USA: Dancing Is A Subversive Activity & Obama Can't Quit Iraq

Update: Dancing in public in America is a subversive activity
Not safe to dance in public areas in USA.
China's subversive underground Hip-Hop movement
President Obama & Pentagon can't quit Iraq
America patronizing Iraqis
US undermining the integrity of internet social media with propaganda stealth campaign

so here's Men Without Hats' Safety Dance encouraging and inciting people to dance in public.



Update on the legality of dancing in public places ie at the Jefferson Memorial
Is there now a world wide prohibition against dancing in public.
In some countries there is a prohibion about same gender dancing that is against two men or two women dancing together In some countries a woman is not permitted to dance by herself where only men are permitted to dance and all other permutations on this one can come up with.

So is dancing not permitted at any public space.



What Americans can learn from the Chinese
China's Underground Subversive Hip Hop Dance Movement

Arts: The Underground Chinese Hip-hop Movement





Come Dance with Me -- Jefferson Would Want You to
This Saturday, we’ll be dancing in reverence to Thomas Jefferson’s spirit of resistance in DC. by Medea Benjamin via AlterNet.org June 2, 2011

If you are in the DC area, come join CodePink and other activists Saturday, June 4th at noon at the Jefferson Memorial. You don’t have to risk arrest. You can dance on the steps (legal), you can observe (legal) or, you can bring your dancing shoes and your smoothest moves. If you can’t come, you can sign this petition to the DC Park Police urging them to Let the Dancers Dance.


Dancing can be dangerous. In Ceausescu’s Romania I was arrested for dancing without a partner. In newly independent Guinea Bissau, my dancing partner was thrown in jail for boogying before the President and his wife had the first dance. In Cuba I was awoken at 4am to bail out a friend who had been locked up for “lesbian dancing.” And in Afghanistan I narrowly escaped arrest for dancing on a “men-only” dance floor. On each occasion I was shocked by the misuse of government power and disrespect for personal freedom.

...Of all the issues I have been part of in recent years—protesting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Wall Street banksters, the BP oil spill, attacks on immigrants, draconian drug laws—few have struck a chord like this. People around the nation, both progressive and conservative, are appalled that the police would so violently arrest people for dancing—silently—in a memorial built to a man who was this nation’s most passionate defender of the rights of the individual against the state. It was, after all, Jefferson who asked, ”What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?” It was also Jefferson who warned that “a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”

The interior walls of the Jefferson Memorial are engraved with passages from Jefferson’s writings and on the southwest wall are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

What could be more emblematic of the pursuit of happiness than dance? Surely Jefferson, an avid fiddler and jig lover, would agree.

Meanwhile US government and Pentagon using stealth campaign to infiltrate social media networks to push their pro-war agenda and the rationalizing of the erosion of human rights & civil rights in America.

US Steps Up Cyber Propaganda War By Al Jazeera via Information Clearing House, june 2, 2011

The US military is developing software that would allow military personnel to use fake profiles in online chat rooms.

The idea is to use social media to spread positive messages about the United States. While the Pentagon says it is a bid to counter violent extremist and enemy ideologies, critics call it propaganda.

Once again Obama has betrayed all those who believed he was sincere in his speeches during the election campaign in 2008. Instead he has shown there is little difference between his policies and those of the preceding Regime of Bush and Cheney. Over and over again he has proven himself a champion of the status quo of more war and bending over backwards to appease the super-wealthy and the elites in America. If he were sincere he would be championing Internet freedom and its integrity. Instead he too fears the freedom of speech and of giving voice to a variety of points of view. Obama has also gone after the Whistleblowers such as Bradley Manning and anyone connected with the government leaking information even when it is information that the American public has a right to know in order to make informed decisions about various issues. GORD.




And the rationalizations for being in Iraq keep coming

From Fire Dog Lake

" Congressional PR Campaign to Stay in Iraq Begins " By: David Dayen Thursday June 2, 2011

The bipartisan PR campaign to extend our military presence in Iraq has begun at the legislative level. Military officials already were making loaded statements about how Iraq would have to inform them soon if they wanted the troops to stay. This never materialized, so I guess you could see this as Plan B.

“Most Americans believe we’re done in Iraq,” said Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Middle East and South Asia subcommittee. “That is at odds with the reality in Iraq.

“The American people thought they had already bought this and paid for this,” Ackerman said. “That appears to not be the case.”

So, too, did members of Congress.

That means the White House soon will have to start “selling a lot of members,” Ackerman said, predicting that the “collision” of reality and lawmakers’ desires “will not be pretty.”

The State Department is slated to assume responsibility for helping Iraqi leaders build up that nation’s military, economic and governing entities on Jan. 1.

“Although the administration’s plan to transition the mission is well-intentioned, I am concerned that it is neither well-timed nor well-reasoned,” said Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), the subcommittee’s chairman.

Let’s be clear. This is actually not the Administration’s intention. They’re dying to stay in Iraq. They just want the Iraqis to ask for their presence, because only then will it comply with international law, and more importantly because it will give the Administration political cover. Though Sophie Quinton at National Security writes that “it seems likely” that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will ask for this extension, since it would be career suicide, I would be wary of such a statement.

The Administration, through deputy assistant Defense Secretary Colin Kahl, has pathetically resorted to saying that Iraqi security forces can secure the country internally, but wouldn’t be able to fight an external foe after December. Other than the US, who exactly is planning to invade Iraq? Iran already has their man in charge in Baghdad.

Even if the extension never gets called for, the US plans to have a large State Department presence in their enormous embassy. So the idea that we’re “leaving” Iraq is probably not the right way to look at it. But a total withdrawal of military forces would be an important step, considering that we haven’t actually left a country in many decades without being chased out. It would signal that we actually have the slightest belief in self-determination in the Arab world

US backed government in Iraq arresting peaceful protesters , dissidents & journalists.
Iraqi security forces instituting Democratic changes American style -no protesting & no dancing chanting or singing or whistling in public areas.

" Iraq Arrests Seen as Effort to Squelch More Protests " By JACK HEALY and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: June 2, 2011

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces arrested more than a dozen activists here over the past week in a sweep that rights groups called a pre-emptive strike to prevent a flickering reform movement from springing back to life.

Elsewhere in Iraq, in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province west of Baghdad, a series of explosions on Thursday aimed at security forces killed 15 people and wounded 20, local officials said.

The detentions in Baghdad came just days before the government faces a self-imposed deadline to demonstrate improvements in services and government reforms. Some analysts have said that if this date passes without significant reforms, there could be new rounds of reinvigorated demonstrations.

By Thursday, security forces had released most of those detained, according to an Iraqi human rights activist, who said that four remained in jail.

The Baghdad Operations Command, the capital security force controlled by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, denied it had arrested anyone for demonstrating. In a statement on its Web site, the force said the four men still being detained had been arrested for carrying fake identification cards, an allegation their family members dismissed as ludicrous.

The youth protest movement, in which demonstrators thronged the streets of major cities last winter, demanding better government services and an end to corruption, had quieted to a near whisper lately, its momentum sapped by harsh security measures, dozens of arrests and a gradual ebb in public interest.
As part of the government’s two-pronged response, promising reforms while cracking down on dissent, Mr. Maliki cut his salary in early March and gave his cabinet 100 days to make progress in tackling the crumbling infrastructure and sputtering economy.

Many Iraqis and analysts expect fresh torrents of public unrest as that deadline passes early next week and another scorching summer settles over Baghdad, with relentless 120-degree days magnifying outrage over a power grid that delivers just a few hours of electricity a day.

“They are afraid,” said Hanna Edwar, a prominent human rights activist and government critic. “So they try to limit the number of activists. It is a failed measure.”

The demonstrators still gather at Tahrir Square in Baghdad every Friday, but their numbers have tapered off to a few hundred, or sometimes no more than a few dozen.

and so it goes,
GORD.

Presidential Hopefuls At Ralph Reed Event Signal Troubling Power Of Religious Right | Americans United

Presidential Hopefuls At Ralph Reed Event Signal Troubling Power Of Religious Right | Americans United

The Religious Right has too much influence in American public life as the speaker line-up at a Ralph Reed event this week demonstrates, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

An array of presidential hopefuls and major congressional leaders is scheduled to appear at Reed’s “Faith & Freedom Conference and Strategy Briefing” June 3 and 4 in Washington, D.C.

Reed is the former head of the Christian Coalition, a religious-political group founded by TV preacher Pat Robertson. Today, Reed is a political consultant and head of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, an organization supposedly dedicated to “educating, equipping, and mobilizing people of faith and like-minded individuals.” He has also made efforts to lure the Tea Party into an alliance with the Religious Right.

“I don’t think Ralph Reed has anyone fooled,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “He wants to forge fundamentalist churches and church members into a disciplined voting bloc and force political candidates to kneel before it.

“This kind of mixture of religion and politics is a grave danger to American public life,” said Lynn, who has monitored the Religious Right for some 25 years. “It is a sad day when our politicians start preaching and our preachers start politicking.”

Concluded Lynn, “I wish all the candidates would have the courage to stand up and say – as John F. Kennedy did in 1960 – ‘I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.’ Today, the Religious Right’s power is such that a statement like Kennedy’s is almost unthinkable. As a matter of fact, candidates are more likely to give their personal profession of faith.”

A recent Americans United survey of the top Religious Right ministries and groups in America revealed a tax-exempt fundamentalist empire with an annual income approaching one billion dollars.

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.

will update later,
GORD.

Christian Nationalist' Pat Robertson " Muslims Are The The New Nazis"

First a word from Charlie Chaplin on "Machine Men with Machine Minds "
those in power who find it easy to justify injustice, inequality, greed, oppression, torture and slaughter in the name of freedom and democracy in order to gain more territory to gain more power and wealth.

So we get these "Machine Men with Machine Minds who refer to the wrongful deaths of innocent civilians as merely "Collateral Damage" is that what other people are to them and to argue against this corrupt & cynical view makes one a traitor to one's own nation or to the very concept of Western Civilization.

Western Civilization must conquer the whole of the world they tell us and every day we are expected to join in with the mob and take part in our five minutes of hate against those whom we call "enemies".

Once Saddam was our enemy now it is Gaddafi once it was the Soviet Union now it is the Muslims or the Arabs & The Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Once the West supported the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to defeat the Soviets but now the Mujahideen are our enemies.

We are it seems always in need of some larger than life enemy and when that enemy is defeated or turns out to be a "paper tiger" or a lot of Sound and fury signifying nothing we move on to create a new enemy and each time we are told that once this enemy is vanguished the world would be rid of evil but it doesn't last long before those in power invent a new "enemy".




Pat Robertson's comparing Islam to Nazis should be highlighted because so many other American leaders of the Christian Right and the GOP also make similar comparisons such as Newt Gingrich , Sara Palin , Fox News et al
There is a large segment of the American public who have little or no knowledge of Islam except what they are told by these Islamophobes of the Christian right, the GOP , Tea Party loons and Sean Hannity and the gang at Fox News.
So we get the likes of Newt Gingrich pushing the erroneous notion and conspiracy theory that the building of a Mosque near Ground Zero in New York is a matter of Islamic Triumphalism that is Islam is celebrating the 9/11 attack and the creeping take over of America by Muslim Americans.

These hate mongers are promulgating hatred of Islam that all Muslims are secret or stealth Jihadists out to destroy traditional America . They also join forces with the professional Islamophobes such as Pam Geller, Robert Spencer , Andrew McCarthy, Daniel Pipes , Robert Bauer filling the air waves via the Media with their ignorance and bigotry .
Some of course are merely using this bogus cause as a means to increase their book sales, Media appearances and their viability on the lecture circuit or their political careers.

Robertson: Fighting Muslims Is Just Like Fighting Nazis |at Right Wing Watch , May 31, 2011 & Mother Jones.com

On the 700 Club today, Pat Robertson once again spoke out against American Muslims, singling out the construction of mosques and the purported threat of creeping Sharia law. Robertson likened critics of Muslims to opponents of Nazis and rejected claims that his opposition to rights for Muslims is bigotry, asking, “I wonder what were people who opposed the Nazis, were they bigots?”

“Why is it bigoted to resist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and to say we don’t want to live under Nazi Germany?” Robertson said. “But oh it’s bigoted if we speak out against a force that slowly but surely is trying to exercise domination over the world.”

And from the article at mother Jones re Pat Robertson and the Nazis :

Pat Robertson: Muslims are the New Nazis By Tim Murphy June 1, 2011

...Not to nitpick here, but people who opposed the Nazis were not "looked down upon and frowned upon" as bigots. This was a few decades ago, so it's understandably a little obscure, but the United States actually went to war with Nazi Germany. There was a movie about it and everything.

As you'd probably guess, this is hardly the first time Robertson has compared a large and diverse group of people to Nazis:

Here's Robertson in 1995:

"Since the advent of the head of the Justice Department, Janet Reno, things have gotten out of control. Something is going on that is just very unwholesome in this nation....this is a shocking abuse of federal power. It is reminiscent of the Nazis. Something has got to be done."

And in 1993:

"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians."

Also in 1993:

"When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved in Adolph Hitler were Satanists. Many of them were homosexuals. The two things seem to go together."

And in 1990:

"[T]he liberal media and the screenwriters...are the spiritual descendants of Goebbels and the Nazis. They're not just talking about kikes and Jews; they're not talking about, quote, 'n-----s.' They're talking about Christians now."

And in 1984:

"The state is steadily attempting to do something that a few states other than the Soviets and the Nazis have attempted to do, namely, to take the children away from the parents and educate them in a philosophy that is amoral, anti-Christian and humanistic and to show them a collectivist philosophy that will ultimately lead to Marxism, socialism, and a communistic type of ideology."

So as you can see, Muslims are the new gays are the new Clinton Justice Department are the new gays (again) are the new screenwriters are the new public schools are the new Nazis; it's worse than we thought.

Tim Murphy is a reporter at Mother Jones. Email him with tips and insights at tmurphy [at] motherjones [dot] com. Get Tim Murphy's RSS feed.

Meanwhile Religious Right leaders in the United States are pushing their political and social agenda attacking Gays, Muslims and women's reproductive rights. These Christian dominionist believe that America should be governed only by Christians like themselves and that the laws of the land should reflect the Biblical law.

So abortion should be made illegal and that there be no exceptions that Gays should be denied the same rights as other Americans and that the old "sodomy laws" should be reinstated and that Muslims in America should be denied the same rights as Christian Americans.

Like Pat Robertson they believe that Islam is not a religion per se but an ideology which is out to destroy Christianity and to create a world wide Caliphate .

This is a bit odd coming from Christian Nationalists who believe that all other religions are misguided or fraudulent at best and at worst are of the Devil .

So it is acceptable that the Christians control all facets of the lives of Americans and eventually the lives of the entire population world wide but it is evil if Muslims did the same thing.

The notion of an Islamic world wide Caliphate as little if any traction among Muslims.

And these Christians praying over Mosques in America is if anything an insult to Muslim Americans because these Christian Nationalists believe Islam is evil and that they are hoping through prayer that Muslims will leave Islam and become Christians and by extension "Real Americans". So much for Christian tolerance and acceptance of those with differing views on religion or faith.

So Lou Engle shares his bizarre bit of Christian wisdom in which he says Black Americans should forgive white Americans and not still be holding in his view an outdated grudge against white Americans concerning slavery and injustice.

Like much of the Religious Right and the Tea Party GOP he pushes his notion that America today is not at all racist and that Blacks and other non-whites are treated the same as whites which is blatant nonsense. But these groups ignore the current reality in America where African Americans and Hispanics still get stopped while driving by the police at a higher rate than white people and that the prisons are due to racial profiling are overflowing with blacks and Hispanics .

Engle: Black Leaders Must Forgive White People Or Else "You Are Actually Holding Us As Slaves" at Right Wing Watch May 31, 2011

Submitted by Kyle on May 31, 2011 - 1:42pm

Last week we stumbled upon the website for an organization called Transformation Michigan, which appears to be one of those New Apostolic Reformation prayer networks dedicated to transforming the nation via intercessory prayer.

The website had posted several recent conference calls hosted by Transformation Michigan with the likes of Cindy Jacobs, Lou Engle, Jerry Boykin, and Janet Porter. And while the calls were mostly rather dull, they did contain some revelations ... such as the fact that there is a prayer team in Michigan that is dedicated to praying over every mosque in the state; an idea Boykin would like to see spread all over the country...

Janet Porter spent her conference call arguing with supporters of the radical "personhood amendments" who were intent on attacking Porter's own "Heartbeat Bill" for not going far enough, to which Porter responded by comparing her effort to that of Oskar Schindler...

For her part, Cindy Jacobs declared that were it not for abortion, "our housing industry would be stellar [and] the economy would be booming"...

Lou Engle declared that the next The Call rally to be held in Detroit on 11/11/11 would be an opportunity where "Whites must repent for any racism" while "Blacks must forgive [white people]" because, if they don't, "you are actually holding us as slaves" ...

Afghanistan "Sovereignty" | Common Dreams

Afghanistan "Sovereignty" | Common Dreams

Legal Team for Abu Ghraib Victims: U.S. Ignores Torture in Supreme Court Brief | Common Dreams

Legal Team for Abu Ghraib Victims: U.S. Ignores Torture in Supreme Court Brief | Common Dreams

Amnesty International Calls on Iraqi Authorities to Stop Clampdown on Peaceful Protests | Common Dreams

Amnesty International Calls on Iraqi Authorities to Stop Clampdown on Peaceful Protests | Common Dreams

Mark Twain : The War Prayer Pt. 1 Bahrain "We Do Not Torture" We Heard That Before From Bush & Obama Just More Propaganda

Mark Twain The War Prayer 2.

Bahrain officials say they do not torture even in the face of overwhelming that they do torture
Bush & Obama both lied saying America did not torture
Bahrain uses America's irrational fears about Iran to justify its brutal crackdown on Protesters, dissidents etc.
They also appeal to conspiracy theories no matter how far fetched-ie doctors storing weapons for the insurrection???- Pure unadulterated BS.
Unfortunately many in the US media tend to fall in line especially in their demonization of Iran.

So much for superiour Western Values as the USA and its allies and client states, colonies and satelitte states are given the "Green Light" to treat protesters and dissidents and reformers in as draconian and harsh manner as possible.

As Hillary Clinton said about Bahrain that "We do not interfere with the internal affairs of other nations" of course except for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Libya.
But American history in the last fifty years has been one of America time and again interfering with other nations internal affairs ie Egypt, Gautemala, Iran, Iraq, Honduras, Chile, El Salvador , Korea , Vietnam, laos , Thailand, Sudan, Haiti and on and on.

But Clinton and Obama like Bush and Cheney before them insists that Americans should ignore the past and focus on the future .

According to most Americans and their media and government adhere to the notion of American exceptionalism that is whatever America does is beyond reproach
When America uses torture techniques it has a good reason for it
Anyone detained or incarcerated by US authorities by definition these detainees are therefore guilty as alleged.
When America carpet bombs a nation it is for the good of not just America's interest but is done for the people of that nations own good.
When America's superiour forces used its tactics of "Shock and Awe " in Iraq killing thousands of innocent people this was in order to save them from Saddam and when the Americans twice bombed the hell out of cities such as Fallujah this was to supposedly rid the area of evil insurgents and not merely as retaliation for a few Americans killed

What America has done again and again is to ignore International Laws regarding the prohibition on the use of "collective punishment" on the civilian populations ie Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis and Pashtuns.
The NAZI were infamous for their use of "Collective Punishment" on civilian populations.
It was in response to the Nazis use of "Collective Punishment" which led to the prohibition of this tactic yet American, Brits, Canadian armed forces see no contradiction in their use of this tactic.
Some more cynical observers might claim one of the reasons for such tactics is to create the impression having control over areas where in fact this is not the case
Another reason for the tactic is that it makes for good TV viewing by Americans at home
So it is both entertaining and helps the American citizenry and media feel more secure and knowing their tax dollars are not going to waste in these unnecessary war and conflicts.

Why because if one administration was to investigate fully and honestly a former administration this would open up a precedent so that Obama's administration once removed from power through elections could then also be investigated for any wrong doing and no president wants to open that can of worms.

This is a convenient sort of Propaganda tactic so that none of those in authority in the past or the present can be investigated let alone be charge with criminal offences such as perpetuating a War of Aggression against iraq or Libya or the necessity of "agent provocateurs " and other under the radar actions against Iran .

So as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia continue with their oppression of Shiites this is supposedly justified because the Shiites in either country are allegedly being supported by Iran.

The thing is that Iran is not an Arab country but rather Persian and there is some tension between Shiites in Bahrain and the Iranians.

Former President Bush and the current president Obama should be proud that Bahrain is using torture on inmates just like the USA has at Gitmo and at Abu Ghriab and dozens of other detention centers under American control in Iraq, Afghanistan , Pakistan etc.
The Bahrain government is also getting false confessions out of detainees just like the American military and CIA have done.

Bahrain's authorities claim they do not torture is this like George W. Bush's assertion which was a lie that "we do not torture" that is America does not use torture except when it does use torture. Or Americans define torture as specific acts such as "waterboarding" and redefines torture as acts which would cause organ failure or death.
So according to the US government, military, CIA and America's Media there is no such thing as psychological torture such as sleep deprivation , intimidation, harassment, insults or attacks on a detainees religious beliefs or humiliating detainees by stripping detainees naked or have them perform simulated sexual acts with each other or with guards including female guards and so on.

Bahraini troops halt protests by violence via PressTV, June 1, 2011

Saudi-backed Bahraini troops have attacked anti-government protesters in several villages near the capital Manama, witnesses say.


Despite the lifting of martial law in the tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom on Wednesday, regime forces are beating up people who had poured into the streets to stage protest rallies, Head of Foreign Relation Office of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights Maryam al-Khawaja wrote in an e-mail sent to Press TV.

According to witnesses, dozens of people were injured after regime forces fired birdshots and teargas on protesters in villages around Manama, including Diraz, Bani Jamrah and Karzakan.

Al-Khawaja says the wounded were shifted to their homes instead of hospitals because in Bahrain, being wounded by security forces has become a reason for arrest.

Opposition activists in Bahrain called for fresh wave of anti-government protest rallies across the country on Wednesday as a state of emergency imposed during a March crackdown on protesters has ended.

"The protests are to be in main streets and squares ... the movement must return to important places ahead of the imminent return, God willing, to Martyr's Square," said a post on "February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition" Facebook page, referring to the site of the demolished Pearl Square, which was the focal point of anti-government demonstrations from February until being destroyed during the government crackdown in March.

Bahraini activists say their protest campaign will continue until the nation's demands are met.

Amnesty International had called on Manama to allow the planned protest rallies to go ahead and stop using violence against peaceful protesters.

Bahraini protesters demand an end to the rule of Al Khalifa dynasty.

Since anti-government protests began in Bahrain in mid-February, regime forces, backed by a 1,000-strong Saudi military contingent, have abducted many people, including opposition activists, journalists, teachers, students, doctors, and nurses, and destroyed dozens of mosques and other religious sites.

Scores of people have been killed and many more arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protests in Bahrain.

Are the authorites in Bahrain playing the same word games as Bush and Obama by redefining torture so that torture techniques America uses are according to their Newspeak no longer to be called torture but rather "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques".

In both countries alleged terrorists or other so called enemies of the state are tortured inorder to produce dodgy confessions and the signing of legal contracts which stipulate the released inmates not talk about their treatment in detention centers.

But of course Bahrain is going to say it does not torture otherwise they would be admitting to criminal acts or acts that would be criticized by the United Nations or the International Criminal Court or other human rights organizations such as Amnest International, the International Committee of the Red Cross or Human Rights Watch and so forth.


"Bahrain denies abusing female Shiite doctors" AFP, May 30, 2011

DUBAI — Bahrain's interior ministry on Monday denied claims made to AFP by female Shiite doctors that they were abused and tortured while in detention over their alleged backing for anti-regime protests.

"The claims and allegations made by female doctors in the AFP report are not only baseless but scurrilous," said a ministry statement emailed to the agency.

"The Bahrain authorities affirm that very high standards of human rights norms are being followed at all detention / interrogation centres in the country."

Several female doctors who were released recently had told AFP they were abused and tortured at the hands of interrogators in detention centres, amid a massive crackdown on the Shiite majority after security forces quelled a month-long protest in mid-March.

The women said they were forced under severe beating and verbal abuse to confess to backing their co-religionist protesters and abusing their positions.

Some said they were made to testify against colleagues at Salmaniya hospital accused of lying and exaggerating on satellite channels to pile pressure on the government.

There were also claims of verbal sexual harassment.

...The authorities have said that 47 medics -- 24 doctors and 23 nurses -- have been referred to a special court set up under the state of national safety declared by King Hamad a day before the March 16 crackdown on demonstrators.

Authorities have said that 24 people, including four policemen, were killed in the unrest.
Bahrain was strongly criticised by rights groups for its heavy-handed clampdown on Shiites following the crushing of the protests demanding major political reforms in the kingdom ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty.

FEATURE-Bahrain Shi'ites talk of abuse under martial law
* Bahrain crackdown halted "Arab Spring" in Gulf * Shi'ites say abuse is worse than in previous crackdowns by Andrew Hammond via Reuters June 1, 2011

*

Nearly 3 months of martial law ends on June 1 By Andrew Hammond

MANAMA, June 1 (Reuters) - Bahraini Shi'ites say they have endured a reign of terror during 11 weeks of martial law imposed to break up a pro-democracy movement that for the first time threatened the control of a Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab dynasty.

Martial law was lifted on Wednesday. The authorities hope this will show investors and tourists that the island state is back to normal. Shi'ite dissidents fear repression will go on.

Thousands have been detained or dismissed from jobs in a crackdown that has targeted those who took part in six weeks of protests centred on the capital's Pearl Roundabout. Dozens of Shi'ite places of worship have been pulled down or vandalised.

Twenty-one people, seven of whom are abroad, are on military trial for trying to overthrow the government. They include figures from Shi'ite opposition parties who had advocated making Bahrain a republic, as well as the Sunni leader of secular group Waad and independent Shi'ite rights activists.

Four people have died in custody and two Shi'ites have been sentenced to death for the killing of a policeman.

The crackdown has for now stifled an unprecedented pro-democracy movement inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that toppled long-time U.S. allies. The government says the protests were manipulated by Shi'ite power Iran.

TEACHERS, DOCTORS HELD

A teacher in Hamad Town said she and 25 colleagues were hauled out of their school one morning last week by women police who came in two buses.

"They asked us if we went to the roundabout, did we want to bring down the government, and they hinted that they would abuse us sexually once we arrived at the station," the teacher said.

"They made us sing the national anthem and say 'the people want Khalifa bin Salman'," the powerful prime minister of 42 years who is seen as a hardliner in the ruling family.

In the local police station some of the women faced sexual harrassment, the teacher said. "They sexually harrased most of us, but there are things I can't say that they did," she said.

"Some teachers never went to the roundabout but had to admit that they did. I was there and admitted that I was, but they wanted me to say I had got a mut'a marriage," she said, referring to a Shi'ite form of temporary marriage.

"They said 'Your loyalty is to Iran, let Iran take care of you'. They called us Zoroastrians and said we teach prostitution."

The women were forced to sign papers vowing good behaviour and readiness to return to police stations if requested, which would circumvent the ending of the emergency laws.

Dozens of doctors and nurses have also been arrested and around 19 doctors remain in detention. It is not yet clear how many will face trial and on what charges.

State media have said doctors were storing weapons in a nearby hospital during the protests, using ambulances to transfer weapons and stealing government medicines to run a makeshift health centre at Pearl Roundabout.

Some were accused of splattering protesters with blood to inflate the numbers of wounded after security forces killed four in a botched attempt to clear the roundabout on Feb. 17.

One who has been released but does not know if charges will be pressed said she was threatened with rape.

"They said 'We are 14 guys in this room, do you know what we can do to you? It's the emergency law and we're free to do what we want'," she said. Two doctors said a group was forced to record confessions which they believe are intended for Bahrain TV. The channel has aired previous apparent doctor confessions.

A Western diplomat said: "We 100 percent believe torture takes place. But the detail of what abuse and the evidence is unclear."

Bahrain rights activists have reported abuse that some of the 14 men facing military trial have mentioned in court.

Families and lawyers of the men facing trial each have 10 minutes after the court sessions to speak to the accused.

The son of one said an electric drill had been applied on at least one occasion to his father's leg by military interrogators with Iraqi accents.

"In the 1990s they used electricity on him but this time it was much worse. Now they use a machine with wires," he said, adding this was in three weeks of interrogation before trial.

"They make him kiss a photo of King Hamad (of Bahrain), King Abdullah (of Saudi Arabia) and the prime minister in the morning and then sing the national anthem," he said, adding his father said his captors had urinated on him.

Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Human Rights Society said two of the 14 men on trial said in court they had marks made by electric drills. The government has said it is investigating abuse reported by Nazeeha Saeed, a Bahraini correspondent for France 24 television, when she was detained for some 12 hours last week.

Reporters Without Borders said she was beaten by women interrogators to force her to confess that she works with Shi'ite-run TV channels al-Manar and al-Aalam.

They beat her with plastic tubes, made her bray like a donkey on all-fours and tried to make her drink a bottle of what they said was urine, the group said in a statement. (

and elsewhere in the news
NATO still bombing Libya & going well beyond UN/Nato agreements
Egypt renews relations with Iran
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused by Iranian legislators of ignoring constitution


'NATO war on Libya is unacceptable' via PressTV, June 1, 2011

An Iranian official has criticized the West's double-standard approach to the issue of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa and condemned the NATO-led war in Libya as “unacceptable.”


“Politically motivated and instrumental approaches to the honorable issue of human rights are by no means acceptable and will yield no result,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs Ali Ahani said in a meeting with the director general of the Middle East and North Africa Department of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, Robert Rydberg, in Tehran on Tuesday.

“The devastation of Libya's economic infrastructure by NATO's bombardments, based on wrong and egotistical interpretations of the [UN] Security Council's resolution, is unacceptable and deplorable,” Ahani stated.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister urged the international community to compel the Western powers to revise their biased approach to the recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa.

“The international community's efforts to enforce a basic democratic framework based on respect for the principle 'one individual, one vote' will make a great contribution to solving the issues in the region,” Ahani asserted.

NATO has conducted hundreds of sorties over Libya since it assumed control of a military campaign to impose a no-fly zone over the country and save civilian lives in late March.

Recent reports indicate that many civilians have also been killed in the UN-mandated aerial offensives.

Iran's MPs urge Judiciary move on Pres. via PressTV, June 1, 2011

Iranian lawmakers have agreed to submit a report to the country's judiciary on “legal violations of the government” in the appointment of a caretaker for the Oil Ministry.


Many Majlis (parliament) deputies have voiced their opposition to a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to temporarily run the Oil Ministry, arguing that the move is “illegal,” Majlis news agency (ICANA) reported.

During the Wednesday session of the Majlis, 165 lawmakers voted in favor of the report and 1 voted against it while 13 abstained from voting.

Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani also said that the deputies made the decision based on article 233 of the internal Majlis by-laws and regulations.

Last month, Iran's Guardian Council also stated that President Ahmadinejad's decision to take charge of the ministry is against the provisions of Article 135 of Iran's Constitution.

The council, which is charged with interpreting the Constitution, argues that according to the article, the Iranian chief executive is only allowed to appoint a caretaker minister for three months.

In a televised speech on May 15, President Ahmadinejad said he would run Iran's Oil Ministry temporarily following his decision to relieve three Iranian ministers of their duties as part of a plan to merge ministries.

The Iranian government announced plans on May 9 to merge the ministries of Roads and Transportation with Housing and Urban Development, Energy with Oil, Industries and Mines with Commerce, and Welfare and Social Security with Labor and Social Affairs.

'Egypt delegation visit heralds new era' June 1, 2011

The Iranian foreign minister has described the visit of an Egyptian delegation to Iran as the herald of the resumption of relations between Tehran and Cairo.


A delegation of 50 social, cultural and religious Egyptian figures arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Tuesday for a five-day visit.

“The trip of a group of Egyptian thinkers, including al-Azhar University and Christian minority elite … was a measure toward preparing ground to improve relations between Tehran and Cairo,” Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday.

Salehi added that Iran was ready to resume relations with Egypt as soon as possible.

Iran severed ties with Egypt after Cairo signed the 1978 Camp David Accords with the Israeli regime and offered asylum to Iran's deposed dictator, Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi.

As part of efforts to resume diplomatic ties, Salehi and his Egyptian counterpart Nabil al-Arabi met last week on the sidelines of the 16th conference of foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement on the island of Bali in Indonesia.

Salehi said better Iran-Egypt ties would benefit the entire region and called on the two countries to clear any possible misunderstandings.

Mark Twain: The War Prayer Pt. 2