…from beneath the crooked bough, witness 230 years of brutal tyranny by the al Khalifas come to an end

The extensive, heavy handed, use of Bird-shot against Protesters did not appear until the Bahrain Regime hired John Timoney and John Yates as Security Consultants at the behest of the US Secretary of State Clinton. It emerged as a means to maim protesters so they could be captured when the sought medical attention. The practice conspicuously evolved immediately following the BICI Report that the regime has largely failed to implement. Has anyone ever noticed how much Iraq’s Saddam and King Hamad look alike – creepy. Phlipn out.

Bahrain’s doctors – Harsh treatment
28 January, 2014 – by Economist

IN THE three years since Bahrain’s iteration of the Arab spring sputtered out in the grip of a government crackdown, Rula al-Saffar, 51, has gone from nurse to detainee to activist. At her home a stone’s throw from the hospital where she is effectively barred from working, Ms Saffar is busy with a campaign she began in December to track and tally Bahrain’s prisoners of conscience.

“Our mission is to get them released and for the government of Bahrain to respect all the international covenants regarding prisoners of conscience,” she said, wearing a t-shirt bearing the image of Martin Luther King Jr. So far, families have registered 161 detainees on the campaign’s website, 56 of whom are students.

This activism is probably not what the ruling Khalifa monarchy hoped for when it brought criminal charges against Ms Saffar and 20 other medics for their alleged support for anti-government protests that took place in February and March of 2011. Rather than give up, Ms Saffar is now turning other Bahrainis into amateur medics.

After being released from her five months in detention in 2011, during which Ms Saffar said she was electrocuted, slapped around and sexually harassed, she was told she could only return to her job as head of a nursing program at Bahrain’s College of Health Sciences if she swore an oath of loyalty to the regime. She refused.

Now she delivers instructions for basic medical treatments over Skype, fearing that treating protesters in person could land her back in jail. Nearly every week, she says, she gets phone calls from those at protests in Manama’s Shia-majority suburbs such as Karrana and Sanabis, hotspots for dissent against the ruling Sunni Khalifa family, asking how to dress wounds.

The difficulty of Ms Saffar and many of her fellow medics is linked to the decision of both protesters and security forces to make Salmaniya, the country’s only full-service public hospital, a flashpoint of the 2011 unrest. Bahraini security forces in March 2011 took control of Salmaniya and cordoned off part of the sixth floor to interrogate patients, an independent commission found. The commission also concluded that some doctors in Salmaniya strayed from medical neutrality by participating in anti-government demonstrations.

Bahrain’s medical system has yet to recover from this politicisation. Doctors detained in 2011 who have returned to work say that it is still not safe for those wounded in clashes with police in ongoing unrest to seek treatment at a public hospital, or even at some private clinics.

According to a doctor working in Salmaniya, a patient who shows signs of protest-related wounds—burns to the hands or birdshot to the body—will be interrogated by a hospital security guard, often before a nurse or doctor has seen him. The guard then monitors the patient throughout his stay in Salmaniya and often arrests him after he is discharged, the doctor said. This exact scenario is difficult to verify (the Ministry of Health declined to comment by phone), but several doctors interviewed agreed that the threat of arrest hangs over protesters who check into a hospital. Protesters now tend to avoid hospitals unless gravely wounded.

Some doctors try to help by quietly treating people. “It’s my medical obligation to treat those regardless of the type of injury or the trauma inflicted on them,” said a surgeon who runs a private clinic in Manama. In recent weeks, he treated a teenager whose orbital socket had been broken, allegedly by a combination of a stun grenade and a policeman hitting him in the face.

The doctor asks protesters to lie low until bodily signs of clashes with the police have subsided. He then registers the patient as suffering from a cold or simple ailment that won’t draw the attention of security forces. He stitches the protester up, prescribes medication and sends him on his way. …more

I remember meeting Sharif a few days before the crackdown. We sat at a burger restaurant, and I asked him about their main demand. He said, “The most important is to elect a constitutive committee representative of the people to write a new constitution for the country to replace the current one. Everything else is secondary.” I said, “You realize they will not accept that, and that this basically means there will be a showdown.” He looked up from his hot dog, paused, and then nodded.
“Yes, it probably does.”

Bahrain’s Fate
by Omar AlShehabi – JACOBIN – January, 2014

On Ibrahim Sharif and the misleadingly-dubbed “Arab Spring.”

The Arab uprisings have unleashed fraught issues around identity and national sovereignty. Within the struggles for a better future, opportunism and sectarian politics run rife. Amid suffusing uncertainty, some yearn for despotism or the old stability of Western colonialism.

Although the events have given way to many movements, activists that oppose the hydra of Western intervention, despotism, and sectarianism that confronts the Arab world are rare. Ibrahim Sharif, a Bahraini opposition figure, is a prominent exception. And, manifestly, a dangerous one: he is currently in prison, having been tortured, and facing the remainder of a five-year sentence. His plight has barely registered beyond Bahrain’s shores, but there is no better story than his to illustrate the complexity of this necessary fight.

Sharif was born on 15 May 1957, the ninth anniversary of the Nakba — which saw the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Arabs from historic Palestine — and the establishment of the state of Israel. His birthplace was Muharraq, the second-largest island in the Bahraini archipelago, and at that time the hub of political opposition to British colonialism. Sharif’s home was in Steeshan, a lower-middle-class neighborhood deriving its name from the English word “Station,” after the old central bus station that used to be located at the top of the neighborhood.

As with most people in Steeshan, Sharif’s family came from a Huwala background — a Sunni ethnicity that populates the two coasts of the Gulf, between the colliding Arab and Persian cultures. Such movement between the Gulf’s two worlds used to be commonplace, especially in a maritime economy built on mercantilist trade, well before the drawing of borders and the advent of modern nationalities in the region.

Sharif’s family came to Bahrain in the early twentieth century from Behdeh, a small village on the eastern coast. He came from a Sayyed lineage, his family claiming descent from the Prophet Mohammed’s daughter. Sayyed families have much less resonance among Sunni discourse than Shi’a, as the concept confers much more social, economic, and religious prestige and benefits to the latter.

The Huwala are a minority in Bahrain. Some members within the other ethnic groups look on their claims of Arabness with suspicion, due to their roots on the eastern coast of the Gulf. This perspective suggests a racial view of Arabness, imagining it can only be determined by clear and unbroken lineage to a tribe from the Arabian Peninsula. This blood-based identity discourse contrasts sharply with the modern notion of Arabness accompanying Arab nationalism, which takes language to be its primary trait.

This complex historical lineage has led many Huwala in Bahrain to embrace Arab nationalist currents, and the city of Muharraq, where most Huwala are concentrated, has become that movement’s main urban center. This is common among many minorities in the Arab world. For example, Christians and Alawites also disproportionately fill Arab nationalism’s ranks. The ideology has been presented as a unifying, non-sectarian, non-racial force that could guard against the tyranny of the majority and facilitate development in societies prone to sectarianism and ethnic divisions. …more

From Fire to Autonomy: Zapatistas, 20 Years of Walking Slowly
25 January, 2014 – By Andalusia Knoll and Itandehui Reyes -Truthout

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Speaking in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, on a cold drizzly New Year’s Eve, the Zapatista Comandante Hortensia addressed the crowd: “Twenty-five or 30 years ago we were completely deceived, manipulated, subjugated, forgotten, drowned in ignorance and misery.” She was communicating the official words of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) on the 20th anniversary of their rebellion, when thousands of indigenous people rose up in arms, took over dozens of major towns and villages in this southern state, and declared “enough is enough, never again will there be a homeland that doesn’t include us.”

Comandante Hortensia went on to explain how over the past two decades, they have constructed their own autonomous government, complete with their own health and education system, based in the indigenous traditions of their ancestors. Despite the continual efforts of the “neoliberal bad government” to displace them from their land, the Zapatistas have successfully recuperated thousands of acres of land on which they have constructed communities that are governed “from the bottom up.” Community members participate in rotating government positions that operate under the democratic principle of “mandar obedeciendo” (commanding by obeying).

The Mexican government has attempted to introduce social programs with the goal of co-opting and dividing the indigenous population in Zapatista areas. However, the indigenous rebels, who reject all forms of government handouts, have successfully resisted co-optation. If you ask a Zapatista how many are in the ranks, they will just respond “somos un chingo,” which loosely translates into “there are a whole lot of us.” Official estimates put their numbers at 250,000 people or roughly 10 percent of the population of the state of Chiapas.

Zapatista communities are spread throughout the large southern Mexican state of Chiapas, which includes coastal, mountainous and jungle regions. They have created five Caracoles, which are the centers of “good government” and points of coordination for the Zapatista health clinics, schools, community banks and independent media projects.

Resistance to NAFTA, the Death of the Mexican Farmer

On January 1, 1994, the NAFTA free trade agreement entered Mexico with vigor, promising foreign investment and economic prosperity at the expense of the plunder of natural resources. NAFTA is largely credited for flooding the Mexican market with subsidized corn from the United States, which decimated farmers’ livelihoods and provoked massive migration to the United States. Two years prior to NAFTA’s implementation, former President Carlos Salinas opened the floodgates to land privatization by reforming Article 27, which had protected communally owned land known as ejidos, created during the Mexican revolution. Thus, the introduction of NAFTA provided the perfect context for the uprising of the indigenous guerillas who formed the EZLN. …more

Time running out as Bahrain tries to revive national dialogue
By Bill Law – BBC News – 29 January, 2014

Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa shows the UK’s Prince Andrew round the Bahrain International Airshow (16 January 2014) The meeting between Prince Salman (centre) and the opposition came a day before a visit by Prince Andrew

A recent meeting between Bahrain’s crown prince and opposition representatives has raised hopes that the suspended national dialogue process could be revived. The BBC’s Bill Law looks at the prospects for ending the deadlock in the Gulf island kingdom.

Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s decision to hold talks on 15 January with leaders of the five main opposition groupings for the first time since pro-democracy protests erupted three years ago surprised many observers.

Afterwards, the main Shia opposition bloc, al-Wefaq, said the meeting had been “especially frank and very transparent” and studied ways to have a “serious dialogue that would result in a new political framework that shapes a comprehensive solution”.

The government meanwhile said the parties had committed to “accelerate dialogue and elevate discussion by including more senior representatives from all parties”.

The meeting was notable for at least two reasons.

The first was the prominent role of the crown prince.

Seen as a moderate in the Sunni ruling family, the Al Khalifa, he has effectively been sidelined since 2011 by hardliners who want few if any concessions to be made to the Shia majority demanding greater rights and an end to discrimination.

The second reason was the presence at Prince Salman’s side of one of those hardliners – the Minister for the Royal Court, Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed bin Salman Al Khalifa.

The hardliners have been accused of trying to undermine the national dialogue, so it was surprising to see Sheikh Khaled at a meeting to revive the process only days after the government had suspended it, blaming the opposition for the breakdown.
‘Deep-rooted issues’

A source told the BBC that after halting the dialogue, the Khalifas had come under “intense” pressure from Western allies to get it back on track.

“The royal family needed to show the UK and US that it was doing something.”

However, the source said the opposition’s meeting with the crown prince had been merely a “branding exercise”, adding: “The hardliners are simply playing for time.”

Not long after the talks, the UK government published its response to a critical report by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

MPs had criticised what they described as the failure of Bahrain to “quickly implement the important and practical recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry”, a review commissioned by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in 2011 that delivered a searing indictment of his government and its handling of the protest movement. …more

The Oglala Sioux Tribe passed a resolution Friday banning TransCanada and former AFN national chief Phil Fontaine, who has been hired by the energy firm to deal with First Nations opposition to its Energy East project in Canada, from entering its territory.

Keystone XL ‘Black Snake’ Pipeline to Face ‘Epic’ Opposition from Native American Alliance
by Jorge Barrera – APTN National News – 1 February, 2014

A Native American alliance is forming to block construction of TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline which still needs final approval from U.S. President Barack Obama after the State Department released an environmental report indicating the project wouldn’t have a significant impact Alberta tar sands production.

Members from the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation, along with tribal members and tribes in Idaho, Oklahoma, Montana, Nebraska and Oregon, have been preparing to stop construction of the 1,400 kilometre pipeline which is slated to run, on the U.S. side, from Morgan, Mon., to Steel City, Neb., and pump 830,000 barrels per day from Alberta’s tar sands. The pipeline would originate in Hardisty, Alta.

“It poses a threat to our sacred water and the product is coming from the tar sands and our tribes oppose the tar sands mining,” said Deborah White Plume, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, which is part of the Lakota Nation in South Dakota. “All of our tribes have taken action to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.”

The U.S. State Department released its long awaited environmental report on TransCanada’s proposed pipeline Friday. The report found that the pipeline’s operation would not have a major impact on Alberta tar sands production which is also at the mercy of market forces.

“Approval or denial of any one crude oil transport project, including the proposed project, is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States based on expected oil prices, oil sand supply costs, transport costs and supply-demand scenarios,” said the report.

The project will now go into a final phase which focuses on whether Keystone XL “serves the national interest.” Pipeline’s environmental, cultural and economic impacts will be weighed in this phase and at least eight agencies will have input on the outcome, including the Department Defence, Justice, Interior, Commerce, Transportation, Energy, Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency. …more

Terrorizing Dissent: Harper’s approach to defining terrorism is shamelessly bald
By Azeezah Kanji – 31 January, 2014

“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.” — Stephen Harper, 2005 (as Leader of the Opposition)

If dissent is the lifeblood of democracy, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems determined to render Canada anaemic.

The backdrop for Harper’s latest assault was his recent visit to the Middle East. The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) criticized the inclusion of a supporter of anti-Muslim demagogues Pamela Gellar and Robert Spencer in Harper’s Israel-bound entourage.

Instead of addressing NCCM’s concern, the Prime Minister’s Director of Communications Jason MacDonald peremptorily dismissed it with a vicious smear:”We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas,” MacDonald said.

This is a very serious claim, with potential criminal implications: Hamas is officially listed as a terrorist organization in Canada. To level such an accusation without a shred of competent evidence is quite likely libellous. Presumably, if there actually were any documents backing the assertion of “documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas,” the government would have produced them and charged NCCM in a court of law — rather than resorting to indictment in the court of public opinion.

Since the inception of the “war on terror,” insinuations of terroristic connections have been used to vilify Canadian Muslims as “not really Canadian” and disloyal, treasonous, unentitled to the rights and benefits of belonging to Canada. Canadian Muslims erroneously branded as “terrorist threats” have been extraordinarily rendered (Maher Arar), incarcerated in foreign prisons and tortured (Maher Arar, Ahmed El-Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin), stranded abroad and actively prevented from returning home (Abousfian Abdelrazik) and harassed at airports and borders (too many to name).

For Muslims in Canada, being falsely accused of terrorism is quite literally terror-producing. And the damage isn’t cured by formal exoneration: as Justice Dennis O’Connor observed in his report on the Arar case, “Labels, even unfair and inaccurate ones, have a tendency to stick.” …more

America Needs Critical Thinking and Sense of Humanity
27 January, 2014 – Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD. – Cyrano’s Journal Today

On January 16, 2014, CNN moderator Don Lemon asked Professor William Pollack (Clinical Psychologist, Harvard University), why are we witnessing daily carnage of civilian bloodbaths – shootings in schools, shopping malls, movie theatres and street grocery stores? What has gone wrong with the American Society? The answer Professor Pollack offered tells a lot and perhaps not too many morally conscientious Americans could disagree with. America lives in a “disconnect” world being unaware of the surrounding real world. An imaginary world of self- indulgence in a prevalent culture of cell phones, text messages, footballs match shouting and excluded entirely from the mainstream of human realities. Another female commentator explains: we are waging wars on ourselves by disregarding the world around us. Once the cell phone is turned off, we are not sure, how to cope with the impinging real world except taking out guns, shooting at random and killing the innocent people. One wonders if this is what America has come to absorb – fair as foul and foul is fair – the traditional American moral and intellectual psyche wants practical and remedial answers which nobody seem to articulate. Are the American moral and intellectual values been replaced with self-generated violence, hatred of others and self- survival of the fittest? Questions and answers on the news media come and go but the societal reality remains the same.

A year earlier, Finian Cunningham (“Killing Children Is the All-American Way.” Dissident Voice: 12/22/2012) raised similar concerns on the growing diasporas of the US political culture:

“Americans need to look at how their society has increasingly become a psychopathic culture of death over many decades. Americans need to realize how their hallowed capitalist ideology of the putative American Dream is in practice nothing but the destruction of communities and millions of individuals on the altar of elite profit-making. Think about the glib, common parlance used to describe the process of human destruction. Investors “make a killing”; workforces are “liquidated”; society is facing a “fiscal cliff”.

In reality, the long waited Third World War was launched by George W. Bush in March 2003 against Iraq. After its failure in Afghanistan in 2001 to come to terms with Reason, Washington- based Industrial and Military Complex prepared the US politicians including the Congress for another global savagery without any reason. From George W. Bush to Barrack Obama, the global insanity of wars has not halted in any manner. Both betrayed the trust of the American masses that elected them to foster peace and harmony across the nations of the world. America cannot exclude itself from the consequences of what it does to others. Today is the memorial day of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had he lived longer to see how his dream was sabotaged – The Vision of a New America, his moral and intellectual spirit would have been more tormented: “He said, O Lord, we ought to be, what we are not.” Agreeably, we live in God’s created One World- One Planet. All and every things that happen affect us all. At human conscientious level, words depict a picture of virtual reality, The CNN moderator was worried and horrified as to what is next – the cost of political success of the few warmongers leading America to ruthlessness and bloody degeneration? Are we in a different time span than the political affairs, action-reaction of violence and threats of aggression and what oppressed the mankind prior to the imposed human insanity of the WW2? Both World Wars were fought by man against man. Leaders and nations complacent in making the Two World Wars are again coercing the mankind to animalistic thinking and behavior without realizing the consequences of their cruelty and ambitions to dominate the world. They failed to learn from the living history. Peace never grows out of war as wars kill people. Who else should know better than the Europeans and American who orchestrated the grand scheme of things to wage wars and control and manage the global herd as part of their economic development scenarios? Immanuel Kant’s spirit of the Perpetual Peace’ must have been disturbed and crying loud when the Europeans and American leaders are talking of more wars to show perversion from their own history. This week, the disclosures of pictures of burning of the dead bodies of Iraqi soldiers re-ignited the decadent American culture of morality and humanity. …more

Bahrain Flag to be Replaced on Revolution’s 3rd Anniversary

Perhaps, the most significant move the informal opposition has ever made, since the popular anti-regime revolution sparked in Bahrain was the announcement for a Republic state. The announcement has effectively delegitimized the absolute Monarchy that was imposed by the “self-proclaimed” (king) and dictator Hamad Alkhalifa a decade ago.

The informal opposition movements, namely, Alwafa Islamic Movement, Haqq Movement and Bahrain Freedom Movement have rightly heeded the calls of the masses at the Pearl Square, that the Monarchy was no longer sustainable, and the sovereign people of Bahrain shall embrace their legitimate right to self-determination.

Almost three years have passed since the historic moment at the Pearl Square, when prominent opposition leader Hasan Mushaima (currently serving life imprisonment) announced Bahrain to become a Democratic Republic state. Indeed, the people have had high expectations from the informal opposition movements and supported the announcement with little hesitation.

Turning a country’s governing system from a monarchy into a democratic republic is a nationwide matter. It would certainly lead to critical changes to the entire troubled region of the (Persian) Gulf. It is a challenge the three informal movements have vowed to take. However, so far they have taken no single step forward.

Our people have been paying high price just to keep the revolution alive, hoping that “someday someone will do something”. The two sides in the conflict -the sovereign people and the illegitimate regime- have been in a stalemate.

This wait shall not continue indefinitely.

At this point, the revolution needs “political escalation” the most. An increasing number of decentralized anti-regime factions and social networks have launched a peaceful campaign to replace the current red-and-white flag, which the self-proclaimed king modified without obtaining consent of the sovereign people of Bahrain a decade ago.

Challenging the forged flag is a step on the right direction. Alliance of Youth of Change endorsed the campaign last month.

As no specific flag prototype has been announced yet, Alliance of Youth of Change has made one that reflects the “land”, the “culture” and the “people” of Bahrain. If no design is agreed by February 14th 2014, the Alliance will consider its design and will formally replace the current flag with the new one.

Alliance of Youth of Change will publish the proposed flag prototype by the end of January for consideration.

Alliance of Youth of Change
January 15, 2014

Imperialism and NGOs in Latin America
James Petras – September, 1997

By the early 1980s the more perceptive sectors of the neoliberal ruling classes realized that their policies were polarizing the society and provoking large-scale social discontent. Neoliberal politicians began to finance and promote a parallel strategy “from below,” the promotion of “grassroots” organization with an “anti-statist” ideology to intervene among potentially conflictory classes, to create a “social cushion.” These organizations were financially dependent on neoliberal sources and were directly involved in competing with socio-political movements for the allegiance of local leaders and activist communities. By the 1990s these organizations, described as “nongovernmental,” numbered in the thousands and were receiving close to four billion dollars world-wide.

Neoliberalism and the NGOs

The confusion concerning the political character of the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) stems from their earlier history in the 1970s during the days of the dictatorships. In this period they were active in providing humanitarian support to the victims of the military dictatorship and denouncing human rights violations. The NGOs supported “soup kitchens” which allowed victimized families to survive the first wave of shock treatments administered by the neoliberal dictatorships. This period created a favorable image of NGOs even among the left. They were considered part of the “progressive camp.”

Even then, however, the limits of the NGOs were evident. While they attacked the human rights violations of local dictatorships, they rarely denounced the U.S. and European patrons who financed and advised them. Nor was there a serious effort to link the neoliberal economic policies and human rights violations to the new turn in the imperialist system. Obviously the external sources of funding limited the sphere of criticism and human rights action.

As opposition to neoliberalism grew in the early 1980s, the U.S. and European governments and the World Bank increased their funding of NGOs. There is a direct relation between the growth of social movements challenging the neoliberal model and the effort to subvert them by creating alternative forms of social action through the NGOs. The basic point of convergence between the NGOs and the World Bank was their common opposition to “statism.” On the surface the NGOs criticized the state from a “left” perspective defending civil society, while the right did so in the name of the market. In reality, however, the World Bank, the neoliberal regimes, and western foundations co-opted and encouraged the NGOs to undermine the national welfare state by providing social services to compensate the victims of the multinational corporations (MNCs). In other words, as the neoliberal regimes at the top devastated communities by inundating the country with cheap imports, extracting external debt payment, abolishing labor legislation, and creating a growing mass of low-paid and unemployed workers, the NGOs were funded to provide “self-help” projects, “popular education,” and job training, to temporarily absorb small groups of poor, to co-opt local leaders, and to undermine anti-system struggles.

The NGOs became the “community face” of neoliberalism, intimately related to those at the top and complementing their destructive work with local projects. In effect the neoliberals organized a “pincer” operation or dual strategy. Unfortunately many on the left focused only on “neoliberalism” from above and the outside (International Monetary Fund, World Bank) and not on neoliberalism from below (NGOs, micro-enterprises). A major reason for this oversight was the conversion of many ex-Marxists to the NGO formula and practice. Anti-Statism was the ideological transit ticket from class politics to “community development,” from Marxism to the NGOs.

Typically, NGO ideologues counterpose “state” power to “local” power. State power is, they argue, distant from its citizens, autonomous, and arbitrary, and it tends to develop interests different from and opposed to those of its citizens, while local power is necessarily closer and more responsive to the people. But apart from historical cases where the reverse has also been true, this leaves out the essential relation between state and local power—the simple truth that state power wielded by a dominant, exploiting class will undermine progressive local initiatives, while that same power in the hands of progressive forces can reinforce such initiatives.

The counterposition of state and local power has been used to justify the role of NGOs as brokers between local organizations, neoliberal foreign donors (World Bank, Europe, or the United States) and the local free market regimes. But the effect is to strengthen neoliberal regimes by severing the link between local struggles and organizations and national/international political movements. The emphasis on “local activity” serves the neoliberal regimes since it allows its foreign and domestic backers to dominate macro-socio-economic policy and to channel most of the state’s resources toward subsidies for export capitalists and financial institutions.

So while the neoliberals were transferring lucrative state properties to the private rich, the NGOs were not part of the trade union resistance. On the contrary they were active in local private projects, promoting the private enterprise discourse (self-help) in the local communities by focusing on micro-enterprises. The NGOs built ideological bridges between the small scale capitalists and the monopolies benefitting from privatization—all in the name of “anti-statism” and the building of civil societies. While the rich accumulated vast financial empires from the privatization, the NGO middle class professionals got small sums to finance offices, transportation, and small-scale economic activity.

The important political point is that the NGOs depoliticized sectors of the population, undermined their commitment to public employees, and co-opted potential leaders in small projects. NGOs abstain from public school teacher struggles, as the neoliberal regimes attack public education and public educators. Rarely if ever do NGOs support the strikes and protests against low wages and budget cuts. Since their educational funding comes from the neoliberal governments, they avoid solidarity with public educators in struggle. In practice, “non-governmental” translates into anti-public-spending activities, freeing the bulk of funds for neoliberals to subsidize export capitalists while small sums trickle from the government to NGOs.

In reality non-governmental organizations are not non-governmental. They receive funds from overseas governments or work as private subcontractors of local governments. Frequently they openly collaborate with governmental agencies at home or overseas. This “subcontracting” undermines professionals with fixed contracts, replacing them with contingent professionals. The NGOs cannot provide the long-term comprehensive programs that the welfare state can furnish. Instead they provide limited services to narrow groups of communities. More importantly, their programs are not accountable to the local people but to overseas donors. In that sense NGOs undermine democracy by taking social programs out of the hands of the local people and their elected officials to create dependence on non-elected, overseas officials and their locally anointed officials. …more

Bahrain: 651 Citizens Sentenced in Security Cases During 2013
6 January, 2014 – Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights stated today that during the year 2013 the Bahraini Courts issued imprisonment verdicts against 651 citizens based on security charges related to the protests that kicked off on 14 February 2011.

The BYSHR confirmed that he Bahraini Courts had issued verdicts in 95 cases, and the charge “assembling and riot” was the most common in 2013.

The BYSHR explained that 10 citizens were sentenced with life imprisonment, and 153 citizens were imprisoned with 15 years.

The BYSHR indicated that 120 citizens were sentenced with 10 years and 219 citizens were sentenced with 3 to 5 years in prison, while 149 citizens were sentenced with 1 month to 2 years in prison.

Mr Mohammed Al-Maskati – president of the BYSHR – stated that the Bahraini Courts used freedom restricting laws to punish the protestors.

Mr Al-Maskati explained that since 14 February 2011 the Bahraini Authorities have been arresting and trialling citizens with charges related to freedom of opinion and expression.

Worth mentioning, Judge Sheikh Mohammed bin Ali Al-Khalifa – from the ruling family – was the most to issue verdicts during 2013. …more

SEE FULL REPORT HERE

Bahrain accuses Tehran of training opposition militants
4 January, 2014 – The Peninsula

Protesters carrying Bahraini flags and photos of Shia scholar Isa Qassim march during an anti-government rally organised by main opposition group Al Wefaq in Budaiya, west of Manama, yesterday.

DUBAI: Bahrain accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards yesterday of providing opposition militants with explosives training in order to carry out attacks in the Gulf kingdom, announcing that it had arrested five suspects.

Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni Muslim dynasty but has a population that is majority Shia. The government crushed a mostly Shia-led uprising in 2011 and has long accused predominantly Shiite Iran of meddling in its affairs.

Chief prosecutor Osama Al Oufi said the intelligence service reported last month that “Bahraini Ahmed Mahfuz Mussawi, currently living in Iran, had planned terrorist bombing operations targeting institutions and places vital to the sovereignty and security of the kingdom.”

Quoted by state news agency BNA, he added that five people had been arrested and “admitted joining a group to carry out terrorist attacks… and travelled to Iran to receive training in Revolutionary Guards camps and then received sums of money.”

On Monday, Bahraini authorities said they had seized a boat smuggling explosives made in Iran and Syria into the country.

Since the 2011 uprising, which called for democratic reforms, demonstrations have regularly been held in Shia villages around the capital, often sparking clashes with security forces. At least 89 people have been killed in Bahrain since the protests began, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.

Several bomb attacks have taken place in recent months, including one that targeted a Sunni mosque close to the royal court in July but caused no casualties.

Tensions escalated over the weekend as authorities interrogated top Shia opposition leader Ali Salman.

The head of the main Shia bloc Al Wefaq was released after a day of questioning, but was charged with incitement to religious hatred and spreading false news endangering national security. …more

Bahraini riot police attack on Imam Redha Mosque
5 January, 2014 – Shia Post

Security forces in Bahrain have attacked on a Shia Mosque and Hussainia in Sanabis village on Sunday evening, The Shia Post reported.

The extensive and persistent use of tear gas against civilians by Bahrain’s security forces since over two years was unprecedented in the 100-year history of its use throughout the world.

The Bahraini government has resorted to the policy of “collective punishment” of the nation by regular crack downs on the people who peacefully protest against government’s discriminatory policies.

Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, calling for political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following the regime’s brutal crackdown on popular protests.

Scores have been killed, many of them under torture while in custody, and thousands more detained since the popular uprising began in the Persian Gulf state.

Protesters say they will continue holding anti-regime demonstrations until their demands for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to the rights violations are met. …more

West, Saudi Arabia relieved at death of al-Majed
5 January, 2014 – By Finian Cunningham – PressTV

One thing is for sure about the death of al-Qaeda commander Majed al-Majed in a Beirut hospital this weekend – Western and Saudi intelligence will be relieved at his demise.

Dead men don’t talk, as they say, and that fact may spare the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia from incriminating disclosures that could have surfaced if he had stayed alive – disclosures that would expose their collusion in terrorist violence raging across the Middle East.

Inevitably, there will be suspicions that al-Majed – a Saudi national – was killed while in Lebanese custody. He was arrested by Lebanese intelligence personnel reportedly in the southern port city of Sidon only days before his death was announced on Saturday. During his brief period in custody he was undergoing questioning while suffering from chronic kidney disease.

Al-Majed’s career as a terrorist certainly gained him enough enemies seeking revenge. But keeping him alive would have been of more advantage to the Lebanese – and to his Hezbollah, Syrian and Iranian enemies – for the valuable information that could have been obtained about his al-Qaeda group, known as the Abdullah Azzam Brigade.

This so-called brigade was involved in terror attacks across the region, including Lebanon and Syria. While al-Majed’s outfit was on official terror lists of the US and Saudi Arabia, there is evidence that the group was less of an outlaw to these states and more of an agency for their covert aims.

Al-Majed’s group claimed responsibility for the deadly bomb attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut on November 19. That attack killed at least 25 people, including the Iranian cultural attaché, Hojjatoleslam Ebrahim Ansari, and injured more than 150 others.

Of pressing interest about al-Majed’s organization are the covert links between his group and al-Qaeda generally, and its Western and Saudi sponsors. Any disclosures would have been acutely damaging to US, British and Saudi state intelligence.

Such information could have shed more light on the shadowy role of Saudi and Western intelligence in their covert support of the al-Qaeda terror network, not just in Lebanon, but also in neighboring Syria and Iraq. Violence in these countries has been escalating over the past three years, with a combined death toll well over 100,000.

For nearly three years, Western governments and the corporate media have been hawking a narrative that Syria’s violence is the result of the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad cracking down on a pro-democracy movement. Somehow, mysteriously in the Western version, the anti-government forces in Syria have now become dominated by “extremist jihadists”, whose violence is, in turn, “spilling over” into Iraq and Lebanon.

The Western narrative also lays blame on Iran and Russia for supporting Assad, as well as Shia Hezbollah as a factor provoking violence inside Lebanon.

However, despite this threadbare Western depiction, an increasingly more plausible account for the upsurge in regional violence is that systematic covert Western support for al-Qaeda affiliates has fuelled the growth of a Frankenstein terrorist monster, which is now running amok. …more

Human Rights Defender Hussein Ali Abdul Nabi, released on bail on 29th November faces Bahrain Court of Injustice 27th Feb 2014

Bahrain: Arrest of youth activist and human rights defender Mr Hussein Ali Abdul Nabi
13 September, 2013 – frontline defenders

On 6 September 2013 the Bahraini authorities arrested Mr Hussein Ali Abdul Nabi, a youth activist and human rights defender. He was taken to Al Hidd police station, and may have been moved to another location since.

Hussein Ali Abdul Nabi is a young member of the documentation department of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR).

Hussein Ali Abdul Nabi was arrested on 6 September at a colleague’s house in Arad, a town on the Muharraq island, before being taken to Al Hidd police station. A prosecutor has ordered a 45-day detention period for the human rights defender pending the investigation of charges of illegal gatherings and assaulting security agents. On 8 September he was allowed to make a 15 second call to his family.

As a member of the documentation department of BYSHR, Hussein Ali Abdul Nabi received training on how to document human rights violations, what he did afterwards in several villages on behalf of BYSHR.

Front Line Defenders believes that Hussein Ali Abul Nabi was arrested as part of an ongoing campaign against BYSHR. In July 2013 evidence appeared that BYSHR Board Member Mr Naji Fateel was subjected to torture while in custody, allegations which the authorities have to date failed to investigate.

Meanwhile, Naji Fateel’s trial is still ongoing and has so far been marred with irregularities, falling well short of international minimum standards for a fair trial. Front Line Defenders has recently issued several updates on Naji Fateel’s case, including on 26 July 2013, 12 July 2013, 23 May 2013 and 9 May 2013 in addition to the original urgent appeal on 2 May 2013.

In the light of the continued failure to investigate the credible claims that Naji Fateel was tortured while in custody, Front Line Defenders is concerned that Hussein Ali Abdul Nabi may be subjected to ill-treatment or even torture while he remains detained, and insists that the Bahraini authorities ensure that the physical and psychological integrity of the human rights defender is respected at all times.

…source

Eight Photograhers in Danger
5 January, 2014 – Anonymous Contribution

Hussain Hubail is a freelance photographer, 21 years old, he photographs opposition protests in Bahrain, has had his work published by Agence France-Presse and other news outlets. In May, independent newspaper Al-Wasat awarded him a photography prize for his picture of protesters enshrouded in tear gas. Voice of America has published his photos. More of his work can be found HERE

Mr Hubail was accused of being part of 14Feb media network, calling and participating at unauthorized demonstrations, inciting the regime hatred and having connection with some Bahraini opposition living in exile.

Hubail mentioned while he was interrogated, that he was forced to stand for 3 days, punched and kicked, and was exposed to insults and humiliation.

He was taken to the prosecutor 14 Aug 2013 to confirm his testimony without a lawyer, and then in the afternoon, the prosecutor visited him at dry dock prison, where he is now to renew his detention for 45 days, on the unauthorized marches charge.

He is suffering from heart pains, shortness of breath and hasn’t been transferred to the hospital, the prison clinic gave him some random medicine according to his mom. It took the authorities two months to take him to the hospital to get proper treatment.

Lieutenant Fawaz AlSameem who was summoned to be a witness in the next court session is the same person who interrogated them and was responsible for their torture. Next court session on the 27th Jan 2014.

Qassim Zain Aldeen, 25 years old, freelance cameraman, He was arrested in 2012 for more than 6 months, then arrested again on Friday 2nd Aug, He films opposition protests in Bahrain, has had his work published by local websites and blogs.
He was accused of participating in illegal gathering, now accused of vandalism in prison.

Ahmed Humaidan, freelance photographer, arrested on the 29th December 2013 is in jail, accused of attacking a police station in Sitra with Molotov cocktails, No evidence. Next court session is 29th Jan 2014.

Trial hearings showed there is no evidence against Humaidan, He had been tortured during his detention through psychological pressure to extract confessions under threat.

Abdulla Al Jerdabi, photographer, still arrested since 13 Sep 13, accused of participating in illegal gathering.
He was beaten by police forces, on the way to the police station which caused his knee bruises that are still painful, and a cut under his lips.

When the officer realized that he was a photographer he threatened him to face a dark era. Released on 30 Oct 2013.
But he was transferred from Al Khamis police station to Nouaim police station to arrest him again., He’s accused of illegal gathering and possession of iron bars aiming to attack police.

Jassim Alnuiami, online activist, Scriptwriter and works with a production team to produce videos, Arrested 31 July 2013, in a raid on his house in Sehla, and all his electronic devices were confiscated. He was taken to the CID building for 3 days, where he was beaten, tortured, threatened and insulted, he stated to his family that he was beaten while blindfolded on his head, kidneys, and on his private parts.

He was threatened that his mom and sisters will be raped if he didn’t confess.

He is accused of participating in an illegal gathering, and publishing false news, using social media to Inciting hatred against the regime and other accusations related to his online activities.

Lieutenant Fawaz AlSameem who was summoned to be a witness in the next court session is the same person who interrogated and tortured him. Next court session 27th Jan 2014.

Ahmed AlFardan, NurPhoto photographer, 23 years old, who also does photography for Demotex and Sipa press agencies Arrested on the 26th Dec 2013. Around 16 police car surrounded his house around 3:00 in the morning, around 10 masked policemen in a civilian clothes raided his house, confiscated his cameras and laptop, No arrest warrant.
AlFardan was arrested on 8th Aug 2013, outside a cafe near his home by two plain clothed policemen. The police, who told him they needed to ‘speak with him for five minutes’, took him to a car where he was beaten – one policeman punched him while the other choked him, He was told by the policemen that their ‘manager’ wanted him arrested – but this could be avoided if he agreed to work with them.

He was promised cameras and money in exchange for any information about Tamarod (August 2013) rallies, media, and journalists. He was asked to photograph clashes and protests, and then provide the policemen with the pictures – and if he didn’t comply there would be consequences. The policemen showed him a pistol and told him that they can reach him anywhere “we can raid your house, I can come to you anytime, I know your number, I know your home, I can arrest anyone from your family. I can arrest you and charge you for more than 15 years in jail with any charge”. He was released few hours later.

According to Al-Fardan, the same person who threatened him, is the one who arrested him, where he remained in CID for several days where he was beaten, and got two broken ribs, he is now in Dry Dock prison and needs a health care, which he does not got. Prevented from meeting his lawyer.

Hassan Matooq, photographer, charged with publishing false and malicious news and statements, and inciting public contempt and hatred of the regime, Also taking photos of the protesters at Pearl roundabout and delivering the images to the media tent, and participating in an illegal gathering. – Sentenced for 3 years since March 2011.

Mahmood AbdulSaheb, photographer, charged with publishing false and malicious news and statements, and inciting public contempt and hatred of the regime, Took photos of the protesters at Pearl roundabout and delivered them to media tent., Participated in an illegal gathering. – Sentenced for 3 years since March 2011.

Observatory in the crosshairs for its coverage
December 31, 2013 – By Marlin Dick – The Daily Star

BEIRUT: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, one of the leading sources of information about the war in Syria, has received death threats over its work from members of the opposition, the group said Monday.

The Observatory, which is based in the United Kingdom and relies on a range of sources from inside the country, said it was being targeted by a “methodical campaign” by activists that reminded it of the methods of the Syrian regime.

The organization provides nearly hourly updates of armed clashes between the warring parties, as well as the shelling and airstrikes conducted by government forces, and the acts of violence undertaken by some rebel groups, particularly when they target civilians.

It has also publicized the grisly videos of summary executions conducted by the most hard-line rebel groups, such as the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the Observatory said it had recently received a large number of messages of intimidation and death threats, sent to both its official Facebook page and the accounts of a number of activists working with the group.

Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman told AFP that the threats originated from Islamist extremists, declining to specify which ones.

“These groups are trying to locate our sources in the regions under their control,” he said, particularly in the north and east of the country, as well as in parts of Damascus province.

“These sources are being threatened,” he said.

However, the Observatory has come in for harsh criticism by mainstream opposition supporters, particularly in the wake of two recent incidents in the province of rural Damascus.

These took place in Adra, an industrial suburb in Damascus, and near the town of Nabk, in the Qalamoun mountains north of the capital.

In Adra, which was stormed by rebel units earlier this month, the Observatory said that more than a dozen civilians – mainly from minority religious sects such as Alawites and Druze – had been slaughtered during the offensive.

But pro-opposition sources quickly countered the version of events. They said that the rebels, which included the hard-line Nusra Front Al-Qaeda affiliate, did kill people in Adra, a sprawling industrial area that also contains a notorious prison. …more

Bahrain says probing torture claims by men jailed in bombs case
30 December, 2013 – Reuters

Bahrain said on Tuesday it was investigating torture claims by three men jailed for 15 years for two homemade-bomb attacks – including one during last year’s Formula 1 car race.

On Sunday, five men – including two who were tried in absentia – were convicted by a court for their role in the blasts, which destroyed several vehicles but caused no injuries, according to the Gulf Arab state’s official BNA news agency.

BNA said the men had admitted being behind the bombings but the men’s lawyer, Jassim Sarhan, told Reuters they pleaded not guilty to involvement in the attacks and told the court their confessions during questioning were obtained under torture.

“The Kingdom of Bahrain does not and will not tolerate any form of torture or mistreatment. The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) did receive complaints from the defendants,” the government’s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

“The SIU takes these allegations very seriously and have looked into these claims. Their investigation is currently ongoing. We can’t give further information until the investigation is completed.”

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has been in political turmoil since a 2011 uprising led by majority Shi’ites who demand more say in running the kingdom, which is ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa dynasty.

Widespread and excessive force, including confessions under torture, was detailed in a report by an international human rights commission led by Cherif Bassiouni, a prominent Egyptian-American jurist.

The Bahrain government says it has taken steps to address security forces actions, but activists say abuses continue.

The SIU was set up as part of the Bassiouni commission’s recommendations.

The Manama government quelled the 2011 revolt in the island kingdom, but almost daily protests and small-scale clashes continue, and bomb attacks have been increasing since mid-2012. …source

Russian press calls for crackdown on terror
30 December, 2013 – BCC

Commentators in Russian newspapers call for a tough response to terrorism, saying there could be further attacks with the Winter Olympics due to begin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in six weeks.

Two deadly blasts in the southern Russian town of Volgograd – one which ripped a trolleybus apart during Monday’s rush hour and another at the railway station on Sunday – are being given widespread coverage by the media, with suspicion falling on Islamist hardliners.

While one paper quotes security experts as suggesting the station attack was the result of a failure of the special services, a commentator in another believes Russia needs to deal with Arab countries allegedly supporting Islamic terrorism within the country.

A writer in a tabloid says the state should be tough not only with terrorists, but with their families who fail to report preparations of attacks.
‘Unfriendly measures’

The pro-government daily Izvestiya quotes security experts as attributing the railway station blast to a failure of the special services. They suggest various remedies, including the stepping up of intelligence gathering, ending uncontrolled migration, as well as surveillance of women who have recently converted to Islam.

The terrorist underground has changed its tactics, and Russia needs to react as soon as possible, the experts are quoted as saying.

Kirill Benediktov, writing in Izvestiya, expects further attempted terrorist attacks in Russia until the Olympics in Sochi are over, and believes the attacks are intended to discredit Russia.

”There is no doubt that the Salafist regimes of the Persian Gulf, primarily Saudi Arabia, have been supporting Islamic terrorism in Russia… Russia is now strong enough to afford unfriendly measures towards the regimes that have been using the Wahhabi fifth column in order to destabilise the situation in our country,” says Benediktov.

Galina Khizreyeva, a specialist in radical Islamism at the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies, is quoted by the popular daily Moskovskiy Komsomolets as saying that Volgograd is vulnerable to attack and that people there are not yet fully aware of the danger. …more

Saudi Funded Terrorists Carry-out Heinous Attacks on Russian Civilians
30 Decemebr, 2013 – by Kumar Moses – LankaWeb

Saudi Arabia had its plans to subjugate Syria and expand its hegemonic presence in the Middle East. However, they collapsed when Russia brokered a peace deal backed by warships and nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean. Arabian leaders offered several bribes to the Russians but failed to implement their evil plan. Powerful Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, then threatened the Russian President to disrupt Sochi Winter Olympics.

In his own words to President Putin Prince Bandar said, “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”

“These groups (Chechnyan terrorists) do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

True to his word, Saudi operated Islamic terrorist groups have carried out two disgusting terrorist attacks in the same manner they attacked London transport system in July 2005 (7/7). In two separate Islamic terror suicide bomb attacks, dozens of Russian civilians have died. This comes just weeks to Sochi Olympics. It is a clear act of vengeance by Saudi Arabia in punishing Russia for brokering a peace deal in Syria (ruled by a Shia Muslim) and Iran (largest Shia Muslim nation).

Saudi Arabia has emerged as the Mecca of Terrorism. Its terrorist operations range from Indonesia to USA and Russia to Africa crisscrossing the world. With rapid increases in defence expenditure, Saudi Arabia is now the world’s top defence spender after USA, China and Russia. Saudis have made it clear to pursue nuclear ambitions either on its own accord or through Pakistani nuclear weapons technology. It must be stopped before it unleashes terror as a political tool against the civilized world. …source

Bandar-controlled terrorists threaten Russia
28 October, 2013 – PressTV

During his recent visit to Moscow, some weeks ago, Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Saudi-controlled militants in the Caucasus will not disrupt the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi only if Russia backed away from its support for Syria. Putin reportedly rejected the proposal.

“We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned”, Putin is said to have answered.

There are good reasons for Bandar and the Saudi ruling family to be angry at Russia (and lately at the US, too). Saudi Arabia´s plans against Shiites and the Axis of Resistance in the Middle East have been undermined by Russian policies in Syria, Iran and elsewhere. Bandar planned to overthrow Bashar al Assad in Syria through a US attack and the action of terrorist groups there, to isolate and destroy Hezbollah and to push Washington into a confrontation with Tehran.

However, Bandar clearly misunderstood Russia, Iran and Hezbollah and their determination to support their Syrian ally and to defeat his plans. Russia deployed a powerful fleet in Eastern Mediterranean and made it clear that it was willing to support and protect Syria.

Therefore, Bandar could try to take revenge on Russia through his terrorist tools. This is of course insane, but his threats to Russia (and now to the US) are themselves evidence of his insanity and stupidity and led the world public opinion to understand that the Saudi regime itself is a real problem for the region and the world. …more

Bahrain says weapons seized, car bomb defused
30 December, 2013 – By REEM KHALIFA – Associated Press

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) – Bahraini officials seized stocks of weapons, including some being smuggled in by sea, and defused a car bomb during two days of security raids in the restless Gulf nation, the country’s public security chief said Monday.

Authorities also announced the capture of a speedboat allegedly smuggling out 13 people, including one Saudi, wanted in connection with security cases in Bahrain. They were carrying passports, different types of currency, phones and personal belongings, according to a government statement.

Bahrain is a small island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia that hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. More than 65 people have been killed in violence since protests led by the country’s Shiite majority began in February 2011 calling for a greater political voice in the Sunni-ruled nation.

Bahrain accuses Shiite powerhouse Iran of aiding the uprising. Tehran denies the accusations.

“Bahrain is still facing systematic terrorism from many parties,” government spokeswoman Sameera Rajab said.

Public Security Chief Tareq al-Hassan said operations carried out Saturday and Sunday led to the seizure of plastic explosives, detonators, bombs, automatic rifles and ammunition. The weapons were found in a warehouse and onboard a boat intercepted as it was heading to the country, he said.

Included in the cache discovered onboard the boat, which was first detected in international waters off Bahrain’s northeastern coast, were “50 Iranian made hand bombs” and nearly 300 commercial detonators marked “Made in Syria,” according to a government statement.

Iran is the main regional backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

The car bomb authorities dismantled was discovered in the busy central district of Hoora in the capital, Manama, the government said.

…more