“Mr. Muhafdha continues to fight for human rights even though the Bahraini government has clamped down on any opposition, intensifying its electronic surveillance. “No matter how I communicate, they know,” Mr. Muhafdha said in an interview. “The regime has sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment allowing it to spy on everything we do by social media, e-mail and phone.” In a bid to prevent European companies from selling such equipment to Bahrain, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Reporters Without Borders and other nongovernmental organizations took action this month. They filed a complaint against two companies at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which represents the developed economies. The O.E.C.D. has guidelines for “responsible business conduct,” including human rights. Its National Contact Point offices in the member states try to encourage businesses to observe the guidelines and encourage individuals or organizations to complain about questionable business practices. The two companies in question are Gamma International, which is British-German, and Trovicor, which is German…………..”

The regime in Bahrain keeps getting weapons, teargas, armored vehicles, and sophisticated means of espionage. In other words, everything the ruling Al Khalifa family needs to control the people of Bahrain and crush their protests. The Obama administration is selling them ‘some’ equipment while allowing allies in Turkey and the Humorless Kingdom of Jordan and Saudi Arabia to supply them the rest. The Obama administration likes to pretend to be taking the high moral ground, while it keeps the flow of the means of killing and repression going.
The British Cameron government is the worst offender: it acts as if this is the 1950s and 1960s, when British governments supplied the weapons and the personnel to keep the people of Bahrain oppressed by the Al Khalifa clan and their tribal retainers. The jailers and killers of Bahrain are now regularly received at 10 Downing Street and at Buckingham Palace and publicly feted. In Washington it is low key: they are quietly snuck into the White House for brief chats (I hear that sometimes they are met only by minor functionaries like the White House chef or First Dog Bo Obama).

Cheers
mhg