Why No Outcry over These Torturing Tyrants?
by Robert Fisk
Published on Saturday, May 14, 2011 by The
Independent/UK
Distributed by Common Dreams
http
Christopher Hill, a former
east Asia who was ambassador to
very obedient and un-eloquent American diplomat - wrote
the other day that "the notion that a dictator can
claim the sovereign right to abuse his people has
become unacceptable". [The King of
avoided the criticism of Western leaders. And why is
that? (Reuters ) ]
Unless, of course - and Mr Hill did not mention this -
you happen to live in
Sunni monarchy, the al-Khalifas, rule a majority Shia
population and have responded to democratic protests
with death sentences, mass arrests, the imprisonment of
doctors for letting patients die after protests and an
"invitation" to Saudi forces to enter the country. They
have also destroyed dozens of Shia mosques with all the
thoroughness of a 9/11 pilot. But then, let's remember
that most of the 9/11 killers were indeed Saudis.
And what do we get for it? Silence. Silence in the
media, largely silence in the European press, silence
from our own beloved CamerClegg and of course from the
White House. And - shame of shame - silence from the
Arabs who know where their bread is buttered. That
means, of course, also silence from al-Jazeera. I often
appear on their otherwise excellent Arabic and English
editions, but their failure to mention
shameful, a dollop of shit in the dignity that they
have brought to reporting in the
of
need to belittle his television empire in this way.
CamerClegg is silent, of course, because
of our "friends" in the Gulf, an eager arms buyer, home
to thousands of Brit expatriates who - during the
mini-revolution by
writing vicious letters to the local pro-Khalifa press
denouncing Western journalists. And as for the
demonstrators, I recall a young Shia woman telling me
that if only the Crown Prince would come to the
Roundabout and talk with the protesters, they would
carry him on their shoulders around the square. I
believed her. But he didn't come. Instead, he destroyed
their mosques and claimed the protests were an Iranian
plot - which was never the case - and destroyed the
statue of the pearl at the roundabout, thus deforming
the very history of his own country.
Obama, needless to say, has his own reasons for
silence.
Americans don't want to be shoved out of their happy
little port (albeit that they could up-sticks and move
to the UAE or
defend
won't find La
family, saying anything bad about the al-Khalifas. Why
on earth not? Are we all in debt to the Gulf Arabs?
They are honourable people and understand when
criticism is said with good faith. But no, we are
silent. Even when Bahraini students in
deprived of their grants because they protested outside
their
on you.
West, albeit that is how it likes to be portrayed. More
than 20 years ago, anyone protesting the royal family's
dominance risked being tortured in the security police
headquarters. The head of it was a former British
police Special Branch officer whose senior torturer was
a pernicious major in the Jordanian army. When I
published their names, I was rewarded with a cartoon in
the government newspaper Al-Khaleej which pictured me
as a rabid dog. Rabid dogs, of course, have to be
exterminated. It was not a joke. It was a threat.
The al-Khalifas have no problems with the opposition
newspaper, Al-Wasat, however. They arrested one of its
founders, Karim Fakhrawi, on 5 April. He died in police
custody a week later. Ten days later, they arrested the
paper's columnist, Haidar Mohamed al-Naimi. He has not
been seen since. Again, silence from CamerClegg, Obama,
La Clinton and the rest. The arrest and charging of
Shia Muslim doctors for letting their patients die -
the patients having been shot by the "security forces",
of course - is even more vile. I was in the hospital
when these patients were brought in. The doctors'
reaction was horror mixed with fear - they had simply
never seen such close-range gunshot wounds before. Now
they have been arrested, doctors and patients taken
from their hospital beds. If this was happening in
Damascus, Homs or Hama or Aleppo, the voices of
CamerClegg, and Obama and La Clinton would be ringing
in our ears. But no. Silence. Four men have been
sentenced to death for killing two Bahraini policemen.
It was a closed military court. Their "confessions"
were aired on television, Soviet-style. No word from
CamerClegg or Obama or La Clinton.
What is this nonsense? Well, I will tell you. It has
nothing to do with the Bahrainis or the al-Khalifas. It
is all about our fear of
it is about oil. It is about our absolute refusal to
remember that 9/11 was committed largely by Saudis. It
is about our refusal to remember that
supported the Taliban, that Bin Laden was a Saudi, that
the most cruel version of Islam comes from Saudi
is about a conversation I had with a Bahraini official
- a good and decent and honest man - in which I asked
him why the Bahraini prime minister could not be
elected by a majority Shia population. "The Saudis
would never permit it," he said. Yes, our other
friends. The Saudis. (c) 2011 The Independent Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk is
Independent newspaper. He is the author of many books
on the region, including The Great War for
Civilisation
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