I will be speaking throughout the day at the first Interdisciplinary Conference of North American Studies of the journal 49th Parallel, published by postgraduate students of the University of Birmingham.
Live Coverage will be limited at times during the day, but James Miller will be here this afternoon to bring you up to date on latest events.
2154 GMT: Conspiracy Theory of the Day. Hassan Firuzabadi, the Chief of the Armed Forces, has revealed, “The creation of sects in the Islamic world and the extremism of Al-Qaeda and jihadis is the plan of the CIA, Mossad, and MI6 spy organizations, against the Islamic community." He continued:
The CIA and Mossad are the progenitors of Al-Qaeda, the jihadis and state terrorism in the region…They plan through the use of sects, which are apparently religious, but in fact terrorist, to initiate a targeted war between Sunni and Shi’a, despite the constant and serious efforts of some Islamic countries for the creation of unity and comprehensive alignment between Muslims.
Firouzabadi set out a case study for his findings, “The appearance of the new problem of terrorism in the form of Al-Qaeda and jihadis in confrontation with the people and government of Syria is the long-term plan of the arrogant and colonialist regimes against the Islamic world”.
Protest near the Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus on Thursday night, after it had been shelled during the day by regime forces
2035 GMT: Bahrain. The Minister of Interior has posted its explanation for the police confrontation of protests today.
The Ministry said the request of the opposition society Al Wefaq to march through the capital Manama had been denied because "the proposed route would have caused major traffic delays and negatively affected businesses in the major business corridor". Al Wefaq had defied this with public statements over social media that called for participation: "as a result, various people gathered at the meeting place and engaged in the blocking of roads, vandalism, and the spreading of fear among the business owners in the area".
The Ministry asserted that "special security forces...used legal, necessary force to disperse the vandals", with six arrests.
The Ministry concluded that it was filing a case against Al Wefaq to be referred to the public prosecution.
Friday, September 7, 2012 at 8:30 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, EA USA, US Foreign Policy
Laura Pitter of Human Rights Watch talks to the Guardian about the report of US delivery of detainees to torture in Muammar Qaddafi's Libya
When rebel forces overtook Tripoli in August 2011, prison doors were opened and office files exposed, revealing startling new information about Libya’s relations with other countries. One such revelation, documented in this report, is the degree of involvement of the United States government under the Bush administration in the arrest of opponents of the former Libyan Leader, Muammar Gaddafi, living abroad, the subsequent torture and other ill-treatment of many of them in US custody, and their forced transfer to back to Libya.
The United States played the most extensive role in the abuses, but other countries, notably the United Kingdom, were also involved.
This is an important chapter in the larger story of the secret and abusive US detention program established under the government of George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and the rendition of individuals to countries with known records of torture.
Abu IssaFor better or worse, Abu Issa's rise to unchallenged leader of a burgeoning mini-state is a motif being repeated across the country. As the authority of Assad’s regime recedes, power is passing not into one unified opposition, but into the hands of many local rebel leaders. In Jebel Zawiya alone, a region of only about 300,000 inhabitants, there are two major rebel groups, a third emerging, and a smattering of smaller ones tucked under other umbrellas. Several national opposition groups, often more brands than organizations, may have become well known on the international stage, but they have trifling clout on the ground.
the first time I addressed this convention in 2004, I was a younger man; a Senate candidate from Illinois who spoke about hope, not blind optimism or wishful thinking, but hope in the face of difficulty; hope in the face of uncertainty; that dogged faith in the future which has pushed this nation forward, even when the odds are great; even when the road is long.
Eight years later, that hope has been tested, by the cost of war; by one of the worst economic crises in history; and by political gridlock that’s left us wondering whether it’s still even possible to tackle the challenges of our time.
Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 17:19 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran In this two-part video from an interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is forthright about Syria, declaring that President Assad is "politically a deceased person" and claiming that the US elections are holding Washington back from necessary intervention.
Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 10:56 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran People in the Sekkari section of Aleppo in Syria flee shelling on Wednesday
See also Yemen Feature: 29 Dead in 8 Days as US Drone Attacks Escalate
Syria 1st-Hand: The Making of an Insurgent --- The Story of Abboud Barri
Wednesday's Bahrain Live Coverage: Shutting Away Political Prisoners, Shutting Away the News
Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Free Syrian Army Tries to Re-Structure and Assert Control
2055 GMT: Syria. Claimed footage of citizen journalist Mohamed Zakoor being struck and killed as he shot this video in Aleppo:
The Supreme Leader and the head of the Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, today (see 1227 GMT)
See also Iran Analysis: Participate or Boycott? Reformists Debate the 2013 Presidential Election
The Latest from Iran (5 September): Admission --- The Sanctions Hurt Both the People and the Regime
2015 GMT: Currency Watch. The confusion over the state of the Iranian Rial continues. Khabar Online, which had early put the Rial as weak as 22510:1 vs. the US dollar --- another historic low --- claims the currrency is now back at 22180:1. Mesghal.ir has said all day that the Rial strengthened on Thursday to 21930:1, but Mesghal.com --- which posted a different rate --- is now off-line.
1955 GMT: Supreme Leader Watch. The Foreign Ministry's Mojtaba Ferdowsipour has asserted that defence of Syria is a "red line" for Iranian foreign policy.
29 dead in a little over a week. Nearly 200 gone this year. The White House is stepping up its campaign of drone attacks in Yemen, with four strikes in eight days. And not even the slaying of 10 civilians over the weekend seems to have slowed the pace in the United States’ secretive, undeclared war.
