06/05/16 – Rannie Amiri – The Scott Horton Show

For Pacifica Radio, June 5th, 2016.
I'm Scott Horton.
This is Anti-War Radio.
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Introducing Ronnie Amiri.
He is a regular writer for Counter Punch and we run him sometimes at AntiWar.com.
We're featuring one this weekend at AntiWar.com called Dismantling Civil Society in Bahrain.
Welcome to the show, Ronnie.
How are you doing?
Thank you.
Thanks for having me, Scott.
Good to be on.
Yeah, yeah.
Very happy to have you here.
Okay, so first of all, most people probably never heard of Bahrain at all.
Tiny island just off the shore of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, correct?
Correct.
Correct.
And I know the U.S. has had a base there, what, since World War II?
Correct.
The U.S.
5th Fleet is headquartered in the capital there.
And it is a very tiny nation.
You know, the number of actually Bahraini nationals numbers approximately 530,000.
So it is a small place, but a lot of bigger narratives can be told even with that small population.
Yeah.
All right.
Now, when the Arab Spring broke out in Tunisia, then Egypt, and then kind of spreading all around the region in 2011, Bahrain was one of them.
And where America took the side, well, didn't know what the hell to do in Egypt for a while, I guess, and took the side of the rebels in Libya and in Syria, what position did they take in Bahrain?
Well, unfortunately, they took the position of the monarchy.
And before I get into that, I would just say, you know, there has been unrest and civil disobedience in Bahrain far before the Arab Spring in 2011.
In the 1990s, you know, it was really called the Bahrain Intifada, which there was a lot of turmoil in that country, but of course you didn't hear about it because there was no social media and there was little attention paid to that area.
So when you had the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the Bahrainis took advantage of that to finally say, hey, look at us, we've been doing this for a while.
So at that time in February 2011, there were peaceful pro-democracy reform protests in Pearl Roundabout in the capital, and they were violently put down by the regime, aided by the Peninsula Shield, which was invading forces from Saudi Arabia and a few other countries to quell it.
And we can talk about the history of the complaints and their grievances of the people, but unfortunately, the United States, despite the secular reform-minded pro-democracy protests, they took the side of the monarchy, which has done exactly the opposite of all those issues.
Now, it's notable that, I'm pretty sure it was Mike Mullen, Admiral Mullen, was asked on Meet the Press, I think it was David Gregory, but anyway, it was Meet the Press, and he asked him, well, listen, so we're taking the side of the rebellion in Libya, but we're taking the side of the Saudis in the kingdom against the rebellion in Bahrain, so what's the difference?
And Mullen said, well, Bahrain is our ally.
Right.
You know, it's unfortunate that the good guys and the bad guys in the Middle East are sometimes dictated by Israel.
And in this day and age, the good guys are the monarchies of the GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt and Jordan, against the ostensible enemy, Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Because the majority of the Bahraini population is Shia, about 90%, although it's now probably 70% due to the citizenship laws, which we can talk about, the government there has framed, erroneously so, the uprising in sectarian terms, saying, you know, these are Iranian-inspired protests interfering in the affairs of an Arab country, and the U.S. is very susceptible to that type of narrative being told to them, although, you know, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates in March 2011, speaking to the New York Times, after meeting with the king himself, said, quote, I explained the view that we had no evidence that supported that Iran had started any of these popular revolutions or demonstrations across the region.
So, that false canard of Iranian interference really doesn't apply to Bahrain, but that is what the regime there has promulgated as the pretext for putting down the uprising.
As in Yemen?
As in Yemen, as we see in many places, as in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, as, you know, it's a pretext for a lot of things in the region.
You know, and the demands of the opposition were really very modest.
You know, they first asked for the repeal of the citizenship law.
The citizenship law is what the government uses to skew the island's demographics.
So, as I said, although they want to frame the, you know, the unrest in sectarian terms, because it's an overwhelming Shia Muslim nation ruled by a minority Sunni regime, they give expedited citizenship, that is fast-tracked nationalization to non-Bahraini Sunni foreign nationals, largely from Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, as well as North Africa.
And these people act as, you know, the regime's mercenaries.
They're almost employed exclusively in the security sector.
About two-thirds of the national security apparatus and 90% of the special security forces are non-Bahraini.
Actually, there's not a single Shia in the special security forces.
So they enforce authoritarian rule, skew the island's demographics, to try to, you know, shift it from an overwhelmingly Shia population to one that has more Sunnis.
And, you know, this codifies the regime's policy of kind of a sectarian, I call it sectarian gerrymandering.
And so they have played upon the region's kind of sectarian and nationalistic fears.
You know, then the island's Sunnis begin to feel like, you know, it's us against them.
And meanwhile, that shifts the focus completely away from legitimate, you know, political and socioeconomic grievances.
So the demands of the opposition in February 2011 were quite modest.
Number one, repeal the citizenship law.
Number two, a freely elected prime minister.
Bahrain's prime minister is the longest-serving in the world today, 45 years.
An independent judiciary, proportional parliamentary representation, and a new constitution.
Now, they actually didn't ask for the overthrow of the monarchy.
They asked for a constitutional monarchy.
So all of these are very secular, if you want to say in the general sense, pro-Western values that were unfortunately ignored.
Well, I think that really bears emphasizing, too, here that you're talking about, if I understand you right, if I understand the situation right, a minority Sunni monarchy ruling over a majority Shiite population.
The majority Shiite population, which I understand you're saying there's a lot of foreign nationals brought in, and it's a little bit in question there, you know, with the proportions and all, but more or less.
And the majority Shiite population rises up, and they don't say, come on, let's overthrow the king and cut his head off and install an Ayatollah in charge.
Instead, they say, we would like equal rights, too, without changing the structure of anything going on here, too, please.
And for their trouble, they're killed.
Absolutely.
And you know, you will never hear the word Sunni and Shiite from them.
Because there have actually been some Sunni opposition figures that have been jailed by the regime.
Because they disagree with the system as well.
But it is the government who wants to put it as Iranian versus Arab, Sunnis versus Shiites.
Because it plays into people being dependent on them for protection.
But in the opposition, those people, you know, Nabil Rajab and Zainab al-Khalaja, and you know, the millions of, you know, the hundreds of people jailed will never speak in those terms.
It's not just equal rights for all Bahrainis, but the legitimate rights that have denied them need to be applied.
And you know, Bahrain ranks number one amongst all countries in the world as the highest number of political prisoners per capita.
I mean, if people really understood what's happening in Bahrain, it really is shocking.
Because the opposition and the protesters could really not appeal to the West on more Western values, if you want to use that expression, in terms of what they're asking for.
Right.
Well, that's why they are just shut out.
Nobody ever heard of them.
And hey, look, everybody, Libya, where Qaddafi, he's been compliant since 2003, but is not really our pet and is clearly expendable, unlike the king of Bahrain.
And so let's pretend we care about the little guy in Libya, and everybody go look at that, which of course ended up the disaster that it was, but they pretended like it was some heroism going on.
Well, meanwhile, they take the side of brutality all across the rest of the Middle East.
That's correct.
And you know, what they worry about, of course, is that, you know, Bahrain has such close proximity to the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, which also has a majority Shia population in that province.
And you know, they're worried that kind of bug of equal rights, you know, parliament, fair representation, you know, is going to sweep across.
So they made sure that in March 2011 to end it.
And there's one guy, his name is Toby Jones, who's a Mideast historian at Rutgers.
He had a great quote, and I wrote it down.
You know, there's a 16 mile causeway between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
And he said, quote, Saudi Arabia did not build a causeway to Bahrain just so that Saudis could party on weekends.
It was designed for moments like this for keeping Bahrain under control.
And that's exactly what happened.
But, you know, they are they are they are forward and resilient.
And, you know, they continue to issue the same demands, whether they're from prison or on the streets.
All right.
Now, so talk a little bit more about that initial reaction.
The Pearl Roundabout was their little kind of mini Tahrir Square.
And we did hear for a little while.
I mean, it was there are some reporters, even Roy Gutman, who from McClatchy, who has his problems.
He did some good stuff about Bahrain.
And there was some media about Bahrain, innocent people being.
What was it?
They're shot with birdshot so that their wounds are identifiable.
So they can be tortured later.
This kind of thing.
Right.
And they went into Sulaymaniyah Hospital and, you know, rounded up and interrogated the wounded.
Doctors were prevented from treating the injured.
And, you know, there was a flicker of hope that people would start paying attention.
But once once the context of, you know, these are Shiites, this is Iranian interference in our country.
These are the buzzwords the United States and the United Kingdom wanted to hear.
And sympathy was there from a few, but certainly not what you've seen, let's say, for Syria.
Or or other places.
Now, granted, granted, the scale is not such that in Syria.
You know, people often say, well, you know, how many people have been killed in Bahrain compared to them?
But we're not talking about that.
We're talking about a repressive authoritarian government that has really put a stranglehold on the vast majority of people in the country.
Well, and also we're talking about not just, you know, I don't know, some.
It's hard to think of a country offhand that America doesn't control.
But anyway, we're talking about a country that is a loyal sock puppet dictatorship of the United States, a tiny little island that is virtually the private property of the Department of Defense.
And let's also stipulate, Scott, sorry to interrupt, that this is considered a, quote, unquote, moderate Arab country.
You know, it's much different than, you know, we support a dictatorship like in X, Y and Z.
They are, they are, were paraded as a model of fair representation because, you know, they used to have a parliament where one of the political parties, Eloise Fox, you know, had 17 of 40 seats, which was a Shia party.
You know, they don't tell you that the upper house of parliament, the Shura Council, could overturn anything the lower house of parliament said.
And all those members were appointed by the king.
So it's really like a faux democracy.
But, you know, it's always considered one of our, quote, unquote, moderate Arab allies.
Yeah, like Kuwait.
Exactly.
Yeah.
You know, it's really one of the most egregious next to Saudi Arabia.
Even Kuwait has a modicum of freedom for the people there, even though it's still a monarchy.
There is still a parliament.
But here, you know, parliament has been completely, you know, you know, all the leaders are jailed.
You know, there's no free press.
There's no free expression.
You know, people are put in jail for tweets.
You know, children have been abused and imprisoned by identified members of the royal family.
And as I quote in the article, you know, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights has really done an outstanding job in documenting all this.
And now, well, so elaborate about that, the abuse of children.
Whose children?
Well, you know, these are just, you know, people who are protesting on the streets or, you know, kids who are 14, 15, 16 are rounded up.
You know, there was a report of some disabled children being tortured in jail.
And, you know, I wrote an article called Bahrain Island of Imprisoned Children and Raised Mosques.
Forty mosques were destroyed.
And you see this in Saudi Arabia, too, where, you know, youths are incarcerated, detained for long periods of time without charge simply because they were on the street waving a flag, maybe throwing a rock.
And then you get trumped up charges of speaking to top of a government and inciting civil unrest and insulting the police and all of these things.
So this really squeezes and puts pressure on a population when people's children are jailed.
It kind of sends a warning.
Do this at your own risk.
Yeah.
Well, and again, you know, we're not talking about just, you know, some country nobody ever heard of.
We're talking about, you know, not just America, but this current administration's responsibility for all this.
Because after all, what if Barack Obama wanted to have a different policy, Ronnie?
Yeah.
Well, you would probably find a lot of opposition to it in Congress, because then you would find people saying, why are we allying with the Iranians, even though the Iranian thing is kind of quite a canard?
And they have no ties to the Iranian government, maybe some moral support, but that's about it.
Same thing you see in Yemen.
You know, there's alleged Iranian interference in Yemen, but, you know, I don't see Iran dropping bombs on you.
You know, who's Saudi Arabia has directly interfered in Yemen, as obvious by the air and war campaign that have killed so many people.
So I think I wonder if the admirals themselves actually carry their way, because, you know, they're not stupid.
They have actual legit DIA reports that have realistic estimates of Iranian influence.
And again, we're not talking about an attempt to install an ayatollah or something.
It seems like maybe you could even convince an admiral to advise the king that if you would lighten up on these people a little bit, it might take the pressure off me a little bit, please.
Right.
You know, I'm trying to be real politic here.
Well, that is real politic.
But, you know, a constitutional monarchy, let's say, like you have in the United Kingdom, would not see the king have much influence or say.
And it is about power, control.
These things are not easily relinquished to the people.
Yeah.
Well, welcome to the United States of America, too.
I've heard this song my whole life.
All right.
Well, now and then.
So is it really true about the doctors being tortured for just for treating the wounded and that kind of thing?
Yes.
That was in that was in February 2011.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch documented that ambulance drivers were prevented for attending to the wounded in Pearl Roundabout.
And Sulamania Hospital really became a symbol of resistance at that time, because that's where all the injured protesters were taken.
And, you know, the security forces just kind of ramrodged, you know, kind of just barreled through there, you know, interrogating people when they're injured, beating them, imprisoning them.
Doctors, you know, really became a symbol of resistance in that country.
You know, it's just very quite unfortunate.
And as I said, this has happened long before 2011.
It's just that 2011 is when the spotlight came on Bahrain.
And hopefully it'll still stay on there despite everything, everything going on.
Yeah.
Well, I don't know so much that it has, but certainly more than before.
It's definitely waned since then and been overshadowed by other events in the region.
That's why I really appreciate you paying such attention to this the way you do.
That is to you and your program.
So I appreciate that.
Well, now, in the article, you do a good job.
And, again, it's Rani Amiri and the article's at Antiwar.com this weekend, Dismantling Civil Society in Bahrain.
So talk more about that, the groups that did exist of the protesters, their leaders and their stories, please.
You know, some of the big names are Nabil Rajab, who has really been a pillar of resistance in Bahrain, one of the founders of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the Gulf Center for Human Rights.
And, you know, he was imprisoned, I think, I may be wrong on this, for two years for simply writing against government actions.
And these are, you know, let's just say he is a Shia, but completely secular, you know, in his demands.
There is Eloise Fox, which was an, I don't want to say Islamist, but a Shia religious party.
But, again, their demands were purely, you could say, secular.
They didn't call for a clerical establishment or any type of Sharia law or anything like that.
They simply demanded equitable treatment to the people.
Zainab al-Khawaja, she was put in jail in 2012 for tearing up the picture of the king in court.
And, again, recently imprisoned and recently released after 50 months for tearing up the picture of the king again.
And so when I say civil society, you know, there's no independent judiciary.
There is no, you know, equitable, fair parliamentary representation.
You are in jeopardy to speak out against the regime.
And so all the trappings of what could have been there, what they said was there before, even though it was a little bit shadowy at that time, have been now brazenly dismantled.
And it really has become more of an overtly authoritarian regime.
Sheikh Ali Salman, who was the head of Eloise Fox, was just, you know, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
And on appeal, that was increased to nine years.
Now, I was never a big fan of him because he tended to believe that there could be reasonable dialogue with the crown prince.
I thought he was a little bit too indulgent with that.
But, you know, now he sees the crown prince wasn't much of a factor in preventing his, you know, nine year jail term.
So they have they have negotiated in good faith.
But unfortunately, the clampdown has been ongoing.
And now have there been major executions and this kind of thing as well?
Other than the original murders in the Pearl Roundabout?
Right.
There have not been mass executions.
I think it has been more in terms of imprisonment, torture.
You know, Bahrain was notorious for an island that a government that tortured its people.
So it is really those, you know, other types of abuse that are dominant today versus, you know, people just being, you know, there's no beheadings or, you know, that type of thing that that's going on.
But it's really just a slow, oppressive grind on the people and the ability to function daily, daily life in a civil manner.
Yeah.
Well, and of course, all this raises the question of what the United States of America needs a fifth fleet for or even does need a fifth fleet.
Why it can't just float out in international waters in the Indian Ocean.
Why does it have to sit around at Bahrain all the time and have such a vested interest in the status quo there?
Yeah.
I mean, if the fifth fleet wants to stay there, why can't the people just have a free parliament and stay there?
You know, if the fifth fleet wants to stay there, why can't the prime minister be elected?
If the fifth fleet wants to stay there, why can't the citizenship laws be repealed?
You know, they're not hand in hand or part and parcel with the regime, maybe because the regime grants them a base.
But, you know, it's not like these people are calling for the U.S. to be kicked out or anything like that, although I don't think they should be there.
Their demands are really, you know, to restore civil society.
Well, we don't really know, but all things being equal, if America was not subsidizing the government there, maybe the people would have successfully overthrown them a long time ago.
Could be.
I mean, maybe the Saudis would have cracked down a lot harder.
But the Saudis don't have much of an army, really.
The U.S. does their fighting for them.
They have kind of an internal security force.
Right.
Well, you know, it's easy to beat up on Bahrainis, I guess.
You know, when you're a tiny island near Saudi Arabia, even then you can go into a roundabout that has unarmed, defenseless men, women, and children who are just camped out there and beat them down.
That doesn't take much to do.
You know, even a most basic army can do that.
So, they didn't really challenge a fighting force, because there was none, which, again, speaks to the type of protests that were taking place.
So, you know, the question is whether the U.S. could have told Saudi Arabia, don't go there, let this happen.
But, again, that has great implications for all the other GCC countries, which are monarchies.
All right.
Well, listen, thanks so much for writing this article.
I really appreciate it and appreciate having the opportunity to run it where people can look at it.
It's running again, everybody.
Oh, I really appreciate it.
Yeah, yeah.
No problem at all.
Again, everyone, it's at Antiwar.com.
Dismantling Civil Society in Bahrain by Rani Amiri.
Thanks again.
Thank you, Scott.
All right, y'all.
And that's been Antiwar Radio for this morning.
Thanks very much for listening.
I'm Scott Horton.
Here every Sunday morning from 8.30 to 9 on KPFK 90.7 FM in L.A.
Find my full interview archive at ScottHorton.org.
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See you next week.