"Four detainee deaths in nine days is a crime, not a coincidence," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The government tells families of detainees nothing about their whereabouts or well-being while they are alive or about the circumstances of their deaths."Human Rights Watch April 13, 2011.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Bahrain ratified in 1998, requires that anyone arrested shall be promptly informed of any charges and brought before a judge or other judicial authority. The refusal of the authorities to acknowledge a person's detention or provide information on their fate or whereabouts is an enforced disappearance, a violation of several international standards.
In accordance with the United Nations Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, all suspected cases of unlawful killings, including in response to complaints by relatives and reliable reports, should have a "thorough, prompt and impartial investigation." This investigation should "determine the cause, manner and time of death, the person responsible, and any pattern or practice which may have brought about that death." The investigation should result in a publicly available written report.
* President Obama attack on the Middle Class and the poor while defending the obscene wealth , salaries and profits of the elite
* Did President Obama lie about the Qaddafi's plans to massacre civilians ?
* Obama supports the killings, beatings, torture and the attacks on the freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the freedom of assembly and the freedom of association in Bahrain by the the Saudi and Bahraini security forces, military and police etc.
Many people in the US but also outside the United States are losing their patience with the Obama administration which began by promoting reform of the political and economic status quo and has rather become a defender and enabler of the rich and powerful who continue to increase their profits and salaries while everyone else is expected to tighten their belts and just suck it up and stop complaining and criticizing the US government and the elite which it supports by any means necessary.
Meanwhile Obama is refusing to find ways to reduce overall military spending while threatening to cut domestic social programs.
And so instead of helping municipalities and states to deal with their financial crisis Obama is too busy reassuring the wealthy elite that their entitlements are safe as they continue to make record profits off of their investments even if these investments are in foreign countries in which workers are virtual slaves. Of course he and his Neo-liberal crew prefer the delusion that these corporations are helping to improve the live of workers in these foreign countries.
Bahrain: Investigate New Death in Custody Thorough, Prompt, and Impartial Inquiries Needed, Human Rights Watch, APRIL 13, 2011
(Manama) - The death of businessman and activist Kareem Fakhrawi on April 12, 2011, shows the urgent need for thorough and impartial investigations into allegations of torture, Human Rights Watch said today. It was the fourth detainee death reported by the Bahrain government in nine days.Is Obama as untrustworthy as Bush when it comes to American intervention , invasion and occupation as was George W. Bush and his crew of greedy thugs.
At Fakhrawi's funeral on April 13 in Manama's Hoora district, a crowd of mourners demanded to see his corpse because of concerns he had been tortured. They wrestled the shrouded body from pallbearers on the way to the cemetery, and took videos and photographs of the body.
"Four detainee deaths in nine days is a crime, not a coincidence," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The government tells families of detainees nothing about their whereabouts or well-being while they are alive or about the circumstances of their deaths."
Fakhrawi, 49, had been detained since April 3, after he went to the Exhibition Centre police station to complain about a predawn police raid on the house of a relative, one of two nephews who were being sought by the police. The photos of Fakhrawi's body show a red area on each of his upper arms to his shoulders, similarly discolored areas on his legs, and what appears to be blood on the right side of his neck. Human Rights Watch did not see the body. The Bahrain News Agency, in a Tweet, said an official at the military's Bahrain Defense Force Hospital "confirmed the death of Kareem Fakhrawi was from kidney failure."
The government has provided no information whatsoever about the numbers of detainees since the beginning of anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain on February 14 or the reasons for their detention, Human Rights Watch said.
As of April 6, the Wifaq National Islamic Society, an opposition political group, had gathered the names of 430 detainees from families who reported the detentions. Fakhrawi was a founding member of Wifaq, society officials said.
"Bahrain is flagrantly violating the most basic human rights by arbitrarily detaining hundreds, keeping their whereabouts secret, and covering up the reasons for deaths in custody," Stork said.
In the case of Isa Ibrahim Ali Saqer, 31, a "Cause of Death" notification issued on April 9 from the Bahrain Defense Force hospital said he died of "hypovolemic shock," usually caused by excess loss of blood, after "multiple trauma." He had turned himself in to the police in Hamad Town on April 3 after the police came looking for him at his home. Human Rights Watch viewed Saqer's body and saw bluish patches on the left side of the head, blackened tops of feet, lacerations on the arms and legs, and what appeared to be lash marks all over his back.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Bahrain ratified in 1998, requires that anyone arrested shall be promptly informed of any charges and brought before a judge or other judicial authority. The refusal of the authorities to acknowledge a person's detention or provide information on their fate or whereabouts is an enforced disappearance, a violation of several international standards.
In accordance with the United Nations Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, all suspected cases of unlawful killings, including in response to complaints by relatives and reliable reports, should have a "thorough, prompt and impartial investigation." This investigation should "determine the cause, manner and time of death, the person responsible, and any pattern or practice which may have brought about that death." The investigation should result in a publicly available written report.
Alan J. Kuperman writing in the Boston Globe argues that Obama either misrepresented or lied about the danger of a massacre or genocide by Qaddafi's military.
"False Pretense For War In Libya?"By Alan J. Kuperman "Boston Globe" via Information Clearing House (ICH)April 14, 2011
-- EVIDENCE IS now in that President Barack Obama grossly exaggerated the humanitarian threat to justify military action in Libya. The president claimed that intervention was necessary to prevent a “bloodbath’’ in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city and last rebel stronghold.
But Human Rights Watch has released data on Misurata, the next-biggest city in Libya and scene of protracted fighting, revealing that Moammar Khadafy is not deliberately massacring civilians but rather narrowly targeting the armed rebels who fight against his government.
Misurata’s population is roughly 400,000. In nearly two months of war, only 257 people — including combatants — have died there. Of the 949 wounded, only 22 — less than 3 percent — are women. If Khadafy were indiscriminately targeting civilians, women would comprise about half the casualties.
Obama insisted that prospects were grim without intervention. “If we waited one more day, Benghazi . . . could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.’’ Thus, the president concluded, “preventing genocide’’ justified US military action.
But intervention did not prevent genocide, because no such bloodbath was in the offing. To the contrary, by emboldening rebellion, US interference has prolonged Libya’s civil war and the resultant suffering of innocents.
The best evidence that Khadafy did not plan genocide in Benghazi is that he did not perpetrate it in the other cities he had recaptured either fully or partially — including Zawiya, Misurata, and Ajdabiya, which together have a population greater than Benghazi...
Obama once again makes a rousing speech about maintaining basic public spending and then goes onto
cut spending on social programs and yet insists on increasing military spending.
But Like the Tea Party extreme right GOP Obama is obsessed with the deficit and so instead of increasing spending on necessary social programs especially in this time of need in the US Obama is more interested in either not increasing money which is needed for these programs he is going to freeze spending or just gut many of these programs.
So economically Obama is as conservative as the former Bush Regime and is apparently becoming a true believer in Voodoo /Trickle Down Reaganomics .
For instance as Rachel Maddow a while back explained that increasing funds to social programs such as welfare or food stamps or income supplements for those living at or below the poverty level is itself good for stimulating the economy. Such aid from the government to the poor is almost immediately spent and goes back into circulation which can be a boost to the economy. The other issue is that of giving more tax breaks to those in the lower income brackets and including the middle class. Meanwhile an increase in taxes for the wealthy and superwealthy is the only way to maintain any semblance of fairness in the taxation system and to maintain or increase cash flow to the government.
Instead Obama makes flowery speeches of empty rhetoric and empty promises as he is afraid to take on the status quo of the rich and powerful and their favorite spending program of military spending inorder to further enrich the armaments industry and related industries which supply the military with other goods and services from Lockheed to Halliburton Dyncorp or the mercenaries such as Black Water /XEservices etc.
If the economic crisis is as bad as the Uberconservatives and GOP and neo-liberals believe then the first thing to do would be to rein in the Empire and reduce staff and military presence in areas where it is not needed. This is what should be done but Obama has become a captive of the Military / Security/Intelligence Industry and so fears taking them on.
The hope had been with the election of Obama that he would have the courage to take on the Military Industrial Complex.
But it is also a fact that Obama also gave in to the Health Insurance Industry and the private health services and the Pharmaceutical industry and the Privitization of prisons and schools . Meanwhile what should anger average Americans is this reduction of public services and the lack of money for upgrading America's infrastructure roads, highways, bridges , public schools while increasing the taxes on the middle class who's income is real terms is going down while the income of the rich of CEOs and corporations are increasing in leaps and bounds.
In other countries where similar economic conditions are leading to cut backs in essential services the citizens are in the streets protesting while in America there is a sense of apathy or futility in battling the powers that be or it is seen as unseemly to dare to question some of the basic principles of the capitalist system which is just making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Organization War Is A Crime.org released this bulletin and an appeal for signing their petitions and for further donations.
WarIsACrime.org
Lockheed Loved Obama's Speech. Did You?
On Wednesday, President Obama gave a speech about the greatest danger facing us. Wars? Environmental collapse? Joblessness? Homelessness? No, the federal deficit. With two years left on the job, Obama proposed a 12-year plan to fix the deficit that won't fix the deficit. And how did he propose to fail at this misbegotte n task? The President proposed to end no wars, make no serious cuts to the military, tax no estates or investments, raise no taxes on any billionaires, REDUCE corporate taxes, and give an unelected commission the power to slash Medicare.
Do Something About It
This catastrophic class-war on behalf of the war profiteers has "progressives" cheering and collapsing with adoration, because Obama spent half the speech denouncing the Republicans' budget plan. But if you set aside the rhetoric and look at Obama's plan, a different reaction is likely. Step one, he said, is to slash away at domestic spending.
Step two, is to keep increasing military spending until it destroys us all. Obama claimed to have already cut $400 billion from the Pentagon and to want to do so again. But he has increased the Pentagon budget every year, and the $400 billion cut from one place has been more than wasted in another. His plan is not to reduce the Pentagon's budget by a dime.
Do Something About It.
Step three in Obama's plan is to give an independent commission the power to start killing off ("improving") Medicare. For step four, Obama promised not to renew the Bush tax cuts for billionaires again. But he made that promise before and broke it. Shouldn't the cheering wait until he keeps it this time? Obama added this delicate touch to his vague and almost vacuous plan:
"And as I called for in the State of the Union, we should reform our corporate tax code as well, to make our businesses and our economy more competitive."
Here's what Obama said in that State of the Union:
"So tonight, I'm asking Democrats and Republicans to simplify the system. Get rid of the loopholes. Level the playing field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years."(Emphasis added)
At least until this speech informed them of their children's hopeless future on the unchanging path of militarism, people were beginning to talk, just in recent weeks, about the need to challenge Obama. The only real solution will be turning DC's Freedom Plaza into Tahrir Square and shutting this machine down. But a first step is publicly committing to not support Obama as long as he works for the war machine.
Do That Here.
War is A Crime
and so it goes,
GORD.
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