrain. Two other respected bloggers were arrested: Sana Abdul-Razzaq Zinedine and Ayat al-Qurmozi.

U.S. Department of State on bloggers' arrests:

QUESTION: -- Bahrain, it seems like they’re continuing a crackdown on Shiite opposition despite your calls, and they’ve arrested a well-known blogger, a Shiite blogger. First, do you have any reaction to the arrest? Secondly, do – have any – can you give us any sense of whether you think things are going in the right or wrong direction in Bahrain? And there’s also – was a report by Human Rights Watch that they are actively targeting people who are injured in these antigovernment protests, who are in the hospital – beating them up and so on. Do you have any information on that?

MR. TONER: Well, in your first question concerning the Bahraini blogger, Mahmood Al Yousif, well, we’re deeply concerned about his arrest. He’s a prominent and respected blogger. We’re also concerned about reports of the detention of two other Internet activists who have expressed their views on recent events in Bahrain. We hope that the Bahraini Government’s decision to arrest bloggers and Internet activists will not make it more difficult to resume a national dialogue that solicits the views and opinions of all Bahrainis.

And I think that pivots to your second question, which is – and you mentioned about the – going into hospitals and other places --

QUESTION: The Human Rights Watch report.

MR. TONER: Well, we’ve been – right. I think we’ve been clear in previous statements that we’re obviously very concerned about those kinds of reports. We condemn the violence against civilians and peaceful protesters, and we continue to call for a credible political process. As the Secretary said many times, there’s no security solution to the situation in Bahrain. It needs to be a political one.

QUESTION: You said, in relation to the arrests, that you hope that it will not make it more difficult to engage in a national dialogue. Does that mean that you’re telling the protesters that they should basically turn the other cheek and ignore this?

MR. TONER: Well --

QUESTION: Or are you telling the government that they should be released?

MR. TONER: I think we’re saying that the Bahraini Government needs to engage in that kind of national dialogue, as does the opposition, in order to move this process forward, and that arresting bloggers doesn’t help in that respect.

Ashraf el-Sherif offers an informed assessment of Egypt's Salafists, including their goals and ambitions

119 Arab civil society organizations condemn the suppression of peaceful demonstrations

Also see the March 17, 2011 condemnation of military intervention in Bahrain.

Israel, where the average (non-Arab) citizen lives the good life at the level of a modern EU citizen, is coming hat in hand looking for an addtional $20 billion from a not so flush Daddy Warbucks.

Syria: Demonstrations in the Dir'aa governate of Syria continued March 25, 2011, and with parallel demonstrations in Damascus and several other cities momentum is still building

Facebook is full of cellphone videos, including this one from al-Sanamin, which is north of Dir'aa.  As you can see from this very sad video at least ten demonstrators seem to have been killed.  Comparable numbers were killed in Dir'aa, according to a variety of reports.

Yasmine al-Rashidi on Egypt's referendum vote

Syrian government offers an opening bid of reforms

FT reports about 44 dead in Dir'aa.  Demonstrations continued March 24, 2011.

[Added: Jim Muir has been based in the Middle East for decades. His reflection on whether the Syrian regime has acted quickly enough to stem the tide of demonstrations strikes me as sensible.]

Syria: Ongoing repression on display, including an apparently fabricated "news" clip from the al-Umari Mosque in Dir'aa

Syria has responded to demonstrations and unrest in Dir'aa and surrounding towns with a campaign of arrests targetting some bloggers and demonstrators.  Note the clip of flash arrests by a caravan of state security agents.

"Revolution, Democracy and the Muslim World"--March 23, 2011

Warren Olney "To the Point", listen in or catch the podcast.

Poppycock, Bahrain-style

The March 21, 2011, article by Ethan Bronner uncritically presents the position of the wealthy Sunni elite in Bahrain.  It is interesting to hear their point of view, but the reader might fairly expect that Bronner would weigh the key claims.  For instance, in the article that draws largely on an interview with 'Atif Abdulmalik, a prominent banker, Bronner states:

"Much of the push for democratic reform here, as elsewhere in the region, has come from economic hard times. Bahraini supporters of the government note that in this country there is free education, free medical care, heavily subsidized housing as well as no taxes. Budgetary troubles meant home construction was delayed, pushing some of the poor to join the demonstrations."

One needs to ask what percentage of the Shi'i population benefits from such programs, what efforts are being made to extend employment to poor communities; what steps are being taken blatant discrimination in the treatment of Shi'i versus Shi'i villages, and what measures are being taken to end corrupt election practices that disempower the minority.   The following CNN report, from 2007, provides a glimpse of living conditions among the Shi'a. The conditions described continue to persist.

While the GCC intervention in Bahrain has ratcheted the geopolitical stakes in Bahrain, there is no credible evidence that Iran played any important role in fomenting, planning or actively supporting the protests.  Thus, the claims of King Hamad that the introduction of Saudi and UAE troops has thwarted Iran is nonsense, but it very much a key ingredient in the Arab Gulf regime's narrative.  The Bahraini monarch's claims are in the same league as Mu'amar Qadhafi's allegations that his opponents are members of a--Qaeda.

No doubt, most Sunni Bahrainis are fiercely opposed to living in an Iran-dominated state, but few of the Baharnah, the indigeneous Shi'i Bahrainis aspire to do so either.  The fact that one encounters symbols of resistance, pictures of Hasan Nasrallah for instance, in some Shi'i sites hardly does more than illustrate the resonance of the theme of resistance so identified with Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Previous posts here on Bahrain, some based on my 2008 field research there.

A glimpse of the Dir'aa (درعا) demonstration on March 19, 2011. Demonstrations continued on March 20th, when the courthouse was reportedly torched

Demonstrations such as this one should cause us to wonder about claims that Syria is immune to the Great Upheaval. At least, we need to interrogate our paradigms and not take them for granted.  Dir'aa is close to the Syria-Jordan border, not too far from the Jordanian city of Irbid.

The Great Upheaval: Morocco, including Live video