Cartoon: Carlos Latuff1914 GMT: The wife of detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who is Day 95 of his hunger strike, has seen him for two hours today.
Khadija Almousawi said her husband appears in better condition, but he is still only taking water and juice.
Bahrain's Crown Prince & US Secretary of State ClintonPresident Barack Obama's administration has been delaying its planned $53 million arms sale to Bahrain due to human rights concerns and congressional opposition, but this week administration officials told several congressional offices that they will move forward with a new and different package of arms sales -- without any formal notification to the public.
The congressional offices that led the charge to oppose the original Bahrain arms sales package are upset that the State Department has decided to move forward with the new package....The State Department has not released details of the new sale, and Congress has not been notified through the regular process, which requires posting the information on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) website. The State Department simply briefed a few congressional offices and is going ahead with the new sale, arguing it didn't meet the threshold that would require more formal notifications and a public explanation.
The lesson, ultimately, is that when confrontation and gridlock become too entrenched in Washington, changes –-- however slow --- will try to dampen the partisanship. Continuous political fighting is tiring, not just for the politicians but for their constituents as well. And in the "truce" that will eventually be reached when exhaustion sets in democratic reforms previously regarded as impossible to enact can in time triumph.
Saud al-Mokhtar"Horrible, uncalled for and unfounded" were the words used by Bassim Alim, the lawyer of the 16 reformists sentenced on 22 November to stiff jail sentences in Riyadh that ranged from 10 to 30 years in prison, after being found guilty of forming a secret organisation, attempting to seize power, inciting discontent against the king, financing terrorism and money laundering.
Saud Al-Mokhtar, a medical doctor from Jeddah, received the stiffest sentence of 30 years in jail, together with a 30-year travel ban and fine of SR2 million (around $533,112) for allegedly being the head of the group.
1935 GMT:The New York Times is now covering the story that we reported earlier of Saudi blogger Feras Bugnah, who was arrested for his a documentary "We Are Being Cheated" that was critical of the Saudi regime and the economic reality in Saudi Arabia. Bugnah's colleagues have responded that the Saudi government is “trying to control the new Internet media” by making the arrest.
1921 GMT: Bahrain's Minister of Interior Lt. General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa appeared on Al Arabiya. He expressed his concern about the alleged Iranian plot to bomb the Saudi embassy, insinuated that there were links between this plot and violence in the streets of Bahrain, he accused militants of attacking protesters and security forces, and he distinguished between legal protests, which, Khalifa said, were permitted, and illegal protests that were disrupted. When asked about the use of live ammunition, this is how he answered:
"First of all, I personally have never received orders from any officer to fire [on demonstrators]. This has never happened even on the days of the crisis, if it can ever be called a crisis, nor in any other event. On the other hand, if the Ministry of Interior ever issued an order during the said period [of dealing with demonstrators] who were present at the GCC roundabout, then such an order was to affirm commitment to the provisions of the Public Security Law on matters pertaining to the use of arms."
1835 GMT: Claimed video from a funeral for yesterday's martyrs in al Harak, Houran region, Daraa province, Syria. The sign that is held up has today's date:
Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 10:44
Cartoon: Carlos Latuff1914 GMT: The wife of detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who is Day 95 of his hunger strike, has seen him for two hours today.
