Human Rights Watch: Obama Sends Bahrain Arms Despite Continuing Repression (using legal loopholes)
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/02/08/us-wrong-time-bahrain-arms-deal
The Obama administration’s decision to move forward on a $1 million arms sale to Bahrain sends the wrong signal to a country that is engaged in serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today.
“Bahrain has made many promises to cease abuses and hold officials accountable, but it hasn’t delivered,” said Maria McFarland, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “Protesters remain jailed on criminal charges for peacefully speaking out and there has been little accountability for torture and killings – crimes in which the Bahrain Defense Force is implicated.”
In a January 27, 2012 statement, the State Department announced that it intended to go forward with the sale of approximately $1 million of equipment to Bahrain while maintaining “a pause on most security assistance for Bahrain pending further progress on reform.” The State Department asserted that the equipment included spare parts and maintenance of equipment needed for Bahrain’s external defense and support of US Navy Fifth Fleet operations and that it did not include items that could be used against protesters. But the State Department has not made public a full list of the equipment to be sold.
snip
------------------------------------------------------
further background:
An independent commission in Bahrain recently found that torture has been systemic
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE7A03NW20111101 since protests broke out last year. The commission urged reform, but the United Nations has recently said
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-bahrain-rights-idUSTRE7BK1N620111221 that Bahrain was failing to prosecute human rights abuses
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/opinion/sunday/kristof-repressing-democracy-with-american-arms.html?_r=2&smid=fb-share and was continuing its use of excessive force against civilians.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has quietly moved forward
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/27/obama_administration_selling_new_arms_package_to_bahrain with a new package of arms sales to the regime in Bahrain, after international pressure forced them to delay its planned $53 million arms sale. Using legal loopholes that only require congressional authorization for sales of $1 million or more, the administration split the arms package and moved forward with the new sales without notifying the public.
