Fidel Castro says al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is a CIA agent who always popped up when former president George W Bush needed to scare the world.

‘Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do,’ Castro told state media during a meeting with a Lithuanian-born writer known for advancing conspiracy theories about world domination. ‘Bush never lacked for bin Laden’s support. He was a subordinate.’

Castro said documents posted on WikiLeaks.org – a website that recently released thousands of pages of classified documents from the Afghan war – ‘effectively proved he was a CIA agent’. He did not elaborate.

Castro officially stepped down in February 2008, and Cuba’s National Assembly elected his brother Raul Castro as the new president.

Castro, who turned 84 on August 13, returned to public life on July 7 after four years of convalescence from a serious illness.

JNN 23.08.10 MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain’s top Shia politician said a crackdown on Shiite protesters by Sunni rulers (just who follow US rules) has destroyed a decade of stable sectarian relations as the tiny Gulf state heads into parliamentary elections scheduled for October.

MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain’s top Shia politician said a crackdown on Shiite protesters by Sunni rulers (just who follow US rules) has destroyed a decade of stable sectarian relations as the tiny Gulf state heads into parliamentary elections scheduled for October.

The wave of detentions — at least 160, according to one lawyer — has spilled over into near daily clashes between the majority Shiites and Sunni-led security forces and fueled concerns of deeper unrest and heavy-handed tactics in the home of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

Any serious breakdown in Bahrain has possible wider repercussions.

In April, Bahraini officials warned they could file charges against anyone posting news or commentary on mobile phones.

“The way the ongoing security campaign has been handled and the rights violations that accompanied it have in one week destroyed 10 years of progress in this country,” said Sheik Ali Salman, the head of Wefaq society, the largest Shiite bloc in Bahrain’s parliament at a press conference Saturday.

Shiites make up as much as 70 percent of Bahrain’s population, according to a 2008 State Department report.

Salman also accused the government of tarnishing Bahrain’s human rights record, and warned violence would not solve the continued problems between the two groups. Several prominent international rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have denounced the recent arrests.

Shiites have complained of discrimination for decades. They say Sunnis get the best government jobs and housing, while Shiites are barred from high posts in the military and security forces and suffer from higher rates of poverty.

A government statement issued Saturday blamed internationally funded insurgents for trying to disrupt national security. It also said the suspects were arrested according to Bahraini anti-terrorism laws.

Lawyer Mohammed al-Tajir estimates that over the past week 160 people have been detained, including 10 high level leaders.

“The number is on the rise from last week and differs from one lawyer to another,” he said. “We are having trouble meeting with the detainees and finding out where they are kept.”

JNN correspondent reported several arrests of key Shiite leaders in Saudi Arabia.

Sayyed al-Nasser says: “We will not accept any sectarian discrimination against us or derogation of any of our national rights.”

The renowned Shiite cleric Sayyed Muhammad Baqir al-Nasser condemned the continuous campaign of interrogation calls against the Shiite population in the city of Khobar by the Saudi authorities that ban group prayers for the Shiite population in Khobar.

On the last month, Sayyed al-Nasser indicated that the Shiite people of the city insist on their rights of performing group prayers by stating: “With God willing, we will pray in our sanctums and let the State bear the brunt of preventing our prayers.”

In referring to the possibility of his detention, Sayyed al-Nasser said: “If their repeated calls to me personally, using various pretexts, to prepare for my arrest, it will not change my position at all.”

The statement came after a series of interrogation calls to Sayyed al-Nasser and the most prominent Shiite and the supervisor of one of the mosques, Mr. Abdullah al-Muhanna.

Authorities have exerted steady pressures on Mr. al-Muhanna to refrain from providing group-praying places and discontinue hosting guests of Shiite figures.

Before, [ailing] Mr. al-Muhanna was detained for more than five weeks for the reason of establishing congregational prayers in the mosque, which is supervised by him and abutted to his home.

Sayyed al-Nasser said: “We will not accept any sectarian discrimination against us or any diminution of our national rights,” adding to that: “We have gotten tired of this moot argument about performing group prayers, and after today, we will not obey any mortal on the expense of the [blatant] words of God.”

Last year, the authorities closed down four Shiite mosques in al-Khobar. They also consistently refused to grant the Shiites official licenses for constructing mosques without providing a clear justification for such denial.

The Saudi Shiites constitute more than 15% of the country’s population and live mostly in the oil-rich region.

According to unofficial estimates, al-Khobar city hosts around twenty thousand Shiites.

In addition to the Shiite mosques in al-Khobar, authorities shut down five other Shiite mosques in the cities of Dammam, Abqaiq, Ras Tanura, and al-Khafji.

Saudi Arabia adamantly refuses to grant their Shiite citizens official licenses to construct mosques outside of their indigenous areas of al-Ahsa, Qatif, and Najran without giving a clear justification for such rejection.

The organization of “Human Rights Watch” described in a report earlier this year the situation of human rights in Saudi Arabia as “degraded” for two million Shiite citizens, which is of serious concerns.

Last month, The Saudi Wahhabi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (SCPVPV), also known as Religious Police, had attacked a religious ceremony held in Al-Medina city on the occasion of the birth of Imam Mahdi, the Imam that Shiites believe to be the ultimate savior of humankind and the last Imam of the Twelve Imams.

The attack was carried against one of Al-Ahsa organizations that was celebrating the holy birth of Imam Mahdi in one of the hotels near the holy mosque of the Prophet Mohammad.

According to eyewitnesses, without prior notifications, some members of the SCPVPV attacked the location of the organization at one of the hotels and destroyed all of the paintings, the slogans, and banners that contain sayings of Prophet Mohammad and religious excerpts about Imam Mahdi. In addition, some of SCPVPV members forced the organizers of the ceremony to cancel the events immediately.

Coincidently, the attack occurred at the same time when Sheik Ali Al-Hejji was delivering a religious oration for his audience.

No information reported about casualties or arrests of the organizers by the SCPVPV.

Nonetheless, the SCPVPV imposes strict rules on the Shia visitors of the holy mosque of Prophet Mohammed and Al-Baqi cemetery, in which it reached the limit to prevent them from carrying prayer booklets that the SCPVPV considers as polytheistic books.

Additionally, it is rare to record incidents of attacks on religious ceremonies held by Al-Hajj and Al-Umra organizations at their locations in hotels.

Dozens of Al-Umra and Al-Hajj organizations from Al-Ahsa and Al-Qatif go to the cities of Mecca and Medina during the summer break to spend their time in performing rites of minor hajj (Umra) in Mecca and visiting Prophet Mohammed in Medina.

However, many radical Salafi websites reported unconfirmed information about an intense security presence in the vicinity of the holy mosque of Prophet Mohammed and the cemetery of Al-Baqi.

Last year, the SCPVPV supported by the Saudi security guards were blamed for one of the deadliest attacks yet on thousands of Shia pilgrims of the holy mosque of Prophet Mohammed in a dramatic seen in which the Saudi security guards arrested dozens of Shia pilgrims; lately, the incident has been known as Al-Baqi’s events.