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The U.S. State Department is probably hoping we have forgotten Bahrain.
In a purposefully muted move, the State Department this week will move ahead with their plan to sell weapons to Bahrain.
When news of a $53 million arms sale, including “44 armored, high-mobility Humvees and over 300 advanced missiles,” broke in early December, several members of Congress expressed their opposition. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) drafted resolutions in Congress to stop the deal from happening. Other elected officials supporting the resolutions include Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA), Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Despite the defiance, the State Department will go ahead with the sale thanks to a loophole. From Josh Rogin at FP’s The Cable:
Our congressional sources said that State is using a legal loophole to avoid formally notifying Congress and the public about the new arms sale. The administration can sell anything to anyone without formal notification if the sale is under $1 million. If the total package is over $1 million, State can treat each item as an individual sale, creating multiple sales of less than $1 million and avoiding the burden of notification, which would allow Congress to object and possibly block the deal.
We’re further told that State is keeping the exact items in the sale secret, but is claiming they are for Bahrain’s “external defense” and therefore couldn’t be used against protesters. Of course, that’s the same argument that State made about the first arms package, which was undercut by videos showing the Bahraini military using Humvees to suppress civilian protesters.
Despite the extensive report detailing the Bahrain government’s violent crackdown on protesters, the monarchy is currently in a pleasant position for scapegoating. Blame the Sunni-Shiite youths. Blame Iran. Meanwhile, Bahraini authorities continue to beat even the most recognizable human rights activists, while the MOI is eyeing 15-year jail sentences for those who are charged with attacking security personnel.
Another staggeringly clear sign of the chaos in Bahrain can be found in the 2011-2012 Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders. Bahrain received its worst ranking yet, falling 29 spots to 173 out of 179 countries… the seventh worst national on earth for censorship and media freedom.
Keep in mind the initial price tag was $53 million worth of weapons and HumVees, but we have no idea what we’re sending them now. It’s clear the State Department is banking on the nation’s collective ignorance and a passive Congress.
February 14, 2012 marks the one-year anniversary of mass anti-government protests in Bahrain. Over 50 people have been killed in the protests, according to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
[Photos: Bahraini anti-government protesters wait on a street in with Molotov cocktails, riot police fire tear gas towards anti-government protesters and demonstrators gesture towards authorities in Sitra, Bahrain on Monday. Credit: Hasan Jamali/AP]
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