Time Square Bombing Suspect Linked To Yemeni Cleric

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

WASHINGTON DC, USA – The Pakistani-American man accused of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square has told investigators that he drew inspiration from Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric whose militant online lectures have been a catalyst for several recent attacks and plots, an American official said Thursday.

The would-be bomber, Faisal Shahzad, was inspired by the violent rhetoric of Mr. Awlaki, said the official, who would speak of the investigation only on condition of anonymity. “He listened to him, and he did it,” the official said, referring to Saturday’s attempted bombing on a busy street in Times Square.

New evidence is deepening a notion, albeit still unverified, that the failed car bombing in Times Square was not the work of one disgruntled young man, but inspired by a global extremist network stretching from Yemen to Pakistan, united by the Internet and a common radical vision of faith.

According to one account, Shahzad told investigators that he actually met with Awlaki – as well as Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and even Abdulmutallah, who tried to blow up a Northwest airliner landing in Detroit on Christmas Day. Investigators are skeptical, reports the New York Daily News, saying Shahzad claims to know most of the biggest players in the world of radical Islam. They have yet to verify his statements.

If true, Shahzad’s apparent susceptibility to Awlaki’s sermons, coupled with an ability to travel to Pakistan for training, and then back to the US with an American passport, offers a disturbing portrait of a virtual jihadi highway, linking mentality to means and money.

Investigators are not yet sure where that money came from. They are looking to question a courier who allegedly funneled money to Shahzad to pay for the SUV used in the attack, as well as the improvised explosives. But the source country remains unknown, the Associated Press reports.

As a result, the United States is likely to push Pakistan to press harder against militant enclaves in that country’s North Waziristan region, deemed the epicenter of the network behind the failed bombing. But that is likely to strain an already threadbare relationship between Washington and Islamabad, experts warn.

For more information, please see:

CSM – US-Born Cleric Inspired Times Square Bomber Faisal Shahzad – 7 May 2010

New York Times – Times Sq. Bomb Suspect Is Linked To Militant Cleric – 6 May 2010

AOL News – Times Square Suspect Reportedly Inspired By Radical Cleric – 7 May 2010

Lithuanian Appeals Court Says Baltic Pride 2010 Can Proceed

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

VILNIUS, Lithuania – On Friday May 7, a Lithuanian appellate court approved a gay pride parade scheduled for Saturday May 8 in the country’s capital of Vilnius.

The Supreme Administration Court of Lithuania, located in Vilnius, overturned a decision earlier in the week by a lower court in anticipation of Saturday’s parade. The Baltic Pride Parade 2010 is expected to draw hundreds of Lithuanian participants, as well as persons from other countries.

That decision, on Wednesday May 5, banned the protest in anticipation of violence.  The lower court’s decision was based on its determination that national and local authorities would be unable to guarantee the safety of the participants in the parade.  More than a thousand protesters and opponents of the parade are now expected to attend.

After the decision, a number of human rights groups protested what they perceived to be an intolerable disregard for gay rights, but did not expect a reversal on appeal.  Those human rights group accused the lower court judge and the Lithuanian Attorney General of masking homophobia with illegitimate public safety concerns.

However, the Supreme Administration Court, perhaps surprisingly, held that the rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression trump safety concerns.  The Court declared that “those who share unpopular points of view or are members of minority groups” must be protected.

The Court also ruled that the lower court decision ban on the parade would have violated multiple articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This decision was surprising to many Lithuanians, given the country’s spotty record of protecting the rights of its gay citizens.  It was especially unexpected given the people of Lithuania’s, and its government’s, overwhelmingly negative attitudes towards gay rights issues.

73 percent of respondents to a recent poll opposed the planned parade in Vilnius.  Also, more than 80 percent of Lithuanians consider homosexuality to be a disease according to a 2006 poll.  Moreover, the Lithuanian government has been criticized by human rights groups and the European Union, of which Lithuania is a member, for endemic disregard for sexual minorities within the country.

No major gay pride event has been permitted in the country since its inception in 1991, so Saturday’s parade will be the country’s first ever. Moreover, the Lithuanian Parliament in 2009 tried to pass a bill that would prevent public officials and educators from providing information about homosexuality from children.  The bill ultimately failed, but nevertheless showed the officially sanctioned disinformation plaguing the former Soviet republic.

For more information, please see:

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – Lithuania’s Baltic Pride March Gets Green Light – 7 May 2010

ASSOCIATED PRESS – Lithuanian court reverses ban on gay pride parade – 7 May 2010

CARE2 – Lithuania’s Gay Pride Gets a Boost as Baltic Pride 2010 March is Reinstated – 7 May 2010

Taiwan Executes Four Inmates

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Despite talks of abolishing the capital punishment system, Taiwan has executed four men.  These executions, whereby the inmates were shot by a firing squad, were Taiwan’s first since December 2005. 

Although death penalty is a sensitive issue in Taiwan, it is widely supported by the Taiwanese public.  In fact, the former justice minister resigned in March because the Minister refused to sign death warrants for prisoners. 

However, a human rights group called the Foundation for Judicial Reform condemned the recent executions saying, “We are shocked and angered . . . the justice ministry sped up the executions in a reckless process despite concerns over capital punishment.”

This Taiwanese rights group is claiming that the Justice Ministry purposely hastened the process for the four inmates who were executed. 

Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Deputy Director Catherine Baber said, “These executions cast a dark shadow on the country’s human rights record and blatantly contradict the Justice Minister’s previously declared intention to abolish the death penalty.”

In defense, Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice released a statement saying that the prisoners were “put to death according to the laws as the four were convicted of grave offenses,” adding that the executed inmates “did not request Constitutional interpretations of their cases.”  Taiwan reserve capital punishment for serious offenses, such as aggravated murder, kidnapping and robbery.

Nevertheless Baber said, “The world was looking to the Taiwanese authorities to choose human rights, and to show leadership on the path towards abolishing the death penalty in the Asia-Pacific.  [The] executions extinguished that hope.”

Along with Amnesty International, Taiwanese Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) also expressed its “shock and anger.”  TAEDP often raises the question of legality over executions, and with regards to the recent executions, TAEDP’s Executive Director Lin Hsin-yi said that the executions were “furtively and hastily” carried out without notice to the inmates’ families.

49 Taiwanese were put to death between 2000 and 2005.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Taiwan rights groups lash out at executions – 1 May 2010

BBC – Taiwan conducts rare executions – 1 May 2010

Focus Taiwan – Rights groups condemn Taiwan’s executions – 1 May 2010

Thank the Mothers in your Life with a Gift to Support Women

Courtesy of Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

Thank the Mothers in Your Life with a truly special gift this year for Mother’s Day by making a donation in her name to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. With any size gift, you can thank her and show your support for women in Iran and worldwide.

Your gift will help IHRDC collect evidence of violations of women’s rights in Iran .

Soon after the 1979 revolution, women sought to change the discriminatory laws enacted by the fledgling Islamic Republic. Over the last 30 years, the movement has developed into one of the most sophisticated civil movements in Iran . Activists have demanded equal rights for women in marriage; equal rights to divorce; an end to the practice of polygamy and temporary marriage; the right to pass on nationality to their children; equal dieh (compensation for bodily injury or death); equal inheritance rights; equal testimonial rights; and the removal of all laws that discriminate against women,  including stoning sentences issued in cases of adultery.

Women’s rights activists were targeted leading up to and following the June 12, 2009 presidential election in a concerted effort to cripple the movement. Prominent activists were forced into exile or imprisoned. Defense attorney Shadi Sadr was imprisoned and forced into exile. Writer and activist Aida Saadat was also forced to leave after being beaten in a Tehran street on her way home from a lengthy interrogation. The Iranian government continues to threaten, arrest and imprison not only veteran activists but less prominent supporters. Women’s rights activists remain in prison. Others are now fleeing Iran .

The women of Iran and the rest of the world deserve better. Help them by making a donation using the button below.

Visit our website at: www.iranhrdc.org

Thank the Mothers in Your Life with a truly special gift this year for Mother’s Day by making a donation in her name to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. With any size gift, you can thank her and show your support for women in Iran and worldwide.

Your gift will help IHRDC collect evidence of violations of women’s rights in Iran .

Soon after the 1979 revolution, women sought to change the discriminatory laws enacted by the fledgling Islamic Republic. Over the last 30 years, the movement has developed into one of the most sophisticated civil movements in Iran . Activists have demanded equal rights for women in marriage; equal rights to divorce; an end to the practice of polygamy and temporary marriage; the right to pass on nationality to their children; equal dieh (compensation for bodily injury or death); equal inheritance rights; equal testimonial rights; and the removal of all laws that discriminate against women,  including stoning sentences issued in cases of adultery.

Women’s rights activists were targeted leading up to and following the June 12, 2009 presidential election in a concerted effort to cripple the movement. Prominent activists were forced into exile or imprisoned. Defense attorney Shadi Sadr was imprisoned and forced into exile. Writer and activist Aida Saadat was also forced to leave after being beaten in a Tehran street on her way home from a lengthy interrogation. The Iranian government continues to threaten, arrest and imprison not only veteran activists but less prominent supporters. Women’s rights activists remain in prison. Others are now fleeing Iran .

The women of Iran and the rest of the world deserve better. Help them by making a donation using the button below.

Visit our website at:

www.iranhrdc.org.

Heavy Rain In Yemen Kills Seven

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – At least seven people were killed in a Sa’na shanty town in the worst flooding to hit the Yemeni capital in over a decade, officials said on Thursday.

Witnesses said water streamed down from nearby mountains on Wednesday evening after torrential rain into a low-lying residential area of eastern Sa’na with no drainage system, flooding hundreds of homes.

“A flood suddenly appeared and invaded the houses,” said Jamil Mohamed, a resident of the flooded shanty town.

Of the seven people who died, some drowned and others were killed by falling electricity pylons, officials said. Two more people were hurt and in hospital.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh toured the affected areas of the capital, the defense ministry’s online newspaper said.

Western countries and neighbor Saudi Arabia fear impoverished Yemen, fighting Shi’ite rebels in the north and southern separatism, may turn into a failed state from which al Qaeda could intensify attacks on the region and beyond.

The country shot to the top of Western security concerns after a Yemen-based al Qaeda wing claimed responsibility for a failed bomb attack on a U.S.-bound passenger plane in December.

In the capital, where many streets remained flooded, rescue operations continued and more than 250 people were evacuated from their homes and taken to shelter in schools. More rain was forecast for Thursday but was not expected to be as heavy.

There has been unusually heavy rainfall across the Arabian peninsula this week, with two people killed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Monday.

In 2008, severe flooding killed approximately 180 people. Aid agencies said 10,000 people were made homeless.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – Seven Die In Worst Floods In Yemen Capital In Decade – 6 May 2010

BBC – Seven Yemenis Die In Heavy Rains – 6 May 2010

Middle East Online – Heavy Rainfall Kills Seven In Yemen – 6 May 2010