Bahraini King’s Son Weds Saudi King’s Daughter

The Bahraini news agency BNA reported that Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the son of Bahrain’s king, married Sahab bint Abdallah bin Abd Al-Aziz, the daughter of the Saudi king, on June 16.

The report added that this marriage strengthens Saudi-Bahraini relations even more, following the Saudi assistance in quelling the unrest in Bahrain in March, 2011.

…unplanned and still unnamed child of Bahrain-Saudi Royal newlyweds.

[cb editor note: I’ve been trying to find a story on par with al Khalifa’s call for “national dialogue” on democratic reform… …enjoy!]

Special Reports – Bahrain accused of abuse inside hospitals
Published: June 20, 2011 at 1:21 PM
Bahraini Medics Accuse Security Forces of Severe Abuses
Al Jazeera English

GENEVA, Switzerland, June 20 (UPI) — Security forces in Bahrain turned one of the country’s main hospitals into a torture chamber, an official with Doctors without Borders said.

Bahrain is facing international criticism for its response to a Shiite uprising against the country’s ruling Sunni minority.

Officials with Doctors without Borders claim security forces in the country routinely beat patients at the Salmaniya Medical Complex who suffered injuries during anti-monarchy rallies.

Jonathan Whittall, head of Doctors without Borders’ mission in Bahrain, was quoted by London newspaper The Independent as saying torture was routine in the country’s hospitals.

“The security forces basically took control of the (Salmaniya) hospital on March 17 when tanks moved outside and set up checkpoints for anyone entering or leaving,” he said. “Inside, many of the wounded with injuries that could have been sustained during the protests were taken to the sixth floor, where they were beaten three times a day.”

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay described the March seizure by security forces of the hospital as “shocking and illegal conduct.”

Bahrain has been able to silence much of the anti-monarchy sentiments. The country called in support from neighboring countries to help respond to demonstrations.

Washington was rapped for its steadfast support for Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. The government last week, however, included the country on a list of human rights abusers. …source

My husband was abducted by Bahrain ‘security’
One woman’s personal ordeal describes how her husband was jailed following a military trial.
[article excerpt]

Using Stalin’s textbook

Joseph Stalin introduced “the show trial” – secretive military tribunals that bypass the judiciary – during the Great Purge of the 1930s. It appears that Bahrain has taken a chapter straight out of Stalin’s textbook, in which verdicts are predetermined and then justified through the use of coerced confessions, obtained through torture and threats against defendents’ families. The only new addition to this chapter is that the government of Bahrain has insisted, since the 1980s, on airing these filmed confessions on state TV – often with the defendant apologising to the king. Ayat al Qurmuzi, a poet sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for reading a poem critical of the king, had one such confession aired, possibly to pave the way for some kind of royal pardon.

Credible reports from now-free detainees who were held with Ayat have said how a toilet brush was forced into her mouth. All those on trial are “traitors to the state”, says the relentless propaganda of hate speech, spewed on state media – a chapter in the Arab Tyrant’s manual that could have been written by Goebbels. The media has described protestors as “termites” and Shia as “the evil group”; they have dehumanised “the other”, who deserve treatment worse than animals.

Since March, hundreds have shared a similar experience to mine. There are several stages to the ordeal that are particularly distressing for all involved. The first stage is the sudden arrest, in a dawn raid or at a checkpoint, or in some cases, at work, and then they are taken away to an unknown location by unknown forces and for long periods of time. In Ghazi’s case, 48 days. …more

[Editors Note: As the al Khalifa regime hands down sentences of life and death against peaceful unarmed protesters seeking democratic freedoms and respect for their human rights, it is clear the real criminals operate the courts and dispense their perverted ideas of justice. As President Obama continues to fail to step in and help defend the people of Bharain from a tyrant it calls “friend”, it condones al Khalifas perversion of justice and disrespect for human rights. ]