Iran Election Guide

Donate to EAWV





Or, click to learn more

Search

Monday
Oct032011

Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Noticing the Political Prisoners

Tonight's demonstration in Tal Refaat in Aleppo Provice in Syria, expressing support for the opposition's National Unity Council

See also Bahrain Feature: The Regime's Public-Relations Army of US and British Consultants
Yemen Feature: Locals "We Have Bigger Problems Than Al Qa'eda"
Sunday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Trying to Stem the Protests


1947 GMT: An activist, claiming he was speaking from hiding, has said that Syrian troops have detained more than 3,000 people in the past three days in house-to-house sweeps in Rastan,.

The Syrian military reportedly occupied the town of 70,000 in Homs Province after a five-day assault last week. The activist said the detainees were being held at a cement factory, schools, and the Sports Club, a massive four-storey compound.

Syria's state-media said troops moved into Rastan to hunt down "armed terrorists".

Meanwhile, a funeral procession was held for the 21-year-old son of Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun.

Hassoun's son was killed on Sunday in an ambush in northern Syria. The cleric, considered a close supporter of the Assad regime, told hundreds of people attending the funeral at a mosque in Aleppo that dissenters working against Syria from abroad: "Come and say whatever you want here and if anyone rejects [you], I will be with you in the opposition.You want freedom, you want justice then come here and build it with us in Syria."

Hassoun blamed fatwas or religious edicts by unnamed clerics, living abroad, for the death of his son.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Oct032011

The Latest from Iran (3 October): Tehran Slides in the Region

See also Iran Feature: Who Will See the Invisible Iranians?
The Latest from Iran (2 October): Down, Down Goes the Currency


1915 GMT: CyberWatch. BBC Persian reports on the banning of Virtual Private Networks --- access to computer servers from remote locations --- by the Iranian authorities.

1705 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Former President Mohammad Khatami has denied the allegation of the hard-line newspaper Kayhan (see 1010 GMT) that he is linked to the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Oct032011

US Feature: Occupy Wall Street --- "There's Something Happening Here, Mr Jones" (Sifry)

Well, something is happening here, Mr. Jones. The protest, or occupation, is now in its third week, and in addition to a steadily increasing level of media coverage, this coming Wednesday a range of local unions and progressive groups are planning to rally their members to join in. Stubborn resilience plus some outraged media attention to police brutality seems to have been enough to light the spark, but beneath that, credit must go to the horizontal adhocracy running the occupation downtown, which has developed its own infrastructure for internal and external communication and social support. And it's doing this without obvious leaders (who could be arrested and held to suppress the movement) or institutional backers (who could be pressured), and with a wide array of networked support that is being marshaled via Internet Relay Chat, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter, livestreaming, online video and street theatre.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Oct032011

US Feature: How the Supreme Court's Next Decisions Will Become Part of 2012 Politics

Against a background of a hotly-fought election, with some of the issues before the Court like immigration and health care reform sure to contribute to the ideological divide, “rambunctious” may prove to be an understatement of the nine months ahead.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Oct032011

Bahrain Feature: The Regime's Public-Relations Army of US and British Consultants (Chan'ad Bahraini 2.0)

Bahrain’s embassy in Washington DC signed a contract with the DC-based Potomac Square Group on the 17th of February, three days after the start of the uprising. The firm is run by Chris Cooper, a former Wall Street Journalist reporter. He writes on his LinkedIn profile: "Clients include a foreign government seeking help in dealing with an internal crisis."

According to the US registration documents the embassy was to pay him $20,000 (plus expenses) for a month's worth of services (renewable).

Joe Trippi & Associates is a D.C.-based media firm headed by Democratic political strategist Joe Trippi (@JoeTrippi), who managed Howard Dean's 2004 U.S. presidential election campaign. He was hired some time before August by Dr. Saqer Al Khalifa on behalf of Bahrain's Ministry of Information.

According to the registration documents, Trippi is tasked with providing "strategic counsel" and assisting "with outreach to members of the media and non-governmental organizations." The documents don't mention how much the Bahrain government is paying for the services.

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Oct022011

The Latest from Iran (2 October): Down, Down Goes the Currency

2000 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Another political showcase for the President, as he closed the International Conference on the Palestinian Intifada today....

Ahmadinejad used the occasion for his standard script, declaring the West created Israel to control the Middle East and Western support for the crimes committed by the "Zionist regime".

The President then built on the West-Israel platform for wider points, such as the claim that democracy and the human rights are a "mere show" in the West and that the International Atomic Energy Agency has served the US and Israel by publishing the names of Iranian nuclear scientists so they could be targeted by the "Zionist regime". He added that Zionism symbolizes the essence of the materialistic Western schools of humanism and liberalism.

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Oct022011

Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Trying to Stem the Protests

A police jeep hits a man in Salmabad in Bahraini and keeps speeding away, the man clinging to the hood

See also Yemen Feature: Locals "We Have Bigger Problems Than Al Qa'eda"
Bahrain Feature: The 20 Doctors' Reply to Their Prison Sentences
Saturday's Syria, Bahrain, Yemen (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Months of Protests and Violence


1930 GMT: Five opposition political societies have announced a "human chain" in solidarity with detained medical staff and other political prisoners. The demonstration will begin at 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

1555 GMT: Medical workers have said that people injured in fighting in Libya's besieged city of Sirte are dying on the operating table because fuel for the hospital generator has run out.

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Oct022011

Yemen Feature: Locals "We Have Bigger Problems Than Al Qa'eda" (Kasinof)

Ali Abdullah Saleh“Awlaki’s life or death doesn’t matter for Yemenis,” said Nadwa al-Dawsari, who works for a nonprofit organization in Sana. “It is not a priority for us. Not many Yemenis know who Awlaki was anyway. It doesn’t matter how many Al Qaeda members are killed as long as the underlying causes that makes extremism thrive exist.”

But a major concern for some, especially among Yemenis in the opposition, is that the Saleh family provided information to the United States on Mr. Awlaki’s whereabouts to gain political favor.

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Oct022011

Iran Feature: Who Will See the Invisible Iranians? (Boroumand)

Nahal SahabiTo those of us who are familiar with repressive regimes, the equation is simple. Every time a dissident's mother or lawyer is arrested, scores of others' mothers and lawyers are deterred and will remain silent or refuse to follow-up on political cases. We are still getting new names of young people who were killed in 2009, but whose parents had not dared to publicize the news. International support and media interest provide a safe space for people who resist and encourages others to join them. Nothing is as demobilizing for those who fight with tyranny as being invisible or forgotten. What determines political developments in a closed country does not necessarily happen in front of the cameras with tanks rolling over protesters. The most important struggle is a long term fight to be heard and the psychological warfare between the persecuted and the persecutors. The latter's strength lies in their ability to convince those they persecute that the world doesn't hear them and that they are irrelevant.

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Oct022011

US Feature: A Beginner's Guide to "Occupy Wall Street" (Schneider)

Raw video from Associated Press of the march and arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge


On Saturday, the 15th day of "Occupy Wall Street", New York City police arrested more than 700 protesters for blocking traffic lanes as they tried to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The march had started in the afternoon  from the protesters' camp in Zuccotti Park (Liberty Square) in downtown Manhattan, near the former World Trade Center. Demonstrators have vowed to stay at the park through the winter.

As "Occupy Wall Street" not only continues but grows, Nathan Schneider of The Nation offers a Beginners' Guide to the movement....

Click to read more ...