التعذيب لكل مواطن

One can only imagine what goes on in Saudi prisons. Recently however we managed to get a peek thanks to a website called Sabaq [link] which posted 5 short video clips taken by cellphone. Human Rights Watch picked up on it as well and issued a press release entitled New Video Confirms Torture in Prison. [click on the image on the left to access the video as realplayer].

According to HRW, guards often beat prisoners collectively, regardless of who was responsible for the perceived transgression, prisoners said. Several other prisoners said guards had suspended them above the ground for prolonged periods. “If a prisoner complains about anything he is beaten,” said a third prisoner. “They also hang us by handcuffs with our feet suspended, or take our blankets.”

Welcome to the moderate state of Saudi Arabia. And then we complain about Gitmo? Really!!!

تسجيل فيديو من تليفون محمول داخل سجن الحائر أكد وجود تعذيب بالسجون السعودية – وكأننا كنا لا نعلم بوجود تعذيب. لكن المهم أنه تم نشره على موقع جريدة سبق السعودية وهو يبين ضرب سجينين بخرطوم بلاستيك.

وقد أصدرت منظمة هيومان رايتس واتش بيانا تندد بالتعذيب بالمملكة وتقول أنه يؤكد التقرير السابق الذى أصدرته حول ذات السجن وقالت المنظمة أن السجناء صرحوا لها إن الحراس كثيراً ما يقومون بضرب السجناء جماعياً بصرف النظر عن الشخص المسؤول عن المخالفة المُفترضة،

وأكد كثيرٌ من السجناء الآخرين إن الحرس يقومون بتعليق السجناء على مسافةٍ فوق الأرض ولمددٍ طويلة، وقال سجينٌ ثالث: “إذا اشتكى سجينٌ من أي أمر فهم يضربونه”، وأضاف: “ويعلقوننا من القيود التي يضعونها في أيدينا ويجعلون أقدامنا تتدلى في الهواء؛ أو يأخذون البطانيات منا”.

هو مش برضه بنشتكى من جوانتانامو؟ على كل, تحياتى للمملكة الحليف المعتدل للولايات الأمريكية. يمكن رؤية الفيديو بالضغط على الصورة بأعلى هذا الموضوع

tenet did not get his part of the pie

Former CIA diector George Tenet suddenly decided to let history absolve him of wrong doing. He had a eureka moment, nudged out of his amnesia no doubt by some several million dollar book deal. This past week came the reslease of At the Center of the Storm, a typical tell-all book about the Iraq war and his role with the Bush administration.

In regards to his ’slam-dunk’ comment which has been used time and again by Bush and Rice to justify their war, Tenet says he is furious because it was taken out of context. He tells CBS’s 60 Minutes in a preview of an interview with him that will air tonight that what he meant was “We can put a better case together for a public case. That’s what I meant,” Tenet said.

I see. So does this make Mr. Tenet look any better? It only makes him look like someone who wanted to be ‘in on the pie’ because instead of talking against the entire case of going to war based on lies, his only comment in effect means ‘invade now, we’ll make a case later and it will be easy.’ That is, let me help you lie. But when he was scapegoated, he lamented honor: “Men of honor don’t do that,” he lamented.

Had Mr. Tenet been a mainstream guy on the street, I might have believed the exhibited naivitee. But as head of the CIA, he should well know that in the politics of this administration, there are no ‘men of honor’.

more lies

UNAMI, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq [link], released its first human rights report since the US security plan w.as launched in February.  UNAMI said civilian casualties in the daily violence between January and March remained high, concentrated in and around Baghdad.

UNAMI also said that for the first time since it began issuing quarterly reports on the human rights situation in Iraq, the new January 1-March 31 one did not contain overall mortality figures from Iraq’s Ministry of Health because it refused to release them. [link]

But President Bush told TV host Charlie Rose day before yesterday that sectarian violence was down.

Human Rights Watch’s Sarah Leah Whitson, Director of the Middle East Program asked Raw Story: “How is it that he’s making that assertion, and for the first time, after the United Nations has published ten reports on the situation, this is the first that doesn’t have the data?”

Umm.. for a habitual liar… what do you expect?

graffiti of pain in hometown baghdad

So far, 45 episodes have been released on youtube of HomeTown Baghdad. It is an online documentary series on what it’s like to live in Baghdad, from an Iraqi point of view. Hometown Baghdad was shot by an all-Iraqi crew and tells the stories of three young people trying to survive in Baghdad. All episodes are very short but very telling and new ones are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In episode 18, Adel, a young man with an excellent command of English, expresse his rage, anger and pain through graffiti on the numberous barricades that dot Baghdad.

The series have their own website hometownbaghdad.com. What a brilliant series. What a sad and hopeless situation.

Here is what they have to say:

Our brave Iraqi cast and crew risked their lives to make this series. So please help us make sure the world listens by helping us spread the videos. Embed them to your site, email them around, favorite them.

Please spread their stories.

العلم عمرو والجهل رجب

كتب السيد مصطفى رجب فى مجلة روزاليوسف هذا الأسبوع تحت عنوان عمرو الألمانى وريث سعد الدين إبراهيم – وصلة كتب تحريضا واضحا ضد أحد كتاب مؤسسة كارنيجى للسلام إتهمه فيها بعدة إتهامات تدل على جهله التام بالمؤسسة وبالعاملين فيها. أنا لا أعرف الدكتور عمرو الحمزاوى وليس لدى علاقة بمؤسسة كارنيجى للسلام, ولكنى أعرف المؤسسة عن طريق نشرة تصدرها بشكل دورى اسمها نشرة الإصلاح العربى - وصلة – يكتب فيها الكثير من الكتاب المعروفين فى الوطن العربى وغيرهم من المتواجدين خارج الوطن. وبدلا من أن يتكلم الأستاذ رجب عن ما كتب د. الحمزاوى ويناقشه ويحاوره ويحاول أن يتعرض للقضايا التى طرحها – قام رجب بالإساءة إلى د. الحمزاوى بشكل مباشر وتطرق لحياته الشخصية وجنيسته وما إلى هذا ولكنى لن أتطرق هنا لهذا الموضوع.

المهم أن الأستاذ رجب كتب معلومات خاطئة وذلك يدل على عدم فهمه أى شىء لا فى السياسة الامريكية ولا فى السياسة المصرية ولا حتى فى من مع من ومن ضد من. كتب يقول

مؤسسة كارنيجى للسلام، وهى أحد أكثر المعاهد البحثية عداء لمصر ولسياستها والقريبة جدا من دوائر المحافظين الجدد فى الولايات المتحدة،

طبعا ده كلام فارغ فمؤسسة كانريجى للسلام هى مؤسسة لبيرالية تتكلم بشكل دائم ضد بوش وإدارته وسايساته ولا تؤمن مطلقا بالمحافظين الجدد

المشكلة هى أن د. الحمزاوى يكتب عن مصر والتعديلات الدستورية ويطالب بالإصلاح, وكلما كتب أحد عن ذلك قامت الحكومة وأبواقها الشهيرة بالكتابة ضدهم وتشويه صورتهم. فمطالبة د. الحمزاوى بالإصلاح تعتبر فى رأيه تحريض ضد مصر – وعلى الماشى نجيب سيرة سعد الدين إبراهيم علشان تكون التوليفة بمبى

وكتب يقول أيضا أن د. الحمزاوى

نشر فى الحياة اللندنية مؤخرا مقالا عنونه بـ «تعديلات مصر الدستورية أو تجديد دماء السلطة من دون كلفة شعبية»، ادعى فيه أن التعديلات الدستورية جاءت مخيبة للآمال فى إصلاح دستورى ديمقراطى يفتح الطريق أمام تعددية سياسية حقيقية فى مصر، وأن الصياغات الفضفاضة لبعض المواد تعطى النظام عمليا الحق فى تعقب أى منظمة أهلية أو مؤسسة حديثة، بل أى فرد قد تتهمه السلطات بممارسة نشاط سياسى دينى الهوى،

يا راجل؟ بقى إدعى؟ يعنى إنت حضرتك شايف كده إن التعديلات الدستورية كويسة ولاقت قبولا واسعا فى مصر؟ ماشاء الله.

وبعدين إيه موضوع إن حمزاوى إختار هذه الجنسية أو تلك؟ هو الدكتور الباز مش برضه أمريكى؟ وإلا الدكتور مجدى يعقوب مش برضه بريطانى؟ وإلا د؟ زويل مش برضه أمريكى هو الآخر؟

يعنى الإتهام بسبب الجنسية غير لائق يا أستاذ رجب. ولو عندك حاجة نبيهة تقولها وفيها معلومات صحيحة فيا ريت حضرتك تتحفنا بها. أما المعلومات الخاطئة والإتهامات الشخصانية فوحياة أبوك كفاية بقى. ده مش نظام خالتى بمبة هنا – دى جريدة أو مجلة بيقراها الناس

america in menopause: when hysteria prevails over sober discussion

An excellent article in Al Ahram Weekly this week written by Aiman al Amir, the Weekly’s DC correspondent, entitled America’s moral menopause, gives a simple but profound round up of the Bush administration’s legacy [link]:

The US project for modernising the Middle East is in tatters. “Liberated” Iraq has become a textbook study in how to destroy a country. Baghdad’s fourth security plan, now in its third month, has left more than 1,500 Iraqis dead. Sectarian violence and increasing US-British casualties apart, Turkish-Kurdish tensions are rising. The US’s Greater Middle East democracy project has been abandoned and its target states in the region are increasingly becoming totalitarian police states. By contrast, Mauritania, one of the least developed countries far removed from the US agenda, has successfully conducted genuine democratic presidential elections without US assistance. The US is also coming under unusual criticism from some of its closest allies — Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Terrorism is on the rise and has more recently assumed lethal expression in North Africa. Afghanistan, where the US has engaged most of its European allies, is heating up, with the Taliban making a strong comeback. The confrontation with Iran over its nuclear capacities is inconclusive and the US has lost momentum in the face of Iran’s chess-game manoeuvring. In Palestine, where the game of regular Abbas-Olmert meetings leaves an impression of progress but no real substance, US duplicity has been demonstrably exposed. Even proposed arms sales to some Gulf Arab States are being vetoed by Israel. The Bush administration, now in its twilight years, has succeeded in nothing, especially in the Middle East.

He adds:

The US lost its moral authority when national debate surrendered to the power of government. Bad governments are often inflated with a messianic sense of mission that stifles public scrutiny. In the case of Iraq, as in the case of Vietnam before, government-instigated national hysteria prevailed over sober discussion.

It is the duty of the American people to restore the lost credibility of the US and restore its lost ‘moral’ ideals. How about starting with withdrawl from Iraq?

he will return without his ears

Are the British insane? Why on earth would they send Prince Harry to Iraq? The Guardian says that they have discovered plots for his kidnapping. Duh!!!

… some of the most notorious paramilitary factions in southern Iraq claim that informants placed inside British military barracks in Iraq have received orders to ‘track’ the movements of the third in line to the throne.

And the extremists are totally thrilled – how could they hide their glee and sadistic intents?

Abu Zaid, commander of the Malik Ibn Al Ashtar Brigade of the notorious Mehdi Army militia, said: ‘We are awaiting the arrival of the young, handsome, spoilt prince with baited breath and we confidently expect he will come out into the open on the battlefield.
‘We will be generous with him. For he will return him to his grandmother [the Queen] but without ears,’ added Zaid, a senior figure within the largest and strongest Shia militia group operating where British troops are deployed. We have printed out many photographs of him from the internet and given them to all other groups. [link]

Doesn’t that endanger his brigade as well? By being there, isn’t he then endangering the lives of his fellow soldiers?

Except of course if he is attacked, it will the British’s oppoprtunity to .. errr.. to… errr.. attack Iraq? Well they are already there. So.. kill more Iraqis? At this rate, no Iraqis will be left alive anyways. So… maybe it will be a pretext to attack Venezuela. Yup. That’s it.

How about sending Bush’s twins? Wouldn’t that make more sense?

bringing democracy one hanging at a time – ديمقراطية حبل المشنقة

Congratulations oh Iraqi citizens. You are now among the top 4 countries .. No.. not in democracy you morons. In hangings. An Amnesty International report just released said that Iraq has become the world’s fourth highest user of the death penalty after Iran, Pakistan and China, with a rapid acceleration in executions since 2004, when the US handed control to the newly elected government [link to a summary of the the Amnesty report and link to the actual report].

The report which is entitled Unjust and unfair: The death penalty in Iraq, states that since then,

more than 270 people have been sentenced to death and at least 100 people have been reported executed.
…
There was a rapid rise in executions in 2006 with at least 65 people, including at least two women, reported to have been executed by hanging.

Good job. You go Iraq!!! A real model for the rest of the Middle East. Democracy is hanging right there.. by a rope.

قالت منظمة العفو الدولية فى تقريرها الأخير عن العراق بعنوان لا عدل فيها ولا إنصاف: عقوبة الإعدام في العراق – أن العراق أصبحت رابع دولة بعد إيران وباكستان والصين فى حالات الإعدام, فقد إرتفع فيها عدد الذين تم إعدامهم أو حكم عليهم إلى 270 منذ تولى حكومة ماليكى زمام الأمور

قال التقرير

ومنذ إعادة العمل بعقوبة الإعدام في أواسط العام 2004، حُكم بالإعدام على أكثر من 270 شخصاً، وأُعدم ما لا يقل عن مئة شخص. وقد تناقص عدد حالات بث “الاعترافات” المتلفزة في أواخر العام 2005، ولكن العديد من الأشخاص الذين ظهروا على شاشات التلفزة حُكم عليهم بالإعدام أو أُعدموا فيما بعد

ومن النتائج الرئيسية التي يخلص إليها التقرير:

1-عدم كفاية التحقيقات في مزاعم التعذيب، أو عدم إجرائها أصلاً، على الرغم من كثرة الاعتماد على “الاعترافات” التي يدلي بها المتهمون أثناء احتجازهم، للوصول إلى إدانتهم بارتكاب جرائم يعاقَب عليها بالإعدام؛
2- بث “اعترافات” متلفزة قبل إجراء المحاكمات، وقبول الأدلة التي تستند إلى التعرف على المتهمين من قبل شهود كانوا قد شاهدوا الاعترافات في السابق، لاستخدامها في المحكمة؛
3- عدم كفاية إمكانية الوصول إلى محاميي الدفاع، وترهيب المحامين، بما في ذلك التهديدات بالقتل والاعتداءات.
4- التعريف الغامض والفضفاض للجرائم التي يعاقب عليها بالإعدام بموجب القانون العراقي، بما فيها عمليات الاختطاف التي لا يصاحبها قتل وإلحاق الضرر بالممتلكات العامة بهدف تقويض الأمن والاستقرار.

ما شاء الله ما شاء الله. هى دى الديمقراطية وإلا بلاش. واضح أن العراق أصبح بالفعل نموذجا للديمقراطية فى الشرق الأوسط. الديمقراطية المدلاة من حبل مشنقة

وصلة للتقرير باللغة العربية: إضغط هنا..

solution: another wall – الحل هو الحيطة

That is really something! I am sooo impressed by the US administration’s solutions to problems. Just build a wall… emulate Israel and build a wall to shield you from others. A wall at the southern border of the US, a wall in Saudi Arabia, and now the latest wall added: the wall of Iraq. [link]

Believe it or not, the US military is building a three-mile concrete wall in the centre of Baghdad along a line between Sunni and Shia Muslims, according to The Guardian newspaper today.

Work began on April 10 under cover of darkness and is due for completion by the end of the month.
..
Although Baghdad is full of barriers and checkpoints, particularly round the Green Zone where the US and British are based along with the Iraq government, this is the first time a wall has been built along sectarian lines.

Great! so now we are building walls along sectarian lines? how charming!!! Incidentally.. who is building those walls? Haliburton?

تقول جريدة الجارديان البريطانية اليوم أن الجيش الأمريكيى بدأ فى بناء جدار عازل طوله ثلاثة أميال ليكون حاجزا بين السنة والشيعة فى وسط بغداد. يعنى كل شىء يتحل بالحيطة – حسب السيد الرئيس بوش وإدارته – جدار فى أمريكا وجدار فى السعودية وطبعا جدار فلسطين وأخيرا جدار العراق.

يا سلام – كان فين الحل ده من زمان يا راجل؟ دى إيه النباهة دى. جدار الفصل العنصرى أصبح موضة. مبروك جاتلك حيطة

kill ahmadinejad and everyone else while you’re at it

So if Iran posted in a newspaper that they should just go kill Olmert or Tony Blair, would that be acceptable? we would hear about it all over the news. But this one insane article in an Israeli newspaper has as its headline: “We need to kill him. Israel should not shy away from threatening to kill Iran’s Ahmadinejad.” The article is written by one Uri Orbach in Ynet News [link] and he makes no secret of his threats.

Schizophrenia literature suggests that a schizophrenic will have delusions about people who are ‘after them’, or ‘out to get them’. Here is what this insane individual writes:

And still, Meir Amit is right. Here too, while we are so busy with manners and etiquette, the man in Teheran is vigorously advancing the extermination plan for the people of Israel.

Etiquette and manners? in what way is Israel, the only existing occupation in this brave new world, is observing etiquette and manners? So they changed the ‘human rights’ rules that apply only to them but not to the Palestinians since ‘them’ support torture as one outrageous example. Now they want to change the ‘etiquette rules’ too, meaning the ‘diplomacy rules’ of course:

Yet a return to a violent and threatening mode of expression towards figures such as Ahmadinejad, our regional Hitler, may serve to grant legitimacy to governments and their operational arms to seek this objective without fear.

I think that after many years of claiming that everyone who criticzes them is ‘Hitler’, they are beginning to believe it themselves. I will not get into the fact that Ahmadinejad did not say ‘wipe Israel off the map’ as they have claimed and everyone believed them. That is a separate issue right now. What concerns me here is that such threats against other nations and other leaders has become the norm in this day and age of ‘civilization’.

But you see, bullies and oppressors usually end up paranoid, believing that everyone is out to get them. And Israel is living up to its reputation. You might want to read the readers’ supportive responses also on that link.

Now my question is, why stop at Ahmadinejad?  Why not just pull that trigger that your hands are itching to pull and let us get rid of planet earth in its entirety? Just a suggestion.