{"id":11398,"date":"2012-08-02T06:22:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T13:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11398"},"modified":"2012-08-02T14:29:42","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T21:29:42","slug":"bahrain-bici-report-and-a-well-manipulated-lantos-comission-becomes-kingdoms-tool-to-remain-free-from-accountability-and-guarantee-impunity-from-murderous-abuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11398","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain BICI Report and a well manipulated “Lantos Commission” becomes Kingdom’s tool to remain free from accountability and guarantee impunity from murderous abuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

US backs dictatorial regime in Bahrain to retain hegemony<\/strong>
\n2 August, 2012 – By Colin S. Cavell- PressTV<\/p>\n

And why did the US government pressure King Hamad to establish this commission and to issue this report? Because the US Navy\u2019s Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, and the US wants to maintain its basing rights on the island kingdom in order to protect its hegemonic position to assert its dominance and control over the Middle Eastern Arab regimes. The commission and the report would demonstrate, it was argued, the maturity of the Al-Khalifa regime and its ability to learn from its mistakes and reform its government.” <\/p>\n

Hearings were held today, Wednesday, August 1, 2012, in the US Congress on the \u201cImplementation of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry Report\u201d by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (named in honor of the former Democratic representative from California who died in 2008).<\/p>\n

Rep. James P. McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) co-chaired the hearings which took place in Room 2237 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

And what did they examine you ask? They purportedly examined the extent to which the government of Bahrain has implemented the BICI proposals.<\/p>\n

And what are the BICI proposals? These are recommendations included in a report issued by a commission headed by renowned Egyptian-born international criminal law professor Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni in November of 2011.<\/p>\n

And why did Bassiouni issue this report? Because he was paid by Hamad Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, to investigate the allegations of human rights abuses during the regime crackdown on democracy protesters from February 14, 2011, when the Arab Spring rebellion commenced in Bahrain, until Saudi Arabia sent in the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council\u2019s (PGCC) so-called Peninsula Shield Forces on March 14, 2011 to \u201crestore order\u201d. Presumably what happened from the 14th of March, 2011 and afterwards could not be attributed to the King or his hangmen and, therefore, were off-limits to Bassiouni and his investigators, even though the killings, the torture, the arrests and jailings, the beatings and harassments continue to this day-i.e. 17 months after the civil conflict erupted-as do the near-daily protests by the pro-democracy citizenry which periodically march in the streets in the hundreds of thousands to demonstrate their resolve against the monarchy.<\/p>\n

In essence, King Hamad was strongly urged by the US Department of State and others to whitewash the murders, tortures, beatings, arrests, jailings, beatings, harassment and other crimes of his regime by establishing a commission-the so-called Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI)- on June 29, 2011, headed by a distinguished jurist-i.e. Cherif Bassiouni-so as to indicate a degree of self-reflection and self-criticism in the hope that the world community would absolve him and his regime of any responsibility for maintaining an autocratic 229-year-old hereditary monarchy and allow the kingdom to return to business as usual.<\/p>\n

And why did the US government pressure King Hamad to establish this commission and to issue this report? Because the US Navy\u2019s Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, and the US wants to maintain its basing rights on the island kingdom in order to protect its hegemonic position to assert its dominance and control over the Middle Eastern Arab regimes. The commission and the report would demonstrate, it was argued, the maturity of the Al-Khalifa regime and its ability to learn from its mistakes and reform its government.<\/p>\n

When did Bassiouni issue this report? The date of the issuance of this infamous 500-page Bassiouni Report was Wednesday, November 23, 2011 when senior members of the Al-Khalifa family gathered in one of the King\u2019s palaces, along with numerous reporters, to hear Bassiouni present a 45-minute verbal summary of his findings. Allegedly, the Report \u201ctook 9,000 testimonies, offered an extensive chronology of events, documented 46 deaths, 559 allegations of torture, and more than 4,000 cases of employees dismissed for participating in protests.\u201d To his credit, Bassiouni rejected the regime\u2019s completely unfounded claims that the pro-democracy protests were externally initiated by the country of Iran, and he also recommended a series of reforms designed to prevent human rights abuses from re-occurring. The Report, however, failed to place any blame on the leaders of the Al-Khalifa regime, assigning responsibility for instances of torture, excessive use of violence, and other human rights abuses to low-level functionaries.
\n
\nAnd how did the king react to the Report? King Hamad expressed deep appreciation for Cherif Bassiouni\u2019s efforts and vowed \u201cto learn\u201d from the \u201cpainful events\u201d. The king stated that laws would be reformed to \u201cgive greater protection to the valuable right of free speech\u201d and, bizarrely, \u201cto expand the definition of \u2018torture\u2019 to ensure that all forms of ill treatment are sanctioned by our criminal laws.\u201d Hamad promised to hold officials accountable and to dismiss those who were not up to their tasks. Then, the king thanked the regime\u2019s military and the PGCC Peninsula Shield Force for restoring order.<\/p>\n

After all of this pageantry of fine talk was uttered with the hope of great expectations, the king then finished with a tirade against the Islamic Republic of Iran for \u201cinciting our population to engage in acts of violence, sabotage, and insurrection\u201d with \u201cpropaganda [that] fuelled the flames of sectarian strife.\u201d And though he acknowledged that Commission Chair Bassiouni had found no evidence of such external subversion of Bahrain\u2019s internal affairs, the king nevertheless assured everyone that the charge was indeed true and was self-evident to \u201call who have eyes and ears and comprehend Arabic.\u201d<\/p>\n

This last rant by King Hamad thus illuminated to all endowed with reason and a scintilla of fair play that none of the BICI reforms would be implemented as intended and that the regime could now go and congratulate itself once again on pulling off an international public relations coup that would effectively exonerate the regime of any responsibility for its crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

In his expert testimony before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, the Honorable Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, reiterated the usual clich\u00e9s expected of a US government bureaucrat when he stated that:
\n\u201cFor more than 60 years, the United States military has worked closely with its Bahraini counterparts. The Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, and the country serves as a pillar of our regional security strategy in the [Persian] Gulf region. The U.S. – Bahrain relationship is particularly important in the face of rising threats from Iran.\u201d
\nPosner then went on to congratulate the Bahraini king. He stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BICI process was unprecedented both in its scope and the unfettered access the BICI team were granted. King Hamad deserves great credit for initiating this commission and for allowing an independent body to take a critical look at Bahrain\u2019s human rights record and to report so extensively on its findings. We also commend the King for accepting and committing to implement the recommendations of the BICI report.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posner then testified that though Bahrain is a strategic partner of the United States, it is nonetheless at a \u201ccrossroads\u201d. For example, he noted, there are \u201cdeep divisions within Bahraini society\u201d with \u201c[a]lmost nightly confrontations\u201d between the protesters and the police. Posner stated that there are \u201creports of continuing reprisals against Bahraini citizens who attempt to exercise their universal rights to free expression and assembly.\u201d Also, he testified, that permits for demonstrations are \u201coften denied.\u201d Moreover, he pointed out, the regime \u201chas stopped granting permits for organized demonstrations in central Manama.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that the much ballyhooed \u201cdialogue\u201d has \u201cbroken down,\u201d Posner remarked that \u201c[t]here is little evidence that Bahrain is moving toward a negotiated political agreement on issues such as the powers of parliament and electoral districting.\u201d<\/p>\n

For its part, Posner said that the US is pursuing a two-track strategy to promote \u201cmeaningful dialogue and negotiation\u201d with the first track focused on encouraging all actors in Bahrain to engage in dialogue while the second track encourages the government to sit down with the civil society organizations \u201cto make progress\u201d on issues \u201csuch as safety, health, education, labor, and policing.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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US backs dictatorial regime in Bahrain to retain hegemony 2 August, 2012 – By Colin S. Cavell- PressTV And why did the US government pressure King Hamad to establish this commission and to issue this report? Because the US Navy\u2019s Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, and the US wants to maintain its basing rights more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1959],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11398"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11398"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11423,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11398\/revisions\/11423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}