The Silence Heard Around The World and The Pacification of Bahrain

On 14 August, Nabeel Rajab, one of the outspoken leaders and advocates of non-violent regime-change in Bahrain, as sentenced to three years in prison for organizing and participation in illegal gatherings in Bahrain; i.e, nonviolent protest marches against the bloody regime President Obama and the US State Department continue to refer to as ‘friends’. Rajab is one of a few leaders who have managed to remain free in Bahrain during the last one and half years of the regimes brutal government crackdown on those who have called for regime-change. King Hamad, the ruling Monarch in Bahrain, has banned by decree public gathering without permits, which have been categorically denied to advocates of regime-change since the regime’s bloody crackdown began.

Nabeel Rajab now joins the ranks of dozens of other regime-change leaders, that have been systematically brutalized and arrested on falsified and trumped up charges. Among those similarly arrested and detained, are Sheik AlMahfood(5 year sentence) of the recently banned Amal Society and Human Rights Defender Abdulhadi AlKhawaja(life sentence). AlKhawaja is also colleague of Nabeel Rajab and one of many who Rajab has been working to gain their freedom. Another colleague of Nabeel Rajab’s, Said Yousif Almuhafda, was detained yesterday, 15 August, beaten in front of his two young daughters and later released, in a government act of intimidation and in conjunction with the three-year sentence to prison Nabeel Rajab received.

State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said that the US embassy contacted Bahraini authorities to voice concern over the jail term given to Nabeel Rajab for “unauthorized” protests against the Sunni monarchy. “We are deeply troubled by the sentencing,” Nuland told reporters. “We believe that all people have a fundamental freedom to participate in civil acts of peaceful disobedience,” she said [from AFP]. Ms. Nuland subtlety echoes the profoundly incorrect perception of sectarianism in the Bahrain uprising. While sectarian conflict exists, the calls for regime-change come from Sunni and Shiite united in their opposition to the ruling regime. Ms. Nuland’s ignorance and insensitively has been noted along with other State Department belligerence and ignorance, leading to disgraceful diplomacy and conduct from State Department politicals that should know better.

“Sternly worded statements” no matter how lofty, be-it from the United States, the UN or others have become meaningless and fall on the belligerent deaf and disrespectful ears of the Bahrain’s ruling regime. When words critical of the regime are sounded, the regime response is to heap even greater violence and repression on the heads of the anti-regime movement. All the while, the regime claims progress on Human Rights to appease its Western critics. The United States in turn affirms the belligerent conduct of its ‘friends’ with a silence that is heard around the world..

My government (US) needs to move beyond the ‘make nice’ rhetoric coming from what seems to be a broken and inept State Department. The State Department seems deceived by or even worse, complicit in, the flagrant violations of Human Rights that continue with impunity by the ruling regime led by King Hamad. The “middle-road to reform” mind-set that is a hallmark of President Obama’s administration, makes reform in Bahrain “more impossible” with each arrest, prison sentence and drop of blood, the regime sheds. The present course can only end in a bloody wound between the people of Bahrain and the United States that can never be healed. My governments polices are crushing people and fueling anti-US hatred with its support for the al Khalifa Regime. It is disheartening that my government continues to refer to this regime as ‘friends’ and foolishly squanders opportunities to build bridges across the anti-regime divide that Secretary Clinton seems to work so tirelessly to preserve.

One only need look as far as the appointment of Ambassador Krajeski to be skeptical of the State Department role in Bahrain. A pattern reminiscence of CIA Pacification Programs that crush dissent seem to shadow Krajeski – from Indonesia, to Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and now Bahrain. It seems the US has controlled and manipulated its “democracy wars” in MENA to build “US branded democracies” and preserve those regimes that serve its hegemonic interests.

The Bahrain anti-regime movement has become the fly in the ointment, with its clear demand for a pluralist democracy with separation of powers. They are sophisticated, well organized and highly educated and for the time being, they have managed to “pin down” opposition reformist who would preserve the regime. This should be a profound message to the Obama administration but this too seems fall on deaf ears.

The reformists continue to maneuver and flirt with the regime whose pacification program has systematically detained the anti-regime leadership through judicial charades and brought a brutal scourge of rape, murder and torture upon the opposition. All of this under the watchful eye of Krajeski and a team of high dollar US security and public relations firms hired out to the regime to legitimize its tyranny. The question is not whether a revolution is coming to Bahrain but it is a question of when. Moreover, one wonders if the US will find its moral footing in the process. To this end, I labor. Sadly, I doubt the US will find its moral footing and this too will be its undoing in Bahrain… Phlipn – out.