Syria’s Assad between Repression and Reform;
President Bashar al-Assad is in a quandary as the challenge to his autocratic rule grows in the streets of Syria: more concessions could signal weakness, but harsher repression risks radicalizing a growing opposition.While some analysts believe Assad can contain the revolt through bold reforms, others believe he missed the chance to open up Syria's dictatorship when he inherited the presidency from his strongman father, the late Hafez al-Assad, in 2000."The regime is in trouble. People have been repressed for 40 years but suddenly the wall of fear has crumbled and they are no longer frightened," Sarkis Naoum of Beirut's an-Nahar newspaper told Reuters.
Wikileaks Revealing US Blunders
The release by WikiLeaks of the secret assessments of hundreds of detainees by the Joint Interrogation Force at Guantanamo, spanning the period 2002 to 2009, provide little in the way of evidence of the torture and abuse suffered by the supposed "enemy combatants." While retelling the many pieces of gossip, informant's tales and evidence of torture that are mixed in with any hard evidence of terrorist ties, the reports indicate in a number of instances "areas of potential exploitation" that go beyond that of mere intelligence gathering.The listing of such "areas" appears to be limited to reports originating in 2006 and later.Even when the aim of the "exploitation" areas are ostensibly related to intelligence gathering, they often seek further information on al-Qaeda-related matters or individuals even after detainees have denied any connections to al-Qaeda or other extremist groups, or have recanted such ties as were announced originally under tortured duress. It often appears the government is continuing to hold prisoners, if not torture them, until the prisoner gives them the story they want to hear.
A Campaign Promise Dies
www.onislam.net
This investigative report was originally published on Truthout.org on March 8, 2010.At first it seemed Obama was on track to make good on his campaign promise of halting military commissions. Instead, he's reviving the same system he once abhorred.The crowd at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, gathered to hear their candidate outline his grand strategy for a new way forward and Barack Obama delivered."I will reject a legal framework that does not work," Obama said, his words slightly drowned out by the loud applause that erupted. "There has been only one conviction at Guantanamo. It was for a guilty plea on material support for terrorism. The sentence was nine months. There has not been one conviction of a terrorist act. I have faith in America's courts, and I have faith in our [Judge Advocate Generals]."
War on Palestinian Memory
Israel Resolves Its Democracy Dilemma
Palestinian citizens of Israel must have been proud of the fact that their collective tenacity always proved stronger than any Israeli attempt at dislocating them from their rightful historical narrative. Now, they are being told to cease and desist from commemorating al-Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1948, which saw the brutal seizure and depopulation of most of Palestine in order to construct the Israeli ‘miracle’.Currently estimated at a fifth of the population of today’s Israel, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have endured appalling treatment for decades. As Muslims and Christians, they have been regarded as an anomaly in what was meant to be a perfect Jewish utopia governed by the laws of democracy. This is the quandary that Israel has never mastered, as the non-Jewish citizens of Israel have represented a major obstacle to that vision.
Syria’s Assad between Repression and Reform;
President Bashar al-Assad is in a quandary as the challenge to his autocratic rule grows in the streets of Syria: more concessions could signal weakness, but harsher repression risks radicalizing a growing opposition.While some analysts believe Assad can contain the revolt through bold reforms, others believe he missed the chance to open up Syria's dictatorship when he inherited the presidency from his strongman father, the late Hafez al-Assad, in 2000."The regime is in trouble. People have been repressed for 40 years but suddenly the wall of fear has crumbled and they are no longer frightened," Sarkis Naoum of Beirut's an-Nahar newspaper told Reuters.
Wikileaks Revealing US Blunders
The release by WikiLeaks of the secret assessments of hundreds of detainees by the Joint Interrogation Force at Guantanamo, spanning the period 2002 to 2009, provide little in the way of evidence of the torture and abuse suffered by the supposed "enemy combatants." While retelling the many pieces of gossip, informant's tales and evidence of torture that are mixed in with any hard evidence of terrorist ties, the reports indicate in a number of instances "areas of potential exploitation" that go beyond that of mere intelligence gathering.The listing of such "areas" appears to be limited to reports originating in 2006 and later.Even when the aim of the "exploitation" areas are ostensibly related to intelligence gathering, they often seek further information on al-Qaeda-related matters or individuals even after detainees have denied any connections to al-Qaeda or other extremist groups, or have recanted such ties as were announced originally under tortured duress. It often appears the government is continuing to hold prisoners, if not torture them, until the prisoner gives them the story they want to hear.
Syria’s Assad between Repression and Reform;
President Bashar al-Assad is in a quandary as the challenge to his autocratic rule grows in the streets of Syria: more concessions could signal weakness, but harsher repression risks radicalizing a growing opposition.
While some analysts believe Assad can contain the revolt through bold reforms, others believe he missed the chance to open up Syria's dictatorship when he inherited the presidency from his strongman father, the late Hafez al-Assad, in 2000.
"The regime is in trouble. People have been repressed for 40 years but suddenly the wall of fear has crumbled and they are no longer frightened," Sarkis Naoum of Beirut's an-Nahar newspaper told Reuters.
The release by WikiLeaks of the secret assessments of hundreds of detainees by the Joint Interrogation Force at Guantanamo, spanning the period 2002 to 2009, provide little in the way of evidence of the torture and abuse suffered by the supposed "enemy combatants." While retelling the many pieces of gossip, informant's tales and evidence of torture that are mixed in with any hard evidence of terrorist ties, the reports indicate in a number of instances "areas of potential exploitation" that go beyond that of mere intelligence gathering.
The listing of such "areas" appears to be limited to reports originating in 2006 and later.
Even when the aim of the "exploitation" areas are ostensibly related to intelligence gathering, they often seek further information on al-Qaeda-related matters or individuals even after detainees have denied any connections to al-Qaeda or other extremist groups, or have recanted such ties as were announced originally under tortured duress. It often appears the government is continuing to hold prisoners, if not torture them, until the prisoner gives them the story they want to hear.
A Campaign Promise Dies
www.onislam.net
This investigative report was originally published on Truthout.org on March 8, 2010.
At first it seemed Obama was on track to make good on his campaign promise of halting military commissions. Instead, he's reviving the same system he once abhorred.
The crowd at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, gathered to hear their candidate outline his grand strategy for a new way forward and Barack Obama delivered.
"I will reject a legal framework that does not work," Obama said, his words slightly drowned out by the loud applause that erupted. "There has been only one conviction at Guantanamo. It was for a guilty plea on material support for terrorism. The sentence was nine months. There has not been one conviction of a terrorist act. I have faith in America's courts, and I have faith in our [Judge Advocate Generals]."
Palestinian citizens of Israel must have been proud of the fact that their collective tenacity always proved stronger than any Israeli attempt at dislocating them from their rightful historical narrative. Now, they are being told to cease and desist from commemorating al-Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1948, which saw the brutal seizure and depopulation of most of Palestine in order to construct the Israeli ‘miracle’.
Currently estimated at a fifth of the population of today’s Israel, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have endured appalling treatment for decades. As Muslims and Christians, they have been regarded as an anomaly in what was meant to be a perfect Jewish utopia governed by the laws of democracy. This is the quandary that Israel has never mastered, as the non-Jewish citizens of Israel have represented a major obstacle to that vision.
Is the US Competent as Human Rights Judge?
Every year since 1976, The U.S. Department of State has published an extraordinarily detailed report on the state of human rights in the world. The latest, out in April, runs to more than 2 million words. Printed out from State’s website, it would run to more than 7,000 pages. The report covers 194 countries.
That’s every country in the world, except one: the United States.
Which gives rise to a few questions. Is the United States the one and only country on the planet with a perfect record of observing human rights, at home or in the countries where it wages war? If not, why does the government feel entitled to scrutinize the human rights practices of others? The report discovers blemishes even in countries that rarely come to mind in the context of human rights violations.
Switzerland, say, where in 2010 “police at times used excessive force, occasionally with impunity.” Or Canada, where “human rights problems included harassment of religious minorities, violence against women, and trafficking in persons.” Or the tiny South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, where American human rights checkers found “police violence, poor prison conditions, arrests without warrants, an extremely slow judicial process, government corruption, and violence and discrimination against women.”
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