Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy interviewed Nabeel Rajab, president of Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Here are some of his remarks:
The military has taken part in suppressing the protests. They have killed people, they have tortured people, they have arrested people, they have detained people. They have established checkpoints and humiliated people at checkpoints, raided houses, robbed houses, demolished mosques. They have taken part in every crime committed in the past months.
They have attacked my house on a weekly basis, you can see it on YouTube. They attacked me, 25 masked men kidnapped me from my home last March. They blindfolded me, handcuffed me, beat me, then took me back home. This has happened a few times. My house is targeted, my mother’s house is targeted, all because of my work. But I am better off than the others, because I am free and not dead, because there are people who have been killed and who are behind bars now.
Taken verbatim, without reference to a source, nation, or context, this could easily describe the experiences of terr-, er, dissidents here in Amerika today.
Of course. Any "existential threat" to the hegemon must be extinguished all the while painting their totalitarian acts as benign.