Anti-US Protest in Bahrain Where Children are Given OBL T-Shirts!

[leftchick]

Isn't Bahrain supposed to be our "friend"? :eyes:







Unidentified Bahraini youths, wearing images of Osama bin Laden, holding Bahraini and Iraqi flags, and banners demanding U.S. troops leave Iraq during a rally Friday, April 28, 2006, in Muharraq, Bahrain. About 200 people turned out for the demonstration, where children were given bin Laden t-shirts. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

[Cooley Hurd]

1. They were, in 2000...

Times have changed, my friend. :(

[High Plains]

2. Maybe the Bahraini government is "our friend," but apparently

not everyone who lives there. Big surprise.

I've seen Osama items for sale in South America. In fact, I think for awhile after 911 people were selling "Osama" brand heroin in Brazil.

[butterfly77]

3. The next generation and compare them to some of the youths..

in america

[movie_girl99]

4. I didn't think we had many friends left at this point n/t

[Shipwack]

5. This is extremely odd...

I just came back from there a couple of months ago, and there really is hardly any animosity amoung the people there for the US. While there are demonstrations a few times a month, they are always protesting the local king. I didn't even stay on base... I often walked around the town on foot and alone, and never felt anything but safe.

I wonder if they are native Bahraini youth? A very large portion of the population in Bahrain are "guest workers"... Then again, probably not; most of the guest workers are single, with family outside the country.

Again, very odd. I'm going to read some papers and blogs and comment some more.

[Shipwack]

6. Could you supply a link please?

I don't see any mention of it in about a dozen different native blogs, and Google news comes up with only one hit, which announces a scheduled protest that is supposedly for getting US troops out of Iraq, and to show support for the new Palestinian government.

Of course, it is about midnight there as I write this, so their news cycle probably hasn't caught up with it yet...

[leftchick]

9. Here is the Yahoo link

I have not seen a story, just these photos and captions in the Yahoo Iraq Gallery...

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/1479/im:/060428/481/xhj10304281750

[Shipwack]

10. Thanks for the link...

I'm waiting for more info, and word from a friend living there for her take on it, if any...

I'm just wondering if the "pro-Osama" group was just a minor part in the overall demonstartion... a few protesters out of 200... A person covering the event would get more attention labeling it a pro-Osama rally than a Pro-Palestine rally. :shrug:

[951-Riverside]

7. Hmmmmm....

I wonder who paid for and gave out these shirts.

CIA Operatives?

[Hubert Flottz]

8. Sell them a port and a tank factory they'll be alright...

[Shipwack]

11. As usual, things are a bit more complicated than on the surface...

The rally was attended by 150 - 200 people, which is on the small side for demonstrations there, so in my humble (and possibly ignorant) this isn't something that has widespread support on the island. The "pro-Osama" portion seemed to be a small subset of that. The leader of the protest,Abdulrahman Abdulsalam, claims that he didn't know about the pro-Osama component, and is shocked, shocked I tell you....

Nothing has been mentioned in the two leading kingdom papers. Not surprising, in the case of the Bahrain Tribune; they tend to avoid anything that puts the government in a bad light, and the organizer of the demonstration is the head of the Shura, the senior of Bahrain's two legislative bodies and appointed by the king. However, the Gulf News doesn't mention anything either, and they -seem- to be more willing to be critical and report bad news.

My favorite regional blogger, Mahmood of Mahmood's Den has a rant about this. To summarize, he's not very happy to see people supporting Bin-Laden in his country, and doesn't buy into Abdulsalam's claims of ignorance.

Now it starts(?) getting complicated... The protesters weren't protesting US occupation of all of Iraq, just the Sunni cities. So there seems to be a religious angle to this protest... not to mention political. Now the question is, since Abdulsalam is appointed by the king, is this an endorsement of the demonstration's viewpoints? I honestly don't know. I tend to doubt it, personally. The US brings in a lot of money into the country, and I don't see the king wanting to shoot himself in the foot anytime soon. On the other hand, I have the impression that the king is nowhere near all powerful, and is constantly juggling factions, so he can't come outright and condemn this.

So overall, while I think this is a trend that needs to be watched, it's not a major problem -yet-. That my 7.4 mils worth, anyway.

Here's the Wikipedia article on Bahrain, and for those who wonder why it really matters, Bahrain has a naval base that is home to the US 5th Fleet.The 5th patrols the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf. Destroyer Squadron 50 is also based there, and it is responsible for the safety of the two Iraqi Oil terminals. Getting kicked out of Bahrain would make life complicated. Even if we could build a new base in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is a whole lot nicer place to live in.