Revolution Crushed in Bahrain

[William Kelly]

"Where ever people want to be free they will find a friend in the United States" - President Obama.

But not in Bahrain.

While the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria have received mainstream media publicity, the revolution in Bahrain was crushed. The non-violent demonstrators took over the landmark Pearl Roundabout, but when the protesters were violently suppressed, the government tore down the huge monument, the equivalent of the Washington monument in USA.

Bahrain: An island kingdom in the Arabian Gulf where the Shia Muslim majority are ruled by a family from the Sunni minority. Where people fighting for democratic rights broke the barriers of fear, only to find themselves alone and crushed.

This is their story and Al Jazeera is their witness - the only TV journalists who remained to follow their journey of hope to the carnage that followed.

This is the Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West and forgotten by the world.

And this documentary is only available from Al Jazeera English and is not available in Arabic or in any Arab country.

Al Jazeera is owned by Quatar, who supported the revolution in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, but not in Bahrain.

Bahrain is the home of the United States Fifth Fleet that covers the entire region and is responsible for fighting piracy off Africa. The US Navy took over the base from Britain in `1970s and recently budged hundreds of millions of dollars to double the size of the base.

Edited September 4, 2011 by William Kelly

[Len Colby]

The hypocrisy is stark, suppression democracy - especially violent suppression, is unacceptable to the US, except when it is carried out by strategically important allies. Even in Tunisia and Egypt, the USG only supported the protesters when the end of the tyrants was all but inevitable.

[Steven Gaal]

"Where ever people want to be free they will find a friend in the United States" - President Obama.

But not in Bahrain.

While the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria have received mainstream media publicity, the revolution in Bahrain was crushed. The non-violent demonstrators took over the landmark Pearl Roundabout, but when the protesters were violently suppressed, the government tore down the huge monument, the equivalent of the Washington monument in USA.

Bahrain: An island kingdom in the Arabian Gulf where the Shia Muslim majority are ruled by a family from the Sunni minority. Where people fighting for democratic rights broke the barriers of fear, only to find themselves alone and crushed.

This is their story and Al Jazeera is their witness - the only TV journalists who remained to follow their journey of hope to the carnage that followed.

This is the Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West and forgotten by the world.

And this documentary is only available from Al Jazeera English and is not available in Arabic or in any Arab country.

Al Jazeera is owned by Quatar, who supported the revolution in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, but not in Bahrain.

Bahrain is the home of the United States Fifth Fleet that covers the entire region and is responsible for fighting piracy off Africa. The US Navy took over the base from Britain in `1970s and recently budged hundreds of millions of dollars to double the size of the base.

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related link http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26752

[William Kelly]

"Where ever people want to be free they will find a friend in the United States" - President Obama.

But not in Bahrain.

While the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria have received mainstream media publicity, the revolution in Bahrain was crushed. The non-violent demonstrators took over the landmark Pearl Roundabout, but when the protesters were violently suppressed, the government tore down the huge monument, the equivalent of the Washington monument in USA.

Bahrain: An island kingdom in the Arabian Gulf where the Shia Muslim majority are ruled by a family from the Sunni minority. Where people fighting for democratic rights broke the barriers of fear, only to find themselves alone and crushed.

This is their story and Al Jazeera is their witness - the only TV journalists who remained to follow their journey of hope to the carnage that followed.

This is the Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West and forgotten by the world.

And this documentary is only available from Al Jazeera English and is not available in Arabic or in any Arab country.

Al Jazeera is owned by Quatar, who supported the revolution in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, but not in Bahrain.

Bahrain is the home of the United States Fifth Fleet that covers the entire region and is responsible for fighting piracy off Africa. The US Navy took over the base from Britain in `1970s and recently budged hundreds of millions of dollars to double the size of the base.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXoooooooooooooooXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=

related link http://globalresearc...xt=va&aid=26752

New evidence has emerged that theBahraini regime’s case against two pro-democracy activists sentenced to deathfor killing a pair of police officers is seriously flawed. In the latest twistof the controversial murder trial, an employee of Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior has now spokenout to clear the names of the men awaiting execution.

The alleged killing of the twopolicemen occurred during the crackdown against pro-democracy protests in theUS-backed Persian Gulf kingdomearlier this year. The event was seen as a tipping point that paved the way foran escalation in repression against civilians by Bahraini and Saudi forces,resulting in dozens of deaths and mass detentions.

Fiveother Bahraini men were sentenced to life imprisonment for their participationin the alleged murder of the police officers in which the state prosecutionclaimed that pro-democracy activists deliberately drove vehicles over thevictims as they lay prostrate on open ground.

Thegruesome deaths were apparently captured on amateur video and are alleged tohave occurred on 16 March, the same day that Saudi-led troops began theirviolent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the Bahraini capital, Manama.The video was subsequently aired on government-controlled Bahrain TV and causedwidespread revulsion among the public [1].

Thetwo men sentenced to death – 19-year-old Ali Al Singace and 24-year-oldAbdulaziz Husain – are to be executed by firing squad if their appeals arerejected next month.

Humanrights activists and the families of the sentenced men say that they were setup by the Bahraini regime. They point out that the accused men were notassociated with each other before or at the time of the alleged crime and thatthey come from different villages across Bahrain. Theonly thing that links the men is that they were active in politicaldemonstrations in their respective villages. Campaigners for the men say thatthe trial was driven by political motives: to intimidate pro-democracyactivists; to smear the mainly Shia-led uprising; and to justify the calling ofa state of emergency by the unelected Sunni regime and subsequent violentcrushing of protests.

Firstly,campaigners for the sentenced men point out that, apart from the video, theonly other evidence used to convict the accused were their confessions. NabeelRajab of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights says the confessions were obtainedfrom the defendants after they were tortured during several weeks of illegaldetention [2]. Rajab also points out that the men were denied legal defence;two days before their trial before a military court began, Mohammed Al Tayer, alawyer appointed to defend the men, was himself arrested and imprisoned by theregime. When the defendants appeared in court, they retracted their confessions.

Secondly,the veracity of the amateur video apparently showing two vehicles driving overa policeman’s body has been called into question. While the initial airing ofthe video on Bahrain TV sparked public horror at the brutality, subsequent closerexamination of the footage by legal sources has highlighted several flawsindicating that the incident was a fabrication.

Forexample, after the vehicles ran over one of the figures alleged to be apoliceman’s body, a group of youths is seen to mysteriously arrive on the sceneand begin “violating” the corpse by kicking it and pelting it with stones. Themacabre scenario has a distinctly scripted appearance. In one frame, part ofthe corpse is seen to effortlessly lift off the ground after being kicked,suggesting that the figure on the ground is not a human dead weight, but rathera dummy [3].

Thereare several other anomalies undermining the credibility of the prosecutionvideo. Critics note that the vicinity of the incident was hours earlier on thatmorning swamped with Bahraini, Saudi and other Gulf forces who had moved in toclear protesters from the nearby Pearl Monument,which had been a focal point for pro-democracy demonstrations. It defies beliefthat youths could have casually carried out the lynching of police officers inan open car park only metres from the Pearl Monument,which had by then become occupied by state forces. Indeed, freeze-frameexamination of wide-angle shots in the video, show the heavy presence of stateforces along the top perimeter of the scene.

Also,how did two police officers end up isolated from thousands of other troops? Whyis no blood seen staining the ground underneath the prostrate figures afterthey were repeatedly run over and then violated by the crowds?

Furthermore,the vehicles that were alleged to have been involved in the killings were neverrecovered for evidence, nor were any forensics from the vehicles produced. Oneof the two men sentenced to death, Ali Al Singace, was later shown to have hada broken leg at the time of the alleged incident in which he was supposed tohave driven in one of the vehicles.

Atthe time of the prosecution, pro-government Bahraini media publishedphotographs and names of two police officers, whom, it was claimed, were thevictims of the lynching. There were named as Kashef Mandhoor and Mohammed AlBalooshi. But there is widespread suspicion among Bahrainis that the deadofficers were not killed under the circumstances claimed by the stateprosecutor in the murder trial. One theory is that the policemen may haveactually been killed by the regime for not taking part in the murderouscrackdown against peaceful protesters, and that their identities weresubsequently adopted for the purpose of prosecuting the seven pro-democracyactivists.

Now,a Ministry of Interior employee, named as Ahmed Mansour, has testified in avideo made by the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights that he was present duringthe incident where the police officers are claimed to have been killed [4]. Mansour’stestimony has been translated from Arabic to English for Global Research. Heclaims to be the plainclothed individual who can seen in the prosecution’svideo picking up a shotgun lying on the ground near a prostrate figure andrunning over to a getaway vehicle.

Mansourdoes not explicitly say whether the figure on the ground was a dummy or not, orwhether the whole scenario was a fabrication. But what he does say clearly isthat the seven men sentenced for the police murders were not present at theincident. The men are alleged to have driven the two vehicles used in runningover the police officers. But the Ministry of Interior employee is now flatlycontradicting this claim. He says that none of the accused was in either of thetwo vehicles.

Itis hard not to draw the conclusion that the whole prosecution has been a vilefabrication; a show trial whose real purpose was to impugn the entire Bahrainipolitical opposition. Disgracefully, in order for the US-backed Bahraini regimeto achieve that objective two innocent young men are facing firing squads andfive others are languishing for life in prison.

Inthe same week that the Ministry of Interior whistleblower made his claimssuggesting the wrongful conviction and sentencing to death of the Bahraini men,the king of the Persian Gulfstate was addressing the United Nations in New York. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa assured UNdelegates that his kingdom respects “universal human rights” – not, it seems,if they are the rights of pro-democracy activists.

FinianCunningham is aGlobal Research Correspondent based in Belfast, Ireland. Hewas expelled from Bahrain forhis critical journalism on 18 June 2011.

cunninghamfin@yahoo.com