The US government insists that none of the weapons in the deal can be used against protesters

US pushes Bahrain arms deal despite abuses
Obama administration using legal loophole to sell arms to Bahrain despite ongoing abuses and crackdown on NGOs.
Gregg Carlstrom – 02 February, 2012 – Al Jazeera

The Obama administration is pushing to close an arms deal with Bahrain, despite the government’s nearly year-long crackdown against protesters and recent steps to block American NGOs from operating in the island kingdom.

A previous arms sale was suspended late last year after fierce opposition from human rights groups and members of Congress. But the White House is now taking advantage of a legal loophole to push forward a separate deal without congressional approval.

The deal is also advancing despite the Bahraini government’s recent crackdown on several US-based NGOs, including the National Democratic Institute and Physicians for Human Rights. Staffers with valid Bahraini visas have been barred from entering the country.

Some of the organisations received letters informing them that their work was temporarily suspended, ostensibly until a national commission finishes reviewing the recommendations of the official commission which studied last year’s unrest.

“The commission’s deadline to complete this work is by the end of February,” said the letters, which were signed by Houda Nonoo, Bahrain’s ambassador to the United States. “We therefore feel that it would be more beneficial for a visit from your esteemed organisation to take place after this date.”

Several of the organisations had issued critical reports on human rights abuses and restrictions on political freedom in Bahrain, where more than 40 people have been killed and thousands arrested during nearly a year of unrest.

“It’s ironic that there’s not much discussion of this, considering what’s happening in Egypt right now,” said Stephen McInerney, the director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, referring to a similar (though harsher) crackdown on American NGOs in Cairo.
No ‘internal security items’

The new arms sale, which was first reported by Josh Rogin in Foreign Policy, takes advantage of a legal loophole which allows the administration to make small sales – less than $1mn – without congressional approval. So a larger package could be broken into individual sales, each below the million-dollar threshold, to avoid notifying Congress.

The package will include patrol boats, communications equipment, and spare parts for helicopters and fighter jets, according to the US State Department, which insisted that “none of these items can be used against protesters.”
Full statement on arms deal

“Examples of what we are providing include spare parts and contractor maintenance support for existing F-16s, helicopters, and communications equipment. It includes items such as patrol boats for maritime security and support services for training Bahraini troops who are supporting coalition operations in Afghanistan. It does not include any new capabilities, nor would it include internal security items, such as small arms or tear gas.”

— State Department

“It does not include any new capabilities, nor would it include internal security items, such as small arms or tear gas,” a department spokesman said in a statement to Al Jazeera.

But some of the items in the proposed sale have indeed been used against protesters. Bahraini security forces routinely use helicopters to monitor demonstrations, for example, and activists say footage from those helicopters is sometimes used to identify and arrest participants.

The official report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) mentions at least three occasions on which military helicopters were deployed to monitor protests.

This latest deal is separate from an earlier proposal to sell Bahrain more than $50mn worth of weapons, including 44 Humvees. Those armoured vehicles have also been used against protesters on numerous occasions.

The administration has temporarily suspended that deal, though it can finish the sale at any time, because members of Congress did not file formal objections during the 90-day “notification period.” Congress could have blocked the deal during that period by passing a resolution of disapproval. …more