BlueBloggin

With the FBI crackdown on peace activists rapidly buried in the election reporting, I thought it might be nice to take a longer look at just how far into the international horizon the fight for free speech goes. The United States does not always find itself on the side that supports free speech. Saudi Arabia, our oil-based bed-buddy, for example, is essentially a Stalinist religious state with little to no free press or open debate.

On the whole, the September FBI crackdowns are symbolic, and a local reminder, of an international repressive wave against transparency, criticism and rational, open dialogue. As usual, the more violent and centralized the power, the more likely they are to be intimidated by the power of open oversight — i.e. public discourse of the government’s actions by either people or independent institutions.

For example, staying in America for just a quick second, on November 20, 2010, two American journalists working for Moscow-based Russia Today were arrested for merely covering the protest of America’s assassin school, formerly known as the “School of the Americas”

New York, November 23, 2010–Two journalists from the Moscow-based broadcast outlet Russia Today were arrested on November 20 while covering a protest against the U.S. military training center formerly known as the “School of the Americas” at Fort Benning, Georgia. On-air correspondent Kaelyn Forde and cameraman Jon Conway, both of whom are U.S. citizens, were charged with unlawful assembly, demonstrating without a permit, and failing to obey police orders, according to The Associated Press. They were both held for 29 hours before each was released on a US$1,300 bond.

Journalists and bloggers alike are finding that free Speech, as they say, isn’t exactly free. There’s often quite a serious price to be paid.

Sometimes it means living under occupation and exposing midnight raids.

• Israeli soldiers had entered Bil’in late last night, intending to arrest Mohammed Abu Rahmah, son of Adeeb, one of the prominent organisers of demonstrations against the Wall. Adeeb has served the past 17 months in prison on charges of ‘incitement’. Mohammed, 15, lives with his mother and six sisters, the youngest aged four. All had been asleep when the soldiers barged in. On resisting arrest Mohammed was beaten and dragged off by soldiers.

• Haitham hurriedly made his way over to the house with his camera, only to be stopped by the soldiers, keen to keep their antics off camera. Haitham describes the soldier’s anger when they saw he was filming. “Sometimes a camera can stop violence” he told us, “but not that time”. Sensing violence he told them he worked for the Israeli Human rights groups B’Tselem, hoping they’d show some restraint. However after shouting at him to leave they hit him in the chest, which is still bruised, and struck his camera, damaging it severely.

In case you thought simply filming an arrest was too aggressive of a democratic action, did you know that sometimes you can even be arrested for trying to give Allah a Facebook page? Listen friends, Allah almighty hasn’t started his own, so maybe he is technology illiterate and needs just a little help and encouragement to get him going… I thought you “true-believers” would do anything for your unrenderable deity! And you dare call other people infidels? Are you gonna really begrudge a local barber trying to help the exalted one move into the realm of Web2.0? Apparently yes.

• Palestinian blogger, Waleed Khalid Hasayin (pen name: Waleed Al-Husseini), a 26-year-old barber from the West Bank city of Qalqilya, has been arrested by the Palestinian authorities for creating a facebook page named “Allah”. According to blogger Marwa Rakha, the page has been reported and shut down, but Waleed has created another page. It’s worth noting that other facebook pages carrying the same name “Allah” are still active here and here:

On his blog “Nour Al Akl” or The enlightened Mind, he refuted all religious arguments – specially Islam – and he wrote long detailed posts on the fallacy of religions. In the beginning of Summer 2010, a facebook page titled “Allah” was created by an anonymous user. The creator of the page used his excellent command of the Arabic language and composed poetic stanzas that mimic Qura’anic verses. The page attracted many fans; there were those who liked the creativity of the author, those who were offended and joined to defend their religion, and those who were merely curious.

• According to this report, an Internet cafe worker, where Waleed has been spending several hours a day, after his mother canceled his Internet connection at home, has provided the Palestinian intelligence services with a snapshots of his Facebook pages. His online activities have been monitored for few months before arresting him in the cafe on October 31, 2010. Waleed has not been charged yet. A Facebook group and a petition dedicated to his support have been created recently:

But if you happen to be one of the bloggers arrested for something ridiculous, at least be grateful that you were given any reason at all, unlike notable Saudi Blogger Fouad al-Farhan who spent 5 months in a Saudi prison without being charged with a crime.

Al-Farhan was detained in December for “violating regulations,” according to official statements that made it clear that charges against him had nothing to do with national security concerns. No charges were ever pressed or outlined. The Interior Ministry issued no statements about the release yesterday.

Al-Farhan has said in the past that he was detained for comments he had made in defense of a group of Saudi citizens who had been meeting to discuss public participation in governance and other reforms.

Sometimes just standing there with a camera, as happened to Brian Conley, will be enough to instigate a 20-hour interrogation, theft of materials and near-instant deportation.

Police arrived at his hotel room in the middle of the night, saying they were investigating alleged threats against foreigners in China. But then the questioning got intense (they repeatedly asked Conley what he was doing in Beijing and what his role was in the Tibet protests) and dragged on for nearly 22 hours, according to Conley. They confiscated his gear and his asthma inhaler—but not before some footage was distributed online (see above). He was also able to send a text message, to his pregnant wife, letting her know that he had been detained. Conley was taken to the Chong Wen detention center, given a prison uniform, and locked in a cell with nine other prisoners from around the world. He was told that he’d be held for 10 days, but after aggressive intervention by the American Embassy, he was released after six, on the final day of the Games. He was then driven to the Beijing Airport, and ordered to buy a $1,800 ticket on Air China to Los Angeles—even though he already had a return flight booked on a different day.

Sometimes, though, the big bully authority will promise safe passage for a rabble-rouser. Meet Hossein Derakhshan, also known as the “Iranian BlogFather.” He received one such promise from Iran… and then was summarily arrested.

Hossein Derakhshan, known as the Iranian “blogfather” for starting one of the first Persian-language blogs, has been sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison on charges related to his writing and his visit to Israel, according to the Iranian website Mashreq News. He was also banned from joining any political or journalistic organization and fined over $40,000.

Derakhshan was arrested two years ago when he returned to Iran after receiving assurances from the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad that he would not face any penalties apart from questioning, his family has said.

The report comes on the heels of rumors that prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty on charges of espionage. If true, the Mashreq News report indicates that the charges against Derakhshan may have been downgraded from spying to “cooperation with hostile governments.” In 2006, Derakhshan blogged about traveling to Israel using his Canadian passport.

Khodor Salameh of Lebanon was given a less coded message. One day in March after midnite he was called in for 8 hours of intense interrogation followed by “suggestions” that he stop talking about politics and write exclusively about poetry.

On March 15, Lebanese blogger and journalist Khodor Salameh or“jou3an“(Hungry in Arabic) wrote a post[Ar] on his blog where he criticized the Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. A few days later, he was called for an interrogation by the Lebanese security forces, where they threatened him with being prosecuted for defamation if he doesn’t change his tone, close the blog or write poetry exclusively.

The Lebanese bloggers were united, despite their opposite political opinions, and showed their support to Khodor -whether they agreed with what he said or not. Here are their reactions below:

While Lebanon has the fewest free speech limitations of any Middle-Eastern countries, the military has started cracking down on bloggers who criticize the military or executive branches of Lebanon.

By way of comparison let’s consider the case of Khaled Said an Egyptian businessman and critic of the US-sponsored Mubarak dictatorship. Police grabbed him from an internet cafe in Alexandria, tied his hands behind his back and beat him to death. Only after a virtual riot involving a Nobel Peace Prize winner broke out in the street did the Egyptian authorities realize that people weren’t about to accept their answer that Said “died after choking on a joint he swallowed when police sought to arrest him.” The truth is, this was a political execution in a long line of political executions.

This is nothing new to journalists and truth seekers everywhere. Consider this rapidfire tidbit from Amnesty International in 2008

• Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced last week to eight years in prison on charges of espionage after a flawed trial.

• Gambian journalist Ebrima Manneh who continues to be detained despite a court’s ruling in June 2008 that his rights had been violated by the Gambian government and should be released.

• Sri Lankan writer J.S. Tissainayagam who was imprisoned in 2008 for writing two articles that criticized the government’s military offensive against the opposition group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Unfortunately for us, this type of stuff keeps happening under regimes we support (often-times for the resources).

Police intimidation is apparently one of the last few American Exports. Hey, I’m not saying we invented it… we’re just the number one supplier at the moment.

One Love, One Beautiful Struggle,
–Reverend Manny of the Human Tribe.