Political prisoners go on hunger strike in Saudi Arabia

(File photo)

Press TV

Political prisoners have gone on a hunger strike in Saudi Arabia to protest against their imprisonment without charge or trial, and the horrible jail conditions, Press TV reports.

Activists say more than 70 inmates have stopped eating in a bid to draw international attention to the inhuman prison conditions in Saudi Arabia.

They hope that their protest would prompt an immediate action to stop the gross violation of human rights in Saudi jails.

Saudi activists say there are more than 40,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, in jails across the kingdom.

According to the activists, most of the detained political prisoners are being held by the government without trial or legitimate charges.

Some of the detainees are reported to have been held without trial for more than 16 years. Attempting to incite the public against the ruling regime and the allegiance to foreign entities are usually the ready-made charges against political dissidents in Saudi Arabia.

Families and relatives of political prisoners have held several public gatherings in major cities, including Riyadh, Mecca, Medina and Buraidah. However, their protests have failed to bear any results.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in the Qatif region and the town of Awamiyah in Eastern Province, primarily calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination.

However, the demonstrations turned into protests against the repressive Al Saud regime, especially after November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province.

Saudi forces nab nearly 150 government protesters

(File photo)

Press TV

Regime forces in Saudi Arabia have detained about 150 people for participation in rallies held in several cities, demanding the release of political prisoners.

The whereabouts of the detainees, reportedly nabbed on Wednesday, are still unknown.

The protests were held despite a strict ban by the Saudi regime on anti-government rallies.

Saudi Arabia has been the scene of frequent protests since early 2011. Over a dozen demonstrators have been killed and many arrested in the regime’s crackdown during the past two years.

Saudi activists say there are more than 40,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, in jails across the Kingdom.

According to the activists, most of the detained political thinkers are being held by the government without trial or legitimate charges and have been arrested for merely looking suspicious.

Some of the detainees are reported to be held without trial for more than 16 years. Attempting to incite the public against the government and the allegiance to foreign entities are usually the ready-made charges against political dissidents.

In Saudi Arabia, protests and political gatherings of any kind are prohibited.

Saudi women stage anti-regime rally in Qatif

Press TV

Saudi women have held a massive demonstration against the Al Saud regime in the country’s oil-rich Eastern Province, Press TV reports.

On Thursday, huge crowds of female demonstrators chanted anti-regime slogans in the Qatif region, situated about 418 kilometers (259 miles) east of the capital Riyadh, and condemned the regime’s suppression of political dissent.

They also expressed solidarity with Bahrainis, and slammed Riyadh’s military intervention in Bahrain to quell pro-democracy protests there.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in Qatif and Awamiyah in Eastern Province, primarily calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, as well as an end to widespread discrimination.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the repressive Al Saud regime, especially after November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province…

UN General Assembly vote reflects shift in Syrian public opinion

by FRANKLIN LAMB, source

It’s not hard to find critics of the Assad government in the Governorate (Muhafazat) of Homs or for that matter, to varying degrees in Syria’s other thirteen Governorates according to Syrian analysts interviewed by this observer and reports from human rights groups including lawyers representing dissidents in Syria. However, after nearly 27 months of turmoil, the public opinion pendulum is markedly shifting back in support of the current regime.

One international political result was registered at the United Nations this past week when a US-Qatari-Saudi drafted General Assembly Resolution that was designed to increase pressure on the Assad government stumbled badly and fell far short of what the Saudi Ambassador to the UN and other US allies predicted would be an overwhelming vote in favor.

Effect of shift in popular opinion in Syria

Over the past four or five months it has become increasingly clear that public opinion in Syria is shifting for reasons that include, but are not limited to the following:

While inflation at the grocery stores in probably the most common complaint heard from a cross-section of society here, the population is adapting somewhat to higher prices and it appears to credit the government for efforts, some successful, to soften the impact of the illegal US-led sanctions that target this same Syrian population for purely political reasons to achieve regime change.

While Syrians demand dignity and freedom from oppressive security forces and an end to corruption, as all people do in this region and beyond, they are witnessing a return to near normalcy with respect to supplies of electricity, benzene, mazout fuel oil, bus schedules, schools, and a host of public services such as garbage collection, street sweeping, park maintenance, and sympathetic traffic cops who are rather understanding of short-cuts taken by drivers and pedestrians due to “the situation”.

In addition, public service announcement and even text messages demonstrate that the government is aware of the degree of suffering among the population, accept partial blame, and are focusing on remedial measure and crucially, ending the crisis with its horrific bloodshed. One observes here a definite trend of the pulling together of a high percentage of Syrians who share a very unique history and culture and who are deeply connected to their country and who are increasingly repelled by the continuing killing from all sides including the recent barbarisms of body mutilations and summary executions videotaped and broadcast on utube by [armed group] elements. The latter who these days come from nearly three dozen countries, paid for and indoctrinated by enemies of Syria’s Arab nationalism and deep rooted pillar of resistance to the occupation of Palestine.

In addition, many among Syria’s 23 million citizens, who initially supported the uprising following government reaction to event in Deraa in March 2011, now have serious second thoughts about who exactly would replace the current government. Events in Syria are also making plain that the army is still loyal to the Assad government, and according to Jane’s Defense Weekly, is actually gaining experience and strength as well as the well-known fact that as western diplomats are admitting, the “opposition militias” are hopelessly fractured, turning one another, many essential mafia outfits, and beginning to resemble their fellow [armed groups] from Libya, Chechnya and in between.

Opinion in Damascus and surrounding areas visited this past week, confirms this observers experience the past five months of a sharp and fairly rapid shift in opinion that now strongly favors letting the Syrian people themselves decide, without outside interference, whether the Assad regime will stay, and indeed, whether, the Baathist party will continue to represent majority opinion, not through wanton violence but rather via next June’s election. Many express confidence in the run up to this critical vote, noting that the election will be closely monitored by the international community to assure fairness.

Perhaps aided by the current glorious May weather, a certain optimism, that was more scarce in the past, pervades many neighborhoods.

For different reasons, foreign powers, including the USA, Turkey, European Union, the UK Jordan and even the majority population of the six Gulf Cooperation Council family run countries, according to Pew Research, are shifting their earlier positions which were based in part of the US administration, NATO, and Israeli assurances that the Assad government would surely fall quickly, “A matter of days, not weeks” US President Obama promised. That was two years ago.

As noted above, this trend has accelerated since the UN General Assembly vote with last weeks which did not go as planned on the biased and politicized non-binding draft resolution on Syria.

The public reaction in Syria and across the Middle East is substantially that the “Friends of Syria” non-binding GA resolution contradicts the reality on the ground, backs terrorism in Syria and hinders the international efforts to help achieve a political solution to the crisis in this country. Only 107 states voted in favor of the resolution, 12 against while 59 countries, mostly from Africa and Latin America, abstained from voting.

One reason the vote fell short of the 130 favorable votes that the basically same resolution garnered the past two times is that it is widely viewed as ignoring the crimes and atrocities committed by the armed – groups in Syria and the flow of thousands of international terrorists backed by the West, the Gulf states and Turkey who provide them with weapons and money. According to the Russian delegate, backed by several other speakers, “the resolutions ignores all the terrorists’ heinous crimes and denounces what it called the escalation of the attacks by the Syrian government”. Afterward one Latin American Permanent Representative told Inner City Press that the count would have been below 100 if not for some “last minute arm-twisting.” As it turned out, 15 countries didn’t vote at all, opting to “get coffee,” as one African Permanent Representative put it before the vote.

Syria’s Ambassador al-Jaafari exposes a hoax in the Gulf

Syria’s permanent Envoy to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari said his country regretted the adoption of a biased and unbalanced UN resolution, thanking the countries that rejected the resolution “for their responsible positions which support the UN principles and the international law articles”. He noted that the decrease in the number of countries that voted in favor and the increase of numbers of those who abstained from voting indicates the growing international understanding of the reality of what is happening in Syria due to the foreign interference, support of terrorism, the spread of extremism and incitement besides the refusal of dialogue.

“We rely on the UN and its member states to support Syria and its people against the culture of extremism and terrorism, and to encourage the comprehensive national dialogue to peacefully resolve the Syrian crisis.” he said. In a statement released after the vote on the UN draft resolution on Syria, al-Jaafari He said that the French delegation had foiled the issuance of a number of UN press releases to condemn the terrorist acts committed by al-Qaeda-linked armed groups in Syria which claimed the lives of thousands of Syrians as it foiled a UN release to condemn the attempt of assassination of the Syrian Premier.

After Qatar’s ambassador spoke in favor of the resolution his country drafted (and re-drafted several times), Ja’afari revealed that there existed an e-mail, from the representative of the Syrian opposition given to Syria’s embassy in Qatar, showing Qatar’s involvement in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. He read out a phone number from the e-mail as several Gulf diplomats grimaced or scowled, and three left the Chamber.

Visibly stunned, the UK Permanent Representative Lyall Grant called the whole matter “deeply confusing”. Another Permanent Representative, from a militia contributing country, said that if true, it’s “very problematic.” The reasons include the fact that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had just thanked Qatar for its roles in the release of the UN Peacekeepers the earlier kidnapping of whom the Qatari government may have planned, paid for and executed.

Meanwhile, Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson Martin Nesirky said he would not disclose any more about the “negotiations to free the peacekeepers or who was behind the crime.”

Score a major diplomatic victory for Syria’s UN Ambassador as public opinion shifts in favor of the Assad government and pressure as well as certain optimism builds in the run-up to the Geneva II conference being organized by the White House and the Kremlin.

Coordinating with CIA, Qatari diwan, KSA control arms flow to Syria

Moqawama

Reuters reported Wednesday that Qatar, which has taken a lead in arming the Syrian opposition, is coordinating with the CIA.

Rebel fighters in Syria say that in recent months the system for distributing arms has become more centralized, with arms being delivered through opposition National Coalition’s General Command, led by Selim Idriss, a general who defected to the opposition and is a favorite of Washington.

Qatar mostly sends arms to rebels operating in the north of Syria, while Saudi Arabia, another rich Gulf Arab kingdom, sends weapons to fighters operating in the south, several rebel commanders said.

“The Qataris are now going through the Coalition for aid and humanitarian issues and for military issues they are going through the military command,” a commander in northern Syria interviewed from Beirut said.

He further stated: “Before the Coalition was formed they were going through liaison offices and other military and civil formations. That was at the beginning. Now it is different – it is all going through the Coalition and the military command.”

Today, Qatari shipments have resumed with controls exerted from the palace of Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in consultation with the US Central Intelligence Agency, said a senior Qatari security official.

“There’s an operations room in the Emir’s diwan (office complex), with representatives from every ministry sitting in that room, deciding how much money to allocate for Syria’s aid,” the Qatari official said.
“There’s a lot of consultation with the CIA, and they help Qatar with buying and moving the weapons into Syria, but just as consultants,” he said. The CIA declined to comment.

Rebel commanders contacted by Reuters said they submit their lists of needs to the General Command led by Idriss, which forwards the requests to Qatar or Saudi Arabia.

One Western source involved in the process said that sometimes weapons sent in by Qatar do in fact reach hardline groups.

Several rebel commanders said they believed wealthy Kuwaiti and Saudi individuals were also sending weapons and money to rebel fighters outside the National Coalition’s distribution channel.

“They usually ask for a video proving that an attack took place with the name of the brigade that did it. Sometimes they ask for a statement expressing gratitude,” said a rebel commander in Damascus.

He said the Saudis and Qataris also occasionally send weapons into each other’s territory, bypassing normal controls.

“Sometimes the Qataris manage to send stuff to the southern part and the Saudis to the northern side. When they do so, they send it to brigades that are not part of the military command.”

According to the Qatari official, weapons supplied included AK-47 rifles, rocket propelled grenades, hand grenades and ammunition. Qatar also provides instructions on battlefield techniques such as how to rig weapons on vehicles.

The weapons are purchased mainly from eastern Europe by arms brokers based in Britain and France, and are flown from Qatar to Ankara and then trucked to Syria, the Qatari source added.

Hugh Griffiths, a researcher on arms transfers at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said 90 Qatari military air cargo flights were made to Turkey between 3 January 2012 and the end of April 2013.

He suggested the Qataris had made no particular effort to disguise the nature of the cargo.
The planes were Qatari air force aircraft flying from Al Udeid, a big air force base shared with the US military.

“This is quite unusual for arms deliveries intended for non-state actors in conflict zones, in the last 20 years or so the pattern has been to use private, commercial companies,” he said.

Saudi-Qatari battle of power over Syria

Moqawama

Divisions inside Syria’s so-called “opposition” that had recently erupted during the past few days reflected a regional battle of power between two main axes; a Qatari-Turkish axis and the other a Saudi one close to US policy.

This difference was manifested in the speech that Ahmad Maaz al-Khatib, Chief of the so-called opposition coalition, delivered at the Arab Summit held on Tuesday in Doha, where he slammed attempts of imposing custodianship on the opposition, and added, “Our people have paid the price of freedom, and their decision comes from their own interests and they refuse any custodianship.”

Meanwhile, around 70 Syrian opposition members refused, in a statement sent to the summit, “the excluding control” of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in the so-called coalition.

On this note, Professor of Political Sciences in the American University of Paris, Ziad Majed stated, “There is a tight competition between two axes essential to the opposition’s financial and military support; A Turkish-Qatari axis that supports the Muslim Brotherhood movement and a Saudi axis harmonious with the US.”

Majed added in an interview with Agence France Presse, “This disagreement leaves its mark on the opposition’s political structure and allegiances of difference military groups.”

Moreover, Majed referred “to the severe discussion that took place in the recent coalition meeting in Istanbul last week, between supporters of forming a transitory government and those who want to replace it with an executive authority responsible for administrating the armed groups’ territories.”

“The disagreement was not on [the newly elected Prime Minister of the transitory government] Ghassan Hitto’s character, but was rather a principle of whether to form the government or not in the first place,” he underscored, emphasizing, “The US-Saudi axis preferred to take it easy in forming the transitory government, while the Qatari-Turkish axis was in a hurry to form it.”

On another note, an opposition figure stated, “Saudis sent letters in many directions after Istanbul’s meeting to express their dissatisfaction of Hitto’s election, which drove the so-called Free Syrian Army to refuse admitting to it.”
Moreover, insurgents in Darayya told the AFP that they might lose control over the city, after having run out of ammunition and weaponry, after the Syrian Army had surrounded the area for more than three months. Meanwhile, Maaz al-Khatib was publicizing his initiative for dialogue with the Syrian regime, when suddenly a flow of weaponry reached the surrounded area.

This meant that the weaponry was present at the border, and Turkey and Qatar, who were not satisfied with al-Khatib’s proposal, chose to escalate matters and obstruct the initiative.
In the same context, an Arab expert on Syrian affairs listed different directions of funding and arming and different sources, and stated that the Qatari weaponry is being delivered to the extremist armed groups close to the Muslim Brotherhood via Turkey, while Saudis prefer to fund and arm the military councils that include dissidents from the Syrian Army.

Media, however, played a significant role in the unannounced conflict between the two axes, especially through Qatari al-Jazeera TV station, and the Saudi al-Arabiya TV station. Those who oppose Hitto and the “transitory government” could find al-Arabiya the suitable voice, while al-Jazeera focuses on the hospitability that Hitto was granted by the so-called FSA during his visit to Aleppo.

“The conflict is not limited to the current phase, but also to who would rule Syria after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; The Muslim Brotherhood, as in Tunisia and Egypt, or others? Who will affect their foreign policies? Who will participate in reconstructing Syria and who will receive the most important investments there?” Majed concluded.

Saudi cleric Sheikh Nimr charged with instigating unrest

(Sheikh’s Nimr’s car-File photo)

Press TV

A court in Saudi Arabia has charged prominent – cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr with “instigating unrest” and “seeking foreign meddling” in the kingdom.

Sheikh Nimr appeared in court on Tuesday, nearly eight months after he was arrested for criticizing the ruling Al Saud family and demanding the release of political prisoners, AFP news agency quoted a witness as saying.

The prosecutor also accused the cleric of supporting uprising in Bahrain, where Saudi troops are assisting the ruling Al Khalifa family in its brutal crackdown on demonstrations.

The court panel adjourned the hearing until a lawyer is appointed.

Sheikh Nimr was shot and arrested by regime forces in Awamiyah in July 2012 after he demanded the “release of all those detained in anti-regime protests, and all prisoners of conscience.

His family members said he was badly tortured in jail. Nimr’s sister has recently said through her Twitter account that prison authorities are denying her brother medical care.

Saudis have staged several demonstrations in the Eastern Province to demand the release of Sheikh Nimr since he was arrested.

Saudi activists say there are more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, in jails across the Kingdom.

According to the activists, most of the detained political thinkers are being held by the government without trial or legitimate charges and that they were arrested for merely looking suspicious.

Some of the detainees are reported to be held without trial for more than 16 years. Attempting to incite the public against the government and the allegiance to foreign entities are usually the ready-made charges against political dissidents.

Saudi regime forces raid home, arrest citizens

(File photo)

Press TV

Saudi regime forces have arrested dozens of prominent figures in the kingdom in a two-day period as Riyadh intensifies its campaign of terror on dissidents.

According to reports, security forces raided homes and offices across the capital city of Riyadh, detaining a number of religious scholars, doctors, professors, students and civil workers.

Regime forces also launched similar crackdowns in the kingdom’s Eastern Province and the cities of Mecca and Jeddah.

Reports further indicated that Sheikh Mohammad al-Atiyah and Sheikh Badr al-Taleb, two prominent – clerics were also among those detained.

Earlier in the day, Saudis took to the streets in the central city of Buraidah to once again demand the release of political prisoners, despite a protest ban by Al Saud regime on demonstrations.

On March 1, Saudi security forces arrested over 300 protesters, including 15 women, after hundreds of people gathered outside the investigation and prosecution bureau in Buraidah to demand the release of political prisoners…

Freed UN peacekeepers cross into Jordan from Syria & Saudi Arabia funds al-Nusra terrorists

Freed UN peacekeepers cross into Jordan from Syria

Press TV

A group of 21 UN peacekeepers held hostage by foreign-sponsored militant groups in Syria have crossed the border into Jordan after their release, Jordanian officials say.

Jordanian government spokesman Samih Maaytah said Saturday that Filipino peacekeepers “arrived in Jordan, they are on Jordanian land now.”

On March 6, the militants in Syria detained 21 soldiers, who are part of a 300-strong Filipino peacekeeping unit stationed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Olivia V Palala, the Philippines Ambassador to Amman, confirmed the release of the peacekeepers, saying they had arrived in Jordan from Syria.

The hostages were held in the village of Jamlah, in southwestern Syria, near the border with Jordan and the Golan Heights.

Following the hostage-taking, the armed groups circulated a video on the Internet, showing a number of militants with the peacekeepers.

The militants had said they would not free the hostages until Syrian government forces withdraw from the area surrounding the village…

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Saudi spy agency funds al-Nusra terrorists in Syria: Report

Press TV

The Saudi intelligence agency has provided financial support for the terrorist al-Qaeda-linked group of al-Nusra Front in Syria, a report says.

Citing foreign intelligence sources, the Intelligence Online Newsletter said Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency (GIP), which is led by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, took advantage of its communications with terrorists in Iraq to help establish al-Nusra Front.

“Thanks to funding from the General Intelligence Presidency and support from the Saudi intelligence in Lebanon, al-Nusra was able to swiftly arm its forces,” the report stated.

The Intelligence Online Newsletter also confirmed Saudi confidential documents indicating that the Saudi Interior Ministry had sent a military official into Syria in line with Riyadh’s plans to provide the militants with money and weapons…

Saudi court dissolves rights group, sentences activists to jail

(File photo-Saudi Arabia)

Press TV

A court in Saudi Arabia has ordered the dissolution of a human rights group and handed heavy jail sentences to two of the group’s members.

Riyadh criminal court dissolved the Saudi Association of Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA) on Saturday, with the judge saying the group had failed “to obtain authorization.”

The court upheld a six-year jail sentence for Abdullah al-Hamed, an ACPRA activist, and increased his sentence by five more years.

Hamed has also received an 11-year travel ban, which will prevent him from leaving Saudi Arabia for a little over a decade after his release from prison.

The Saudi court sentenced Mohammed Gahtani, another group member, to 10 years in prison and handed him a 10-year travel ban.

The court ordered the seizure of the group’s assets, and gave the two activists 30 days to appeal the verdict.

The two men were convicted of breaching the kingdom’s cybercrime law by using Twitter to lash out at the country’s political system and social life.

The men, however, said they would continue their “peaceful struggle” despite the verdict.

In June 2012, Gahtani said he was accused of “spreading sedition” and “rebelling against the authority” of the monarchy.

ACPRA says it has listed “hundreds of human rights violations over the past two years,” and helped people seek justice. It says some 30,000 political prisoners are held in prisons across the Kingdom.

According to the activists, most of the detained political thinkers are being held by the government without trial or legitimate charges and have been arrested for merely looking suspicious.

Some of the detainees are reported to be held without trial for more than 16 years. Attempting to incite the public against the government and the allegiance to foreign entities are usually the ready-made charges against dissidents.

‘PG Arab states abandoning post-Mubarak Egypt’

by Yusuf Fernandez, source

The new Egyptian authorities have been calling the Arab states of the Persian Gulf to pump more money into Egypt´s ailing economy and claiming that there is a convergence between the interests of Egypt and those of these countries. However, this stance is very unrealistic, given the traditional hostility of most Arab rulers to the Muslim Brotherhood and their mistrust of the economic situation in Egypt.

Currently, Egypt is in a desperate economic situation. The country is languishing under abject poverty and is not receiving the huge investments that it needs. It has spent a large part of its foreign reserves in order to prop up its national currency, the Egyptian pound, since the revolution that toppled the country’s former dictator, Hosni Mubarak, in 2011. Tourism revenues have dropped rapidly and foreign companies have diminished their investments.

The Saudi regime appears not to be interested in aiding Egypt and has maintained a hostile approach towards the Egyptian revolution since the beginning. On January 29, 2011, Saudi King Abdullah told the US President Barack Obama not to humiliate Hosni Mubarak and said the Egyptian leader should be helped, according to The Times of London. “Mubarak and King Abdullah are not just allies, they are close friends, and the king is not about to see his friend cast aside and humiliated,” a senior source in the Saudi capital told The Times. “Mubarak and King Abdullah are not just allies, they are close friends, and the king is not about to see his friend cast aside and humiliated,” a senior source in the Saudi capital told The Times.

Actually, the Saudi regime wants to impose on Egypt its own views on foreign policy. It does not want that Egypt changes Mubarak´s hostile stance towards Iran or Palestine. “The Saudis do not want Egypt to show any leniency towards Hamas…,” one Egyptian diplomat told Al Ahram shortly before Morsi´s first trip to Saudi Arabia in July 2012.

President Mohammad Morsi has tried to reassure the Saudi rulers. Some weeks ago, he even called to establish a NATO-style defense organization between Egypt and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. However, this proposal was rapidly rejected by analysts from those countries because there is actually no ideological link between the new post-Mubarak Egypt and these Arab monarchies. In the past, similar initiatives also failed, like the plan for Egypt and Jordan to join the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council.

Egyptian officials acknowledge that there is a “sense of dismay” in Cairo because despite the continued commitment that Morsi has showed to side with the Saudi point of view on foreign policy issues, Saudi Arabia has not come to the economic rescue of Egypt. “To the contrary, Saudi Arabia has declined repeated appeals from Morsi himself to consider economic aid and succumbed to the American wish to make any aid dependent on the finalization of the deal over the IMF loan,” one official told Al Ahram, adding that “today, it does not seem that the Saudis will reach out to us anyway, even when we sign the IMF loan deal.”

The Saudi regime is widely detested in Egypt due to many reasons, including the mistreatment that many Egyptians suffer in Saudi Arabia. One example of this was the arrest of an Egyptian lawyer and human-rights activist, Ahmed Al Gizawy, in Jeddah in April 2012 under the accusation of drug smuggling, which he rejected. There were protests against his arrest outside Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Cairo and a consulate in Suez, which led Saudi Arabia to withdraw its ambassador. Al Gizawy is a fierce critic of the treatment of Egyptians in Saudi Arabia. He filed a lawsuit against the Saudi government, alleging “detention and torture” of Egyptian citizens. Many Egyptians think that his detention was just a revenge for his public denunciations.

Rejection to the Muslim Brotherhood

Mohamed al-Sheikh, a political writer at Saudi-owned al-Hayat newspaper, claims that Egypt should make it clear that it does not want to export its revolution to the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and admitted that these countries’ rulers are apprehensive about the coming to power of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially on the level of the elites.

In this sense, Hossein Ruivaran wrote in the Tehran Times that “in the United Arab Emirates, for example, 11 Egyptian members of the Muslim Brotherhood were recently arrested on charges of extremist activities. The government of Kuwait is also totally opposed to the political presence of the Brotherhood in the country, and the party was disqualified and barred from participating in the recent election. In Bahrain, followers of the Brotherhood are fighting against the government alongside the Shias, and in Saudi Arabia the government has repeatedly arrested members of the party and its books are forbidden.”

Some weeks ago, an Egyptian top-level political delegation was sent to the UAE to negotiate the release of the 11 Egyptians detained for suspected links to Egypt´s Muslim Brotherhood. However, the delegation, which included top presidential adviser Essam Haddad and General Intelligence chief Mohamed Shehata, failed in its mission and was unable to persuade the UAE authorities to release the detainees.

Shortly after the election of Morsi as Egyptian president in June 2012, the police chief of Dubai, Dahi Khalfan, wrote on his twitter account that if the Muslim Brotherhood tried to damage the stability and security of the Persian Gulf, “it would be up to its knees in blood.” He added that the victory of Morsi had been “an unfortunate choice.” Although Khalfan then claimed that his comments were only a personal opinion, they were condemned by many Egyptians and led Egypt’s Foreign Ministry to summon the UAE ambassador to request “a clarification.” Two months later, however, Khalfan launched a new attack on the Brotherhood. He denounced what he called an “international plot” to topple the governments of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and added that the region needed to be “ready” to counter any threats from the organization´s followers.

Destabilize Egypt

On the other hand, Egypt is facing problems stemming from continuous Saudi funding of Salafist groups in the country. We know that the funding does not just come from Saudi Arabia, but that it comes from other rich Persian Gulf countries as well — not necessarily from their governments, but from influential individuals, an Egyptian diplomat told Al Ahram. Egypt is trying to convince the Persian Gulf countries “concerned to exercise more control over funding sent to Egyptian organizations, so far with little success.” “This is about the exercise of power and regional influence,” said political analyst Amr Hashim Rabie to Al Ahram.

Qatar is seen as the other source of large donations to radical groups in Egypt. “The purpose of these donations…is…about causing instability and this is very disturbing,” a security official told the Egyptian newspaper.

Many Egyptians fear that Qatar may exploit the country´s most severe economic crisis in several decades to increase its influence and obtain lucrative contracts in return for the loans it has given to Egypt. Concern is growing about the continued escalation of Qatari interference in the country´s internal affairs and its decision-making, especially after the visit of the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, to Cairo last October.

Although Cairo and Doha have denied reports of a direct link between the new Qatari loans worth 4-billion dollars and a plan to increase Qatari investments in the Suez Canal, some reports suggest that these investments have become a condition for the aid. According to Al Ahram, this possibility has raised concerns in many circles, including the army and the intelligence, “over the involvement of a foreign investor in an area of direct national security interest.” Other conditions, according the Egyptian media, would include Egyptian approval of Qatari nominees in several international and regional forums.

Some Egyptian and international experts consider dangerous Egypt´s dependence on the Persian Gulf Arab states not only for political reasons -the probable destabilization of some of these countries due to internal protests in the near future-, but for some economic ones too. Christopher Davidson of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies of the University of Durham (UK), told the VOANews that “all the Gulf States will run dry of hydrocarbons at some point,” he said. “They are putting a lot of emphasis on diversifying their economies, but without great results yet. So, the bottom line is: Bahrain has more or less run out of oil and gas, which means its ruling family is no longer able to distribute wealth and privileges and opportunities to its population in the way it used… I think the neighboring Gulf States, especially ultra-rich Qatar and United Arab Emirates are looking rather fearfully at what is happening in Bahrain. Could it be something they themselves will have to face in the not too distant future?”

Therefore, and in order to confront Egypt´s deteriorating economic situation, some Egyptian experts are suggesting an increase of the country´s relations with Asia as the best way to guarantee its economic development. Some strategic thinkers in Egypt are looking to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), India, and the ASEAN countries as the main pillars of this new strategy of engaging Asia.

Many Egyptians experts also consider that the country should not hesitate to open up to Iran. “There should be no contradiction between opening up to Iran and keeping good relations with the rest of the Persian Gulf. Over-linking the two matters was a policy of ousted former president Mubarak, and it was a policy of exaggerated association with the Saudi agenda rather than anything else,” political scientist Hassan Nafaa told Al Ahram.

Saudi forces arrest over 300 protesters in Buraidah

(Saudi Arabia- file photo)

Press TV

Saudi security forces have arrested over 300 people in the central province of Qassim after hundreds of Saudis staged a protest sit-in to demand the release of political prisoners.

The protest gathering was held outside the investigation and prosecution bureau in the town of Buraidah on Friday.

Fifteen women are reported to be among those detained. They demanded the release of female political activists recently arrested in the province.

According to state news agency, SPA, the protest sit-in lasted for more than 12 hours.

Saudi activists say there are more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, in jails across the Kingdom.

According to the activists, most of the detained political thinkers are being held by the government without trial or legitimate charges and have been arrested for merely looking suspicious.

Some of the detainees are reported to be held without trial for more than 16 years. Attempting to incite the public against the government and the allegiance to foreign entities are usually the ready-made charges against political dissidents…

Saudi Arabia supplies Syrian militants with Croatian arms: Report

(File photo)

Al Manar

Saudi Arabia has been supplying Syrian militants battling the Syrian regime with arms bought from Croatia, according to The New York Times.

Citing unnamed US and Western officials, the newspaper reported late Monday that the Saudi-financed “large purchase of infantry weapons” was part of an “undeclared surplus” of arms left over from the Balkan wars in the 1990s and that they began reaching anti-regime fighters via Jordan in December.

That was when many Yugoslav weapons started showing up in YouTube videos posted by rebels, it said.

Since then, The daily added, officials said “multiple planeloads” of weapons have left Croatia, with one quoted as saying the shipments included “thousands of rifles and hundreds of machine guns,” as well as an “unknown quantity of ammunition.”

A spokeswoman for the Croatian foreign ministry told The New York Times that, since the start of the Arab Spring, the Balkan country had not sold any weapons to either Saudi Arabia or the Syrian rebels.

Saudi and Jordanian officials meanwhile declined to comment, the newspaper added, indicating that “Washington’s role, if any at all, was unclear.”

However, it quoted one senior US official as describing the shipments as “a maturing of the opposition’s logistical pipeline.”

Saudi protesters rally against continued political detentions

Press TV

People in Saudi Arabia have taken to the streets of the capital, Riyadh, to hold yet another anti-regime protest demanding the release of political prisoners.

The rally staged on Thursday is the latest in a months-long wave of street protests calling on the Saudi regime to immediately release the inmates. Activists say there are over 40,000 political prisoners in jails across the kingdom.

Meanwhile, protesters held a rally in the city of Qatif in the oil-rich Eastern Province, demanding the prosecution of those responsible for violent attacks on peaceful demonstrators.

The protesters also vowed not to forget those killed in the regime crackdown…

Destroying a nation state: US-Saudi funded terrorists sowing chaos in Pakistan

by Guy Billout

Baluchistan, Target of Western geopolitical interests, Terror wave coincides with Gwadar Port handover to China. The Hidden Agenda is the Breakup of Pakistan

by Tony Cartalucci, source

Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwest Baluchistan province, bordering both US-occupied Afghanistan as well as Iran, was the site of a grisly market bombing that has killed over 80 people.According to reports, the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the attack. Billed as a “Sunni extremist group,” it instead fits the pattern of global terrorism sponsored by the US, Israel, and their Arab partners Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The terrorist Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group was in fact created,according to the BBC, to counter Iran’s Islamic Revolution in the 1980′s, and is still active today. Considering the openly admitted US-Israeli-Saudi plot to use Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups across the Middle East to counter Iran’s influence, it begs the question whether these same interests are funding terrorism in Pakistan to not only counter Iranian-sympathetic Pakistani communities, but to undermine and destabilize Pakistan itself.

The US-Saudi Global Terror Network

While the United States is close allies with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, it is well established that the chief financier of extremist militant groups for the past 3 decades, including Al Qaeda, are in fact Saudi Arabia and Qatar. While Qatari state-owned propaganda like Al Jazeera apply a veneer of progressive pro-democracy to its narratives, Qatar itself is involved in arming, funding, and even providing direct military support for sectarian extremists from northern Mali, to Libya, to Syria and beyond.

France 24′s report “Is Qatar fuelling the crisis in north Mali?” provides a useful vignette of Saudi-Qatari terror sponsorship, stating:

“The MNLA [secular Tuareg separatists], al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine and MUJAO [movement for unity and Jihad in West Africa] have all received cash from Doha.”

A month later Sadou Diallo, the mayor of the north Malian city of Gao [which had fallen to the Islamists] told RTL radio: “The French government knows perfectly well who is supporting these terrorists. Qatar, for example, continues to send so-called aid and food every day to the airports of Gao and Timbuktu.”

The report also stated:

“Qatar has an established a network of institutions it funds in Mali, including madrassas, schools and charities that it has been funding from the 1980s,” he wrote, adding that Qatar would be expecting a return on this investment.

“Mali has huge oil and gas potential and it needs help developing its infrastructure,” he said. “Qatar is well placed to help, and could also, on the back of good relations with an Islamist-ruled north Mali, exploit rich gold and uranium deposits in the country.”

These institutions are present not only in Mali, but around the world, and provide a nearly inexhaustible supply of militants for both the Persian Gulf monarchies and their Western allies to use both as a perpetual casus belli to invade and occupy foreign nations such as Mali and Afghanistan, as well as a sizable, persistent mercenary force, as seen in Libya and Syria. Such institutions jointly run by Western intelligence agencies across Europe and in America, fuel domestic fear-mongering and the resulting security state that allows Western governments to more closely control their populations as they pursue reckless, unpopular policies at home and abroad.

Since Saudi-Qatari geopolitical interests are entwined with Anglo-American interests, both the “investment” and “return on this investment” are clearly part of a joint venture. France’s involvement in Mali has demonstrably failed to curb such extremists, has instead, predictably left the nation occupied by Western interests while driving terrorists further north into the real target, Algeria.

Additionally, it should be noted, that France in particular, played a leading role along side Qatar and Saudi Arabia in handing Libya over to these very same extremists. French politicians were in Benghazi shaking hands with militants they would be “fighting” in the near future in northern Mali.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is Part of US-Saudi Terror Network

In terms of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, as well as the infamous Lashkar-e-Taiba that carried out the 2008 Mumbai, India attack killing over 160, both are affiliates of Al Qaeda, and both have been linked financially, directly to Saudi Arabia. In the Guardian’s article, “WikiLeaks cables portray Saudi Arabia as a cash machine for terrorists,” the US State Department even acknowledges that Saudi Arabia is indeed funding terrorism in Pakistan:

Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba – but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton.

“More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups,” says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” she said.

Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has also been financially linked to the Persian Gulf monarchies. Stanford University’s “Mapping Militant Organizations: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi,” states under “External Influences:”

LeJ has received money from several Persian Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates[25] These countries funded LeJ and other Sunni militant groups primarily to counter the rising influence of Iran’s revolutionary Shiism.

Astonishingly, despite these admission, the US works politically, financially, economically, and even militarily in tandem with these very same state-sponsors of rampant, global terrorism. In Libya and Syria, the US has even assisted in the funding and arming of Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, and had conspired with Saudi Arabia since at least 2007 to overthrow both Syria and Iran with these terrorist groups. And while Saudi Arabia funds terrorism in Pakistan, the US is well documented to be funding political subversion in the very areas where the most heinous attacks are being carried out.

US Political Subversion in Baluchistan, Pakistan

The US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has been directly fundingand supporting the work of the “Balochistan Institute for Development” (BIFD) which claims to be“the leading resource on democracy, development and human rights in Balochistan, Pakistan.” In addition to organizing the annual NED-BFID “Workshop on Media, Democracy & Human Rights” BFID reports that USAID had provided funding for a “media-center” for the Baluchistan Assembly to “provide better facilities to reporters who cover the proceedings of the Balochistan Assembly.” We must assume BFID meant reporters “trained” at NED-BFID workshops.

There is also Voice of Balochistan whose every top-story is US-funded propaganda drawn from foundation-funded Reporters Without Borders, Soros-funded Human Rights Watch, and even a direct message from the US State Department itself. Like other US State Department funded propaganda outfits around the world – such as Thailand’s Prachatai – funding is generally obfuscated in order to maintain “credibility” even when the front’s constant torrent of obvious propaganda more than exposes them.

Perhaps the most absurd operations being run to undermine Pakistan through the “Free Baluchistan” movement are the US and London-based organizations. The “Baloch Society of North America” almost appears to be a parody at first, but nonetheless serves as a useful aggregate and bellwether regarding US meddling in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province. The group’s founder, Dr. Wahid. Baloch, openly admits he has met with US politicians in regards to Baluchistan independence. This includes Neo-Con warmonger, PNAC signatory, corporate-lobbyist, and National Endowment for Democracy director Zalmay Khalilzad.

Dr. Wahid Baloch considers Baluchistan province “occupied” by both the Iranian and Pakistani governments – he and his movement’s humanitarian hand-wringing gives Washington the perfect pretext to create an armed conflagration against either Iran or Pakistan, or both, as planned in detail by various US policy think-tanks.

There is also the Baloch Students Organisation-Azad, or BSO. While it maintains a presence in Pakistan, it has coordinators based in London. London-based BSO members include “information secretaries” that propagate their message via social media, just as US and British-funded youth organizations did during the West’s operations against other targeted nations during the US-engineered “Arab Spring.”

And while the US does not openly admit to funding and arming terrorists in Pakistan yet, many across established Western policy think-tanks have called for it.

Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy, has published two pieces regarding the armed “liberation” of Baluchistan.

Harrison’s February 2011 piece, “Free Baluchistan,” calls to “aid the 6 million Baluch insurgents fighting for independence from Pakistan in the face of growing ISI repression.” He continues by explaining the various merits of such meddling by stating:

“Pakistan has given China a base at Gwadar in the heart of Baluch territory. So an independent Baluchistan would serve U.S. strategic interests in addition to the immediate goal of countering Islamist forces.”

Harrison would follow up his frank call to carve up Pakistan by addressing the issue of Chinese-Pakistani relations in a March 2011 piece titled, “The Chinese Cozy Up to the Pakistanis.” He states:

“China’s expanding reach is a natural and acceptable accompaniment of its growing power—but only up to a point. ”

He continues:

“To counter what China is doing in Pakistan, the United States should play hardball by supporting the movement for an independent Baluchistan along the Arabian Sea and working with Baluch insurgents to oust the Chinese from their budding naval base at Gwadar. Beijing wants its inroads into Gilgit and Baltistan to be the first step on its way to an Arabian Sea outlet at Gwadar.”

While aspirations of freedom and independence are used to sell Western meddling in Pakistan, the geopolitical interests couched behind this rhetoric is openly admitted to. The prophetic words of Harrison should ring loud in one’s ears today. It is in fact this month, that Pakistan officially hands over the port in Gwadar to China, and Harrison’s armed militants are creating bloodshed and chaos, attempting to trigger a destructive sectarian war that will indeed threaten to “oust the Chinese from their budding naval base at Gwadar.”

Like in Syria, we have a documented conspiracy years in the making being carried out before our very eyes. The people of Pakistan must not fall into the trap laid by the West who seeks to engulf Baluchistan in sectarian bloodshed with the aid of Saudi and Qatari-laundered cash and weapons. For the rest of the world, we must continue to uncover the corporate-financier special interestsdriving these insidious plots, boycott and permanently replace them on a local level.

The US-Saudi terror racket has spilled blood from New York City, across Northern Africa, throughout the Middle East, and as far as Pakistan and beyond. If we do not undermine and ultimately excise these special interests, their plans and double games will only get bolder and the inevitability of their engineered chaos effecting us individually will only grow.