{"id":12323,"date":"2012-09-06T07:21:10","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T14:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=12323"},"modified":"2012-09-06T07:21:10","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T14:21:10","slug":"obama-clinton-shameful-policy-in-bahrain-brings-out-us-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=12323","title":{"rendered":"Obama-Clinton shameful policy in Bahrain brings out US Activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S.: Rights Activists Call on U.S. to Revise Bahrain Policy<\/strong>
\nBy Jim Lobe – IPS<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, Sep 6 2012 (IPS) – Human rights activists are calling on the administration of President Barack Obama to radically revise its policy toward Bahrain in light of the decision by an appeals court in the kingdom this week to confirm harsh prison sentences against 13 opposition activists.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s decision, which also confirmed the conviction of the 13 men by military courts in the aftermath of mainly peaceful anti-government protests during the so-called \u201cArab Spring\u201d last year, followed the sentencing three weeks ago by yet another court of Nabeel Rajab, the director Bahrain\u2019s most important human rights watchdog, to a three-year prison term for helping organise opposition rallies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping the administration is doing a radical rethink of its policy on Bahrain,\u201d said Brian Dooley, a Gulf specialist at Human Rights First. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear that its original plan \u2013 to support the so-called reformers in the government \u2013 just hasn\u2019t worked. The behind-closed-doors, softly-softly approach clearly hasn\u2019t delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appeals court decision was roundly denounced by international human rights groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s court decision is yet another blow to justice and shows once more that the Bahraini authorities are not on the path of reform but seem rather driven by vindictiveness,\u201d said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty International\u2019s Middle East and North Africa Programme, who also noted that many of the defendants have testified that they were tortured during their initial detentions.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of upholding the sentences, \u2026the Bahraini authorities must quash the convictions for the 13 men who are imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their human rights and release them immediately and unconditionally,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The ongoing repression in Bahrain \u2013 of which the appeals court decision and Rajab\u2019s sentencing are only the latest examples \u2013 has posed a major challenge to the credibility of the Obama administration\u2019s claims to support human rights and democratic reform throughout the Arab world.<\/p>\n

While it has continuously urged dialogue between the government, which is dominated by the long-ruling Al-Khalifa family, who are Sunni Muslims, and representatives of the Shi\u2019a community, which makes up between 60 and 70 percent of the kingdom\u2019s population, since anti-regime protests broke out in early 2011, it has been reluctant to exert serious pressure to achieve that end.<\/p>\n

Its reluctance is explained both by the fact that the U.S. Navy\u2019s Fifth Fleet, whose assets have been significantly boosted as tensions with Iran have increased over the past 18 months, is based in Bahrain and by the strong backing \u2013 even encouragement \u2014 Saudi Arabia, the world\u2019s largest oil exporter and Washington\u2019s most important U.S. ally and arms-purchaser in the Gulf, has provided the Al-Khalifa family.<\/p>\n

Concerned that Manama might have been tempted to compromise with the demands of the opposition, which initially included prominent Sunnis as well, for democratic reform, Riyadh, along with its neighbour, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), sent some 1,500 troops and police across its causeway to Bahrain in support of the government\u2019s crackdown in mid-March 2011. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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U.S.: Rights Activists Call on U.S. to Revise Bahrain Policy By Jim Lobe – IPS WASHINGTON, Sep 6 2012 (IPS) – Human rights activists are calling on the administration of President Barack Obama to radically revise its policy toward Bahrain in light of the decision by an appeals court in the kingdom this week to 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":[3458],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323"}],"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=12323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12324,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323\/revisions\/12324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}