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JINSA: Strengthening IsraHell by promoting Syrian ‘Chalabi’

Posted on 22 February 2012.

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By Maidhc Ó Cathail

www.thepassionateattachment.com

On February 17, subscribers to the mailing list of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) received a message entitled “Want to Know What’s Going On in Syria?” inviting them to a special conference call briefing from Farid Ghadry, co-founder of The Reform Party of Syria. The invitation from the hawkish Israel lobby think tank — whose half-accurate motto is “Securing America, Strengthening Israel” — to the February 22 briefing reads:

In October of 2001, Mr. Ghadry, along with several Syrian-Americans, formed the Reform Party of Syria. A constitution was written and a constructive and comprehensive program has been put in place to bring regime change to Syria. Today, the party is enjoying the tacit support from many organizations and people in the U.S. administration and think tanks in Washington.

Mr. Ghadry and the other co-founders of RPS are hoping to return to Syria one day to rebuild the country on the basis of principles of real economic and political reforms that will usher democracy, prosperity, freedom of expression, and human rights in addition to lasting peace with open borders with all of Syria’s neighboring countries.

Not mentioned but well-understood by the men from JINSA is that the well-connected Syrian “reformer” has been groomed to facilitate that unlikely democratic utopia by leading Iraq war architect Richard Perle, a prominent member of JINSA’s advisory board until a few weeks ago. But as the Prince of Darkness’s biographer wrote in a 2007 Los Angeles Times article:

Unfortunately for Perle, Ghadry is seen in many quarters as a front man for Israel. Not only is he a dues-paying member of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful Israeli lobby in Washington, but a recent column on his Web site, titled “Why I Admire Israel,” seems to play right into the hands of those who believe the Bush administration’s obsession with regime change in the Middle East is really all about protecting Israel. Did Perle, the savviest of Washington power players, believe that Ghadry’s tub-thumping for Tel Aviv would make him more popular in Syria?

“No,” Perle replied. “I don’t. But he’s his own man. I don’t always understand what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.”

So, in his quest for idealistic dissidents to do in the Middle East what the Walesas and Havels achieved in Eastern Europe, Perle and his acolytes have tapped the discredited Ahmad Chalabi for Iraq, the suspect Amir Abbas Fakhravar for Iran and the allegiance-challenged Fahrid Ghadry for Syria. They’re just not making heroes like they used to.

Perhaps Farid Ghadry’s pro-Israel image problem is why there appears to be no mention of his conference call briefing on the JINSA website. There is, however, one rather revealing reference to Perle’s Syrian Chalabi. In its Events & Programs section, under “New York Cabinet Meetings 2009, 2010 & 2011,” there is the following brief entry:

“The Role of Syria in the Middle East: Friend of Iran, Host to Hamas, and Patron of Hizbullah” – Farid Ghadry, President, Reform Party of Syria

To put all this into the broader context of the supposedly Israel-threatening “Arab Spring” — which the LA Times reference to Perle’s “quest for idealistic dissidents to do in the Middle East what the Walesas and Havels achieved in Eastern Europe” seems to prefigure — a seminal event, which I have previously written about, was held almost five years ago that brought together Israel partisans concerned with “rolling back Syria” among other regional rivals and their native collaborators:

Under the direction of Natan Sharansky, the former Israeli minister who resigned his cabinet seat in 2005 in protest over Ariel Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan, the [Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies] held a “Democracy and Security” conference in Prague in 2007. It brought together Israeli officials; their American neoconservative sympathizers with their favourite Middle Eastern dissidents in tow — most notably, Richard Perle’s Israel-admiring Syrian protégé Farid Ghadry; and the newly-installed Eastern European democrats swept to power in the wake of a wave of neocon-backed “color revolutions,” the latter group presumably serving to inspire the Arab and Iranian participants to emulate them.

So, if you want to know what’s going on in JINSA’s road to regime change in Damascus, please RSVP to jcolbert@jinsa.org or call             202-667-3900      , Ext. 224.

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CIA Puppet’s Al-Qaeda infiltrating Syrian opposition, U.S. officials say CIA puppets

Posted on 20 February 2012.

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washingtonpost.com

Members of al-Qaeda have infiltrated Syrian opposition groups, and likely executed recent bombings in the nation’s capital and largest city, the United States’ top intelligence official said Thursday.

The remarks by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper are the most definitive to date from a senior Obama administration official on al-Qaeda’s efforts to insert itself into the Syrian uprising.

Two bombings in Damascus in December, as well as deadly attacks on security and intelligence buildings in Aleppo last week, “had all the earmarks of an al-Qaeda-like attack,” Clapper said, adding that the network’s affiliate in Iraq “is extending its reach into Syria.”

But Clapper suggested that al-Qaeda has so far not sought to call attention to its presence, and that its operatives may have slipped into groups of fighters opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Qaeda extremists “have infiltrated” opposition groups that “in many cases may not be aware they are there,” Clapper said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services committee.

U.S. intelligence agencies have not detected an influx of fighters from neighboring countries into Syria, where opposition forces are fragmented and often feuding, with little indication that a leader will soon emerge, officials said.

So far there has been no “clarion call to outsiders coming in,” said Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. “We haven’t seen much of that up to this time, so basically the team that’s on the ground is playing with what it has.”

Burgess’s comments came just days after al-Qaeda leader Aymen al-Zawahiri released a video message urging fighters in Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to mobilize against Assad.

Al-Qaeda has largely been relegated to the sidelines in a series of uprisings across the Arab world over the past year, and its affiliate in Iraq has struggled to regroup after being hunted to near extinction by Shiite militias aligned with the American military “surge.”

U.S. officials for several weeks have been saying that the bombings in Syria bore certain characteristics of previous al-Qaeda operations, but that no definitive evidence had surfaced to establish that link.

Clapper seemed to go a step farther, describing al-Qaeda’s presence among militant groups as “another disturbing phenomenon that we’ve seen.”

Clapper said that the fighting in Syria is likely to remain at a stalemate without external intervention. Assad may see no alternative to extending the crackdown against opposition groups “because of his psychological need to emulate his father,” who controlled the country for decades with a similarly ruthless approach.

Even so, U.S. intelligence agencies have seen indications that members of Assad’s inner circle are already preparing for a possible coup. “We’ve seen signs of some of the senior [leaders] in the Assad regime making contingency plans to evacuate, move families, move financial resources,” Clapper said. “To this point, they’ve held together.”

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Perfect example of Zionist corporate media demonising Iran as greatest threat to world peaceionist

Posted on 20 February 2012.

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Friendly advice: France, UK to command ousting of Assad?

Posted on 19 February 2012.

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Coordinating help for Syrian opposition was high on the list in Paris talks between the French and British leaders on Friday. Anti-government troops lack unity and training, so sending military advisors could change the situation, the sides agreed.

rt.com

The leaders of the two countries spoke of the need to find new ways of getting rid of “brutal dictator” Assad, who is “butchering and murdering” his own people.

“We have to put all the pressure we can on Bashar al-Assad to make him stand down,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said during the press conference on Friday. “I want us to go on working and thinking and asking ourselves what more we can do.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy believes that the Syrian opposition needs outside assistance in coming together for joint action.

“The Syrian opposition has to unite and organize to help us help them,” Sarkozy said at a press conference. “We never could have done what we did in Libya without the NTC taking the initiative.”

Behind the scenes, Cameron and Sarkozy are believed to have discussed further ways of helping the armed branch of the Syrian opposition, the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Both countries said officially they do not plan to provide arms or troops to support the uprising. They pledged they would limit their aid to diplomatic support and help to human rights groups in documenting alleged atrocities.

However the Syrian opposition remains disorganized and divided. Some British cabinet level officials believe a more substantial support of the FSA is needed, possibly organizational in nature, according to Guardian newspaper.

Britain and France may send military advisors to teach the Syrian insurgents combat tactics, communication and other skills needed to attack governmental forces. Earlier unconfirmed reports said that British military are already on the ground in the besieged city Homs doing the job.

The summit in Paris comes ahead of the fist meeting of the Friends of Syria group in Tunisia on February 24. The international team aims to further isolate Bashar Assad’s government and whip up support for the opposition.

Britain and UK were the champions in the last year’s bombing campaign in Libya, which ended with the ousting of the country’s leader Muammar Gaddafi and transition of power to the rebels. They used their Navy and Air Force to attack pro-government forces, sent military advisers to the rebels and even supplied them with arms in violation of the UN embargo. The operation was called the biggest success in NATO history.

A group called Friends of Libya, which included France and Britain, was used for diplomatic support of the Libyan opposition and coordination of the NATO operation. It also handled the post-war settlement in the country, which included confirmation of Gaddafi-era contracts with members of the group, handing over of seized Syrian assets to the new government and distribution of contracts for rebuilding the country.

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GEOPOLITICAL DESTABILIZATION AND REGIONAL WAR: The Road To Tehran Goes Through Damascus

Posted on 18 February 2012.

NOVANEWS

By Nile Bowie

Global Research

nilebowie.blogspot.com

Between the chaos and artillery fire unfolding in Homs and Damascus, the current siege against the Ba’athist State of Bashar al-Assad parallels events of nearly a century ago. In efforts to maintain its protectorate, the French government employed the use of foreign soldiers to smother those seeking to abolish the French mandated, Fédération Syrienne. While former Prime Minister Faris al-Khoury argued the case for Syrian independence before UN in 1945, French planes bombed Damascus into submission. Today, the same government – in addition to the United States and its client regimes in Libya and Tunisia – enthusiastically recognize the Syrian National Council as the legitimate leadership of Syria. Although recent polls funded by the Qatar Foundation claim 55% of Syrians support the Assad regime, the former colonial powers have made a mockery of the very democratic principles they tout.

Irrespective to the views of the Syrian people, their fate has long been decided by forces operating beyond their borders. In a speech given to the Commonwealth Club of California in 2007 retired US Military General Wesley Clark speaks of a policy coup initiated by members of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). Clark cites a confidential document handed down from the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2001 stipulating the entire restructuring of the Middle East and North Africa. Portentously, the document allegedly revealed campaigns to systematically destabilize the governments of Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Iran.Under the familiar scenario of an authoritarian regime systematically suppressing peaceful dissent and purging large swaths of its population, the mechanisms of geopolitical stratagem have freely taken course.

Syria is but a chess piece being used as a platform by larger powers. Regime change is the unwavering interest of the US-led NATO block in collaboration with the feudal Persian Gulf Monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This is being accomplished by using Qatar-owned media outlets such as Al-Jazeera to project their version of the narrative to the world and by arming radical factions of the regions Sunni-majority population against the minority Alawi-Shia leadership of Assad. Since 2005, the Bush administration began funding Syrian opposition groups that lean toward the Muslim Brotherhood and their aspirations to build a Sunni-Islamic State. The Muslim Brotherhood has long condemned the Alawi-Shia as heretics and historically attempted multiple uprising in the 1960’s. By arming radical Sunni factions and importing Iraqi Salafi-jihadists and Libyan mercenaries, the NATOGCC plans to topple Assad and install an illegitimate exiled opposition leader such as Burhan Ghaliun (leader of the Syrian National Council) to be the face of the new regime.

The recent example of implementing foreign policy by arming Al-Qaeda fighters in Libya has proved disastrous – as the rule of law passes from the NATO-backed Libyan Transitional Council to hundreds of warring guerilla militias. At a meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Hillary Clinton, Davutoglu pledged to find ways outside the United Nations Security Council to pressure Assad. In addition to bolstering longstanding sectarian divides in Syria, the US is smuggling arms into Syria from Incirlik military base in Turkey and providing financial support for Syrian rebels.Syrian opposition forces led by defected Syrian colonel Riad al-Assad have been trained on Turkish soil since May 2011. Exclusive military and intelligence sources have reported to Israel’s DEBKAfile that British and Qatari special operations units are assisting rebel forces in Homs by providing body armor, laptops, satellite phones and managing rebel communications lines that request logistical aid, arms and mercenaries from outside suppliers.

Although the UK has vehemently denied these reports, Qatar’s leader Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani recently suggested sending troops into Syria to battle Assad’s forces. Military bases situated near Turkey’s southeastern border with northern Syria have become a crucial hub used for the delivery of outside supplies. Unmarked NATO warplanes near Iskenderum have received fighters from Libya’s Transitional National Council wielding weapons formerly belonging to Gaddafi’s arsenal. Abdel Hakim Belhaj, (former leader of the extremist Libyan Islamic Fighting Group turned NTC military governor at the directive of NATO) is leading the infiltration of Libyans into Syria in person with the help of the Turkish government. It has also been reported that Mahdi al-Harati, resigned from his functions as deputy chief of the Military Council in Tripoli to oversee the Free Syrian Army.

Syrian press has also reported that armed terrorist groups brandishing up-to-date American and Israeli weapons have roamed the countryside of Damascus committing blind acts of terror by setting off explosive devices and kidnapping civilians. As the NATOGCC continue to insist that Assad is committing acts of genocide against unarmed civilians, one must draw correlations between events reported by the Syrian state media and recent statements released by the leadership of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, praising the arrival of Iraqi fighters in Syria and advising rebels to use roadside bombs. Paradoxically, Al-Qaeda front man Ayman al-Zawahri has called on Muslims from across the Arab World to mobilize and support the Free Syrian Armyafter the disappointing Russian and Chinese veto at the UNSC. Few things are more absurd than the notion of Al-Qaeda terrorists – unanimously portrayed as ostensible “savages” by virtually all-Western media sources – entrust the apparatus of the United Nations and their capacity to resolve the Syrian conflict. The true purpose of Al-Qaeda and its role in influencing foreign policy has never been more evident.

Surely, Assad accusing foreign-sponsored terrorist groups of fomenting violence in Syria is simply evidence of his illegitimacy – as Western and Gulf allies assert. Even as Syrian state TV broadcasts reports showing seized weapons stockpiles and confessions by terrorists describing how they obtained arms from foreign sources, the NATOGCC continues to draft legislation in an effort pressure the Assad regime into dissolution. In the face of an outright campaign of foreign-funded sabotage, Syrian hackers have targeted Al-Jazeera’s “Syria Live Blog”, which provides ongoing coverage of the unrest. The hacker-ring boldly denounced Al Jazeera for broadcasting”false and fabricated news to ignite sedition among the people of Syria to achieve the goals of Washington and Tel Aviv.”

Through the fiery rhetoric of Susan Rice and her relentless condemnation of Assad – like Gaddafi before him – the United States is again attempting to invoke the Right to Protect (R2P) doctrine to take direct action against the Assad regime. In another parallel to the Libyan conflict, the UN’s astounding official death toll in Syria is taken solely from human rights groups, backed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the International Criminal Court and the Syrian National Council. The official numbers rely exclusively on an obscure organization known as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights(SOHR) – based in London, not Damascus – whose evidence is largely reliant on hearsay, pixelated YouTube videos and activist Twitter feeds. SOHR’s disputed reports present evidence that would not hold up in any court of law, much less should it be the basis of United Nations resolutions. The Observatory’s director Rami Abdelrahman collaborates directly with British Foreign Minister William Hague and derives legitimacy solely from connections with corporate/foundation-funded civil society networks. Claims that Assad’s security forces indiscriminately kill scores of newborn babies are palpably a product of Britain’s foreign office.

As a further indication of the on-going media war in Syria, none is more telling than the report produced by the Arab League’s observer mission into Syria. The contents of the report were completely ignored by the corporate-media after Qatar disputed its findings, the only nation to do so in the Arab League’s Ministerial Committee. The report unalterably concluded that the Syrian government was in no way lethally repressing peaceful protestors. Furthermore, the report credits armed gangs with the bombing of civilian buses, trains carrying diesel oil, bombing of police buses and the bombing of bridges and pipelines. During an interview with Arab League observer Ahmed Manaï, he praises the Sino-Russian veto at the UNSC and encouraged the Syrian leadership to implement reforms. Manaï states, “The Arab League is entirely discredited by burying the report of its own observers’ mission and its appeal to the Security Council. It missed the opportunity to participate in the settlement of the Syrian affair. All it can offer in the future will be worthless.”

While the initial observer report is predictably absent from mainstream media coverage and cited as inept (presumably for contradicting the official line of the allied Western-Gulf powers), Arab League mission leader Mohammed al-Dabi officially resigned, stating, “I won’t work one more time in the framework of the Arab League, I performed my job with full integrity and transparency but I won’t work here again as the situation is skewed.” The United Nations and the Arab League are now considering what was originally a joint observer mission – now referred to as a peacekeeping mission. The Arab League, in tandem with Saudi Arabia is preparing a nearly identical resolution calling for an armed peacekeeping council to present to the UN. Much like the indistinguishable saber rattling seen before Libyan intervention, the new resolution condemns Assad for lethal repression and calls for a transitional shift to democracy. The resolution is expected to create similar Sino-Russian divisions over its implementation, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, previously scorned the document as “the same unbalanced draft resolution text.”

The conflict in Syria has brought light to longstanding Cold War divisions between world powers. The Sino-Russian veto of the UNSC resolution calling for intervention has blocked the opportunity for Western powers to exert overt aggression, as demonstrated by NATO in Libya. Instead, it appears that the Assad regime will be destabilized through covert mercenary groups bent on committing blind acts of terrorism by means of sniper assassinations and roadside bombs. Learning from the Libyan experience, Russia and China perceive the UN Human Rights Report authored by Karen Koning AbuZayd, a director of the Washington-based corporate-funded think-tank, Middle East Policy Council – to be explicitly comprised; victims among the civilian population are a result of armed paramilitaries doing battle with the Syrian military in residential areas. In an interview with former Russian Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov pledges that Russia will protect Iran, Syria, and the world from American fascism. In a show of support for the Syrian government, Russia has sent a large naval force into the region and China has further warned against a strike on Syria.

It is truly a paradox that the countries least fit to dictate principles of human rights, do so largely unhindered on the world stage. Without hesitation Hillary Clinton proclaimed, “What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty” referring to the Sino-Russian veto. She then called for the formation of an international alliance between the war-profiteering elite of the West and absolutist Wahhabi Persian Gulf monarchies – amusingly titled, the Friends of Syria. International calls to abstain from violence have done little to influence the Gulf Cooperation Council and their brutal crackdown against Shiites in Bahrain. Incredibly, Saudi Arabia has entered the dialogue on human rights and democracy promotion – perhaps the world’s most defining feudalistic theocracy, a nation that prohibits political parties and national elections and executes those who apostatize Islam.

Iran’s Press TV news network has reportedly leaked intelligence exposing the American agenda in Syria. The report calls for the recognition of the Syrian National Council as the legitimate government and their positioning in Turkey to work against the Assad regime. Washington would then task Turkey with sending troops into Syria to arm the opposition forces, followed by Wahhabi fighters and Libyan mercenaries. Ominously, the intelligence stipulates that Israel will enter the fray to carry out military operations against Syria. If the regime fails to dissolve, Syrian state television channels will be taken down and Assad will be assassinated. Considering how other enemies of the West have faired in recent times, the sequence of events reported by Press TV would be largely unsurprising. The Wahhabis of the Persian Gulf are playing junior to American aggression in an effort to dominate the Shia-Alawi religious faction presently upheld by the leadership of Syria and Iran, but also to secure their places as regional powers.

Domestic affairs in Syria are of little consequence to the powers trying to topple the nation; the real priority is to further isolate Iran by eliminating its Shia-Alawi ally in Damascus. Israel reaps enormous benefit from toppling the Assad regime, as the Syrian Nation Council pledges to cut ties with Iran and discontinue arms shipments to Hezbollah and Hamas. If Syria falls and Iran is directly threatened, the potential for a regional conflict of the utmost seriousness exists, assuming China and Russia move in to defend Iran.

Such a conflict would create detrimental implications for the global economy, potentially triggering a hyper-inflationary financial crisis. William Hague and billionaire financiers behind the civil society groups bestowing legitimacy to violent opposition actors are not the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. Although the reforms have been slow, the Assad government is in the midst of drafting a new constitution. Syria’s sovereignty has come under direct fire from powers claiming to be defending Syria’s people. An attempt on the life of Bashar al-Assad may have similar consequences to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. As the Syrian National Council familiarly calls for the implementation of a no-fly zone over, those members of the International Community with any integrity left must work diligently to diffuse conflict in the region.

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IOC/Saudi Arabia: End Ban on Women in Sport

Posted on 18 February 2012.

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Saudi Policy to Bar Women, Girls Violates Olympic Charter

  • The female basketball team of Jeddah United warm up in Jordan on April 21, 2009. Jeddah United is the only private sports company with women’s teams.

     

‘No women allowed,’ is the kingdom’s message to Saudi women and girls who want to play sports. The fact that women and girls cannot train to compete clearly violates the Olympic Charter’s pledge to equality and gives the Olympic movement itself a black eye.
Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch

(Los Angeles) – As the world prepares for the 2012 Olympics, the Saudi government is systematically discriminating against women in sports and physical education, and has never sent a female athlete to the Olympics, with no penalty from the international Olympic authorities, Human Rights Watch said in a new reportreleased today. Human Rights Watch called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make ending discrimination against women in sports in the kingdom a condition for Saudi Arabia’s participation in Olympic sporting events, including the 2012 London Games.

“‘No women allowed,’ is the kingdom’s message to Saudi women and girls who want to play sports,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that women and girls cannot train to compete clearly violates the Olympic Charter’s pledge to equality and gives the Olympic movement itself a black eye.”

The 51-page report, “‘Steps of the Devil’: Denial of Women and Girls’ Right to Sport in Saudi Arabia,” documents discrimination by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education in denying girls physical education in state schools, as well as discriminatory practices by the General Presidency for Youth Welfare, a youth and sports ministry, in licensing women’s gyms and supporting only all-male sports clubs. The National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia also has no programs for women athletes and has not fielded women in past Olympic Games.

In its interviews with Saudi women and international sporting officials, the report found that Saudi government restrictions put athletics beyond the reach of almost all women. There is no government sports infrastructure for women, with all designated buildings, sport clubs, courses, expert trainers, and referees limited exclusively to men. The ban on women’s private, for-fee sports clubs has forced women to restrict themselves to fitness gyms that rarely feature swimming pools, a running track, or playing fields for team sports. Membership fees there are beyond the means of many ordinary Saudi women and girls. Official sporting bodies hold no competitive sports for Saudi women athletes in the kingdom and do not support Saudi sportswomen in regional or international competitions.

Saudi Arabia is one of only three countries in the world never to have sent a female athlete to the Olympics. The other two, Qatar and Brunei, do not bar women from competitive sports and their women athletes have participated in other international sporting competitions. Qatar has supported sports for women over the past decade and said that it plans to send women athletes to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

While the IOC has criticized Saudi Arabia for failing to send women athletes to the Olympics, it has not conditioned the kingdom’s participation on ending discrimination against women in sports. In July 2011, IOC spokeswoman Sandrine Tonge said that the IOC governing body “does not give ultimatums nor deadlines but rather believes that a lot can be achieved through dialogue.” The IOC charter, however, asserts that sport is a right for everyone and bans discrimination in practicing sports on the basis of gender. In 1999, the IOC banned Afghanistan under the Taliban from participating in the 2000 Sydney Olympics due, in part, to the Taliban’s discrimination against women in sport.

Human Rights Watch called on Saudi Arabia to act within one year to introduce physical education for girls in all schools, open women’s sections, and allocate funds to women’s sport in the youth ministry, the Saudi National Olympic Committee, and Saudi sports federations. The organization said that these steps are necessary evidence of a Saudi effort to end discrimination against women in sports and thus a prerequisite for allowing the kingdom to be represented in Olympic events.

“The IOC should live up to Olympic values and press the Saudis to start women’s sport programs as a condition for remaining within the Olympic family,” Wilcke said. “Sports can be a great cause for good, but forcing Saudi women to watch all-male teams represent them every four years can only demoralize those aspiring to sporting glory.”
 

Women and girls are not only denied the thrill of competition, but also the physical and psychological benefits, leading to longer, healthier lives, that participation in sports conveys. Obesity rates have been growing in Saudi Arabia in recent years, in particular among women, as have related diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In Saudi Arabia, between two-thirds to three-quarters of adults and 25 to 40 percent of children and adolescents are estimated to be overweight or obese, according to a scientific article in Obesity Reviewin 2011.

Addressing health threats through expanded sports opportunities for women and girls has also been supported by Saudi religious leaders. For example, Shaikh Ali ‘Abbas al-Hikmi, a member of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, the highest religious body, considered women practicing sport an “Islamic necessity” and ‘Adil al-Kalabani, former chief imam of the Holy Mosque in Mecca, supported opening women’s sports clubs.

Other government clerics of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, like Shaikh Dr. Abd al-Karim al-Khudair, however, have decried women’s sports as “steps of the devil” leading to moral corruption. The government has clamped down on women’s gyms, closing and denying licenses to several unauthorized facilities in 2009 and 2010. Now, only “health centers,” often attached to hospitals, may cater to women wanting to exercise.
 

One of the women interviewed for the report, Dima H., told Human Rights Watch that her happiest moments growing up were when she played soccer with her brothers, but that she was only able to play sports within the guarded compound of ARAMCO, the Saudi national oil company, which employs many Westerners and where women are also able to drive.
 

Girls, unlike boys, receive no physical education in state schools, and inferior quality physical education in the private schools that offer the subject. Of 153 youth ministry-supported sports clubs in the country, none have a women’s team. Only one private sports company, Jeddah United, boasts women’s basketball teams, while other women’s soccer teams train informally and play in underground leagues.

Even at state universities, there are few possibilities for women to practice sports. One female professor told Human Rights Watch that her dean introduced a sporting facility for female students, including basketball and table tennis, some four years ago, but that the sporting facility remains unused and the dean had since been edged out for being “too progressive.”

Human Rights Watch said that the exclusion of women and girls from sports and exercise in Saudi Arabia is part and parcel of the wide-scale, systematic discrimination against them in the country. Women have no rights to function as autonomous human beings; instead they are required to obtain permission from a male legal guardian (a father, son, or husband) to carry out ordinary life activities, including employment, education, medical procedures, opening a business or bank account, traveling, marrying, or driving. While Saudi vowed to reform its guardianship system in 2009, it has failed to take any measurable steps to reform the system. Women also face legally mandated segregation in all public places, including the work place, schools, and universities.

Human Rights Watch said that ending discrimination in sports has the potential to widen cracks in the guardianship system and other discriminatory practices.

“Saudi Arabia has one of the worst records of respecting and protecting the rights of women,” said Wilcke. “As the Olympics approach, it is time for Saudi Arabia to end this abusive system that denies women and girls the right to participate in sports and public life.”

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NATO to stay out of Syria, even with a UN mandate

Posted on 18 February 2012.

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www.theuglytruth.wordpress.comQuantcast

Sec.-Gen. Anders Fogh Rasmussen urges Middle East countries to find solution for violence

ed note–remember as you read this–

Wilson promised to keep America out of WWI.

FDR promised to keep America out of WWII.

–promises, promises…

And if indeed there is ANY truth to Rasmussen’s statements, it is ONLY because Zionist-owned Nato knows that military action in Syria equates to problems with Russia. 

jpost.com

ANKARA – NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western alliance had no intention of intervening in Syria even in the event of a UN mandate to protect civilians, and urged Middle East countries to find a way to end the spiraling violence.

Rasmussen told Reuters on Friday he also rejected the possibility of providing logistical support for proposed “humanitarian corridors” to ferry relief to towns and cities bearing the brunt of President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

While NATO had acted under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians in Libya and had also received active support from several fellow Arab countries, neither condition had been fulfilled in Syria.

Asked if NATO’s stance would change if the United Nations provided a mandate, Rasmussen was doubtful.

“No, I don’t think so because Syria is also a different society, it is much more complicated ethnically, politically, religiously. That’s why I do believe that a regional solution should be found,” he said.

Thousands of civilians have been killed by Syrian security forces since an uprising against Assad’s rule began last March. The government says more than 2,000 soldiers and police have been killed by foreign-backed “terrorists”.

International powers along with the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League will meet in Tunis on Feb. 24 as part of a newly-created “Friends of Syria Group” to look for a way out of a crisis that has raised fears of wider sectarian strife between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

Trying Diplomacy

Turkey, a Muslim NATO member bordering Syria, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has been at the forefront of regional efforts to persuade Assad to end the brutal repression and give way to protesters’ demands for more democracy and freedom.

Earlier this month, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Syria that was partly based on an Arab League plan, prompting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to accuse major powers of regarding Syria as a “bargaining chip.”

Iran is the Assad government’s other main source of support. Turkey has sought to play the role of “honest broker” between its Western partners and neighbouring Iran, over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.

Iran was irked by Turkey’s agreement to host a NATO anti-missile radar defense system.

And concern has been voiced inside Turkey over the possibility that information provided by the radar system could be passed to Israel. Rasmussen sought to dispel such concerns.

“It is a NATO system and the data within that system will not be shared with third countries. It is a NATO system and of course we will share data within the NATO framework,” he said.

Having championed the cause for a Palestinian state, Turkey is now on bad terms with Israel, which is a regional partner of NATO, while not a member.

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ANTI-IRAN ZIO-NAZI PROPAGANDA

Posted on 18 February 2012.

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Israeli Officials Blame Iran for Recent Bombings, Despite Lack of EvidenceQuantcast

 

Bombs used in India, Georgia, and Thailand were ‘strikingly reminiscent’ of those in Israeli-supported attacks on Iranian scientists

by John Glaser

antiwar.com

Israeli officials continued to blame Iran for a series of botched bombings in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, despite denials from Iran of any involvement.

Three individuals carrying Iranian passports in Bangkok accidentally blew the roof off of their rented home and proceeded to run away, then one attempted and failed to blow up a taxi cab that refused to pick him up and instead tore his own legs off in a third explosion. This, the Israelis alarmingly called Iranian terrorism.

Thai officials initially declined to speak on the investigation, saying they did not have evidence of direct involvement from Tehran. But Thailand police chief Gen. Prewpan Dhamapong said Thursday “I can tell you that the target was specific and aimed at Israeli diplomatic staff.”

This was supposed to have linked the Thai bombings to two other attempted yet failed attacks by Iranians to kill Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia earlier in the week. Reportedly, the bombs used in all three countries, some of which were magnetically attached to cars, were similar, denoting similar origin. “The type of improvised explosives they used were the same. The type that was attached to vehicles,” Prewpan said.

Still, officials in India, Georgia, and Thailand have all stopped short of speculating on who might be responsible for these attacks. Notably, however, all three attacks “were strikingly reminiscent of the bombings — also featuring the use of magnetic devices — that have killed several Iranian scientists,” reports the Washington Post.

U.S. officials have confirmed that Israel has funded, armed, and trained an Iranian dissident group to carry out terrorist attacks killing Iranian scientists inside Iran. In those attacks, magnetic bombs were attached to cars in apparently the same way as happened in Georgia, India, and Thailand – which were supposedly aimed at Israeli diplomats, but not one of which succeeded.

Israeli officials and hawks in the U.S. have tried to use these failed operations as evidence of Iranian support for terror and aggression around the world. But so far no evidence of Iranian involvement has surfaced.

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Is Iranian Government Behind Recent String Of Bombings? Not Bloody Likely!

Posted on 17 February 2012.

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by Keith Johnson

http://revoltoftheplebs.wordpress.com

Iran seems an unlikely culprit for the series of attacks that have occurred in South Asia and the Caucus region of Eurasia, according to Ashrin Adib-Moghaddam of the Guardian.

“What would be the motive?,” asks Ashrin. “The argument that Iran is retaliating for the murder of five civilian nuclear scientists in Iran is not plausible. If Iran wanted to target Israeli interests, it has other means at its disposal. It is hard to imagine that the Iranian government would send Iranian operatives to friendly countries, completely equipped with Iranian money and passports – making the case against them as obvious as possible.”

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is reader in the comparative and international politics of western Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author of several books including Iran in World Politics: The Question of the Islamic Republic and A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations

In his most recent article, Adib-Moghaddam goes on to point out that even the Israelis have confessed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are a professional, highly trained and politically savvy group. “So why would they launch such a clumsy and self-defeating operation?,” Adib-Moghaddam queries. “And why India, Georgia and Thailand, three countries that Iran has had cordial relations with during a period when Iran is facing increasing sanctions spearheaded by the United States? A few days ago, India agreed a rupee-based oil and gas deal with Iran and resisted US pressures to join the western boycott of the Iranian energy sector. As a net importer of 12% of Iranian oil, India’s total trade with Iran amounted to $13.67bn in 2010-2011. What would be the motive for damaging relations with one of Iran’s major trading partners and regional heavyweights?”

The most recent attack came Tuesday in Bangkok. According to the New York Times, “Witnesses said three men, who appeared to be foreigners, fled a house in the Sukhumvit neighborhood of Bangkok after an explosion in the early afternoon destroyed the house’s roof. One escaped and another was detained at the city’s main international airport. The fourth suspect, a woman, was not at the house at the time of the explosion, but is being sought because she rented the house and was occasionally seen there, the police said. Witnesses and the police said the third man who left the house, bleeding and seemingly disoriented, lobbed two explosive devices, one at a taxi and later another at approaching police officers, and the second blast severed the man’s legs and wounded several Thais.”

Of course this would be a non-story if the “foreigners” had been of any other persuasion, but since the Thai government claims to have found Iranian passports on two of the three suspects, the Israelis have jumped on the story to exploit it as an act of terrorism.

“The attempted terror attack in Thailand proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to operate in the ways of terror and the latest attacks are an example of that,” said Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “Iran and Hezbollah are unrelenting terror elements endangering the stability of the region, and endangering the stability of the world.”

What a joke! Even the New York Times admits, “It was possible that the men were simply arms smugglers, drug traffickers or gangsters in a city known as a hub of illicit activity.”

In a recent article for Antiwar.com, John Glaser writes, “Barak’s statement illustrates Israel’s frenzied eagerness to paint Iran as a global terrorist menace, since the Thai intelligence agencies don’t think the incident was an act of terror, especially since it seems more like three idiots playing with explosives and blowing themselves up. Furthermore, what possible interest the Iranian government has in blowing up a rented cottage and a taxi in Bangkok, Thailand has escaped the [Israeli] version of events.”

Glaser continues by pointing out that, “The attacks came just days after NBC News broke a story in which an unnamed U.S. official revealed that Israel funded, trained, and armed the Iranian terrorist dissident group Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK) in carrying out assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.

He concludes by saying, “That Israel would have the temerity to condemn acts of covert terrorism is hypocritical.”

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Amid violence, Syria’s Assad sets date for vote on new constitution

Posted on 17 February 2012.

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Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT — With his nation plunging toward civil war, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Wednesday that a nationwide referendum would be held this month on a new constitution that is the centerpiece of what he says is a plan to reform the country.

The opposition dismissed the announcement as an effort to buy time, and it was not clear how the a vote could be carried out in a country torn by violence. Large areas of Syria are no longer under government control.

The new constitution would enshrine freedom of speech and worship and end the current monopoly on power held by Assad’s Baath party, which has ruled for four decades. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said it could “turn Syria into an example to follow in terms of public freedoms and political plurality.”

Assad’s foes say the government regularly tramples rights guaranteed in the current constitution. They scoffed at the proposed changes as a sign of desperation.

“This shows Assad is living in an alternate reality,” said Rafif Jouejati, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for the Local Coordinating Committees, a Syrian opposition network. “It’s completely impractical.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney labeled the proposed referendum “laughable. … It makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution,” Carney said.

The referendum is probably meant in part to please Syria’s dwindling list of foreign allies, notably Russia, which along with China vetoed a Security Council resolution this month for Assad to give up power. Russia has pressed Assad to push ahead with reforms.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in The Hague, Netherlands, called the plan for a referendum “a step forward.”

As Assad announced the referendum, a thick plume of smoke billowed from a fuel pipeline in the city of Homs, which has become a focus of the escalating conflict. The government and the opposition accused each other of attacking the pipeline in Syria’s third-largest city.

Opposition activists said the government had launched new assaults on Homs and other rebel strongholds. The opposition reported at least 32 people were killed across the country, reported Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite network.

Syrians fleeing the violence have flooded into Lebanon, though not in the numbers the United Nations had expected. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has registered more than 6,000 Syrian refugees in Beirut and northern Lebanon and estimates 2,000 to 3,000 more are living in the Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon.

Lebanese activists who have formed a coalition of groups to aid refugees estimated the number of Syrians that have fled since mass demonstrations against the Syrian government began nearly one year ago could be as high as 20,000. They said many of those don’t bother to register with the U.N. because they don’t need aid. Others avoid registering out of fear of being identified by the Syrian government.

At the U.N., diplomats were working on a General Assembly resolution condemning the Syrian government, which may come Thursday. General Assembly action carries less weight than a Security Council resolution, but cannot be vetoed.

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