Clinton DOS rhetoric on Bahrain arms deal precedes the conveniently overdue BICI Report

[cb editor: The “subline” in the article below by Middle East Online, “Clinton warns Bahrain: No human rights, no arms” is a curious one. I’m wondering if this is an editorial hope from Middle East Online’ or a failure to grasp the reality of US policy regarding Bahrain. And yes, it does seem, some courageous US Senators have stood up to the atrocities of the al Kahlifa regime. Adding, yet another policy dilemma that confronts the Obama-Clinton stumbling and bumbling in the Middle East. The US silence regarding Bahrain may well be broken, but what remains is the contradictory and unreconciled policy of “friends don’t stop friends from brutally oppressing their governed” – especially if the the governed want something as absurd as democracy and it might disturb your military and economic ambitions in the region. And any other cozy arrangements made with your “partners in brutality”.

The Department of State’s decision to hold up arms sales a few weeks while waiting on a tainted and discredited investigative report on Bahrain’s “unrest”, sponsored by King Hamad’s and conducted by his hand picked “independent team”, is just short of political grand standing masquerading as impartiality and fairness. Nonetheless it is an obvious strategic decision. It must be noted that at no time has Clinton said the deal would NOT go through, but rather in the usual DOS Newspeak, she says “we will wait and see how the regime responds to the report”. An unqualified expectation of a response from King Hamad – perhaps the deal can proceed if King Hamad decides to increase the frequency of gassing Sunni villages as well – fair and balanced oppression? Or maybe if Hamad admits the “the government has “some problems” and promises he will “look into them”, that will be enough to complete the deal and keep it’s challengers in the US Senate at bay?

And what of Bassiouni’s BICI Report? As the US places new value on it, there is a mad dash to rewrite it – supposedly to be more inclusive of complaints against the regime? So had Bassiouni shorted the report important testimony until the US became interested in it? The reports continues to reek of a tainted, corrupt process or at the very best, a horribly shoddy one – surely it will go down as Bassiouni’s “boondoggle in Bahrain”. What then of the rewrite? …is it a new version that adjusts the bar for “acheivibility” and couches King Hamad’s problems in something that is politically expedient for the US and a palatable compromise to more moderate Western Human Rights critics?

And what of Clinton’s praise for al Khalifa’s kangaroo courts? …get real, a civilian trial without due process, confessions extracted through torture, though some now thrown out and horribly trumped up charges? Does anyone really think justice can be dispensed by the regimes “civilian courts”? Has it ever when it comes to matters of political resistance? All the victims of Hamad’s “charade of justice” are hoping for is another opportunity to force Hamad’s capitulation or even to be granted the “King Mercies” under the charade of an appeal. The sad reality complicity only serves to legitimize his courts. Not only are the bumblings and stumblings of Obama-Clinton an embarrassment to the US they are dangerous, shallow and contemptuous. ]

US urges Bahrain to probe crackdown on anti-regime protests
26 October, 2011 – Middle East Online, “Clinton warns Bahrain: No human rights, no arms”

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Bahrain on Wednesday to follow through on an independent probe into a crackdown on anti-regime protests, officials said.

Clinton and Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa also discussed a planned $53 million US arms sale to Bahrain that has been put on hold pending the outcome of the investigation, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

“The thrust of our message to Bahrain over some months was that not only the Bahraini people but the international community and certainly the United States are waiting eagerly for the release of the results of the independent commission of inquiry,” Nuland added.

The panel’s report was expected by October 30 but its release has been delayed to November 23.

The pro-democracy protests that broke out in February amid the fervor of the Arab Spring were crushed by Bahraini security forces, backed by Saudi troops. The government says 24 people were killed, including four police officers, while the opposition puts the count at 31.

Nuland said the outcome of the investigation would be “a litmus test of transparency and accountability for what happened in Bahrain and particularly how the government chooses to deal with what is reported,” Nuland said.

Clinton also underscored the importance of Bahrain’s decision to retry in civilian courts cases that were tried by the military, she said.

Nuland defended the proposed arms sale to Bahrain, a key US ally in the Gulf that hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, saying it would bolster Manama’s external defenses.

But “the Bahrainis know we have human rights standards attached to these sales, and actual transfer decisions are pending,” she said.

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, introduced legislation earlier this month to bar arms sales to Bahrain until it addresses “alleged human rights violations” since the protests began. …source