Iran and Qatar working with Rothschilds to destabilize Bahrain via "Smart Mobs"

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'Bahrain, a complete pariah state'


Interview with Professor Rodney Shakespeare, chairman of the Committee against Torture in Bahrain, London

Wed May 11, 2011 4:52PM



Bahraini authorities have expelled Reuters' correspondent, Frederik Richter, from the country amid an ongoing crackdown on media in the small sheikhdom.


Bahraini officials complained that Reuters lacked balance in its reporting during the Saudi-backed regime crackdown on opposition protesters.


Press TV has interviewed Professor Rodney Shakespeare, chairman of the Committee against Torture in Bahrain, in London, regarding Bahrain's clampdown on the media and how the regime there is becoming increasingly isolated. What follows is the text of the interview (also supported by Richard Becker)

VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT HERE

http://presstv.com/detail/179401.html

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Fascism in the Gulf


Welcome to Bahrain

By Lawrence Davidson

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28077.htm

May 11, 2011 "Information Clearing House" --If you want to see how an ostensive religious regime can be corrupted into something close to fascism, just take a look at contemporary Bahrain. In February 2011 there were a series of non-violent demonstrations staged mostly by the small kingdom’s Shia majority (approximately 70% of the country’s Muslim citizens.) These were held to protest the discriminatory practices of the country’s Sunni monarchy. The protests were soon violently suppressed by the Bahraini army and police, with the help of troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. However, it was what followed the crushing of the demonstrations that smacks of fascism.

Here is how a report, dated 6 May 2011, by Roy Gutman of the McClatchy Newspapers, puts it, "authorities have held secret trials where protesters have been sentenced to death, arrested prominent mainstream opposition politicians, jailed nurses and doctors who treated injured protesters, seized the health care system that had been run primarily by Shiites, fired 1,000 Shiite professionals and canceled their pensions, beat and arrested journalists, and forced the closure of the only opposition newspaper. Nothing, however, has struck harder at the fabric of this nation, where Shiites outnumber Sunnis nearly 4 to1, than the destruction of Shiite worship centers."
 
As an important aside that can only shake your faith in the effectiveness of international law, it is to be noted that this repression is being carried out by a regime that, as Stephen Lendman tells us, "is a signatory to nearly every major international humanitarian and human rights law, including: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and the Convention of the Rights of the Child, among others." Signing such instruments is an easy act of hypocrisy for most dictatorships and, as we will see, the one in Bahrain treats them as a form of convenient deception.
 
Sunnis and Shiites

Today, Shiites make up approximately 20% of the world’s Muslim population and are particularly concentrated in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain. The tension between Sunnis and Shiites has its roots in a disagreement over the proper order of succession following the death of the prophet Mohammad. As a consequence the Sunni majority has always seen Shiites as not quite orthodox, and so has often treated them in a discriminatory fashion. This led to over a 1000 years of periodic struggle and competition, sometimes violent, between the two sects. Though none of this has been as horrid or prolonged as the wars of religion experienced by the Christian West, the potential for comparable blood letting is there.
 
I think that there is little doubt that the prophet Mohammad would strongly disapprove of this aspect of Muslim history. In his last sermon to his followers, delivered during his final pilgrimage to Mecca in 632 CE, he said, "Oh ye men, listen to my words and take them to heart: every Muslim is a brother to every other Muslim and you are now one brotherhood." Over the years this message has been disregarded all too often.
 
The Bahraini regime, which happens to be Sunni, has certainly forgotten this important message and treated their majority Shiite citizenry as anything but brothers. And, just as in every other case of prolonged discrimination, the result has been growing resentment. The popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt served as incentives for Bahrain’s Shiites to once more express their discontent in a non-violent way. That the regime blames this all on Shia Iran is just an excuse. It is the Bahraini monarchy’s prejudicial policies that have brought about this situation--the truth is that King Hamad (the present ruler), his family and rest of the kingdom’s ruling clique, pursue bigoted policies and then call that government.
 
So when it comes to Bahrain, you can forget about the fact that this is suppose to be a Muslim government. Islam has nothing to do with its ruling policies. What you have is a minority regime which refuses to reform its indecent and inhumane ways. It is going to hold on to power by brute force and by doing so join the ranks of other regimes such as Pinochet’s Chile, the military dictatorship that once massacred its own people in Argentina, the death squad regimes of Central America, ad nauseam. The next time King Hamad appears on the balcony of his palace to address his supporters, the man standing next to him will no doubt be the regime’s "Lord High Executioner." The probable candidate for this position is Hamad’s uncle, Salman al Khalifa, who is 75 years old and has been the country’s prime minister for forty years. As the Gutman piece tells us, that is "a current world record." This is not a Muslim Bahrain. This is a Fascist Bahrain.
 
And What of the United States?
 
What is the American connection to all of this? The US Fifth Fleet, which patrols the Persian Gulf, is headquartered at a small 100 acre naval base at Bahrain (the base is presently being enlarged). The US has also designated Bahrain a "major non-Nato ally" and has a "defense pact" with that country. Thus the United States is concerned about the fate of Bahrain. It is reported that, at the time of the Egyptian protests, President Obama told both the Bahraini and the Saudi regimes that they should carry out major political reforms so as to prevent similar unrest in their own countries. Both were aghast at this advice and furious that the Obama administration abandoned the Mubarak dictatorship. Obama has since been publically silent on the issue of Bahrain. This is what happens when you climb into bed with dictators. If you are not willing to walk away from them, you must turn a blind eye to their behavior. Historically, this has not been a problem for most American administrations. Abandoning Egypt’s Mubarak seems to be an exception to the rule.
 
Ever since the Egyptian protests ousted Mubarak, Washington’s rhetoric has been confusing. President Obama has often attempted to lay down what sounds like basic principles – ones reflecting "who we (Americans) are as a nation." That is the kind of language he invoked to justify intervention in Libya. We were going to "protect civilians" because that is who we are and that is what people like us do. Well, if this is a basic principle, if we allegedly act in this humane way as a function of who we are, should we not be consistent in our behavior? What about the unfortunate Bahraini Shiites who are being trampled in a fascist manner by a dictatorship every bit as bad, if not worse, than the one in Libya? I could easily throw in a number of other friendly regimes which have equal fascist potential such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Syria and Iran don’t quite fit here because they are presently not our friends. Obama, with his principled rhetoric, has run into the inevitable problem of double standards. It is the kind of problem that makes you want to be an isolationist.
 
However, there is supposedly too much at stake to just walk away from a place like Bahrain. For one thing there is the issue of keeping Middle East oil in "friendly" hands. And just how big an issue is that? There is an old saying that has gone around Washington for decades and it is framed in the form of the question, "what are the Arab leaders who sit on a lot of oil going to do with it? Drink it?" In other words, oil is a commercial product. It does not matter if the Saudis or the Bahrainis or the Iraqis or the Iranians, etc. agree with you or not. Whoever ends up in charge is going to sell their oil. So why support dictatorial regimes? Why not back the protesters? We are all for democracy, or so we claim.
 
Alas, this is about more than oil. The dictators we now back are accepting of Israel and turn blind eyes to the destruction of the Palestinian people. The democracies that might replace them are not likely to feel the same way. We already have intonations of this in post Mubarak Egypt. This situation has actually made undeclared allies of Israel and bloody regimes such as that in Bahrain (King Hamad has admitted cooperating with Israel). Israel, in turn, has one of the strongest lobbies in Washington and, most of the time, shapes America’s Middle East foreign policy, particularly in Congress. Then there is our shared, if exaggerated, fear of Shia Iran. Israel and its allied lobbies drive this fear forward in the US and our dictator friends, like the Saudis and the Bahrainis, are also obsessed by it. Remember, the protestors in Bahrain are overwhelmingly Shiite. If they were successful, Bahrain would most likely be a place friendly toward Iran. That would never do.
 
Conclusion
 
2011 is not the first time Bahrain’s Shiites have protested their plight. There were protests throughout the 1990s which ended with the proclamation of the National Action Charter promising equality of opportunity for all. This statement of theory has obviously not been sufficiently translated into practice. It turned out to be a convenient deception–hence the 2011 troubles.
 
There is no reason to believe that the suppression of the 2011 protests marks the end of Bahrain’s problems. As noted, most of the kingdom’s protests have been non-violent. However, with the fascist tactics now adopted by the regime, non-violence is probably not going to be the popular response next time around. It is simply the case that, over time, the violence of the oppressed rises to the level of the violence of the oppressor. The next time there will likely be civil war in Bahrain.

Professor Lawrence Davidson - Department of History - West Chester University
   
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28077.htm

[Protean]

Learn to read between the lines



http://rt.com/online-exclusive/galleries/fuel-fire-bit-news/eye-read-bottom-line/#read-lines-learn

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'Bahrain, a complete pariah state'

Interview with Professor Rodney Shakespeare, chairman of the Committee against Torture in Bahrain, London

Wed May 11, 2011 4:52PM

Bahraini authorities have expelled Reuters' correspondent, Frederik Richter, from the country amid an ongoing crackdown on media in the small sheikhdom.

Bahraini officials complained that Reuters lacked balance in its reporting during the Saudi-backed regime crackdown on opposition protesters.

Press TV has interviewed Professor Rodney Shakespeare, chairman of the Committee against Torture in Bahrain, in London, regarding Bahrain's clampdown on the media and how the regime there is becoming increasingly isolated. What follows is the text of the interview (also supported by Richard Becker)

VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT HERE

http://presstv.com/detail/179401.html

Has Rodney Shakespeare seen the Abu Graib pictures? Is this a joke?

http://mindprod.com/politics/iraqlinkstopix.html

http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2011/04/04/the-censored-war-and-you/

[Dig]

Learn to read between the lines



http://rt.com/online-exclusive/galleries/fuel-fire-bit-news/eye-read-bottom-line/#read-lines-learn

Malcolm's Brilliant Expose Of Western Media Demonization of African Nationalists
http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/7152/2011-02-28.html

MORE:

From: Malcolm X, "Not Just An American Problem, but a World Problem..." 1965
http://www.sjsu.edu/people/cynthia.rostankowski/courses/2b/s2/Malcom%20X,%20etc.%20Readings.doc

[...]

We are living in a society that is by and large controlled by a people who believe in racism, and practice segregation and discrimination and racism. We believe in a—and I say that it is controlled, not by the well-meaning whites, but controlled by the segregationists, the racists. And you can see by the pattern that this society follows all over the world. Right now in Asia you have the American army dropping bombs on dark-skinned people. You can't say that—it's as though you can justify being that far from home, dropping bombs on somebody else: If you were next door, I could see it, but you can't go that far away from this country and drop bombs on somebody else and justify your presence over there, not with me. [Applause]

It's racism. Racism practiced by America. Racism which involves a war against the dark-skinned people in Asia, another form of racism involving a war against the dark- skinned people in the Congo ... as it involves a war against the dark-skinned people in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Rochester, New York. [Applause]

So we're not against people because they're white. But we're against those who practice racism. We're against those who drop bombs on people because their color happens to he of a different shade than yours. And because we're against it, the press says we're violent. We're not for violence. We're for peace. But the people that we're up against are for violence. You can't be peaceful when you're dealing with them. [Applause]

They accuse us of what they themselves are guilty of. This is what the criminal always does. They'll bomb you, then accuse you of bombing yourself. They'll crush your skull, then accuse you of attacking him. This is what the racists have always done—the criminal, the one who has criminal processes developed to a science. Their practice is criminal action.

And then use the press to make you victim—look like the victim is the criminal, and the criminal is the victim. This is how they do it. [Applause]

And you here in Rochester probably know more about this than anybody anywhere else. Here's an example of how they do. They take the press, and through the press, they beat the system.... Or through the white public. Because the white public is divided. Some mean good, and some don't mean good. Some are well meaning, and some are not well meaning. This is true. You got some that are not well meaning, and some are well meaning. And usually those that are not well meaning outnumber those that are well meaning. You need a microscope to find those that are well meaning. [Applause]

So they don't like to do anything without the support of the white public. The racists, that are usually very influential in the society, don't make their move without first going to get public opinion on their side. So they enlist the press to get public opinion till their side. When they want to suppress and oppress the Black community, what do they do? They take the statistics, and through the press, they feed them to the public. They make it appear that the role of crime in the Black community is higher than it is anywhere else. What does this do? [Applause]  This message—this is it very skillful message used by racists to make the whites who aren't racists think that the rate of crime in the Black community is so high. This keeps the Black community in the image of a criminal. It makes it appear that anyone in the Black community is a criminal. And as soon as this impression is given, then it makes it possible, or paves the way to set up a police-type state in the Black community, getting the full approval of the white public when the police come in, use all kind of brutal measures to suppress Black people, crush their skulls, sic dogs on them, and things of that type. And the whites go along with it. Because they think that everybody over there's a criminal anyway.

This is what—the press does this. [Applause]

This is skill. This skill is called—this is a science that's called "image making." They hold you in check through this science of imagery. They even make you look down upon yourself, by giving you a bad image of yourself. Some of our own Black people who have eaten this image themselves and digested it—until they themselves don't want to live in the Black community. They don't want to be around Black people themselves. [Applause]

It's a science that they use, very skillfully, to make the criminal look like the victim, and to make the victim look like the criminal. Example: In the United States during the Harlem riots, I was in Africa, fortunately. [Laughter] During these riots, or because of these riots, or after the riots, again the press, very skillfully, depicted the rioters as hoodlums, criminals, thieves, because they were abducting some property. Now mind you, it is true that property was destroyed. But look at it from another angle. In these Black communities, the economy of the community is not in the hands of the Black man. The Black man is not his own landlord. The buildings that he lives in are owned by someone else. The stores in the community are run by someone else. Everything in the community is out of his hands. He has no say-so in it whatsoever, other than to live there, and pay the highest rent for the lowest-type boarding place, [Applause] pays the highest prices for food, for the lowest grade of food. He is a victim of this, a victim of economic exploitation, political exploitation, and every other kind.

Now, he's so frustrated, so pent-up, so much explosive energy within him, that he would like to get at the one who's exploiting him. But the one who's exploiting him doesn't live in his neighborhood. He only owns the house. He only owns the store. He only owns the neighborhood. So that when the Black man explodes, the one that he wants to get at isn't there. So he destroys the property. He's not a thief. He's not trying to steal your cheap furniture or your cheap food. He wants to get at you, but you're not there. [Applause)

And instead of the sociologists analyzing it as it actually is, trying to understand it as it actually is, again they cover up the real issue, and they use the press to make it appear that these people are thieves, hoodlums. No! They are the victims of organized thievery, organized landlords who are nothing but thieves, merchants who are nothing but thieves, politicians who sit in the city hall and who are nothing but thieves in cahoots with the landlords and the merchants. [Applause]

But again, the press is used to make the victim look like the criminal and make the criminal look like the victim. . . . This is imagery. And just as this imagery is practiced at the local level, you can understand it better by an international example. The best recent example at the international level to bear witness to what I'm saying is what happened in the Congo. Look at what happened. We had a situation where a plane was dropping bombs on African villages. An African village has no defense against the bombs. And an African village is not sufficient threat that it has to he bombed! But planes were dropping bombs on African villages. When these bombs strike, they don't distinguish between enemy and friend. They don't distinguish between male and female. When these bombs are dropped on African villages in the Congo, they are dropped on Black women, Black children, Black babies. These human beings were blown to bits. I heard no outcry, no voice of compassion for these thousands of Black people who were slaughtered by planes. [Applause]

Why was there no outcry? Why was there no concern? Because, again, the press very skillfully made the victims look like they were the criminals, and the criminals look like they were the victims.  It's imagery. They use their ability to create images, and then they use these images that they've created to mislead the people. To confuse the people and make the people accept wrong as right and reject right as wrong. Make the people actually think that the criminal is the victim and the victim is the criminal.

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Bahrain: Activist Bears Signs of Abuse

Concerns About Ill-Treatment in Military Court Hearings for 14


Human Rights Watch

HRW, May 11, 2011

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/10/bahrain-activist-bears-signs-abuse

(Washington, DC) - A prominent rights activist who was active in Bahrain's pro-democracy street protests appeared before a special military court on May 8, 2011, bearing visible signs of ill-treatment and perhaps torture, Human Rights Watch said today.

The activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, was one of 14 defendants, most active with opposition political movements, charged with attempting to "topple the regime forcibly in collaboration with a terrorist organization working for a foreign country." His wife and daughter spoke with him briefly after the court session, the first time they had been allowed to see him since he was arrested and badly beaten on April 9. They observed multiple facial injuries, and he told them he had four fractures on the left side of his face, including one in his jaw that had required four hours of corrective surgery.

"It appears that Abdulhadi al-Khawaja's jailers tortured him during the month they held him in incommunicado detention," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Torture or ill-treatment is a serious crime, and Bahraini officials who did or authorized this treatment need to be held accountable."

Human Rights Watch has documented the routine use of torture by Bahraini security officials during similar interrogations in political and security-related cases.


The National Safety Lower Court postponed resuming the trial until May 12 to allow defense lawyers to meet with their clients, and in some cases to appoint their own lawyers. The case was brought by the military prosecutor, and a military judge presides over the sessions. Bahrain's police and military have operated under martial law, termed a "state of national safety," since March 15.
The 13 defendants who appeared before the special court with al-Khawaja are Abd al-Wahab Hussain, Ebrahim Sharif, Hassan Mushaima, Abd al-Jalil al-Singace, Mohammed Habib al-Saffaf (al-Moqdad), Saeed Mirza Ahmed, Abd al-Jalil al-Moqdad, Abd a-Hadi Abdullah Mahdi Hassan, Al-Hurr Yusif Mohammed, Abdullah Isa al-Mahroos, Salah al-Khawaja, Mohammed Hassan Jawad, and Mohammed Ali Ismael.

Seven others being tried in abstentia in the same case are Akeel Ahmad al-Mafudh, Ali Hassan Abdullah, Abd al-Ghani al-Khanjar, Saeed Abd al-Nabi Shihab, Abd al-Rauf al-Shayeb, Abbas al-Umran, and Ali Hassan Mushaima. Several are in hiding, presumably in Bahrain, while others have been living abroad.

Prior to the May 8 court session, Bahrain's military public prosecutor, Col. Yusif Rashid Feleyfel, had formed an investigative committee composed of several public prosecutors who questioned the 14 suspects, the state-run Bahrain News Agency (BNA) announced.

Prosecutors have accused the defendants of a variety of national security crimes under Bahrain's 1976 Penal Code and the 2006 Counterterrorism Law. These alleged crimes include "organizing and managing a terrorist group for the overthrow and the change of the country's constitution and the royal rule," "seeking and correspond[ing] with a terrorist organization abroad working for a foreign country to conduct heinous acts" against Bahrain, funding a foreign terrorist organization, insulting the army, "broadcasting false news and rumors" that threatened public security, inciting sectarianism, and organizing and participating in rallies without having obtained the necessary permits.

"Some of these charges, like insulting the army, should not be crimes at all, and it looks like at least in Abdulhadi-al-Khawaja's case the authorities have tried to beat a confession out of him rather than come up with evidence to support these charges," Stork said.

According to information provided to Human Rights Watch, the 14 detainees appeared in court dressed in loose grey prison garb that covered their arms and legs. Most were unshaven and several had lost considerable weight - in the case of National Democratic Action Society leader Ebrahim Sharif, approximately 15 kilograms, according to a tweet posted by his family. Human Rights Watch earlier received unconfirmed reports that authorities had hospitalized Sharif, who has a history of heart problems, prior to the court session.

Other detainees, including Hassan Mushaima of the Al-Haq movement and Abd al-Wahab Hussein of the Wa'fa Society, had noticeable limps. Sources told Human Rights Watch that when the defendants asked to speak about the abuse they allegedly experienced in detention, security forces forcibly removed them from court.


According to several accounts provided to Human Rights Watch, several detainees did not have families present at the May 8 court hearing because the families had not been informed of the session. Government officials claimed that appropriate notice regarding the trial had been given in local newspapers. Human Rights Watch learned from another source that Sharif was unaware of the charges that had been brought against him until he appeared in court.
Maryam al-Khawaja, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja's daughter, told Human Rights Watch on May 9 that her mother, Khadija al-Mousawi, and sister, Zainab al-Khawaja, met with him for about 10 minutes after the initial hearing. Al-Khawaja told his wife and daughter about the facial fractures. They also said they observed stitches above his left eye, and that he had difficulty eating and smiling because of his serious facial injuries, Maryam al-Khawaja told Human Rights Watch.

She said her father had gone on a hunger strike to protest his ill-treatment and his lack of access to a lawyer. She also said that he told his wife and daughter that he had been tortured, but could not describe details because the family meetings took place in the presence of security guards.

Human Rights Watch had previously received credible reports that al-Khawaja had been admitted to Bahrain Defense Force hospital for six days for treatment of injuries, including to his jaw and head. One person who claimed to have seen him said he was at that point unrecognizable as a result of apparent beatings in detention.

On May 8 authorities rejected claims that any detainees had been tortured. BNA reported that government sources maintained that information "received from the Military Hospital and the Salmaniya Medical Complex, the largest hospitals in the country, [show] that neither hospital has admitted or treated any of the detainees." The news agency said that "rumors about the admissions and hospitalization were untrue and were fabricated, politically-motivated news."

Human Rights Watch expressed serious concern about al-Khawaja's condition and those of others at risk of torture or ill-treatment in light of recent documented cases of individuals who died in custody under suspicious circumstances. One of four such cases documented by Human Rights Watch in April was that of Ali Isa Ibrahim Saqer, 34, whose body showed signs of severe physical abuse when Human Rights Watch viewed his remains.

Bahrain is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits "torture or... cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." The prohibition on torture is absolute and non-derogable, which means that authorities may not torture even in circumstances of national emergency. Bahrain has also ratified the Convention against Torture, which prohibits torture and other ill-treatment under all circumstances, prohibits the use of statements made as a result of torture as evidence in legal proceedings, and requires the prosecution of those responsible for torture.

Human Rights Watch called on Bahrain to suspend further prosecution of civilians in special military courts, allow them full access to lawyers, family members, and necessary medical care, and set up an impartial commission to look into serious allegations of torture. Human Rights Watch opposes the creation and use of special courts or the use of military courts to try national security crimes.

Human Rights Watch also repeated its call for the United Nations Human Rights Council to address the violent suppression of protests and subsequent arbitrary detentions and torture or ill-treatment in custody of detainees in Bahrain by convening a "thematic" special session on civil protests in the region.

"Ordinary courts are perfectly capable of effectively prosecuting serious crimes, including terrorist offenses," Stork said. "Apparently Bahrain is not interested in justice but in punishing those involved in anti-government street protests."


 
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/10/bahrain-activist-bears-signs-abuse

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'West unwilling to stop Bahrain killings'


Thu May 12, 2011 10:14AM

The West appears reluctant to put an end to the severe suppression of anti-government protesters by the Saudi-backed regime in Bahrain, says a political analyst.


WATCH VIDEO READ ARTICLE HERE:

http://presstv.com/detail/179537.html

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- Bahrain Targets Shi'ite Religious Sites

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/05/2011513112016389348.html


- Activists Decry US Silence on Bahrain's Crackdown

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/13/114197/activists-decry-us-silence-on.html

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May 16, 2011
http://counterpunch.org/patrick05162011.html

Not Even a Bleat, Mrs. Clinton?

Anti-Shia Pogroms Sweep Bahrain


By PATRICK COCKBURN


"Let us drown the revolution in Jewish blood,” was the slogan of the Tsars when they orchestrated pogroms against Jews across Russia in the years before World War1.

The battle-cry of the al-Khalifa monarchy in Bahrain ever since they started to crush the pro-democracy protests in the island kingdom two months ago might well be “to drown the revolution in Shia blood.”  Just as the Tsars once used Cossacks to kill and torture Jews and burn their synagogues, so Bahrain’s  minority Sunni regime sends on its black-masked security forces night after night to terrorize the majority Shia population for demanding equal political and civil rights.

Usually troops and police make their raids on Shia districts at 1-4 am, dragging people from their beds and beating them in front of their families. Those detained face mistreatment and torture in prison. One pro-democracy activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, brought before a military court last week with severe facial injuries said he had suffered four fractures to the left side of his face, including a broken jaw that required four hours surgery.

The suppression of the protesters came after Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council – also known as the ‘kings’ club’ of six Gulf monarchs -- sent 1,500 troops to Bahrain to aid repression which began on  March 15. It soon became clear that the government is engaged in a savage onslaught on the entire Shia community – some 70 per cent of the population – in Bahrain.

First came a wave of arrests with about 1,000 people detained, of whom the government claims some 300 have been released, though it will not give figures for those still under arrest.  Many say they were tortured and, where photographs of those who died under interrogation are available, they show clear marks of beating and whipping. There is no sign yet that King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa’s declaration that martial law will end on 1 June is anything more than a propaganda exercise to convince the outside world, and foreign business in particular,  that Bahrain is returning to normal.

Repression is across the board. Sometimes the masked security men who raid Shia villages at night also bulldoze Shia mosques and religious meeting places. At least 27 of these have so far been wrecked or destroyed, while anti-Shia and pro-government graffiti is often sprayed on walls that survive.

The government is scarcely seeking to conceal the sectarian nature of its repression. Defending the destruction of Shia mosques and husseiniyahs (religious meeting houses) it claims that they were constructed without building permission, but critics point out that one that was demolished was 400 years old. Nor is it likely that the government has been seized with a sudden enthusiasm for enforcing building regulations since the middle of March.

The government is determined to destroy all physical rallying points for the protesters. One of the first such places to be destroyed was the Pearl Square monument, an elegant structure commemorating the pearl fishers of the Gulf, which was bulldozed soon after the square had been cleared of demonstrators. A measure of the government’s paranoia is that it has now withdrawn its own half-dinar coins showing the Pearl Square monument.

Facing little criticism from the US, otherwise so concerned about human rights abuses in Libya, the al-Khalifa family is ruthlessly crushing opposition at every level. Nurses and doctors in a health system largely run by Shia have been beaten and arrested for treating protesters. Teachers and students are being detained. Some 1,000 professional people have been sacked and have lost their pensions. The one opposition newspaper has been closed. Bahraini students who joined protests abroad have had their funding withdrawn.

The original February 14 protest movement was moderate, contained Sunni as well as Shia activists, and went out of its way to be non-sectarian. Its slogans included a demand that Bahrain’s powerful prime minister for the last 40 years, Shaikh Khalifa ibn Salman al-Khalifa, to step down and for fair elections.  It also wanted equal rights for all including an end to anti-Shia discrimination under which the majority were excluded from the 60,000-strong army, police and security forces. Security jobs went instead to Sunni recruits from Pakistan, Jordan, Syria and other Sunni states who were immediately given Bahraini citizenship.

Sometimes the anti-Shia bias is explicit. One pro-government newspaper prominently published a letter that compared the protesters to “termites” that are intelligent but multiply at alarming speed and “are very similar to the February 14 group that tried to destroy our beautiful, precious country.” The writer recommends exterminating the “white ants so they don’t come back.”

The purpose of the systematic torture and mistreatment inflicted on the detainees is firstly to create a feeling of terror in the civilian population. It is not only protesters or pro-democracy activists that are being targeted. Al-Jazeera satellite television, based in and funded by neighboring Qatar, which played such a role in publicizing protests and their attempted repression, in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Libya, was initially much more reticent about events in Bahrain. But al-Jazeera revealed this week that the Bahraini police has been raiding girls’ schools, detaining and beating school girls, and is accused of threatening to rape them.

One 16-year-old called “Heba” was taken with three of her school friends and held for three days during which they were beaten.  She said an officer “hit me on the head and I started to bleed” and she was thrown against a wall. She says that, although the girls were beaten severely, they scarcely felt the pain because they were so frightened of being raped. The Bahraini opposition party al Wefaq says that 15 girls’ schools have been raided by the police and girls as young as 12 threatened with rape.

Aside from intimidation there is a further motive for the beatings and torture: This is to extract evidence that, against all appearances, the opposition was planning armed revolt and is manipulated by foreign powers, notably Iran. The aim, in the case of Abdulhadi al-Kawaja, was evidently to beat out of him a confession to the charge that he was attempting to “topple the regime forcibly in collaboration with a terrorist organization working for a foreign country.”

The al-Khalifas are aware that their strongest card in trying to discredit the opposition is to claim it has Iranian links. US embassy cables revealed by Wikileaks show that the Bahrain government has continually making this claim to a sceptical US embassy over the years, but has never provided any evidence. This propaganda claiming Iranian plots is crude, but plays successfully in Sunni Gulf states that see an Iranian hand behind every Shia demand for equal rights and an end to discrimination. It also gets an audience in Washington, conscious that its Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, and fearful of anything that might strengthen Iran.

The Bahraini monarchy, having effectively declared war on the majority of its own people, is likely to win in the short term because its opponents are not armed. The cost will be that Bahrain, once deemed more liberal than its neighbours, is turning into the Gulf’s version of Belfast or Beirut when they were convulsed by sectarian hatred. 

Patrick Cockburn is the author of "Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq

 
http://counterpunch.org/patrick05162011.html
 

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Bahrain Sends 8 Activists to Prison

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/18/Bahrain-sends-8-activists-to-prison/UPI-44691305742222/


Bahrain Begins Trials for Dissident Newspaper Editors

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/18/2223209/bahrain-accuses-newspaper-editors.html


Bahrain Court Adjourns Shi'ite Death Sentence Appeal

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110518/wl_mideast_afp/bahrainpoliticsunresttrial

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Middle East
May 24, 2011 
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ME24Ak02.html 
 

Decoding Obama's Bahrain puzzle


By M K Bhadrakumar


The address by United States President Barack Obama on Thursday regarding the Middle East situation was a mixed bag of certainties and ambiguities, although Obama did bring US regional policy frankly and squarely behind the Arab Spring.

On the other hand, the speech was a last-ditch attempt to define a new narrative and a desperate gamble to regain the initiative. There is indeed a fundamental contradiction insofar as any political order that is born out of the Arab Spring, which is representative or sensitive to popular Arab opinion will, by definition, find it difficult to forge strategic cooperation with America.

Cairo has opted for normalization of relations with Iran; begun whittling down security cooperation with Israel; and in a stunning move reconciled the Palestinian groups and is probably encouraging them to seek United Nations recognition for Palestinian statehood. Washington is barely coping.

Unsurprisingly, Obama was highly selective when he contemplated changes in the Middle East; he just couldn't bring himself to mention Saudi Arabia. He didn't know what to say. The great puzzle is Bahrain. Obama said with certainty:

Bahrain is a longstanding partner, and we are committed to its security. We recognize that Iran has tried to take advantage of the turmoil there, and that the Bahraini government has a legitimate interest in the rule of law.

Nevertheless, we have insisted both publicly and privately that mass arrests and brute forced are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain's citizens, and we will - and such steps will not make legitimate calls for reform go away. The only way forward is for the government and opposition to engage in a dialogue, and you can't have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail. [Applause] The government must create the conditions for dialogue, and the opposition must participate to forge a just future for all Bahrainis.

This can be viewed almost as a reprimand of King Hamad Khalifa, a close ally, and a rejection of the violent crackdown on Bahraini protesters. Obama would know that changes in Bahrain would inevitably affect Saudi Arabia. Yet, he never mentioned Saudi Arabia and the US is also "quietly expanding on a vast scale" the US's defense ties with Saudi Arabia.

An Associated Press analysis with a Washington dateline on the same day as Obama spoke reported a "historic expansion of a 66-year-old relationship that is built on America's oil appetite, sustained by Saudi reliance on US military reach".

Apart from the recent US$60 billion Saudi-US arms deal, AP reports on a top-secret US project to develop an elite 35,000-strong Saudi force trained and equipped by the US under the supervision of Central Command specifically geared to protect Saudi oil infrastructure and other sensitive establishments.

Equally, something appears very odd in what Obama said about Bahrain since he continued in the same breath to draw a parallel with Iraq, of all places: "Indeed, one of the broader lessons to be drawn from this period is that sectarian divides need not lead to conflict. In Iraq, we see the promise of a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian democracy. The Iraqi people have rejected the perils of political violence in favor of a democratic process."

Najaf versus Qom

Obama's Bahrain puzzle needs decoding. On second thoughts, Bahrain and Iraq have similarities. In both places, democracy is all about Shi'ite empowerment. Clearly, the US pins hopes on the "reformist" crown prince of Bahrain to accommodate the demands of the Shi'ite opposition, while the prime minister, who is apparently a hardliner, is setting the pace for repression - and he is supported by the Saudis.

The US sees the alchemy of Shi'ite empowerment in Bahrain very differently from the Saudis. For one thing, Bahraini Shi'ite protesters aren't (so far) "anti-American" and the continuance of the US base for its Fifth Fleet is not in jeopardy. Again, Sheikh Issa Qassem, the spiritual leader of Bahraini Shi'ites, is prepared to settle for a constitutional monarchy and is not demanding an overthrow of the Sunni monarchy.

What Bahraini Shi'ites are demanding is power-sharing rather than a capture of power.

More important, the US doesn't subscribe to the conspiracy theory that the Iranians are going to be the "winners" if the Shi'ite majority gets a share of power in Manama. Iran, too, seems to realize its limitations. On the other hand, Bahraini Shi'ites do not want an Iran-type clerical regime - Velayat e-Faqih.

From the religious perspective, too, they draw inspiration from Najaf in Iraq rather than Qom in Iran. This last point becomes extremely important for comprehending the thinking behind Obama's remarks on Bahrain.

It is often overlooked that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shi'ites based in Najaf, has consistently avoided supporting strict conceptual interpretation of Velayat-e Faqih. He is neither openly dismissive of some of the underlying doctrinal ideas nor does he explicitly offer any substantive affirmation of the Faqih framework. In short, Sistani remains reluctant about getting involved in politics, although as prominent US scholar and academic Vali Nasr (who, incidentally, advises Obama on the Muslim Middle East) points out, he "never tried to promote rivalry" between his doctrinal ideas and those of the Iranian clerics in Qom.

What it all adds up to is that a friendly Bahraini Shi'ite nation could turn out to be a strategic asset for the US to build bridges to Najaf - and that holds immense significance for the overall configuration of American influence in Iraqi politics, which today Iran (vainly) tries to dominate.

Any redefining of Shi'ite empowerment away from the traditional stranglehold of the clerical establishment (and the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih) and the shepherding of Bahraini Shi'ites toward a genuinely democratic, "secular" way of life holds interesting geopolitical possibilities for US regional policies, as such a progression would be completely antithetical to what the Iranian regime (or Hezbollah in Lebanon) represents.

That is to say, the cumulative impact of "democratic" Shi'ite empowerment in Iraq and Bahrain could at some point come to a "fusion" that poses an ideological headache for the Islamic regime in Iran. Thus, reform in Bahrain holds the potential to kick-start an engrossing shadow play within the world of Shi'ism in the Muslim Middle East. If Bahrain can be finessed to follow the "secular" democratic route of Shi'ite empowerment and be conjoined with Iraq politically, it may hasten the demand for democratic change within Iran itself.

A schism erupts ...

Iran's clerics, who have their political antennae out, may be sensing trouble and that may partly explain the grim power struggle that has erupted between the religious establishment and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad (who is incidentally the first non-cleric to occupy the position of head of state since the 1979 revolution). Conventional wisdom so far has been that Supreme Leader Ali Khameini solidly backed Ahmadinejad and that the president himself was the representative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The thesis has been, finally, blown away by the past few weeks of dramatic happenings in Tehran. We are witnessing instead the Iranian religious establishment circling its wagons. The Majlis (parliament), top IRGC commanders, Friday Prayer speakers and even the Guardian Council - important organs of the religious establishment - are queuing up to criticize or put down Ahmadinejad.

They are taunting the president - inflicting scores of cuts on him that are bound to bleed at some point. The political stakes are high. It was none other than Khamenei who gave the green signal for the assault on Ahmadinejad when he took the decision last month to reinstate Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi (a senior cleric who was previously the supreme leader's adviser to the Basij, Iran's equivalent of a "people's liberation army"), who was sacked by the president.

Interestingly, this was preceded by a smear campaign for months in Tehran that Ahmadinejad was systematically promoting "non-clerical" figures into positions of power and was pushing a secret plan to have another non-cleric succeed him as president in the next election in 2013. Furthermore, that he was working on a master plan to marginalize the religious establishment.

Ahmadinejad is a staunch follower of Ali Shariati, the brilliant non-cleric Iranian revolutionary and sociologist who propagated "red Shi'ism" in the tumultuous years leading up to the revolution in 1979 - a curious amalgam of Marxism, Third Worldism and Islamic puritanism - which opposed the unrevolutionary "black Shi'ism" or Savafid Shi'ism of the Iranian religious establishment. Shariati was trained in Sorbonne in France and was a friend of philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre; he was murdered in 1975 and in the event the clerics hijacked the revolution from its Marxian moorings.

The latest political controversy in Tehran over control of the Oil Ministry is also related to the broader power struggle, as powerful elites within the corrupt and decadent religious establishment have traditionally controlled and enjoyed this milk cow of the Iranian economy in league with the bazaar, and they cannot brook Ahmadinejad's move to assume direct charge of the portfolio.

The Guardian Council, the constitutional watchdog dominated by the religious establishment, stepped in last week to censure Ahmadinejad's executive decision to take charge of the Oil Ministry.

Again, Iran's administrative court, which is under the thumb of the religious establishment, has come up with a case against the head of the presidential administration, Hamid Baqaei, who is the right-hand man of Ahmadinejad and has the rank of vice president, banning him from working in state bodies for the next four years.

On Sunday, in a dramatic development, Ahmadinejad's key aide Kazem Kiapasha, who was touted in recent months as the president's favorite candidate for the 2013 election, was arrested.

Unshuttered balcony

According to the Tehran grapevine, many people loyal to Ahmadinejad, including his close confidant Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei (who is also the president's chief of staff), have been taken in for questioning and websites allied to them have been blocked.

Mashaei and Baqaei have been summoned for questioning by Iran's intelligence services. Hardliners and conservative clergy have been campaigning in recent months that Ahmadinejad has a master plan to weaken the Velayat-e Faqih system. Evidently, the hydra-headed Iranian religious establishment is imposing itself on an assertive non-clerical head of state.

This schism within the Iranian regime and the enveloping revolutionary fervor imparted by the Arab Spring could stir up the moribund democratic movement within Iran. The Iranian religious establishment is not a pushover and it will fight tooth and nail to defend its untrammeled political power. But then, the Iranian religious establishment is also lately a divided house.

This is where democratic reforms in Bahrain leading to Shi'ite empowerment could act as a catalyst for an "implosion" within Iran.

Actually, Obama has been surprisingly mild in his rhetoric on Iran - as if he were keenly following events there. Such an approach makes sense, as any manifest attempt to muddy the waters of the power struggle in Iran could be counter-productive.

The growing disarray within the Iranian regime and contradictions in Iran's political economy are best exploited if Bahrain emerges at this juncture as another democratic society (like Iraq) where Shi'ites are empowered but have opted for a modern, forward-looking society seeking integration with the West in the present era of globalization.

Obama's approach is diametrically opposite the Manichean vision of the Saudi establishment, which is frantically rallying the Sunni Arab world. Obama distanced himself more than once from the Saudi tirade against Iran stoking the fires of Sunni sectarian passions.

He would rather prise open the 30-year-old house that Iran's Shi'ite clerics built by climbing through an unshuttered balcony window that Bahraini Shi'ites could hold open for him in the dead of the night.

Will it work? The hope is audacious since there is the real risk that persecuted Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia will also clamor for the empowerment that the Bahraini Shi'ites may secure under Obama's watch. If that happens, a reluctant Obama may come face to face with the imperative of reforms in Saudi Arabia, which would be the mother of all reforms.

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.


http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ME24Ak02.html
 
 
 

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Bahraini Shia cleric calls for reform

Sat May 28, 2011 1:22PM




Sheikh Ali Salman, head of al-Wefaq Shia opposition party


The leader of Bahrain's main opposition group has called on the regime to stop its brutal crackdown on civilians, saying political reform is the only way to move forward.


"Security (forces) will not bring the solution ... without political reform, this bad situation will continue and there will not be real stability," Sheikh Ali Salman, who heads the country's largest Shia political group, al-Wefaq, said.

Al-Wefaq leader added that according to a survey, the majority of the protesters seek political reform and a constitutional monarchy, AFP reported on Saturday.

Addressing the security forces, Salman said, "You have frightened the people with tanks, so you have to keep tanks around. This would be far from normal."

He expressed his distrust of the electoral process and announced that his group is not planning to take part in the upcoming by-elections.

MORE

http://presstv.com/detail/182140.html

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Bahraini forces attack villages

Fri May 27, 2011 4:49PM



A Bahraini man gestures as regime forces fire tear gas at anti-government protesters in the western village of Malkiya, March 25, 2011.

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have attacked anti-government protesters in several villages across the Persian Gulf sheikdom.


Witnesses say regime troops used tear gas and concussion bombs to disperse protesters in Diraz, Bani Jamrah and some other villages on Friday.

The protesters called for an end to the Al Khalifa rule and the immediate release of detained anti-government protesters.

According to witnesses, Bahraini protesters in recent days have their faces covered to avoid recognition by regime forces.

Saudi-backed Bahraini troops have arrested hundreds of anti-government protesters during overnight operations after identifying them based on pictures taken from opposition rallies.

MORE

http://presstv.com/detail/182019.html

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BCHR concerned for Bahraini children

Bahrain Centre for Human Rights expresses concern for children's condition in the country.


Tue May 31, 2011 10:40AM



Sayed Ahmed Shams, 15, lost his life in Bahrain on the night of March 30, 2011, after being shot in the face by security forces.


Bahrain's Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) has expressed deep concern over the government's targeting of children during its brutal security campaigns against Bahraini civilians.


The following is a report on the condition of Bahraini children issued by the BCHR on May 29:

Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) expresses its deep concern for the government's targeting of children during its brutal security campaigns, especially the last campaign that started in the last few months and after the declaration of national safety (martial law) state. Hundreds of children were victims of excessive force by policemen that resulted in two children death at least. They were also subjected to arbitrary arrests that targeted them in their class rooms and homes, physical and psychological assaults during night raids to arrest their parents, and great damage inflicted upon them by the Authority as a result of targeting thousands of parents with arrest and arbitrary dismissal from work.

BCHR has published several previous reports in the last 6 months condemning the government's targeting of children in security campaigns launched by the authorities against opponents, but its appeals for the authorities to respect the international conventions, which it pledged to them, including the Rights of the Child Convection, had fallen on deaf ears in the silence of the international community. However, these violations of the Rights of the Child have become worse and reached dangerous limits.

Children became victims of Bahraini regime excessive use of force to crackdown peaceful protests, as it neglected their safety during the attack on the Pearl Roundabout on 17th Feb 2011 at 3 a.m. without warning with tear gas, rubber and live bullets and bird shotgun, despite the presence of many children sleeping in the tents. They were subjected to excessive and indiscriminate use of force under a policy of collective punishment. A baby girl was injured shotgun shot in her arm on 16th March 2011 in an attack by riot police on peaceful gatherings in the vicinity of the Pearl Roundabout.

The child Sayed Ahmed Shams (15 years) lost his life on the night of 30th March 2011 after being shot in the face. Witnesses said that the security cars were patrolling the streets of the village of Sar and driving fast between the houses, although the village was not involved in any protests at that time. Sayed Ahmed was playing with his friends, adjacent to his grandfather's house, when they were surprised when they saw security cars coming at high speed at approximately half past five o'clock in the afternoon. The security forces suddenly started firing on them and when they tried to escape, Sayed Ahmed was wounded with a shot above the left eyebrow. A tear-gas package fell near him causing him difficulty in breathing until he fainted. Security forces left him suffering of his injury without help. When the news reached to his family, they came to the scene and took their son to the hospital but died before arrival. Instead of investigating the incident, the Interior Ministry refused to acknowledge its responsibility and refused to hand over Sayed Ahmed's body to his family until they sign a death certificate declaring that the cause of death was falling in the playground.

The child Mohamed Abd Alhussain (6 years) was transferred to resuscitation room on 29th April 2011 after asphyxiation with tear-gas that security forces thrown deliberately and in an excessive manner over the houses of Sitra village. Mohamed remained in the resuscitation room till he died the next morning 30th April 2011.

Arrest and torture of children at police stations

All countries must ensure that “no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age; and no child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time” Article 37, Convention on the Rights of the Child.

While the security forces continued arbitrary detention of children from their homes and their villages, they launched a new phase by raiding the school and arrest of children from their classrooms and during examinations. The children form a serious percentage, reaching up to 25%, of the total number of the people detained since the declaration of a state of national security on March 15, 2011 (more than 1200 persons in total). This rate far exceeds the rate in the prisons of other countries suffer from disturbances such as occupied Palestine (children 3.7% of total prisoners) and Iraq (children 3% of the total detainees), which reflects the severity of the crackdown and arbitrary arrests against the most vulnerable group of people.

At least 12 girls' schools were subjected to repeated raids by the security forces, where they are arrest students that are 11-17 years old from their classrooms and beat them. They take them after that to the police stations, where they are tortured, assaulted and detained for a few days before their release, without having any legal advisor during the investigation process.

On 18th April 2011, after some school girls shouted with anti-government logos, policewomen and anti-riot police attacked Yathrib Intermediate School for Girls in Hamad Town and detained up to 50 female students, who are 11-14 years old. The security forces took photos of the students, beaten them and took them to Hamad Town Police Station. According to information that BCHR received, the detained students were humiliated and policewomen hit them hard with sticks over their heads. The girls were investigated and asked: (Did you participate in any demonstration or go to the Roundabout?). Their heads were banged to the wall several times and they were forced to stand for hours. The police also forced female students to write the name of “Hasan Mishamia” on their shoes and wash their head scarves after writing pro-government logos on it. Additionally, the police spread unknown substance over their faces. Before the students were release, they were forced to sign a pledge to come next day or they will be brought by force. The parents said that their daughters were in a psychological breakdown after their release.

The same school was attacked several times in the subsequent days, along with Al-Ahd Al-Zaher Secondary School for Girls, Omaima bint Al-Noaman Secondary School for Girls and Hajer Alimentary School for Girls, where many students and teachers were detained. Therefore, students and their parents were in a constant fear and apprehension of students being subjected to beatings and detention in the school.

On 12th May, Iman Al-Aswami (15 years) was called for investigations and was asked for more than 11 hours about her participation in the demonstration and her posts on her personal page on the Facebook. The investigation took place without permitting her parents to attend, and in the absence of a lawyer or specialist in dealing with children. She was questioned by policemen and was only released late after pledging to come next day.

On 22nd May, two 17-years-old female students from their school during taking examination. Their names are Zainab Al-Satrawi and Noof Al-Khawajah. They were released a few hours later after being beaten severely.

Student Heba (16 years) (this alias name to avoid her re-arrest) stated that she was arrested with 3 other girls from her school. She was arrested and beaten for 3 consecutive days in April 2011. In the bus that took her from the school to the police station, she was humiliated and threatened with rape. A police man forced her to take off her head-scarf and hit her head with the wall several times. He would increase his force if she does not scream. He also hit her with a thick hose on her head till she started bleeding and fell on the ground. She also said that threat of rape was repeated in the detention centre. She and her collogues were scared by the threat of referring them to the Saudi Army to deal with them. She fainted from fear of what might happen to her there. She was forced to watch other girls being beaten while they are blind-folded. The girl is still afraid of being arrested again as they threatened her of that.

The child Ahmed Abbas Yahia Thamer (12 years) spent more than a month in detention in Rifaa Police Station after the security forces kidnapped him without informing his family of his arrest. The family stayed in the dark, not knowing what happened to their son for a while; till they knew he was in the police station.

None of the arrested children were allowed to meet their families or contact a lawyer during the whole arrest period. They were arrested in detention centers along with older criminals charged with major crimes such as drug trafficking. This is against international standards as the United Nations Group on Arbitrary Detention, has recommended -in its report in 2001 and after its visit to Bahrain- to separate juveniles from adults. However, this recommendation is not followed till now.

The United Nations Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Bahrain in a fact-finding trip in 2001 has recommended the transfer of dependency of detention centers for children to the Ministry of Social Development. The Council of Ministers also issued a decision on 4th December 2005 to transfer subordination of children's detention centers to the Ministry of Social Development. However, this recommendation of the United Nations and the decision of the Council of Ministers decision had not been implemented so far; after several years of their issuance. All detention centers and prisons of children in Bahrain are managed by the Ministry of the Interior rather than the Ministry of Social Development.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child in the United Nations also expressed its regret in 2002 that the Bahraini government's report does not refer to any information about the serious allegations contained in the reports of other human rights organizations about the practice of torture and arbitrary detention of individuals less than eighteen years of age. The committee recommended an effective investigation in all cases of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment at the hands of police officers and to bring their perpetrators to justice, as well as providing full care for the victims of those violations and to give them adequate compensations, treatment and social integration.

BCHR has previously documented many cases of detentions that occurred during the previous security campaign last August, were more than 70 children faced accusations beyond their age and were subjected to torture and ill-treatment to force their confession.

Martial courts for children

While the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Article 40 states that “States Parties shall seek to promote the establishment of laws, procedures, authorities and institutions specifically applicable to children alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law”, and despite the presence of special court to deal with cases of juveniles in Bahrain, the authorities tried the child Moh'd Ebrahim Khatem in front of a martial court in May 2011, violating the agreement that it has signed. Khatem had been arrested from his home in a night raid 1:30 a.m. on 4th May 2011. He was accused of participation in the crowds and riots. The next hearing in his case will be held on 30th May 2011. It is not certain that other children are not facing similar situation in view of the secret trials, the prohibition of publishing and fear of parents of reporting such abuses.

The Shura Council appointed by the King had voted on 2nd May 2011 to reject the draft law amending Article (1) of Decree Law No. (17) for the year 1976 concerning the juveniles, to lift the age of the juvenile to 18 years old while it is limited to 15 years in Bahraini law now. This is against the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child - adopted by the General Assembly in November 1989, which Bahrain joined under Decree Law No. (16) for the year 1991 - as it stated in the first article in its definition of a child that " child means every human being below the age of eighteen years". Therefore, the authority continue to hold children who have reached the age of fifteen full criminal responsibility as senior adult individuals taking full responsibility and expose them to the same penalties, prosecutions and places of detention for adults without regard to their age.

Although the Convention on the Rights of the Child forbid prohibits the ruling of life imprisonment on children, the court on 5th July 2010 sentenced Issa Ali Issa Sarhan, who was 17 years old when he was arrested, to life imprisonment after being convicted in a group of 9 defendants on charges of causing the death of a policeman at un-fair trial, especially with the court's reliance primarily on confessions obtained under torture, which Issa was one of its victims.

Children are subjects to assault and threatening in the night raids

Children are exposed to different kinds of intimidation during raids on their homes in the late hours of the night to arrest the wanted of their relatives. During the housebreaking of Secretary-General of the Islamic Action Society Sheikh Mohammad Ali Al-Mahfodh, security forces took his juvenile son (Hassan 16 years old) as a hostage to force him to give himself up. During the housebreaking of activist Salah Al-Khawaja for his arrest, security forces put the gun in the heads of his young kids -- as described by their mother -- and threatened to shoot the kids, if they don't tell them about the location of the men in the house (minute 11:55).

Deprivation of basic education

The authorities also deprived several children of their right of getting basic education. They dismissed many students, including children from Al-Dair Alimantary School for Boys, who are less than 11 years old, because they shouted “Down with the King”. Female students who are less than 15 years old were also dismissed from Yathrib Intermediate School for Girls, some which were not allowed to take final exams.

Financial and psychological effects because of targeting of the parents

In addition to all these arbitrary measures taken against children in direct violation of number of articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, many children are living difficult financial and psychological conditions after the arrest of one or both parents (as in the case of children of Dr. Zahra Sammak and Dr Ghassan Dhaif where both parents were detained till the release of their mother). Some of these affected children are infants who have not completed one year and have been deprived of their mothers who have been detained for periods of up to two months as in the case of Khatun Sayed Hashim (mother of a 4-month-old child at the time of her arrest) were not allowed to see their children. In addition to the dismiss of their parents from work (more than 2000 workers were fired or suspended from work), or losing one of their parents as a result of the authority violence in dealing with protests, which resulted in the death of up to 30 people, none of which is investigated or compensated the family. While the Authority announced that it will provide supports for children of the police officers who were killed in the protests (4 police officers), it ignored the children of the rest of the people that it caused their death in an ugly discrimination practiced against them without guilt.

Exploitation of children in working with members of the Authority

The authority often turn to the exploitation of children to work with it as intelligence undercover who report on the wanted people by the government and provide information to it. Bahrain Centre has previously received a videotape in December 2010 recording confessions of a child stating that he started working as an informer to the police after being sexually assaulted by the authority's men and being forced to work for them.

Children were also used in the formation of local militias armed with sticks and they were trained to engage in confrontations, a move that apparently came with the support of the authority.

Based on all mentioned, BCHR recommend the following

(1) Stop the campaign of arbitrary detention of children specially school children and ensure their safety in schools.

(2) Immediate release of all detainees below 18 years of age. In case of presence of evidence of them committing crimes requiring punishment according to international laws, then they should be prosecuted in a trial consistent with international standards of fair trial and taking consideration of their age.

(3) Urgent and neutral investigation in all cases of murder, torture and assault specially those against children and juveniles, and bring the perpetrators and implementers of such crimes to justice.

(4) Providing full care for the victims of all these violation specially children and juveniles and providing them with suitable compensation and required treatment.

(5) In case of detaining those less than 18 years old, this should be in special detention centers for children and juveniles, who are under Ministry of Social Affairs' supervision and not Ministry of Interior or any other security force.

(6) Stop the repeated attacks on the Bahraini villages, especially those that affect children and juveniles.

(7) Following the Convention on the Rights of the Child and implementation of all the recommendations of the Committee of Child Rights issued in 2002.

( Managing political and social problems by dialogue, study of the roots of the problems and implementing laws and procedures that follow international standards of human rights.

(9) Taking all measures to ensure that children and juveniles in detention or trial do not lose their right of basic education to guarantee for them a bright future far from deprivation and loss.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/182558.html

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Posted on Mon, May. 30, 2011
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/30/114980/bahrains-official-tally-shows.html

Bahrain's official tally shows cost to Shiites of mosques crackdown

by Roy Gutman | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: May 31, 2011 07:55:53 AM

BAGHDAD — Bahrain's Sunni Muslim government demolished or seriously damaged 43 Shiite Muslim mosques or religious structures during its crackdown on anti-government demonstrations, according to an official tally compiled by the state-supported endowment that oversees Shiite sacred buildings.

Twenty-eight mosques were completely leveled, of which 10 had been historic structures, according to the list, which the Awaqf endowment posted last week on its website. Another seven were seriously damaged, of which two were historic, according to the list.

The endowment, which the government helps fund and which reports directly to Bahrain's minister of justice and Islamic affairs, also said that two Shiite cemeteries had been vandalized and that eight "ma'atems" — multi-purpose structures which often function as funeral parlors — had been damaged. One of those was historic, the endowment said.

All of the religious structures had been properly registered with the government, according to the list.

That assertion directly contradicts Bahraini government claims that any religious buildings destroyed in the crackdown had been built illegally in recent years.

"These are not mosques. These are illegal buildings," Bahrain's minister of justice and Islamic affairs, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali bin Abdulla al Khalifa, told McClatchy in a May 2 interview. "You cannot build a place of worship on land taken by force or illegally."

There was no official explanation for why the endowment had posted the list. One Bahraini familiar with the issue said it may have been in response to a request for details of the destruction from Bahrain's monarch, King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, after President Barack Obama criticized Bahraini actions in a speech earlier this month.

Sheikh Khalid did not respond to requests for comment, and Awaqf officials also declined to speak to McClatchy.

Among the structures listed as damaged was the Sasa'a bin Sawhan Mosque in the city of Askar, a mosque dating back to shortly after the death of the Prophet Mohammad.

The Awaqf list did not specify the damage at the Sasa'a bin Sawhan mosque, but a Bahrain resident, at McClatchy's request, visited the mosque and reported that the windows were broken, posters of Bahrain's royal family now plaster the front entrance, and the air conditioning system had been vandalized.

McClatchy first reported on the systematic destruction of Shiite mosques on May 8. The destroyed mosques included the 400-year-old Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque in Aali and all 10 mosques in the village of Nwaidrat, including the historic Mo'men mosque. The Awaqf list confirmed the McClatchy report.


President Obama criticized the destruction in his May 19 speech on the Arab spring. "Shia must never have their mosques destroyed in Bahrain," Obama said.

Responding to Obama's remarks, a senior Bahrain government official told McClatchy that day that there were "more facts than he had addressed."

MORE


http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/30/114980/bahrains-official-tally-shows.html

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Posted on Mon, May. 30, 2011
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/30/114982/us-yanks-diplomat-from-bahrain.html


U.S. yanks diplomat from Bahrain after he's threatened


by Roy Gutman | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: May 31, 2011 07:55:53 AM

BAGHDAD — The United States pulled its human rights officer from Bahrain last week after he'd become the subject of a weeks-long campaign of ethnic slurs and thinly veiled threats on a pro-government website and in officially sanctioned newspapers.

Ludovic Hood left the island nation on Thursday. During his final days in Bahrain, Hood was given security protection equal to that of an ambassador, U.S. officials said.

"The safety and security of our diplomatic personnel is our highest priority," the State Department in Washington said in a statement in response to inquiries from McClatchy. "It is unacceptable that elements within Bahrain would target an individual for carrying out his professional duties."

Hood's early departure from Bahrain — five human rights and U.S. officials confirmed that he had not been scheduled to leave Bahrain last week — underscores the serious tensions that have arisen between the U.S. government and Bahrain, the home port of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

On May 19, President Barack Obama criticized the Sunni Muslim government's harsh crackdown on the country's majority Shiite Muslim population. The crackdown has featured the destruction of Shiite mosques, the jailing and physical abuse of leading opposition political figures and journalists, and official harassment and intimidation of teachers, medical professionals and others.

The campaign against Hood, however, had been going on for two months, State Department officials said, with one of the most virulent attacks coming May 7 in an anonymous posting on a pro-government website that included links to photos of Hood and his wife on their wedding day and information on where Hood and his family lived.

The posting claimed that the biggest single supporter of the anti-government protests that began Feb. 14 was the political section of the U.S. embassy, working "in cooperation" with a cell of the Lebanese Hezbollah militant movement.

The head of the office, the blog claimed, was "a person of Jewish origin named Ludovic Hood," and charged: "He's the one who trained and provoked the demonstrators to clash with the army" near the Pearl Roundabout that was the epicenter of the demonstrations.

Hood also was "the one" telling the opposition of the steps they should take "to inflame the situation," the posting claimed.

The blogger called for "honest people to avenge" Hood's role, gave the neighborhood in which he lived with his family in Manama, the capital, and promised to provide his street address. It linked to a wedding photo of Hood with his "Jewish wife, Alisa Newman."


The attacks continued even after Hood left Bahrain, according to an official in Washington, with two newspapers on Monday targeting both Hood and the embassy's current top diplomat, Stephanie Williams.

The Arabic language website appears to have the approval of Bahrain's royal family. Called Bahrainforums.com, its homepage includes photos of Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bahrain's crown prince, the country's prime minister, ?Prince Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa, and of the king, Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa.

Khalifa bin Salman is the longest serving unelected prime minister in the world.

MORE

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/30/114982/us-yanks-diplomat-from-bahrain.html

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Bahrain denies abusing female Shiite doctors

Bahraini Shiite Muslim women protest outside the Ministry of Interior in the capital Manama, in March 2011. Bahrain's interior ministry on Monday denied claims made to AFP by female Shiite doctors that they were abused and tortured while in detention over their alleged backing for anti-regime protests

Mon May 30, 4:09 pm ET
 
.DUBAI (AFP) – Bahrain's interior ministry on Monday denied claims made to AFP by female Shiite doctors that they were abused and tortured while in detention over their alleged backing for anti-regime protests.

"The claims and allegations made by female doctors in the AFP report are not only baseless but scurrilous," said a ministry statement emailed to the agency.

"The Bahrain authorities affirm that very high standards of human rights norms are being followed at all detention / interrogation centres in the country."

Several female doctors who were released recently had told AFP they were abused and tortured at the hands of interrogators in detention centres, amid a massive crackdown on the Shiite majority after security forces quelled a month-long protest in mid-March.

The women said they were forced under severe beating and verbal abuse to confess to backing their co-religionist protesters and abusing their positions.

Some said they were made to testify against colleagues at Salmaniya hospital accused of lying and exaggerating on satellite channels to pile pressure on the government.

MORE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110530/wl_mideast_afp/bahrainpoliticsunrestwomenrightsshiite

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Arrest spree climbing in Bahrain


Wed Jun 1, 2011 10:37AM



Scores of people have been killed and many more arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protests in Bahrain (file photo).

The Bahraini regime has stepped up the apprehension of civil society leaders, rights activists and other opposition figures amid continuing anti-government protests in the Persian Gulf sheikdom.

MORE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/182704.html

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Bahrain


- Mistrust Abounds as Bahrain to Lift Emergency Law
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\06\01\story_1-6-2011_pg4_7

 
- Bahrain's King Offers July Reform Talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110531/wl_nm/us_bahrain_talks

 
- Bahrain: Tough Line Remains on Protest Groups
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110531/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain

 
- Silencing Bahrain's Journalists
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/05/20115318046839411.html

 
- Women the Latest Target of Bahrain's Crackdown
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/31/136818563/women-the-latest-target-of-bahrains-crackdown

 
- Bahrain: Human Rights Group Wants Racing Event Canceled
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/05/bahrain-human-rights-groups-cautions-against-return-of-formula-one.html
 

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Another Bahraini protester killed

Fri Jun 3, 2011 12:2PM




Another Bahraini anti-government protester has been shot dead after regime forces opened fire on demonstrators north of the country.

MORE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183027.html

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Weekend Edition
June 3 / 5, 2011
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick06032011.html

Journalist Tortured in Bahrain

Nazeeha Saeed's Ordeal


By PATRICK COCKBURN

Bahrain is seeking to stage the Formula One motor race, whose organizers meet today in Barcelona to decide where it will take place, despite police arresting and abusing a quarter of the local staff of the event. The race was postponed in February because of pro-democracy protests and the government is eager to have it rescheduled in Bahrain later this year to show that life in the island kingdom is returning to normal.

In the run up to the decision on Formula One police patrols have sought to prevent any demonstrations and controversial trials of pro-democracy protesters have been postponed. Ayat al-Gormezi, the 20-year-old girl poet, who was to be tried by a military tribunal on a charge of stirring up hatred and insulting the king, has had her trial put off until June 6.

Of the 108 local staff of the government-owned Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), which hosts Formula One, some 28 were detained and mistreated according to a source in Bahrain close to the event. All of those arrested are Shia and have since been sacked. Five of these are still in prison including the chief financial officer Jaafar Almansoor, an employee of BIC told Reuters news agency.

“They made us beat and kick each other,” said the employee, who did not want to be named, describing their 20 days in detention.  “They said they’d rape us. They tried to touch you in various places to make you think it’s going to happen.” The prisoners were insulted for being Shia and, on being released, were told not to talk to the media.

Nobody, however prominent in business or otherwise appears safe from arbitrary arrest. Ghazi Farhan, an executive in a property company who also owns three restaurants and a riding stable, was arrested in his office car park on 12 April by plain clothes police and since then has only had two brief telephone conversations with his family. His wife, Ala’a Shehabi, has been prevented from leaving Bahrain despite repeated representations by the Foreign Office.

Details of mistreatment of women in custody are often difficult to obtain because victims of abuse are ashamed to admit they were threatened with rape or otherwise humiliated. One of the most graphic, which also illustrates the Bahraini authorities’ wish to intimidate journalists, comes from Nazeeha Saeed, the Bahraini correspondent of France 24 television and Radio Monte Carlo in testimony given to Reporters Without Borders.

“Summoned to a police station on 22 May Nazeeha was accused by a female officer of ‘lying’ in her reports and having links to the Lebanese Shia Hezbullah TV station al-Manar and the Iranian Arabic station Al-Alam.  She was grabbed by the jaw, slapped, punched and kicked by four police women, one of whom screamed ‘Your must tell the truth.’ Another took off her shoe and forced it into Nazeeha’s mouth saying “you are worth less than this shoe.”

She was then dragged to another office and forced to kneel on a chair, facing the back of the chair, exposing her back and the soles of her feet which were beaten with flexible black plastic tubing. She was accused of lying and ‘harming Bahrain’s image’.

During a later interrogation session Nazeeha was blindfolded and told to bray like a donkey and walk like an animal. She was beaten again. At this point one police woman held a plastic bottle against her mouth and shouted ‘drink, it’s urine.’  Nazeeha knocked the bottle aside and it fell to the floor but the police woman picked it up and poured what was left in the bottle on her face. She says she is not certain the liquid was urine but it stung her skin.

After a further round of beating, she was sent back to wait in a room with other women. They were allowed to go to the toilet and brought food. Later the head of the police station asked to see Nazeeha and, claiming not to know that she had been interrogated, allowed her to phone her mother and go home."

How to explain the ferocity of the Bahraini al-Khalifa royal family's assault on the majority of its own people? Despite an end to martial law, the security forces show no signs of ceasing to beat detainees to the point of death, threaten schoolgirls with rape and force women to drink bottles of urine.

The systematic use of torture in Bahrain has all the demented savagery of the European witch trials in the 16th and 17th centuries. In both cases, interrogators wanted to give substance to imagined conspiracies by extracting forced confessions. In Europe, innocent women were forced to confess to witchcraft, while in Bahrain the aim of the torturers is to get their victims to admit to seeking to overthrow the government. Often they are accused of having treasonous links with Iran, something for which the New York-based Human Rights Watch says there is "zero evidence".

A simpler motive for the across-the-board repression of the Shia, who make up 70 per cent of the Arab population of Bahrain, is that it is a crude assertion of power by the Sunni ruling class backed by Saudi Arabia. The aim is simply to terrorize the Shia into never again demanding civil and political rights as they did during peaceful demonstrations which started on February 14 in emulation of protests in Egypt and Tunisia.

The tragedy of Bahrain is that none of the present toxic developments were necessary even from the egocentric point of view of the al-Khalifas. Of all the uprisings which have taken place during the Arab Spring, Bahrain had the most ingredients for compromise between protesters and the powers-that-be. The demand of the main opposition was not an end to the monarchy, but greater democracy, less discrimination and an end to the policy of naturalizing Sunni immigrants in a bid to change the demographic balance against the Shia.

In practical political terms a deal between government and opposition would have required the king to dismiss his prime minister, Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has held his job for 40 years and is famous for his vast wealth and extensive ownership of property in Bahrain.

It never happened. Instead the al-Khalifas panicked, probably thinking they would be the next regime to go down after Tunisia and Egypt. The US, despite having its Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, suddenly appeared to be a shaky supporter. Saudi Arabia and the monarchs of the Gulf wanted what they saw as a Shia uprising crushed.

The government played the sectarian card, portraying the Bahraini Shia as pawns of Iran and frightening the Sunni minority on the island. It bulldozed Shia mosques and prayer houses. Attending the most peaceful pro-democracy rally before the crack down started on March 15 was portrayed as treason and those that had not demonstrated have been forced to confess that they did.

In the short term, the al-Khalifas' strategy has worked and the opposition is cowed, but the price may be permanent hatred of the majority of Bahrainis for the monarchy. The regime may try to change the demographic balance by driving thousands of Shia from the island by intimidation and firing. Inevitably it will have to rely on Saudi Arabia to an even greater degree than in the past, making the island little more than a Saudi protectorate.

Patrick Cockburn is the author of "Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq.

 
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick06032011.html

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Formula One faces rights backlash over Bahrain GP


By Patrick Cockburn

Saturday, 4 June 2011


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/formula-one-faces-rights-backlash-over-bahrain-gp-2292828.html

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Saudi-backed forces attack Bahrainis

 
Mon Jun 6, 2011 12:19AM

New footage has emerged showing Saudi-backed regime forces cracking down on a religious ceremony in south of the capital Manama, as anti-regime protests rage on in Bahrain.


VIDEO & ARTICLE HERE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183368.html

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Video: Al Khalifa preying on children

Sun Jun 5, 2011 5:50PM


A recently-emerged video from Bahrain shows that the ruling family's relentless crackdown on popular anti-government protests continues to take its toll on Bahraini minors.


VIDEO & ARTICLE HERE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183324.html

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Bahrain



 Bahrain Police 'Target Shia Processions'
 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/20116674812696776.html

 Bahrain Medical Staff 'Tortured for Confessions'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/bahrain-medical-staff-tortured-for-confessions-2293851.html
 
 Bahrain Media Charges That US Backs Regime's Overthrow
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/06/115346/bahrain-media-charge-that-us-backs.html
 
 Iraq's Chalabi Takes on Bahrain, Loses First Round
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/06/115325/iraqs-chalabi-takes-on-bahrain.html

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'US, KSA, Bahrain violate human rights'

Wed Jun 8, 2011 12:51PM



Interview with Zayd al-Isa, Middle East expert, from London

The United States preaches for equal human rights yet ignores blatant violations from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain as they commit atrocities on their citizens

VIDE & ARTICLE HERE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183758.html

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'Bahrain martial law a smoke screen'


Tue Jun 7, 2011 3:13PM


Interview with Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahraini Center for Human Rights, from Manama

The Bahraini government lifts martial law but continues brutal crackdowns and mass military trials for doctors, medical staff and civilians who demand a stop to the imperialist regime.


In an interview with Press TV, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahraini Center for Human Rights, gives account to the depressing situation in Bahrain despite the government's announcement of lifting martial law

VIDEO & ARTICLE HERE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183640.html

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Bahrain calls off F1 race amid revolt

Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:5AM


Site of Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix (file photo)

Bahrain's Formula One Grand Prix, due in late October, has been canceled after teams and drivers indicated that they will not participate in the event amid the revolution in the country.

MORE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184034.html

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'US, UK complicit in Al-Khalifa crimes'


Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:11AM

The United States and Britain are complicit in the violent Saudi-backed crackdowns of the Bahraini regime on peaceful anti-government protesters in Bahrain, says a Bahraini political activist.


“I have no doubt that neither [the crackdowns by] the Al-Khalifa regime nor the Saudi invasion [of Bahrain] would have taken place without the tacit approval or, without the silence at least, of the United States; and keeping silent when facing such enormous human rights violations is tantamount to complicity,” Saeed al-Shehabi, with Bahrain Freedom Movement told Press TV on Friday

VIDEO & ARTICLE HERE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184035.html

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June 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/world/middleeast/10bahrain.html?_r=1



Cultivating a Prince to Coax an Ally to Change

By MARK LANDLER


WASHINGTON — As the Arab Spring grinds into summer, President Obama has turned on repressive Arab governments in different ways and at different speeds. He broke quickly with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya and more reluctantly with Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. He slapped sanctions on Bashar al-Assad of Syria and has encouraged a Saudi-led effort to ease Ali Abdullah Saleh out of Yemen.

Only in the case of Bahrain has Mr. Obama kept out the welcome mat — prodding, cajoling and exhorting members of its royal family to ease a crackdown that crushed peaceful protesters demanding democratic change. In particular, the administration has cultivated Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the 41-year-old heir to the throne who graduated from American University in Washington and speaks English like someone from the mid-Atlantic region.

On Thursday, Prince Salman met Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., completing a high-level tour that included a White House meeting Tuesday with President Obama and his national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon. He also paid a call to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said the United States supported “the kinds of important work that the crown prince has been doing in his nation.”

The prince, who is considered the most moderate member of his family, has been assigned to lead whatever dialogue there is with the opposition. But this is the same Sunni monarchy that imposed martial law to silence the demands of the mostly Shiite opposition. It also allowed the deployment of Saudi troops as part of a campaign to stop further protests, which has included widespread arrests, detentions and, most recently, the trials of 47 doctors and nurses who treated injured demonstrators.

Given Mr. Obama’s lofty rhetoric about the historic significance of the uprisings in the Arab world, why engage with a royal family that has led such a brutal crackdown?


MORE

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/world/middleeast/10bahrain.html?_r=1

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'S Arabia a threat to all ME uprisings'

Sun Jun 12, 2011 10:5AM


Press TV interviews Saeed al-Shahabi, Bahraini opposition leader in London

Bahrain's Saudi-backed regime continues to quell political activists and anti-government protesters amid fresh rallies across the country.

VIDEO AND TRASCRIPT HERE


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184328.html

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Bahrain’s Dictatorship and the Pentagon

By Jacob G. Hornberger

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28359.htm


June 17, 2011 "fff" -- -Sometimes it’s good to look at foreign dictatorships to see what the president and the U.S. military have done to our country. Consider, for example, the trial of 20 doctors that is currently taking place in Bahrain.

As most everyone knows, Bahrain is ruled by a brutal dictatorship, just as many other countries in the Middle East are. Bahrain is also besieged by anti-government demonstrations, just as other countries in the Middle East are. Like other dictatorships in the Middle East, Bahrain’s dictatorial regime is using brute force to suppress the protests.

What distinguishes the Bahrain dictatorship from, say, the Libyan or Syrian dictatorships, is that the U.S. government supports the dictatorship in Bahrain while opposing the Libyan and Syrian dictatorships. Thus, not only does U.S. foreign aid flow into the Bahrain dictatorship, the U.S. military also has a major base there.

The Bahrain dictatorship is accusing those 20 doctors of participating in anti-government protests in Bahrain. Guess what type of court the doctors are being tried in. You got it: a military tribunal, just like those employed by the Pentagon at Guantanamo Bay.

It probably won’t surprise you to know that the doctors are accusing Bahrain’s military of torturing them while in custody and forcing confessions out of them — and that the military is denying it.

The tribunal is actually a special national-security court that was established last March as part of the emergency rule that the dictatorship imposed on the country to deal with the anti-government protests. Emergency rule essentially means martial law, with the military wielding the power to protect “national security” by establishing “order and stability” within the country.

Not surprisingly, in previous prosecutions in Bahrain’s national-security court, defendants have been charged with “terrorism.” Moreover, since the trials pertain to “national security,” some of the proceedings have been held in secret.

Sound familiar?

Well, of course it does. All this is familiar ground for Americans, who have seen the Pentagon under both President Bush and President Obama engage in this same sort of conduct.

Consider, for example, the Pentagon’s military tribunals. Are they any different in principle from those employed in Bahrain? Consider also the circumstances under which the Pentagon’s tribunals came into existence — during the emergency known as 9/11.

As in Bahrain, many of the accused have been tortured by U.S. military personnel while in the custody of the military or the CIA. Of course, oftentimes the U.S. military authorities take the same position as their Bahrain counterparts — that they don’t torture and that the defendants are lying.

While the Bahrain dictatorship recently lifted its emergency rule, 11 years after the 9/11 attacks the U.S. military still wields the authority to take the American people (and foreigners) into custody as suspected terrorists in the global war on terrorism — the authority to them with water-boarding, sensory deprivation, and other “harsh-interrogation” techniques — and the authority to hold them indefinitely without trial. Why, the Pentagon and the CIA can now even assassinate Americans whom they label terrorists.

Indeed, about the same time that Bahrain was recently lifting its emergency rule, the U.S. Congress was renewing the USA Patriot Act for another four years. And yesterday, the New York Times reported that the FBI is expanding the authority of its 14,000 agents to monitor the activities of Americans who are even not suspected of breaking the law.

By the way, Bahrain and the United States aren’t the only ones to employ special courts to deal with acts of suspected terrorism. After the Reichstag Fire trials in which some of the accused terrorists were acquitted by the regular German courts, Adolf Hitler established what was known as the “People’s Court,” a special national-security court to deal with cases of terrorism and treason, one in which the chances of any suspected terrorist getting off were virtually nil.

Is it any wonder that the president and the Pentagon continue to partner with and support dictators in the Middle East? I don’t think so. When it comes to emergency dictatorial powers, they have lots in common.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation.
 
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28359.htm

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Bahrain jails opposition leaders for life

Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:5AM


Bahraini protesters march during an anti-regime demonstration in the capital Manama, on March 4, 2011

A special court in Bahrain has sentenced ten senior opposition leaders to life in prison on charges of plotting to overthrow the Saudi-backed Bahraini regime


MORE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185764.html

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'Bahrainis fed up with Manama regime'


Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:1PM

Interview with Jafar al-Hasabi, Bahraini political activist


A military court in Bahrain has recently sentenced eight Bahraini opposition activists to life in prison for what it called "plotting to overthrow the ruling system."


Press TV has interviewed Bahraini political activist Jafar al-Hasabi, from London, regarding the latest developments in Bahrain.

What follows is a rush transcription of the interview.

VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185961.html

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UN welcomes Bahraini regime probe


Fri Jul 1, 2011 11:3AM



Anti-government Bahrain women take part in a rally organised by. al-Wefaq opposition group.


The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed Bahrain's decision to set up an independent committee to investigate its brutal crackdown of anti-regime demonstrators

MORE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/187035.html

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Talks begin in Bahrain amid crackdowns

Sat Jul 2, 2011 10:29AM



Bahraini anti-government protesters (file photo)

Bahraini rulers have started negotiations with the country's opposition leaders amid the continuing harsh crackdowns on anti-regime demonstrations.

MORE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/187178.html

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Kuwait withdraws forces from Bahrain

Sat Jul 2, 2011 1:23PM


People watch from their rooftops as tens of thousands of Bahraini protesters gather at a rally in the village of Diraz, West of Manama July 1, 2011.

Kuwaiti naval forces have decided to withdraw Bahrain after a 4-month long military occupation of the country's territorial waters with aim of aiding the government to crush anti-regime protesters.

MORE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/187204.html

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Why Did Democracy Fail in Bahrain?


Between sectarian tensions and the U.S.'s imperial interests, Bahraini democracy never stood a chance.


By Saeed Rahnema

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28562.htm

July 13, 2011 "The Mark" -- The tiny Persian Gulf sheikhdom of Bahrain is in the midst of seemingly irresolvable mayhem. When, in February 2011, influenced by the eruption of political protests in other Arab states, many Bahrainis poured into the streets of Manama, they were expressing their frustration of the repressive and unjust situation they had long endured. Demands for constitutional reforms, democratic rights, and a more equitable society were met with the harsh and brutal reaction of the authoritarian regime of Al-Khalifa, with the implicit consent of the United States. The neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Islamic republic of Iran manipulated the situation, aggravating the turmoil.

The complicated status of Bahrain can be understood in light of the historical Persian (Iranian) and Arab rivalries, on the one hand, and the colonial and imperial interests of Britain, and now the United States, on the other. Historically a part of the Persian Empire, Bahrain came under Arab influence in the 8th century, and shifted hands several times, leading to the rule of the Al-Khalifa tribe in the 18th century. Iran did not give up its claim over Bahrain, and, even in the 1950s, declared it a province of Iran. However, in the early 1970s, with Britain’s intervention, the majority of Bahrainis opted for independence.

The Al-Khalifa tribe was a non-native Arab Sunni tribe originating from central Arabia, and ruling over a Shiite-majority territory. As a result, it had to rule with force. It needed the support of neighbouring Sunni tribes, and the backing of the dominant imperial power of the time, Britain. Interestingly, compared to other Arab sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf, Bahrain has had a stronger civil society, labour unions, women’s organizations, and political parties.

The present ruler of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad Al-Khalifa, came into power in 1999, when he replaced his father. As a result of political pressures, he introduced some reforms. In 2002, he changed the political system to a “constitutional monarchy” with an elected lower house, and promoted his own status from emir to king. He also established a new labour law that allowed the creation of a general federation of trade unions. Further changes included the fact that women were granted the right to vote, and, even though no woman was elected to sit in the lower house, the king appointed six women to the upper house. Generally, compared to those in other small Arab states, Bahraini women have had better chances for education, and have been more active in public life. But most of these privileges have been limited to the minority Sunnis.

The 2011 uprising was a genuinely spontaneous, secular movement by the civil society, without outside influences. Shiite religious organizations certainly entered the scene and expressed their long-standing grievances. The Shiite community constitutes about 70 per cent of the population of Bahrain, and has been subjected to outright discriminations. In 1995, a Shiite minister entered the cabinet, and, in the 2006 election, the Shiite opposition won 40 per cent of the votes. Despite this, however, the hostilities towards the Shiite population have never relaxed. Such hostilities exist for both religious and political reasons. Sunnis consider Shiites to be heretical, and the ruling Sunni regime – particularly after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran – has been suspicious of Shiites as agents of Iran.

There is no doubt that the present Iranian regime has tried to infiltrate Shiite organizations. In 1981, and again in 1996, claims were made that Iran and the Bahraini Hezbollah were plotting against the rules of Bahrain. The fact, however, is that over 80 per cent of Bahraini Shiites are Arabs, and they do not have much interaction with Shiites who are of Iranian origin. Many of the latter, aware of the atrocities that the Iranian regime has committed against its own people, are not interested in having a similar regime in Bahrain.
Nevertheless, when the February uprising occurred, the Iranian regime increased its efforts to support hardline Shiite groups, including the newly formed coalition (of three radical Shiite groups) for establishing a Bahraini Republic, which is obviously aimed at toppling the Al-Khalifa regime.

Meanwhile, Al-Khalifa’s perceived fear of Shiites moved the king closer to the Sunni fundamentalists, who previously had strained relations with him because of his openly pro-western policies. The king’s recent visit with a Sunni hardliner – a rare occurrence – is a clear indication that these anti-Shiite groups, which had previously been pushed to the background, are now returning to centre stage. This, in turn, has scared many Shiites, who, for fear of a Sunni fundamentalist takeover, are getting closer to the Shiite fundamentalists, including the Iranian regime. As a result, Shiite fundamentalists are also gaining strength. The fact that Saudi and other Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) troops have crossed the causeway and taken over Bahrain, as well as the heavy-handed policies of the regime – conducting mass trials of Shiites, along with members of secular forces – is further proof that Shiite fundamentalists are gaining influence, and are now perceived as a viable threat.

Amid all this, the U.S., and other western countries that have much at stake in Bahrain, had to put aside all their hypocritical claims of democracy, and stand firm behind the authoritarian regime and its Saudi and GCC backers.

Bahrain’s strategic location has long made it a colonial stronghold. For instance, the British had their main regional naval base there. In 1991, Bahrain signed a defence agreement with the U.S., and played a crucial role in the first Persian Gulf War against Saddam Hussein. Soon, the country became home to the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which, with its 16,000 naval and support personnel, covers the vast areas of the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Sea. Bahrain is also home to the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps component of the CENTCOM that is involved in all U.S. war efforts in the region. In 1998, Bahrain played a crucial role in providing military facilities for the U.S. and U.K. bombings of Iraq. Economically, Bahrain is the site of the operations of many multinational banks and industries, and, in 2004, it signed a free-trade pact with the U.S.

With this much at stake, the Americans did not hesitate to prevent any instability that opposition to this reliable ally, Al-Khalifa, might cause – whether such opposition took the form of a democracy movement or Shiite insurgents.

In short, the obstacles of authoritarianism, Shiite fundamentalism, Sunni fundamentalism, and American imperial interests prevented Bahraini civil society from achieving its demands. With a massive U.S. presence in the region, and with increased animosity between the two major rivals in the Persian Gulf – Saudi Arabia and the Iranian regime – as well as the rise of both Shiite and Sunni fundamentalism, turmoil in Bahrain has the potential to grow into a much bigger confrontation, with enormous global consequences.

Saeed Rahnema Professor, political science, York University; media commentator on the Middle East.

   
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28562.htm
 

[bigron]

US fleet may quit troubled Bahrain


by Hugh Tomlinson

July 20, 2011

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/us-fleet-may-quit-troubled-bahrain/story-e6frg6so-1226098580227

THE US Navy is looking at plans to move its Fifth Fleet away from Bahrain amid fears over violence and continued instability in the Gulf kingdom.

Sources in Washington and the Gulf have confirmed a growing consensus around the idea of relocating the fleet after the recent crackdown on anti-government protests that left at least 32 dead.

Politicians in Washington are concerned the navy's continued presence a few kilometres from the centre of the capital Manama lends tacit support to Bahrain's suppression of the opposition, amid allegations of systematic human rights abuses.

"There was talk on Capitol Hill about moving the fleet within days of the protests breaking out, and that increased in March and April as people realised that what was happening in Bahrain ran counter to our interests," one source said.

The Fifth Fleet is a key component of US military power in the Gulf. Possible alternative locations include the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. However, neither has the current capacity for the fleet and a potential move remains some years off.

The UAE is considered the most likely destination. The US already moors its aircraft carriers at Dubai's main port, Jebel Ali, and has other military capabilities in the country.

Qatar would offer a logistical link with the large US airbase in the emirate. A new port under construction outside Doha has been expanded to include a naval base adjoining the commercial port, though sources in the Qatari capital say the port is being built to accommodate the domestic navy and "occasional visitors".

The US Navy has little desire to move, fearing the operation would be costly and pose a logistical nightmare. The fleet comprises 40 vessels and close to 30,000 personnel. But among naval commanders there is an acceptance that political pressure could force the transition.

"This decision may well rest with the Department of State rather than Defence," said Chris Le Miere at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Offsetting the Pentagon's concerns over cost, sources in the Gulf believe that the UAE and Qatar could launch a bidding war to secure the fleet if Washington signalled it was ready to move.

The damage to Bahrain's reputation would be enormous were the fleet to leave. The kingdom and its ruling Al Khalifa family have been staunch allies of Washington and the US has had a permanent naval presence in Bahrain since the 1970s, with the Fifth Fleet providing a crucial bulwark against Iranian influence in the region.

Among other duties, US and allied ships based in the kingdom secure the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf through which 40 per cent of the world's seaborne oil passes. Iran has often threatened to close the straits. The final decision will be taken in Washington, but Britain will have a say, supporting as it does coalition efforts in counter-piracy from Bahrain. Britain has minesweepers, destroyers and a submarine based in Bahrain.

Relations between Washington and Bahrain have been tested since Shia-led protests broke out across the kingdom in February demanding democratic reforms from the Sunni government. Washington was caught off-guard in March when Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain to support a crackdown. Calls from the US State Department to halt the deployment were rebuffed by Riyadh.

Riyadh's increasing influence is likely to provoke further suppression of the Shia and renewed unrest -- giving the US greater incentive to leave.

The Times


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/us-fleet-may-quit-troubled-bahrain/story-e6frg6so-1226098580227