Globalist Fueled Revolutions Around the World

Dozens Hurt at Yemen Protests

February 17, 2011

Irish Times - Fierce clashes between protesters and government loyalists left at least 40 wounded in Yemen today, the seventh day of demonstrations demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule.

Fighting broke out in the capital Sanaa after about 800 government loyalists armed with knives and clubs confronted about 1,500 protesters, who responded by throwing rocks.

At least 40 people were reported to have been wounded in the violence.

Mr Saleh, a US ally in the fight against a resurgent wing of al-Qaeda in Yemen that has launched attacks on foreign and regional targets, is struggling to quell month-old protests now erupting almost daily.

"We won't stop protesting until this regime falls. We've been patient long enough," said student Salah Abdullah.

The youths on the streets say they are angered by corruption and soaring unemployment. A third of the population in the Arabian Peninsula state face chronic hunger and 40 per cent live on less than $2 a day.

Yemen is struggling to cement a truce with northern Shia rebels and stamp out an increasingly violent southern separatist movement.

After hours of fighting in Sanaa's Sitteen Street, pavements were stained with blood and people hid inside shuttered stores.

A Reuters reporter said a few dozen police were present at the clashes, but only fired shots in the air and did not try to break up the fighting. Loyalists beat several photographers and took their cameras.

Trying to calm the streets, Mr Saleh has made concessions such as a promise to step down when his term ends in 2013 and a vow not to let his son inherit power.

Opposition parties, which had drawn tens of thousands in rallies, have now agreed to talk with him. But protests have continued, no longer led by the organised opposition. Students and other activists have organised smaller protests using mobile text messages and Facebook.

"The protests are taking on a younger look and the inability of the opposition parties to control them are bad news for President Saleh," said Charles Dunbar of Boston University.

“The US and the international community would have real cause for worry in a post-Saleh world in Yemen where the state in general and the army in particular are not in a position to maintain control should he leave."

Analysts say any uprising in Yemen, neighbour to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, is unlikely to lead to sudden government collapse. But unrest could unfold slowly and lead to more bloodshed in a country where one in two people own a gun.

The latest demonstrations have been countered by Saleh loyalists ready to use violence. In the south, security forces have also used force more willingly.

Two protesters were killed in the southern port city of Aden yesterday when police fired shots to disperse a demonstration.

Mr Saleh has been touring provinces trying to rally support and sent his vice president to Aden today to head a committee to investigate the violence.

Police fired in the air but failed to break up hundreds of people at a sit-in around Aden's city hall today to protest against police treatment of demonstrators.

In Sanaa, Saleh loyalists have occupied the main Tahrir Square for the past week, sleeping in tents, to deny anti-government protesters access to the symbolic public space that bears the same name as the epicentre of Egypt's revolution.

South of Sanaa, anti-government protesters in Taiz took over the main square days ago, with their numbers swelling to a few thousand in the evening and thinning out at dawn.

Brutal Turn in Gulf Protest Leaves 4 Dead in Bahrain; Military Bans Gatherings

February 17, 2011

AP - Bahrain's top diplomat says the pre-dawn crackdown on anti-government protesters was justified because the demonstrators were pushing the kingdom to the "brink of the sectarian abyss."

Foreign Minister Khalid Al Khalifa said Thursday the violence that occurred during the raid that swept away a protest encampment and left at least four people dead in Manama's central Pearl Square was "regrettable."

Speaking to reporters after meeting with his Gulf counterparts, al Khalifa said the protesters were pushing the Sunni-ruled, Shiite-majority nation to the "brink of the sectarian abyss" and "polarizing the country."

Troops and tanks locked down the capital of this tiny Gulf kingdom after riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into demonstrators, many of them sleeping, in a pre-dawn assault Thursday that uprooted their protest camp demanding political change. Medical officials said four people were killed.

Hours after the attack on Manama's main Pearl Square, the military announced a ban on gatherings, saying on state TV that it had "key parts" of the capital under its control.

After several days of holding back, the island nation's Sunni rulers unleashed a heavy crackdown, trying to stamp out the first anti-government upheaval to reach the Arab states of the Gulf since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. In the surprise assault, police tore down protesters' tents, beating men and women inside and blasting some with shotgun sprays of birdshot.

It was a sign of how deeply the Sunni monarchy — and other Arab regimes in the Gulf — fear the repercussions of a prolonged wave of protests, led by members of the country's Shiite majority but also joined by growing numbers of discontented Sunnis.

Tiny Bahrain is a pillar of Washington's military framework in the region. It hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is a critical counterbalance to Iran. Bahrain's rulers and their Arab allies depict any sign of unrest among their Shiite populations as a move by neighboring Shiite-majority Iran to expand its clout in the region.

But the assault may only further enrage protesters, who before the attack had called for large rallies Friday. In the wake of the bloodshed, angry demonstrators chanted "the regime must go" and burned pictures of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa outside the emergency ward at Salmaniyah hospital, the main state medical facility.

"We are even angrier now. They think they can clamp down on us, but they have made us angrier," Makki Abu Taki, whose son was killed in the assault, shouted in the hospital morgue. "We will take to the streets in larger numbers and honor our martyrs. The time for Al Khalifa has ended."

The Obama administration expressed alarm over the violent crackdown. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Bahrain's foreign minister to register Washington's "deep concern" and urge restraint. Similar criticism came from Britain and the European Union.

Salmaniyah hospital was thrown into chaos by a stream of dozens of wounded from Pearl Square, brought in by ambulances and private cars. At least one of the dead was peppered with bloody holes from pellets fired from police shotguns. Nurses rushed in men and women on stretchers, their heads bleeding, arms in casts, faces bruised. At the entrance, women wrapped in black robes embraced each other and wept.

The capital Manama was effectively shut down Thursday. For the first time in the crisis, tanks rolled into the streets and military checkpoints were set up as army patrols circulated. The Interior Ministry warned Bahrainis to stay off the streets. Banks and other key institutions did not open, and workers stayed home, unable or to afraid to pass through checkpoints to get to their jobs.

Barbed wire and police cars with flashing blue lights encircled Pearl Square, the site of anti-government rallies since Monday. The square was turned into a field of flattened tents and the strewn belongings of the protesters who had camped there — pieces of clothing and boxes of food.

Banners lay trampled on the ground, littered with broken glass, tear gas canisters and debris. A body covered in a white sheet lay in a pool of blood on the side of a road nearby.

Demonstrators had been camping out for days around the landmark square's 300-foot (90-meter) monument featuring a giant pearl, a testament to the island's pearl-diving past.

The protesters' demands have two main objectives: force the ruling Sunni monarchy to give up its control over top government posts and all critical decisions, and address deep grievances held by the country's majority Shiites who make up 70 percent of Bahrain's 500,000 citizens but claim they face systematic discrimination and poverty and are effectively blocked from key roles in public service and the military.

Shiites have clashed with police before in protests over their complaints. But the growing numbers of Sunnis joining the latest protests have come as a surprise to authorities, said Simon Henderson, a Gulf specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"The Sunnis seem to increasingly dislike what is a very paternalistic government," he said, adding that the crackdown was "symptomatic" of Gulf nations' response to crises. "As far as the Gulf rulers are concerned there's only one proper way with this and that is: be tough and be tough early."

The assault came early Thursday with little warning, demonstrators said. Police surrounded the square and then quickly moved in. Some lined up on a bridge overhead, pumping down volleys of tear gas, as others waded into the camp, knocking down tents and swinging truncheons at those inside.

"We yelled, 'We are peaceful! Peaceful!'" said protester Mahmoud Mansouri. "The women and children were attacked just like the rest of us."

Dr. Sadek Al-Ikri, 44, said he was tending to sick protesters at a makeshift medical tent in the square when the police stormed in. He said he was tied up and severely beaten, then thrown on a bus with others.

"They were beating me so hard I could no longer see. There was so much blood running from my head," he said. "I was yelling, 'I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor.' But they didn't stop."

He said the police beating him spoke Urdu, the main language of Pakistan. A pillar of the protest demands is to end the Sunni regime's practice of giving citizenship to other Sunnis from around the region to try to offset the demographic strength of Shiites. Many of the new Bahrainis are given security posts.

Al-Ikri said he and others on the bus were left on a highway overpass, but the beatings didn't stop. Eventually, the doctor said he fainted but could hear another police official say in Arabic:

"Stop beating him. He's dead. We should just leave him here."

Many families were separated in the chaos. An Associated Press photographer saw police rounding up lost children and taking them into vehicles.

Hussein Abbas, 22, was awakened by a missed call on his cell phone from his wife, presumably trying to warn him about reports that police were preparing to move in.

"Then all of a sudden the square was filled with tear gas clouds. Our women were screaming. ... What kind of ruler does this to his people? There were women and children with us!"

ABC News said its correspondent, Miguel Marquez, was caught in the crowd and beaten by men with billy clubs, although he was not badly injured.

The violence killed four people, said hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Bahrain's parliament — minus opposition lawmakers who are staging a boycott — met in emergency session. One pro-government member, Jamila Salman, broke into tears. A leader of the Shiite opposition Abdul-Jalil Khalil said 18 lawmakers resigned to protest the killings.

Hours before police moved in, the mood in the makeshift tent city was festive and confident.

People sipped tea, ate donated food and smoked apple- and grape-flavored tobacco from water pipes. The men and women mainly sat separately — the women a sea of black in their traditional dress. Some youths wore the red-and-white Bahraini flag as a cape.

While the protests began as a cry for the country's Sunni monarchy to loosen its grip, the uprising's demands have steadily grown bolder. Many protesters called for the government to provide more jobs and better housing, free all political detainees and abolish the system that offers Bahraini citizenship to Sunnis from around the Middle East.

Increasingly, protesters also chanted slogans to wipe away the entire ruling dynasty that has led Bahrain for more than 200 years and is firmly backed by the Sunni sheiks and monarchs across the Gulf.

The stability of Bahrain's government is seen as crucial by its other allies in the Gulf, who — though they rarely say it in public — see Bahrain's Shiite majority as the weak link in their unity against Iranian influence.

Hard-liners in Iran have often expressed kinship and support for Bahrain's Shiites. But in Bahrain, the community staunchly denies being a tool of Tehran, saying their complaints are rooted in their country's unbalanced system.

Although Bahrain is sandwiched between OPEC heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Qatar, it has limited oil resources and depends heavily on its role as a regional financial hub and playground for Saudis, who can drive over a causeway to enjoy Bahrain's Western-style bars, hotels and beaches.

The unrest could threaten the opening next month of Formula One racing, one of the centerpieces of Bahrain's claims for international prestige. The GP2 Asia Series race, due to start Friday on the same circuit used by Formula One, was called off at the request of the Bahrain Motorsport Federation "due to force majeure," race organizers announced Thursday.

Social networking websites had been abuzz Wednesday with calls to press ahead with the protests. They were matched by insults from presumed government backers who called the demonstrators traitors and agents of Iran.

The protest movement's next move is unclear.

Before the attack on the square, protesters had called for major rallies after Friday prayers. The reported deaths, however, could become a fresh rallying point. Thousands of mourners had turned out for the funeral processions of two other people killed in the protests earlier in the week.

After prayers Wednesday evening, a Shiite imam in the square had urged Bahrain's youth not to back down.

"This square is a trust in your hands and so will you whittle away this trust or keep fast?" the imam said. "So be careful and be concerned for your country and remember that the regime will try to rip this country from your hand but if we must leave it in coffins then so be it!"

Across the city, government supporters in a caravan of cars waved national flags and displayed portraits of the king.

"Come join us!" they yelled into markets and along busy streets. "Show your loyalty."

Thousands of mourners turned out Wednesday for the funeral procession of 31-year-old Fadhel al-Matrook, one of two people killed Monday in the protests. Later, in Pearl Square, his father Salman pleaded with protesters not to give up.

"He is not only my son. He is the son of Bahrain, the son of this nation," he yelled. "His blood shouldn't be wasted."

Anti-government Protests Spread to Libya

February 15, 2011

Associated Press - Hundreds of Libyans calling for the government's ouster took to the streets early Wednesday in the country's second-largest city as Egypt-inspired unrest spread to the country long ruled by Moammar Gadhafi.

Ashur Shamis, a Libyan opposition activist in London, and witnesses said the protest began Tuesday and lasted until the early hours Wednesday in the port city of Benghazi. Demonstrators chanted "no God but Allah, Moammar is the enemy of Allah" and "Down, down to corruption and to the corrupt." Police and armed government backers quickly clamped down on the protesters, firing rubber bullets, Shami said.

The outbreak of protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Iran has roiled the Arab world and brought unprecedented pressure on leaders like Gadhafi who have held virtually unchecked power for decades. It also posed new challenges for the United States, which has strategic interests in each of the countries. President Barack Obama conceded Tuesday he is concerned about the region's stability and prodded governments to get out ahead of the change.

As in the uprisings that toppled longtime autocratic rulers in two countries flanking Libya — Egypt and Tunisia — Libyan activists are used social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to rally people in their homeland. They called for a major protest on Thursday.

Libya's official news agency did not carry any word of the anti-government protests. It reported only that supporters of Gadhafi were demonstrating Wednesday in the capital, Tripoli, as well as Benghazi and other cities. JANA, the official news agency, quoted a statement from the pro-Gadhafi demonstrators as pledging to "defend the leader and the revolution." The statement described the anti-government protesters as "cowards and traitors."

Gadhafi, long reviled in the West, has been trying to bring his country out of isolation, announcing in 2003 that he was abandoning his program for weapons of mass destruction, renouncing terrorism, and compensating victims of the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin and the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Those decisions opened the door for warmer relations with the West and the lifting of U.N. and U.S. sanctions, but Gadhafi continues to face allegations of human rights violations in the North African nation.

The protesters Tuesday and early Wednesday apparently were provoked by the failure of talks between the government and a committee representing families of hundreds of inmates killed when security forces opened fire during 1996 riots at Abu Salim, Libya's most notorious prison. The government has begun to pay families compensation, but the committee is demanding prosecution of those responsible.

But the protesters — buoyed by uprisings that toppled Tunisian President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak — didn't limit themselves to the singular issue and instead called for more far-reaching political and economic reforms.

Protesters chanted slogans against Gadhafi as well as Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, according to witnesses and videos posted on the Internet.

The government also planned to free Wednesday 110 Islamic militants who were members of a group plotting to overthrow Gadhafi, although it was not clear if the release would occur as scheduled in the wake of the protests.

A Libyan security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said 14 people, including 10 policemen, had been injured in clashes Tuesday. He said protesters were armed with knives and stones and police tried to disperse the crowd using water cannons.

The protests occurred after several opposition groups in exile called on Monday for Gadhafi's overthrow and for a peaceful transition of power. "Col. Gadhafi and all his family members should relinquish powers," the groups said in a statement.

Independent confirmation was not possible as the government keeps tight control over the media, but one video clip dated Feb. 15 and posted on a website called "Libya Uprising Today" website showed protesters carrying signs and chanting: "No God but Allah, Moammar is the enemy of Allah." Another video with the same date showed a gathering running away from gunfire while shots being heard in the video. A young man in a white, bloodstained robe was then shown being carried by protesters.

The protests scheduled for Thursday were to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the day in which nine people were killed while holding a demonstration in front of the Italian Consulate against cartoon depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

A third video showed a call for uprising against the repression and humiliation on Feb. 17, 2006. It was subtitled "freedom to the Libyan people" and showed footage from Egypt's protests along with lists of Libyans who had been killed in previous protests.

"The people want the execution of the leader," it said.

Gadhafi came to power 1969 through a military coup and since then he has been ruling the country with no parliament or constitution. Although Gadhafi claims he is only a revolutionary leader with no official status, he holds absolute power.

The opposition groups say that in practice he has direct control of the country's politics and its military and security forces.

There have been reports that Gadhafi's security forces have arrested several of these Internet activists.

"What happened in Egypt and Tunisia, inspired the youth," Shamis said.

Those expected to be released Wednesday were members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which is suspected of having links to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for a failed assassination attempt against Gadhafi in 1995. The detainees to be freed reportedly included the brother of Abu Yahia al-Libi, an al-Qaida commander who escaped from Afghanistan's Bagram prison in 2005.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the leader's son, has orchestrated the release of members of the group in the past as part of a reconciliation plan.

U.S. Military HQ in Mideast Watching Gulf Unrest as It Spreads to Bahrain

February 15, 2011

Associated Press - Unrest surging through the Arab world has so far taken no toll on the American military. But that could change if revolt washes over the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain — longtime home to the U.S. Navy's mighty 5th Fleet and arguably the Middle East anchor of U.S. defense strategy.

The discontent that has spilled into the streets of Bahrain's capital, Manama, this week features no anti-American sentiment, but the U.S. has a lot at stake in preserving its dominant naval presence in the Gulf.

In announcing that it is "very concerned" about violence linked to the protests, the State Department on Tuesday underscored Bahrain's strategic importance as a U.S. partner.

"The United States welcomes the government of Bahrain's statements that it will investigate these deaths, and that it will take legal action against any unjustified use of force by Bahraini security forces," said department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "We urge that it follow through on these statements as quickly as possible."

The 5th Fleet operates at least one aircraft carrier in the Gulf at all times, along with an "amphibious ready group" of ships with Marines aboard. Their presence is central to a longstanding U.S. commitment to ensuring the free flow of oil through the Gulf, while keeping an eye on a hostile Iran and seeking to deter piracy in the region.

Anthony Cordesman, a Mideast defense specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Bahrain has security services capable of handling protesters and potentially backed by neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Thousands of banner-waving protesters took over a main square in Manama Tuesday in a bold attempt to copy Egypt's uprising. The demonstrations capped two days of clashes that left at least two people dead, and the king made a rare address on national television to offer condolences for the bloodshed.

"It is a serious problem, but whether it's going to flare up any more seriously this time than all the other times is hard to say," Cordesman said. "The question is whether they can shake the security structure of the state."

The implications for U.S. foreign policy and national security from the pro-democracy movements that have arisen in the Arab world — highlighted by Egypt's stunning revolution — is likely to be a topic Wednesday when Defense Secretary Robert Gates testifies before the House Armed Services Committee.

Bahrain became a more prominent partner for the Pentagon after the 1991 Gulf War with Iraq; since then it has granted U.S. forces increased access, plus permission to store wartime supplies for future crises.

In the weeks leading up to popular revolts that toppled autocratic regimes first in Tunisia and then Egypt, Obama administration officials portrayed Bahrain as being on the right track toward democracy. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, during a visit to Manama in December, called Bahrain "a model partner," not only for the United States but also for other countries in the region seeking political liberalization.

"I am impressed by the commitment that the government has to the democratic path that Bahrain is walking on," Clinton told a news conference Dec. 3, with Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa at her side. "It takes time; we know that from our own experience. There are obstacles and difficulties along the way. But America will continue working with you to promote a vigorous civil society and to ensure that democracy, human rights and civil liberties are protected by the rule of law."

The tiny island kingdom has been the most volatile in the Gulf. Majority Shiites have long alleged discrimination and other abuses by Sunni rulers. A wave of arrests of Shiite activists last year touched off weeks of protests and clashes — and a highly sensitive trial of 25 Shiites accused of plotting against the state.

Bahrain has seen sporadic unrest for decades as Shiites — who represent 70 percent of the nation's 530,000 citizens — press for a greater political voice and opportunities. Reforms in the past decade, including parliamentary elections, have opened more room for Shiites. But they complain the Sunni-directed system still excludes them from any key policymaking roles or top posts in the security forces.

Bahrain is one of four Gulf countries with U.S. Patriot missiles based on their soil to defend against potential attack from Iran.