Bahrain @ MindSay

Man I have to tell you Church’s Chicken is one of the best fast food franchises serving good tasting Chicken. Alas, being a confirmed Islamophobe, I may think twice before I patronize Church’s Chicken again.

 

JRH 5/1/08

 

Good News! Mahmood's Den is open and unblocked! This was not an outright win for bloggers and anti-censorship, however, because Mahmood was able to get his site back up and running because he removed some of the so-called offensive content (the stuff on election scandals). BUT, he was able to meet with the Information Ministry to present his demands for more blogger and media freedoms. I think that he did the best he could in his situation. The fact that the Ministry was willing to sit down and talk with him must mean something. On his site, Mahmood recommends bloggers who want to raise a little hell with their governments should do it anonymously, lest they end up in jail.

I say more people with opinions everywhere in the world should start blogging, even if it is anonymously. Can any country really ignore thousands and thousands of dissenting blog voices?

That is my last Monty Python reference, I promise, and besides, I have something serious I want to talk about right now.

Web censorship. I encountered this everyday in China. For instance, I could never access any blogspot blogs, many news sites, and most especially, Reporters Without Borders. (An organization which teaches journalists and bloggers how to stay out of jail, fights for the rights of journalists to do their jobs, and alerts the world to censorship and incidences of imprisonment, persecution or death of journalists around the world.)

The government of Bahrain has blocked access to Mahmood's Den, one of the Arab world's most read blogs, due to his coverage of an election scandal within Bahrain. If this at all bothers you (and it should, because the world needs more bloggers like Mahmood, especially within the Middle East.) go to the Unblock Mahmood's Den site and sign the petition.

Then, if you like, visit the Den and find out what all the fuss is about. If you are in Bahrain or another country where access is blocked, try this mirror site.

The Department of Defense announced today that it transferred one detainee from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Germany. This detainee was recommended for transfer due to an administrative review board process conducted at Guantanamo Bay. With today's transfer, more than 120 detainees remain at Guantanamo who the U.S. government has determined eligible for transfer or release through a comprehensive series of review processes. Departure of these remaining detainees approved for transfer or release is subject to ongoing discussions between the United States and other nations. The United States does not desire to hold detainees for any longer than necessary. The department expects that there will continue to be other transfers and releases of detainees.

 

There are ongoing processes to review the status of detainees held at Guantanamo. A determination about the continued detention or transfer of a detainee is based on the best information and evidence available at the time, both classified and unclassified.  With this transfer, approximately 310 detainees have departed Guantanamo for other countries, including Albania, Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, and Yemen.

 

Approximately 450 detainees remain at Guantanamo.