ANALYSIS – West turns blind eye to Bahrain crackdown
By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent
May 9, 2011

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The fate of Bahrain’s protest movement is a stark reminder of how Western and regional power politics can trump reformist yearnings, even in an Arab world convulsed by popular uprisings against entrenched autocrats. Bahrain is not Libya or Syria, but Western tolerance of the Sunni monarchy’s crackdown suggests that interests such as the U.S. naval base in Manama, ties to oil giant Saudi Arabia and the need to contain neighbouring Iran outweigh any sympathy with pro-democracy demonstrators mostly from the Shi’ite majority.

“The response from the West has been very timid and it shows the double standards in its foreign policy compared to Libya,” said Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. “Saudi influence is so huge on Bahrain now and the West has not stood up to it, which has disappointed many. They’re losing the hearts and minds of the democrats in Bahrain.”

Iran has hardly been consistent either, fiercely criticising Bahrain’s treatment of its Shi’ites, and praising Arab revolts elsewhere as “Islamic awakenings” — except the uprising in its lone Arab ally Syria, which it blames on a U.S.-Israeli plot. …more

Iran foreign minister in UAE over Gulf tension
It is a good policy from Iran to move around in the Persian Gulf region and…
by fereydoun barkeshli

ABU DHABI, May 08, 2011 (AFP) – Iran’s foreign minister held talks Sunday with top officials in the United Arab Emirates amid tension between Gulf Arab states and Tehran over trouble in Bahrain, Emirati state news agency said. Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who is also the ruler of Dubai, received Ali Akbar Salehi in the capital Abu Dhabi, WAM said of the previously unannounced visit.

Emirati foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, who has criticised Iran’s policy in the region, was present at the meeting, it said, without elaborating on the content of the talks. Tension has been running high between Iran and its Arab neighbours across the Gulf, with the two sides locked in a war of words since Shiite-led protests against Bahrain’s ruling Sunni dynasty broke out in mid-February.

Iran escalated its criticism of Sunni-ruled Gulf countries after they sent troops into Bahrain to boost the security forces of the government which cracked down on demonstrators in mid-March. Last week, Salehi warned while in Qatar of “bad repercussions” from the situation in Bahrain, where authorities are accused of oppressing the Shiite majority. …source

Obama Silent While Doctors, Teachers, and Bloggers Tortured in Bahrain
By: Siun Monday May 9, 2011 6:01 am

In the video at right, Bahraini Dr. Fareeda al-Dallal speaks about her arrest and torture — and the continued detention and upcoming trial of her husband Dr al-Dallal, a prominent physician arrested on March 17 during a military raid at Salmaniyah hospital in Manama. After this interview she was again detained by the regime.

Sunday, Bahrain began a “trial” for 21 opposition leaders, seven of them to be tried in absentia. The trial was suddenly announced on Saturday following public attention on Friday – including an urgent appeal by Amnesty International – when word spread that human rights leader Abdulhadi Alkhawaja had been taken from jail to a hospital for surgery for injuries caused by torture. (Alkhawaja is known to many FDL readers as the father of @angryarabiya)

According to reports received by Amnesty International, when ‘Abdulhadi Alkhawaja was admitted to the Bahrain Defence Force military hospital in al-Riffa’, central Bahrain, around the end of April, he had cracks on his jaw and skull and black marks on his arms, allegedly caused by torture. He was reportedly admitted for six days and had several operations on his head and face. He was hastily returned to prison where he was said to have been tortured again. …more

As Bahrain’s Abuses Grow, U.S. Stays on Sidelines
by Marian Wang
ProPublica, May 9, 2011, 1:10 p.m

[excerpt]

State Department Democracy Fellow gets little backing from State Department

In February, we noted that when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made her first visit to Bahrain in December, she was asked a little-noticed question [7] about Bahrain’s decline in the areas of democracy and human rights. The question, from then-Bahraini parliament member Matar Ibrahim Matar, was upstaged in the U.S. media by another question about whether Clinton would run again for president.

Matar was upstaged again last week [8] when news of his arrest—by armed, masked men—was buried by news of Osama bin Laden’s death. In an opinion column in the Washington Post, freelance writer Michael Bronner and Rutgers Law School dean John Farmer Jr. noted that Matar in fact received training on how to organize and advance the cause of democracy as part of a State Department fellowship [9]:

In 2008, he traveled here under the State Department’s Leaders for Democracy Fellowship Program [10], the flagship of President George W. Bush’s Middle East Partnership Initiative. The program seeks to impart practical organizing tools and a deeper understanding of democracy to emerging civic leaders.

In a meeting with then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Matar raised his views about representative democracy in Bahrain and his concern that Washington has given the kingdom’s ruling family a pass in exchange for hosting the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet’s large base that supports the war in Afghanistan. After the program ended, Matar returned home and focused on getting elected to Bahrain’s parliament.

Matar—along with several other politicians from the moderate, mainly Shia opposition party—recently resigned from the Bahraini parliament in protest. …more