" The Al Khalifa potentate retains a self-styled royal prerogative to commit crimes on a massive scale with impunity; sending its security forces into Bahraini villages to shoot indiscriminately at peaceful protesters, poison people to death in their homes with chemical gases, and to smash their way into houses to drag away occupants to unknown torture dungeons. Human rights activists and journalists, who bear witness to these violations, are likewise persecuted, gagged, harassed and jailed.
The vicious repression of the Khalifa royal dictatorship continues unabated precisely because Washington and London have turned a blind eye to its crimes. Not just turned a blind eye; the Western governments have actively supported the Khalifa thugs with copious supplies of crowd-control weaponry and affording the crucial cover of ongoing normal diplomatic and commercial relations.
The complete de facto absence of rule of law in Bahrain and the thuggish suzerainty of unelected despots is not some aberration of Western governments. This is how these governments prefer and need political business to be run in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. Fascism is the optimum model of Western capitalism, as practiced in the Persian Gulf (and increasingly practiced in fully fledged form back home in the US and Britain.) "
Bahraini regime holds gun to head in ‘negotiations’
10 February, 2013 – PressTV – By Finian Cunningham via Crooked Bough
Note the size of this mass demonstration given the fact that Bahrain has a population of 750,000.
During the biggest demonstration over 250,000 have taken part that is one third of the population.
In demographic comparison in the USA would have to have many millions take part in a demonstration.
#Bahrain masses march Budaiya highway Chanting "Change is Coming"
Published on 6 Feb 2013
The opposition blocs organized the 6th consequent mass rally today 6th of February 2013 with a large participation of the Bahraini protesters.
The protesters, who spread over about half a kilometer from Duraz roundabout -in the middle of Bahrain, confirmed their demands in democracy and freedom. The protesters were from different ages and came from various areas of the country.
Obama As Propagandist For Ruling Elites Everywhere Speaks At UN General Assembly 2011 - Bahrain Section- lies and miss-characterization of the regime and the peaceful pro-reform protesters
In the above video clip 2 years ago at the United Nations erroneously proclaimed that the peoples struggle for reform was actually a sectarian fight between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. The reform movement in Bahrain due to the demographic reality that the Shiites in Bahrain constitute the majority and so make up the majority of protesters. But the Shiites are joined by many Sunnis who also are denied the same opportunities as those who benefit from the wealth of Bahrain which includes the royal family and their supporters .
The rulers of Bahrain in order to create excuses or rationale to defend their brutal on going 2 year old crack down on Bahrain protesters erroneously claim that the turmoil is actually sectarian and that the opposition is made up of Shiite extremists and Jihadists who are backed by Iran . So the rulers tell Washington that the opposition is really a front for Iranian or Iranian backed terrorists. President Obama grasping at straws to defend his inaction in supporting the popular and peaceful Bahraini reform movement and his continuing to supply Bahrain with arms including vast amounts of tear gas and other materials disingenuously tells the United Nations and the Western powers that the opposition are mostly terrorists supported by Iran.
We have seen this sort of characterization by President Obama of the various reform movements during the Arab Spring uprisings especially those that are peaceful and widely popular and especially those occurring in countries where the anti-democratic regimes ie Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt are considered US friendly.
For instance in Libya there was a peaceful popular reform movement which was sidelined by the USA as it backed armed Jihadists and then by the use of propaganda convinced NATO to rain down bombs on the people of Libya to weaken the nation and remove Qaddafi .
In Syria there was also a peaceful reform movement which was not at first insisting on regime change but the USA again replaced that peaceful reform movement with Al Qaeda , Taliban and other Sunni Islamic Jihadi extremists armed rebels who have committed atrocities equaling those of Assad and have again targeted Shiites in Syria and destroyed Shiite Mosques.
And as they say what's the take away from these pronouncements of President Obama is that he and his administration is not committed to substantive reforms in these countries or regime change if the outcome is uncertain in the sense of whether after reforms or regime change these nations will still be amenable to America's agenda or the agendas of American and Western multinational corporations and allowing the US to use these nations as US military bases. In Bahrain America's number one concern is maintaining the US fifth fleet stationed there. But reformers may want to oust the fifth fleet from their sovereign territory and not permit the US to use Bahrain as a staging ground or what have you for attacks on other nations in the region such as Syria , Iran , Iraq ,Afghanistan, Pakistan etc.
So the human and civil rights of the citizens of Bahrain and other sovereign nations is according to the Obama Regime is not really a priority though Obama in his eloquent speeches of empty rhetoric might claim otherwise.
We wonder if Obama is just naive and idealistic that he thinks that those around him are actually presenting him with the unvarnished facts when in fact they may have their own agenda. The US military and the US consulate in Bahrain is not going to admit that the current regime is involved in massive human rights violations and an unnecessary brutal crack down on the reform movement in Bahrain.
Two years later government of Bahrain with help from Saudi Arabia and material support from Obama is continuing to oppress its people. Obama is wrong the fight on the part of the pro-reform movement is not sectarian. It is the Bahraini government which is trying to create sectarian divisions . Obama merely simply believes what the despots in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia tell him.
For a number of reasons the speech sounds so insincere as he goes on about respecting the ideals and principles of the United Nations while helping to oppress not just the masses in Bahrain but also the people of Gaza and the Occupied territories. If he in fact respected the UN he would insist that Israel obey the UN's resolutions which over and over again argue that Israel must return to its borders prior to six day war of 1967.
We don't hear Obama speaking out on behalf of the thousands of prisoners held on trumped up charges in Israel's jails.
Nor do we hear Obama admonishing the Israel's for abusing , intimidating , harassing, beating, murdering Palestinians with impunity and the unconditional protection of the USA.
The mainstream media in the West and the USA using the Obama administration's Talking points erroneously depicts the struggle in Bahrain as sectarian and that the very people who are being attacked that is Shiite Muslims are the perpetrators, the trouble makers stirred up by an Iranian covert operation which in fact does not exist. The Media also present as facts what are really propaganda by the Bahraini Monarchy . Even progressives or if you prefer Faux Progressives and phony liberals in the USA especially fall for this propaganda which is completely at odds with the reality as they have in Syria, Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and of course Iraq etc. The problem is that even American media political observers and pundits who identify themselves as progressive in the end want to believe contrary to all the facts that America is always on the side of democracy, political reform and civil and human rights. You would think after a decade of America's brutal xenophobic racist occupation of Iraq that these liberals and progressives would learn that the Obama Regime or previous American Regimes can not be taken at their word.
"Thousands join Bahrain protest rally before talks" By REEM KHALIFA | Associated Press – Wed, Feb 6, 2013
Thousands of protesters in Bahrain are demonstrating against the Gulf nation's monarchy, less than a week before planned talks aimed at easing a two-year political crisis.
Wednesday's march includes some groups favoring the dialogue. But many appear to take a hard line against the Western-backed rulers with harsh slogans, suggesting divisions in the opposition ahead of talks set for next week.
Shiite protesters have increasingly demanded a stronger voice in the affairs of the Sunni-ruled nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Although the majority in Bahrain, Shiites claim they face systematic discrimination.
Protest gatherings are planned every day until Feb. 14, the second anniversary of the uprising.
Main Shiite political factions have agreed to hold preliminary talks with Sunni officials beginning Sunday.
This may sound promising but in fact for the most part the only reforms the al-Khalifa Monarchy would accept would be merely cosmetic and setting up a quasi-constitutional monarchy in which the Monarchy still has final say over everything.
Bahraini regime holds gun to head in ‘negotiations’
10 February, 2013 – PressTV – By Finian Cunningham via Crooked Bough
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei described recent American offers of bilateral talks with Iran as tantamount to the US holding negotiations with a gun to the head.
The same apt metaphor, expressing the futility of conducting political talks under extreme duress, applies equally to the internal politics of Bahrain.
...Getting back to the issue of Bahrain’s new “national dialogue” and why it is bound to fail from the point of view of democracy, we can say this with certainty because the political talks are being conducted while the regime holds a gun to the head of the Bahraini people.
In fact, this is not a metaphor. Over the past two years, the Khalifa regime, led by King Hamad, has murdered, maimed and tortured thousands of Bahrainis, who have done nothing more than peacefully protest for the establishment of a democratic government. This regime is not interested in rights or law. How could it be when it has and continues to violate every precept and person it finds a threat to its barbarous rule? This regime is in no way willing to account for its crimes against the people. It has made clear that it has no intention of implementing the reasonable recommendations of the international Bassoon Report issued more than a year ago, calling for the release of all prisoners of conscience in Bahrain.
The Al Khalifa potentate retains a self-styled royal prerogative to commit crimes on a massive scale with impunity; sending its security forces into Bahraini villages to shoot indiscriminately at peaceful protesters, poison people to death in their homes with chemical gases, and to smash their way into houses to drag away occupants to unknown torture dungeons. Human rights activists and journalists, who bear witness to these violations, are likewise persecuted, gagged, harassed and jailed.
The vicious repression of the Khalifa royal dictatorship continues unabated precisely because Washington and London have turned a blind eye to its crimes. Not just turned a blind eye; the Western governments have actively supported the Khalifa thugs with copious supplies of crowd-control weaponry and affording the crucial cover of ongoing normal diplomatic and commercial relations.
The complete de facto absence of rule of law in Bahrain and the thuggish suzerainty of unelected despots is not some aberration of Western governments. This is how these governments prefer and need political business to be run in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. Fascism is the optimum model of Western capitalism, as practiced in the Persian Gulf (and increasingly practiced in fully fledged form back home in the US and Britain.)
Thus, a democratic resolution to Bahrain’s political crisis will not be achieved by the latest negotiations because the perpetrators of mass murder and injustice remain cozily embedded, by necessity for Western patronage.
In Syria, where regime change is desired for expedient self-serving reasons, the arrogant Western governments, without justification, call for President Assad to stand down. Yet the same stricture is not even mooted by these powers when it comes to the truly despotic Bahraini regime. Why? Because regime change in Bahrain and the Persian Gulf is far from desired; the more despotic the better to uphold Western strategic interests.
The Khalifa dynasty retains all its corrupt dictatorial powers bequeathed by Britain and sustained ever since by Washington. The new “dialogue” is simply a cynical charade to conceal this. The very fact that the rulers – or more accurately their Western masters – called for the negotiations indicates that the process is framed to ensure that the regime will, in effect, stay in power, not to find a genuine democratic settlement.
The status quo may have to undergo a cosmetic revamp, re-branded as a “new constitutional monarchy”, and there may follow formal elections. But such a compromise that allows a despotic regime to persist within the political fabric is not a worthy compromise. It is a squalid cop-out. What really needs to be done is for this regime to be prosecuted for crimes against the people, crimes not just committed over the past two years, but over the past four decades.
This is, of course, why Washington and London are backing the dialogue charade, as they have done with previous regime-led initiatives, because these Western governments know that the purpose of the negotiations is to ensure that their Bahraini tyrant-client will remain safely ensconced in power. The regime provides the US with a base for its Navy Fifth Fleet and is an important staging post for Western militarism across the Middle East, as well as being used as a bulwark against Iran’s influence in the vital oil-producing region.
Perhaps more importantly, the Khalifa regime is a bulwark against democracy and the rule of law becoming established in the Persian Gulf. That would present a mortal threat to the geopolitical interests of Washington and London. For these capitalist powers, democracy is simply anathema. For them, the Persian Gulf must remain, at all costs, a feudal backwater ruled by tyrants and unelected despots, who prop up the destructive petrodollar global system and who buy billions of dollars worth of Western weaponry, all in implacable opposition to the democratic needs of the people. (The Western public also needs to realize -and realize quickly – this ugly nature of their so-called governments. For the same oppressive dictatorial measures for satiating the unelected capitalist elite are being applied increasingly to them as well. )
In a very real way, the gun being held to the head of the Bahraini people is ultimately being held by Washington and London...
and so it goes,
GORD.
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