British Embassy Promotes Despotism in Bahrain 59


The British Embassy in Bahrain is promoting the appalling attack on human rights in that country – on the official British government website.
The views expressed can be reasonably described as fascist:

So-called human rights organisations, which unfortunately are largely administered by ex-ideologists and even terrorists, today propagate their own version of the word ‘freedom’, solely to take it away from others. They dismiss any notion that the minute someone’s freedom intrudes on that of another person, it becomes an act of violation. For absolute freedom is absolute chaos. Like any other state of being, it must be accountable. But in today’s world there is a frequent tendency for the press to brand those in power as ‘baddies’, and the real wrongdoers as victims.

During the last two years Bahrain has suffered hugely damaging media-inspired attacks on its image and integrity – without checks being made as to their veracity – whether news or comment.

Another thought…as much as beasts cannot be left to roam freely, so in human society the feral element’s freedom should be under control.

Respect for freedom should really start from an early age. Otherwise our society will only breed ranks of the undisciplined – staining the values of freedom.

Freedom of thought, thinking and writing, should all derive their essence from graceful wisdom, not from the dogma of hooligans.

And a second essay:

During the past two years Bahrain has gone through a phase during which misleading information has ripped our society apart through sectarian tension.

Writers took the opportunity of the unrest to promote their political views. Some fabricated stories which supported the opposition; others decided to turn the table and depict a whole segment of the society as traitors – such was the shameful role played by state television and other loyalist media outlets.

By using the term freedom of expression in the wrong context, both sides played a dangerous role in promoting sectarianism and dividing society.

It is beyond satire that the headline on all this is “blockquote>British Embassy Bahrain marks the World Press Freedom Day.

Apparently the Embassy commissioned these essays from Bahrainians to mark the occasion. Extraordinarily, they have published two essays from pro-despotism propagandists. If they had published two balancing essays from the majority community, I would have viewed the inclusion of the fascist views as wrongheaded but defensible. As it is, this is an appalling disgrace to the foreign office.

Here are some genuine press stories the Embassy might have noted, but didn’t:

Bahrain doctors jailed for treating injured protesters

Teenager Killed in Bahrain on Protest Anniversary

Bahrain Protest Crushed By Security Forces


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59 thoughts on “British Embassy Promotes Despotism in Bahrain

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  • Sally Saar

    Bahrain’s NGO Terrorists or Activists?
    As 14th February approached, radical groups sent out threatening messages warning businesses to remain closed and to order people not to shop, go to the bank and basically to cease all business transactions until Friday 15th. Radicals called for a general strike and went as far as padlocking a primary girls school to prevent children attending classes. The vast majority went to work, went shopping, visited coffee shops, went to the cinema and any delay caused by road blocks of burning tyres was considered a minor set back as they refused to play by the rules of radical coalition groups. Gift shops, florists and choclatiers buzzed with customers buying gifts for their loved ones.
    The street violence escalated on 14th February morning, although a series of rallies ensued everyday for almost 10days prior. On Thursday rioters made villages inaccessible and blocked streets with sand piles, bricks, glass, trashcans, nails and other dangerous items. Protestors poured oil across highways, detonated gas cylinders, burned tyres and cars and threw nails and plastic bottle pierced with nails across high traffic roads. By 10am one of the protestors, a 15year old child was dead. The online social media accused the “mercernaries” of shooting him with birdshot at close range. Videos show a lifeless body of a young boy with a large punctured hole in an ambulance. During the day over fifteen policemen were injured, most of them seriously and required hospitalization.
    What the international media and the radical groups online blogs and other social media channels failed to explain is why the child was in the middle of a violent demonstration. There was no mention of the fact that this child was in a situation that would be considered dangerous for any civilian. Judging from his attire and the fact he was with a group of rioters suggests that he was involved in some illegal activity. A death can never be condoned, and the loss of a young son to a mother and the rest of the family is a painful affair. However, one should be tempted to question the morality of adults who allow their children in highly dangerous situations. The state offers free education and he should have been in class – so the question arises – why was he not in school like the other thousands of children across the country? One does not need to be a genius to know that children are like blank pages and it is adults and the influences on their lives that moulds their character and future. So, I would ask the parents why they were not protecting their child from gangsters who had recruited their young son for violent criminal activity. I wonder why the international community does not defend children’s rights and why there is not strong condemnation for this parental abuse?
    There was neither real mention of the security personnel’ injuries nor any reference to the attacks police faced with molotovs, home made bombs and a series of home made weapons. The international media, once again sensationalized domestic terrorism as a protest by peaceful activists. Official statements were released after international media had already openly accused spokespeople of not responding to queries. Cynics accused the government and false allegations on social media were excruciating to those whose only aspiration is that the truth be exposed. International media has once again failed the people of Bahrain by conveniently ignoring the interference of external radical governments .

    This brings us to the question – where did all these gangs come from?
    Terrorist activity is well designed, planned and efficiently executed to make a statement in the form of propaganda. They are fully aware that media will be drawn to a show of victimization and tragedy. International security officials know that terrorism is aimed at disrupting societal law and order to achieve a goal through violence, force, intimidation or threats. Extremism , criminally motivated by ideology and religion under the guise of politics has infiltrated local communities and recruited youth. It is in their interest to deny education to these youngsters making them more impressionable and obedient.
    Since tremendous financial support is required to keep men in the field loyal, these terrorist leaders have exploited capitalist free societies by setting up NGOs. Terrorist organisations approach their beliefs with a mission exactly like a business, where economic needs require funding and like all businesses would be focused on the bottom line. In the past, terrorist groups would get involved in criminal activities to raise funds, but with technological advances it drew unwanted attention from intelligence organizations. Many NGOs are used as a front for activists to infiltrate youth within targeted communities where they receive funding to successfully train young men into budding terrorists whilst denying them formal education, but providing radical teachings for absolute submission. The morale of these agents in the fields is maintained through cash and other incentives for dependence, but never enough for them to break free. These radical leaders plan rallies that are an ideal platform to target emotions and create controversy. Since the world and police would focus on violent men and boys, women are mobilized for distraction and often portrayed as victims for more sympathy in the international media.
    There are hundreds of NGOs in Bahrain and even more across the globe that support “victims” in this country. Many use words like human rights, youth human rights, women’s rights, friendship, activists etc to gain trust and credibility in the western world. They are not interested in what is best for the country and consider the death of their operatives as an opportunity to gain more media attention – nothing more. International Human Rights groups recently re-launched a campaign demanding the release of fourteen such “activists”, while Western Governments continue to watch and nod in silence. Let us be very clear, Al Khawaja x 2, Sharif, Mushaima, Mugdad x2, Abdul Wahab, Singese, AlNoori, AlMukhodar, AlMahroos, Jawad, Mohammed Ali and AlSumaikh have been sentenced based on proof of terrorist activity and their part in a coup d’état with support and financing by an external extremist power. Other “freedom”campaigners” like Said Yousif, Nabeel Rajab, Zeinab Al Khawaja, Maryam Al Khawja and Saeed Shehabi voice hostility towards Bahrain’s leadership whilst their financial support and agenda is questionable to say the least.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella)

    @ Villager :

    “Habba, Sir, if I were to admit that i do follow Mary because i find her research very helpful, would you admit that you stalk-followed her out of the blog?

    At any rate, i’m glad the atmosphere at the blog has improved, not least because Craig’s been posting regularly.

    As for Mark, I think he’s just flowering in the Spring, but keep in mind a flower doesn’t care who comes to smell its perfume.”

    ———

    In the order of your paras

    – no, of course not. And even if I had stalked her out of this blog it didn’t last very long, did it – all of ten days or so (somewhat less than most people’s summer hols when you think about it). But I knew it was just a bluff (this blog appears to give meaning to her existence) or perhaps even some kind of daft blackmail attempt on Craig – you know, ‘ban Habbabkuk or I’ll leave’ (if the latter, then singularly unsuccessful)

    – I quite agree. As I’ve already pointed out, a rapid turn-over of posts from Craig makes for more on-topic posting (because the off-topics become forgotten mote quickly) and less time for people to run out of ideas and get bored.

    – if Mark’s a flower, he should be careful : a too early and too hot Spring could get his sap rising too quickly for his overall health and growth prospects

    PS – punctuation fine!

    PPS – Karel’s been quiet for a long time, what’s with him?

  • April Showers

    The much travelled, usually at others’ expense, Nigel Evans MP Con Ribble Valley and Dep Speaker –

    8-11 September 2007, to Bahrain, for meetings with the Crown Prince, Prime Minister and other ministers about Anglo-Bahrain issues. (Registered 24 October 2007)

    http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10190

    Now facing charges and making the headlines.

  • April Showers

    Correction. Not charged but arrested and being interviewed by Lancashire Constabulary.

  • Jives

    Habbabkuk,

    “or perhaps even some kind of daft blackmail attempt on Craig – you know, ‘ban Habbabkuk or I’ll leave’ (if the latter, then singularly unsuccessful)”

    *****

    That’s truly pathetic,even by your own deluded and abysmal standards.

    Your oafish narcissism knows no bounds.

  • karel (a conspiracy a day keeps idiocy away)

    Craig
    what does “a tiny bit more balanced”, in your response on 4 May, 2013 – 2:22 pm
    to Halibabacus, actually mean?? May I point out to you that Joseph Goebbels was probably the the first to clearly formulate the idea that propaganda works best when not recognized as such. I am not surprised that simpletons like hahababa consider that piece of propaganda (the second essay) as something more balanced, as he ask in his inimitable idiotic way “doesn’t that provide (a bit of ) balance?” Yes, indeed for hahababas of this world, it does indeed provide a lot of “balance”. I suppose, not to fall down the stairs. But Craig, without being offensive, cannot you do bettter than that hasbara simpleton??

  • Mark Golding - Children of Conflict

    HUMANITY & PEACE

    http://sallyfromsaar.wordpress.com/

    https://twitter.com/SallyfromSaar

    The National Security Agency (Bahrain) replaced the General Directorate for State Security Investigations by Royal decree. British citizen, Ian Henderson (of Mau Mau fame)was deported from Kenya and moved to Bahrain to take the post as the head of the General Directorate for State Security Investigations in Bahrain, a position he held for some 30 years, retiring from his position in February 1998.

    He has been accused of complicity in torture during the period of protracted social unrest that Bahrain experienced in the mid to late 1990’s, leading to an investigation by British authorities in 2000. The investigation was concluded in August 2001 and no charges were filed. He has always denied any involvement in torture.

    Henderson was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II with the CBE (1984) George Medal (1954) (and Bar (1955)) and the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal (1953). He was honoured by Government of Bahrain with The Order of Shaikh ‘Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa (Wisam al-Shaikh ‘Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa) Exceptional Class (2000), The Order of Bahrain (Wisam al-Bahrein) 1st Class (1983) and The Medal of Military Merit (Wissam al-Khidmat al-Askari) 1st Class (1982).

    The National Security Agency has been accused of torture and targeting of human rights defenders and opposition political activists. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, established by King Hamad to investigate events in the Bahraini uprising, concluded that “the NSA … followed a systematic practice of physical and psychological mistreatment, which in many cases amounted to torture, with respect to a large number of detainees in their custody.” This conclusion was reached on the basis of investigations and forensic medical examinations conducted by the Commission.(p298) The Commission also found that the death of one detainee—a co-founder and board member of the independent Alwasat daily newspaper—was attributable to torture while in the custody of the NSA.(p245)

    Source:Wikipedia

  • April Showers

    One day at a time, the Israelis are setting off a full scale conflagration.

    ‘Syrian opposition claims IAF strike targeted Damascus airport

    A Syrian rebel website says that the alleged Israeli strike in Syria targeted aircraft fuel tanks, Syrian army ammunition storerooms, the army’s runway and a civilian cargo plane that had arrived from Iran.

    By Zvi Bar’el | 18:41 04.05.13 | 2

    The target of the alleged Israeli attack in Syria was Damascus airport, where aircraft fuel tanks, Syrian army ammunition storerooms, the army’s runway and a civilian cargo plane that had arrived from Iran to Damascus were destroyed, according to a(paywall)…..’

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/syrian-opposition-claims-iaf-strike-targeted-damascus-airport.premium-1.519170

    I do not think that there is anything ‘alleged’ about the attack.

    Obomber said that ‘there would be no boots on the ground’ in Syria and hastily corrected himself saying that ‘there would be no American boots on the ground’ leaving us to speculate on the nationality of the occupants of the boots.

  • April Showers

    Dictatorship and Double Standards: Bahrain Is More Repressive Than Russia, But Reading the Washington Post You’d Never Know That

    One of the things that I find endlessly grating about the “morality in foreign policy” crowd is their myopia. While a consistent stand in defense of human rights is entirely laudable, if a bit unrealistic in the fallen world we live in, the people who want to inject “values” into American diplomacy are usually incredibly selective in their outrage. By and large they choose countries, such as Venezuela or Russia, with which America is already on lousy terms and then argue that “values” demand heightening tensions in already tense situations. It’s an instrumental view of “rights” which holds that they are useful only to the extent they support American foreign policy priorities.

    Thus you have someone like the Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl who is repulsed by the idea of limited anti-terror cooperation with the Russians but who just can’t seem to find the time to bemoan the (far more grievous) human rights violations of close US anti-terror allies such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

    /..
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2013/05/01/dictatorship-and-double-standards-bahrain-is-more-repressive-than-russia-but-reading-the-washington-post-youd-never-know-that/

    PS The pop-ups on Forbes are very annoying.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    “… undermining its own political support by endorsing absolute despotism is at least a very unwise decision, at a time of great political shift in the UK.” Emmy.

    I agree with much of what you wrote, Emmy (4.5.13, 1:02pm). But it seems to me that “endorsing absolute despotisms” is nothing new, quite the opposite. Craig Murray’s own experience wrt Uzbekistan surely is evidence of that. And think of ‘Saudi’ Arabia (and the UAE, all of which, as you rightly suggest, was set up originally by Britian. Quite apart from the strategic military goals, etc., which can vary b/w the UK and USA, from the early 1970s onwards, ‘Saudi’ Arabia et al has played a vital role in propping up the British economy. So the problsm relates nbot only to this Government. It is systemic, it is corrupt, the rot runs very deep.

  • April Showers

    Reading this report this morning was distressing. Let alone what evil and harm we wreak on each other, we cause harm to these fellow mammals and kill them as we practice our war games. Note that many of the dead were infants.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2319611/Navy-sonar-did-cause-mass-dolphin-deaths-say-scientists-blame-war-games-exercise-Cornish-coast-strandings.html

    The ‘exercise’ took place 4 years ago and they probably still continue.

    “This stranding is a game-changer and leads us to call for a re-evaluation of military activities,” said Sarah Dolman, head of policy at Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

    The Government funded Dr Jepson added: “Continual improvements in mitigation strategies by the military is probably the best way to limit future environmental impacts of naval activities.”

    What useless and pathetic responses.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    The other point is that the lack of civil societal structures and the failure of secularism/democratic structures/processes to take root in any of the countries of the Middle East (and more widely too) represents a fundamental crisis of modernism in those societies which cannot be denied.

    It is very hard to see how anything can happen now other than the commencement of an Age of Darkness in those lands. For decades, both Saudi Arabia and Iran have been pumping out, not merely oil but also toxic ideology, backed by trillions of petrodollars. They have the guns, they have the money, they have the cadres, the strategy, the vision, the organisation.

    There is nothing ‘fundamental’ about ‘Fundamentalism’; it runs on an invented, mendacious history centring around a paranoid anti-Semitism that draws largely on European anti-Semitism and religionises it, and a largely invented totalitarian doctrine. Yet aspects of Islamism do arise from aspects of Islam; to deny that is to bury one’s head in the sand. However, it is crucial that the two – Islam and Islamism – not be conflated.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella)

    @ Jives (21h15 yesterday) :

    well, to be fair, she did call for me to be banned shortly before she ‘left’, didn’t she.

    *********

    La vita è bella, life is good!

  • Mark Golding - Children of Conflict

    A vast archive of colonial-era documents that the Foreign Office (FCO) had kept hidden for decades, and which shed new and stark light on the dying days of British rule, not only in Kenya but around the empire.

    In the case of the Mau Mau conflict, the secret papers showed that senior colonial officials authorized appalling abuses of inmates held at the prison camps established during the bloody conflict, and that ministers and officials in London were aware of a brutal detention regime in which men and women were tortured and killed.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/18/sins-colonialists-concealed-secret-archive

  • April Showers

    That was an interesting read Mark. The blood has never dried.

    Kenya
    Main article: List of British Detention Camps during the Mau Mau Uprising

    During the 1954-60 Mau-Mau uprising in Kenya, camps were established to hold suspected rebels. It is unclear how many were held but estimates range up to 1.5 million – or practically the entire Kikuyu population. Between 130,000 and 300,000 are thought to have died as a result.[citation needed] Maltreatment is said to have included torture and summary executions. In addition as many as a million members of the Kikuyu tribe were subjected to ethnic cleansing. (Sources: . R. Edgerton, Mau Mau: An African Crucible, London 1990 page 180; C. Elkins,”Detention, Rehabilitation & the Destruction of Kikuyu Society” in Mau Mau and Nationhood, Editors Odhiambo and Lonsdale, Oxford 2003 pages 205-7; C. Elkins, “Britain’s Gulag: The Brutal End Of Empire In Kenya”, 2005).
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concentration_and_internment_camps#Kenya

    Perhaps the Dr Kelly papers are secreted away at Hanslope Park. I wish that someone with something on their mind about the case would come forward before they die.
    http://www.dark-places.org.uk/site/hanslope-park

    It’s round your way I think.;)

    Hague an historian? Apparently. ‘On the backbenches, Hague began a career as an author, writing biographies of William Pitt the Younger and William Wilberforce.’ But did he learn any lessons from his researches is the question?

    I know that Ffion has written a book about Lloyd George’s lady friends.
    http://www.petersfraserdunlop.com/Authors/ffion-hague

  • Fedup

    This brings us to the question – where did all these gangs come from?

    How very quaint: How about hitting the Bahrain dictators with a leaflet campaign followed by a T-shirt campaign?

    How very disconnected from reality, only an army spyop specialist with the relevant software, can come up with these lines of bullshit.

    It is called a revolution, and regardless of all kings men (US fifth fleet, Saudi paid thugs, the ever helpful British embassy staff, as well as her Madges own Yates of the Yard who was invited to No. Ten for tea and biscuits) will not keep the motley bunch of the numpties together again.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella)

    “Hague an historian?”

    Yes, indeed, and thank you for a rare positive comment on a public figure and a politicain to boot. The two works mentioned received good critical reviews and sold well for their genre.

    He’s a man who fits into the Denis Healey characterisation of “a politician with a hinterland”.

  • April Showers

    well, to be fair, she did call ….

    We were taught by our mother that it was very rude to call somebody ‘she’. We were asked if we were referring to the ‘cat’s mother’. Funny what comes back from childhood memories.

  • Jives

    Habbabkuk,

    “He’s a man who fits into the Denis Healey characterisation of “a politician with a hinterland”.

    Oh he’s got a hinterland alright.He probably fits in very well there,wherever that may be.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    I note that Carla Del Ponte, once of the ICC and now of the UN, has asserted that there is strong evidence, not yet absolutely confirmed, that the Jihadist paramilitaries in Syria have been using sarin gas on civilians. Now, we will need to wait and see if this is confirmed, but if it is, it raises two questions:

    1) Who, in the name of God (and I use that term very deliberately in this context), gave them it? Did they steal it from one of the Syrian regime’s own sites, or were they gifted it by an ally?

    2) If the use of chemical weapons was/is a ‘red line’ wrt the Syrian regime, ought it not to be a red line for the Jihadist paramilitaries? In which case, what do we do about it? Or is it okay for our allies to use chemical weapons, just as Saddam Hussein did against the Kurds in the late 1980s, and to contineu to be recipients of our materiel largesse?

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/world/middleeast/syrian-rebels-may-have-used-sarin.html

  • April Showers

    Same old, same old…

    5/5/ Sordid history, same agenda, behind US all-out war on Syria

    Posted May 6th, 2013 by lizburbank

    related:http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/413/412/402/369/ 333 / 334/ 335 /336 /

    US & UK Syria invasion and assassination plot
    Documents: White House and No 10 conspired over oil-fuelled invasion plan

    The Guardian – Ben Fenton – September 27, 2003, http://albizri.com/index_e.htm

    Nearly 50 years before the war in Iraq, Britain and America sought a secretive “regime change” in another Arab country they accused of spreading terror and threatening the west’s oil supplies, by planning the invasion of Syria and the assassination of leading figures….Newly discovered documents show in 1957 Harold Macmillan and President Dwight Eisenhower approved a CIA-MI6 plan to stage fake border incidents as an excuse for an invasion by Syria’s pro-western neighbours, then to “eliminate” the most influential triumvirate in Damascus…

    Driving the call for action was CIA Middle East chief Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of former president Theodore Roosevelt….By 1957, despite America’s opposition to the Suez move, President Eisenhower felt he could no longer ignore the danger of Syria becoming a centre for Moscow to spread communism throughout the Middle East. He and Mr Macmillan feared Syria would destabilise pro-western neighbours by exporting terrorism and encouraging internal dissent. More importantly, Syria also had control of one of the main oil arteries of the Middle East, the pipeline which connected pro-western Iraq’s oilfields to Turkey.

    /..
    http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/440

  • April Showers

    ???

    hin·ter·land (hntr-lnd)
    n.
    1. The land directly adjacent to and inland from a coast.
    2.
    a. A region remote from urban areas; backcountry.
    b. A region situated beyond metropolitan centers of culture.

    [German : hinter, behind (from Middle High German, from Old High German hintar; see ko- in Indo-European roots) + Land, land (from Middle High German lant, from Old High German; see lendh- in Indo-European roots).]

    Get Sophie to call for the men in white coats.

  • Sophie Habbercake

    Dear April Showers

    I hear your cry for help, but I feel the need to draw back a while and consider the ethical issues involved in giving the white-coated ones such a task. Would it be humane to risk for yet another group of people, the likely psychological effects of exposure to dad? Would they too not have a need for white-coated men well before they could complete their assignment? Could there be an exit strategy? Doesn’t Dad already have enough persuers desperate just to have it stop?
    The only image I get just now is like you get in two adjacent mirrors, of endless white-coated teams all trying to catch the team before, and Dad, a tiny speck, always ahead of them.

    And while I’m here I want to say to the Sophie who is’nt a Habbercake that I’m sorry to have caused any confusion by dragging her name into all this madness. Forgive me.

  • Jives

    Habbabkuk,

    In a world rapidly going crazy your sallow “life is good” mantra is a pathetic Panglossian piss into the wind.

    Your “life is good” mantra is simply a bought and paid for shill/hasbara attempt to deny the awful reality that unfolds around so many of us.

    You are,i suggest,a paid-up servile fool member of The Idiots.

    One day,when you are old probably,you will finally realise the idiocy of your servitude and Masters.

    Now stop reading this and go back to cyber-stalking Mary with your sinister psycho-sexual methods.

    You oaf.

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