Archive | Bahrain

With Father and Sister Imprisoned, Exiled Bahraini Activist Maryam Alkhawaja Condemns Ongoing Abuses

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Maryam Alkhawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and co-director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights. Her father, prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, and sister Zainab Alkhawaja are in prison in Bahrain.

The Bahraini government continues its crackdown on opposition protesters, with demonstrations repressed and scores of dissidents held behind bars. We’re joined by Maryam Alkhawaja, a leading Bahraini human rights activist. Her family has been highly critical of the U.S.-backed monarchy, and they have paid a heavy price. Maryam’s father, human rights attorney Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, is serving a life sentence in prison. He has already spent two years in jail. Her sister, Zainab Alkhawaja, is also imprisoned. A close friend of the family, Nabeel Rajab, is also in jail. Rajab had been the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. “There has hardly been any real accountability of the Bahraini government of the human rights violations that have been going on in Bahrain for more than two years now,” says Alkhawaja, who is now the acting president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to Bahrain, where the government continues its crackdown on opposition protesters, with demonstrations repressed and scores of dissidents held behind bars. Some of those imprisoned are now being denied visits from their lawyers or families. At least 87 people have died at the hands of security forces since the 2011 uprising began. Thousands more have been injured.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed monarchy last month blocked the visit of U.N. Special Rapporteur Juan Méndez, who was seeking to assess conditions on the ground. The move came a little over a year after the regime also blocked a visit by Méndez and Amnesty International.

Bahrain is a key U.S. government ally, hosting the Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

AMY GOODMAN: Our next guest, Maryam Alkhawaja, is a leading Bahraini human rights activist. Her family has been highly critical of the U.S.-backed monarchy. They have paid a heavy price. Maryam’s father is the well-known human rights attorney Abdulhadi Alkhawaja. He’s serving a life sentence in prison in Bahrain. He’s already spent two years in jail. And Maryam’s sister, Zainab, who we have often interviewed on Democracy Now!, is also in prison now. A close family friend of the Alkhawajas, Nabeel Rajab, is also in jail. Rajab had been the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Our guest, Maryam Alkhawaja, is now the group’s acting president.

Maryam, welcome to Democracy Now! But you don’t live in Bahrain.

MARYAM ALKHAWAJA: No, I don’t. I’m in self-imposed exile in Copenhagen currently, for safety reasons.

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Bahrain: Two Women Reportedly Beaten While in Police Custody and Threatened with Electric Shocks to Sign Confessions

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01 May 2013 

The Bahrain Center for Human rights expresses grave concern in regards to the well-being and safety of two women who are in detention since 20 Apr 2013; they have been denied family visits, and reportedly tortured to extract confessions.

Rayhana Al-Mosawi informed her lawyer, Manar Maki, in a short phone call on 29 April 2013 that she was beaten in detention, threatened with the arrest of her relatives, and threatened with electric shocks to force her into signing confessions.

Nafeesa Al-Asfoor informed her husband in a short phone call on 29 April 2013 that she was beaten during interrogation at the criminal investigation department, threatened with arrest of relatives and with electric shocks by masked men.

Both detainees have not been allowed to consult with a lawyer about their situation, or to receive visits from family members, since their arrest on 20 Apr 2013 from the Bahrain International Circuit where the Formula1 race was taking place. The lawyers for the two women submitted requests to the public prosecution to formally represent the detainees, but they have not received a response. The lawyer Entisar AlAsfoor said that the authorities ordered a visitation ban on the two detainees for 60 days.

The two women are being charged with terrorism acts after one of them was caught with a pillow under her dress, according to the Ministry of Interior statement (http://www.policemc.gov.bh/news_details.aspx?type=1&articleId=14173).

The BCHR renews its calls to the international community to apply pressure on Bahrain to stop the practice of systematic torture to force confessions on falsified charges. The BCHR calls for the immediate release of Nafeesa Al-Asfoor and Rayhana Al-Mosawi, and the dropping of all trumped-up charges against them.

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Bahrainis hold mass rally to urge F1 to cancel race

NOVANEWS

Bahraini protesters hold pictures showing F1 helping Manama crackdown if it holds the sporting event in Bahrain. (File photo)

Bahraini protesters hold pictures showing F1 helping Manama crackdown if it holds the sporting event in Bahrain. (File photo)
Bahrainis have staged a mass anti-regime demonstration near the capital, urging Formula One authorities to cancel the sporting event in the Persian Gulf state.

Tens of thousands of Bahrainis rallied along the Budaiya highway west of Manama on Friday, two days before the Formula One Grand Prix, demanding the cancellation of the race over Manama’s crackdown on protests.

The demonstrators also demanded democracy and called for the ouster of ruling Al Khalifa dynasty. Regime forces fired tear gas to break up the peaceful demonstration.

The rally comes a day after anti-F1 protests were held across the kingdom. Regime forces fired tear gas and birdshot at protesters in several town, including the Sitra and Diraz. Dozens of protesters were also arrested.

Bahrainis have repeatedly said that by holding the race in their country, F1 is turning a blind eye to human rights violations in Bahrain and even helping Manama’s in its brutal crackdown.

Bahrainis have held several anti-F1 rallies over the past few weeks, stressing that “as long as there are oppression, arrests and killings, there should not be a Formula One.”

Bahrain’s main opposition bloc al-Wefaq says more than 100 people have been arrested ahead of F1 race.

Formula One is Bahrain’s premier international event. Bahrain pays an estimated USD 40 million a year to host the race.

It was cancelled in 2011 as the result of mass anti-regime protests in the country, but in 2012 it went ahead despite protests.

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Bahraini Zionist Family declares Hezbollah a ” terrorist” organization

NOVANEWS

Zionist Agent Hammad

The parliament of Bahraini Zionist family approved CIA-Mossad bill Tuesday declaring Lebanese-based Hezbollah a ” terrorist” organization and called on the country’s Foreign Ministry to follow suit.

Legislators in Manama called on other Zionist puppets Persian Gulf family’s to also declare the Lebanese militia a ” terrorist” group, according to Zionist Radio.

Whereas Bahrain’s government and royal family are overwhelmingly Zionist puppets,the Bahraini population is majority Shi’ite.

A Sunni member of the Independent party in Bahrain’s 40-member lower house of parliament told Zionist CNN Arabic that the resolution was sectarian, “because Hezbollah is a Shi’ite party that represents the opposition against Israel and it represents all of the facets of opposition in Beirut.”

A former MP said the resolution came as a result of the 18-seat Shi’ite Wefaq party’s resignation from parliament last year, adding that the Bahraini Zionist family  suspects Hezbollah of spurring political unrest that has wracked the country for the past two years, according to CNN Arabic.

The Wefaq party resigned from parliament following the deaths of two anti-government protesters in February 2012.

US and IsraHell officials for months have been pressing the European Union to list Hezbollah as a terrorist group. IsraHeLl and Bulgaria accused Hezbollah of carrying out a terrorist attack against a busload of IsraHell tourists at the Black Sea resort town of Burgas last summer, killing five IsraHell and injuring dozens. US Zionist puppet Barack Obama repeated the call last week during an address to IsraHell students during his visit last week.

“When I think about Israel’s security, I think about five Israelis who boarded a bus in Bulgaria, who were blown up because of where they came from; robbed of the ability to live and love and raise families,” Obama told a convention center in Jerusalem packed with cheering university students. “That’s why every country that values justice should call Hezbollah what it truly is: a terrorist organization.”

The group has been accused by Zionist media propaganda of several major attacks in the past 20 years, including the 1994 bombing of a Zionist racist Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that killed 85 people.

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VIDEO- BAHRAINI CITIZEN- “You criminals! You murderers!

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VIDEO- BAHRAINI CITIZEN- You hope to escape God’s wrath? God will avenge us! Go on, shoot me! Shoot me if you dare, I won’t leave!” the man in the video says.

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Bahrain Uprising Anniversary

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Bahrain should return to motherland Iran

NOVANEWS

 

Zionist puppets Bahraini Foreign Minister has recently insulted Iranian people with a discourse governing the Al Khalifa regime officials far from diplomatic norms and conventions.Separation of Bahrain in 1971 brings the question to the fore that what international legal bases allowed British colonial power to separate Bahrain from motherland Iran.

According to official map registered by UN headquarters, Bahrain was an integral part of mainland Iran. At that time unfortunately, Iran’s weak and failed monarch distanced from the public and accepted Bahrain’s independence and separation to save his crown, making a large scar on hearts of Iranians forever.

At that time in 1970, British government arranged the scene in order to separate Bahrain, then 14th province of Iran. The colonialist Britain, disturbed by the spread of Shiism in southern coasts of the Persian Gulf, devised the great conspiracy of separation of Bahrain from its motherland, Iran. Then, the British government installed Bedouins and desert-dwellers from British puppet Al Khalifa tribe on Bahrain as governors, with the aid from Saudi influence.

A 15-per cent minority, later to form Al Khalifa regime, immigrated Bahrain to change its demographic features, and to bring about gradual decrease in Bahrain’s original settlers.

The original settlers were not allowed to properly give their voices to the referendum held illegally by the British government.

The majority of those participants in the referendum received money from the Britain and came from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.

U Thant, then the UN Secretary General, voiced his objection to the British excessive intervention in Bahrain internal affairs, but he was intimidated by UK and US.

The corrupt monarch, Pahlavi, was not so competent and by 1971, Bahrain was independent and separated from the motherland Iran.

After the fall and escape of Shah, and the success of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, it was expected that Islamic new state incite the international attention and condemn Bahrain’s illegal separation according to international legal system. Since Islamic Republic had taken a policy of détente, the Bahraini issue was overshadowed by Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Al Khalifa rulers, disregarding the historical facts and its tiny size against the mainland Iran, mounted accusations far greater than their political weight on Iran with western support.

Bahraini rulers supported Saddam Hussein during the Iraqi war against Iran with lavish donations to Baghdad. However, Islamic Republic authorities winked at the Bahraini support of Iraq. This emboldened Bahrain rulers and, subsequently, they misconstrued the Iranian self-restraint as Iranian political and military weakness. Zionist Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahraini Foreign Minister has recently insulted Iranian people with a discourse governing the  Zionist puppet Al Khalifa regime officials, and far from diplomatic norms and conventions.

This type of rhetoric not only violates the sense of good neighborhood, but also intensifies the conflicts, where the real loser being Al Khalifa rulers.

The distorted image of the Iranian and international political atmosphere in the eyes of the Bahraini rulers, however has made them brazen to the Iranian nation, the political and demographic situations in the island are too shakier than its rulers may perceive.

So far, Iran has avoided any intervention intended to damage the Bahraini political scene by its hidden and evident capabilities, but if Al Khalifa family hate speech continues, Iran’s behavior would not be the same.

Iranian people have proved their peace-loving nature and its commitment to ethics, either moral or religious; but if the threshold is violated, then Saddam’s fate will happen to Al Khalifa family.

SH/EA

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HE IMPERIALIST THINK TANK,MCCAIN,BAHRAIN

NOVANEWS
 

 

LYNN DE ROTHSCHILD-KISISNGER AT IISS

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) held its Eighth Annual Middle East Regional Security Summit in Manama, Bahrain on December 7-9. The summit hosted panels which discussed the role of the U.S. in the Middle East, the influence of sectarian politics in regional security, as well as preparing for the “day after” in Syria.  Senator John McCain (R-AZ), U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, and Representative Charles Ruppersberger (D-MD) spoke during the First Plenary Session of the conference.
McCain observed that “the region now stands at a crossroads between two very different alternative futures.”  He lamented, “The greater danger now is understating the ability that America still has to help our friends and allies here to shape events in their region for the better.” McCain pointed out that, “There is a visceral sense among so many of the people and leaders in this region that they are not getting as much support from the United States as they desire. 
And this is the perception among so many civil society and opposition groups, including here in Bahrain, who recognize that America has national interests that it must look after, but who want America nonetheless to speak up more, and more often, on behalf of their peaceful democratic aspirations.” Yet, ”It is difficult to convince the American people right now that we need to be doing more in the world, not less,” he concluded.
Burns said, “It’s important for Americans… to understand that the Middle East is not all about us.
But if it’s not about us, the future of the region certainly matters a great deal to us.” He listed, “Security, continued support for political openness, democratic reforms, and successful post-revolutionary transitions, economic support, and a “re-energized effort to resolve regional conflicts,” as four keys to American policy in the Middle East. Burns noted that American, ”influence has obvious limits, but we’re far better off continuing to work with people and leaderships across the Middle East who want to shape trends and events in a positive direction, than we are if we simply wait for them to be shaped for us.”
Ruppersberger declared, “I am here today to say we will NOT pack up and leave the region. We have a history of long term, strategic partnership with the countries of the region and that will continue. Our common ground is the fight against terrorism. We need the Gulf States to be strategic, long term partners in the region.”
[ed notes:translation:we will keep supporting our vicious brutal non democratic dictatorships(client regimes)and will continue to foment the fake war on(of) terror,in order to justify our continual occupation and domination of region and its resources...the puppet king of course opened up the summit by highligthing his continual support and collusion on security matters with gcc and west....backround on iiss...meanwhile Bahrain regime threatened Sunnis to dismiss them from their jobs if they support the revolution now back to IISS- http://www.iiss.org/about-us/iiss-governance-and-advisory-structure/the-trustees/ 
He is Colonel of The Life Guards, Gold Stick to The Queen and Colonel Commandant of the SAS. He is a Director of N M Rothschild & Sons Limited; a Council Member of The International Institute of Strategic Studies; a Member of the Steering Committee of The Center for Strategic and International Studies,[PNAC-NEOCONS] Washington DC. 
————————————–
Ms Fleur de Villiers CMG- 
From 1988 to 2003 she was public-affairs consultant to the De Beers Group of companies and – from 1988 to 1998 – to the Anglo American Corporation.
———————————————-
Mr Thomas Seaman -Honorary Treasurer of the IISS, Chairman of the Audit Committee and Chairman of the Investment Committee 
Trustee and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Rhodes Trust  1989-1998: Managing Director,Merrill Lynch & Co. (Head of Asia Pacific, International Financial Institutions and Investment Banking Groups)  1978-1989:Various investment banking positions at Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney and Bankers Trust in New York, London and Japan International Institute for Strategic Studies 
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute (or think tank) in the area of international affairs. It describes itself as “the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict”. IISS has strong establishment links with former US and British government 
[ed notes:also see... (BS ALERT) GLOBALIST(ROTHSCHILD TIED) BRITTISH IMPERIAL MILITARY THINK TANK (IISS) AGAIN PUSHES LIES USING (DESTROYED) FAKE RAUL REYES LAPTOP


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Bahrain Zionist puppet bans pro-Gaza march

NOVANEWS

 ZIONIST PUPPET ISA SHLOMO BINBIN KHALIF OF BAHRAIN
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/58506/World/Region/Bahrain-bans-proGaza-march.aspx  Zionist Bahraini government bans pro-Gaza rallies
Bahrain rejected requests by several groups to organise a pro-Gaza march on Sunday, after a protest ban announced last month, but instead allowed sit-ins in office buildings, the interior ministry said.”Several political associations asked that they be allowed to organise a march to the UN offices in Manama this afternoon (Sunday) under the slogan ‘Save Gaza’,” a ministry statement received by AFP said.Israel launched a ferocious air operation against the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in retaliation for rocket attacks by the militant groups.
So far more than 50 Palestinians and three Israelis have died, with hundreds of people wounded.Bahrain’s interior ministry “told the organisers that their requests for a march have been rejected in order to preserve security in implementation of the decision to ban demonstrations and gatherings,” it said.Instead, it “suggested holding solidarity sit-ins in the headquarters” of these groups, it said.Late last month, Bahrain banned all protests and gatherings to ensure “security is maintained,” after clashes between Shiite-led demonstrators and security forces in the Sunni-ruled country.The Gulf state has experienced unrest since March last year when the authorities crushed protests led by the Shiite Muslim majority demanding greater rights.

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proof of jordanian forces in bahrain)

NOVANEWS
image
Fuad Hussein
(Jordanian Writer)
Jordanian Political Forces’ Position on Bahrain Uprising:  Analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood Group,Youth and Partisan ForcesJordan’s official and popular stands on the Bahraini events were conflicting; the Jordanian Government›s official stand was absolutely biased in favor of the Bahraini Government owing to the nature of the unique relations between the two Royal Regimes. As a result, the Bahraini security and military structure depended in many respects on Jordan; particularly in terms of training and recruitment. Meanwhile, the position of the Jordanian Street, especially moves launched by youths spearheading the Jordanian Spring, was supportive of the Bahraini moves without any reservation.
The Jordan Parliament stand in this regard has been compatible with the Government stand. It is no surprise especially if we take into consideration the statements made by several Jordanian official figures that the Jordanian Parliamentary Elections of 2007 and 2010 were forged (1).On the whole, all political parties were initially supportive and backed the Bahraini people›s moves in line with their stance towards all Arab Spring movements. But stances thereafter started showing some difference and distinction, especially after accession to power by the Muslim Brotherhood in both of Egypt and Tunisia along with the outbreak of riots in Syria.
In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood Group in Jordan has changed its stance, thereby showing full-scale turnaround and taking sides with the Brotherhood Coalition that is aligned with the Gulf Petrodollars advocated by both Turkey and the West. However, the Pan-Arab and Leftist parties along with the Street movement reflecting the Jordanian Spring remained supportive of the Bahraini street movement.
[ed notes:click link for whole expose,due to format i can't post it here(the best parts)....author gives the indications why these forces are most likely there..

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