{"id":4794,"date":"2012-01-07T19:52:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T02:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=4794"},"modified":"2012-01-07T19:52:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T02:52:00","slug":"obamas-state-department-panders-to-human-rights-commuity-notices-high-profile-victim-of-al-khalifa-brutality-ignores-those-victimized-every-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=4794","title":{"rendered":"Obama&#8217;s State Department Panders to Human Rights Commuity, notices High Profile victim of al Khalifa brutality, ignores those victimized every hour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>U.S. concerned about Bahrain activist, urges probe<\/strong><br \/>\n7 January, 2012 &#8211; Reuters<\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; The United States called on its ally Bahrain on Saturday to investigate the case of a prominent Bahraini human rights activist who the opposition says was beaten by security forces.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition activists said several security officers threw Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, to the ground and beat him on the head, neck and back after a protest march on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain&#8217;s Interior Ministry has denied those accounts, saying on its Twitter feed that police found Rajab &#8220;lying on the ground&#8221; and took him to the hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n<p>The Sunni-led island kingdom, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, last year sought to crush anti-government demonstrations mounted by the country&#8217;s Shi&#8217;ite Muslim majority. Protest marches have continued in recent months, sometimes turning violent.<\/p>\n<p>Officials from the U.S. embassy in Manama met for about an hour on Saturday with Rajab, who had a cut beneath one eye and bruising on his face, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The United States is deeply concerned by continuing incidents of violence in Bahrain between police and demonstrators,&#8221; State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a written statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While the facts surrounding the violence that transpired remain in dispute, we strongly urge the Government of Bahrain to undertake a full investigation (of Rajab&#8217;s case) to determine if excessive force was employed by police,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>Nuland said embassy officials had raise Rajab&#8217;s case with senior Bahraini officials and urged the government to carry out recommendations made by an independent commission that found Bahrain used excessive force in last year&#8217;s crackdown.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/01\/08\/us-bahrain-usa-idUSTRE8060ER20120108?\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;more<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D4794&amp;text=Obama%27s+State+Department+Panders+to+Human+Rights+Commuity%2C+notices+High+Profile+victim+of+al+Khalifa+brutality%2C+ignores+those+victimized+every+hour&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. concerned about Bahrain activist, urges probe 7 January, 2012 &#8211; Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; The United States called on its ally Bahrain on Saturday to investigate the case of a prominent Bahraini human rights activist who the opposition says was beaten by security forces. Opposition activists said several security officers threw Nabeel Rajab, head <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=4794#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">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":[582,2095],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4794"}],"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=4794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4795,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4794\/revisions\/4795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}