Robert Fisk on Bahrain

As always Robert Fisk asks questions the West avoids. Why does the West overthrow some Arab tyrants, while other Arab tyrants who serve the West's interests get away with oppressing, shooting, torturing and murdering their citizens without a whimper from the West and other Arab leaders?

The extract below is from Robert Fisk's latest piece in the UK Independent newspaper. Fisk has written before about the uprisings in Bahrain here.

Robert Fisk

Why No outcry over these torturing tyrants

Christopher Hill, a former US secretary of state for east Asia who was ambassador to Iraq – and usually a very obedient and un-eloquent American diplomat – wrote the other day that "the notion that a dictator can claim the sovereign right to abuse his people has become unacceptable".

Unless, of course – and Mr Hill did not mention this – you happen to live in Bahrain. 

On this tiny island, a Sunni monarchy, the al-Khalifas, rule a majority Shia population and have responded to democratic protests with death sentences, mass arrests, the imprisonment of doctors for letting patients die after protests and an "invitation" to Saudi forces to enter the country. They have also destroyed dozens of Shia mosques with all the thoroughness of a 9/11 pilot. But then, let's remember that most of the 9/11 killers were indeed Saudis.

And what do we get for it? Silence. 

Silence in the US media, largely silence in the European press, silence from our own beloved CamerClegg and of course from the White House. And – shame of shame – silence from the Arabs who know where their bread is buttered. That means, of course, also silence from al-Jazeera. I often appear on their otherwise excellent Arabic and English editions, but their failure to mention Bahrain is shameful, a dollop of shit in the dignity that they have brought to reporting in the Middle East. The Emir of Qatar – I know him and like him very much – does not need to belittle his television empire in this way.

CamerClegg is silent, of course, because Bahrain is one of our "friends" in the Gulf, an eager arms buyer, home to thousands of Brit expatriates who – during the mini-revolution by Bahrain's Shia – spent their time writing vicious letters to the local pro-Khalifa press denouncing Western journalists. And as for the demonstrators, I recall a young Shia woman telling me that if only the Crown Prince would come to the Pearl Roundabout and talk with the protesters, they would carry him on their shoulders around the square. I believed her. But he didn't come. Instead, he destroyed their mosques and claimed the protests were an Iranian plot – which was never the case – and destroyed the statue of the pearl at the roundabout, thus deforming the very history of his own country.

Obama, needless to say, has his own reasons for silence. Bahrain hosts the US Fifth Fleet and the Americans don't want to be shoved out of their happy little port (albeit that they could up-sticks and move to the UAE or Qatar anytime they wish) and want to defend Bahrain from mythical Iranian aggression. So you won't find La Clinton, so keen to abuse the Assad family, saying anything bad about the al-Khalifas. Why on earth not? Are we all in debt to the Gulf Arabs? They are honourable people and understand when criticism is said with good faith. But no, we are silent. Even when Bahraini students in Britain are deprived of their grants because they protested outside their London embassy, we are silent. CamerClegg, shame on you.......

What is this nonsense? Well, I will tell you. It has nothing to do with the Bahrainis or the al-Khalifas. It is all about our fear of Saudi Arabia. Which also means it is about oil. It is about our absolute refusal to remember that 9/11 was committed largely by Saudis. It is about our refusal to remember that Saudi Arabia supported the Taliban, that Bin Laden was a Saudi, that the most cruel version of Islam comes from Saudi Arabia, the land of head-choppers and hand-cutters. It is about a conversation I had with a Bahraini official – a good and decent and honest man – in which I asked him why the Bahraini prime minister could not be elected by a majority Shia population. "The Saudis would never permit it," he said. Yes, our other friends. The Saudis. 

 

What now for Egypt?

"In all the joy of the moment—the type of joy we see so rarely these days in the news—in all the electrifying coverage, and congratulations in the capitals of the West that stood by Mubarak for decades, there is still vast uncertainty.

The Egyptian military, now nominally in charge, has no culture of democracy much less any history of fostering real change. Funded with support from abroad, it is subject to influences from all its many new found friends of “democracy,” especially its patrons in Washington" 
Danny Schechter 

In today's Independent newspaper Robert Fisk asks some very good questions in his latest piece Is the Army tightening its grip on Egypt .

Two days after millions of Egyptians won their revolution against the regime of Hosni Mubarak, the country's army – led by Mubarak's lifelong friend, General Mohamed el-Tantawi – further consolidated its power over Egypt yesterday, dissolving parliament and suspending the constitution. As they did so, the prime minister appointed by Mubarak, ex-General Ahmed Shafiq, told Egyptians that his first priorities were "peace and security" to prevent "chaos and disorder" – the very slogan uttered so often by the despised ex-president. Plus ça change? 

In their desperation to honour the 'military council's' promise of Cairo-back-to-normal, hundreds of Egyptian troops – many unarmed – appeared in Tahrir Square to urge the remaining protesters to leave the encampment they had occupied for 20 days. At first the crowd greeted them as friends, offering them food and water. Military policemen in red berets, again without weapons, emerged to control traffic. But then a young officer began lashing demonstrators with a cane – old habits die hard in young men wearing uniforms – and for a moment there was a miniature replay of the fury visited upon the state security police here on 28 January. 

It reflected a growing concern among those who overthrew Mubarak that the fruits of their victory may be gobbled up by an army largely composed of generals who achieved their power and privilege under Mubarak himself. No-one objects to the dissolution of parliament since Mubarak's assembly elections last year – and all other years -- were so transparently fraudulent. But the 'military council' gave no indication of the date for the free and fair elections which Egyptians believed they had been promised.

Similarly, Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein expresses concern that key demands for social and economic justice freedom and democracy made by the protesters in Egypt may be sacrificed by the army and the authorities in the name of a smooth transition. Citing experience from other countries Klein writes:

As earlier pro-democracy movements have learned the hard way, much can be lost in the key months and years of transition from one regime to another.

Robert Fisk: exposing brutality and hypocrisy in the Middle East

photo of families whose relatives vanished during the Algerian civil war (1990-98) demand to know what happened to their loved ones during a recent demonstation in Algiers (photo courtesy of AFP/Getty)

There is no better chronicler of the brutality of Western and Arab governments in the Middle East than Robert Fisk, the Middle East Correspondent for the UK Independent.

Fisk uncovers and exposes the hypocrisy of the West and its ally Israel, but is equally critical of the leaders, political elite and leadership of the Muslim world. And Fisk knows history well.

In his latest piece Robert Fisk writes of recent celebrations in Algeria to commemorate 50 years of freedom from French rule. Fisk points out that the generals and politicians who were out in full force making speeches against colonial tyranny were themselves responsible for the deaths of an estimated 25,000 Algerians during the Algerian Civil War of 1990-1998.

While the families of the dead and civil society groups seek justice for those who died during the Algerian civil war of 1990-98, Fisk reminds us that the security forces and army responsible for many of those deaths are still in control in Algeria. Only now they are allies of the USA in the fight against "terrorism".

Israeli terror on the high seas

"The world is tired of these outrages. Only the politicians are silent".

Robert Fisk

Here are two highly respected journalists- Gideon Levy* and Robert Fisk- on Israel's act of terror on the high seas. Gideon Levy is a distinguished Israeli journalist, a columnist of the Israeli paper Haaretz and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. Robert Fisk is the Independent newspaper's Middle East Correspondent and has reported on Middle East politics for three decades.

Here are extracts from Gideon Levy's piece which appeared as a longer article in "Haaretz" titled Operation Mini Cast Lead.

"........ this operation had it all: the usual false claim that is was they who had started it - and not the landing of commandos from helicopters on a ship in open sea, away from Israeli territorial waters. There was the claim that the first act of violence came not from the soldiers, but the rioting activists on Mavi Marmara; that the blockade on Gaza is legal and that the flotilla to its shores is against the law - God knows which law.Again came the claim of self defense, that "they lynched us" and that all the dead are on their side. Once more the use of violence and excessive and lethal force was in play and once more civilians wound up dead.

..........Again Israel will pay a heavy diplomatic price, once which had not been considered ahead of time. Again, the Israeli propaganda machine has managed to convince only brainwashed Israelis, and once more no one asked the question: What was it for? Why were our soldiers thrown into this trap of pipes and ball bearings? What did we get out of it?

...........Yesterday's fiasco could and should have been prevented. This flotilla should have been allowed to pass and the blockade should be brought to an end.

............And what have we instead? A country that is quickly becoming completely isolated. This is a place that turns away intellectuals, shoots peace activists, cuts off Gaza and now finds itself in an international blockade. Once more yesterday it seemed, and not for the first time, that Israel is increasingly breaking away from the mother ship, and losing touch with the world - which does not accept its actions and does not understand its motives.

......Yesterday there was no one on the planet, not a newsman or analyst, except for its conscripted chorus, who could say a good word about the lethal takeover."

Here are extracts from Robert Fisk's piece Western leaders are too cowardly to save lives that appeared in the Independent;

"...........You only have to read the gutless White House statement – that the Obama administration was "working to understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy". Not a single word of condemnation. And that's it. Nine dead. Just another statistic to add to the Middle East's toll.

..........And today? It was people – ordinary people, Europeans, Americans, Holocaust survivors – yes, for heaven's sake, survivors of the Nazis – who took the decision to go to Gaza because their politicians and their statesmen had failed them.

Where were our politicians yesterday? Well, we had the ridiculous Ban Ki-moon, the White House's pathetic statement, and dear Mr Blair's expression of "deep regret and shock at the tragic loss of life". Where was Mr Cameron? Where was Mr Clegg?

.........But it is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events. Our politicians are too spineless, too cowardly, to take decisions to save lives. Why is this? Why didn't we hear courageous words from Messrs Cameron and Clegg yesterday?

For it is a fact, is it not, that had Europeans (and yes, the Turks are Europeans, are they not?) been gunned down by any other Middle Eastern army (which the Israeli army is, is it not?) there would have been waves of outrage.

And what does this say about Israel? Isn't Turkey a close ally of Israel? Is this what the Turks can expect? Now Israel's only ally in the Muslim world is saying this is a massacre – and Israel doesn't seem to care.

......How did we get to this point? Maybe because we all grew used to seeing the Israelis kill Arabs, maybe the Israelis grew used to killing Arabs. Now they kill Turks. Or Europeans. Something has changed in the Middle East these past 24 hours – and the Israelis (given their extraordinarily stupid political response to the slaughter) don't seem to have grasped what has happened. The world is tired of these outrages. Only the politicians are silent.

*Gideon Levy is the author of the weekly Twilight Zone feature, which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 25 years, as well as the writer of political editorials for the newspaper. Levy was the recipient of the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996. His new book, The Punishment of Gaza, has just been published by Verso Publishing House in London and New York.

Robert Fisk on the truth about assassination of Hamas official

Writing in The Independent Robert Fisk argues that the truth about the assassination of Hamas Commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh becomes murkier. Fisk writes, citing strategic leaks from his sources, that:

"The United Arab Emirates suspect – only suspect, mark you – that Europe's "security collaboration" with Israel has crossed a line into illegality, where British passports (and those of other other EU nations) can now be used to send Israeli agents into the Gulf to kill Israel's enemies".

Fisk reports that suspicion is growing that the assassination was a form of security collaboration between Israel's Mossad and intelligence agencies of European nations, including Great Britain. The assassins used official European passports, six of which belonged to British citizens, as well as passports of French, Irish and German citizens.

Israeli paper Haaretz reports today on the European connection. They report that Dubai officials are pressing European Union countries to investigate how European passports were used by the assassins. Haaretz also reports that the assassination command centre was run in Austria and that German officials, who are convinced of Mossad's involvement in the assassination are investigating the use of German passports.

Fisk concludes his recent piece with this:

"But for an Arab Gulf country which suspects its former masters (the UK, by name) may have connived in the murder of a visiting Hamas official, this is apparently now too much. There is much more to come out of this story. We will wait to see if there are any replies in Europe.

the rise of a new world economic order

The Independent carries a couple of stories today, including this one by Robert Fisk, detailing the planned move by the Gulf states, China, Russia, France and Japan to end their practice of conducting oil deals in US dollars, switching instead to a diverse basket of currencies, including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. In his piece in the Independent Sean O'Grady writes that:

"Few things would be more powerfully symbolic of the shift in the balance of global economic power than to have oil traded in the Chinese renminbi rather than the American dollar".

Robert Fisk writes of the significance of this move:

"This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves"

And Robert Fisk concludes his article with this rather chilling historical reminder of the significance of the move:

"Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq".

Robert Fisk on the Goldstone Report on Gaza

I wrote an earlier piece on the Report of the UN sponsored Goldstone Inquiry, a fact finding mission led by the Jewish South African Supreme Court Judge Richard Goldstone, into the war in Gaza early in 2009. The Report found that Israel, as well as Hamas and Palestinian armed groups had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Robert Fisk's piece on the Goldstone Inquiry in the Guardian is well worth reading. Fisk writes:

"The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem found that 1,387 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza war, more than 770 of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed, four by their own troops, three of the others Israeli Arabs. Goldstone bitterly condemned Hamas for firing at civilians – from civilians areas of Gaza – but Chapter 11 of his report, for example, found that Israel shelled a house in which Palestinian civilians had been forced to gather, intentionally bombed a hospital with white phosphorous shells, shot civilians who were waving white flags and refused to allow wounded to be evacuated.

But no, Israel – as unwilling to accept criticism as Hamas – which, typically and cynically, washed its own dirty hands of the report, even though it murdered at least 40 suspected Palestinian collaborators while killing only six of its military enemies – wouldn’t face up to Goldstone’s conclusions, wouldn’t accept that the casualties of this monstrous war were disproportionate. Israel’s response wasn’t disproportionate. It never was.

This nonsense is unworthy of a grown-up nation. For not long before the Gaza war, Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli army northern commander, defined his doctrine very carefully. “We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction… This isn’t a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorised.” No wonder the world watches, amazed, at Israel’s response to Goldstone’s conclusions. And the United States – which, of course, once defined Hiroshima as “a military base” – was either silent or took Israel’s side"

On the Tikkun website Michael Lerner has this interview with Richard Goldstone.

Political rhetoric and reality

"that beautiful rhetoric and paradise-promises never, ever, win against reality".

Robert Fisk's latest piece in the Independent finishes with those words. Fisk is writing about the hollowness of the Obama administration's pronouncements on the Middle East. Robert Fisk is one of those journalists who always cuts through the political rhetoric about the Middle East to confront us with the reality.

Most Arabs Know This Speech Will Make Little Difference
I suspect that what the Arab world wants to hear is that Obama will take his soldiers out of Muslim lands

by Robert Fisk

More and more, it looks like the same old melody that Bush's lads used to sing. We're not against the Muslim world. In fact, we are positively for it. We want you to have democracy, up to a point. We love Arab "moderates" and we want to reach out to you and be your friends. Sorry about Iraq. And sorry - again, up to a point - about Afghanistan and we do hope that you understand why we've got to have a little "surge" in Helmand among all those Muslim villages with their paper-thin walls. And yes, we've made mistakes.

Everyone in the world, or so it seems, is waiting to see if this is what Barack Obama sings. I'm not sure, though, that the Arabs are waiting with such enthusiasm as the rest of the world.

I haven't met an Arab in Egypt - or an Arab in Lebanon, for that matter - who really thinks that Obama's "outreach" lecture in Cairo on Thursday is going to make much difference.

They watched him dictate to Bibi Netanyahu - no more settlements, two-state solution - and they saw Bibi contemptuously announce, on the day that Mahmoud Abbas, the most colourless leader in the Arab world, went to the White House, that Israel's colonial project in the West Bank would continue unhindered. So that's that, then.

And please note that Obama has chosen Egypt for his latest address to the Muslims, a country run by an ageing potentate - Hosni Mubarak is 80 - who uses his secret police like a private army to imprison human rights workers, opposition politicians, anyone in fact who challenges the great man's rule. At this point, we won't mention torture. Be sure that this little point is unlikely to get much play in the Obama sermon, just as he surely will not be discussing Saudi Arabia's orgy of head-chopping when he chats to King Abdullah on Wednesday.

So what's new, folks? Arabs, I find, have a very shrewd conception of what goes on in Washington - the lobbying, the power politics, the dressing up of false friendship in Rooseveltian language - even if ordinary Americans do not. They are aware that the "new" America of Obama looks suspiciously like the old one of Bush and his lads and ladies. First, Obama addresses Muslims on Al-Arabiya television. Then he addresses Muslims in Istanbul. Now he wants to address Muslims all over again in Cairo.

I suppose Obama could say: "I promise I will not make any decision until I first consult with you and the Jewish side" along with more promises about being a friend of the Arabs. Only that's exactly what Franklin Roosevelt told King Abdul Aziz on the deck of USS Quincy in 1945, so the Arabs have heard that one before. I guess we'll hear about terrorism being as much a danger to Arabs as to Israel - another dull Bush theme - and, Obama being a new President, we might also have a "we shall not let you down" theme.

But for what? I suspect that what the Arab world wants to hear - not their leaders, of course, all of whom would like to have a spanking new US air base on their property - is that Obama will take all his soldiers out of Muslim lands and leave them alone (American aid, doctors, teachers, etc, excepted). But for obvious reasons, Obama can't say that.

He can, and will, surely, try his global-Arab line; that every Arab nation will be involved in the new Middle East peace, a resurrection of the remarkably sane Saudi offer of full Arab recognition of Israel in return for an Israeli return to the 1967 borders in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 242. Obama will be clearing this with King Abdullah on Wednesday, no doubt. And everyone will nod sagely and the newspapers of the Arab dictatorships will solemnly tip their hats to the guy and the New York Times will clap vigorously.

And the Israeli government will treat it all with the same amused contempt as Netanyahu treated Obama's demand to stop building Jewish colonies on Arab land and, back home in Washington, Congress will fulminate and maybe Obama will realise, just like the Arab potentates have realised, that beautiful rhetoric and paradise-promises never, ever, win against reality.
© 2009 The Independent

Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper. He is the author of many books on the region, including The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/

robert fisk

There is no better journalist reporting on the Middle East than Robert Fisk. Anyone wanting to understand the real situation in the Middle East, in Iraq and in Afghanistan should read his articles. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/. Fisk who is the Middle East Correspondent for the UK Independent can rightfully claim to be one of the most experienced western journalists in the Middle East. In over three decades of reporting from the Middle East Fisk has covered 11 major wars, countless insurgencies and massacres and won two Amnesty International UK Press World Awards and seven British International Journalist of the Year Awards. Fisk can also be heard from time to time On Late Night Live with Phillip Adams.
One of the things I like about Robert Fisk is that he uncovers and exposes the hypocrisy and brutality of the West and of Israel but he does not spare the leaders, political elite and leadership of countries in the Middle East and of the Muslim World. And Fisk knows history so well.

Here's an extract from a recent Fisk piece on the British withdrawal from Iraq after six years, one month and 11 days. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/

One hundred and seventy-nine dead soldiers. For what? 179,000 dead Iraqis? Or is the real figure closer to a million? We don't know. And we don't care. We never cared about the Iraqis. That's why we don't know the figure. That's why we left Basra yesterday.

.... So let us turn at last to T E Lawrence. Yes, Lawrence of Arabia. In The Sunday Times on 22 August 1920, he wrote of Iraq that the people of England "had been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information... Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows." Even more presciently, Lawrence had written that the Iraqis had not risked their lives in battle to become British subjects. "Whether they are fit for independence or not remains to be tried. Merit is no justification for freedom."

Alas not. Iraq, begging around Europe now that its oil wealth has run out, is a pitiful figure. But it is a little bit freer than it was. We have destroyed its master and our friend (a certain Saddam) and now, with our own dead clanking around our heels, we are getting out yet again. Till next time..."

As well as his pieces in the Independent a good place to start is his recent book Robert Fisk (2008) The Age of the Warrior: Selected Writings, published by Fourth Estate. This is a truly great but depressing read. Highly recommended. Still you get some fantastic film reviews as well and a piece about the Titanic.