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In a pre-dawn raid, police in Bahrain have moved into Pearl Square where protesters have been gathering, with reports of at least one dead in a hail of bullets and tear gas.
BBC sets the scene:
Security forces in Bahrain have moved into Pearl Square in the centre of capital, Manama, trying to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters.
Hundreds of riot police using tear gas and batons moved into the square before dawn on Thursday.
Al Jazeera English provides more in their Bahrain live blog:
3.30am Police in Manama have used teargas to disperse protesters camped out in the capital, witnesses told the Reuters news agency. “Police are coming, they are shooting teargas at us,” one demonstrator said.
410am Maryama Alkawaka of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights was at Pearl roundabout when police attempted to break up the protest. She said police began shooting at sleeping protesters from the bridge above the roundabout.
4.25am Sources tell Al Jazeera that at least one person was killed in the attack on protesters by Bahraini police. A member of the political opposition confirmed that women and children were among those attacked.
The BBC article above presents the objectives of the protesters:
The Bahraini demonstrators say they want:
- political prisoners to be released
- more jobs and housing
- the creation of a more representative and empowered parliament
- a new constitution written by the people
- a new cabinet that does not include Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, who has been in office for 40 years
32 Comments
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Shameful! I hope the press keeps up with this. Thanks, Jim.
The world is watching and I hope Iran and others are shown for cruel tactics so they will cease the brutality.
This is horrifying. Jim! Sorry you have to report such stuff.
Just letting you know, Rachel just reported on this too. Just saying cable is covering this as well. The details say a lot. People are watching this. Women and children, if not first, not protected. :(
Butchers!
The U.S. bases its navy’s Mid-East fleet in Bahrain.
Reuters:
Again, with the both sides bullshit.
I’m hearing 3 confirmed dead now … checking whether this includes the two killed on the 14th.
CNN AC360 will have Nic Robertson reporting from there and audio of an attack on a CBS or ABC reported attacked during the police action (not sure if just caught up in police attack or targeted)
Remember Bahrain is the home of the US Navy Fifth Fleet so Obama’s been giving them a pass on the treatment of the protesters.
This is my candidate for the next ME tinderbox. 2/3 Shia pop with Sunni leader, 54% guest workers, home of U.S. fifth fleet. All the necessary ingredients, if you watch foodnetwork.com. Whatta stew, or perhaps we should call it a BBQ.
Despots are always cowards.
Thanks, Siun. Yes, it’s hard to tell from some of the reports how many are dead in this raid. It appears that AP is saying at least two dead in the pre-dawn attack.
These protestors are incredibility brave. I hope they all will be remembered.
I doubt that.
I think it is true in over half the cases, and in my personal experience, more than that. But I think your generalization overstates the general case. Looking forward to any links wrt evidence.
Reading last night’s reports from Bahrain, what was striking was how incredibly polite and civil the whole protest scene was … reports said that while the initial demands were simply reforms, the mood was shifting to ousting the king after the deaths on the 14th.
This news is so sad … from one of the twitter feeds I follow:
And no doubt, so will the “respectable” media.
From tweet by Tim Shorrock:
Good lord, I didn’t mean it was a scientifically arrived at conclusion. I could cite plenty of cases but what’s the point? It was meant as a general comment, not something I thought I would be asked to defend like a college dissertation.
Excuse me.
Among the good things that the Jasmine Revolutions are accomplishing is the complete undressing of Barack Obama stitch by stitch revealing for all to see an empty soulless lying fascist. Due to changing circumstances, he contradicts himself multiple times on a daily basis.
Difficult to imagine that any American could be so willfully blind as to support him, unless they have no social conscience and are extremely rich and as unprincipled and greedy as he is.
I doubt that.
It seems more to me like O is able to take advantage of whatever revolution he wants to for his own political purposes, while ignoring the embarrassing ones. BC the media go along with him.
Evidence to the contrary?
I was just asking Mr. B about Bahrain. (He’s been all through the Arabian peninsula – EXCEPT FOR BAHRAIN)
He told me in Doha (Qatar) and Dubai (UAE) that they were a bit sniffy/superior about Bahrainiis. Don’t know what that really means though.
It’s hit the traditional media, or some of it anyway. Let’s here it Mr. President. The world is waiting…again.
This keeps being rumoured … Saudi’s have to worry about Yemen too since there are already “insurgent” forces in Yemen who target the Kingdom.
Well, if despots = bullies, every bully I punched back, backed down. Sorry no links.
It does appear that Mubark happened to have to leave town though, fwiw.
Bahrainis are a bit more loose about their social taboos. You can get a beer in Bahrain for example or could in the 1980s. Couldn’t get one in Saudi Arabia even on an American installation.
Sorry. Purely anecdotal based on personal experience. No links.
As Juan Cole explained today…
Yeah – what’s that English dude’s name/grave where all the expats spit on it, as he was the dude that made the Saudis forbid drinking AT ALL?
My experience with bullies, ditto, though I never really punched one. Just stood up to them nonviolently. Still challenge the model as being general, since the consequences of being wrong are significant.
OT-In great news here in the Isles…
Civil unions bill wins final approval; awaits governor’s signature
I’ll submit that the consequence of “shame” counts toward defanging a bully/despot. If more people know, the bully/despot becomes defenseless.
So there’s a function of available knowledge. Don’t really know how to compute that, given the crappiness of available information delivery systems.
But even in the last elections here in the US; libs who stuck with lib stances did far better than blue dogs. There’s partly a district component in that, but there’s also a “fake” factor. We’re also looking at those consequences right now.
Overall, just saying, given your alpha male theory favoritism, don’t really disagree with it; just saying alpha-ness is more easily shattered than one might think. Alpha is a tenously held position.
America has a base there right Obama could have Marines stop the shooting if he wanted too. if
That would be a terrible idea, TCU…! It would add gasoline to the fire… It’s an internal affair that needs to be resolved by the Bahrainis themselves…!
Obama isn’t going to send in the Marines, nor do I think he should. He has other tools at his disposal though, like the fact that Bahrain probably wouldn’t exist today but for the presence of the US there. Violent confrontation isn’t always the answer and that’s what we’d get with a bunch of twitchy jarheads in the middle of it.
Which we should do everywhere; retract forces.
And I mean EVERYWHERE. Would be so easy to be less hated.
I fully agree with that…! Except for the security details at our embassys…! ;-)
Yeah…it’d be nice not to be hated for my freedom for a change…
SecState Clinton, December 2010:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/15/AR2011021506023.html
I guess Clinton didn’t read the State 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
March 11, 2010
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/nea/136066.htm
Meanwhile the kings and princes are high-fiving each other.
The latest news from the Bahrain News Agency:
http://english.bna.bh/?ID=92771