***Official Arabian Peninsula Protest thread***

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/saud-o06.shtml
Saudi Arabia Cracks Down on Protesters, Niall Green.

Saudi Arabian security forces cracked down on demonstrators in the country’s Eastern Province Tuesday. The protest, near the coastal city of Qatif, appears to have been in response to a raid by Saudi security forces on Monday, in which two local men were abducted from their homes.
The men, both in their seventies, were seized by police in the Qatif suburb of Al-Awamiya. There are reports that they are being held in an effort to force their sons, who are accused of taking part in earlier anti-government protests, to give themselves up to the authorities.
Human rights groups and journalists reported that scores of masked protesters clashed with police in Al-Awamiya in the hours after the arrest of the elderly men.
A video posted on YouTube shows a large group of masked demonstrators in Al-Awamiya chanting, “Down with Mohammed bin Fahd,” the governor of the Eastern Province and a nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.
Eleven policemen and three demonstrators were reportedly injured in Tuesday’s clashes......
The official SPA news agency quoted the Saudi interior ministry, which said that “a group of outlaws” in Al-Awamiya had tried to create “insecurity with incitement from a foreign country that aims to undermine the nation’s security and stability.”......
Eastern Province is home to Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, some 2 million people, which has faced decades of religious persecution and social discrimination. Most of the country’s vast oil reserves are located in the province.
The Saudi government also blamed protests by Shiites around Qatif earlier this year on Iranian influence. The Eastern Province has been subjected to harsh security measures since the outbreak of the outbreak of revolutionary struggles in Tunisia and Egypt this spring, with police checkpoints and raids deployed in an attempt by Saudi Arabia’s rulers to intimidate all opposition.
Despite Riyadh’s claim that any sign of unrest is a product of Iranian incitement, the numerous protests in Saudi Arabia this year—by people from Sunni and Shiite backgrounds—reflect the growing demand by workers and youth for political freedoms and social rights across the Middle East and North Africa.
Just a few miles off the coast of Qatif, in the small Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, the Saudi-backed Sunni monarchy of King Hamad al-Khalifa has also attempted to blame the mass working class uprising by the majority-Shiite population on Iranian “interference.”
The Saudi armed forces led the crushing of protests in Bahrain in March, with more than 1,500 soldiers in tanks and armored vehicles sent across the causeway between the two countries to shore up al-Khalifa’s security forces. [ The force has grown to over 3000 ]......
Washington looks to the Saudi regime in particular as its key ally in the Persian Gulf. Not only is Saudi Arabia a source of oil—it has the largest proven reserves in the world—but it is also a key purchaser of US military hardware and a partner in US imperialism’s efforts to police the working class in the region.
As well as playing the leading role in suppressing the mass uprising in Bahrain, the Saudi government has offered sanctuary to Tunisia’s deposed dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and supports the military junta that has ruled Egypt after the ouster of Hosni Mubabak. It has also backed the NATO-led war for regime change in Libya.
Reflecting the closeness of the alliance between Riyadh and Washington, the most recent US State Department communiqué on Saudi Arabia should come as no surprise. Issued by Hillary Clinton on the occasion of Saudi National Day, September 22, it praises absolute monarch King Abdullah’s “leadership” and promotion of “moderation and tolerance” in the kingdom and the region.[ "Yankee dollar talks to the dictators of the world, in fact it's giving orders, and they can't afford to miss a word." Clash, 1977 ]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/yeme-o22.shtml
Yemen Regime Massacres Thousands As Saleh Considers Immunity Deal, Will Morrow.

Thousands participated in funerals on October 19 for more than 30 protesters killed by the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh over the previous week. President Saleh remains recalcitrant, refusing to sign a power transfer initiative backed by the US and European powers that would grant him immunity from prosecution.
The recent wave of killings began on October 15, when an estimated 300,000 people marched beyond their encampment in the capital Sana’a. The protest base, dubbed “Change Square”, consists of a stretch of road of several kilometres, where thousands of anti-government demonstrators and opposition tribesmen have slept in tents since February.
Witnesses told the Guardian that plainclothes police officers fired on the protesters as they reached a key intersection on Al-Zubeiri Road, which marks the dividing line between areas of the capital controlled by the government and sections held by troops who have defected to the opposition. “We didn’t hear any soldiers, we just heard gunshots coming from the houses all around us,” said Ahmed Bin Mubarak, a professor at Sana’a University. Mohammed Al Qubati, a surgeon at Change Square, told the Guardian: “Most of the protesters were shot in the back of the head or neck.”
Despite the regime’s repressive response, protesters continued to march beyond their encampment over the following three days. People have reportedly begun to write their names on their bodies for identification in case they are killed. According to Associated Press, another four people were killed in a march on October 16, while 12 people were killed and 70 injured on October 18.
The protests, and the self-sacrifice involved in them, unquestionably reflect genuine opposition to the regime and social discontent over the conditions facing the population. Since January, the price of bread has risen by more than 50 percent in Yemen, which has an official poverty rate of 40 percent. The malnutrition rates for children under five are as high as 30 percent, according to the United Nations.
The leadership of the anti-Saleh movement, however, is dominated by elements seeking to exploit the popular unrest for their own purposes......
In Yemen, where nearly 200 people have been killed since protests escalated in September, the US and European powers are intent on maintaining the present regime, only without Saleh. They see providing Saleh with immunity from all his crimes as the best means to achieve this aim.
Saleh’s government has been a staunch ally of the US “war on terror” since 2001 and has supported the use of US drone strikes in Yemen. Yemen’s security apparatus, which has been trained by US forces, has been built around figures in the present regime, including members of Saleh’s family.
At the same time, there are indications that the US has exploited the political crisis facing Saleh to gain even greater cooperation from the Yemeni government. The Obama administration has increased US drone attacks in the south of the country, in the name of targeting the local affiliate of Al Qaeda.......
The primary concern of the Obama administration and other major powers is maintaining political stability in Yemen. The country’s northern region of Sa’ada borders Saudi Arabia and harbours a Shiite rebel grouping that the Saudi monarchy fears could destabilise its rule. Yemen’s southern port of Aden overlooks a key shipping route at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Under the GCC agreement, all protests are expected to end once Saleh has agreed to step aside for substitute puppets of imperialism.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/yeme-n25.shtml
Yemeni President Signs Deal to Step Down, Peter Symonds.

Under intense pressure from the US and its allies, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreement on Wednesday to hand over power and eventually step down, in return for legal immunity. While the main opposition parties backed the deal, thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Yemeni capital Sana’a yesterday to denounce the arrangement. Five were shot dead by pro-government gunmen.
The GCC agreement by no means guarantees that Saleh will leave office. On at least three occasions he has publicly pledged to quit, only to renege. Moreover, under the arrangement, Saleh will retain a ceremonial role as president even after he has formally handed his powers to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi within 30 days. Presidential elections are due within three months.
Saudi Arabia’s autocratic ruler, King Abdullah, gave his blessing to the agreement, which was signed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. He hypocritically declared that it would “open a new page” in Yemen’s history and lead to greater freedom and prosperity. In a similar vein, US President Obama hailed the “historic transition,” saying the Yemeni people “deserve the opportunity to determine their own future.”
These claims are a sham. The GCC agreement is a cynical deal patched together by the government and the opposition parties under Washington’s tutelage in a bid to end months of protests demanding an end to the pro-US regime. Vice President Hadi, who was appointed by Saleh, is now charged with forming a “national unity” government prior to the presidential election.
Hadi, a former army officer, will also head a military committee to oversee the restructuring of the military. There is no guarantee, however, that the changes will end the grip of the Saleh family over the country’s military and security apparatus. Saleh’s son, Ahmed, commands the elite Republican Guard, which has been gunning down protesters and fighting street battles in Sana’a against rebel troops and tribal fighters. Three of Saleh’s nephews hold key security and intelligence posts.
Under the agreement, Saleh will remain leader of the ruling General People’s Congress, which has an overwhelming majority in the country’s parliament. Elections scheduled for April 2009 were postponed for two years. The government also cancelled elections in April this year, using the anti-government protests as a pretext. No new parliamentary elections are planned until a review of the constitution takes place.
The GCC deal has provoked intense opposition among young protesters who have formed the backbone of months of anti-government demonstrations in Sana’a and other cities. Thousands took part yesterday in an angry march along Zubairy Street in the capital’s centre. They chanted, “Our revolution will continue, so beware Saleh” and “No immunity for the murderers.” Some held up photos of those killed in previous demonstrations.....
Sharp differences have erupted between the country’s traditional opposition parties and protesters. According to the Guardian, speakers from the Islah party were forced to flee Change Square, the protest headquarters, after coming under a barrage of eggs, plastic bottles and stones from protesters chanting: “Our stage, our revolution, down with the opposition!”......
Even as the Yemeni military has been gunning down protesters, the Pentagon and the CIA have been forging closer links with it. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Pentagon prided itself on being able “to preserve important counterintelligence relationships” with Yemen “despite the political instability.” Referring to Saleh, it declared that “our shared interest with the Yemeni government in fighting terrorism... goes beyond specific individuals.”
In reality, the US has backed Saleh to the hilt, relying on him to protect American interests in Yemen and the broader region. Yemen borders Washington’s key ally, Saudi Arabia, and is adjacent to strategic shipping lanes into the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The military strongman has been an important ally over the past decade in the so-called war on terror, collaborating with CIA drone strikes on AQAP suspects.
The Obama administration’s efforts to end the opposition protests against what has been a reliable client regime are also driven by broader concerns about continuing social unrest throughout the Middle East, above all in Egypt where mass demonstrations are continuing against the US-backed military regime in Cairo.

And in Bahrain, new demonstrations have erupted this week, with a bunch of casualties, including at least one death, as two reports came out detailing severe human rights violations on the part of the ruling regime and its Saudi ally, whose armed forces have been occupying Bahrain for months.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/yeme-d02.shtml
Yemen to Install "National Unity" Government, Will Morrow.

The first steps have been taken towards the establishment of a “national unity” government in Yemen under the terms of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreement signed last week by President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Far from opening up a new era of democracy, the government’s first task is to put an end to the months of protests against the autocratic Saleh regime, by force if necessary.
Saleh only signed the GCC agreement after months of prevarication and under strong pressure from the US and European powers. The deal gives Saleh and his family members legal immunity from prosecution and preserves the repressive apparatus that he ruthlessly used to maintain his rule. His son and nephews continue to control the Republican Guard and other key security and intelligence bodies.
Saleh remains as president, but his presidential powers have been handed to Vice-President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. On Saturday, Hadi announced presidential elections for February 21. The election, however, is completely contrived. Hadi has the support of both Saleh’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress (GPC), and the bourgeois opposition coalition, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP).
Hadi appointed 76-year-old opposition politician Mohammed Basindwa as the new prime minister on Saturday. Basindwa had been proposed for the post by the JMP and is charged with forming the “national unity” government—half from the GPC and half from the JMP.........
The chief political “obstacle” is the opposition of protesters who have denounced the GCC deal and the JMP’s support for it. They are demanding that Saleh be put on trial for his crimes and that his regime be dismantled. Hundreds of thousands rallied throughout the country last Friday and Saturday. A banner in the capital of Sana’a read: “Martyrs wrote with their blood, that Saleh must stand trial.”
According to Agence France Press, there were demonstrations in 17 of the country’s 22 provinces last Friday, including in the country’s second largest city, Taiz. In the capital, Sana’a, thousands attended a funeral for four of the five civilians killed the previous day by pro-regime thugs and security forces. One demonstrator, Mansoor Al-Sahabi, told the Wall Street Journal: “The agreements signed this week will not force us to go home... We have a mission and the millions marching today want a complete revolution and not a leader stripped from presidency.”
Demonstrators are demanding that the Saleh family be stripped of their control of the security forces. Khaled Anesi, a protester, told the media: “From today, no more families in control of the military.” The proposed restructuring of the military by a Hadi-appointed military council is regarded with contempt. The US, which has trained and armed many of the elite troops, is intent on maintaining the present military structures as part of its so-called “war on terrorism” in Yemen.
The protests have been driven by the worsening economic and social crisis confronting working people, particularly youth. The country is the most impoverished in the Middle East. Official youth unemployment is more than 50 percent. According to an Al Arabiya article in March, a collapse in construction investment saw up to one million workers lose their jobs. The UN has reported that food prices have skyrocketed since January, with bread rising by more than 50 percent.
The regime is desperate to prevent the months of anti-government protests becoming the starting point of a broader movement that draws in workers and the urban and rural poor. Basindwa’s supports a “peaceful revolution”, but is, in reality, hostile to any opposition outside of the narrow channels of the official political establishment. He will not hesitate to authorise the use of force to contain and suppress ongoing protests.
Already there are signs of a crackdown on demonstrators.......
Yesterday, opposition protesters in Taiz alleged that the security forces shelled residential areas, killing at least five civilians. The military denied shelling, but acknowledged fighting between the army and opposition militia in which at least five soldiers and two opposition gunmen were killed......
Both the UN and US have stressed the necessity of the new government moving quickly to end the protests. A UN Security Council on Monday welcomed “the new political agreement in Yemen… but stressed that the deal must be strictly implemented to end unrest and restore stability in the country.”
In a similar vein, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan phoned Hadi on Saturday to reiterate US support for the government. He added that “all parties need to refrain from violence and proceed with the transition in a peaceful and orderly manner.” Brennan’s involvement on behalf of the White House only underscores Washington’s determination to maintain Yemen as a base of operations for its drone attacks on alleged terrorists.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/yeme-d31.shtml
Yemen "Unity" Government Shaken by Mass Protests, Will Morrow.

At least 13 people were killed on December 24 when Yemeni security forces cracked down on a protest of more than 100,000 people in the capital Sana’a. Demonstrators were opposed to the power-sharing arrangement sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that gave President Ali Abdullah Saleh legal immunity and preserved the regime that has brutally suppressed opposition protests that first erupted in January.
Under the GCC agreement signed last month, Saleh’s vice president Abraduh Mansour Hadi takes over presidential powers. Hadi has formed a coalition government between the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) and the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP). Both the GPC and JMP are backing Hadi as the unity candidate in upcoming presidential elections. The deal leaves intact the state apparatus, including the key security forces that are still under the control of Saleh’s close relatives.
Protesters, many of them youth, were bitterly hostile to the deal and chanted “No to immunity!”. Activist Ahmed Ghilan told Associated Press: “We are fed up with this tragic farce that gives immunity but is impotent to force Saleh’s troops out of the main streets.” Fathi al-Rawdi said: “The situation will not stabilise, since Saleh’s relatives and supporters are still holding sensitive positions in the army and government.”
The protest began on Tuesday as a “March of Life” in the city of Taiz, more than 250 kilometres to the south of the capital. By the time it reached Change Square in Sana’a, where protesters have been camped out since February, the numbers had swelled to at least 100,000. One estimate put the number of demonstrators as high as 500,000.
Security forces attacked the march, using live rounds, water cannon and tear gas. In addition to the 13 dead, including one woman, 61 people received gunshot injuries. Another 150 were suffering breathing difficulties from tear gas inhalation. In an attempt to distance his government from the crackdown, recently appointed Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa called for an official investigation into the killings.
The protest on Saturday coincided with the beginning of the first session of parliament called to rubberstamp the new government’s agenda, including the GCC agreement. The JMP’s support for the deal has provoked angry reactions from protesters. Reflecting this sentiment, an editorial in the Yemen Post declared: “The opposition [coalition] in Yemen is just as dirty as President Saleh’s party, and their turn will come. No one is excluded from the wrath of the people.”
The US strongly backed the GCC agreement as a means of salvaging as much of the Saleh regime as possible. Washington has relied heavily on Saleh as a defender of American strategic interests in Yemen and adjacent strategic waters near the Horn of Africa. The deal was meant to end all protests and stabilise the country, but it has led to further political unrest.
Speaking to the media on Saturday, the US ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, justified the state repression, declaring that the Life March was intended “to generate chaos and provoke a violent response by the security forces.” He then added: “The government has the right to maintain the law.” The remarks provoked angry responses from demonstrators and calls for his expulsion from Yemen........
Underscoring the close cooperation between the US and the Saleh regime, ambassador Feierstein again met with Hadi last Sunday.
Also on Sunday, tens of thousands of people marched from Change Square to Hadi’s office to protest against the previous day’s killings. The protesters shouted: “The people want to bring the slaughterer to trial,” and, “We don’t want Abraduh [Hadi], Ali Saleh controls him.” Further protests took place on Monday and Tuesday.
Fears in Washington over a continued political upheaval in Yemen have been magnified by a series of strikes by workers, particularly in state-owned industries, calling for the removal and trial of managers associated with the Saleh government.......
The industrial unrest is also being driven by deteriorating living standards. Some 40 percent of the population lives below the official poverty line. Unemployment is estimated to have increased to 50 percent, up from 35 percent in 2010, according to Reuters. The news agency noted: “Some staples such as rice saw prices jump by up to 120 percent, while the price of the volume of water which a family needs to cover basic needs for one week quadrupled.”
At this stage, the continuing oppositional movement is politically amorphous. As well as young people who are hostile to both Saleh’s party and the JMP, it includes members of the opposition coalition whose aims are more limited—to pressure the regime to fully implement the GCC agreement.
At the same time, some of the opposition leaders continue to promote the dangerous illusion that the US and its European allies are agents for democracy in the Middle East. As in Libya, the Obama administration is intent on establishing a regime in Sana’a that will support US interests in the region. The remarks of US ambassador Feierstein should serve as a warning that Washington will back whatever repressive measures are needed to achieve its objectives in Yemen.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/yeme-j21.shtml
Yemen's "Unity" Government Provides Immunity for Saleh Regime, Will Morrow.

Yemen’s power-sharing “unity” cabinet, composed of the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) and opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) coalition, approved laws on January 8 to give sweeping legal immunity to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime.
Rather than shielding Saleh’s family members as had been expected, the legislation protects Saleh and those who worked with him, including in civilian, military and security institutions, during his lengthy presidency. Since protests emerged in Yemen last January, the regime has killed hundreds of demonstrators.
Newly-appointed Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa defended the laws, declaring there was “no other option” to prevent “civil war.” The legislation was expected to pass parliament immediately, but the vote was postponed several times because the interim legal affairs and justice ministers failed to attend parliamentary sessions. This week, Prime Minister Basindwa requested that another parliamentary discussion scheduled for Wednesday be delayed and ruling officials now claim the vote will be held on Saturday.......
Saleh is meant to step down in time for token presidential elections on February 21, in which Vice President Mansour Al-Hadi will stand on behalf of both the JMP and GPC. It remains unclear if Saleh will meet the deadline. Underscoring the anti-democratic character of the unity government, interim foreign minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi asserted on January 17 that the presidential elections could be postponed. “Unfortunately, there are a couple of events relating to security, and if they are not solved ... it will be difficult to run the elections,” he said. Al-Hadi quickly sought to deny this suggestion, and Qirbi has since retracted his statement.........
Last month, protests by several hundred thousand people rejected the power-transfer agreement and the immunity clause. The Associated Press reported that a further protest march in Sana’a on January 8 was blocked by troops as marchers moved toward the parliament. The news agency reported that the troops may have been acting under the command of defected army general Ali Mohsen. Mohsen had previously provided limited protection to protesters but is now supporting the power-transfer plan.
On January 9, the AFP reported that in the south-eastern city of Taiz, “thugs in civilian clothes fired on thousands of protesters demonstrating in front of the regional governor’s office, killing one and injuring three.” Protests have been reported in up to 18 regions, but the numbers involved have decreased since late last year. Some “revolutionary” youth coalitions tied to the JMP had previously taken part in the protests, but now support the power-transfer agreement.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland defended the immunity law in a daily press briefing on January 9, declaring: “The immunity provisions were negotiated as part of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] deal to get Saleh to leave power. They have to be codified in law.”
The hypocrisy of the Obama administration is stark. While supporting the Saleh regime, the US, along with France and Britain, is stoking a possible intervention into Syria in the name of protecting protesters, as part of broader efforts to isolate Syria’s ally Iran.........
During a press briefing on Tuesday in the Ivory Coast, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ominously warned: “We remain focused on the threat posed by Al Qaeda in Yemen and will continue to work with our partners there and elsewhere to ensure that AQ does not gain a foothold in the Arabian peninsula through actions that would undermine the stability of Yemen and the region.” These comments make clear that, under the guise of the “war on terror,” the US is determined to retain its foothold in Yemen which is strategically located adjacent to the Arabian and Red Seas.
Last weekend Al Qaeda militants allegedly captured the town of Rada’a, 100 kilometres south of Sana’a. The details are unclear. According to the social networking news page “Yemen Revolution News,” thousands of people held a protest on Monday and chanted: “Leave you liar [Saleh], there is no AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] in Rada’a.” Security forces have in the past used false claims of an Al Qaeda presence to launch their crackdowns.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/bahr-f15.shtml
US-Backed Regime Crushes Protest in Bahrain, Bill Van Auken.

The US-backed monarchy in the island Gulf state of Bahrain unleashed intense repression on Monday and Tuesday to break up demonstrations by thousands of workers and youth marking the first anniversary of the brutally crushed pro-democracy protests that began on February 14, 2011..........
Monday’s clashes began when thousands of demonstrators broke off from a regime-sanctioned protest of over 10,000 on the outskirts of Manama organized by Al Wefaq, the Shia opposition party, whose 18 parliamentary delegates resigned last year to protest the repression.
Police attacked the demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades. Some of the demonstrators reportedly responded by hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails at the security forces.
The police also laid siege to predominantly Shia villages around the country, including Bilad al-Qadim.
On Tuesday, intense repression continued, with police making pre-emptive arrests aimed at stopping a planned march on the Pearl Roundabout and staging raids on homes suspected of harboring anti-regime demonstrators.
Among those arrested in the crackdown were two human rights lawyers from the United States, who were promptly deported.
These latest attacks come on top of a year of unrelenting repression. At least 60 people have been killed by security forces, given Bahrain’s small population one of the highest per capita death rates of the various Arab countries that have seen popular upheavals over the past year. Hundreds more are missing. Hundreds remain political prisoners and many have faced severe torture.
Nearly 2,000 people were fired from their jobs on charges of participating in the protests and have yet to be reinstated.
What little existed of an independent media has been systematically repressed, with journalists murdered in prison, tortured, detained and assaulted to silence any criticism of the ruling monarchy. Karim Fakhrawi, a founder of Al-Wasat, the only newspaper not under the control of the regime, died in police custody last April. Online journalist Abduljalil Alsingace, an academic and human rights activists, was sentenced last June by a special military court to life in prison for writings critical of the regime.
Among the most infamous acts of the ruling monarchy is the prosecution of 47 doctors, nurses and medical workers before a military court on charges of plotting against the regime. Detained and in some cases tortured, their sole offense was treating those wounded in government repression. On the eve of the latest demonstrations, the regime sent a decree to hospitals demanding that all those brought in for treatment be reported to the security forces.......
On the eve of the protests, top US Middle East envoy Jeffrey Feltman paid a two-day visit to Manama for discussions on an upcoming “Friends of Syria” conference scheduled for next week to promote regime change in Syria. A State Department spokesman claimed that Feltman also raised the issue of “human rights”.
In reality, Washington has agreed to give its tacit backing to repression by the Bahraini regime and its fellow reactionary monarchies, particularly Saudi Arabia, while these regimes have, incredibly, put themselves forward as the champions of “democracy” in Syria to pave the way for Western intervention.
Even more decisive from the standpoint of US interests, Bahrain is the headquarters for the American Navy’s Fifth Fleet, with some 6,200 sailors, civilian contractors and family members stationed in the country. The base provides the most important facility for US war preparations against Iran, which lies just across the Persian Gulf.
In this sense, Washington’s support for the regime’s repression in Bahrain and its demand for the fall of the Assad government over repression in Syria are contradictory only in appearance. Both are part of a calculated imperialist strategy aimed at extending US hegemony in the region and preparing for military confrontation with Iran.
Both the US and Britain are intimately involved in the repression in Bahrain. Washington has sold the ruling monarchy some $1.4 billion in arms since 2000 and is pushing through a new $53 million weapons deal. And the Fifth Fleet stands as a military guarantor of the regime’s stability.
For its part, the British government granted over $2 million worth of arms export licenses between July and September of last year alone, according to information compiled by the Campaign Against Arms Trade. And a recent report by Amnesty International indicated that Britain has authorized the sale to the Bahraini regime of tear gas, grenade launchers and riot guns.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/bahr-f18.shtml
US-Backed Bahraini Regime Continues Repression, Niall Green.

The government crackdown on protests in Bahrain continued this week, with the violent dispersal of Monday’s mass demonstration followed by days of reprisals against working class youth and opposition figures......
Since Monday, police and other security personnel have brought the crackdown into the suburbs and villages surrounding Manama. Reports and video footage from largely working class areas such as Bilad al-Qadim, Musalla and Sanabis reveal heavily armed police firing tear gas indiscriminately into homes and shops, while helicopters circle overhead.
Several smaller protests have taken place this week, including an apparent attempt on Wednesday to block one of the country’s main roads, the Sheikh Khalifah bin Salman Highway. The following day, police, firing teargas and stun grenades, and youths with stones and Molotov cocktails fought running battles in the district of Sar.
On Friday, riot police again used teargas and stun grenades, this time against a demonstration of women in Manama. Two female pro-democracy activists were arrested and dragged into police vans. Later on Friday, police used water cannon to clear several hundred protesters from the northern Manama suburb of Jidhafs. Across the country, at least another 45 people were arrested between Tuesday and Friday, according to opposition groups.
The super-rich elite of Bahrain, headed by the Sunni monarchy of King Hamad al-Khalifa and his family, sits atop a social power keg. The majority of the country’s population is Shiite Muslim, discriminated against on the basis of their religion, while hundreds of thousands of poor migrant workers from across the Middle East and South Asia endure a precarious existence without social or employment rights.......
The al-Khalifa regime has been able to cling to power without granting any concessions to the democratic and social demands of the working class thanks to its status as a client regime of Washington and Riyadh, and due to the political character of the opposition leadership........
The ruling elite in Manama views the opposition leadership as a vital line of defense between it and the masses. Responding to opposition calls for negotiations on a power-sharing coalition, government spokesman Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Mubarak al-Khalifa demanded that al-Wefaq shut down the mass protests and end the popular calls for the ouster of the royal family. “The ball is in their court—the offer for dialogue has always been open, but they need to engage without preconditions, such as calling for the government to resign,” the royal spokesman said.
In an effort to discredit its opponents and court favor with the US, the al-Khalifa regime has blamed Iran, Bahrain’s neighbor across the Persian Gulf, for fomenting the protests and backing Shiite opposition groups.
The United States government and the Saudi royal family are the main props keeping the House of Khalifah in power, with Washington maintaining a large military presence in the country and Riyadh ready to send troops across the causeway to Bahrain in order to crush further signs of dissent.
Despite shedding crocodile tears over the death toll in Syria, the United States and its allies in the Middle East and Western Europe are wholly supportive of the repeated crackdowns by the regime in Manama. Washington has jumped to the Bahraini regime’s defense, justifying the latest police violence in Manama. While issuing a pro forma call for respect for human rights, US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland insisted that it was the responsibility of Bahraini demonstrators to “stage peaceful protests.”.......
While the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus is condemned in the Arab League and Western capitals for resisting a US-backed armed insurrection, the al-Khalifas are shielded from any significant criticism of the blood on their hands. On the contrary, during a yearlong crackdown in Bahrain the US and the European powers have continued to sign and fulfill hundreds of millions of dollars worth of arms deals with Manama.
The double standard between the treatment of events in Syria and Bahrain is an expression of the predatory interests behind US policy in the Middle East. The Syrian government is targeted for regime-change because it is an ally of Iran and therefore an impediment to Washington’s domination of the energy-rich region, while Bahrain’s despots are protected because they provide a home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which patrols the Persian Gulf and would be one of the Pentagon’s principal weapons in a war with Iran.

Saudis used Canadian LAVs to quash Bahrain uprising
Arms export licences triple to $12 billion
By Lee Berthiaume, Postmedia News February 24, 2012

Canadian arms companies were given free rein last year as the federal government tripled the amount of military weapons and ammunition licensed for export to foreign countries to more than $12 billion.

The largest benefactor at $4 billion was Saudi Arabia, which is believed to have used Canadian-made armoured vehicles to help put down anti-government protests in neighbouring Bahrain during the early days of the Arab Spring.

The government figures, tabled in the House of Commons a few weeks ago, do not say exactly what Canadian-made arms the government approved for export or how much was actually delivered. But the total in government-approved arms export licences for Saudi Arabia was more than 100 times the $35 million approved in 2010.

The Middle Eastern kingdom also has quietly purchased hundreds of LAV-3s from General Dynamics Land Systems in London, Ont., over the years and was expected to receive more than 700 last year.

The LAVS are synonymous in Canada with this country's combat mission to Afghanistan, where the wheeled, armoured vehicles earned their stripes as the military's main workhorse. Video and photos shot by protesters and media outlets in March 2011 showed Saudi troops using LAV-3s to suppress an uprising inspired by events in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya and opposed to Bahrain's ruling Khalifa family.

More than 30 protesters were killed, hundreds wounded and nearly 3,000 arrested in the Saudi-Bahraini crackdown, which was ignored by Canada and other Western states because of Bahrain's strategic relationship with the U.S. In announcing this past June that General Dynamics Land Systems had been awarded a contract to provide up to 82 more LAV-3s to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Defense Co-operation Agency wrote the deal would "serve to make a key strategic partner . . . more capable of defeating those who would threaten regional stability and less reliant on the deployment of U.S. forces to maintain or restore stability in the Middle East."

Saudi Arabia also has a poor human-rights record, with laws discriminating against women and religious minorities as well as bans on public protests and free speech.

"Saudi Arabia responded with unflinching repression to demands by citizens for greater democracy in the wake of the pro-democracy Arab Spring movements," reads a recent Human Rights Watch report.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Saudi ... z1nJWNEDBh

Saudia Arabia Intensifies its Crackdown on Protesters
Ahlul Bayt News Agency
Date: 2012/02/24

“It is the state's right to confront those that confront it first... and the Saudi Arabian security forces will confront such situations ... with determination and force and with an iron first,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

An interior ministry spokesman said the statement was released in reaction to a sermon delivered last Friday in the Eastern town of Qatif which criticized the Saudi government´s handling of the protests.

In a statement released Monday, a security source at the ministry said the sermon of the “Sheikh”, who was not named, was highly politicized and contained “controversial arguments and odd logic”.

According to the ministry, the Sheikh was ignoring the fact that the protests were “nothing but terrorism which gives the state every right to deal with it”.

Democratic Demands

Protesters in Saudi Arabia are not demanding particularly radical changes: a constitutional monarchy, an end of the absolute power of the royal family, an end to corruption, the right to elect at least some of their rulers, freedom for women, and the release of the thousands of political prisoners. Other protesters also want political pluralism.

Currently, political parties, trade unions, pro-immigrant organizations or women´s groups are banned in the country. Opposition activists are regularly branded as “Al Qaida militants” or “foreign agents”.

The emergence of a new internet-savvy generation, the example set by the Arab revolutions and the worsening economic situation, all fuel the emergent discontent. The oficial rate of unemployment amongst the male population is 10%, though many estimate it to be much higher. The unemployment rate for women has not been officially announced but a report in 2010 estimated it at more than 26%.

Since February 2011 Saudi protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in the oil-rich Eastern Province, mainly in Qatif and the town of Awamiyah, calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread economic and religious discrimination in the Shia-majority region.

Use of Internet

In order to spread their message rapidly, Saudi dissidents are using the Internet extensively. In Riyadh, protests were sparked by a young Sunni man, Mohammed al-Wadani, who uploaded a YouTube video explaining why the monarchy had to fall. Fouad Alfarhan, a prominent Saudi activist, wrote for his part, that although he did not expect too many street protests, “the biggest gain is the awareness raised in a large faction of our young people of their human and political rights in this post-revolutionary world”.

According to McClatchy newspapers, judging from the number of times the protest videos are viewed and the comments posted by angry viewers, this media strategy is a success. For example, the video “Poverty in Saudi Arabia”, which was uploaded to YouTube has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. That would be equal to nearly one-tenth of Saudi Arabia's population of 18 million. The Interior Ministry detained its author, Feros Boqna, and two colleagues, Hussam al Drewesh and Khaled al Rasheed, for questioning.

The video showed images of the Jarradiah neighborhood, a slum situated less than five kilometers from the center of Riyadh. Amid widespread poverty and in order to raise money for the household, some local residents send their children to sell drugs and some women engage in prostitution.

Another You Tube hit is “Monopoly,” a black comedy satirizing the housing shortage. This video, authored by Bader Alhomoudi, portrays a generation of young professionals whose salaries do not allow them to buy even an apartment. In its first month , it was viewed 1.48 million times.

Riyadh’s answer has been to intensify its crackdown on protesters and dissidents, especially since the beginning of 2012. Scores of anti-regime protesters in the kingdom’s eastern province of Safwa have been abducted or arrested. Some demonstrators have been killed.

Ultimately the crackdown shows the Saudi regime fears going the same way as its old allies, Hosni Mubarak and Zeyn el Abidin Ben Ali. Saudi rulers know that their primary function, as far as their Westerner mentors and protectors are concerned, is to guarantee a cheap flow of oil. If, due to the protests in the kingdom, they failed in this mission, the West´s confidence in them would diminish accordingly. If this happens, the West would be forced to find alternative partners, possibly even Islamists.

http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=298460