Category Archives: Bahrain

Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Human Right

Former Clinton-istas Lobbying for Gulf Regime of Apartheid ………….

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      BFF

Sorini, Samet & Associates
“In April, the AFL-CIO filed a complaint with the US Department of Labor calling on it to terminate the Bahrain-US Free Trade Agreement in light of the mass sackings of workers in Bahrain following the protests. To formulate the response to this, Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hired the services of Sorini, Samet & Associates LLC, a government relations firm specializing in international trade legislation. The point man at the firm is Andrew Samet, who has previously served as Deputy Undersecretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration. The Bahrain government was to pay the firm an hourly fee ranging between $100 and $550 with an initial non-returnable retainer of $25,000. One would imagine these guys helped arrange the July meetings of Bahrain’s ministers of labour and industry with US officials and policy wonks in Washington DC (after Samet visited Bahrain in May)……….”

They all do it: Republican, Democrats, Vegans, Liberals, Conservatives, Vegetarians, Carnivores, etc. Nothing personal against the people or in favor of the repressive regime. As Sal Tessio told Tom Hagen (Godfather I): It was business…….<br>
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain

Joe Trippi Lobbying for Gulf Apartheid Regime? It is the Money, Stupid!………

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“Joe Trippi & Associates is a D.C.-based media firm headed by Democratic political strategist Joe Trippi, (@JoeTrippi) who managed Howard Dean’s 2004 U.S. presidential election campaign. He was hired some time before August by Dr. Saqer Al Khalifa, Ph.D. on behalf of Bahrain’s ministry of information. According to the registration documents, Trippi is tasked with providing “strategic counsel” and assisting “with outreach to members of the media and non-governmental organizations.” The documents don’t mention how much the Bahrain government is paying for the services…….”

Now Joe Trippi is selling his services to the despotic Apartheid regime of Bahrain. Oddly, his old Democrat boss Howard Dean is also being paid by the secretive and cultist Iranian opposition Mujahideen Khalq (MEK or MKO), a current favorite of the Republican extreme right-wing. Oddly, again, other Democrat luminaries like former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson have also been paid for the same ‘services’, now he is calling for a tougher stance in the Gulf region.
It is the money, stupid!
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Saudi Arabia

Arab Spring Finally Reaches Eastern Arabia? Wahhabi Faux-Liberals of the Gulf………..

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“Security forces in eastern Saudi Arabia clashed with armed people provoked by a “foreign country,” the Saudi Press Agency said Tuesday, citing an official source at the Interior Ministry. The incident occurred Monday night in Awamiyya, in the Qatif region of Eastern province, where many Shiites in the predominantly Sunni country live. At least 14 people were wounded. “A group of instigators” congregated in the town’s roundabout and “used motorcycles and Molotov cocktails to undermine security and interfere in national sovereignty,” according to the report…….The ministry said that it “will not tolerate any threat to the security and stability of the homeland and its citizens, and will respond with an iron fist.”………”

“Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that clashes on Monday night that injured 14 people including 11 policemen in its oil-rich Eastern province, home to a large Shi’ite population, were the work of an unnamed foreign power, usually code for its rival Iran. Saudi Arabia applies the Wahhabi austere version of Sunni Islam, and minority Shi’ites say that, while their situation has improved slightly under reforms launched by King Abdullah, they still face many restrictions and discrimination. The government denies these charges. Shi’ites have long complained of second class status in the absolute monarchy. They also want the release of Shi’ite prisoners, some of whom were arrested during previous protests. Shi’ites, who make up to 15 percent of the 19 million Saudi population, say they are not represented in the cabinet, they struggle to land senior government and security jobs and are viewed as heretics or even agents of Iran by the Saudi authorities and hardline Sunni clerics. …………”


The fear is also vanishing in Saudi Arabia, just as it did in other places from Tunisia through Libya and Egypt and Syria and Yemen and Bahrain. The fear is gone or going away. Now the “Saudis” even have a Facebook page for what they call their “revolution”. Today it is Qatif, but who knows, maybe tomorrow it will be Riyadh and Jeddah in spite of the many who have vanished, like Khalid al-Jehany and Ashmawi and many others. The regime is already claiming that the protesters are “Iranian” agents, a predictable claim for Gulf absolute polygamous monarchs when they are in trouble. This old tune of the despots has lost its charm. Only the so-called self-styled palace liberals, really Wahhabi faux-liberals, in the media of some GCC Gulf states, including my hometown, pretend to believe this nonsense anymore. The despots can fool their people only so many times with the sectarian card that they and the Bahraini rulers have overused.

The solution can be simple: give people back their full God-given rights, the rights they were born with before you usurped them.
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Human Right, Iraq, Racism, Saudi Arabia

Sectarian Wahhabi Logic of a Saudi Mouthpiece………….

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“These words mean that the al-Assad regime is trying to win over the minorities by scaring them of the dangers posed by the majority. Yet the real problem here is not the al-Assad regime, but rather what the minorities themselves have done in our region; the Christians in Lebanon and Iraq, even the Shiites in Iraq and Bahrain, who are committing a grave mistake by sliding into the quagmire of supporting dictatorships, under the pretext that they will be protected against the majority. It is important here to repeat what I heard from a rational, liberal friend, who is far removed from sectarian views, about his reaction to the actions of minorities these days in our region. My friend’s opinion reflects the view of a substantial portion of the rational liberals in our region……….This is the mistake which befell the Shiites in Bahrain, and although they are not a minority in their own country, they are amongst their Arab surroundings. The same thing happened with the Shiites in Lebanon, given their surroundings, especially because they believe that there are embers [of an uprising] under the ashes in Iran…..” Asharq Alawsat (Saudi daily)

This from one of the chief editors of the semi-official Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat. His masters’ voice. He is blaming the people of Iraq for again not letting the remnants of the Ba’ath regime, those who would not even defend Baghdad against the invaders, maintain power. He is blaming the people of Bahrain for resisting the Wahhabi-inspired policy of discrimination and Apartheid applied by the Al Khalifa rulers. He is drumming up that old sectarian and racist nonsense that his Saudi masters and their paid Salafi agents and fifth columnists have used effectively around the Gulf. He is urging the oppressed people of Bahrain to co-exist with others, meaning that they should accept second class status under an unelected minority regime (he might add: worse than the one in Syria which is repressive and dictatorial but does not apply a policy of Apartheid).
He is also taking a swipe at Christians and a few other minorities in the Arab world, perhaps because they are not allied enough with his Wahhabi masters.
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Saudi Arabia

New Rumble in Manama: People to Face Regime & Imported Mercenaries & Western Arms……….

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“Chief of Public Security Major-General Tariq Mubarak Bin Daina
on Monday ordered a ban on forming human chains, a notification
for which was submitted by three citizens to the General Directorate
of the Capital Governorate Police in view of Al Wefaq National Islamic
Society’s plan to form a human chain along a vital road in Manama
tomorrow.
Major-General Bin Daina said that the ban had to be imposed since
the notification does not fulfil the criteria laid down in Decree Law
No. 18 of 1973 on public gatherings, rallies and processions……….”

The people of Bahrain are planning what they call “the Deluge of Manama” or “Manama Tsunami” while the regime calls it by other names. They have drawn a map of the “human chain” route they plan on taking tomorrow. The regime forces, mostly consisting of imported foreign mercenaries and possibly Saudi forces, will be waiting for the people with the best weapons that the freedom-loving West can produce and export.

(This worthy is not even of the ruling family, just a retainer. He is one of the very few top fuckheads I have seen whose last name is different. Must be some in-law).
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, GCC, Human Right, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Politics of Apartheid in the Persian-American Gulf…….

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“When King Hamad came to power in 1999, he initially sought to put an end to the violence and sectarian tension that had characterized much of the 1990s by releasing political prisoners, expanding freedoms for the press and civil society, abolishing the most repressive aspects of the security apparatus, and encouraging dialogue with the opposition to help draft a new constitution that would devolve authority to an elected parliament. These efforts gained overwhelming support from most Bahrainis who yearned for more political and civil liberties, and particularly from Shi’a who faced systemic discrimination in the political, economic, and social spheres. Despite initial expectations, however, the resulting 2002 constitution failed to deliver on the King’s promises, dashing hopes and creating deep mistrust between the ruling family and the political opposition. Tensions were exacerbated when an alleged government report was leaked in 2006 detailing a plan to weaken the Shi’a community politically and alter the country’s demographics through the systematic naturalization of Sunni expatriate workers…………..”

Not only did the al-Khalifa fail to fulfill their contract with the people of Bahrain, the one agreed at independence. (Their failure to democtratize as promised did not much bother the elite who were not victimized and it certainly was welcomed by the other oligarchies of the Gulf states). It was, it is, the apartheid system that they and their retainers of the elite have insisted on keeping in place. Of course getting rid of the apartheid system would mean a more open political system and more freedoms. More important, it would mean the election of an effective legislature and accountability for corruption by the ruling dynasty. That is why the rulers of Bahrain and their masters and protectors in Saudi Arabia, the absolute tribal princes, insist on keeping the discriminatory system in place. That is why they have resorted to fanning the flames of sectarian fears and passions among the people of Bahrain and the people of the Gulf GCC region. That is why they are willing to foot the bill for the importation of foreign mercenary thugs and torturers by the regime.
What they don’t understand is that the people of Bahrain (and one or two other Gulf states) are not like the people of Saudi Arabia who have been trained and terrified over several generations to silently bow and accept the writ of the princes. Even the people of the Arabian Peninsula are stirring now against the restrictions imposed by the potentates and their Salafi lackeys among the clergy.
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Gulf states

Bahrain Trifecta: American Weapons, Saudi Money, Pakistani Mercenaries………

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“The United States should delay a proposed arms sale to Bahrain until it ends abuses against peaceful critics of the ruling family and takes meaningful steps toward accountability for serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today. The US Defense Department notified Congress on September 14, 2011, of a proposed sale of armored Humvees and missiles to Bahrain worth US$53 million. The sale would appear to be the first since the start of Bahrain’s crackdown on protests earlier this year. “This is exactly the wrong move after Bahrain brutally suppressed protests and is carrying out a relentless campaign of retribution against its critics,” said Maria McFarland, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch………….”

The rulers of Bahrain, the al-Khalifa clan, have perfected their game in their Apartheid country. They get Saudi money and troops to keep their throne in the face of a popular uprising, they get all the Pakistani and Jordanian mercenaries they need to subdue their people (paid for by Saudi money and money from other Persian-American Gulf states), and they can get all the weapons they need from America to help subdue their angry and disenfranchised people (also paid for by Saudi and other Gulf money). It is a nice racket, if they can keep it going. Except that they can’t keep it going for long, not with a mini-war warming up between the rulers and most of their people.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, WTF

Animal Farm: King Welcomes Some Foreign Intervention in All Arab States……….

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Arab media report the King of Saudi Arabia said in a speech that he was happy about the return to “normality and peace” in Bahrain. The low level sectarian civil war now going on in Bahrain is considered a “return to normality and peace”, although I am certain the king has never read 1984 (Orwell), never even heard of it. He forgot to add that he was also happy about the return to peace in Afghanistan and Waziristan and Libya and Gaza. The report did not specify what the King and his speechwriters had been smoking before his speech.
(Actually some ‘tribal liberals’ on my Gulf had declared the situation in Bahrain to be “back to normal” from the day Saudi troops invaded in March: apparently the situation is still quite normal and getting even more normal by the day).

The report also said that that Saudi Arabia announced its complete rejection of any “foreign interference” in the internal affairs of Bahrain. They said it is okay for foreigners to interfere in Libya and Yemen and Syria and Egypt and Tunisia and Iraq and even in Saudi Arabia. But not in Bahrain, unless the foreign intervention is in the form of Saudi forces shoring up the regime and its imported mercenaries against the people. Which brings up that other Orwell book, Animal Farm.
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Corruption, ethnic cleansing, GCC, Human Right, Saudi Arabia, UAE, US Foreign Policy

Delusional Bahrain: Despots and Miscreants and a Precocious Schmuck Minister………….

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“MOI: Groups of miscreants were out in various areas of Bahrain today in response to calls made through social media websites. Since their movements were illegal, security forces dealt with them and some of the miscreants were arrested and legal actions taken against them.
With regard to incidents at City Center, at around 4:00pm a group of miscreants and lawbreakers broke into the shopping mall to create chaos and spread terror among the public there. As a result the security forces, including women police, had to interfere and deal with them and some of them were arrested and legal actions taken against them.
The Ministry of Interior apologises to the mall management and the public for any inconvenience caused and affirms that the situation everywhere has returned to normal……….”
Ministry of Interior of Bahrain, the body in charge of police, midnight raiders, looters, imported foreign mercenary thugs, politically nationalized foreign goons (from Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and former Iraqi Ba’athists), torturers, and all round nice guys of the al-Khalifa team. All presided over by a precociously schmuck minister of interior. The country is now a ghettoized occupation zone and these ruling schmucks talk about “normality”.

“The people of Bahrain have won a victory for democracy by their very high participation in the ‘supplementary’ elections……” Regime Spokesman

The rulers of Bahrain are holding another phony election which most of the people of Bahrain have decided to boycott.
Nobody in the whole wide world believes what the regime says on this issue except the governments of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, a couple of other GCC potrntates and some experts in the United States State Department (okay, the latter pretend they do, like the lady in bed who only “thinks of England”).
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Gulf states, Human Right, Persian-American Gulf

Civil War in Bahrain? in everything but name………….

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“IN THE villages inhabited by Bahrain’s Shia majority on the outskirts of the capital, Manama, protesters battle with police every day. Seven months after demonstrators called for democratic reforms by Bahrain’s Sunni rulers, prompting a harsh crackdown, there is still no sign of sectarian reconciliation. A set of by-elections on September 24th for 18 of the 40 seats in the lower house of parliament is meant to convey a sense of progress but may well do the opposite. Pro-democracy campaigners, nearly all of them Shias, have called for the villagers to unite in a mass march back to Manama to reclaim Pearl roundabout, the hub of the protests until government troops routed demonstrators there in March. Since then at least 35 people have been killed. Any march back to the capital will be blocked by a large-scale security presence. Another violent confrontation is quite likely. The elections are unlikely to improve matters. The 18 seats were abandoned in February by Shias who walked out of parliament in protest at the government’s repression. Bahrain’s main opposition party, Wefaq, is boycotting the poll…………“People are not afraid any more,” says Mr Matar, who was beaten in prison and spent 45 days in solitary confinement, sometimes hearing the screams of other inmates. “They have seen the worst that the government can do and they have kept coming back.……”….”

Also sprach The Economist. The harsh crackdown by the Bahrain regime is probably seen now by some sane members of the ruling al-Khalifa clan as a big mistake. The regime threw what it thought were its best cards on the table. It threw everything in its arsenal at the people: security forces, snipers, foreign mercenaries, Saudi and Emirati troops, killings, beatings, prison, torture, sexual assault, mass firing from jobs, expelling from schools and colleges. It has not been enough: so what else can they do, other than the logical obvious they refuse to do? As the man said: people are not afraid anymore, they have seen what the despots can dish out, and they are not impressed.
What Bahrain has experienced since last February is a low level civil war, with each side using the best weapons it perceives at its disposal. The protesters are not using lethal weapons, but they are battling the well-armed regime and its local goons and foreign mercenaries and foreign occupation forces. The regime clings to its policy of apartheid and disenfranchising most of the people. The people now insist on nothing less than full rights: political and economic. It is a low level civil war that risks spreading, a direct result of the foolish policies of the Al Khalifa kleptocracy and their closest allies, nay their masters, across the Gulf.
It is a low level civil war that has no end in sight unless one of two things happen: the people give up their rights and accept despotism and apartheid or the rulers see where all this is leading their small country and give the people back their rights.
Cheers
mhg


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