May 12, 2011, 6:03 pm
\nBahrain\u2019s Protesters Were Drugged, Official Claims
\nBy ROBERT MACKEY<\/p>\n
Adopting what might be called the Qaddafi defense, the head of Bahrain\u2019s military claimed that the country\u2019s brutal crackdown on dissent was entirely justified because the kingdom\u2019s security forces had been confronted by young protesters under the influence of mind-altering drugs.<\/p>\n
According to Bahrain\u2019s state news agency, Sheik Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said on Wednesday that \u201cyoung people were given pills which affected their minds and made them do unusual things.\u201d He also claimed \u201cthat Bahrain had been the victim [of] a conspiracy involving foreign agents and financing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bahrain\u2019s Sunni Muslim royal family has claimed that protesters from the kingdom\u2019s Shiite majority were terrorists sponsored by their coreligionists in Iran.<\/p>\n
The commander of the Bahrain Defence Force said that the young people had been drugged at the Pearl Roundabout, a traffic circle in Manama, Bahrain\u2019s capital, that was occupied by protesters until it was cleared by the security forces in a deadly raid. The area was later renamed the Gulf Cooperation Council Roundabout and given \u201ca facelift,\u201d which included the destruction of a monument on the site that had become an icon of the protest movement.<\/p>\n
The Bahrain News Agency \u2013 which has a banner across the top of its Web site with a photograph of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and the text \u201cWe Are All Hamad\u201d \u2013 also reported that Mr. Khalifa said that the Saudi-led force sent to Bahrain to help suppress the demonstrations will remain in Bahrain after the current state of emergency is lifted, \u201cin anticipation of any foreign threat.\u201d …source<\/a><\/p>\n