Via As’ad AbuKhalil, a video of daily life in Bahrain:
This reminds me of a recent article at al Jazeera on excessive exposure to tear gas in Bahrain and how some are concerned about long-term effects like cancer. The Bahraini security forces penchant for tear gas came only after they learned that slaughtering their citizens with live rounds of heavy ammunition attracted a lot of unwanted international attention. Now, tear gas, severe beatings, and torture behind closed doors are the preferred tactics of repression.
In Bahrain, the U.S. has sent military aid despite harsh repression of largely peaceful protests, including dozens of American tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopter gunships, riot gear, thousands of .38 caliber pistols and millions of rounds of ammunition, from .50 caliber rounds used in sniper rifles and machine guns to bullets for handguns. After international condemnation of Obama’s support for the dictatorship, the administration jumped through legal loopholes to send Bahrain an additional arms package that, once complete, may include $50 million worth of armored vehicles, high-tech TOW and bunker buster missiles, anti-tank rocket launchers, and spare parts and military communications equipment. Not to mention the rhetorical support Obama has explicitly lent the regime in Bahrain.
Such support is very hush-hush in the mainstream media.