U.S. Selling Weapons to Bahraini Dictatorship During Height of Social Repression

Even as it pontificates about the “Arab Spring” and its “humanitarian” war against Libya, the United States government has signed a new arms contract with the dictatorial regime of King Hamad Al-Khalifa of Bahrain.

The US Defense Department has agreed a to provide the government of the tiny Persian Gulf monarchy with an additional $53 million of weapons.

Bahrain’s security forces killed at least 30 people during the weeks of mass demonstrations earlier this year, when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital, Manama, to demand political and social rights.

The much larger neighboring kingdom of Saudi Arabia, also armed to the teeth with the latest US-made weaponry, aided the March crackdown in Manama, sending over 1,500 troops as well as police, armored personnel carriers and tanks across the causeway to Bahrain.

There have been frequent reports in the subsequent months of opponents of the al-Khalifa regime being abducted or assassinated. Over 1,000 people have been arrested for taking part in the protests, with many held incommunicado and tortured. Thousands of public sector workers have been fired for allegedly taking to the streets against the government.

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Source: World Socialist Web Site

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