{"id":3508,"date":"2011-10-12T17:25:19","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T00:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3508"},"modified":"2011-10-12T17:25:19","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T00:25:19","slug":"senator-wyden-congressman-mcgovern-step-forward-as-voices-for-reason-in-us-policies-toward-bahrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=3508","title":{"rendered":"Senator Wyden, Congressman McGovern step forward as voices for reason in US policies toward Bahrain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Wyden, Rep. McGovern Praised for Action to Halt Bahrain Arms Sale<\/strong>
\nFor Immediate Release: October 7, 2011 – Human Rights First<\/p>\n

Washington, DC \u2013 Human Rights First commends the leadership shown by Representative Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) as they fight to halt the proposed arms sale to Bahrain. McGovern and Wyden have introduced resolutions disapproving of a Department of Defense proposal to sell $53 million worth of weapons to Bahrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen so many U.S. political figures have failed to respond to the calls for democracy in Bahrain, Senator Wyden and Congressman McGovern have taken a stand against the Bahraini dictatorship\u2019s brutal crackdown against peaceful protestors,\u201d said Human Rights First\u2019s Brian Dooley. \u201cWhen democracy activists across the Middle East look to the U.S. for support, they are often disappointed that the Obama Administration\u2019s actions do not match its rhetoric. Senator Wyden and Congressman McGovern are challenging the United States to remain true to values of democracy and human rights.\u201d
\n
\nBahrain is ruled by a monarchy in which the king\u2019s uncle has been the unelected prime minister for the last 40 years. Since peaceful pro-democracy protests began in Bahrain in February, the Bahrain government has cracked down violently on those supporting political freedom, arresting over 1,500 people. There are widespread, credible reports of torture and former detainees have told Human Rights First that during their custody they were tortured by the Bahraini military. Military courts have also convicted civilians and sentenced them to long prison terms. The Bahraini Government\u2019s violent attacks on peaceful protests continue almost daily.<\/p>\n

Senator Wyden\u2019s resolution notes that the proposed arms sale to Bahrain is \u201cat odds with United States foreign policy goals of promoting democracy ,human rights, accountability, and stability.\u201d The move echoes steps taken by several European countries \u2013 including Belgium, France, Spain and the United Kingdom. Those nations have suspended arms sales to Bahrain since the crackdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupplying weapons to Bahrain would be a very dangerous signal that United States views the current situation in Bahrain as back to business as usual,\u201d said Dooley.\u201d Instead of promoting reform, this sale will only strengthen the Bahraini government\u2019s hardliners, who will see no reason to let up their violent response to the protests.\u201d …source<\/a><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Wyden, Rep. McGovern Praised for Action to Halt Bahrain Arms Sale For Immediate Release: October 7, 2011 – Human Rights First Washington, DC \u2013 Human Rights First commends the leadership shown by Representative Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) as they fight to halt the proposed arms sale to Bahrain. McGovern and more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1539],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3508"}],"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=3508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}