Gregg Carlstrom

Gregg Carlstrom's picture
Gregg Carlstrom
Journalist | Qatar
Biography
Gregg Carlstrom is an online journalist with Al Jazeera English, based in Doha.

Latest posts by Gregg Carlstrom

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on March 21st, 2012
This February 2011 file photo shows wounded demonstrators being rushed into Salmaniya Medical Complex. [EPA]

The so-called "medics trial" has been one of the most controversial issues stemming from the unrest in Bahrain.

To recap, if you're not familiar with it: Beginning in March, security forces arrested 48 staffers from Salmaniya Medical Complex, the largest hospital in Bahrain. Twenty of them were convicted by a military court and sentenced to jail terms of between five and 15 years, a verdict criticised by the UN as "harsh." (The rest were charged with misdemeanours; a list of their names is here.)

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on December 16th, 2011
[Gregg Carlstrom/Al Jazeera]

This photo is from Thursday's "flag-casing" ceremony in Baghdad, which marked the formal end of the US military command here. 

Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, spoke at the ceremony: He praised the progress of the Iraqi security forces and said "we created an Iraq that could finally govern and secure itself."

You'll notice that the labels on the chairs include not just your name, but the number of the concrete bunker you should hide in if the ceremony is rocketed.

A standard precaution for the military, sure, but it's a small detail that highlights how Iraq really still is a war zone, despite the US withdrawal.

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on November 23rd, 2011
Relatives mourn a 16-year-old protester who was fatally run down by a police car in Sitra on Saturday. [Reuters]

I'm writing from A'Ali, a predominantly Shiite village in the centre of Bahrain, which was the site of clashes all morning between anti-government protesters and the police.

A few hours later, 10 kilometres down the road, the Bahraini government has released the official report into this year's alleged human rights abuses. The government hopes the report is a chance to turn the page and "move forward," as a spokesman said earlier this week.

Ask anyone here in A'Ali, and they'll tell you those abuses are still going on.

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on September 22nd, 2011
Palestinians marching in Ramallah on Wednesday in support of the PLO's statehood bid. [Gregg Carlstrom/Al Jazeera]

The reaction in the West Bank to US President Barack Obama's speech at the United Nations has been, as you might expect, frustrated. Frustrated - but not surprised.

The frustration was mostly with the tone of the speech, rather than its substance. The most offensive line to many, at least in interviews this morning, was Obama's declaration that "there are no shortcuts"; as several Ramallah residents reminded me, the Palestinian people have been dispossessed for 63 years already.

But the speech did not surprise anyone; it has been clear for months, after all, that Obama planned to veto the Palestine Liberation Organisation's bid for full membership at the UN. Mustafa Barghouti, the Palestinian politician and activist, called Obama's position "disappointing" in an interview before the president's speech.

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on September 19th, 2011
Mahmoud Abbas arrived in New York on Monday ahead of the UN General Assembly. [EPA]

The Palestine Liberation Organisation seems to have passed the point of no return in its bid for full membership at the United Nations. Mahmoud Abbas could still abandon the bid - he will not formally submit the PLO's request until later this week - but that would be a politically ruinous move after his speech on Friday night.

Nonetheless, the United States and the European Union are still trying to convince Abbas to back down. There will be a few frantic meetings in New York this week ahead of Abbas' speech to the UN General Assembly on Friday.

The carrot they are offering him is the prospect of renewed negotiations with Israel, possibly with a timer attached: If talks do not go anywhere after, say, six months, the so-called Quartet would then endorse the PLO's bid for UN membership.

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on June 7th, 2011
Gay girl in Damascus

Update: A US student based in Scotland has indentified himself as the author of the "Gay Girl in Damascus" blog, sparking an outcry from rights campaigners around the world.

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on March 19th, 2011

Three hours into Egypt's constitutional referendum, we're hearing reports of high turnout - and potential irregularities.

Voters have reported long lines (see the photos below), with some predicting an hours-long wait to cast their votes. That's mostly been viewed as a positive development, a sign of high voter enthusiasm - a major change from last year's fraudulent parliamentary election, which saw turnout as low as 10 per cent in some parts of the country.

But some voters are reporting a more serious problem: unstamped ballot papers.

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By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on March 7th, 2011
For a country dependent on its reputation as a financial hub, the ongoing protests are believed to be costing the economy dear

Hundreds of anti-government protesters seem to be gearing up for a long stay outside a main financial hub in downtown Bahrain, one of three demonstrations across the capital on Monday.

A small group of demonstrators travelled to the US embassy in southern Manama this morning, where they waved signs asking the US to "stop supporting dictators." A spokesman for the US embassy said his government was "listening to all sides."

A second group, numbering several hundred, staged a protest outside an interior ministry office in the capital's Adliya neighbourhood.

The third - and longest-running - protest centred on the Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH), a major commercial hub in the business district of Manama, where a number of protesters have been camped out on Sunday night.

About 300 protesters lined the streets outside, the financial centre on Monday afternoon, chanting the usual slogans ("Down with Hamad!", "We are brothers, Sunni and Shia,

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By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on March 1st, 2011

What's behind the recent wave of popular protests sweeping the Arab world? Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, says... Barack Obama.

"There is a control room in Tel Aviv, it's the cause of all of these problems sweeping the Arab world," Saleh said at the University of Sanaa. "These events are managed by the White House. We hear statements from president Obama asking the Egyptians to do this, telling the Tunisians to do that... this is none of your business, Mr. President."

"Yemen is not Tunisia or Egypt, and the Yemeni people are different," Saleh continued (sound familiar?).

In a separate statement, at a meeting with religious leaders, Saleh said Yemen would split into four parts if his government fell.

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on January 25th, 2011

Day 3 of The Palestine Papers, Al Jazeera's months-long investigation into thousands of leaked Israeli-Palestinian negotiating documents, just went live - and today it's all about security.

The Madhoun assassination. The Palestine Papers include the hand-written notes of a 2005 meeting between Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian interior minister Nasser Youssef - in which they discuss the possible assassination of a leading member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.