BAHARIN: THE
INDSIDE STORY
The Arab uprisings which erupted now four years ago
were remarkable for the prominent role of women. (Women have always played
central roles in social upheavals but when the history got written they were
left out. The internet ended the reign of that kind of "history"
& misogynist glory-mongering.) After a decade of justifying the US-NATO war
in Afghanistan with baloney about liberating women, women revolutionists by the
thousands across the Middle East showed the world what resistance to tyranny
looks like. Thousands of them were veiled head to toe.
Reportedly, wearing a full veil (niqab) is not
required in Bahrain but during protests almost all women wear them so as not to
be identified by the cops & as protection against tear gas. Marches conform
to religious tradition by marching in different groups when men & women
protest at the same time but there are also women-only marches. The women have
made it quite clear they are not mere auxiliaries to the democracy movement but
among its leaders. Photojournalist documentation makes that irrefutable.
In 2012, Hamad al-Khalifa, the hereditary dictator of
Bahrain, hired John Yates, a corrupt UK cop famous for his use of wire-tapping
& police surveillance, & John Timoney, a US cop notorious for
militarized methods against peaceful protestors (rubber bullets, tasers,
concussion grenades, pepper spray, tear gas, electrified riot shields, baton
charges) & police agents. Ostensibly this "dream team" of
thuggery were hired to reform police & military to conform to
"international standards" (comparable to using Joseph Stalin as the
gold standard of policing) after Bahrain was cited by an international
commission for using excessive force, torture, summary execution, &
countless other human rights crimes to crush the democracy movement which
erupted February 2011.
The UK has been involved in Bahraini military &
intelligence training for decades. Along with Yates, a team from Scotland Yard
trained & directed the police force & trained Saudi national guards
deployed in force against protestors in Bahrain in 2012. The UK has a long
history of orchestrating police violence in Bahrain--from 1966 to 1998, Ian
Henderson, a former British colonial officer led Bahrain’s secret police,
gaining the sobriquet, “Butcher of Bahrain” because of the extreme kinds of
torture used against thousands of dissidents, including children. Repeated
calls for the UK to prosecute Henderson under international law have been ignored
because of Britain’s close ties with the Bahraini dictatorship.
Both the US & UK have economic, political,
military, & strategic interests in Bahrain which conflict with the
democratic needs of the Bahraini people. That's why the US & UK continue to
stand by the murderous regime with armaments, combat vehicles &
helicopters, communications equipment, & a missile system. Both countries
play a training role in the use of death squads. And of course without doubt,
the CIA is there training torturers. The US & UK claim the weaponry is for
Bahrain’s external defense but Bahrain is not a country under military siege by
outside armies; it is a regime conducting an all-out war against it’s own
people.
Such nefarious allies have emboldened the regime to
escalate violence & repression; they use special force units to target
& round up human rights activists; death squads; torture, beatings,
kidnappings, disappearances (including of children); indiscriminate but
methodical use of tear gas in residential areas (termed “carpet gassing”)
resulting in maiming, blinding, deaths; incarceration; house raids; road check
points for routine stops, searches, & intimidation.
It's already been a few years since media began
writing triumphal obituaries about the end of the "Arab Spring." But
if the Bahrain, US, & UK regimes were confident of the stable restoration
of tyranny they wouldn't need to turn Bahrain into a gulag & the regime
into an armed encampment against the people of Bahrain.
Protests erupted in the past several days after police
re-arrested Sheikh Ali Salman, a leading democracy figure who heads Bahrain’s
largest opposition group which was inspired by the 1979 revolution against the
Shah of Iran. He was charged with trying to change the regime by force. The
charge is baseless since he is a known opponent of guerrilla or military
methods of resistance.
The full range of Salman's political ideas are not
elaborated in media but Salman wasn't picked up because he poses any military
threat to the regime. Let's get real! One reason may be because because he's
been cautioning for a very long time against the regime's use of divide &
conquer.
It's been very clear from its inception that this is a
democracy movement but the al-Khalifa regime (certainly under advisement of the
US & UK) have relentlessly pursued a divide & conquer strategy of
demonizing Shiites as extremists & pitting them against Sunni. Factional
conflicts that have emerged are orchestrated from the Pentagon, not rooted in
theological disputation. This strategy has proven effective & massively
destructive (in Iraq, Pakistan, & elsewhere) of united opposition to
tyranny & to US interference. It goes without saying that corporate media
echoes that line in reports on Bahrain in an attempt to make the conflict seem
irrational & over theology rather than political & class divisions.
The women in this photo are in Manama, the capital
city, demanding the release of Salman. Here they are taking shelter from
excessive tear gas. Our fullest solidarity, deepest respect, & honor to
these mothers & teachers of revolution.
(Photo by
Hasan Jamali/APO)
[MARY SCULLY]
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