March 23rd, 2012 by Oman Views

Bahrain to retry 20 medics in uprising case

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) – Twenty Bahraini medical professionals convicted on uprising-linked charges and sentenced to prison terms face retrial in civilian courts, a lawyer said Thursday.

Lawyer Jalila al-Sayed said a judge revoked last week’s decision to proceed with only five cases and refer the other 15 doctors and nurses to a medical disciplinary board. All were convicted of anti-state crimes during last year’s unrest.

Even so, Bahraini authorities insisted the prosecutors will pursue charges only against five of the 20 health professionals. The discrepancy could not immediately be clarified.

The 20 doctors and nurses treated wounded protesters during the Gulf kingdom’s uprising. Last year a special security court, set up during eight weeks of emergency rule in the Gulf kingdom, sentenced them to five to 15 years in prison.

That court has been disbanded. Al-Sayed said the judge did not mention dropping charges against 15 medics during Thursday’s proceedings in a civilian court.

The next hearing has been set for March 20. The case has drawn stiff criticism from human rights groups.

Also Thursday, clashes between security forces and opposition supporters flared across the tiny but strategically important Gulf island that is the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Riot police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at protesters, who were marking the first anniversary of the deployment of a Saudi-led military force in Bahrain.

Some protesters threw firebombs at the riot police. There were no reports of injuries.

The troops from the Sunni-ruled neighboring states were sent to Bahrain to help the Sunni monarchy quell dissent among the island nation’s majority Shiites.

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February 18th, 2012 by Oman Views

Anonymous Marks Bahrain Protest by Hacking U.S. Tear Gas Company

Much of the tear gas that billowed through Bahrain’s streets Monday (and throughout the Arab Spring) was made by a Pennsylvania-based company called Combined Systems, so to mark the anniversary of protests in Bahrain, Anonymous took Combined Systems’ website offline and dumped its employee and client data on the Web.

The Combined Systems website was unresponsive on Tuesday morning, as were the websites for surveillance hardware manufacturer Sur-Tec, Thompson Handcuffs, and weapons maker Penn Arms, all of which Anonymous claimed credit for knocking offline.

The loose-knit hacking collective promised more such attacks for Valentine’s Day, tweeting: “Stay tuned for more Valentine’s Day Hacks. Have you enjoyed the show so far?”

By Adam Martin | The Atlantic Wire

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January 24th, 2012 by Oman Views

Panetta: US ‘fully prepared’ for an Iran challenge

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. military is now “fully prepared” to deal with any Iranian effort to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Persian Gulf avenue for international oil shipments, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday.

At a Pentagon news conference, Panetta was asked whether, in light of Iran’s threat to close the strait in retaliation for stronger international economic sanctions, Washington is adjusting U.S. forces in the region.

“We are not making any special steps at this point in order to deal with the situation,” Panetta replied. “Why? Because, frankly, we are fully prepared to deal with that situation now.” He noted that routine planning continues as the U.S. and its allies consider a range of potential Iran-related problems.

The Navy this month added a second aircraft carrier strike group in the Middle East, portraying it as part of a normal rotation and not a deliberate buildup of force. The carriers are the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Abraham Lincoln, under the control of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

The U.S. has kept a continuous naval presence in the Gulf region for decades, but international concerns about a potential confrontation have grown amid tensions over the advancement of Iran’s nuclear program.

The U.S. also has military forces in nearby United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and other Gulf nations.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the country’s most powerful military force, says Tehran’s leadership has decided to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz if Iran’s oil exports are blocked as a result of sanctions. A senior Guard officer said earlier this month that the decision has been made by Iran’s top authorities.

Iranian politicians have made the threat in the past, but this was the strongest statement yet that a closure of the strait is official policy.

In his remarks at the Pentagon, Panetta said he still holds out hope for a diplomatic solution with Iran.

“It takes two to be able to engage, and we’ve always expressed a willingness to try to do that,” he said. “But we’ve always made clear that in terms of any threats to the region, in terms of some of the behavior that they’ve conducted in the region, that we’ll also be prepared to respond militarily if we have to.”

In what some view as a sign of concern about aggravating tensions with Iran, the U.S. and Israel have postponed what Panetta has called the largest-ever U.S.-Israeli air defense exercise. It was supposed to be conducted in April.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said on Monday the postponement was a “joint” decision with Washington. “The thinking was it was not the right timing now to conduct such an exercise,” he said. He refused to elaborate.

Asked about this Wednesday, Panetta said Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, had approached him to suggest the delay “in order to be able to plan better.” Panetta said the decision had nothing to do with Iran.

Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, issued a statement Tuesday saying the delay “stemmed solely from technical issues.” He said the exercise, dubbed “Austere Challenge 2012″, would be held in the second half of this year.

By ROBERT BURNS | Associated Press

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