Yemen: Pressure on Saleh mounts

The Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh is under increased pressure to step down following the defection of key tribal leaders, government ministers, diplomats and army units who have now pledged support for anti-government protesters.

This comes after the shooting deaths of over 40 protesters outside the Sana’a University, in the country’s capital, on Friday 18 March, by gunmen loyal to President Saleh.

On March 25, tens of thousands of people marched in the capital, Sana’a, to demand Saleh step down, AlJazeera.net said that day. However, Saleh gave a defiant speech to supporters, insisting he would only hand over power “to capable, responsible hands”.

The parliament, dominated by President Saleh’s ruling party, has also approved imposing 30 days of Emergency Law which gives state security authorities additional power to crack down on dissent, including banning protests, the right to arrest and detaining suspects, and media censorship.

With some tribes and senior government ministers shifting their support to opposition forces, the situation in Yemen has reached a tipping point.

Speaking to GLW earlier in the month, University of Sydney academic and expert on Yemen, Sarah Phillips, said that the future of Yemen’s leadership was unpredictable however noted the importance of the actions of President Saleh’s inner circle and the tribes. Speaking on potential outcomes Phillips said: “This will, more likely, come down to what the tribes do and, most importantly, it will come down to what the people around the President do.”

General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar is amongst high-profile defectors. Al Jazeera reported that Gen. Ahmar was “commonly regarded as the second most powerful man in the country before he decided to defect”.

Opposition forces are sceptical about the motives behind Gen. Ahmar’s defection, according to Al Jazeera.

In an address on state television early last week, Al Jazeera reported that President Saleh had called defectors “stupid” and dismissed their actions as “foolishness”.

President Saleh has ruled Yemen for the last 32 years. His current term is due to expire in September 2013. His most recent letter of negotiation with opposition groups offered parliamentary elections and a referendum on a new constitution before the end of 2011. Opposition groups have rejected this offer.

However leadership change could be imminent with The Wall Street Journal reporting on Friday March 24 that Gen. Ahmar is negotiating a deal with President Saleh that would result in their immediate resignations. A deal of this sort would effectively meet the demand of opposition forces for the resignation of the President, however further details about who would be involved in transitional and future governance of Yemen remains unclear.

In what Reporters Without Borders described as a sign of nervousness on the part of the authorities, foreign journalists from Britain and the United States have been forced to leave the country. Al Jazeera’s offices were also shut down down by state authorities and all press accreditation for Yemen based staff revoked.

Protesters in Yemen with access to the internet have used their blogs and Twitter to send updates on the protests, with Yemen based doctor and political activist Hamza Shargabi calling the implementation of Emergency Law a “formality” for the type of policing that already exists in Yemen and saying that the government had paid “thugs” to hold pro-government demonstrations in Sana’a.

The economic vulnerability of Yemenis is more severe than many their regional counterparts, with unemployment and food poverty high amongst the population of 23 million.

United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that the US has had a “good working relationship with President Saleh” and called him “an important ally in the counter-terrorism arena”, according to Al Jazeera. Gates said that the US had not planned for a “post-Saleh” Yemen.

Written for Green Left Weekly.

2011: the year for marriage equality in Australia?

Around one thousand supporters of LGBTI rights came out on Saturday March 19 for the first rally in support of equal marriage rights for 2011.

The rally called on the government to reform the marriage act and allow for marriage equality in Australia.

“We’re not going to let homophobia beat us. We’re definitely not going to let a bit of drizzle beat us,” said Cat Rose, co-convenor of Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH), who organised the rally.

The rally heard from Pete Urmson and Steph Sands of New Mardi Gras, Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Paul McAleer from the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), Pastor of Crave Metropolitan Community Church Karl Hand, Greens NSW MP Cate Faehrmann and Alex Greenwich from Australian Marriage Equality.

“We hope that winning marriage equality this year is going to break the back of homophobia in this nation,” said Karl Hand.

“But we need to demand that the churches, religious charities, and religious schools acknowledge that as well. We don’t want them to be able to ignore our rights that we win on the streets.”

Hand said that religious schools can expel students just for being LGBTI and that religious charities and organisations have the right to dismiss employees for being “immoral”, as well as the right to screen morality at a job interview (this includes considering: pre-marital sex, divorce, masturbation, being female, being gay, being trans).

McAleer from the MUA said: “Your struggle is our struggle.”

“We musn’t just see this issue as an LGBTI issue. It’s a community issue. It’s a human rights issue. It’s an issue of every single person in the community who fights against inequality.”

While Faehrmann shared with the rally the importance of lobbying politicians.

A speech was also read out from activist with Organisation Intersex International, Gina Wilson, who said: “We support the rights of all human beings to marry, not only males and females, everyone.”

After hearing from all of the speakers, the rally marched from Town Hall, up Oxford Street to Taylor Square.

Photos from the rally are here.

Videos of all of the speeches are below:

Sydney: History will see Bradley Manning as a hero

“As rain poured down last night, I thought I can’t possibly go this morning, but then I got on WLCentral this morning and Daniel Ellsberg has been arrested in his 80′s outside the White House, so we can brave a little rain!”

These were the thoughts of one local activist at the first Sydney rally in support of alleged WikiLekas whistleblower Bradley Manning. Sydneysiders were thinking of their rallying counterparts in Washington as they gathered near the US Consulate in Martin Place on the morning of Sunday 20 March, out in the wind and rain to stand up against the continued mistreatment of Bradley Manning.

The small but vocal crowd chanted “Free Bradley Manning” and heard from rally organiser Michele Ambrose and Greens NSW Member of Parliament David Shoebridge. There was then an open mic where those gathered had the opportunity to speak out.

“Do we think that the truth is a crime?” said Socialist Alliance activist Paul Benedek.

“The Australian government has a lot to be ashamed of. What have we heard in support of Bradley Manning and democracy? We’ve only heard condemnation. When history judges, history will see Manning as a hero.”

Last week, spokesperson for the US State Department PJ Crowley resigned after speaking out against Manning’s conditions. Crowley described Manning’s treatment as “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid”. Barack Obama insisted that Manning’s conditions are “appropriate”.

Demonstrations were held in cities all around the world including in the US where Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower behind the release of the Pentagon Papers, now in his 80′s, joined demonstrators. Ellsberg along with over 30 others were arrested for refusing to leave an intersection outside the Quantico Marine Corps Brig where Manning is currently detained in maximum custody detention.

David House, friend on Manning’s visiting list, told Associated Press: ”It’s stuff like this that gives Bradley hope. When I go in there, look him in the eyes and say, ‘Bradley, there are people on the outside that support you,’ his eyes light up.”

Bradleymanning.org and Courage to Resist called on March 20 to be an international day of action to support Manning.

The organisations said: “The army covered up the evidence and declared the war crime ‘justified’. Now they claim that exposing the massacre is criminal. ”

Manning is suspected of having leaked military documents about Iraq and Afghanistan, a video of a military attack that killed a dozen civilians including two Reuters staff, and 250000 diplomatic cables. His charges include “aiding the enemy”, a crime that carries the death penalty or life in prison.

For more information on the campaign to free Bradley Manning, see the support website.

Photos from the Sydney rally can be viewed here.

Videos from the Sydney rally:

Julian Assange confronts Julia Gillard

“We have intelligence that your government has been exchanging information with foreign powers about Australian citizens working for WikiLeaks,” Julian Assange told Prime Minister Julia Gillard in his video question as part of ABC’s Q&A on March 14.

Assange’s question came after Gillard had said: “I can respect whistleblowing if your motivation is to right wrong.” But she said she did not see any “moral purpose … at the centre of WikiLeaks”.

Gillard said she didn’t have a “great deal of respect” for Assange and described his motivation as “sort of anarchic”.

Assange has made clear his motivation many times: it’s actually “sort of” about open government — creating transparency and accountability.

Assange asked Gillard: “When will you come clean about precisely what information you have supplied the foreign powers about Australian citizens working or affiliated with WikiLeaks and if you cannot give a full and frank answer to that question, should perhaps the Australian people consider charging you with treason?”

Stalling, Gillard first giggled and then made a joke before she said: “I don’t know anything [about Assange’s claim] … To my knowledge it hasn’t happened.”

However, Gillard did say: “We exchange information about Australian citizens with foreign governments, yes, we do sometimes.”

Examples she gave included: “Following up transnational crimes like people smuggling, following up transnational crimes like drug trafficking, following up like transnational crimes like terrorism, of course we exchange information.”

So which is Assange? A people smuggler? Not quite. Drug trafficker? That’d be a new accusation. Terrorist? Well, many US ultra-conservatives seem to think so.

During the program, Gillard also told the audience, “a confident America is good for the world”. It is safe to assert that most of the world would “confidently” disagree.

Audience member Ruby Hamad asked Gillard to explain her behaviour while visiting the United States. Hamad said “millions of Australians cringed” while they watched Gillard’s “gushing” speech to the US Congress.

Gillard responded: “I did want to say ‘be bold’, which I think is amongst the best of the American traditions, that sense of can-do, which actually led them to the moon.”

Not just the moon! What about Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan? The US has been there too! And was it that bold, can-do tradition that led the US to supply Indonesia with weapons during its massacre of the people of East Timor and ongoing occupation of West Papua?

Is it US “boldness” that explains the US’s continued support for Israel’s brutal oppression of the Palestinians?

If that “great American tradition” of being bold is behind the aforementioned, then perhaps it would be better to not encourage such boldness in future.

On the day she took office, Gillard said: “I am utterly committed to the service of our people.” Well, as the ALP campaign slogan of 1972 said: “It’s time”.

It’s time to say no more to the Australian government joining in with the persecution of our citizens abroad, such as David Hicks, Mamdouh Habib and now, Julian Assange.

It’s time to accept the new frontier of free information and transparent, accountable governments.

PJ Crowley speaks out about Manning mistreatment, then resigns

“Ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid” is how one US official described the treatment of alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. Breaking government ranks, PJ Crowley, spokesperson for the US State Department, speaking at Massachusetts Institute of Technoloy (MIT) on Thursday March 10, criticised the reported mistreatment of Manning at Quantico Marine Corps Brig where he has been held for over 9 months.

With recent news of Manning having been forced to strip and remain naked in his cell, Crowley was questioned as to his thoughts on WikiLeaks and Manning. He said: “I don’t know why the Department of Defense is doing it.”

Crowley was speaking at an event hosted by MIT’s Centre for Future Civic Media to address “the benefits of new media as it relates to foreign policy”. Firedoglake reported that Crowley had addressed a “room of twenty people”.

BBC News journalist Phillipa Thomas attended the event and reported the news of Crowley’s comments on her blog. Thomas said that she had asked Crowley whether his remarks were “on the record”, to which he responded “sure”. Thomas reports that Crowley had elaborated on his criticisms saying: “None the less Bradley Manning is in the right place,” indicating that while opposed to the treatment Manning has been subjected to, Crowley’s position remains that the imprisonment of Manning while he awaits trial for leaking government documents is just.

Ethan Zuckerman, a researcher from Massachusetts who also attended the MIT talk, blogged that Crowley had also said that secrets were necessary and gave an example: “If we’re negotiating between the Israelis and the Palestinians, there will be compromises that are hard for each side to sell to their people – there’s a need for secrets.” He did not elaborate on why “selling” an idea would be preferable to open and transparent negotiations.

However it was the comments condemning the US government’s treatment of Manning that were reverberated in the world’s media.

The day after making his comments, Crowley resigned from his role with the US government. A CNN blog reported on Saturday March 12: “P.J. Crowley is abruptly stepping down as State Department spokesman under pressure from the White House, according to senior officials familiar with the matter.”

“White House officials are furious about his suggestion that the Obama administration is mistreating Manning.”

Crowley stood by his assertions when announcing his resignation, saying: “Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation.”

“The unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a serious crime under U.S. law.

“My recent comments regarding the conditions of the pre-trial detention of Private First Class Bradley Manning were intended to highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discreet actions undertaken by national security agencies every day and their impact on our global standing and leadership.

“The exercise of power in today’s challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent and consistent with our laws and values.”

This is not the first time Crowley has noted concern about US policy matching “values”. In a 2008 counter-terrorism strategy report Crowley wrote: “…too often since 2001, U.S. policies have neither matched our values, nor what we preach to the rest of the world.”

“We are perceived, accurately or not, as operating secret and illegal prisons, condoning torture, denying legal rights, propping up autocratic regimes, and subverting fair elections.”

As Crowley offered up his resignation Obama was addressing a dinner event on Saturday March 12 where he remarked: “Those of us who are fortunate enough to be in positions of power may have our gripes about how the media covers us, but that’s only because your job is to hold us accountable.”

“And none of us would want to live in a country without that failsafe — without a free press and freedom of expression.”

Further, when questioned about Crowley’s criticism of Manning’s conditions, US President Barack Obama indicated satisfaction at Manning’s treatment, saying: “I asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assured me that they are.”

John Pilger reported in January that the Obama administration has pursued and prosecuted more whistleblowers than any other president in American history.

Bradley Manning: Charged with aiding the enemy, and forced to strip

After months of investigation, the US Army has filed 22 new charges against US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. The charges include “aiding the enemy” — a crime punishable by death.

The prosecutors have said they will not recommend the death penalty in this case, but Manning still faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.

Manning stands accused of leaking classified military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. He has been held, awaiting trial, in solitary confinement at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico, Virginia since July.

Among the other new charges Manning faces is “wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet knowing that it is accessible to the enemy”. The military has not identified who it considers “the enemy” to be.

The US Army investigation has failed to find any link between Manning and WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange.

It has been revealed that Manning has been forced to strip and sleep naked after having his underwear confiscated by guards at Quantico Brig, where he is under Prevention of Injury (POI) watch.

On March 5, Manning’s defence counsel David E. Coombs revealed the reason for Manning’s treatment on his blog, Armycourtmartialdefense.info: “PFC Manning inquired of the Brig operations officer what he needed to do in order to be downgraded from Maximum custody and POI.

“In response to PFC Manning’s question, he was told that there was nothing he could do to downgrade his detainee status and that the Brig simply considered him a risk of self-harm.”

Psychiatrists at Quantico where Manning is detained maintain that there is no mental health justification for his ongoing confinement under POI.

“PFC Manning then remarked that the POI restrictions were ‘absurd’ and sarcastically stated that if he wanted to harm himself, he could conceivably do so with the elastic waistband of his underwear or with his flip-flops,” said Coombs.

In Manning’s first public statement since his arrest, an 11-page legal document released by Coombs, Manning said authorities at Quantico had “used my sarcastic comment as justification to increase the restrictions imposed upon me under the guise of being concerned that I was a suicide risk”.

Coombs pointed out that Manning remains under 24-hour surveillance, “with guards never being more than a few feet away from his cell”.

Manning said: “I am being treated differently from any other detainee at the Quantico Brig.

“While the PCF Commander follows the recommendation of the Brig Psychiatrist in dealing with other detainees, this does not happen in my case.”

Manning noted that most detainees remain on maximum custody or in POI status for about two weeks, but he has been “left to languish under the unduly harsh conditions” since arriving at Quantico on July 29, 2010.

This is not the first time the US military has forced detainees to strip to try to break down resistance. This sort of treatment was reportedly used routinely on prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, an April 20, 2009 Newsweek.com article said.

This change in Manning’s conditions has been widely condemned, and has caused his father, Brian, to break his silence about the treatment of his son. He told PBS’s Front Line on March 11: “His clothing is being taken away from him and he is being humiliated, having to stand at attention in front of people that are fully clothed.

“This is someone who has not gone to trial, or been convicted of anything.”

In response to the interview, the Pentagon released a statement denying that Manning was made to stand naked.

This conflicts with Manning’s account, via Coombs. Manning said: “I was told to get out of my bed for the morning Duty Brig Supervisor (DBS) inspection. I was not given any of my clothing back.

“I walked towards the front of my cell with my hands covering my genitals. The guard told me to stand a parade rest, which required me to stand with my hands behind my back and my legs spaced shoulder width apart.

“I stood at ‘parade rest’ for about three minutes until the DBS arrived.”

Manning said the situation made him feel “incredibly embarrassed”.

“Although I am still required to strip naked in my cell at night, I am now given the ‘smock’ to wear.”

Manning has called his treatment “wrong” and requested his classification be reduced from maximum custody to medium custody.

Written for Green Left Weekly.

Hollywood and Israel: the special relationship

A rather remarkable article outlining the relationship between Hollywood and Israel was published in the Wall Street Journal on March 11. Covering adaptations of Israeli shows: why it happens, how it works. Bemoaning the lack of originality in television programs, rather than investing in the domestic television/film industry, Hollywood looks abroad. (Emphasis in below quotes is my own)

Israel, the Promised Land, an extension of the Land of the Free:

But as the world gets smaller, and original ideas harder to come by, Hollywood producers and agents are looking elsewhere, and they say they’ve found signs of a Promised Land. Israel, though faraway, isolated and war-weary, is culturally more aligned to American TV tastes than almost any other country. [...]

“It feels very much like a 51st state,” says Ben Silverman, former co-chairman of NBC Universal [...]

Why the special relationship:

Another explanation for the close relationship between Hollywood and Israel is cultural and religious. Producers in both countries point to Judaism as a link between Israeli TV creators and prominent Hollywood executives. The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles has a partnership with Tel Aviv and has brought TV executives on trips to Israel in recent years.

How to adapt a television program for an American audience:

TV executives agree that cultural tweaks must be made if a show is to go beyond a limited audience [...]

[Howard Gordon] and his “24″ writing partner Alex Gansa added Ms. Danes’s CIA agent, who believes the returning war hero may be involved in a terrorist plot to attack the U.S. They also created a prisoner of war who, rather than being held for 17 years in Syria, was taken captive in 2003 in Iraq.

“In Israel these people are huge national figures in everyone’s consciousness. The country, for all intents and purposes, is at war,” Mr. Gansa says. “We felt we had to introduce a plausible threat to the U.S. to make it feel as if this guy’s return is worthy of a narrative.”

Israel television, where it all began:

The Israeli TV industry is still relatively young. In the years after Israel’s 1948 founding, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion opposed TV out of fear the new medium would negatively impact Israelis’ “pioneer ethic.” A single, state-run channel was launched in 1968 when leaders wanted to combat Arab propaganda during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

It wasn’t until Channel 2 in 1993 and Channel 10 in 2002 that commercial, for-profit channels came into being [...]

But it’s ok, because Israel’s broadcast industry is doing it right now:

After 2000 the government began imposing requirements that 40% to 50% of all broadcast operators’ offerings be produced locally, up from 30% in the 1990s. [...]

As Israel’s media industry opened up, its filmmakers gained prominence at international film festivals.

I guess the Palestinians would produce some incredible TV:

Over a swig of post-dinner whisky before shooting a scene in the Israeli show “Pillars of Smoke,” actor Rani Blair says the daily uncertainty of life is what drives the country’s TV productivity. “When you live in a place that is isolated, and you are alone, it seeps into your soul. It makes you want to shout.”

Read the full article here.

Image by The City Project.