Thousands protest Zionist atrocities(Bahrain:site of US Air and Naval base)

Gulf Daily News ^ | 4/06/02 | staff

[LarryLied]

Thousands of demonstrators took part in rallies throughout Bahrain yesterday to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and to protest against the atrocities being carried out against defenceless people by the Zionists.

The demonstrators chanted slogans condemning the outrageous Zionist terrorism and urged support for the Palestinian people in their struggle to defend Arab dignity and Muslim holy places.

They called on Arab and friendly countries, together with the UN, to take all necessary steps to lift the siege against the Palestinian people and their leader President Yasser Arafat and to end the massacres of hundreds of people committed by Israeli occupation forces.

The demonstrators called for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories and urged Arab nations to sever all ties with Israel, declare jihad and give every support to the Palestinian uprising.

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Rally disrupted by 'infiltrators'

Bahrain security forces were compelled to intervene when a number of people "infiltrated" a rally in support of the Palestinians and threw Molotov cocktails and stones at the US Embassy yesterday, said Interior Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa last night.

He said the rally was heading peacefully towards the US embassy when the attack on private property took place.

"As a result, the security forces in co-operation with the organisers of the rally, were forced to deal with such infiltrators in order to preserve the normal order and security enjoyed by the kingdom," said Shaikh Mohammed in a statement.

The Minister said he regretted these acts and stressed that while such rallies were allowed to take place in recognition of people's feelings towards the Palestinians, public security had to be maintained.

He added that disturbances and attacks on public and private buildings as well as diplomatic missions could not be allowed.

Shaikh Mohammed said the actions of the infiltrators did not reflect the civilised and democratic spirit of the people of Bahrain.

He said the Interior Ministry would take appropriate measures to ensure such actions were not repeated and would bring people who violated the peace to justice.

The Minister said he also regretted that infiltrators had prevented the protesters from submitting their demands to the US embassy which was ready to accept them.

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Women to support intifada

WOMEN of all nationalities are to hold a silent demonstration in support of the people of Palestine in front of the UN House in Hoora today.

The hour-long vigil will be held from 4pm and is being organised by Irish Fiona Gaffney in conjunction with the global phenomenon Women in Black.

It is a loose network of women worldwide committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to war and other forms of violence.

Ms Gaffney expects at least 100 mostly expatriate women to turn up for the demonstration.

However, Bahraini women are also more than welcome to join.

Women in Black vigils were started in Israel in 1988 by women protesting against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, demanding peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Participants will be asked to sign a letter to be sent to the UN, care of the UN Information Centre in Bahrain.

It calls for the UN and the signatories' countries to protest to the UN Security Council at the maltreatment of the people of Palestine at the hands of Israel, to end the siege of Ramallah, the virtual imprisonment of Yasser Arafat and the blockades of Bethlehem, Tulkarm, Bait Jala, Jenin and other West Bank Cities. For more information, contact Ms Gaffney on 9424232.

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Silence of the US Lambs

By Maha bint Abdulaziz Al Khalifa

The most frightening aspect of America is that it is not by accident that many US officials, both good and ordinary men, are committing murder against the Palestinians.

The latest massacres carried out by Israelis against Palestinian people and the total "Silence of the American Lambs" penetrates to the heart of that darkness which we call the 2002 Palestinian Holocaust.

The entire Arab community feels utterly dismayed at the indirect American involvement in the mass murder of the Palestinians.

Arab governments expect America to play a crucial role in finding a final solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The murderous record of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is a true reflection of the social background and actions of individual men.

His barbaric record offers some of the most powerful and disturbing evidence to date of a savage human capacity for extraordinary inhumanity.

In short, the Israeli attack on the Arabs of Palestine was not a short intense wave of mass murder, but a gradual programme of terrible hardship, deprivation and persecution of the Palestinian population.

This offensive, moreover, came just when the Arab world refused to support a direct American strike against Iraq.

In other words, Israeli aggression surfaced after America had failed to convince Arab governments to participate in decision-making involving a strike against Iraq.

The grass-roots perpetrators became "professional killers" because of failed operations. Even historians will encounter numerous difficulties in trying to write about a unit of such men, among them the problem of sources.

In recent decades the historical profession in general has been increasingly concerned with writing history "from the bottom up", with reconstructing the experiences of the bulk of the population ignored in the history of high politics and high culture hitherto so dominant.

In America in particular, this trend has culminated in the practice of "blaming others" achieved through a "thick description" of common experiences of ordinary people such as in the Oklahoma bombing when an Arab was initially blamed for a failure in American internal politics.

But all along it was a man of pure American blood who was responsible because of his anger at his own government.

When such an approach of illegitimate accusations has been applied to the era of technology of information, however, some have criticised it as an evasion - a way to shift attention from the unparalleled horrors of the new Nazi Israeli regime's genocidal policies to those mundane aspects of life that continue relatively undisturbed.

America must understand that darkness will never be light. Not trying to understand the perpetrators in human terms makes it impossible, not only in this war, but in any history of a nation defending their own land.

Palestinians are in a situation with no more choices. Most people carrying out suicide bombings do so because the American government has made it clear that human responsibility is ultimately an individual matter.

[GatorGirl]

Thanks for the ping, Tonkin--prayers appreciated, you know why!

Larry, I need to make a small correction to your title--there is no US airbase in Bahrain! No disrespect meant...That said, please add me to your Bahrain interest ping list.

[American Preservative]

...which we call the 2002 Palestinian Holocaust.

Remember what I said about the Arabs taking/stealing/usurping (imo) from the Jews? Here's another example.

So, unoriginal....yawn.

[American Preservative]

Saw a great billboard the other day - Life, liberty, and the pursuit of
all
who threaten it.

NAVY

[B4Ranch]

Where are the Christian Palestinians? We have been watching the Muslims rant and rave, so ......where are the Christian Palestinians? Are they just sitting back expecting to become Muslims? If they won't fight for their beliefs, why are we fighting for them?

[MeekOneGOP]

Gee, I could say that these people aren't people but are more like wild animals, but that would be a high insult to animals everywhere...........

Chairman Arafat
Mark Steyn Link Excerpt:

Just as revealing was the reaction from the European media. In the American press, you read things like: "An observer to the bomb-blast scene described a dead young girl, perhaps 10 or 12, lying on the ground with her eyes open, looking as if she was surprised." For Europe, on the other hand, the main significance of this development was that it was "unhelpful" to the "peace process". Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs. It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do. So does Saddam Hussein, whose government (the subject of an admiring article in this week's Spectator) gives $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber. So does the Arab League, which at last year's summit passed a resolution hailing the "spirit of sacrifice" of the Palestinian "martyrs" and thus licensed Wednesday's massacre. As for the "peace process", those Europeans who, just a few months ago, were urging the Americans to cease operations for Ramadan evidently feel no compunction to demand from Chairman Arafat and his dark subsidiaries any similar "bombing pause" for Passover.

In the days after September 11, we were told that Muslims had great respect for their fellow "people of the book" - ie, Jews and Christians. This ought to be so: after all, the dramatis personae of the Koran include Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It's one thing to believe that the Israelis are occupiers and oppressors and that the Zionist state should not exist. But no Muslim with any understanding of his shared heritage could in good conscience blow up a Passover Seder. It marks a new low in the Palestinians' descent into nihilism - though, as usual, the silence of the imams is deafening. As for the nonchalance of the Europeans, that too should not surprise us: in my experience, the Continent's Christians, practising and nominal, find the ceremonies of Jewish life faintly creepy, notwithstanding that these were also the rituals by which their own Saviour lived.

But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too".......................

[MeekOneGOP]

Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs.

[Lent]

Remember what I said about the Arabs taking/stealing/usurping (imo) from the Jews? Here's another example.

So, unoriginal....yawn.

They should know about the Holocaust. Their leader in the 20's-40's helped the Nazis with the final solution by doing his part in Bosnia, Kosovo and Palestine to kill Jews (as well as Serbs in Yugoslavia).

[Pipers]

re your 5. you mean that a bunch of Moslems and Christians are collected together and Sharon will not blow them up? what kind of a general is that?

[Jen]

Tonk, thanks for the ping.

LL, please add me to your 'Bahrain' ping list. Thanks.

[bourbon]

You need to see the Navy's TV commercial using the same slogan.

To use an apt neologism, it "rocks!"

Also it beats the hell out of the Army's lame-o self-help style "Army of One" advertisements.

GO NAVY!

[Nix 2]

You are being an agitator, Larry. You know this protest had nothing to do with our Military Bases and you made it seem as if it was the case anyway. It behooves you to post Arabic propaganda to incite Americans, but the words you added to the title are misrepresentations, the worst kind of anti-semitism, and you know it full well. Here is the story, and our bases were never endangered, nor will they be.

MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. embassy in Bahrain said on Saturday that protesters who stormed its premises on Friday had set mission vehicles on fire, compelling its security personnel to use teargas to repel the intrusion. The protest in the conservative Gulf Arab state, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, was spurred by anger against the week-old Israeli offensive in the West Bank.

"Some demonstrators entered the embassy compound and set embassy vehicles on fire," a U.S. embassy statement said.

"In response to this provocation, embassy security personnel fired tear gas cylinders to compel the intruders to leave the embassy ground," it said. "Embassy personnel did not fire at demonstrators."

An embassy worker said the mission had closed its doors on Saturday but would open for business on Sunday.

Bahrain Information Minister Nabeel Yacoub al-Hamer told the official Bahrain news agency the demonstration had started as a peaceful protest, but some people had "infiltrated" into the crowd and attacked the embassy.

A political activist said about 80 people had been taken to hospital for treatment to injuries from rubber bullets or teargas and at least one person had been arrested. A hospital doctor later told Reuters none of the injuries was serious.

Hamer denied there had been any arrests or injuries apart from those affected by teargas.

"All that happened was that they (officers) used teargas to disperse a number of people who sneaked up and attacked the American embassy building. Some of those were affected by teargas and were taken to hospital and released."

The demonstration was one of the biggest political gatherings for some years in the small island state.

Several peaceful rallies have been held in neighboring Gulf Arab states since Israel launched a new offensive in the West Bank following a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings.

Conservative Gulf Arab states have found themselves walking a tightrope as public anger mounts against their key Western ally, the United States, for what ordinary people see as its pro-Israeli bias.

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The kind of people who *infiltrated* this demonstration sounds like YOUR kind of people. Your same kind of desperate attempt to turn Americans on Americans and give succor to terrorists who came here to destroy us. It would be a shame if these good people fell for your underhanded motives.

[Nix 2]

Ping to #32

[weikel]

I just got up your brother says the situation in Bahrain is still okay right?

[weikel]

Yeah I agree the NROTC people at my school are great high quality guys if my school is any indication the navy has the best officers in the future of any of the services by far.

[weikel]

Bahrain is pretty Westernized I think we'll be okay there( after all one of their princesses ran off and married one of our infidel marines stationed there LOL, the guy didn't know she was a princess till afterwords of course, if they didn't kick us out after that I think we are fine).

[Cachelot]

Your same kind of desperate attempt to turn Americans on Americans and give succor to terrorists who came here to destroy us.

Oh, Mr. Lied would never give succor to anyone, at least not if they weren't of the Islamic or Aryan persuasion. His reaction to nearly a thousand Jews returned from the shores of USA to the ovens when they sought refuge here:

 To: Cachelot

The father had fled Estonia and made it to one of the last ships out of France. Oddly enough, his Argentine partner had been in the Kreigsmarine, a sailor interned in Uruguay who sneaked over to BA after the Graf Spee was scuttled in Montevideo harbor. Those two sure put politics behind when they saw how much money there was to be made selling stuff to the allies.

No, I don't know what ship it was, I don't know the date, the serial number, the passanger list, how many horsepwer it was nor what color the ship was painted. Not the types of things which comes up when a person relates WWII experiences.

Aside from all that, if you didn't jump all around smearing America for not doing enough for Jews, for sending them back to Hitler, I would not bother pointing this all out. But you do so the other side should be told.

Ever consider the possibility the reason Americans were not too thrilled with the idea of the St. Louis off loading passengers here was what had occurred in the Soviet Union? Who was to know there wasn't another Trotsky on board? America was over 90% Christian at that time. Christians knew of the slaughter of Christians in the Ukraine, they knew who the executioners were. Can you blame them for wondering if that might happen here?

60 posted on 4/1/02 7:54 AM Pacific by LarryLied
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[weikel]

I don't think its Israel the Saudis are probably paying off people to cause trouble as usual but I bet the Government doesn't know exactly who the troublemakers are because they are hidden among all the Saudis who come to Bahrain every week to get drunk.

[Nix 2]

ROFL

[LarryLied]

You know this protest had nothing to do with our Military Bases and you made it seem as if it was the case anyway. It behooves you to post Arabic propaganda to incite Americans, but the words you added to the title are misrepresentations, the worst kind of anti-semitism, and you know it full well.

My sister's husband is in Bahrain almost every week. Several other freepers have relatives there. Many freepers were in Bahrain while in the service. Several Gulf War Vets on Free Republic were stationed at one time or the other in Bahrain. There is interest in what is going on there.

The night before I posted this article, I posted another from the Bahrain Gulf Daily News in which I suggested the tone of the paper had changed and trouble was about to occur.

I was dead right. Violence broke out the next day. Rush mentioned what was in the Gulf Daily News 14 hours after it was posted on Free Republic.

The charges of antisemitism against everyone who does not think exactly as you do or post what you want posted are wearing very thin indeed. You may not like this post, you may not care to hear from local sources what is occuring where US troops are stationed but others do.