Bahrain, KSA regimes have no validity

Bahrain's military tribunal has sentenced dozens of protesters to up to 25 years in jail for taking part in anti-regime demonstrations.

There is  an interview with Rodney Shakespeare, head of the Committee against Torture in Bahrain, to shed more light on the atrocities committed by Saudi-backed forces against Bahraini protesters.

The video offers the opinions of two additional guests, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights in Manama and Daoud Khairallah professor of law at Georgetown University.

What follows is the text of the interview:

Q: On the issue of the validity of the court, "serious questions of due process irregularities" have been raised by the UN and of course we know Bahrain -- this was a Persian Gulf island that was founded by the UK -- had this treaty relationship. So in terms of the courts and the irregularities, it begs the question: are these courts valid and legal?

Shakespeare: The courts have no validity; they are not legal and that is because the regime has no validity; it has no cultural validity, no moral validity and no political validity. In fact, it is full of perverts who dare to imprison people for 25 years for political protests and if you are a nurse and you treat somebody, you get tortured.

For example, nurses have been tortured in the endeavor to make confess to putting their hands into wounds and pulling apart to create football sized wounds. The fact of the matter is the Bahraini regime is full of perverts and that is why they are a pariah regime.

Unfortunately they are linked to another pariah regime in which a woman who defends herself against attack or against rape gets her head cut off and a woman who wants to drive a car ends up being whipped and that of course is sexual perversity.

That is why you have got two pariah regimes full of perverts next to each other. They are Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and they have no validity whatsoever.

Q: Rodney Shakespeare, tell us when we talk about the UK which founded this monarchy in terms of their relationship that they had. Doesn't the fact that they are not doing anything or being more proactive hurt their position not to mention of course the fact that in a sense they are endorsing what is going on?

Shakespeare: Not just endorsing, they are in fact aiding. For example, I mentioned the endeavor by the perverts that talk to the nurses to admit that they had put their hands into wounds. These wounds are football sized and they are caused by what are known as dum-dum bullets but they are not using those words; they are jacketed rounds or stopper bullets and we supply them.

We are now becoming one of the pariah regimes in this world because the world is changing and everybody knows that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel are hand in glove; that Israel sprays phosphorus over its populations and the other one is the USA which is involved in six wars and everyday commits an atrocity and a war crime and the main media never report this. The UK is now linked with these pariah regimes.

The world is changing; they are fed up with it; there is no legitimacy at all for Bahrain or Saudi Arabia and nor for that matter for Israel which has not the slightest intention of settling. The world is changing and I am saying that I regret that my own country is rapidly becoming one of these pariah regimes.

Q: UK Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt reiterated the British Government's deep concern about these courts. To add to that, he has mentioned to the Bahraini ambassador implementing the national dialogue and then he mentioned the Independent Commission of Inquiry should be put into motion.

Obviously, they cannot be disconnected, he has got to be informed but he comes out with these statements. What is your response to that?

Shakespeare: Well, the UK ministers are liars and hypocrites, but on torture, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld ordered the American torture and in Bahrain if the king wishes to absolve himself, he can abdicate or he can change his prime minister.

It goes straight to the top and let nobody tell me or anybody else that that king is not guilty; or that smirking self righteous pervert, the crown prince, is not guilty. They are guilty and how dare they try to say they are anything else except perverts and torturers.

Q: We are looking at what happened with Egypt and Tunisia, doesn't the United States see that? And how is it that they do not see it especially now at this particular time in history with these Arab uprisings going on? I mean, can't they see it is going to play not to their benefit?

Shakespeare: You have put the point precisely. It is backfiring that we are at a different time in history; the USA is no longer looking accurately at its own self interest and that is the same with my country, the UK, and they are now linked with the pariah regimes with Bahrain, with Saudi Arabia, with Israel which sprays phosphorus over everybody and giggles at the same time.

The USA simply has lost any genuine understanding of its own long term interests and the world is moving and the USA and the UK are going to lose as a consequence.

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