(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - We have conducted an interview with Ralph Schoenman, author and political commentator, to further discuss the issue. The following is a transcript of the interview.
Q: Bahrain has welcomed 2012 with yet another funeral, more anti-regime protests and continued repression. For how long is this sustainable?
Schoenman: Well, you have to keep in mind that the first anniversary of the uprising occurs on February 14th, and a major demonstration has been called by the democracy movement Bahrain to mark the first anniversary, and to make a major stand in the capital, Manama, to mark this first anniversary of the uprising.
And this violence has been just recently unleashed in the last 24 hours which has resulted in the death of children and civilians - five civilians killed including a 15 year old boy, Sayyed Hashem, who Finian Cunningham reported was shot in the face with a teargas canister on New Year's Eve; a 27 year old woman was bludgeoned by the police with an iron bar that killed her in the presence of civilians.
And it should be pointed out that this is taking place in a very specific context. Two former police chiefs from the United States and Britain have been appointed to “bring their expertise to the Bahraini forces”.
The former police chief of Miami, John Timoney, and his British counterpart, John Yates who was commander at London's Scotland Yard, have been assigned by Bahrain's royal rulers to “oversee reform”.
And since their tenure, the violence has been intensified. And it's not difficult to see why because these particular individuals, Timoney and Yates, are about the last people you would want to be out in a location nominally on the grounds that they are addressing the issue of human rights.
Timoney was accused of deploying brutality against American street protests while commander of the Miami police, as well as targeting the random beating and shooting of blacks.
While Yates was forced to resign in shame over his corruption involving phone tapping carried out by the London Metropolitan police in collusion with Rupert Murdoch's tabloid press in London, as Finian Cunningham has detailed in his most recent report.
It should be pointed out that the Bahraini regime has for decades earned the reputation internationally for both brutality and torture. And the appointment of these compromised and brutal police chiefs from Miami and from Washington and from London points to the increased role of direct American military and imperialism in the attempt to crush the freedom movement and the democracy movement in Bahrain.
One point further, the notorious national security agency that was the aid instrument administering the torturing apparatus of King Hamad and the regime in Bahrain was under the agents of British colonel Ian Henderson. Henderson continues to work in the Ministry of the Interior, and includes the newly appointed John Yates who was one of his colleagues.
So, it is a repressive apparatus marched by the henchman of imperialism both American and British to suppress the population and to unleash yet another wave of murder and torture of these suffering people.
Q: Bahrain's top court has announced just this Monday that it is creating a judicial panel to review some military court verdicts related to the protests. What do you make of that?
Schoenman: Cosmetic. It's basically something that the administration in Washington requested in order to create a patina of investigative challenge to the brutality. Nothing concrete will alter.
The people who are being suppressed will continue to be detained and to be tortured as they have been before. There will not be a scintilla of evidence of any alteration of this repressive modality.
And I would like to put this in a very specific context, I know we're discussing Bahrain; we have for over a year now. Today we learned that NATO forces are going to stage a major drill in Israel; and not only that but the United States is escalating its presence for missile systems in Israel.
These are just being announced in relation to threats against Iran. All the candidates who are running for office for the Republicans are competing with Obama in threatening Iran with preemptive strikes.
The repression in Bahrain, the escalation of that repression, the placement of key police officials from the United States and from Britain on the ground is part of this war process. And the repression against the people in Bahrain is key to attempting to demonize the Shia population - the vast majority of the people - and to tie them to Iran's attempts to defend its sovereignty to against imperial threats.
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