…from beneath the crooked bough, witness 230 years of brutal tyranny by the al Khalifas come to an end
Random header image... Refresh for more!

President Obama no more blood money for weapons sales to prop up the broken US economy!

by Courtesy

US: Stop Proposed Arms Sales to Bahrain
Don’t Give Kingdom a Pass on Protester Crackdown, Repression
September 22, 2011 – Human Rights Watch

This is exactly the wrong move after Bahrain brutally suppressed protests and is carrying out a relentless campaign of retribution against its critics. It will be hard for people to take US statements about democracy and human rights in the Middle East seriously when, rather than hold its ally Bahrain to account, it appears to reward repression with new weapons.
Maria McFarland, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch

(Washington, DC) – The United States should delay a proposed arms sale to Bahrain until it ends abuses against peaceful critics of the ruling family and takes meaningful steps toward accountability for serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today.

The US Defense Department notified Congress on September 14, 2011, of a proposed sale of armored Humvees and missiles to Bahrain worth US$53 million. The sale would appear to be the first since the start of Bahrain’s crackdown on protests earlier this year.

“This is exactly the wrong move after Bahrain brutally suppressed protests and is carrying out a relentless campaign of retribution against its critics,” said Maria McFarland, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “It will be hard for people to take US statements about democracy and human rights in the Middle East seriously when, rather than hold its ally Bahrain to account, it appears to reward repression with new weapons.”

The proposed arms sale would, according to the notification from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, include 44 “Armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs),” wire-guided and other missiles and launchers, as well as related equipment and training.

In mid-February, on the tenth anniversary of King Hamad Al Khalifa’s major political reform proposal and following uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Bahrainis took to the streets in massive numbers demanding democratic reform. The government initially responded by opening fire on peaceful protesters, killing seven and wounding hundreds. In mid-March, after several weeks of continuing protests, the government declared a “state of national safety.” …more