THE ROVING EYE
What Obama could not possibly say
By Pepe Escobar

Facts on the ground will decide whether the United States really “values the dignity of the street vendor in Tunisia more than the raw power of the dictator”.

So let’s start with a fact. For US President Barack Obama, Saudi Arabia is not in the Middle East. Maybe the House of Saud has relocated the deserts and the oil to Oceania without telling anyone. In his major speech on Thursday from where the opening quote comes, and where, according to the Reuters gospel, he would “lay out a new US strategy toward a skeptical Arab world”, the skeptical Arabs, and the whole world for that matter, never heard these fateful two words, “Saudi” and “Arabia”. Even India, Indonesia and Brazil were mentioned.

That goes a long way to explain how the US, once again according to the Reuters gospel, plans to “shape the outcome of popular uprisings”; by not even naming the Middle Eastern power behind the ongoing counter-revolution against the great 2011 Arab revolt.

Obama tried to shape what Clintonites define as “ambitious realism”. It was more like ambitious fiction. By insisting on America’s set of “principles” and not so subtly trying once again to monopolize the moral high ground – issuing dispensations on regime change from Muammar Gaddafi (already gone) to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad (reform or go), Obama tried to rewrite history by inscribing Washington at the heart of the Arab-wide push for democracy. It may fool Americans. It didn’t fool the Arab street.

It took three long months for Obama to finally deal with the al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain – without ever mentioning their masters Saudi Arabia. He let the Bahraini rulers off the hook with a State Department-issued velvet glove, at the same time deviating into a Riyadh/Tel Aviv-approved script blaming the evil of all evils Iran; “We recognize that Iran has tried to take advantage of the turmoil there, and that the Bahraini government has a legitimate interest in the rule of law. Nevertheless, we have insisted publicly and privately that mass arrests and brute force are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s citizens, and will not make legitimate calls for reform go away.”

It’s much more Orwellian than mere “brute force”; it’s the University of Bahrain, for instance, forcing students to sign a pledge of allegiance to the government, promising not to defy the monarchy; otherwise they’ll be expelled. …more

President of Bahrain’s Center for Human Rights Nabeel Rajab says the Bahraini regime dismiss people from their jobs for sending information of the government’s harsh crackdown on protesters via social networks.

Bahrain Insists It is Open to Dialogue with Opposition

VOA News May 20, 2011
Residents of the Shiite Muslim village of Malkiya, Bahrain, southwest of Manama, watch, some with stones in hand and others photographing riot police and tanks moving in, Sunday, March 20, 2011

Bahrain’s government is insisting it is open to dialogue with the opposition, following criticism from U.S. President Barack Obama for its deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters.

In his address Thursday, Obama said the United States has made clear that “mass arrests and brute force” are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s citizens. He said the only way for Bahrain to move forward is through dialogue.

In a statement, the Bahraini government welcomed Obama’s comments and said his speech included “visions and principles” that match what it called its “democratic strategy.”

The government appeared to dismiss reports of human rights abuses on its part, saying it has responded to “false accusations.”

The Sunni-ruled Gulf nation has arrested hundreds of mostly Shi’ite protesters and put dozens on trial in special courts since protests were crushed in March. Bahraini officials have said 24 people died in the unrest. The state also imposed emergency law during the crackdown, which is due to be lifted on June 1.

British Prime Minister David Cameron raised his own concerns about the situation in Bahrain Thursday in talks with the Gulf kingdom’s crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, in London. Cameron’s office said he stressed the importance of the Bahraini government moving to a policy of reform rather than repression.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP. …source

Bahrain: Sentencing on 8 protesters and prominent cleric “20 years imprisonment”
May 19th, 2011

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) is deeply concerned about sentencing on 9 demonstrators today in National Safety court ( Emergency court) .

On 19 May , 2011 :

1-Hamid Ibrahim Al-Madhoun
2-Khalil Ibrahim Al-Madhoun
3-Jassim Ali Yahya
4-Bassam Jalil Saeed
5-Jalal Saeed Mohammed
6- Fouad Ali Fadel
7- Falah Ali Fadel
8- Mohamed Ali Mirza
9-Mohammed Habib Al Safaf. ( Mohammed Habib Miqdad)

All of them sentenced: 20 years imprisonment

Charge: Kidnapping of a policeman
…source

British firm offered spy software to Egypt
Activists say they were the targets
By Eli Lake
The Washington Times
8:35 p.m., Monday, April 25, 2011

Egyptian anti-regime activists found a startling document last month during a raid inside the headquarters of the country’s state security service: A British company offered to sell a program that security experts say could infect dissidents’ computers and gain access to their email and other communications.

The discovery highlights the emerging market of Western companies that sell software to security services from the Middle East to China to spy on the kinds of social media activists who recently toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.

Amid the scattered papers, interrogation devices and random furniture found during the raid, the activists uncovered a proposed contract dated June 29 from the British company Gamma International that promised to provide access to Gmail, Skype, Hotmail and Yahoo conversations and exchanges on computers targeted by the Interior Ministry of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

The proposal from Gamma International was posted online by Cairo physician Mostafa Hussein, a blogger who was among the activists who seized the ministry’s documents.

“It is important evidence of the intent of the state security and investigation division not to respect our privacy,” Mr. Hussein said. …more

Bahrain Excerpt, US President Obama – Arab Uprising Speech – May 19, 2011.

Our opposition to Iran’s intolerance — as well as its illicit nuclear program, and its sponsorship of terror — is well known. But if America is to be credible, we must acknowledge that our friends in the region have not all reacted to the demands for change consistent with the principles that I have outlined today. That is true in Yemen, where President Saleh needs to follow through on his commitment to transfer power. And that is true, today, in Bahrain.

Bahrain is a long-standing partner, and we are committed to its security. We recognize that Iran has tried to take advantage of the turmoil there, and that the Bahraini government has a legitimate interest in the rule of law. Nevertheless, we have insisted publically and privately that mass arrests and brute force are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s citizens, and will not make legitimate calls for reform go away. The only way forward is for the government and opposition to engage in a dialogue, and you can’t have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail. The government must create the conditions for dialogue, and the opposition must participate to forge a just future for all Bahrainis.

Video – al Khalifa Representitvies seeking dialogue with Bahraini Protesters – March 16, 2011

Obama Speech on Middle East Transcript, May 19, 2011
Posted by Aurelius at 1:22 PM

In case you missed the speech and really want to read a few thousand words, here’s the transcript:

I want to thank Hillary Clinton, who has traveled so much these last six months that she is approaching a new landmark — one million frequent flyer miles. I count on Hillary every day, and I believe that she will go down as of the finest Secretaries of State in our nation’s history.

The State Department is a fitting venue to mark a new chapter in American diplomacy. For six months, we have witnessed an extraordinary change take place in the Middle East and North Africa. Square by square; town by town; country by country; the people have risen up to demand their basic human rights. Two leaders have stepped aside. More may follow. And though these countries may be a great distance from our shores, we know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security; history and faith.

Today, I would like to talk about this change — the forces that are driving it, and how we can respond in a way that advances our values and strengthens our security. Already, we have done much to shift our foreign policy following a decade defined by two costly conflicts. After years of war in Iraq, we have removed 100,000 American troops and ended our combat mission there. In Afghanistan, we have broken the Taliban’s momentum, and this July we will begin to bring our troops home and continue transition to Afghan lead. And after years of war against al Qaeda and its affiliates, we have dealt al Qaeda a huge blow by killing its leader — Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden was no martyr. He was a mass murderer who offered a message of hate — an insistence that Muslims had to take up arms against the West, and that violence against men, women and children was the only path to change. He rejected democracy and individual rights for Muslims in favor of violent extremism; his agenda focused on what he could destroy — not what he could build.

Bin Laden and his murderous vision won some adherents. But even before his death, al Qaeda was losing its struggle for relevance, as the overwhelming majority of people saw that the slaughter of innocents did not answer their cries for a better life. By the time we found bin Laden, al Qaeda’s agenda had come to be seen by the vast majority of the region as a dead end, and the people of the Middle East and North Africa had taken their future into their own hands.

That story of self-determination began six months ago in Tunisia. On December 17, a young vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi was devastated when a police officer confiscated his cart. This was not unique. It is the same kind of humiliation that takes place every day in many parts of the world — the relentless tyranny of governments that deny their citizens dignity. Only this time, something different happened. After local officials refused to hear his complaint, this young man who had never been particularly active in politics went to the headquarters of the provincial government, doused himself in fuel, and lit himself on fire. …more

Bahrain wants to expand military bases
By Erika Solomon

DUBAI | Thu May 19, 2011 3:25pm EDT

DUBAI (Reuters) – Bahrain floated the idea of expanding military bases within a bloc of Sunni-led Gulf Arab allies that helped it quash Shi’ite protests in March, while U.S. President Barack Obama criticized Manama over its crackdown.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid al-Khalifa said fear of Shi’ite Iran interfering in Bahrain may push the Gulf Cooperation Council to revise its military presence in Bahrain instead of pulling out when emergency law, imposed in March, ends on June 1.

“Any threat that any country would face would definitely, no doubt, affect its neighbors. Saudi Arabia is only 28 kilometers (17 miles) away from here. We are looking at the GCC force to be expanded, to have multi-bases everywhere in the GCC,” he said in an interview with PBS Newshour.

“So whether they leave or stay or be restructured, that’s what is to be discussed in the future,” he said.

Bahrain’s Sunni rulers imposed emergency law and called in troops from neighboring Gulf countries in March to quash protests led mostly by its Shi’ite majority, who are demanding democratic reforms. Some hardliners had called for a republic.

Obama on Thursday criticized the crackdown, saying that “mass arrests and brute force” were at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s citizens, and would not make legitimate calls for reform disappear.

“The only way forward is for the government and opposition to engage in a dialogue, and you can’t have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail,” Obama said in a Middle East speech. …more

Why Bahrain Should to Be Front And Center in Obama’s Middle East Speech
Mark Leon Goldberg
May 19, 2011

Nowhere in the Arab world today does the Obama administration face a policy dilemma more vexing as it does toward Bahrain.

Bahrain is important to American geopolitical interests in the region. It is the host of America’s largest naval base in the Persian Gulf and it is also considered a bulwark against Iranian influence in the region. For that latter reason it is also a staunch ally (some would say client) of its neighbor, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, of course, is also a long time American ally and major oil supplier.

So, on one side of the ledger for American policy on Bahrain you have: 1) oil interests 2) a huge military base 3) a geopolitical ally to help contain Iran. On the other side, you have American commitment to human rights and democracy. Amidst a particularly brutal crackdown against activists since February, it would not be a stretch to believe that hard security interests have, so far, outweighed human rights in developing American policy on Bahrain.

Several dozen people have been killed; several hundred brutalized; and the opposition has been completely decimated. (The top UN Human Rights Official says 1,000 people have been imprisoned, which is a massive figure considering the entire population of Bahrain is only about 500,000). Yet, so far, the Obama administration has only issued some mild rebuke. It has not implemented any punitive measures against the Bahraini regime to demonstrate that it is truly supportive of the legitimate aspirations of the protest movement.

This shows which side the Obama administration is on–and, unfortunately, it is not the side of history. With the speech today, Obama has the opportunity to chart a new course.

Bahrain is the perfect proving ground to see whether or not this speech offers a meaningful re-balance of American policy in the region toward human rights and democracy. …source

May 18, 2011 at 3:00 PM EDT
Doctors Detained in Bahrain Face Accusations of Medical Abuses
By: Talea Miller

More than 100 medical workers have been targeted and detained by Bahrain’s government in recent months for their role in aiding protestors, say human rights groups, and many are still locked up facing military trials. But the government says some health workers engaged in gross medical abuses, including refusing care based on sect and exaggerating injuries to the media.

“If you are a health professional and wear a lab coat you are suspected of being subversive. You are interrogated, videotaped and compelled to offer false confessions of wrong doing,” said Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, who was in Bahrain in April and authored an investigative report on the detention of medical workers.

“They are being abducted in the middle of the night sometimes from their homes in front of their children, blindfolded,” he said. Human Rights Watch has also received credible reports of torture and mistreatment from detainees who have been released. A doctor the NewsHour team spoke with in Bahrain — and agreed not to identify for safety reasons — said she treated protestors during her off hours and was detained for weeks as a result.

“During the interrogation, whenever I said something which they don’t like it, they will slap me again. And I was beaten also by a hose on my hands and my thighs,” she said. “In the dark…they gave me the paper of confession to sign it and thumb — thumbprint without knowing what is there in that paper.”

Bahrain’s Minister of Justice Sheikh Khalid bin Ali bin Abdulla al Khalifa denied any form of maltreatment for detainees in an interview with senior correspondent Margaret Warner. …more

19 May 2011 AFP

British PM and Bahrain crown prince hold talks
LONDON, May 19, 2011 (AFP) – British Prime Minister David Cameron was expected to discuss the crackdown on anti-regime protesters in Bahrain during talks with the Gulf state’s crown prince on Thursday.

Bahrain has been strongly criticised by international human rights groups for its crackdown, which has included requesting troops from neighbouring Saudi Arabia to help put down protests against the ruling family.

Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa’s visit to London comes after he declined an invitation to the wedding of Prince William and Princess Catherine last month amid fears that his presence might act as a distraction.

Cameron’s spokesman said the talks were expected to focus on the anti-regime uprisings in the Middle East and north Africa and the Middle East peace process.

“Bahrain has been seeking to reform their political system in a number of ways, and that is something we welcome.”

Asked why Britain was welcoming the Crown Prince, when British forces were involved in military action to prevent the repression of protesters in Libya, the spokesman said: “We said all along that the situation in different countries is different.

“There are different circumstances and we need to reflect that. Clearly, in all cases we would support reform and dialogue.”

Denis MacShane, a former junior foreign minister from the opposition Labour party, said Cameron should not be “rolling out the red carpet for Bahrain’s torturer-in-chief”.

“We have well-documented reports of torture, including the torture of women doctors, killings, and even the Saudis sending tanks across to Bahrain to crush the protests in the time-honoured fashion of the Soviets in Prague or Budapest,” said MacShane.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen called for Cameron to use the meeting “to make it absolutely clear that the Bahraini government must end its relentless crackdown on human rights.”

Britain has close trade links to Bahrain, but as protests began sweeping the Gulf this year, London revoked licences for the export of some security equipment to the country fearing it might be used to suppress protests.

Obama to deliver a speech on ‘Arab Spring’
The address aims at spelling out US policy toward waves of political changes sweeping North Africa and the Middle East.
Gregg Carlstrom Last Modified: 19 May 2011 01:02

US president Barack Obama will announce economic aid for Egypt and Tunisia during a speech on the Middle East on Thursday, but White House officials are saying little about how he will address key policy issues after months of revolution and unrest in the region. Obama will announce a plan to cancel roughly $1 billion of Egypt’s debt to the United States, a senior administration official said during a conference call on Wednesday. The US will work with the Egyptian government to funnel that money into job creation. Washington will also offer Egypt another $1 billion in new loan guarantees to support infrastructure development. Other international institutions, like the IMF and the World Bank, are expected to offer several billion dollars in additional financing.

“We think it’s important to note that some of the protests in the region are deeply rooted in a lack of individual opportunity and economic growth, as well as a suppression of political rights,” the administration official told reporters.

Modest debt relief

White House officials have billed Thursday’s speech at the US state department as a “major address.” They have avoided discussion of difficult issues in advance of the speech; Wednesday’s conference call dealt exclusively with Egypt and Tunisia, the first two countries to revolt against their autocratic leaders, which the White House dubbed “beacons for this region.”

Officials focused on trade and economic proposals for the two countries, bound to be the least controversial parts of Obama’s speech. Asked about US policy towards Syria, though, an administration official flatly refused to discuss the subject. “We’re going to put that in the category of things you’re going to have to wait for the speech tomorrow to get more clarity on,” the official said. …more

Left-wing web sites attacked
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
ISTANBUL – Daily News with wires

A number of left-wing Internet news portals, including Birgün, Bianet and Sendika.org, were attacked Tuesday by unknown hackers, and some sites are reportedly still facing technical problems.

The publication of Bianet.org was interrupted Tuesday between 3:30 p.m. and 11.30 p.m. as a result of a cyber attack. On their website, Bianet.org said they believed this was an organized attack and tens of thousands of computers were controlled for the attack via Trojan viruses. “The attack is currently still going on, but the publication is continuing,” the website said.

The website of left-wing Birgün newspaper, birgun.net, was another target attacked Tuesday. In a statement, site administrators said access to the daily’s website had been made almost impossible. Another leftist website sendika.org was attacked Tuesday evening, CNNTürk reported Wednesday. The Independent Communication Network, or BİA, said they would file a complaint regarding the attack.

Sezgin Tanrıkulu, deputy chairman of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, said instead of filtering the Internet, the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, should prevent virtual attacks on libertarian, democratic and leftist websites. In a written statement, Tanrıkulu said these attacks cannot stop web-based media.

According to him, the ruling party is responsible for solving the problem. “The AKP, through bringing a password system for accessing the Internet, wants to dominate the people with its own mentality,” said Tanrıkulu, adding that the party seems to have taken the side of the attackers as it tries to pressure oppositional voices. ..source

Obama’s Reset: Arab Spring or Same Old Thing?
How the President and the Pentagon Prop Up Both Middle Eastern Despots and American Arms Dealers
by Nick Turse

If you follow the words, one Middle East comes into view; if you follow the weapons, quite another.

This week, the words will take center stage. On Thursday, according to administration officials, President Obama will “reset” American policy in the Middle East with a major address offering a comprehensive look at the Arab Spring, “a unified theory about the popular uprisings from Tunisia to Bahrain,” and possibly a new administration approach to the region.

In the meantime, all signs indicate that the Pentagon will quietly maintain antithetical policies, just as it has throughout the Obama years. Barring an unprecedented and almost inconceivable policy shift, it will continue to broker lucrative deals to send weapons systems and military equipment to Arab despots. Nothing indicates that it will be deterred from its course, whatever the president says, which means that Barack Obama’s reset rhetoric is unlikely to translate into meaningful policy change in the region.

For months now, the world has watched as protesters have taken to the streets across the Middle East to demand a greater say in their lives. In Tunisia and Egypt, they toppled decades-old dictatorships. In Bahrain and Yemen, they were shot down in the streets as they demanded democracy. In the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, they called for reforms, free speech, and basic rights, and ended up bloodied and often in jail cells. In Iraq, they protested a lack of food and jobs, and in response got bullets and beatings.

As the world watched, trained eyes couldn’t help noticing something startling about the tools of repression in those countries. The armored personnel carriers, tanks, and helicopters used to intimidate or even kill peaceful protesters were often American models.

For decades, the U.S. has provided military aid, facilitated the sale of weaponry, and transferred vast quantities of arms to a host of Middle Eastern despots. Arming Arab autocrats, however, isn’t only the work of presidents past. A TomDispatch analysis of Pentagon documents finds that the Obama administration has sought to send billions of dollars in weapons systems — from advanced helicopters to fighter jets — to the very regimes that have beaten, jailed, and killed pro-democracy demonstrators, journalists, and reform activists throughout the Arab Spring. …more

REPORT AIR DATE: May 17, 2011
Uncertainty Reigns in Bahrain Amid Mix of Normalcy, State of Siege

Transcript

GWEN IFILL: Next tonight, the crushing of the Arab spring in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain.

Margaret Warner reports on how events there have widened the divide between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

MARGARET WARNER: Approaching downtown Manama, Bahrain doesn’t feel like a country in turmoil. Skyscrapers gleam in the sun of this tiny Persian Gulf financial hub ruled by a 200-year-old Sunni monarchy.

The stock market, though foreign investment has stalled, appears to be humming along. But all is not as it seems. Some shoppers have returned to the malls, but hotels and restaurants are hurting. Tourists are still staying away, a blow to the economy of this island kingdom. It touts itself as a tolerant playground for visitors from socially conservative Gulf neighbors and beyond.

That’s a hard sell with armed troops and riot police vehicles on the streets, enforcing a state of emergency in effect since March 15. Checkpoints dot the roadways between the capital and suburban villages, where many of the country’s Shia majority live.

LT. TAHER AL ALAWI, Bahrain federal police: We stop them and we check for their identification and ask of their purpose of coming into this village.
In Bahrain, a Mix of Normalcy and a State of Siege
In Bahrain, a Mix of Normalcy and a State of Siege

MARGARET WARNER: Lt. Taher Alawi says the checkpoints have made the villages safer. But residents say it feels like a state of siege.

WOMAN: When we tried to leave our village, they said, “No, you cannot leave it. You have to go back. We don’t care. Whatever reason you have for leaving, you will go back.”
[Read more →]

Wednesday, 18 May 2011 12:53
UN chief warns Bahraini regime against brutality toward protesters

The UN Chief, Ban Ki-Moon, has warned the Bahraini regime against resorting to violence toward the Bahraini demonstrators.

According to IRNA from New York on Wednesday, in an address to reporters, the UN Secretary General’s Spokesperson, Martin Nesirky, has emphasized that the UN chief and the high commissioner on human rights have spoken against violent suppression of peaceful demonstrators in Bahrain, while also urging the immediate release of those, who have been incarcerated in the wake of these protests.

Meanwhile, the Bahraini prosecutor general has announced that if the protests continue, all the protesters will be killed.

Moreover, the Chairman of Bahraini Center for Human Rights, Nabil Rajab, has lambasted West’s muted reaction toward the incidents in this country, while warning against the emergence of highly catastrophic conditions in this country.

In an interview with Al-Alam Network, this activist pointed out that the security and military forces have raided Bahrain’s regions, villages, and cities, killing and/or detaining Bahraini nationals.

He also noted that Bahraini people, from all walks of life, including Shiites and Sunnis, strongly denounce the atrocious attacks of Saudi-backed Bahraini forces on innocent and defenseless Bahraini people. …source

Bahrain activists jailed following ‘politically motivated’ trials
The activists were convicted for their involvement in pro-reform protests

The activists were convicted for their involvement in pro-reform protests
Gregg Carlstrom/Al Jazeera
18 May 2011

The trials of eight activists convicted over their involvement in pro-reform protests in Bahrain that began in February, were politically motivated and unfair, Amnesty International said today.

A military court in Bahrain’s capital city Manama has sentenced the eight activists, in two separate cases, to between one and four years imprisonment for “participating in illegal demonstrations and inciting hatred against the regime” during popular protests in February and March.

One of the activists, Fadhila Mubarak Ahmad, is the first woman protester to be convicted as a result of the recent unrest in Bahrain. She was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.

“These trials and convictions represent yet further evidence of the extent to which the rights to freedom of speech and assembly are now being denied in Bahrain,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for Middle East and North Africa.

“These eight activists appear to have been sentenced to jail terms for doing no more than exercising their legitimate right to demonstrate against the government. If this is correct and they have been convicted solely because of their peaceful anti-government activities, they are prisoners of conscience who should be released immediately and unconditionally,” he added.

Ja’far Mohammad Ibrahim and Hussain ‘Ali Ahmad were sentenced to three years in prison. Mohammed Mulla Ahmad, Hassan Mansour Hussain and Haitham Shobar Sharaf were given two years, while Majad ‘Ali Mohammad and Ibrahim Salman ‘Abdullah each received a one-year prison sentence.

The eight people were detained without arrest warrants, were not allowed visits from their families while in detention and were permitted only very limited access to lawyers.

“The manner in which these trials were conducted – with civilian defendants brought before a secretive military court from which international observers have been barred – – is highly alarming. It is indicative of the diminishing space for human rights in Bahrain right now,” said Malcolm Smart. …more

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Date: 2011/5/8

Subject: Bahrain updates: May 2-8

To: "Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D." ccavell@gmail.com

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The past week has been a very long one. People assume every week that the government will be satisfied with the retribution acts and destructive behavior they’ve been carrying out for the past three months and for the past month and a half in particular, but the government just keeps on exceeding everybody’s expectations in their stubborn, indifferent approach, which can only express the extreme arrogance and narcissism of monarchs.

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Their “loyal” parrots are celebrating the death sentence rule, demanding more of it, and continuing their hate campaigns on the streets, at work places, and on the web. Many people are harmed at work or in their personal life because of pictures, videos, or mere allegations by “loyal citizens” online or in real life. It’s taking a toll and starting to be really dangerous.

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The degrading investigations at workplaces are still continuing. Staff are being interrogated, then punished by being fired or suspended, for “crimes” of participation at demonstrations, speaking to media channels, or merely setting foot on the roundabout.

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Several people have gone through these investigations; they are humiliating and outrageous to any free person on this world. Putting people on witch trials, telling them they are guilty of speaking an opinion or having a wish that did not sit right with the “wise leadership”.

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Believe me, you don’t appreciate freedom of speech, until you live in Bahrain these days. Many of the freedoms and basic given rights that are taken for granted all around the world every day are being horribly violated and infringed upon today in Bahrain.Â

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Today, opposition leaders went on trial in the morning. It's not over yet; they have another hearing on May 12. It's unclear, as usual, how things went inside the court. Later in the day, however, the king announces that the "State of National Safety" will be lifted on June 1, 2011, which came as a shock to pro-government crowds, especially after Parliament voted last week for the extension of the "state of national safety" for 3 more months. I guess now, both the opposition and the "loyalists", know how the parliament is structured in a manner which makes it purely a facade and not a real, effective, functional institution. The Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeted that elections will follow this. I have no idea how that will go.

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I don't believe the government is intending to implement any improvements to the situation or at all address the major issues that brought the uprising into being or the ones that caused the crackdown. I honestly think they are only announcing that they will lift the martial laws because it's hurting their pocket. We all know that the investment companies in Bahrain Financial Harbor and the twin towers in Manama have threatened to leave in June if martial laws are not lifted. Bahrain has already lost so many credits and points internationally. The Crown Prince's baby, the Formula 1, will only have a shot at taking place if the martial laws are lifted, as he was given an extension till 3 June, 2011 to confirm Bahrain's readiness to receive F1 this year in compensation of hosting the first stage as previously planned in March. The revenues and profits made in these and many other institutions/ projects/ functions all around Bahrain all go into the "good hands" of the royal family. I don't think justice will be served by June or afterwards if it were up to the royal family. Things will stay the same; only the surface will be changed, i.e. removing check points and military vehicles from the streets.

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I’m so sickened by the folly and evil surrounding me. Read my updates and you’ll get my sentiments:

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This week they include:

• ·        Bahraini Voices;
• ·        Media Reports;
• ·        Video Reports;
• ·        Picture Reports;
• ·        History of the Monarchy in Bahrain; and
• ·        Bahrain’s Uprising Archive.

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·        Bahraini voices:

o  Very important summary and inclusive analysis: Getting Facts Right: Who Refused Dialogue?: http://lazacode.com/net-citizen/getting-facts-right-who-refused-dialogue?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lazacode+%28lazacode.com%29&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner  The opposition did indeed refuse "unstructured dialogue", but it is the regime and the Gathering of National Unity who refused "structured dialogue".

o  Readings about the labor movement in Bahrain: http://chanad.posterous.com/

o  Several doctors were arrested last week; then, on Thursday, several female doctors were released. Many more still reside in the regime torture-full jails.

§ Physicians for Human Rights: Bahraini doctors webpage: http://bahrain.phrblog.org/

§ Missing doctors: http://bahrain.phrblog.org/the-missing/

§ Bahrain charges medics http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13267040

§ Medical Professionals Again Targeted with Arrest of President of Bahrain Medical Society and Charges Against 47 Others http://bit.ly/iW42AX

o  Amal Society (Islamic Action Society) targetted heavily by regime:

§ 2^nd May: Arrest of Khalil AlHalwachi, one of the few remaining members of Amal “Islamic Action Society” left outside prison. What Fatima AlHalwachi said about her father’a arrest http://on.fb.me/kFdPHR

§ The authorities have been on a witch hunt, arresting staff and members of Amal, until they arrested Secretary General of Amal: Sheikh Mohammed Ali AlMahfoodh early on the 2^nd of May as well.

·        Amal’s press release on the detention of their Secretary General and members of staff and board. http://www.amal-islami.net/index.php?plugin=news&act=news_read&id=3306Â

o  or https://www.facebook.com/notes/%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%84/arrest-of-sheikh-mohamed-ali-almahfoodh/219734108042248

o  and http://twitpic.com/4t9dpo

·        Hajar AlMahfoodh writes a letter to Obama http://www.pressenza.com/npermalink/letter-from-the-daughter-of-sheik-almahfoodh-to-obama

·        Crooked Bough:

o  Breaking news on arrest: http://www.crookedbough.com/?p=1176

o  Free Mahfoodh http://www.crookedbough.com/?p=1214

o  Arrest of Wefaq resigned Parliament Members: Mattar Ebrahim Mattar and Jawad Fairouz late night on Monday the 2^nd of May:

§ AlJazeera English: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201152205239385476.html

§ Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/node/98637

§ http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bahrain-arrests-two-former-shiite-mps-source

§ Bahrain: Detained opposition MP Mattar Mattar interview on BBC a few weeks ago. Watch: http://bit.ly/kGfkWM

§ Mattar on AlJazeera English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuggIgm1PfI&feature=youtu.be

§ [Arabic] BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/middleeast/2011/05/110502_bahrain_arrests.shtml

§ [Arabic] Reuters  http://ara.reuters.com/article/topNews/idARACAE7411GN20110502

o  May 3^rd: Press Freedom Day: this must be a very special year for press freedom in Bahrain. We have marked a year since the closure of the independent newspaper AlWaqt, and AlWasat (the only other remaining independent newspaper) had intended to close as well, after all the drama they’ve been through last month. Press laws and prohibitions currently are as ridiculous as the laws enforced in our streets and courts these days. A very interesting year for "press freedom" in Bahrain indeed.

§ Fate of Bahraini journalists today: http://bit.ly/k3WxK5

§ Reporters Without Borders: Bahrain king is press predator: Watchdog http://bit.ly/l4CaG4

§ 2 headlines on the same GDN front page: "Press Pillar of Democracy" http://bit.ly/kjnLpz and "Newspaper to close down" http://bit.ly/jxrSJZ

§ Alwasat announces backing off decision to close down: http://www.alwasatnews.com/3165/news/read/559843/1.html

§ the Irony of all ironies: King reassures that no one will be harmed for peaceful expression of their opinion through the media within the constitution and government laws! [Arabic] http://www.alwasatnews.com/3160/news/read/553992/1.html

§ BCHR: Bahraini journalists call for a helping hand and for the adoption of measures to insure their safety: http://goo.gl/j4Thk

o  Huge trend amongst young people these days in Bahrain is reading Orwell’s 1984. Many are reading it and quoting it on their social network web pages. Definitely a healthy phenomenon.

o  Sheikh Mohammed Habib AlMeqdad, who has been a prominent leader in the recent uprising in Bahrain, called his family from jail to bring him clothes. AlMeqdad had been in hiding, and no news were heard from him or of his arrest since the 16^th of March when he went into hiding. It was a great shock to many who still had faith in his safety.

o  Freedom House: Bahrain medical professionals unfairly charged: http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=581&alert=55

o  Bahrain: Human Rights Defender Mr.Naji Fateel at risk http://byshr.org/?p=423

o  The series of job losses continue. Last Monday, it reached Mrs Abdulhadi AlKhawaja, who was fired from Kanoo School, by order from the Ministry of Interior, along with other teachers. Many other institutions witnessed similar acts, based solely on sect, last name, political affiliation or family members’ involvement in politics!

o  Attacking and burning down of Saeed Ayyad's home, torture of Alkhawaja, activist at high risk http://ow.ly/4PgMh

o  Spying case adjourned: THE trial of a Bahraini and two Iranians accused of spying for Iran's Revolutionary Guard… http://bit.ly/lZX40w

o  Lower National Safety Court Adjourns Four Cases http://goo.gl/fb/UtWMj

o  3^rd of May 2011: Bahrain house of representatives (all pro-govt now) call for 3-month extension of martial law and boycotting of Iranian products [Arabic] http://bit.ly/jzXPxy

o  8^th of May 2011: King announces that the State of National Safety will be lifted as of 1^st of June, 2011 on the same day that opposition leaders (including Wa’ad’s Ebrahim Sharif, Haq’s Hassan Mushaimae, and Wafa’s AbdulWahhab Hussain) are put on trial:

§ Important information on detainees put on trial http://bahraincenter.blogspot.com/2011/05/important-information-about-trial-of.html

§ http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/08/us-bahrain-trial-idUSTRE7470Q220110508

§ http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bahrain-puts-opposition-leaders-activists-on-trial/

§ http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/bahrain/bahrain-postpones-high-profile-trial-to-may-12-1.804811

§ http://akrockefeller.com/blog/bahrain-pro-democracy-activists-will-stand-trial/

§ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110508/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain_5

§ Nabeel Rajab of Bahrain Center for Human Rights tweeted:

·        “both Mr. Abdul Wahab Hussain and Mr. Hassan Mushema were limping while entering the military court #Bahrain”

·        “الكثير من المعتقلين الذين قدموا اليوم للمحكمة كانت عيونهم حمراء مثل الدم وينتابهم ضعف في التركيز وبقوا مقيدين طوال فترة سجنهم” translation “lots of the detainees that were brought to court today had bloodshot eyes and had low concentration and were handcuffed the entire time they’ve been in prison”

·        “سمح للاهالي بالجلوس مع المعتقلين حوالي ربع ساعة بحضور الامن واغلبهم تحدث عن حسن المعاملة حتى لو ان وجوههم واجسادهم لا تبدوا كذلك” translation “families were allowed to have 15 minutes with their detained family member(s) in security forces presence. Most spoke of being treated well, even though their faces and bodies showed otherwise”

·        Media reports:

o  US Labor urges trade pact with Bahrain be suspended: Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/06/us-bahrain-usa-trade-idUSTRE7456AP20110506

o  'Bahrain rights situation frightening' – Interview with Nabeel Rajab http://ow.ly/4KGcn – I can’t see this interview because the Press TV website is blocked in Bahrain.

o  US Silent: Bahrain Authorities Putting Doctors and Nurses on Trial for Caring for the Wounded http://bit.ly/kHywpI

o  Human Rights Now: Will Bahrain Carry Out Four Executions? http://bit.ly/mO4j0p

o  BD1,000 paid to crossfire victim's relatives: RELATIVES of an Indian man, who was killed in crossfire during cla… http://bit.ly/lGRCAs (NOTE: there was no crossfire!  Riot police were attacking citizens on Budiya highway with fire; that’s what it was. Firearms that they claim they never used against people.)

o  After spending weeks celebrating the Prime Minister, now they remember to praise the king: Capital Governorate organises line-up of festivities to show allegiance to the leadership http://goo.gl/fb/AdjU3

o  WLCentral: 2011-05-01 Reports of Shia mosques and matams being destroyed or vandalized in #Bahrain http://wlcentral.org/node/1725

o  Obama urges Bahrain's monarch http://skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=607506&vId

o  Obama urges Bahrain king to respect 'universal rights' http://cot.ag/kogwe7

o  After crushed protests, Bahrain is accused of deepened oppression of Shiites http://goo.gl/3NRVs

o  Bahrain's rulers press crackdown and widen loyalty drive to the web http://fb.me/WoQXaY94

o  Bahrain doctors to be tried for helping protesters  http://bit.ly/kTvc8a

o  Bahraini authorities announced charges against the medical staff http://byshr.org/?p=410

o  We all know the purpose of these offices and who the passports will go to: Bahrain to open more passport offices http://www.tradearabia.com/news/LAW_197804.html

o  ARTICLE19 calling on Bahraini government to put immediate stop to the violent crackdown on the protests & on the press http://ow.ly/4LVYf

o  Statement from Bahrain state news agency regarding arrest and charges against 47 doctors and medics http://bit.ly/iQAXSV

o  Bahrain king orders end to emergency rule as opposition leaders go on trial: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bahrain-accuses-21-opposition-figures-of-seeking-to-topple-monarchy/2011/05/07/AFiY5QMG_story.html

o  Bahrain king orders end of emergency law: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/2011581342480276.html

o  Reuters: Bahrain loses allure as offshore money haven http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/04/bahrain-assets-idUSLDE7430H920110504

o  UN urges Bahrain to free detained activists – http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201155155822502904.html

o  UN human rights chief voices deep concern about Bahrain crackdown http://ow.ly/1cxaaE

o  Counterrevolution in the Gulf in Foreign Policy http://tinyurl.com/6grkue9

·        Video reports:

o  The brave men of Bahrain, ganging up on the weak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi1o0_pSDZY&feature=share

o  Al Jazeera English: Relatives fearful over Bahrain trials http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/05/201151145514937193.html ; Dr Farida AlDallal, Dr Ali AlEkri’s wife, who was also arrested & beaten under custody, says that he has had no access to lawyers.

o  I’m not usually a fan of turbans talking, but this one is making a direct, simple point worth hearing by western communities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a1o6lxFp-4&feature=youtu.be

o  Bahriani Unions May Day Message http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArmwGVTF6Jk

o  Common Bahraini government answers:

§ 1: Minister of Health:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrTTdjH3BWc&feature=youtu.be

§ 2: Minister of Foreign Affairs:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vwKa2IYaHY&feature=related

o  Outrageous video: pro-government crowd arms children and lectures them on defending themselves (against?). Man lecturing says you must sacrifice your blood; remember your loyalty is to Allah, Land, the King. The situation requires this from you as youth. We are sending you to a dangerous position, but you must do this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtTJ2OQlwTI These are the same people who accused the opposition of abusing children for letting them participate in peaceful protests and “contaminating their minds with politics”.

o  Shia mosque spray painted with words cursing opposition and hailing the king: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgKMPmVewiM

o  [Arabic] Very interesting response from Egypt by Dr Mohammed Salim AlAwwa on Bahrain’s uprising: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzCwo2J1wXo&feature=share

o  Candle vigil in Sanabis against the execution court rule: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBJ_6GAAnfU

o  The Stream: On OBL death and Bahrain http://stream.aljazeera.com/episode/episode-2566

·        Picture reports:

o  Bin Laden lamented by the pro-government crowds https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.199192853455883.44617.191271114248057

·        History of the monarchy in Bahrain:

o  Belgrave Diaries: http://www.scribd.com/doc/54167454/AlKhalifa-Scandals-from-Belgrave-s-Diaries

·        Bahrain’s uprising Archive:

o   March 2011 events:

§ Bahrain Opposition VS State Sponsored Terrorism http://www.scribd.com/doc/54088179/Bahrain-Opposition-vs-State-Sponsored-Terrorism

§ Students waiting outside UoB shot at by government agents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgwRGR9cbFQ (the only front with such weapons in Bahrain)

o  February 18^th, 2011: One of the most iconic videos of the Bahraini uprising: Bahrain army shoots protesters with automatic guns; the protesters rescue the wounded and continue to march slowly and eventually do a peaceful sitting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEw3E3POc7Y&skipcontrinter=1

Â

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———- Forwarded message ———-

From: thepearlroundabout.org <thepearlroundabout@gmail.com>

Date: Sun, May 8, 2011 at 6:10 PM

Subject: thepearlroundabout.org

To: ccavell@gmail.com

Â

Â

Â

thepearlroundabout.org Â

---

• Twenty one trial defendents named
• Britons named in Bahrain ‘terror trial’
• While Bahrain demolishes mosques, U.S. stays silent
• Bahrain to end emergency, tries opposition heads
• Ruling Sunnis in Bahrain detain Shiite teachers, students
• Bahrain’s king: state of emergency will end in June

Twenty one trial defendents named Posted: 08 May 2011 02:46 PM PDT

Britons named in Bahrain ‘terror trial’ Posted: 08 May 2011 02:30 PM PDT Bahraini state television announces that twenty one anti-government activists are being put on trial for crimes including collaborating with terrorist groups and trying to overthrow the government.

While Bahrain demolishes mosques, U.S. stays silent Posted: 08 May 2011 02:25 PM PDT In the ancient Bahraini village of Aali, where some graves date to 2000 B.C., the Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque had stood for more than 400 years – one of the handsomest Shiite Muslim mosques in this small island nation in the Persian Gulf. Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/08/2858559/while-bahrain-demolishes-mosques.html#ixzz1LnZXYsuq

Bahrain to end emergency, tries opposition heads Posted: 08 May 2011 02:18 PM PDT King Hamad on Sunday ordered an early end to Bahrain's state of emergency declared in mid-March to tackle Shiite-led protests, as leading opposition figures went on trial in a court set up under the law.

Ruling Sunnis in Bahrain detain Shiite teachers, students Posted: 08 May 2011 02:17 PM PDT Empowered by a six-week-old state of emergency, the Sunni minority government of Bahrain has arrested scores of Shiite women teachers and schoolgirls, held them for days in prison and subjected them to physical and verbal abuse, according to victims, human rights advocates and a former member of parliament. Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/08/2207527/ruling-sunnis-in-bahrain-detain.html#ixzz1LnXNAdOT

Bahrain’s king: state of emergency will end in June Posted: 08 May 2011 10:50 AM PDT The king of Bahrain has decreed that the country's state of emergency will end June 1, state media reported Sunday.

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Â

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Maryam Al-Khawaja <maryam.alkhawaja@gmail.com>

Date: Sun, May 8, 2011 at 4:13 PM

Subject: Updates on the trial, National Safety to be lifted on June 1

To: Maryam Al-Khawaja <maryam.alkhawaja@gmail.com>

Â

Â

Â

Dear Friends,

Â

To update you on the outcome of today’s trial, the hearing was adjourned until Thursday, 12^th May. The detainees were brought in all wearing the same outfit, grey clothes that covered the arms and legs despite the increasingly warm weather in Bahrain. They all appeared to have lost weight during their time in detention. Mr. Mohammed Hassan Jawad Parweez had lost all hearing ability. At the time of his detention he was hard of hearing and used a device to hear. At the hearing he could not hear at all and did not respond when his name was called by the judge until he was nudged by the detainee standing next to him. Abdulhadi Alkhawaja had the most obvious wounds and injuries on him. He had stitches under his left eye and the left side of his face was swollen. At the end of the hearing as the judge was bringing the hearing to a close the detainees demanded they be given a chance to speak as they said they were being kept in solitary confinement and wanted a guarantee that the ongoing and continuous torture would be stopped. The security forces started shouting at them and removed them from the court room.

Â

The families of the detainees were able to speak to them for approximately 10 minutes. Some of the families were not present as they had not been informed of the hearing. Despite it being broadcasted in local newspapers that families had been informed of the trial, all families at the hearing confirmed they knew only because they were following the news the night before.

Â

Ebrahim Sharif told his family that he was not aware of the charges against him until the time of the hearing.He seemed to have lost approximately 15 kilos due to ill treatment.

Â

Â

Mr. Alkhawaja's family were able to confirm today, after meeting with him briefly after the court session, that he had sustained 4 fractures to the left side of his face, including one in his jaw. He consequently had to undergo a major 4 hour surgery where they had to take bone from his skull to replace the broken bones in his face. He also had stitches above his left eye. They say that as a result of this he can barely eat and cannot smile due to the pain. The healing process has been slow because he had been on a hunger strike because he did not have a lawyer.Again, I urge all parties to send international observers to the next hearing on Thursday.

Â

In other news, the King of Bahrain has announced that State of National Safety is to be lifted on the 1^st of June. http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/455725

Â

The Bahrain petroleum company today fired 55 of it’s Shia’a employees, making the number now 350 employees fired.

Â

Regards,

Â

—

Â

Maryam Al-Khawaja

Contact:

+44-7587303080 / +1(401)572-6597

Head of Foreign Relations Office

Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Â

———- Forwarded message ———-

Date: Sun, May 8, 2011 at 4:21 PM

Subject: While Bahrain Demolishes Mosques, US Stays Silent

To: ccavell@gmail.com

Â

Â

Â

---

While Bahrain Demolishes Mosques, US Stays Silent

Sunday 8 May 2011

by: Roy Gutman, McClatchy Newspapers

Â

(Photo: daoro [3])

Manama, Bahrain – In the ancient Bahraini village of Aali, where some graves date to 2000 B.C., the Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque had stood for more than 400 years — one of the handsomest Shiite Muslim mosques in this small island nation in the Persian Gulf.

Today, only bulldozer tracks remain.

In Nwaidrat, where anti-government protests began Feb. 14, the Mo'men mosque had long been a center for the town's Shiite population — photos show it as a handsome, square building neatly painted in ochre, with white and green trim, and a short portico in dark gray forming the main entrance.

Today, only the portico remains.

"When I was a child, I used to go and pray with my grandfather," said a 52-year-old local resident, who asked to be called only "Abu Hadi. "The area used to be totally green, with tiers of sweet water wells."

"Why did they destroy this mosque?" Abu Hadi wailed. "Muslims have prayed there for decades."

In Shiite villages across this island kingdom of 1.2 million, the Sunni Muslim government has bulldozed dozens of mosques as part of a crackdown on Shiite dissidents, an assault on human rights that is breathtaking in its expansiveness.

Authorities have held secret trials where protesters have been sentenced to death, arrested prominent mainstream opposition politicians, jailed nurses and doctors who treated injured protesters, seized the health care system that had been run primarily by Shiites, fired 1,000 Shiite professionals and canceled their pensions, detained students and teachers who took part in the protests, beat and arrested journalists, and forced the closure of the only opposition newspaper.

Nothing, however, has struck harder at the fabric of this nation, where Shiites outnumber Sunnis nearly 4 to 1, than the destruction of Shiite worship centers.

The Obama administration has said nothing in public about the destruction.

Bahrain — and its patron, Saudi Arabia — are longtime U.S. allies, and Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

Members of the Shiite opposition assembled a list of 27 mosques and other religious structures demolished or damaged in the crackdown. A tour by McClatchy of several townships suggests the number of buildings destroyed is far greater.

The demolitions are carried out daily, Shiite leaders say, with work crews often arriving in the dead of night, accompanied by police and military escorts. In many cases, the workers have hauled away the rubble, leaving no trace, before townspeople awake.

Bahrain's minister of justice and Islamic affairs, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali bin Abdulla al Khalifa, defended the demolitions in an interview, claiming that any mosque demolished had been built illegally, recently, and without permission.

"These are not mosques. These are illegal buildings," he said.

That claim, however, is easily challenged. In Aali, for example, the government rerouted a planned highway some years back so as to preserve the Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque, residents say.

McClatchy visited three other sites where "before" photos of the destroyed mosques showed they were well maintained, decades-old structures.

Some sites had a wistful air. At the Sheikh Aabed Mosque in the village of Sitra, once a ramshackle building that residents said was more than a century old, prayer rugs and other religious paraphernalia covered the ground.

On Wednesday, the State Department told McClatchy that it's "concerned by the destruction of religious sites." The statement noted that the Bahraini government had international obligations to preserve the common cultural heritage.

In private, U.S. officials are harsher. One, who's not in Bahrain, said that by bulldozing Shiite mosques and persecuting the political opposition, the government was treating its people like a "captive population."

Another U.S. official visiting the area described the Sunni leadership as "vindictive" and indicated the Obama administration was deeply worried about Bahrain's rapid downward spiral. Both officials asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Shiites have long complained of bias and discrimination here, despite massively outnumbering the entrenched Khalifa dynasty, whose prime minister, Sheikh Khalifa ibn Salman al Khalifa, 75, has held the office for the past 40 years — a current world record.

In mid-March, the government, after a month of protests, abandoned dialogue with moderate Shiites and Sunnis and invited Saudi Arabia to dispatch some 1,500 troops to help quell the unrest. The government imposed a state of emergency and began a crackdown on dissent. Among the first government acts after Saudi troops arrived was the destruction of the iconic Pearl Square, the traffic circle where demonstrators had camped out for weeks.

The government even recalled the half-dinar coins that featured the roundabout.

Most ominous is that hate speech of the sort that preceded the 1994 Rwandan genocide is now allowed in public. The pro-government English language Gulf Daily News last Sunday gave prominence to a reader's letter that compared Shiites to "termites" that should be exterminated.

"The moral is: to get rid of the white ants so they don't come back . . . " said the letter, signed only, "Sana P S."

Bahrain television has carried the canard that the Shiite sect allows its followers to lie, implying that what they say can't be trusted.

The crackdown also threatens to turn what had been an internal conflict into an international one.

Shiite led-Iran, which lies across the Gulf, is actively vying for influence in this predominantly Shiite state and has condemned the organized destruction of Shiite culture. The upheaval also has stirred passions in Shiite-ruled Iraq.

But Arab language television channels, including Al Jazeera, which is owned by the emir of Qatar, and Al Arabiya, which is Saudi owned, have been mostly silent about the wanton destruction.

Interviewed Monday, Sheikh Khalid, the justice minister, brought Arabic language spreadsheets stating the reasons for destruction as well as a book of records of the demolition program, complete with photographs. But he couldn't locate a reference to or photographs of Nwaidrat's Mo'men mosque in his briefing book, which listed all structures by number, not name.

He declined to provide a copy of the briefing book or the spreadsheet to McClatchy, saying they were "internal correspondence," and asked that no photograph be taken of him holding the briefing book.

Asked whether tearing down a long-standing, functioning place of worship would be viewed as a criminal offense in Bahrain, Sheikh Khalid appeared taken aback.

"If there is a fault or a mistake and (they) can prove it, the same place will be rebuilt in a much, much better shape," he later said.

And if they were operating under the law, why did the state demolition crews destroy the building after dark, when residents couldn't photograph the action?

"It is very difficult to do it in the morning. It is a kind of respect for people's psychology," Sheikh Khalid replied. "We were trying to put it in a way that it will not hurt he people. At least they do not see it while it is being demolished."

Because the material he was provided didn't list mosques by name, the justice minister also couldn't say for sure whether other religious structures visited by McClatchy were old construction, new construction, legal or illegal, or on private or public land.

He said there'd been 41 "procedures" against religious structures in Bahrain's capital, Manama, but in many instances, those taken down were just temporary structures. He could only point to two Sunni religious structures that had been taken down.

Sheikh Khalid himself had earlier stated publicly that Bahrain had approximately 600 religious structures, and only 10 percent had been demolished. But he declined to confirm that figure.

Every foreign resident and most Bahrainis contacted by McClatchy seemed deeply discouraged about the future of communal relations on this once-promising island, but Justice Minister Khalid disagreed.

"I think we've reached the maximum bottom we can reach," he said. "My conviction is that things will not get much worse." One day later, he chaired a press conference where he announced plans for the trial of 47 doctors and other medical personnel.

Asked Monday if the trial might not remind many abroad of the show-trials that dictators such as Joseph Stalin had held, Sheikh Khalid said quietly, "There were also trials of doctors at Nuremberg."

He was referring to the trials of 21 physicians who took part in the Nazi program to euthanize the mentally ill, retarded and physically disabled or in medical experiments on patients without their permission.Â

(Hannah Allam in Cairo contributed to this story.)

---

Source URL: http://truthout.org/while-bahrain-demolishes-mosques-us-stays-silent/1304864370

Links:

[1] http://truthout.org/print/1953

[2] http://truthout.org/printmail/1953

[3] http://www.flickr.com/photos/daoro/3858688915/

[4] http://twitter.com/share

[5] http://truthout.org/roy-gutman/1304864196

[6] http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6694/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2160

[7] http://truthout.org/user

[8] http://truthout.org/user/register

[9] http://truthout.org/?q=content/women-frontlines-bahrain

[10] http://truthout.org/?q=bahraini-protests-life-support/1304530733

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———- Forwarded message ———-

From: thepearlroundabout.org <thepearlroundabout@gmail.com>

Date: Sat, May 7, 2011 at 6:09 PM

Subject: thepearlroundabout.org

To: ccavell@gmail.com

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thepearlroundabout.org Â

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• Detainees appearing in military court on Sunday are named
• Emergency UK briefing on the human rights situation in Bahrain
• Campaign to try Bahrain Royal Family for War Crimes
• Bahraini’s take torture evidence to UN
• U.S. labor urges trade pact with Bahrain be suspended
• Bahrain’s rulers cast net for loyalty oaths online
• Free Ebrahim Sharif, a Political Prisoner in Bahrain
• University of Bahrain and attacks on the university students – Chronology of events
• Ongoing incommunicado and arbitrary detention of Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja
• Shooting from passing car at university (video)

Detainees appearing in military court on Sunday are named Posted: 07 May 2011 03:13 PM PDT

Emergency UK briefing on the human rights situation in Bahrain Posted: 07 May 2011 10:44 AM PDT Islamic Human Rights Commission and the Lord Avebury hold an emergency briefing on the human rights situation in Bahrain.

Campaign to try Bahrain Royal Family for War Crimes Posted: 07 May 2011 09:35 AM PDT

Bahraini’s take torture evidence to UN Posted: 07 May 2011 09:32 AM PDT The International Criminal Court (ICC) will decide this week as to whether it plans to accept a case of war crimes against Bahrain’s government. A group of Bahrainis living in Britain, with a team of international lawyers, travelled to The Hague last week to present their report to the prosecutor.

U.S. labor urges trade pact with Bahrain be suspended Posted: 07 May 2011 09:31 AM PDT The largest U.S. labor group wants President Barack Obama's administration to suspend a free trade pact with Bahrain over human rights abuses in the kingdom's crackdown on anti-government protests.

Bahrain’s rulers cast net for loyalty oaths online Posted: 07 May 2011 09:30 AM PDT While Bahrain's justice minister was making the latest accusations against alleged enemies of the state – this time medical staff – other officials were busy organizing a patriotic blitz that encourages pledges of loyalty on Facebook and Twitter. Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/05/06/3609239/bahrains-rulers-cast-net-for-loyalty.html#ixzz1LgWQBYgH

Free Ebrahim Sharif, a Political Prisoner in Bahrain Posted: 07 May 2011 05:49 AM PDT Ebrahim Sharif is a 53-year-old Bahraini politician, businessman, husband, father — and now, a political prisoner. He serves as the secretary general of the National Democratic Action Society (also known as Waad), a secular, moderate, and peaceful political opposition group in Bahrain.

University of Bahrain and attacks on the university students – Chronology of events Posted: 07 May 2011 04:32 AM PDT

Ongoing incommunicado and arbitrary detention of Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja Posted: 07 May 2011 04:30 AM PDT The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the ongoing incommunicado and arbitrary detention of Mr. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, former MENA Director at Front Line and former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).

Shooting from passing car at university (video) Posted: 07 May 2011 04:28 AM PDT

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———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Maryam Al-Khawaja <maryam.alkhawaja@gmail.com>

Date: Sat, May 7, 2011 at 3:13 PM

Subject: URGENT: 21 prominent Bahraini's to go on trial tomorrow morning.

To: Maryam Al-Khawaja <maryam.alkhawaja@gmail.com>

Â

Â

Dear Friends, Bahraini authorities have announced that 21 one people are to be put on trial tomorrow at 8am (Bahrain time). Lawyers were informed less than 12 hours before the trial. This is an urgent call to send international observers, lawyers and human rights defenders as well as country officials to attend the hearing. As taken from the Bahrain News Agency: Twenty-one suspects referred to National Safety Court
Manama, May 7 (BNA) Military Public Prosecutor at the BDF stated that the military prosecution had referred 21 suspects to the National Safety Court involved in the case of the terrorist organization related to the attempt to overthrow the government by force and in liaison with a terrorist organization working for a foreign country. The military public prosecutor had formed an investigation team for the case comprising several public prosecutors and 14 suspects were questioned. Those questioned included Abdulwahab Hussain Ali, Ibrahim Sharif Abdulraheem Mossa, Hassan Ali Mushaima, Abdulhadi Al Khawaj, Abduljalil Abdullah Al Singas, Mohammed Habib Al Safaf, Saeed Mirza Ahmed, Abduljalil Mansoor Makki, Al Hurra Yousif Mohammed, Abdullah Isa Al Mahroos, Salah Hubail Al Khawaj, Mohammed Hassan Jawad and Mohammed Ali Ismael. Meanwhile, the rest of the suspects were referred to the court in the same case in absentia due to them not being arrested yet warrants were sent for their arrest via the Interpol for those abroad. These included Akeel Ahmed Al Mafoodh, Ali Hassan Abdullah, Abdulghani Ali Khanjar, Saeed Abdulnabi Shehab, Abdulraoof Al Shayeb, Abbas Al Umran and Ali Hassan Mushaima. Meanwhile, the military public prosecutor affirmed that the suspects are accused of the following: 1. Organising and managing a terrorist group for the overthrow and the change of the country’s constitution and the royal rule in accordance with article (1,6) of the law no. 58 for 2006 related to the protection of society against terrorist acts. 2. The seeking and correspondence with a terrorist organization abroad working for a foreign country to conduct heinous acts against the Kingdom of Bahrain in accordance with article (122) of the criminal law for the 1976. 3. An attempt to overthrow and change the country’s constitution and Royal rule by force in accordance with article (148) of the criminal law for 1976. 4. An attempt to incite and solicit the overthrow and change the country’s constitution and Royal rule by force in accordance with article (160) of the criminal law for 1976. 5. The collection and providing of money for the terrorist group with the knowledge of its practices and terrorist activities in accordance with law related to money laundering and financing terrorism for the year 2001. 6. The obtaining of publications that contain content inciting the overthrow of the governing law in the country by force in accordance with article (161) of the same law. 7. Insult the army according to the article (216) of the same law. 8. Inciting publicly towards the hatred of the governing law of the country in accordance to article no (165) of the same law. 9. Broadcasting false news and rumours that caused the threatening of public security and inflecting damage to public interest in accordance to article (168) of the same law. 10. Inciting the hatred of a certain sect of people in accordance to article (172) of the same law. 11. Inciting incompliance with the law that is considered a crime in accordance with article (173) of the same law. 12. Organising and participating in rallies without the permission of the specialized body according to article (1,2,3,9,13) of the law related to meetings and processions for 2006. The military public prosecutor affirmed that the military prosecution had maintained all the judiciary assurances for suspects arrested in accordance to the laws especially that related to contacting their relatives and enabling their attorneys to attend the questioning sessions. h.s BNA 2113 GMT 2011/05/07

I will update you about the trial tomorrow as soon as any information is provided.

—

Â

Â

———- Forwarded message ———-

Date: Sat, May 7, 2011 at 2:33 PM

Subject: Arab Spring Comes in Western Arms

To: ccavell@gmail.com

Â

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Published on Truthout (http://www.truthout.org)

Home > Arab Spring Comes in Western Arms

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Arab Spring Comes in Western Arms

By Yana

Created 2011-05-07 06:33

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Arab Spring Comes in Western Arms

Saturday 7 May 2011

by: Simba Russeau, Inter Press Service [3]

Â

Tear gas is fired on Egyptian protesters marching during demonstrations in Cairo on Jan. 28, 2011. (Photo: Scott Nelson / The New York Times)

Cairo – Global spending on arms in 2010 were an estimated 1.6 trillion dollars, with governments in the Middle East dishing out more than 111 billion for weapons – raising questions as to whether Western arms suppliers circumvented international treaties by exporting to repressive regimes.

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt accounted for over 75 percent of U.S. arms sales – with Saudi Arabia ordering more than 60 billion dollars in weaponry, making it the leading buyer.Â

"There is no doubt that the intersection of arms sales and human rights is a sticky one, and late last year the [Government Accountability Office] GAO reported that the U.S. Defence and State Departments haven’t always documented their reasons for such sales consistently," Laicie Olson, senior policy analyst with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington told IPS.Â

According to reports, the U.S. is the leading supplier of conventional arms to the Middle East, surpassing Russia – which is the world’s second largest arms supplier – by nearly 20 percent.Â

Large defence contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin are some of the major profiteers – these companies and their employees depend on arms sales for a significant portion of their revenue.Â

However, in a region that is said to be one of the most militarised in the world, human rights advocates claim that the U.S. continues to circumvent legislation like the Leahy Amendment, which prohibits U.S. arms sales to governments that fail to curb grave human rights violations.Â

Countries like Saudi Arabia whose human rights record in regards to migrant domestic worker abuse, women’s rights and upholding a juvenile death penalty have come under particular scrutiny.Â

"There does seem to be a level of reform there that needs to be undertaken. However, there are also cases in which U.S. arms sales have provided an inroad for upholding human rights," Olson said.Â

"In Egypt, the U.S. was able to exert a fair amount influence due to its long-time support of the military. There were a few small breaks in this trend but, ultimately, Egypt did not go the way of so many other countries in the Middle East who seem to have decided the only way to quell a revolution is to [literally] kill it."Â

Critics argue that the Egyptian military was right in line with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen in their use of U.S.-made tear gas, tanks and other types of equipment to brutally crack down on anti-regime rebellions.Â

"In the Middle East you’re seeing tear gas, water cannons, shotguns, firearms and armoured vehicles being used to disperse protests and for law enforcement or internal security operations that in some cases have involved lethal force," Helen Hughes, a researcher with the UK-based Amnesty International told IPS.Â

Arms export licences from European Union (EU) member states such as France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Malta, Bulgaria, Spain, Belgium and Poland to Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia doubled from 985 million euros in 2008 to 2 billion euros in 2009.Â

In February of this year, the UK government revoked 52 licences for Bahrain and Libya due to their brutal crackdown on dissent. They also implemented an arms embargo on Libya in response to U.N. Resolution 1973. A fourth quarter listing in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Strategic Export Control Reports revealed that in 2010 combat aircraft and small arms totalling 3.76 million pounds were licensed by the UK to Libya.Â

"With the EU, which actually already has an export control regime that is called the EU Common Position on Export Controls you have a criteria on human rights that relates to internal repression and serious human rights violations as well as also international humanitarian law," explained Hughes.Â

"But it seems that from the transfers that we’ve been monitoring over the last five years – in relation to say for example Libya, Bahrain or elsewhere in the region – that the governments haven’t been rigorously complying with that criteria."Â

The hope is that "with the international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) there would be a much clearer and stricter obligation on states to prohibit arms transfers where a potential risk exists and also a methodology to assist in regulating this international law," Hughes added.Â

According to Olson, the ATT – which was created to curb the irresponsible trade and transfer of arms – raises some important questions about the limitations of arms sales, what they currently are, and maybe what they should be.Â

But there are problems. "Under the ATT the U.S. and UK would be able to arm Muammar Gaddafi, but not Libya’s rebels, since Gaddafi is still the head of an internationally recognised government and the rebels, well… are not," Olson said.Â

Some analysts are arguing that the NATO intervention in Libya is a platform for arms dealers to showcase their weaponry to potential buyers.Â

"For example, even to get membership into NATO some countries have to in effect upgrade their military to a certain level," Anup Shah, creator of the website Global Issues told IPS. "So for some Eastern European countries who are joining NATO from a pure economic perspective it’s like a boom to the military industrial complex as they’ll have a new source of nations to sell arms to."

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Source URL: http://www.truthout.org/arab-spring-comes-western-arms/1304775229

Links:

[1] http://www.truthout.org/print/1934

[2] http://www.truthout.org/printmail/1934

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[5] http://twitter.com/share

[6] http://www.truthout.org/content/simba-russeau

[7] http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6694/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2160

[8] http://www.truthout.org/user

[9] http://www.truthout.org/user/register

[10] http://www.truthout.org/?q=weapons-will-never-die-we-need-stop-expensive-reincarnations/1304527389

[11] http://www.truthout.org/?q=right-possess-firearms-strong-money-behind-weak-argument

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———- Forwarded message ———-

From: thepearlroundabout.org <thepearlroundabout@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:06 PM

Subject: thepearlroundabout.org

To: ccavell@gmail.com

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Â

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thepearlroundabout.org Â

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• Bahrain renews emergency law as repression persists
• Bahrain charging doctors over protest deaths
• Bahrain charges 50 medical staff with anti-state conspiracy
• Bahraini activist ‘severely tortured’ (video)
• Bahrain refers 47 medics to military court
• Bahrain loses allure as offshore money haven
• Bahraini opposition figure speaks to Al Jazeera (video)
• BAHRAIN: Medical staff face prosecution, alleged torture after aiding anti-government protesters
• The West’s Schizophrenia in a Transforming Middle East
• Journalists in Bahrain: The Murder of Free Speech and the Siege of Freedom

Bahrain renews emergency law as repression persists Posted: 04 May 2011 02:09 PM PDT The Bahraini government must end its relentless crackdown on human rights, Amnesty International said today after the country's parliament voted to extend a repressive state of emergency amid continued arrests of dissidents.

Bahrain charging doctors over protest deaths Posted: 04 May 2011 01:53 PM PDT Bahrain says it will charge a number of medical workers with causing the death of two demonstrators, broadening a crackdown on the opposition in the wake of protests that shook the Gulf island kingdom.

Bahrain charges 50 medical staff with anti-state conspiracy Posted: 04 May 2011 01:52 PM PDT Up to 50 doctors and nurses who treated anti-government protesters injured during the recent demonstrations in Bahrain were charged yesterday with acts against the state.

Bahraini activist ‘severely tortured’ (video) Posted: 04 May 2011 01:48 PM PDT Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) says prominent human rights activist Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja has been tortured beyond recognition by Saudi-backed regime forces.

Bahrain refers 47 medics to military court Posted: 04 May 2011 01:47 PM PDT Bahraini authorities have referred 47 medics to a military court after accusing them of abusing their posts to take part in anti-regime protests that were crushed in March.

Bahrain loses allure as offshore money haven Posted: 04 May 2011 07:42 AM PDT Bahrain lost more of its appeal as a haven for offshore money during March after a period of social unrest in the island kingdom came on top of stiff regional banking competition from Dubai.

Bahraini opposition figure speaks to Al Jazeera (video) Posted: 04 May 2011 07:40 AM PDT Mattar Ibrahim Mattar is one of two members of Bahrain's opposition Al Wefaq party who have been arrested by authorities in the Gulf country.

BAHRAIN: Medical staff face prosecution, alleged torture after aiding anti-government protesters Posted: 04 May 2011 07:36 AM PDT Nearly 50 doctors, nurses and other medical staff have been detained in Bahrain in connection with treating anti-government protesters, human-rights officials said Wednesday.

The West’s Schizophrenia in a Transforming Middle East Posted: 04 May 2011 03:54 AM PDT

Journalists in Bahrain: The Murder of Free Speech and the Siege of Freedom Posted: 03 May 2011 01:51 PM PDT More than 68 journalists have been subjected to lay-off, arrest and threats because of their work Bahraini journalists call for a helping hand and for the adoption of measures to insure their safety.

You are subscribed to email updates from thepearlroundabout.org To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
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———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Bahrain Center for Human Rights <Bahrain_Center_for_Human_Rights@mail.vresp.com>

Date: Wed, May 4, 2011 at 2:12 AM

Subject: Four protesters sentenced to death and three given life imprisonment

To: ccavell@gmail.com

Â

Â

Â

Bahrain Center for Human Rights

For the Latest updates please follow BCHR on twitter: http://twitter.com/BahrainRights/bchr-7

Â

Four protesters sentenced to death and three given life imprisonment

Bahrain resorting to martial law against protesters

On the left: A banner placed on the road calling the government to apply the maximum punishment and no forgiveness.

On the Right: The Military Court

May 2, 2011

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights condemns any acts of violence against any human being, and calls for holding anyone responsible for these acts of violence. The Center also stresses the importance of giving any and every person charged with any crime access to a fully independent and fair trial according to international standards in civilian courts.

In a case made against 7 protesters charged with killing Kashef Ahmed Mandhoor and Mohammed Farooq Abdulsamad, Bahraini Authorities announced today after a closed military trial that four were sentenced to death while three were given life imprisonment.

• Read more

Â

BYSHR: A man died in custody confesed on television that he had killed a police men

Today ( 28 April , 2011 ) , Bahrain T.V showed the “confessions” of the accused who killed two police men and who were sentenced today ( 4 death penalties and 3 life sentences). One of the those, the first to be shown making a confession, is Mr. Ali Isa Saqer, who had died in custody on the 9th of April, 2011. (attached a video of the confessions as shown on Bahrain T.V. with his photo).

• Read more

Statement by the EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, on death sentences in Bahrain

EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, 3 May 2011

A 171/11

Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, made today the following statement:

“I am deeply concerned about the imminent risk of execution of four Bahraini nationals sentenced to death by a military court on 28 April for the alleged murder of two police officers during antigovernment protests in March. The charges are serious, but the fact that civilians were tried before a military court behind closed doors, is a further cause for concern.

• Read more

• Read more

HRW: Bahrain: Set Aside Martial Law Death Sentences

4 Civilians Condemned to Death, 3 to Life in Prison in Unfair Military Trial

May 2, 2011

(Washington, DC) – Bahraini authorities should set aside a military court ruling on April 28, 2011, sentencing four defendants to death and three others to life in prison for their alleged involvement in the murder of two police officers, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch understands that the seven defendants, ages 19 to 24, whose trial and sentencing lasted less than two weeks, are the first civilians to be convicted in special military courts set up after King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa declared martial law on March 15.

• Read more

Obama urges Bahrain king to respect 'universal rights'

1 May 2011

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama urged Bahrain's monarch to respect "universal rights of the people" on Saturday, two days after the tiny Gulf state sentenced several protesters to death.

US officials have criticized Bahrain over the speed of a trial in which Shiite pro-democracy protesters were sentenced to death and life in prison for killing two policemen.

• Read more

UK concern over death sentence for Bahrain protestors

30 April 2011

Four Bahrainis protestors sentenced to death for killing of two policemen.

Commenting on the death sentence given to four Bahrainis for the killing of two policemen during the recent protests in Bahrain, a Foreign Office spokesperson said:

"The UK is concerned by the death sentences given to four Bahrainis. We support Bahrain’s right to bring to justice those responsible for the death of two policemen. But it is our longstanding policy to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances.

• Read more

AFP: US raps Bahrain over speed of trial

30 April 2011

WASHINGTON — The United States on Friday criticized Bahrain over the speed of a trial in which Shiite pro-democracy protesters were sentenced to death and life in prison for killing two policemen.

State Department Policy Planning Director Jacob Sullivan also said Washington has urged Bahrain at the highest levels to move toward "a comprehensive political dialogue" to end the political unrest.

• Read more

Germany calls on Bahrain to rescind death sentences

BERLIN, April 29 (Reuters) – Germany urged Bahrain's ruling

monarchy on Friday to rescind death sentences handed down to a

group of men accused of killing policemen in recent protests.

A Bahraini military court on Thursday ordered the death

penalty for four Shi'ite men over the killing of two policemen.

The turmoil began with Shi'ite-led protests in February

demanding greater political liberties.

• Read more

France calls on the Bahraini authorities not to apply the death penalty

Death sentences in Bahrain (April 29, 2011)

Four people were sentenced to death April 28 for the murder of two police officers during the events of recent weeks, which have shocked and saddened Bahrain.

France, like its European partners, is resolutely opposed to the death penalty everywhere and under all circumstances.

We call on the Bahraini authorities not to apply the death penalty.

• Read more

Amnesty International: Bahrain urged to halt execution of protesters

28 April 2011

Authorities in Bahrain must not allow the execution of four protesters sentenced to death by a military court over the killing of two police officers in anti-government demonstrations last month, Amnesty International said today.

“The Bahraini authorities have a responsibility to bring to justice those who commit violent crimes. But when doing so, they must uphold the right to fair trial and they must not use the death penalty under any circumstances,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

• Read more

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The President of the European Parliament Buzek on the sentencing to death of Bahrainis

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Condemnation for the crackdown on protestors in Bahrain (Strasbourg ).

The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek strongly condemns the death sentence passed against four Bahraini protestors.

EP President Buzek said: "I condemn the sentencing to death of the four protestors in Bahrain and I call for their sentences to be reviewed. The fact that the trial took place behind closed doors is deplorable. The EU is opposed to the death penalty in all cases and under all circumstances.

• Read more

Â

Follow BCHR on

Â

 Â

www.bahrainrights.org

info@bahrainrights.org

 Â

Bahrain Center for Human Rights BB 2212EEF6 Manama, BCHR 10 BH Â Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy.

Â

Â

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Bahrain Center for Human Rights <Bahrain_Center_for_Human_Rights@mail.vresp.com>

Date: Tue, May 3, 2011 at 8:51 AM

Subject: Journalists in Bahrain: The Murder of Free Speech and the Siege of Freedom

To: ccavell@gmail.com

Â

Â

Â

Bahrain Center for Human Rights

For the Latest updates please follow BCHR on twitter: http://twitter.com/BahrainRights/bchr-7

Journalists in Bahrain: The Murder of Free Speech and the Siege of Freedom

More than 68 journalists have been subjected to lay-off, arrest and threats because of their work

Bahraini journalists call for a helping hand and for the adoption of measures to insure their safety.

3 May 2011

Since the 14th of February 2011, Bahrain has seen a political movement demanding freedom, democracy, and the revival of communal partnership in the framework of the civil movements seeking freedom which are currently overrunning Arab countries. This was followed by brutal security crackdowns and the entry of the Peninsula Shield forces (Military units of 6 Gulf countries) into Bahrain. Journalists engaged in this event with daily coverage through both their jobs at local newspapers, through their announcements on satellite television stations, by writing to Arabic newspapers in the framework of their presence at the site of action, and via effective action through online social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Because of that, journalists have been subjected to a campaign of lay-offs and collective arrests affecting more than 68 journalists, while many have received different threats originating from the Bahraini authorities,

• Read more

RSF: Bahrain king is press 'predator'

3 May 2011

AFP: Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) added Bahrain's King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa to its latest blacklist of "predators" against press freedom on Tuesday.

The king entered the watchdog's list of 38 state "predators" that "sow terror among journalists", which included three Arab countries hit by recent protests — Syria, Bahrain, Yemen — and Libya, where conflict has broken out.

• Read more

Freedom of the Press 2011: Bahrain is NOT FREE

Freedom of the Press 2011 identifies the greatest threats to independent media in 196 countries and territories. Released on May 2 as part of the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day celebration in Washington, D.C., the report shows that global media freedom has reached a new low point, contributing to an environment in which only one in every six people live in countries with a Free press.

• Read more

MENA Journalists & Cyber Activists: In the Line of Fire

by Dr Agnes Callamard, executive director at ARTICLE 19

April 27, 2011

From Morocco to Bahrain, everyday people have taken on the cast iron hold of dictatorships and absolute monarchies resulting in an extraordinary collective awakening that has paved the way for epochal change in the region. The youth movement, which lies at the core of the uprisings, continues to play a prominent role in the pro-democracy and pro-reform demonstrations, which have swept through the region, unabated by government clampdowns or concessions.

• Read more

Freedom on the Net 2011: Bahrain is NOT FREE

Click to read Full Bahrain Report (PDF)

On April 18, 2011, Freedom House released its latest Freedom on the Net report assessing the degree of internet freedom around the world. The new edition includes detailed country reports and a first-of-its-kind numerical index covering 37 countries in six geographical regions. In addition, an analytical overview essay and accompanying graphics will highlight key findings and emerging threats to global digital media freedom.

• Read more

2 Media Professionals die in detention

12 April 2011- Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns netizen Zakariya Rashid Hassan’s death in detention on 9 April, six days after his arrest on charges of inciting hatred, disseminating false news, promoting sectarianism and calling for the regime’s overthrow in online forums. He moderated a now-closed forum providing information about his village of origin, Al-Dair.

Â

His family has rejected the interior ministry’s claim that he died as a result of sickle cell anemia complications.

• Read more

April 13, 2011- (Manama) – The death of businessman and activist Kareem Fakhrawi on April 12, 2011, shows the urgent need for thorough and impartial investigations into allegations of torture, Human Rights Watch said today. It was the fourth detainee death reported by the Bahrain government in nine days.

–Click on the photo to view a large version on Facebook–

At Fakhrawi's funeral on April 13 in Manama's Hoora district, a crowd of mourners demanded to see his corpse because of concerns he had been tortured.

• Read more

Bahrain: UN official urges probe after media professionals die in detention

21 April 2011 – A senior United Nations official today called for an investigation into the deaths of two media professionals in Bahrain who died earlier this month while held in detention.

Karim Fakhrawi, the co-founder of the country’s only independent newspaper Al-Wasat, died in custody on 12 April, one week after he was arrested.

• Read more

CPJ: Bahrain detains columnist

New York, April 25, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Bahraini authorities to disclose the whereabouts of Haidar Mohammed al-Nuaimi, a columnist for daily newspaper Al-Wasat. Roughly 30 uniformed and plainclothes police raided al-Nuaimi's family home in Manama today, dragging him into the street and beating him, local journalists told CPJ.

Al-Nuaimi was then taken to an unknown location, according to the same accounts.

Read more

AIPS: Bahraini sports journalist among hundreds arrested in government crackdown

MANAMA, April 15, 2011 – The human rights organisation, The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights has reported the arrest of a local sports journalist to AIPS.

An email received today says Faisal Hayat, a journalist who worked for the local newspaper Albilad and who was "known for analysing football matches on popular sport shows on Arabic satellite channels" was detained on April 8 for participating in the Athletes' and Journalists' March during the protests on February 14.

The communique states that Faisal Hayat's photograph appeared on a show on the official Bahrain television station which attacked public figures who had participated in the protest.

• Read more

A serious development and forthright turnover on the international conventions and agreements signed on public freedom.

Bahrain’s authorities target the president of Bahrain Center for Human Rights and its members.

17th of April 2011

Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its deep concern at the continuing crackdown launched by the authorities in Bahrain on activists and human rights defenders by targeting, prosecuting and raiding homes of the members of Bahrain Center for Human Rights in particular, and the exploitation of media owned by the government to discredit and question their credibility. Security forces, the army and armed civilian militia recently raided the home of a prominent human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab – the President of Bahrain Center for Human Rights as well as Yousif Al-Mahafdhah – a blogger and a senior member in Bahrain Center for Human Rights – in addition to the raid and arrest of Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Sultan, a member in the Media Center at Bahrain Center for Human Rights and who’s fate remains unknown since the arrest.

• Read more

Follow BCHR on

Â

 Â

www.bahrainrights.org

info@bahrainrights.org

Â

Bahrain Center for Human Rights BB 2212EEF6 Manama, BCHR 10 BH Â Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy.

Four protesters sentenced to death and three given life imprisonment (click to read)

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Bahraini authorities announce charges against the medical staff

Defendants:

23 Doctors.

The following list of accusations has been made against the medical staff:

1. The inexcusable refrain from aiding people.

Note: These charges have been translated from Arabic to English and may not be in legal terms.

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US union group: End trade pact with Bahrain: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/05/02/general-ml-bahrain-us-trade_8444701.html

—

Â

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D. <ccavell@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, May 2, 2011 at 1:33 AM
Subject: Bahrain Updates #13: Workers of the World Celebrate May 1, International Labor Day…though not in Bahrain this year…
To: "Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D. @ GMail" <ccavell@gmail.com>

"[T]he whole of human servitude is involved in the relation of the worker to production, and all relations of servitude are but modifications and consequences of this relation" (Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844).

Folks,

History time and again proves that capitalists enjoy stability and growth when their workers are satiated and feel free. Impose harsh restrictions on your labor force and you will reap dissension, rebellion, and shoddy production. As the old Scott Tissue Towel commercial put it in the 1930s: "Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks? Employees lose respect for a company that fails to provide decent facilities for their comfort." Of course workers want more than just good hand towels. Like all human beings, workers want, at the very least, freedom of expression and freedom of association, rights guaranteed to all Americans by our Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.

Each year on May 1–that is International Labor Day–workers around the world march to renew their solidarity and advocate for their rights. Each year, for the past eight years at least, Bahraini workers marched by the thousands calling attention to their needs and advocating reform. I know these were joyous marches, as I participated in every one of them. However, this year in Bahrain the workers are silenced. Due to the imprisonment, beatings, torture, and deaths of anyone perceived as and/or suspected of supporting the democratic opposition in Bahrain, any attempt to participate in an annual Labor Day march this May first would be futile. Consequently, the annual Labor Day festivities have been cancelled.

We will likely not hear much about this silencing of workers in Bahrain; indeed, of late we are not hearing much at all about the crackdown of oppositional democratic forces in Bahrain. It appears as if a memo has been sent out warning the international media that this issue about Bahrain is just too hot to handle. One can imagine that it reads: "Don't you see: Bahrain is too hot to handle. The Al-Khalifa monarchy are our friends. They let us park our Navy boats in Bahrain. And, since we are still dependent on cheap and accessible Saudi Arabian oil, we need to keep the House of Saud intact in Riyadh, and if the other Gulf monarchs begin to crumble, then we'd have to deal with a democracy in Saudi Arabia, and who knows where oil prices will go then. As it is, all of the Gulf monarchs are totally dependent upon us currently for their survival, as their populations are adamantly opposed to their rule. So, you see, siding with the Gulf monarchs is good for the USA at the present time. So, SHUT UP and QUIT REPORTING on the absence of democracy in our Gulf ally countries."

Well, we all know that the subtleties of setting the media agenda in the west are not so clear-cut as the imagined memo above. Nonetheless, reporters are cognizant of the forces that exists, as well as their idiosyncracies and, hence, often self-censor what they report on, and this self-censorship is repeated on down the line. Chomsky and Herman described how this self-censorship works in their book Manufacturing Consent (1988), for those of you who are doubtful. Indeed, this self-censorship is what oppressive governments count on to maintain their control. But oftentimes with such silences, they blow up in our faces when the facts contradict the illusion of peace or stability. Such is the case with Bahrain.

Civil society has been fundamentally altered in Bahrain with the brutal crackdown by the regime forces since late February and especially following the "Declaration of National Safety" by the monarch on the Ides of March (yes, March 15th!). Arrests, beatings, torture, disappearances, killings are only some of the humiliations being faced by Bahrainis on a daily basis. In addition, we see the dismissal from their jobs of anyone suspected of supporting the opposition, the suspension of political parties–like the National Democratic Action Society (Wa'ad or "promise"), the destruction of Shia religious symbols, mosques, and ma'tams, and the theft, sexual abuse, and thuggery by regime forces against those deemed to be opponents of the King or, as the Bahraini media deem the monarchy: "the wise leadership". And, if you don't believe me, check it for yourself:

"Manama, March 22. (BNA) — The Representatives Council today expressed its full-fledged support for the measures taken by the wise leadership in order to ensure the security of the nation and the citizens, hailing Royal Decree 18/2011 issued by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the declaration of a three-month State of National Safety" (http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/450559).

Americans led the way in turning against monarchy in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, setting up instead a republican (or representative) form of government, where ultimate power rose up from the people and not–as monarchs argue–from on high. "Divine right of kings" was replaced by the principle of "one person, one vote". A federal system was established with three co-equal branches of government with checks and balances at both the national level and in each individual state.

Today, the vast majority of governments around the world herald themselves as democracies and republics. Why? Because it is a recognized universal absurdity for anyone to set themselves up as the sole sovereign in a country and, moreover, it is the ultimate absurdity for anyone to actually believe in such a farce. There are only three ways to maintain such a fiction: either through bestowing riches upon selected followers–which leads to sycophancy, or through enforced ignorance, or through the imposition of the threat of force. [And, yes, all the media hype these past few weeks over the "royal wedding" between two pampered Brits was indeed an exercise in "enforced ignorance".]

Today in Bahrain, the populace is no longer ignorant. Indeed, much of the population is highly educated, and most Bahrainis have a great deal of respect for their educated peers. Consequently, the Al Khalifa monarchy has to buy off a segment of the population with unearned riches and to utilize force against the vast majority of the population to maintain their rule. Indeed, I am currently receiving reports from those in the know in Bahrain indicating that the imposition of the current "state of national safety" with tanks in the streets will last at least a year.

I have stated previously that Bahraini civil society has been fundamentally altered by the democratic spring of 2011 and that US policymakers need to adjust their assumptions; otherwise, the facts will come back to blow up in their faces. To maintain that a few months of severe repression, gruesome torture, and selective killings will calm things over is highly optimistic and fantastic in a theoretical sense, i.e. it is imaginary. And so I repeat for a third week in a row, as the following nursery rhyme is so germane to the present situation in Bahrain:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

American diplomats, security analysts, politicians, et al. who do not realize this truth are misleading themselves and the American public.

And, again, I refer all readers to The Crooked Bough website for timely updates on the political situation in Bahrain, as it is beating most outlets at critical reportage coming out of Bahrain.

regards,

csc

About the author:

Until February 15th of this year, I was an Assistant Professor teaching in the American Studies Center at the University of Bahrain. I submitted my resignation following the Fall semester at the end of January, as my wife, a Moroccan national, was granted an immigrant visa to the US by the State Department with the proviso that we be residing within the USA by April 1, 2011. Little did we know in January, when I submitted my resignation, that we would be in a race for time before we could leave, as the Arab rebellions were sweeping from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen and into Bahrain and beyond. We left Bahrain on February 25th, the day of the largest demonstrations in Bahraini history and have since been residing in Seattle, Washington.

Background on Bahrain:

On February 14, 2011, the citizenry of Bahrain rose up in opposition to the Al Khalifa monarchy and demanded democratic reforms. Their voices were met with stiff resistance from the autocratic regime which has been in power for over 200 years now. Unbowed, the citizenry took to the Pearl Roundabout in downtown Manama with some advocating for a constitutional monarchy and others a democratic republic. In response, the regime unleashed a reign of terror down on the protesters. Meanwhile, the US was directing its focus on Libya and getting through the United Nations a resolution for a no-fly zone over that country, which passed on Thursday, March 17th. One week prior, on Friday, March 11th, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew to Bahrain and met with the King and the Crown Prince, and on Monday, March 14th, approximately 2000 to 3000 Saudi Arabian and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) tanks and troops rolled across the causeway from Saudi Arabia into Bahrain to crush the opposition. The next day, March 15th, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued Royal Decree No. 18 for the year 2011, declaring a three-month "State of National Safety". The Bahrain Defence Forces (BDF) subsequently began a systematic crackdown on anyone who was suspected of opposing the monarchy and calling for democracy. On March 18th, the BDF tore down the Pearl Monument, known to locals as either "Lulu" or "the GCC Monument" and to the international press as "Pearl Square" due to its similarity to Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt where protesters had gathered. The regime's crackdown is an attempt to wipe away the memory of the 2011 Bahraini Democratic Spring from the popular mindset, and they are sparing nothing to root out and crush, using force and intimidation including torture and murder, any further resistance. The silence from most of the mainstream media in America is deafening.

The fact that the US Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain and the fact that the US is completely dependent on and addicted to Saudi-monarchy oil–i.e. oil doled out by a corrupt and sclerotic regime, and that both regimes (i.e. the Al Sauds and the Al Khalifas)–indeed all GCC regimes–in turn, are kept in power by US guns, makes all the difference–for now at least. The US is clearly supporting the Al-Khalifa monarchy, putting its oil interests ahead of its avowed democratic principles. From all accounts, the beating into submission as well as the subsequent bloodbath continues in earnest. For US citizens, it is another lost opportunity… But with your help and voices, we can eventually rectify our country's policy in this regard and realign it with our country's stated principles.

US interests in the long term will ultimately be served by supporting democratic elements and, eventually, democratic regimes in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. Does that mean we should overthrow existing governments? No, but it does mean that we should not be arming, financially supporting, and enabling corrupt regimes to slaughter opposition forces advocating for democratic rights in their countries, and then remaining silent while it happens. Sycophancy in the service of autocratic rulers with decidedly undemocratic ethos is degrading and demeaning. Such a stance is an affront to humanity. Putting off the goal of aligning ourselves with democratic elements for short-term advantage will have negative repercussions not only on current US foreign policy but, as well, on US domestic policy, as millions of petro-dollars will find their way back into US politics attempting to undermine our democracy here at home. While countering theocratic influence in the region is understandable and necessary, this will require a strategy with quite a bit more sophistication than is presently being demonstrated. As well, implementing such a strategy will necessitate experienced hands who are neither intimidated by the apparent chaos often associated with democratic movements nor infatuated with monarchical tendencies and supportive of elite rule.

NOTE:

Names and other identifying information have been removed and/or redacted in order to protect the safety of the sender[s], unless the person(s) is (are) a reporter or a public activist(s) and want their names to be known, as publicity sometimes gives them some protection from regime retaliation. If you are not a known public activist and/or reporter, please inform me if you would like your name to appear along with your report; otherwise, I will redact them to maintain your anonymity.

regards,

csc

__________________

Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D.

P.O. Box 9087

Seattle, WA 98109

(206) 734-8187

ccavell@gmail.com

http://www.cscpo.com/

———- Forwarded message ———-

Date: Sun, May 1, 2011 at 10:40 PM

Subject: May Day message from Bahrain Trade Unions

To: "Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D." ccavell@gmail.com

Statement from the trades unions in Bahrain

As we celebrate this international day of workers, workers in Bahrain are undergoing difficult and testing times. Every year we march through the streets of Manama in solidarity with workers everywhere on the globe. However, this year we are unable to do so, most of the leaders of the unions are either in prison or under investigation.

The government of Bahrain is on a witch hunt and their methods resemble those used by the inquisitions in the medieval times. Political affiliation and ideologies are rigorously questioned and personal opinion are condemned and punished. Court appearances and sentences are rushed. This is all under the pretext of participating in the wider political process and the supporting of the movements calling for democracy and change in Bahrain.

This is not a new phenomenon in Bahrain, but things have taken a very ugly turn in the last two months, especially after the crackdown by the regime and invasion by the GCC armies. The human rights situation in Bahrain has deteriorated and the rule of the law has been suspended, as the country is now ruled by martial law.

Hundreds if not thousands of workers and professionals have been dismissed. Sectarianism is the order of the day and the majority of the people are baring the brunt.

We are a part of the main opposition in Bahrain, ours is the legitimate voice of the people. We declare our unwavering support and solidarity with all those who are affected by the illegal and immoral actions of the authorities in Bahrain. Security and military solutions can only serve to divide the communities and the country and will cause long lasting alienation between the ruling family and the people. We advise that only a political solution can remedy the current mayhem in Bahrain.

Workers are the backbone of the Bahraini economy and their contributions are evident in all industries and trades. They are a dynamic and vibrant force for good and their role in nation building cannot be overestimated.

So today with you and in the great city of Manchester we honor your struggles and our struggle and sacrifices for a free, fair, and democratic Bahrain, and we ask for your full support and backing of these demands.

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———- Forwarded message ———-

Date: Sun, May 1, 2011 at 2:40 PM

Subject: Bahrain update Apr 25 – May 1

To: "Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D." ccavell@gmail.com

[redacted]

Many people are speculating these days about the situation in Bahrain, and if things are changing or shifting back to normal, mostly because they feel that the people are silent. Truth is, people are not silent, and they just feel like a broken record. The bloggers, twitter or facebook users are quieter, some for security reasons, but many more because the same things are happening over and over again.

Much fewer people broadcast when their areas are attacked, news of arrests circulate slower, names of missing are less widespread amongst people, accounts of daily violations and assaults on people in their homes and at their work places are less reported, and the volume of the news flow that these and other news pieces created in previous weeks is lessening.

This is happening not because any of these horrors have stopped or lessened, but because they are repeated so often on a daily basis that people don’t feel the urge to report them anymore, because it’s the same story every day.

The upside is that all of this is not stopping people internally from persisting in their small-scale protests, or rooftop shouts or vigils, whatever gets them to go on and keep up their fight. The weekly protests are still continuing every Friday despite the police forces instant attacks on them and, sometimes, they even attack or surround areas before it’s time for these protests, preventing them from formulating. It’s not putting people down though, because at the end of the day, the people feel like they sent the intended message nonetheless.

During this weekend, two families I deeply care about were attacked in their homes in two of the many pre-dawn raids that took place. The infamous pre-dawn raids are one of the most famous techniques of our regime, attacking people at hours where they are least prepared to fight back and when neighbors are least likely to witness what took place.

One of those homes was the last destination on a series of attacks on 20 homes in one night of the same family. Looking for one of the family members, regime forces continued terrorizing people until the person being sought was found in the house of one his nieces. They had raided the homes of her uncles, aunts, and parents. They used electric shocks on her family members inside their homes, in front of their parents. They beat up the men and forbid the women to cover themselves. They forced the parents out of their bedroom, and stole the mother’s gold. Her own house was robbed as well: her gold, expensive camera, and over BD700 were taken by the corrupt forces. They do this because they know people will be too scared to report it, and if they do report it, they won’t be taken seriously; they will get a statement of the robbery in worst cases and wait indefinitely for their things to return. She didn’t care for this though; she was mortified with the abuse she and her family faced at her home. Her husband was away; her three kids were there. They directed bright lights on the kids in their room and shouted and screamed at them; they shouted at her 2-year-old daughter and held her less-than-one-year-old son in their hands, telling her they would take him away and she would not be able to see him till she turns in her uncle. Eventually, they found her uncle, and arrested them both. She was released 5 hours later; her uncle’s fate is unknown. When I met her yesterday, she was still in angry disbelief. She says her two-year-old daughter’s whole body was shaking nonstop, even 5 hours later when she returned to her. This person is one of the most cheerful people I know in my life; I have never seen her cry before or even talk in a negative manner. All she did was receive her uncle in her home, and all his crime consisted of was that he belonged to a political party!

The other home I was referring to wasn’t very different. I have known this family my whole life; their father passed away 7 years ago or so. The eldest two brothers take care of the family. They were looking for one of those brothers. Their doors were broken with iron bars, glass shattered, front and inside doors vandalized and pierced with the iron bars. The same iron bars were used to tear and break any frame or picture of a political leader that hung on the walls of the house, like pictures of the late Shaikh Abdul Ameer AlJamri, Godfather of the 90s uprising. Those iron bars were also used to terrify the children, and threaten the women when they screamed, and they forbade them from moving to cover themselves. When the brother was found, he requested to drink water before being escorted, but they refused. The person accompanying the forces was definitely a very good intelligence agent, definitely close to the family; he knew the young man had a heart problem, and so he instructed the forces to take his pills because he takes them daily. After taking him and his laptop, they went to the neighbor's house, put a gun to the neighbor’s head as she watched them break her garage door and take the young man’s car; their agent knew he parked it there. I spoke to a family member; I learned he has a heart operation scheduled this month! They are very worried.

These two events took place within 24 hours of each other. I am one person in Bahrain having this as my daily life. There are many many more that I know and hear of every day, people from my area, other areas, all around Bahrain.

Yesterday, Saturday morning, a 6-year-old boy (Mohamed Abdul Hussain Farhan) passed away affected by suffocation which he experienced on Friday after the riot police excessively attacked his area in Sitra with tear gas bombs. He spent the night in ICU and passed away Saturday morning.

And this evening, the Ministry of Interior announces another dead body found in Hoora (Manama) http://www.policemc.gov.bh/en/news_details.aspx?type=1&articleId=6987 ; people are anxious now. The last time this happened was April 6^th, when a missing 57-year-old man was announced to be found dead in a very similar manner by MoI. Later his body was found to be bruised and tortured [graphic] http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=167186086669977&set=a.166318410090078.46482.159852480736671&type=1

Below are my compiled updates for this week:

This week they include:

• Protesters News
• Wikileaks
• Media reports
• Video reports
• Picture reports

· Protesters News:

o Thursday 28^th Apr 2011: Military Justice rules lifetime in prison to three and death sentence to four protesters who they accuse of running over two policemen. The four sentenced to death penalty are Ali AlSingaise, Abdulaziz Hussain, Qassim Mattar and Saeed Abduljalil http://www.2bb.me/0427-1303948936.jpg (their pictures are #1, #3, #5 and #6)

o Inconsistencies in Televised Confession of Bahraini Protesters Who Were Sentenced to Death/ and illegality of Death Penalty rule according to Bahrain law! http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/04/bahrains_sentences_four_protes.html

o Google map showing some of the registered demolished/ vandalized/ burnt mosques belonging to Shia around Bahrain http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=201183833019020787911.0004a17a0fd2cb6e24158

o Friday 29^th April 2011, 6-year-old Mohamed Farhan fell due to tear gas suffocation. He passed away early morning on Saturday. [Archive photos of the boy http://www.no-mercy.me/0429-816713040965422448.jpg , http://www.no-mercy.me/0429-781213040965428513.jpg.]

o Pearl revolution website established, I don’t personally know the front behind this website, but it reflects a lot of the rhetoric and thought of youth on social websites and blogs http://www.thepearlroundabout.org/

o Monday 25^th April: Arrest of journalist Haidar Mohamed from AlWasat newspaper http://bit.ly/gSZ3wZ

o Tuesday 26^th April: Doctors Fareeda Aldallal, Sadeq AlAali, Enas Al-ekri arrested amongst other medical staff. On Friday 29^th April, consultant Dr Hassan Al-Tooblani head of ICU department was arrested in the morning from his home. Other doctors and medical staff have been arrested over two weeks ago from Ibn Sina Health Center in the capitol and their families haven’t heard any news of them until today.

o List of sportspeople and sports clubs targeted by government for their involvement in protests: http://bahrainrights.hopto.org/BCHR/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/sports.pdf

o List of reported martyrs: http://almosawi.blogetery.com/?p=196#comment-7 – list hasn’t been yet updated with the latest 6-year-old from Sitra, passed away after suffocating with tear gas shot in his home area. He was in ICU all night on 29^th April and passed away early in the day on 30^th April, 2011.

o Interview with Aseel Ebrahim Sharif, on her missing father: http://www.peacexpeace.org/2011/04/bahrain-made-personal-one-woman-story-of-her-missing-father/

o Hunger and Hope: Interview with hunger striker Mohammed AlDa’aysi http://theleadpress.com/column_daaysi.html

o Protestor blog: Lulu Phobia: http://almosawi.blogetery.com/?p=202

o Wefaq municipal members fired for participating at municipals march and signing municipals petition to UN

o Sign petition to United Nations for the people of Bahrain http://www.petitiononline.com/ssi2011/petition.html

o Aljazeera Arabic has dedicated page to Bahrain. This is a concession to people who have been complaining of AlJazeera’s silence and negativity towards Bahrain’s revolution because of their Qatari funding http://goo.gl/cz8Bs or http://fb.me/GDLJaIFv

· Wikileaks:

o Cable on Bahrain’s youth “worried about jobs, skeptical of political authority and open to America” Classified By: Ambassador Adam Ereli http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/12/09MANAMA737.html

· Media reports:

o Bahrain seeks death sentence for protesters on trial http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/25/us-bahrain-trial-idUSTRE73O39A20110425?WT.tsrc=Social%20Media&WT.z_smid=twtr-reuters_%20com&WT.z_smid_dest=Twitter

o Arab Spring: the Hidden Tragedy of Bahrain http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amir-madani/bahrain-arab-spring_b_854191.html

o 30 medical staff to be investigated: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-26/bahrain-to-investigate-30-medical-staff-for-violations-bna-says.html

o Global Union Movement Calls for End to Repression in Bahrain http://bit.ly/eTBDps

o Turkish weekly: Bahraini Regime Strangling Dissent http://bit.ly/kG4hac

o Another article sympathizing with the Crown Prince: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/bahrain/8472420/Crown-Prince-of-Bahrain-politically-sidelined-by-senior-royal-advisers.html

o Royal Wedding’s Dirty Secret http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24493

o Democracy advocates face challenges as Arab spring turns violent http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471904576230573350388868.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter

o Gulf Allies: A record of repression and torture: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/righ-a25.shtml

o CNN: Bahrain government accuses Hezbollah of aiding opposition groups http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/04/25/bahrain.hezbollah/index.html

o CNN: Bahrain in the shadow of Iran, Saudi Arabia and United States http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/25/bahrain.saudi.iran.arshin/index.html

o Worshipers condemn death penalty in Bahrain: http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=73125

o GDN News:

§ Laughable GDN piece on the doctors who “answered the call of duty” by not treating protesters, as opposed to those who treated protesters against government instructions! http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=304729&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

§ And they admit sacking sportspeople for being involved in protests: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=304739&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

§ That’s the way up the ladder now in Bahrain: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=304670&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

o [Arabic] 320 Kuwaiti students (from Shia sect) denied entry to Bahrain and their embassy not answering their call, while students travelling with them that are Sunni entered normally. http://ow.ly/4JL0X

o [Arabic] BAPCO put their foot down and refuse the interference of the investigation committee http://www.alwasatnews.com/3153/news/read/552880/1.html you may use google translate to get an overview of the piece.

o [Arabic] Municipality Council of Central Governorate fires four Wefaq representatives http://www.alwasatnews.com/3153/news/read/552875/1.html

o [Arabic] Qatar and Bahrain royal family members visit Egypt http://www.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=399741&SecID=97&IssueID=0 this is not the first visit. These visits I bet have helped as well with turning some of the Egyptian popular opinion (at least amongst muslim brotherhood Qaradhawi followers) against Bahrain’s revolution.

· Video reports:

o CNN live with Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0veQfrjrwa4&feature=share to watch the complete report with better quality http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=458St6IdAm4

o Press TV report on Shia demolished mosques: http://vimeo.com/22836415

o Revolution in Bahrain cracking media blackout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noaw_T3JjpU&feature=share

o CNN: Clampdown in Bahrain http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2011/04/26/jamjoom.gcc.arab.uprising.cnn.html

o One of the many lies of Bahrain TV. They used excerpts from this video to say protesters faked their wounds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__EAWsKr6G4&feature=youtu.be

o Video report: summary of mosques destroyed & burning Quran in Bahrain http://youtu.be/DbR8AtS1huQ

§ Another video of some of the Shia mosques demolished by the government in their sectarian retribution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g68XAuw-_g&feature=youtu.be

o Nausea alert: Bahrain TV launches a program called “We are all Khalifa”, right when you think they can’t top themselves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAn8oohO3ts&feature=youtu.be

o Against BTV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VanyPe2rzY8

o Video of citizens being pulled out of their cars at checkpoints. Video uploader claims the driver was beaten then arrested, apologizes for the shaky footage because too many forces were around and he was afraid to get caught http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMi_J5EiaRY

· Picture reports:

o The “loyal citizens” of Bahrain signing on the book of allegiance stand at Bahrain City Center shopping mall https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/222750_222791824402903_216607041688048_1079991_3855164_n.jpg — Do I dare point out the obvious?

o Pictures of the destruction of Shia religious buildings in Bani Jamrah, and graffiti reading “Long Live Khalifa”, “Long Live Bu Met’eb” (Bu Met’eb is King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia) and other writings cursing opposition figures.

o The mess left behind at the home of Hussain Marzooq after his arrest (the second story in my introduction)

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-CBE16401.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-xYK16734.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-CLz17345.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-CGp17487.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-3k817787.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-ySC18042.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-xCQ18296.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-FTZ18509.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-hDh19731.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-bCk20021.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-uQ720353.jpg

§ http://bb.ta7a.com/upfiles/ta7a-eVF20629.jpg

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: guardian.co.uk <noreply@guardian.co.uk>

Date: Sun, May 1, 2011 at 9:21 PM

Subject: [From: c s] The west's silence over Bahrain smacks of double standards

To: ccavell@gmail.com

To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/29/bahrain-saudi-arabia-iran-west

The west's silence over Bahrain smacks of double standards

The absence of pressure on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will only deepen the gulf of distrust between Iran and the west

Hooshang Amirahmadi and Kaveh Afrasiabi

Thursday April 28 2011

guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/29/bahrain-saudi-arabia-iran-west

The European Union and the Obama administration have made a splendid art of double standards by imposing sanctions on Tehran's rulers for their human rights violations and taking military action against the Libyan dictator while failing to address the appalling repression [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/22/bahrain-counter-revolution-televised-athletes" title="Guardian: In Bahrain, first, they came for the athletes] of the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain.

For the US and the EU, which claim to uphold principles over interests, this contradictory policy and their silence over the Saudi intervention [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/17/bahrain-saudi-intervention-sectarian-conflict-protests" title="Cif: Bahrainis cannot be subdued for ever] in Bahrain is particularly harmful.

Indeed, it is hypocrisy for the history books ? to be interpreted by future historians as a reflection of the dominance of western realpolitik over values. How else can one interpret the fact that so far EU-US officials have paid minimal attention to the brutal crackdown in Bahrain, which according to various human rights organisations has resulted in dozens of deaths and incarceration of several hundred protesters?

Instead of condemning the Bahraini government's oppression of its citizens and backing the protesters' legitimate demand for a constitutional monarchy, the EU and the US have confined themselves to vacuous statements without taking any action proportionate to the gravity of the political crisis in Bahrain. The only exception is the rare show of bravado by Zsolt Nemeth, the Hungarian deputy foreign minister (also an EU official) who has advocated [http://www.examiner.com/christianity-politics-in-national/eu-contemplates-mid-east-intervention-un-debates-earth-s-inalienable-rights" title="examiner.com: EU contemplates Mid East intervention, UN debates earths 'inalienable rights'] a Libya-style Nato intervention in Bahrain.

No other EU official has seconded Nemeth, who came under attack for making "empty threats" in light of the fact that Bahrain is home to the American Fifth Fleet and therefore a crucial piece of "American turf". Nemeth's heroic statement coincided with the EU's latest move to freeze the assets and place travel bans on 32 Iranian officials for human rights violations. Earlier, the US and Sweden had jointly sponsored a UN resolution appointing a human rights observer for Iran.

To their credit, the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and her foreign policy team have wisely insulated themselves from the Saudi-Bahraini PR campaign to rationalise Bahrain's repressive behaviour by scapegoating Iran. In comparison, the Obama administration has flip-flopped as reflected in the changing position of defence secretary Robert Gates who, in his latest trip to the region, reversed himself on his admission in March that there was no evidence of Iranian meddling in Bahrain.

Aside from principles, the EU and the US have geostrategic interests that demand a more prudent and long-term policy toward the Bahraini crisis, one diametrically different from the current short-sighted approach. The EU and the US must understand that their obliviousness to the pile-up of popular resentment in Bahrain and elsewhere in the changing Middle East is bound to backfire against their long-term and strategic interests in the region.

A more politically and strategically correct approach counsels a course of action along the following lines: strong and sustained condemnation of the Bahraini government for its human rights abuses; threat of diplomatic reprisals; warning to freeze Bahraini assets and impose travel bans on various Bahraini officials implicated in rights violations; calling on Saudi Arabia to respect the democratic aspirations of Bahraini people and to withdraw its military forces from Bahrain; offering to mediate in the Bahrain political crisis; and to facilitate the process toward free elections.

Only through concrete and proactive measures such as these can the EU and the US recuperate from their damaged standing in the Middle East due to the double standards infecting their policies. Given that the Shia leaders in Iran care so much about their disfranchised Shia brethren in Bahrain, a more principled EU-US approach is bound to improve the rocky Iran-EU relations and mitigate tension with the US, positively impacting the deadlocked negotiations on their nuclear standoff.

On the other hand, the absence of real pressure applied on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain by the EU and the US, compared with their heroics on Iran, will only deepen the present gulf of distrust between Iran and the west, thus making it less likely that Tehran will take EU's recent offer of improving relations seriously.

Under a EU-US double-standards scenario, Tehran will also remain intransigent regarding its tension with the US, nuclear programmes and human rights violations.

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———- Forwarded message ———-

Date: Sun, May 1, 2011 at 8:18 PM

Subject: Inconsistencies in Televised Confession of Bahraini Protesters Who Were Sentenced to Death

To: ccavell@gmail.com

* Please note, the sender's email address has not been verified. yo Click the following to access the sent link: Inconsistencies in Televised Confession of Bahraini Protesters Who Were Sentenced to Death* Get your EMAIL THIS Browser Button and use it to email content from any Web site. Click here for more information. *This article can also be accessed if you copy and paste the entire address below into your web browser. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/04/bahrains_sentences_four_protes.html

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: NYTimes.com <newstracker@nytimes.com>

Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 11:40 PM

Subject: My Alerts: Bahrain Alerts (1 article)

To: ccavell@gmail.com

April 29, 2011 My Alerts

ADVERTISEMENT Alert Name: Bahrain Alerts April 29, 2011 Compiled: 1:56 AM WORLD / MIDDLE EAST Bahrain Sentences 4 Shiite Muslim Protesters to Death By NADA BAKRI (NYT) The four Shiite Muslim protesters were accused of killing two policemen last month during protests against the Sunni Muslim-led government. More Articles On This Topic »

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———- Forwarded message ———-

Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 7:07 PM

To: "Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D." ccavell@gmail.com

[redacted]

Wow. That's quite the production.

Here's another video received today, which has quite a different tenor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AiAmMYXixc&feature=player_embedded#at=20

———- Forwarded message ———-

Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 9:05 AM

Subject: Latest from Bahrain

[redacted]

There were rumors that the university was about to reopen. Judging by the following link, that looks unlikely.

http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/454597

[redacted]

Studying Will Be Resumed when Probe Is over, Says University of Bahrain
Manama, April 28. (BNA) – The University of Bahrain today said that the investigations on the March 13th incidents should continue for the sake of determining the real causes of those regretful events, adding that the probe committees have uncovered dangerous terrorist and subversive plots involving academicians, employees and students.

The university noted that studies will not be resumed unless the three probe committees have finished their work, adding that it is currently rehabilitating the university buildings and consolidating the security procedures ahead of the students’ return.

Date : 2011/04/28

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