ARAB SPRING ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE, “A TALES OF TWO COUNTRIES: BAHRAIN AND LIBYA” ///// INTERVIEW ON GREEK DEBT CRISIS – Both on RT
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
1) ARAB TURMOIL – I am relaying below a short article I wrote for the
(RT) Russia Today website on the first anniversary of the beginning of
revolts in Bahrain and Libya and how ver, very differently things turned out
for these two countries. Its title is “A Tale of Two Countries: Bahrain and
Libya”. Here’s the link:
http://rt.com/news/bahrain-libya-uprising-double-standards-327/
2) GREEK TURMOIL – Also, here’s an interview I did yesterday also on
RT on the Greek Debt Crisis. Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOKxe9vT2jI
Thank you and regards,
Adrian Salbuchi
www.asalbuchi.com.ar
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Go to main page <http://rt.com/> News <http://rt.com/news/> A Tale of Two
Countries: Bahrain and Libya
A Tale of Two Countries: Bahrain and Libya
Published: 15 February, 2012, 00:10
Edited: 15 February, 2012, 00:10
Society-wide, violent social upheavals triggered throughout the Muslim World
were dubbed an “Arab Spring” by the Western governments. But when comparing
Libya and Bahrain, the full force of US and European double-standards become
flagrantly evident.
A year ago, two Muslim countries – Bahrain and Libya – went into
“Arab-Spring” mode. Revolt in Bahrain, a country aligned with Western
interests, began February 14, 2011. The next day, a revolt followed by war
and invasion was unleashed on Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, a sovereign country
not aligned with foreign interests.
The question here is: Why were Libya and its leadership so utterly overrun,
bombed and murdered by the Western powers using the deceitful UN Resolution
1973 and NATO forces, while Bahrain was meted out soft treatment based on
Western understanding, patience and goodwill?
First and foremost, both Bahrain and Libya literally float on OIL.
Naturally, the UK, US and French governments – and the boys financing them
at ExxonMobil, Texaco, BP, Shell, Total, ENI, Elf, Chevron – will swear time
and again that oil has nothing to do with all of this. That all they want is
to see Arabs enjoy “democracy,” “human rights” and “free trade…”!!
The Case of Bahrain
Run by a king – Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa – and his uncle Prime
Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the government (almost all
manned by the Al Khalifa family) immediately cracked down on protesters with
tremendous violence. So much so, that a month later (March 2011) Saudi
Arabia and United Arab Emirates sent in troops to “restore order”… so the
US could smile again.
More torture; more bloodletting. An independent report issued last November
by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry concluded that the
government systematically tortures prisoners, commits gross human rights
violations and refuses to allow international human rights organizations
into the country. Somehow, that never seems to bother the Obamas, Camerons
and Sarkozys of the world. At one point it got so bad that Obama sent his
then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to Bahrain to see what was up.
Question: Why send the Pentagon boss and not, for example, Secretary of
State Hilary Clinton, who in mid-March 2011 visited Tunisia and Egypt to
ensure those countries installed “the kind of democracy we want to see”?
Answer: Because Bahrain is home to US Naval Forces Central Command’s Fifth
Fleet.
So, dear King and PM Al Khalifas: take your time, clobber as many protesters
as you need, get your act right, and please make sure our fleet is safe and
sound and happy.
End of story.
The Case of Libya
Libya was run by a long-governing, popular revolutionary leader – Muammar
Gaddafi – who in the last decade of his rule, had begun to re-approach
Western Powers, and was implementing a gradual (too gradual!) succession,
transferring power to his well-educated and articulate elder son,
Saif-al-Islam.
Gaddafi even organized meetings and summits with EU partners, in one of
which – an Arab League Summit in his home-town Sirte in September 2010 –
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi even kissed Gaddafi’s ring, Mafia-style! But
all of that came too late. The Gaddafis made the worst mistake any sovereign
country can make nowadays: they trusted the Western Powers. Huge lesson
there!
Contrary to Bahrain, which houses US Naval forces; or Egypt, which is
aligned to Israeli geopolitical interests; or Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar
and UAE, which are playing fields for Western oil companies, Gaddafi’s Libya
kept its oil revenues for the Libyan people. They ran a central bank totally
independent of the US Fed, Goldman Sachs, European Central Bank,
JPMorganChase, HSBC…
They had even planned to introduce a gold currency – the Gold Dinar with
real intrinsic value – to trade North African oil, which would have swept
aside the US Dollar and Euro funny-money paper currencies that have been
hugely eroded by the bail-out of the Mega-Bankers running the US, UK and EU,
as the Chinese understand so well… In other words, Libya was a sovereign
country.
To add insult to injury, once the uprising began a year ago, Gaddafi
immediately accused one of the West’s favorite sons: Osama bin Laden and
al-Qaeda! It seems the Western media forgot to tell you that the very
first country that requested that Interpol issue an international arrest
warrant against Osama was… Libya!!
Yes! Gaddafi ordered that, after Osama and his CIA-trained al-Qaeda boys
murdered several Germans in Libya in 1998 (only SkyNews seems to have
briefly mentioned this on May 2, 2011).
That was long before all the “al-Qaeda bombed our embassies in Kenya and
Sudan, blew up the USS Cole, and did 9/11” rhetoric.
Quite embarrassing for the US, UK and Israel! Particularly now that
Al-Qaeda is joining forces with Syrian “freedom fighters.” Ah… one can
almost see them fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with John McCain and Joe
Lieberman, who recently called for the US to “arm Syrian rebels.”
Funny world, isn’t it? All these violent revolts, bombs, civil wars,
invasions and murders done in the name of “democracy” and “freedom,” where
the Western Powers and their media tell us in glittering lights who are the
“good guys” and who the “bad guys” …but, are the Arab people better off
today than a year ago?
Are Bahrainis and Egyptians happier today?
Are Libyans, Syrians, and Yemenis better off today?
Did the “Arab Spring” reach Palestine?
Is there more peace, sovereignty and true democracy in the region?
Take a second look at what’s happening in the Middle East and the world;
think with your own brain and not with the Global Power Masters’ – and maybe
then things will start looking mighty different!
Adrian Salbuchi for RT
Adrian Salbuchi is a political analyst, author, speaker and radio/TV
commentator in Argentina. www.asalbuchi.com.ar
<http://www.asalbuchi.com.ar/>
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