Quote of the day

“It’s a moment where the entire system of Guatemala is shaking. And in some senses, Guatemala is leading the world. They’ve achieved a level of civilization far higher than that of the U.S. It’s inconceivable that the U.S. could bring an American president to trial in an American court for mass murder of civilians. But Guatemala has done that. And now the people who are in the streets demonstrating are trying to take it farther by bringing down a sitting president.”

- Allan Nairn on Democracy Now!



Of course, we in the US hear little of these protests, or those in Honduras, or Beirut,…

A frenzied increase in blatant explicit calls for the extermination of all Alawites

This was posted by As’ad AbuKhalil yesterday. I’m reproducing it because of the seriousness of the charges and because I checked and wasn’t able to find any media reports:

The scandal of Western correspondents in Beirut: covering up anti-Alawite genocidal calls and statements by Syrian opposition
If those Western correspondents in Beirut were station in Berlin in the 1930s, they would have assured their readers that all is well in Germany and that there is no danger whatsoever for the Jews of Europe. There has been a frenzied increase in blatant explicit calls for the extermination--yes, extermination--of all `Alawites in most Arab media and by various segments of the exile Syrian opposition and certainly by the various armed groups in Syria and I am yet to read one article about that in any Western publication. I am yet to read one statement about that by any Western human rights organization. Yesterday, there was another low registered, Al-Jazeera Arabic aired a show about Alawites and it featured (by the host and the guest) most explicit calls for exterminating all `Alawites (women and children--they actually said that) in Syria. This is something that does not register in MEMRI because the targeted minority group are `Alawites. [italics added]

Homophobes of Lebanon

In another case involving doctors and power, Human Rights Watch calls on Lebanon to stop "tests of shame" - anal exams of men charged with homosexuality:*

Lebanese public prosecutors often order invasive and abusive, anal examination procedures for men suspected of homosexual sex, Human Rights Watch said. The head of the Lebanese Doctor’s Syndicate, Dr. Sharaf Abu Sharaf, issued a directive on August 8 calling for an end to anal examinations, stating that they are medically and scientifically useless in determining whether consensual anal sex has taken place and that they constitute a form of torture. He added that they also violate article 30 of the Lebanese law on medical ethics, which prohibits doctors from engaging in harmful practices.

The tests also violate international standards against torture, including the Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Lebanon has ratified. The U.N. Committee Against Torture, in its 2002 review of Egypt, investigated the issue of forensic anal examinations and called on the government “to prevent all degrading treatment on the occasion of body searches.”

The tests are also carried out in violation of professional medical principles, including those of the World Medical Association and the UN Principles of Medical Ethics Relevant to the Role of Health Personnel, Particularly Physicians, in the Protection of Prisoners and Detainees Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

...As part of its obligation to respect the private lives and personal liberties of individuals, the Lebanese government should end these tests of shame and repeal laws criminalizing consensual sex between adults, including article 534, Human Rights Watch said.

*This is one of those reports that make it impossible for me to say honestly that nothing surprises me any more. I see it and think, "Really? That's a thing people do? That's a policy?"