This French diplomat in Manama looks sober, I think. Maybe that is why he also looks unhappy, for a Frenchman in Manama.
“France supports the reforms taking place in Bahrain and backs the invitation by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for a national dialogue as the best means to overcome obstacles and political differences, the French ambassador to Bahrain has said. “Paris also strongly condemns the acts of violence and stresses that terrorism is not a political tool,” Christian Testot said, adding that His Majesty’s call for the national dialogue, launched in February, is a significant step in the history of Bahrain. “We hope that the five coalition parties that have recently suspended their participation in the Dialogue will come back and resume their participation. It is necessary for Bahrainis to find a way to agree because there is no alternative to the dialogue to reach an agreement on a formula that allows the coexistence and satisfaction of all parties no matter how different their views are. Such a goal is achievable only through dialogue,” the ambassador told Bahrain News Agency (BNA)…………….”
To which I add, as I often do when I read a Bahrain BNA report, a hearty and loud: Hahahahahahaha………….
“His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, following meeting with Egyptian President Adli Mahmoud Mansour, delivered a press statement, in which expressed delight in the continuation of the course of relations and coordination between the Kingdom of Bahrain and Egypt that asserts the strength of relations between Egypt and the GCC countries and the issues of common concern, and expressed appreciation for the Egyptian stance and its people towards the Kingdom of Bahrain and its people………… HM the King underlined Bahrain’s role as President of the current session of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf in supporting the solid relations between Egypt and GCC countries to achieve the common goal of Arab countries…………….”
It is fun to read these inane stupid almost-always meaningless communiques that come out after two impotent Arab potentates meet. And there are no Arab leaders who are more impotent than those two, both sidekicks of someone else. Mr. Adly Mansour bin Zombie Al Mubarak, is the Mubarak-appointed judicial bureaucrat who was appointed interim president by General Al Sisi. He met with the self-promoted King Honey Boo Boo in Cairo in a mini-summit to exchange pleasantries and look important and relevant. Yet they did not fool anyone except their tame and controlled media. Neither one of them is relevant to anything that happens in the wider Arab world or Middle East. Neither is relevant to what happens in their own respective countries that are saddled with them. Cheers
mhg
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is gone, and nobody seems to miss him, except maybe Benyamin Netanyahu, and nobody seems to regret his departure, except probably himself. I suspect that when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, departs he will be publicly missed, no doubt, and there will be public rituals of mourning. But the average Iranian will probably not care that much. A cult of personality is not usually encouraged in Iran, and it would be hard for one to take hold anyway. Probably the Islamic nature of the regime does not encourage personality cults, at least not lasting personality cults. After all, how can any person compete with God in people’s hearts and minds? Besides, there is surely a strong desire everywhere for change: a supreme leader lasting in office for life is the best protection against a personality cult. Just look at Bahrain: the most hated person is the prime minister who has been in office for 42 years. People get tired of the same old, same old, no matter how amenable and lovable that same old, same old is (FYI: Shaikh Khalifa Al Khalifa is not amenable or lovable, never has been). In this there is also a lesson for Arab kings, princes, and shaikhs and assorted dictators and kleptocrats (is there any other kind?). The longer you cling to power and the office, the easier the people will breathe when you are forced to leave. The louder the cheers you’ll hear when you leave office (most likely involuntarily).
The People of Bahrain will gather for huge protests on Wednesday August 14. The people of Bahrain, most of them, have been in a state of rebellion since February 14, 2011. The ruling family is determined to thwart them by imposing a lock-down across the country, especially the capital Manama. Barbed wire and tear gas and contingents of foreign mercenaries are being used to keep the people out of the capital. Much of uncooperative foreign media is being kept out. The ruling Al Khalifa clan of Bahrain have been whittling away the basic freedoms that were guaranteed under the covenant they made with the people who voted for independence and a constitutional monarchy some 42 years ago. Repression and corruption have become a hallmark of Bahrain, as the rulers and their tribal and foreign allies painted a phony picture to the outside world, focused on the capital Manama, of a peaceful progressive financial center and tourist destination. As the people protested, the rulers took a page form the Saudi book of repression and ended the experiment in parliamentary politics for a generation. Which gave them the chance to establish one of the most corrupt systems, of its size, for looting the potential wealth of any Arab country. When they finally agreed under pressure to restore some form of electoral politics, they had by that time unilaterally changed the constitution to make the elected legislature only partly elected, then they made it toothless. When the people protested, the rulers responded with an extended island-wide pogrom that has lasted since February 2011 and continues today. The politics itself angered the people of Bahrain, people of all sects, but what made this an even more serious matter was the regime policy of discrimination, in effect a form of Gulf apartheid, against a majority of the population. There can always be room for compromise over politics, but there can be no compromise over the basic human rights, especially equality. That is why all the attempts at a “dialog” have been and will continue to be fruitless. When the basic right of equality is at stake, words like “dialog” and “compromise” sound like dirty words, at least they do to me. And in the context of the basic right of equality words like “dialog” and “compromise” are in fact dirty words that lead nowhere, except maybe to more “dialog” and compromise”.
“The highly patriotic stand of the National Unity Assembly (NUA) was commended by the Premier. He hailed the gathering at Al Fateh Mosque, organised by the NUA at the height of the unrest, to re-emphasise their loyalty to the nation and thwart attempts of conspirators to hijack the nation. His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa said this as he visited the NUA headquarters yesterday. “As we foiled the conspiracy together, we have to stand together now in one trench to eradicate terrorism,” he said, urging solidarity with the government in confronting terrorism and toughening punishment on its perpetrators and instigators. He stressed the government’s resolve to carry out the will of the Bahraini people to protect society from the dangers of terrorism……………….”
Also sprach Gulf Daily News, one mouthpiece of the repressive ruling kleptocrats of Bahrain, as the people of that country get ready for more massive protests in the capital Manama on August 14. The Bahrain uprising started on February 14, 12011, and is halfway through its third year, but it is opposed by most Arab governments including those of countries that allegedly have experienced so-called uprisings and revolutions (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia). Official Arab institutions, never known for their courage or love of freedom, also side with whoever the Arab despots support and often with whoever has the money (the acronym for money would be G-C-C).
Already, Persian Gulf potentates and their tame and controlled media are lining up behind the rulers against the people. Governments, absolute rulers, their merchant class allies, Salafi Wahhabis, tribal types, and others are calling on the regime to crush what some of them call the “terrorists“. “Terrorist” is an epithet used by the rulers and their media for most of the people of Bahrain. Even some on the Gulf who demand freedom in their own countries are opposed to the Bahraini people’s demands (it is the sectarian-tribal instinct). Even European expatriates, especially the British, are doing their bit for the side of the rulers (the absolute Shaikh of Bahrain is reported to have traveled four times to Britain this year alone and he certainly does not go to attend soccer games). Cheers
mhg
“Change is afoot in the world’s richest nation, Qatar. Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and his Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, are said to be putting in place an ordered succession plan for the tiny Gulf emirate. The transition will see them leave a stage they have dominated for nearly two decades enabling the emir’s son Crown Prince Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and younger ministers to take charge. Rumours have been circulating for several months but in recent weeks, discreet communications have been passed on to various diplomats and leading businessmen alerting them that change is coming.………….”
This is, if true, an unusual event in the Gulf states. Unusual in any Arab country. I suspect the Emir of Qatar is having health issues, although there has been only one mention of this possibility in the media. Voluntary abdication is not common in the Gulf GCC states. That other involuntary kind of ‘abdication’ is quite common, as I noted in an earlier post about de Tocqueville of Qatar.
Which brings me to a couple of other interesting dynasties of the GCC states, probably the two most avaricious and most repressive of the Gulf ruling clans:
In Saudi Arabia they play a waiting game, as the older princes die off and are replaced with other older princes. It used to take a few years to dispatch one king and usher in a new one. From now on they will be likely rotating every few months. The current King Abdullah has buried two successive crown princes in one year, but his luck may be running out. The Saudi dynasty will probably go through the elderly princes for another decade or so. At some point the king may be 100 years old, on life-support and IVs when he ascends the throne.
The last elderly king will probably have to turn off the lights in Riyadh as he takes his last breath. Taxidermy is frowned upon in le royaume sans la Magie, which is a good thing.
In Bahrain the old prime minister, Khalifa Al Khalifa, has been in power and doing serious damage, essentially screwing the island almost, but not quite, like the late Papa Doc in Haiti. The imported foreign mercenary militias are his equivalent of the old Haitian Tonton Macoutes. For some 42 years, longer than Muammar Qaddafi ruled Libya. By now he probably smells like a pickled herring, and as oily, and possibly has the texture of over-aged smoked salmon. Nevertheless, he would like to continue looting the country, teargassing and imprisoning his way to death and a long tenure en enfer afterwords. With friendly help from other Gulf GCC potentates and the Western powers.
“Bahrain dailies issued the other day focused in their principal headlines on the main local, Arab and international events which happened over the past 24 hours.
The following are the main topics:
-HRH Premier (Shaikh Khalifa Al Khalifa) receives cable of thanks from Thai monarch.
-HRH Crown Prince (Shaikh Salman Al Khalifa) receives new Italian ambassador to the kingdom of Bahrain.
-Deputy Premier Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa receives former US Ambassador to Bahrain Ronald Neumann.
-Deputy Premier Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa receives Kuwaiti Ambassador.
-Deputy Premier Shaikh Khalid bin Abdulla Al-Khalifa receives Sudanese ambassador and discusses bilateral relations
Foreign minister (Shaikh Khalid Al Khalifa) attends the meeting of the Friends of Yemen Group in London.………………..” Bahrain News Agency
Now ain’t that sweet? Feel out-Khalifa’d yet? The good news is, at least good news for the crown prince of Bahrain since it makes him seem more relevant than last week, is that they have appointed the crown prince as (First) Deputy Prime Minister. The PM, the hugely unpopular uncle of the king, has had his own son as the only deputy prime minister until yesterday. Which makes the son a ”number two” as of now: the father, the PM, has been “number two” for decades since the king is his boss. This alters things within the ruling Al Khalifa, but I am not sure how it helps the people of Bahrain achieve their rights in equality and justice and freedom. Don’t break out the sharbat, or whatever it is you prefer, yet.
“Bahrain has dismantled a “terrorist cell” linked to Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, the interior minister said, slamming what he called “escalation” in the kingdom as the Shiite opposition intensifies its protests. Security services “have, with the help of a brotherly country, arrested the members of a terrorist cell made up of eight Bahraini elements,” state news agency BNA late Saturday quoted Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa as saying. The eight “moved between Iran, Iraq and Lebanon and received training in using arms and explosives as well as financial aid,” he said. “Details about the case will be announced as soon as the investigation is completed.”……………”
A new terror plot aimed at blowing up the huge King Fahad Bridge with a sack of dynamite. Plots to blow up communications towers (according to Shaikhs Rashid Al Khalifa and Fawaz Al Khalifa, the latter the Gauleiter of media and communications. Possibly a whole passel of other Al Khalifa. No news of yet of any involvement by the Texan Arbabsiar or the Mexican Drug cartels. But stay tuned. Like a clockwork, always on time. The Al Khalifa almost regularly uncover the same plot over and over again, every few months. You’d think they are facing the Viet Cong or the Free Syrian Army of the Jabhat Al-Tibin. It is always a plot by Iran and Lebanon and Iraq and occasionally Syria (this time they left out Syria) with the aim of overthrowing the apartheid regime in Bahrain as a first step toward taking over the Persian-American Gulf then eventually taking over the West, as a prelude to conquering the world, (including Texas). The miserable Al Khalifa shaikhs are all that stands in the way of these plots and success. Occasionally these plots are joined by hapless American and European and even GCC parties, at least according to Field Marshal Al Khalifa bin Montgomery of El-Alamein von Rommel Abu Stalin.
These plotters are always countries with majority or plurality Shi’as that are charged. Yet they forgot to add Azerbaijan. They must have thought the Azeris are either Wahhabis or Russian Orthodox (some of them are but not the Haider Aliyevs).
The Iranians would like to influence events in Bahrain, perhaps meddle, no doubt. Everybody else is meddling, even the Pakistains and humorless Jordanians (through their mercenaries and hired murderers). But the ruling family and the Saudi occupation forces are providing the mullahs with their best opportunity in many years. Cheers
mhg
“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).
“Britain’s top military academy, Sandhurst, has come under fire for renaming a sports hall commemorating a First World War battle after the King of Bahrain. The Mons Hall – named after the 1914 battle where thousands died – will have its name changed to honour the Bahraini monarch who has given millions in funding to the Army’s officer training college. The building will now be called King Hamad Hall and will reopen next month after being refurbished thanks to a £3 million donation from the king, who is the patron of the Sandhurst Foundation but is known for brutally repressing demonstrators at home. Sandhurst has also accepted a £15 million donation from the United Arab Emirates to build a new accommodation block, raising questions about the college’s links with authoritarian Gulf states accused of human rights abuses………….”
Shaikh Hamad Bin Issa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, by the Grace of Al Saud arms and money and imported mercenaries from Pakistan and Jordan and Syria and and other places, King of Bahrain. Most of his people live in poverty since the resources of the state are taken by the rulers and their retainers. The regime now depends on financial aid from the richer GCC potentates. They usethe money to import weapons and foreign mercenaries and to fund an expensive PR campaign centered in London and Washington. Notice how most of our Gulf potentates prefer PR and lobbying campaigns to reform and election campaign? His un-majestic shaikh-king of Bahrain is reported to have bribed donated GBP 3 million to rename a sports hall at the British Sandhurst Military Academy, so that it will be named after himself. The name Mons Hall of the battle where so many died in the trenches will be removed, in favor of the name of a chubby little tribal despot.
I have read that Sandhurst has a special “soft” program for the sons of Arab kings, shaikhs, and other potentates who wish to be “graduates of Sandhurst”. It does not prepare them to tend bar at Claridge’s, but it gives their families the excuse to make them Field Marshals and Generals within a few months. Why doesn’t Sandhurst follow in the footsteps of such other cash-strapped Western institutions of higher learning? Why not establish a branch in the Persian-American Gulf region for the scions of the potentates? If the Sorbonne and NYU can pretend that it has a “branch” on the Gulf, why not a Sandhurst on the Gulf? Cheers
mhg
