Syria Feature: The Sanctions Close In (MacFarquhar)

The walls are suddenly closing in around enterprising young Syrians who bought into the idea of a modernized economy promised by President Bashar al-Assad ---  their simplest money transfers are blocked, and their credit cards are useless outside Syria as the growing list of international sanctions darkens their financial future.

The owner of a handicrafts business who this week tried to transfer $450 to the Lebanese bank account of one of her suppliers found the transaction rejected because it originated in Syria. She had to hand-deliver the cash instead. Then a client, an investor for whom she is designing furniture for a new Abu Dhabi hotel, asked her to export whatever was completed immediately, lest the entire shipment get stuck.

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Iran Embassy Video Special: Umbrella 1, Iranian Diplomat 0

This week British diplomats in Tehran have faced hostile rhetoric from senior regime figures, the ransacking of their Embassy by hundreds of "students", and the prospect of hostage status.

But they have never encountered the menace that threatened their Iranian counterparts in London.

Beware the umbrella --- a member of the Iranian Embassy in Britain, trying to escape media attention as the staff were ordered to leave the UK, finds himself undone by a parasol:

The Latest from Iran (3 December): A Regime Feeling Remorse?

Men and women wait at a Tehran airport for the Iranian diplomats expelled from Britain --- the personnel were taken away before the crowd could welcome them

See also Iran Music Special: The Basij Militia Rap for Occupy Wall Street
Iran 1st-Hand Special: Basij Student's Account of the Attack on the British Embassy
The Latest from Iran (2 December): After the Embassy, It's Back to the Economy

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2025 GMT: Economy Watch. The Tehran Stock Exchange has been removed from the World Federation of Exchanges.

1935 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Gholamreza Asadollahi, the head of Parliament's Article 90 Commission has repeated his claim that the Ministries of Trade, Transport, and Economy, as well as the Privatisation Organisation and Customs are involved in the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

Asadollahi said the Aria Group, at the centre of the fraud, was the import agent for subsidised goods 4 the Ministry of Trade ministry and was involved in an illegal permit for the Shiraz-Bandar Abbas railway with the Ministry of Transport.

Asadollahi also said Aria received illegal permits for privatisation of the National Steel Company, Luristan Automotive, and Railway Services.

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Iran Music Special: The Basij Militia Rap for Occupy Wall Street

We have repeatedly noted the Iranian regime's love of protest --- well, protest that is 1) in America or 2) by Basij militia "students", say, in front of a foreign embassy.

But what if the two could be combined? And what if it could be done through music? Not just music, but hard-core urban rap music?

Basij member Hashem Bafghi has made that protest dream come true. A snippet of the English lyrics:

Occupy Wall Street is a real war street
What Happened to the American Dream?
Don’t watch and have ice cream
Capitalism failed everyone
Killed the people one by one

Unfortunately, we cannot embed this iconic track, but you can have a listen and rap along here (hat tip to Golnaz Esfandiari of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).

And, for a reminder that criticism of Wall Street is not just a 21st-century thing, you can enjoy a less aggressive foreign intervention through music:

Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Prosecution Creep?

Human rights activist Razan Zaitouneh sends a video message from hiding in Damascus, "We face one of the most brutal regimes in the region and in the world"

See also Bahrain Feature : How The Regime Is Restoring Peace, The American Way
Syria Opinion: Why There Should --- And Will --- Be a No-Fly Zone
Friday's Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) Liveblog: A United Front

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1900 GMT: A mass protest tonight in the Karam al-Shami section of Homs in Syria:

1855 GMT: Bahraini activist Zainab Alkhawaja criticises the regime's appointment of John Yates, former Assistant Commission of London's police (see 1325 GMT), to "reform" the kingdom's law enforcement:

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US Politics Opinion: A Look at Overrated Kennedy, Clinton the Master, and Obama Missing His Big Opportunity

Last month, on the anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I had a heretical thought: on 22 November 1963,  one of the country’s most ineffective Presidents was murdered. Accepting that he was in the job for less than three years, he still achieved little in terms of legislation. Kennedy was a smoke-and-mirrors man. It was Lyndon Johnson who got the job done.

Almost 50 years later, I am wondering if history is repeating itself. Oh, President Obama, what did you do yesterday? To use a soccer/football expression, you missed an open goal. You had your opponents at your mercy and let them off the hook.

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US Elections Special: Barney Frank's Retirement, Redistricting, and a Damaged Congress

On Monday, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) announced he would not be re-seeking election in 2012. The decision from one of the more colourful members of Congress has met varying degrees of personal reaction from Washington insiders --- an interview on MSNBC explains some of the more acerbic appraisals of his character --- but on a practical level, it has highlighted two issues that have gone largely unnoticed.

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The Latest from Iran (2 December): After the Embassy, It's Back to the Economy

Maya Neyestani compares protest and Iran's security forces 2009 with protest and Iran's security forces 2011: "Nah, they are students. Take it easy."

See also Iran 1st-Hand Special: Basij Student's Account of the Attack on the British Embassy
Iran Analysis: The Embassy Attack --- "A Serious Mis-Calculation" by the Regime
The Latest from Iran (1 December): A Spot of Bother

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2120 GMT: The Embassy Attack. The British Ambassador to Iran, Dominick Chilcott, has given his account of Tuesday's occupation of the Embassy --- interestingly, it matches up with that of one of the Basij militia who took over the building. Chilcott said:

One of our staff was on his own in his keep (safe area) and he barricaded the door with a heavy safe and a bed, and braced himself against the wall. And for 45 minutes he could hear people bashing down the door, smashing the windows and trying to get in because they knew he was there. It must have been a very frightening experience — until eventually the door gave way and they got him.

Chilcott said seven staff --- Iranian accounts say six --- were taken to another building and made to sit quietly, some of them being "quite roughly handled", until they were escorted away by security forces. He said of his experience:

We could hear them trying to smash the doors and buildings down below. But they couldn't get into our part of the building. Except in one point, where they got into one of the consular offices and started a fire. And in the end it was the fire and the smoke coming up onto the third floor corridor which forced us out.

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Bahrain Feature : How The Regime Is Restoring Peace, The American Way

Last week, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry released a 501-page report detailing the human rights abuses committed by the Bahraini regime at the height of unrest in February and March (See the text and our separate analysis.)

In response, the King and his advisors have decided to shake up their law enforcement. And they have picked an American, with vast experience in handling difficult situations, to help sort things out:

Bahrain's Interior Ministry says a former Miami police chief will lead training programs for the Gulf kingdom's forces as part of reforms after an independent report detailed abuses against pro-reform protesters.

The announcement Thursday says John Timoney will head a team of law enforcement advisers from the U.S. and Britain.

Well, that's good news, right? The Bahraini police force needs some reform, a clean image, and some accountability. Clearly, they also need training, leadership, and restraint, so Timoney's appointment must be the Kingdom's attempt to address the problems raised by the BICI report.

Right?

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Iran 1st-Hand Special: Basij Student's Account of the Attack on the British Embassy

See also The Latest from Iran (2 December): After the Embassy, It's Back to the Economy

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A first-hand account from one of the Basij militia who attacked the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday --- the author, Hamid Darveshie Shahkolaie, is  the editor-in-chief of "Hayat", the monthly publication of the Basij students of Imam Sadeq University. Posted early Wednesday morning, it also offers photographs of the attack:

Our entrance sounded the alarm. That reminded me of computer games where you fire the first shot and you start hearing the alarm all of a sudden. To make it short, we found six staff members. We told them to be calm and not to be afraid. We [said that we] have come here because of the dangerous and animosity-filled policies of their government and its hand in the assassination of Dr. Shahriari [Majid Shahriari, a scientist killed in November 20010] and nuclear issues and such and that we would give them their passports at the airport so they can return to their country.

I don't want to brag, but their translator (the guard) told us: "You came in so fast and caught me off-guard that I wasn't able to fulfill my duty, which was to escort them out." He was a lowly man and a liar. For instance he told us there were just five staff members, but we found a sixth. The poor staff were very afraid and locked the door so that we would not find them.

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