The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    F*** Libya: Back to the real revolts

    By Desider on Sat, 04/02/2011 - 2:10am |

    Enough focus on that one country just because the US is bombing.

    This is how they keep our attention.

    Meanwhile democracy continues across the region without cruise missiles as noted at FireDogLake:

    http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/04/01/protests-throughout-the-arab-world-today-as-uprising-continues/

    Friday prayers means time for protest. Watch the donut, not the hole: Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, Tunisia.

    Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On

     

    Comments

    Sounds really rough on the Cote d'Ivoire today (yesterday?)  Red Cross says 800 killed in one town alone.

    This is Mark Levine and Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights: 

    "We are not only facing a regime and neighbouring powers, but American influence as well. They either do not want to see change or only slight changes that do not give people real democracy because the monarchy might lose power. Everyone sees the US double standards very clearly now. They see Gaddafi hitting people and the US strike back. But here they even bring in foreign armies who don't believe in democracy and killing people on streets and the US does nothing. It is a big mistake the Americans are making, losing people, losing the faith of the streets."

    Rajab has good reason to be angry, although he speaks with an equanimity utterly at odds with the fact that only days before we talked he had been arrested, beaten and threatened with death by security forces.

    Charges of hypocrisy

    As it happens, in Bahrain, where the movement refuses to move towards violence so far, things have only gotten worse since the crackdown. Rajab declared with a hint of exasperation:

    "More people died and injured. The gap between the ruling elite and the people is getting wider and wider. The government is trying hard to incite sectarianism, frightening both Bahraini Sunnis and neighbouring countries, which is why they sent troops to Bahrain. Indeed, by refusing to take a strong stand, did the US not open the way for the Saudis to take control of the situation for their interests. Look, the Bahrainis could have used their own police, not even the army, just the police, to stop this, because we were peaceful."

    But they brought in the Saudis and GCC specifically to regionalise the conflict and raise the stakes. As he reminded me, the Bahraini Shias have always been hostage to this regional conflict between Iran and the Saudi-American axis.

    "Now we are paying price of the growing power of Iran because America will be silent on the crackdown when it is defined as combating Iranian power."

    Rajab also feels, as many do many Bahraini pro-democracy and their supporters, that Al Jazeera has not done enough to cover the protests, a dynamic which proved so important in increasing support for protesters in Tunisia and Egypt.

    "Frankly, Al Jazeera has not even called me one time. I have talked to everyone else. They will bring only non-government people acceptable to the the government."

    Rajab argues that the Bahraini government pressured the Qataris into avoiding too much coverage, especially on the Arabic channel.

    I cannot verify this claim, but I can say that in a segment on this week's Al-Jazeera English program Listening Post in which I participated addressing this issue several guests made similar arguments.

    US presence not the issue

    If Bahrainis see US support for the government has helping the crackdown, why don't Bahrainis protest against the US Embassy and troop presence?

    Rajab was very clear about why this is not on the pro-democracy movement's agenda, despite well-justified anger at American hypocrisy in this conflict.

    "America is not our issue, your presence is not our issue. Even the opposition has declared the intention to uphold any existing agreements. No one has a problem with US there, but not if you're using our bases to fight Iraq or Lebanon or Iran. No one will accept killing people from neighbouring countries from Bahrain."

    Of course, this is precisely the problem. The US has little use for a military base it can not use however it wants.


    by we are stardust on Sat, 04/02/2011 - 11:51am

    The admin on Syria;

    White House:

    US applauds courage of Syrian protesters

    (AFP) – March 31, 2011

    WASHINGTON — The United States applauded the courage and dignity of demonstrators in Syria, renewing its frequent condemnations of political violence, which killed another nine people on Friday.

    "We condemn and deplore the use of violence against citizens demonstrating in Syria, and applaud the courage and dignity of the Syrian people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.....

    State Dept., March 31

    The Situation in Syria

        Acting Deputy Spokesman Toner (Apr. 1): "We’ve condemned the violence. We condemn today’s violence against peaceful protestors, and we’ve been very clear all along in our support for their essential rights to express their views."  Full Text»

    ....QUESTION: Back to Syria.

    MR. TONER: Sure.

    QUESTION: Just for a bit. What is your take on events today in Syria? Has Ambassador Ford had any discussions with anyone in the Syrian Government or, for that matter, anyone else had any discussions with the Syrians?

    MR. TONER: Well, I don’t have a lot new for you. I do know that Ambassador Ford remains in close contact with the Syrian Government. Obviously, we’re concerned about the situation there. We’ve condemned the violence. We condemn today’s violence against peaceful protestors, and we’ve been very clear all along in our support for their essential rights to express their views.

    QUESTION: Have you discussed with the Syrians as to why the president of Syria did not suggest that he was lifting the emergency law that has been in place for 48 years? And I say this because a member of the national council just came out on television, I believe Al-Arabiya TV, and he said that (inaudible) and Bashar Asad does not have the right to repeal the law, it is only in the hands of the council of the people. Has that been discussed in any way with you?

    MR. TONER: I don’t know in what detail it’s been discussed. Obviously, we’ve made clear that we believe that lifting the emergency law would be a necessary step, in fact, in the right direction and a significant one for the Syrian people. But as to how that would take place legally within the Syrian Government framework, that’s a question for the Syrians.

    QUESTION: Okay. But the Syrians did not come to you and say, hey, not so fast, there’s a mechanism that should be followed, or anything like this?

    MR. TONER: Not that I’m aware of. But again, that’s for them to set that in motion and then to clearly explain it to their people what – the processes in play.

    QUESTION: Mark, the Syrian Government continues to say that this is outside agitators. What is the view of the United States?

    MR. TONER: Our view is that, as I said the other day, is that that’s an easy answer to what’s going on there and that this is, in our view, a manifestation of what’s taking place across the Arab world in many other countries, including Syria; and that is the people, the citizens of Syria, expressing their aspirations, and we believe they should be allowed to do so peacefully.

    QUESTION: So when you say it’s an easy answer, you think it is an incorrect answer?

    MR. TONER: Yeah. Right.

    QUESTION: It’s a red herring?

    MR. TONER: Thank you.

    QUESTION: A quick follow-up, Mark.

    MR. TONER: Tejinder, and then I’ll get to you. Go ahead.

    QUESTION: Me?

    MR. TONER: Yeah.

    QUESTION: Sorry about that. I was going to ask that – are we standing by just the condemnation that was issued, like a day or two ago? Or there’s something else in the offing as the demonstrations seem to --

    MR. TONER: Well, we continue to monitor the situation and condemn any violence that continues to take place, call on the Syrian authorities to allow peaceful demonstrations to take place.....

    I did not paste the first portion of the above on Syria, because it is about getting two Americans out; you can get that at the link, it's at the top of the transcript.


    by artappraiser on Sat, 04/02/2011 - 6:55pm