Bahrain 1st-Hand: "She's Filth" --- Zainab Alkhawaja on Her Detention When She Called Out for Her Father

he said smiling "imagine ur fathers face when I tell him his daughter came today, & I dragged her on the ground like an animal" #Bahrain

— angry arabiya (@angryarabiya) April 8, 2012

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Zainab Alkhawaja, the daughter of detained hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, has been writing about her detention last night --- her second in 48 hours --- as she stood outside the military hospital where her father is being held:

He started shouting & banging his fist on the wheelchair I was in, told me I had to go for interrogations now. He called some security police & told them to go check if anyone filmed them dragging me. He said, "You know why we did this to you. We don't know who you are. How should we know you are his daughter? You could be an enemy, trying to harm Alkhawaja and we must protect him. That's why we attacked you."

I replied, "Your men yelled that it's Alkhawaja's daughter before they attacked me."

He continued, "In fact I still don't know who the hell you are. You could be anyone, how do I know you're Zainab?"

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Iran Propaganda Special: US Intelligence "Trust Us --- We Know Everything"

February 2003: US Secretary of State Colin Powell explains how US intelligence knows everything about Iraq

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What I like most about this Obama Administration propaganda effort --- put out through recurrent spokesman Joby Warrick of The Washington Post --- is that it covers so many different audiences.

Are you a lily-livered lefty who thinks we are making up "intelligence" to bash the Islamic Republic? No way.

Are you a hawk-hearted Congressman who wants an immediate airstrike to stop Iran's Almost-Here Bomb? Not so fast, sir.

Are you the Supreme Leader, thinking you can stall on nuclear talks and get away with deviousness even if they take place? You best think again.

(And stop gloating about how you took down one of our drone aircraft last year. See that reference to the "RQ-170 Sentinel" in the first paragraph? Gloat on that.)

Do you worry that the US Government just doesn't know what it is doing in this political dance over Tehran? Don't. We do.

U.S. intelligence gains in Iran seen as boost to confidence
Joby Warrick

More than three years ago, the CIA dispatched a stealth surveillance drone into the skies over Iran.

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The Latest from Iran (8 April): We Love Nuclear Talks, We Love Them Not

See also Iran Propaganda Special: US Intelligence "Trust Us --- We Know Everything"
The Latest from Iran (7 April): Nuclear Confusion

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2113 GMT: Picture of the Day. The Supreme Leader with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hashemi Rafsanjani after Ayatollah Khamenei and the President joined today's meeting of the Expediency Council:

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 127 Die on A Syrian Saturday

Claimed footage --- near the end of the clip --- of the Free Syrian Army blowing up a regime tank in a convoy in Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib Province

See also Bahrain 1st-Hand: "She's Filth" --- Zainab Alkhawaja on Her Detention When She Called Out for Her Father
Bahrain Feature: Have "Hardline Sunni Groups" Overtaken the Regime?
Bahrain Feature: The Splintering of the "Regime" and "Opposition" Camps?
Bahrain Feature: A Call from Hunger Striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja to His Family
Saturday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Free Alkhawaja

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2015 GMT: Tonight activist Zainab Alkhawaja has told the story of how she was detained as she stood outside the military hospital where her father, detained hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, is being held. We have posted her account in a separate feature.

1935 GMT: The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria claim 59 people, including six children, have died in conflict today. Twenty-four deaths were in Idlib Province, including 10 unidentified bodies in Sahl Al-Rouh village. Thirteen were in Hama, including seven members from one family, and twelve in Homs.

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"Dear Newsroom Curmudgeon": Overcoming 7 Fears About Digital Journalism (Buttry)

Digital journalists discuss ethics all the time. We are re-examining ethical standards in areas such as independence and opinion, but we are not casting aside ethical principles. We aren’t anywhere near full agreement on these issues. But join the discussion and you’ll find this the kind of honest, lively debate among colleagues you’ve enjoyed in newsrooms for decades. On the most important ethical matters, digital journalists’ values are as rock-solid as yours. We stress getting the facts right (and correcting them quickly when we’re wrong). We stress fairness. We won’t tolerate plagiarism or fabrication. I believe we are actually elevating the ethics of journalism. I believe our pursuit of transparency and our commitment to attribution and linking will actually upgrade the ethics of our profession.

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Bahrain Feature: Have "Hardline Sunni Groups" Overtaken the Regime? (Hammond)

A rally in January calls for the hanging of men detained during protests

See also Bahrain Feature: The Splintering of the "Regime" and "Opposition" Camps?

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Bahrain's Sunni Muslim minority, fearful of Shi'ite political assertiveness, is spawning factions that rail against compromise with the island's sectarian majority, while nursing their own grudges against its Sunni ruling family.

The loyalist Sunni backlash, once seen as a card played by the authorities, may now upset even any royal hopes of opening a dialogue to calm a conflict that has shredded Bahrain's social cohesion and cost its tourism- and banking-based economy dearly.

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Bahrain Feature: The Splintering of the "Regime" and "Opposition" Camps? (Louer)

One of Friday's mass marches for the release of detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja

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In the wake of increasing street violence in Bahrain—a far cry from the peaceful rallies of February and March 2011 — the Bahraini regime is attempting to restart dialogue with the opposition. Initiated by a leading representative of the ruling dynasty’s hardliners, Royal Court Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the dialogue involves pre-conditions that the opposition is unlikely to accept — most notably the acceptance of the 2002 constitution which has deprived parliament of any meaningful power — and has yet to convince the opposition of its sincerity. If started, the dialogue will have difficulty in achieving genuine rapprochement, as the political scene has undergone increasingly prevalent fragmentation. In this environment, describing the actors simply as “the regime” and “the opposition” becomes problematic.

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Bahrain Feature: A Call from Hunger Striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja to His Family

This evening Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, imprisoned for life and on Day 59 of a hunger strike, was finally allowed to phone his family. His daughter Zainab sent a series of Twitter messages this evening about the conversation:

URGENT: My father just called, he can hardly speak, and he can hardly breath #Bahrain

— angry arabiya (@angryarabiya) April 7, 2012

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The Latest from Iran (7 April): Nuclear Confusion

1435 GMT: The Battle Within. Mehr reports that President Ahmadinejad has again refused to attend a meeting of the Expediency Council, chaired by his political rival Hashemi Rafsanjani.

1400 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. Iranian officials assert that Tehran's non-oil exports rose 29% to nearly $44 billion in the year to mid-March, with a further $4.2 billion for technological services.

Almost all of the increase came from petrochemical products and gas condensates, according to the customs offices. The two products have risen in value because of higher oil oil prices.

The export of petrochemicals rose 55% to $15 billion, and that of gas condensates by 36 percent to $10 billion.

China, the United Arab Emirates --- which is the hub for the re-export of goods to Iran --- Iraq, and India were the main customers for non-oil goods.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Free Alkhawaja

One of Friday's "Free Alkhawaja" rallies in Bahrain --- see also our Bahrain Video and Photo Special

See also Bahrain Feature: A Call from Hunger Striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja to His Family
Bahrain Video and Photo Special: Friday's "Free Alkhawaja Protests"
Lebanon Feature: Is Hezbollah's Syria Policy A Regional and Domestic Mistake?
Turkey Video Feature: Will the "Coup Trial" Heal Political Wounds?
Friday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Kingdom on Edge

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2045 GMT: On Friday night, Bahraini activist Zainab Alkhawaja was seized as she stood outside a military hospital and called out to her father, political prisoner Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, held inside on his hunger strike. She was released this afternoon.

Tonight Zainab returned. According to her mother, she was seized, tied to a wheelchair, and taken to the security room at the hospital.

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