Repression begets rebellion in Saudi Arabia
By Chris Zambelis – 16 August, 2012 – Asia Time

Against a backdrop of ongoing simmering dissent in the Arab world, growing unrest in Saudi Arabia, in contrast, has gone virtually unnoticed. In a climate of increasing political openness, popular Arab demands for the fall of longtime dictatorships have served as vehicles for airing deeply embedded resentments. In this context, narrow segments of Arab societies that have traditionally been subject to targeted discrimination, including ethnic and religious minorities, have become encouraged to articulate their grievances.

The mobilization of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a Muslim minority in the kingdom’s Eastern Province (al-Mintaqah al-Sharqiyah) since 2011 and the resulting crackdown by Saudi security forces attests to the fact that the kingdom is not impervious to the kind of unrest being seen in fellow Arab countries.

The fallout from the July 8 arrest of Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr on charges of sedition by Saudi security forces is demonstrative of the sectarian tensions percolating inside the reclusive Kingdom and the broader geopolitical currents driving Saudi behavior. Al-Nimr, a prominent Shi’a cleric and outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family and the regime’s persecution of its Shi’a citizens, was reportedly shot in the leg during his arrest while driving near his home in the village of al-Awamiyah in Eastern Province.

Al-Nimr, who is regarded as the spiritual leader of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a community, remains in Saudi custody at a military hospital where, according to members of his family, he has endured torture. Al-Nimr has since gone on a hunger strike to protest his detention. The sheikh’s arrest has sparked protests across Eastern Province, including in Qatif, al-Awamiyah, al-Hasa, and Safwa.

The protesters are demanding justice and equality, the release of all political prisoners, and the initiation of political reforms in the kingdom. Demonstrators have also called for the Saudi royal family to step down. Saudi security forces have used live fire and other repressive tactics to suppress the protests, killing and injuring a number of demonstrators in the process. Scores of protesters have also been detained throughout Eastern Province. The Saudi regime has blockaded major centers of dissent such as Qatif and other locations to collectively punish residents by inhibiting freedom of movement and economic activity .

Al-Nimr’s latest arrest – the sheikh was arrested previously in 2004 and 2006 on similar charges – has emboldened Shi’a activists in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has scoffed at al-Nimr’s scathing denunciations of the Saudi royal family and demands for greater rights for the Shi’a. For its part, the Saudi regime sees al-Nimr as a dangerous subversive and accuses him of calling for the secession of the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia also frequently labels al-Nimr as an instrument of an aggressive Iranian foreign policy that aims to undermine unity and stability in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia’s reaction to dissent among its Shi’a population provides insight into the way it interprets its evolving geopolitical position in a rapidly changing Middle East. In a broad sense, the Saudi regime perceives the popular demands for freedom and democracy being voiced by Arabs as a serious threat to its long-term sustainability. Saudi Arabia also sees an Iranian hand behind Shi’a-led activism in the region. As evidenced by its decision to deploy security forces in neighboring Bahrain in March 2011 to crush an uprising led largely by a marginalized Shi’a majority that is agitating for greater freedoms under a Sunni-led, pro-Saudi monarchy, the kingdom worries that its own Shi’a community will rise up in turn.

Saudi Shi’a, many of whom maintain tribal and familial links with their Bahraini counterparts, organized protests in solidarity with Bahrainis while calling on Riyadh to remove its military from Bahrain. In this regard, Saudi Arabia views the organized and sustained political opposition among its Shi’a community in the context of its regional rivalry with Iran. ….more

Turkey is acting as a rear base for the insurgency and a forward command post for US/NATO forces. Through its much-touted ‘zero problems with neighbors’ doctrine, the Turkish government had set out with a realistic chance of being everyone’s friend. It has now made itself everyone’s enemy, including its own, by embracing policies that have put it on a collision course with disaster. By being duped into burning its bridges with Syria – Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya explains – Ankara has laid the foundations for the destabilization of the Turkish republic at the hands of the very same powers whose deleterious strategy she is currently serving.

The Push to ignite a Turkish civil war through a Syrian quagmire
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya – Voltaire Network – 15 August, 2012

Turkey itself is a major target for destabilization, upheaval, and finally balkanization through its participation in the US-led siege against Syria. Ankara has burned its bridges in Syria for the sake of its failing neo-Ottoman regional policy. The Turkish government has actively pursued regime change, spied on Syria for NATO and Israel, violated Syrian sovereignty, supported acts of terrorism and lawlessness, and provided logistical support for the insurgency inside Syria.

Any chances of seeing some form of Turkish regional leadership under neo-Ottomanism have faded. Turkey’s southern borders have been transformed into intelligence and logistical hubs for the CIA and the Mossad in the process, complete with an intelligence “nerve centre” in the Turkish city of Adana. [1] Despite Turkey’s denials, reports about Adana are undeniable and Turkish officers have also been apprehended in covert military operations against the Syrian Arab Republic. The Turkish Labour Party has even demanded that the US General Consul in Adana be deported for “masterminding and leading the activities of Syrian terrorists.” [2] Mehmet Ali Ediboglu and Mevlut Dudu, two Turkish MPs, have also testified that foreign fighters have been renting homes [3] on Turkey’s border with Syria and that Turkish ambulances have been helping smuggle weapons for the insurgents inside Syria. [4]
Turkish Regional Isolation

If the Syrian state collapses, neighbouring Turkey will be the biggest loser. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government are foolishly aligning Turkey for disaster. Aside from Ankara’s historically bad relations with Armenia, Erdogan has managed to singlehandedly alienate Russia and three of Turkey’s most important neighbours. This has damaged the Turkish economy and disrupted the flow of Turkish goods. There have been clamp downs on activists too in connection with Turkey’s policy against Damascus. The freedom of the Turkish media has been affected as well; Erdogan has moved forward with legislation to restrict media freedoms. Prime Minister Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have even both attacked “reporters who quoted President Assad’s statements in Cumhuriyet, accusing them of treason, because they had questioned the official Turkish account of the Turkish jet shot down by in [sic.] Syria [for spying].” [5]

On Turkey’s eastern flank tensions are building between it and both Iraq and Iran. Baghdad is reviewing its diplomatic ties with the Turkish government, because Ankara is encouraging the Kurdistan Regional Government in Northern Iraq to act independently of Iraq’s federal government. Erdogan’s government has done this partially as a result of Baghdad’s steadfast opposition to regime change in Syria and in part because of Iraq’s strengthening alliance with Iran. Tehran on the other hand has halted the visa-free entry of Turkish citizens into Iran and warned the Turkish government that it is stoking the flames of a regional fire in Syria that will eventually burn Turkey too.
Growing Internal Divisions in Turkey

Despite all the patriotic speeches being made by the Turkish government to rally the Turkish people against Syria, Turkey is a much divided nation over Erdogan’s hostilities with Damascus. A significant portion of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey or Turkish Meclis and Turkey’s opposition parties have all condemned Erdogan for misleading the Turkish people and stirring their country towards disaster. There is also growing resentment amongst the citizens of Turkey about Erdogan’s cooperation with the US, NATO, Israel, and the Arab dictatorships – like Qatar and Saudi Arabia – against the Syrians and others. The majority of Turkish citizens oppose Turkish ties to Israel, the hosting of NATO facilities in Turkey, the missile shield project, and cooperation with the US in the Middle East. …more

West hampering Syria crisis resolution: China paper
15 August, 2012 – By Kelly Olsen -Agence France Presse

Beijing: China’s top state newspaper accused Western powers Wednesday of hampering international efforts to end the bloody conflict in Syria, as a senior Damascus envoy visited Beijing for talks with leaders.

The People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the governing Communist party, said in a commentary that China would press for a political solution to the crisis during this week’s visit by a special advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

China and Russia have repeatedly used their vetoes to scuttle UN Security Council resolutions aimed at tackling the conflict, putting them at loggerheads with fellow permanent members the United States, Britain and France.

“Some Western countries have never given up the goal of ‘regime change’ in Syria and constantly reinforced their support for the anti-government forces,” said a commentary in the paper.

That stance had “undermined the unity within the UN Security Council and prevented the international community from reaching a consensus and (outgoing peace envoy Kofi) Annan’s mediation efforts from taking effect,” it said.

The United States has urged Beijing to use its influence on the embattled regime in Damascus to press for an end to the bloodshed during the visit, with the 17-month conflict showing no signs of abating.

But China’s communist leaders are deeply uncomfortable with what they see as Western intervention in other countries’ internal affairs.

In a brief statement Monday, China said that Bouthaina Shaaban, special adviser to Assad, would be in Beijing this week for talks, and that it was considering inviting members of the Syrian opposition to visit.

Since then, no details of her visit have emerged and the foreign ministry did not respond to AFP requests for information on her meetings.

On Tuesday Syria’s former prime minister, the highest profile government figure to defect, said the regime was “collapsed militarily, economically and morally” and now controlled only 30 percent of Syria’s territory.

The conflict has killed more than 23,000 people since March last year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The UN says more than a million people have been displaced and another 140,000 have fled to Syria’s neighbours.
…more

How Washington’s Determination to Dominate Iran Corrodes U.S. Standing in the Middle East: Lessons from Bahrain
15 August, 2012 – The Race for IRan

As the United States pushes for regime change in Syria and American allies flock to suspend Syria from the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, it is illuminating to examine the strategic bankruptcy of U.S. policy toward Bahrain. For the deep flaws in Washington’s approach to Bahrain grow out of the same considerations that warp its policy toward Syria. And at the root of all these dangerously deficient policies is a dogged determination to contain and undermine the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Against this backdrop, Hillary appeared on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story Americas last week to discuss the political situation in Bahrain and Washington’s ongoing support for the Khalifa monarchy there; click here to view the segment or on the video above. The program opens with an interview with Maryam al-Khawaja, a Bahraini human rights activist. The panel discussion in which Hillary appears begins at 7:05 in the video.

Bahrain is arguably the most flagrant manifestation of American hypocrisy regarding the Arab spring. As the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister, Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi, noted in his Washington Post op ed on Syria last week, see here, “there have been conflicting responses to the civic movements sweeping the Arab world. A glaring example of these contradictions lies in Bahrain and the way some states have responded to the crackdown on the uprising there.” In his set up for the Inside Story episode, Al Jazeera’s moderator, Shihab Rattansi, notes that “for almost every single Arab country that has seen uprisings over the past two years, the U.S. has called for regime change—except for the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, one of its closest allies in the region.” Bahrain is, of course, the home of the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Three months ago, the United States resumed selling weapons to the Bahraini government, notwithstanding its extensive, ongoing, and well-documented violations of human rights and its failure to make any discernible progress toward meaningful political reform, much less a negotiated political settlement between the government and the opposition.

As Hillary points out, Washington cannot recalibrate its policy toward Bahrain without a fundamental reevaluation of its larger strategy in the Middle East. As a result of that strategy, she says, the United States is

“stuck with an ally like Bahrain, we’re stuck with some of the allies that we have in the Middle East. That’s because our strategic interest, as U.S. officials have framed it now for decades, is essentially oil and Israel. And oil is personified in the state of Saudi Arabia. So any country that is willing to align itself, to collude with Israel and Saudi Arabia, to give up their own sovereignty, to do whatever they do to their own citizens in order to work with Israel and Saudi Arabia in U.S. interests—those are our allies…Sometimes they’re better, sometimes they’re worse, sometimes they behave better, sometimes they don’t. But we’re stuck with them.”

Hillary notes that, with the “advent of the information revolution” in the Middle East, “it’s harder to be stuck with bad allies. It’s harder to justify having an alliance with a country, with a government that abuses its own citizens, and carries out policies that are against its own interests…You can’t stand there, like when I worked in the Bush administration with President Bush, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq with the King of Bahrain, smiling and saying ‘Everything is great.’ You can’t do that anymore. Even though it was wrong probably for the King of Bahrain to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we could get away with it then; we can’t get away with it now.”

Nevertheless, Hillary underscores that the United States, as its Middle East strategy is currently structured, “cannot support the opposition in Bahrain, because if the opposition had any real say in the government, they would never allow Bahrain to cede its territory to the United States for the Fifth Fleet, to be used as a platform to attack a much stronger neighbor [Iran]. That makes no sense strategically.” …more

Human Rights First is running a series of profiles on human rights defenders we work with in various countries. These profiles help to explain their work, motivations, and challenges.

A Conversation with Bahraini Human Rights Defender Saidyousif al-Mahafdha
15 August, 2012 – By Diana Sayed – Human Rights First

Saidyousif al-Mahafdha, the head of monitoring cases and documentation at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, (BCHR), works closely with Human Rights First to report on the daily violence and crackdown on the peaceful protesters in Bahrain. Yousif works closely with detained human rights defender, Nabeel Rajab, and has been very active in documenting, tweeting, blogging and raising awareness behind the government abuses in Bahrain.

How did you become an activist?

I don’t belong to a family with any interest in politics. I live with a middle class family in an area far from the daily protest. In 2007 I attended a conference organized by “Waad” a Bahraini liberal political society and there were recent released political prisoners speaking up about the brutal torture they have endured in prison. This conference was a wake-up call for me, it almost felt if I was hearing stories from Abu Ghraib Prison. Later that night I was not able to sleep very well, I was haunted by the stories I’ve heard and I was thinking on how to help my people. The next day I sent an email to Nabeel Rajab and since I have no interest in politics, I asked to work with him at the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).

Do you see yourself as a Human Rights Defender?

Yes, I am a human rights defender and I attend and monitor the peaceful protests and I try my best to be in the heart of the main events where most human right violations occur. I try to defend the rights of the people and I bridge what I see on the ground by communicating with international Human Rights organizations like Front Line Defenders and Human Rights First.

How do you perceive the current situation in Bahrain?

The situation is escalating and the violations are increasing. It seems like the regime in Bahrain doesn’t have any intentions on stopping the violations any time soon and without pressure internationally, especially from the US and UK, it will continue the same.

What do you want – outcome based?

I intend to continue my path as a Human Rights Activists to defend the rights of my people, I have no interest in joining a parliament, a ministry or any similar institutions. Working in the Human Rights field brings me a comfort and satisfies my conscience.

What risks do you see are posed on your everyday life?

Many risks and dangers. I have been sacked from my work, received death threats from a security officer on twitter and received anonymous threats of being arrested or killed. I have been arrested twice and once I was beaten. I may be targeted or shot at and be injured like what recently happened to Zainab Al-Khawaja while she was participating in a peaceful protest. I may also be arrested again at any time. Yet in spite of all the risks and threats I am fully aware that it is the price I have to pay to continue my path to defend human rights and I am willing to endure whatever may come.

What is a normal day in the life of…Said Yousif?

I start my day by responding to emails sent from organizations, reporters, activists and others, I don’t go to work since I have been expelled. Later, being the Head of Monitoring & Follow Up at Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), I visit and document violations that happened the night before for example arrests, police vandalizing, thefts, injuries and torture caused by the regime’s mercenaries.

At night I go to a coffee shop to write the statement based on what I documented and then I meet fellow members of the BCHR or attend meetings with civil society organizations. I also attend and monitor peaceful protests happening in the villages. I rarely see my wife and daughters in spite the fact that we live in the same flat. I usually dedicate Fridays to be with them. …source

…more Latuff HERE

Bahrain’s still stuck
By Jane Kinninmont – 15 August, 2012 – Foreign Policy

Yesterday, Bahrain postponed verdicts in the controversial trial of 13 high-profile opposition leaders until September 4. Their legal battle may be receiving little media attention, but it reveals much about the uncertain political scene in the strategically important country. Bahrain’s government has not managed to use last year’s famous inquiry by M. Cherif Bassiouni’s commission to draw a line under the events of 2011. As a result, the public remains polarized, though more on political than on sectarian grounds, while the protest movement has survived the detention of key leaders. Meanwhile, the root causes of the uprising remain unaddressed, in the absence of a process of political dialogue and negotiation.

Bahrain’s royally commissioned inquiry into last year’s unrest, commonly known as the Bassiouni report, was intended to be the basis for a national consensus on the causes of and the events during the uprising, as well as making recommendations for human rights reforms. Optimists — in the government, the opposition, and among Bahrain’s Western allies — hoped it could help kick start a much-needed process of dialogue and negotiation between the government and political factions. The report was praised internationally as groundbreaking and progressive, and far more forward leaning than expected.

But despite public relations efforts by the Bahraini government, its recommendations have not been fully implemented. Various practices criticized in the report — from nighttime house raids to imprisonment for offenses involving political expression — are recurring. Promises to hold torturers accountable have resulted in just three policemen being convicted. Opposition groups estimate there are around 1,400 political prisoners while the government says there are none. According to estimates from al-Wefaq, the main opposition group, in July alone 240 people were arrested and 100 injured with birdshot and rubber bullets. The group’s secretary-general, Sheikh Ali Salman, was wounded with birdshot when taking part in a small demonstration outside his house in June.

Meanwhile, the frustrated opposition shows signs of further radicalization. A small but increasing minority of protesters lob Molotov cocktails and iron rods at security forces and police stations and are looking for new ways to improvise weapons. While the mainstream opposition leaders routinely condemn violence, a rising number of voices online are seeking to justify violence as “self-defense” or “resistance.” This in turn encourages a vocal pro-government constituency to applaud the arrests of activists, seeing them all as complicit, even when they are arrested for tweets or for protesting without a permit.

The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report remains a vital reference point, and is a rare source of leverage for those within Bahrain’s bureaucracy who are trying to push reforms. But there is little traction for such efforts given that almost all of the senior decision makers who oversaw last year’s crackdown have retained their posts. There remain differences within the royal family, the Al Khalifa, over whether to make concessions to the opposition and how to handle any process of dialogue. Such divides manifest in mixed messages, as was seen earlier this year in the case of one of the 13 imprisoned opposition leaders, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a dual Danish-Bahraini national, who was then on hunger strike. Danish officials at Bahrain’s Universal Periodic Review at the U.N. Human Rights Council said that they had reached an agreement in mid-March for al-Khawaja to leave Bahrain for medical treatment in Denmark, but this was never implemented.

The 13 men in court this week had been convicted in a military court last year of crimes that included plotting to overthrow the government by force, as well as inciting hatred of the regime, insulting the army, and fomenting sectarianism. Several, including al-Khawaja, received life sentences. All the defendants assert their innocence and have described extensive torture in custody. The Bassiouni inquiry was highly critical of the behavior of security forces, including both “systemic” and “systematic” use of torture. It recommended that civilian courts review all convictions by military courts that had not respected basic fair-trial principles, such as the inadmissibility of “confessions” extracted through torture. Six months after the inquiry report, after international attention increasingly focused on al-Khawaja’s hunger strike, it was eventually announced that the opposition leaders would have this right. However, their lawyers say the court is still using tortured “confessions” as evidence. …more

Q&A: What about Bahrain’s uprising?
By Nicole Dow – CNN – 15 August, 2012

(CNN) — For more than a year, rights groups have criticized Bahrain for its crackdown on anti-government protests.

The protests, which began in February 2011, were spurred by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt but have failed to gain the traction of the other Arab Spring uprisings.

Lamees Dhaif, a journalist and activist, shares her thoughts on what is happening in her home country and its future in this conversation, edited for length and clarity.

CNN: What do you think about what happened to Ali Hasan, the 11-year-old boy who was arrested in May for participating in an “illegal gathering” and released months later from jail?

Dhaif: I think what happened to Ali Hasan is very tragic. Keeping a minor behind bars for a month is unexplainable. No judiciary system in the world keeps infants jailed for this long without a trial. …

I think that children are being detained frequently now in order to silence protesters. The regime wants to warn protesters that it can do whatever it wants to anyone regardless of his/her age or type of activity the person performs at the time of arrest. … Ali is not the first minor nor the last. There are still others in jail.

CNN: How is this story illustrative of what is happening in Bahrain? Where do you see the situation in Bahrain going?

Dhaif: The situation in Bahrain is unpredictable and chaotic just like all the arbitrary arrests and fabricated charges. The judiciary system is not independent. The charges are a reflection of what the regime wants to take place on the ground. The charges are politically biased, and in most cases, no solid evidence is present. …

The situation is becoming more and more complicated especially now that activists and human rights defenders who were not arrested earlier are targeted now by the regime. An example is Nabeel Rajab, who is detained for bogus charges. The regime is escalating its revenge from its people amidst the silence of the international community. …more

Human Right activists locked up in Bahrain
15 August, 2012 – By Colin S. Cavell – PressTV

Bahrain’s geopolitical status as an island nation allows it to easily incarcerate oppositional leadership, torture them, and-if recalcitrant and unrepentant-kill them. Unfortunately for the House of Khalifa, a majority of the citizenry of Bahrain refuse to be enslaved under a despotic monarchical form of government.”
Bahrain courts have put off until Thursday, August 16th, their decision on several charges against Nabeel Rajab, President of Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR).

The court’s ruling, initially scheduled for Sunday, August 12th, is to decide on Mr. Rajab’s guilt for tweeting statements which the regime of King Hamad Al-Khalifa deems insurrectionary. Until the court rules, Mr. Rajab remains behind bars as a prisoner of the state.

Yes, you read that correctly, Rajab was imprisoned for utilizing the social medium of tweeting where comments are restricted to 140 characters! In Bahrain today, articulating any opinion which the Khalifas deem subversive will land you in jail. The 48-year-old Nabeel Rajab is only one of the most notable democratic activists to find himself behind prison bars in the kingdom’s dungeons.

Joining Rajab in custody at the present time is 30-year-old activist Zainab Al-Khawaja, a courageous pro-democracy activist who was arrested and sent to jail for peacefully, yet publicly, protesting against the 229-year-old Al-Khalifa monarchy. Zainab, a graduate of the American Studies Center at the University of Bahrain, had previously been injured by Bahraini police who shot her with a tear gas canister in her right thigh in June during another peaceful protest.

Also locked up for voicing his opposition to the family dynasty of the Al-Khalifa is 51-year-old Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, father of Zainab and past president of the BCHR and former director of the Middle East-North Africa region for the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders’ Front Line. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja drew international attention to the Arab Spring uprising in Bahrain with a 110-day hunger strike which he ended at the end of May 2012 when the regime had doctors in the military hospital force-feed him against his will.

Languishing also in prison, since March of 2011, is 53-year-old Ibrahim Sharif al-Sayed who is General Secretary of the secular liberal National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad) and one of the most knowledgeable and astute leaders of the pro-democracy opposition. Sharif’s main crime is that he understands the nature of the Khalifa monarchy too well and knows how to dislodge it and is unafraid in organizing to do so. It was inevitable that Sharif would be one of the first to be sent to jail. Moreover, Sharif is a Sunni, which undercuts the regime’s claim that oppositional forces in Bahrain are only comprised of Shia co-religionists acting as an Iranian-directed fifth column.

In addition to the above pro-democracy activists, Bahrain’s prisons are hosting, as well, the following opposition leaders: 64-year-old Haq Movement for Liberties and Democracy Secretary-General Hassan Mushaima, 47-year-old University of Bahrain academic Dr. Abdul-Jalil Al-Sangace who is head of the Human Rights Office as well as Director of the Media and International Relations for the Haq Movement for Liberties and Democracy, Sheikh Mohammed Ali Al-Mahfoodh, Chairman of Amal Society and a prolific writer of letters to President Barack Obama explaining the Bahraini Revolution to him, Board Member of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) Naji Fateel, and countless others who have dared to exercise their rights guaranteed under the Universal Convention on Human Rights.

Bahrain’s geopolitical status as an island nation allows it to easily incarcerate oppositional leadership, torture them, and-if recalcitrant and unrepentant-kill them. Unfortunately for the House of Khalifa, a majority of the citizenry of Bahrain refuse to be enslaved under a despotic monarchical form of government.

Since the February 14th revolution started in 2011, over three quarters of the population regularly march en masse in the streets of Bahrain calling for the removal of the Al-Khalifa and the establishment of a democracy with genuine republican representative government. In addition, police nightly contend with democratic activists in every village and town in Bahrain. The police respond with poison tear gas, arrests, torture, and killings.

Confident-some say perhaps overconfident-are the Khalifa who grant the US Navy port access to its Fifth Fleet as well as tarmac rights at the Sheik Isa Airbase in Bahrain allowing the US to forward project its military into the Middle East in order to maintain hegemonic control over the region and thus ensuring American theft of Middle Eastern oil through its string of despotic monarchs from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and on into Kuwait. These puppet states are all US & UK proxy-run regimes led by the most corrupt autocratic regimes on Earth, a group of despotic absolute monarchs possessing none of the virtues described in fairy tales and all of the vices humans attribute to the dregs of society.

Keeping the lid on journalistic reporting from the Kingdom is a full-time activity of the Al-Khalifa regime. Seattle-based documentary filmmaker, Jen Marlowe, was deported from the Kingdom in July of this year for attempting to report on the ongoing democracy protests. In May of 2012, Freelance journalist Ahmed Radhi was arrested and disappeared into the Kingdom’s labyrinthian system of torture chambers because he dared to criticize Saudi Arabia’s proposed union with Bahrain.

Three Channel 4 television journalists from the UK were arrested and then deported from Bahrain while attempting to cover a pro-democracy protest march during the controversial Grand Prix car races which took place in Bahrain in mid-April of this year. Ahmed Ismail Hassan, a Bahraini videographer was killed in April of this year while filming a pro-democracy protest in Salmabad, a village southwest of Manama. Global Research’s Middle East and East Africa Correspondent Finian Cunningham was ordered out of Bahrain on June 18, 2011 due to his uncompromising and critical reporting of the democratic uprising in the country as well as the concomitant brutal oppression, mass arrests, torture, and murder of pro-democracy activists. And this is merely a partial list of the hundreds of bloggers, journalists, and human rights defenders who have been arrested, jailed, tortured, and/or deported from the country since the pro-democracy uprising commenced in February of 2011.

In addition to silencing protesters and journalists, the Bahraini government has enlisted the assistance of at least five American and three UK-based public relations firms to spin the news abroad that Bahrain is once again “open for business” to gullible Brits and Yanks. As well, it appears that academics are now being enlisted to validate the regime’s narrative that all is well in Bahrain. Just recently, a bizarre report was issued by a Dr. Mitchell A. Belfer claiming that “Bahrain is back on track following the unrest and majority of the people have become tired of political bickering and street violence.”

The Bahrain regime’s new “expert” is reportedly the editor of the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (CEJISS) and is associated with the Prague-based Metropolitan University Department of International Relations and the founder of its European Studies program. If, as this Dr. Belfer concludes, that the “‘coast is clear and tensions have subsided’,” then his findings are in direct contradiction to that of numerous human rights organizations and most international observers of Bahrain.

Whether he is merely a shill for the Khalifa regime or simply delusional as regards the objective situation in Bahrain, we at least know his political allegiance, as he is reported to have asserted that the pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain are waging a “‘losing’ battle as the country slowly gears towards dialogue and reconciliation.” Such wishful thinking on the part of the regime and its lackeys is entirely fanciful and completely ignores the massive and determined opposition to the monarchy in Bahrain. But given that the Al-Khalifa have long been living a fairy-land existence with little connection to the lives of everyday citizens in Bahrain, it follows that they may indeed believe that there is no such thing as objective reality. ‘Simply say it isn’t so, and the protesters instantly vanish,’ appears to be their strategy. If only life were so simple… …source

Track Record of postponements raises question of political show trials.

Verdicts to be Issued Thursday for Bahraini Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab
(Witness Bahrain) – 14 August, 2012 – BCHR

On Thursday August 16, a court in Manama, Bahrain is expected to issue a verdict/hear briefs in four cases pending against Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab, including Rajab’s appeal over the three-month sentence he is currently serving for being found guilty of libel due to posting six statements on Twitter that are critical of the Bahraini Prime Minister. The other cases that the court will hear include allegedly inciting gatherings and unauthorized marches.

This is not the first time the court has set a date for a verdict, and in other prominent cases – notably that of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja – the court has met only to announce a delay. These postponements raise the question as to the legitimacy of Bahrain’s judicial process. Media reports have cited the delays as an indication of the government’s commitment to reform, yet the track record to justify such conclusions is lacking.

“I believe strongly in peaceful means of struggle. It could take longer time, but has better results,” Nabeel Rajab told Witness Bahrain in a videotaped interview just days before his arrest. “I will continue all my life struggling for democracy and human rights.”

Rajab is currently being held in Jaw Central Prison and, according to reports from his family, in an insect-ridden cell without air conditioning or proper ventilation, and without needed medical attention for his eczema, high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. …more

Said Yousif Almuhafa (right) with Nabeel Rajab current illegally detained for “insulting tweet”