NATO's Expanding Presence in "Fortress Persian Gulf"

What Are the Possible Consequences of Turkey-Qatar Military Cooperation?

February 15, 2016 (Martin Berger - NEO) - A short while ago Turkey and Qatar announced that they have an agreement in place to further deepen their military cooperation within the framework of the “struggle against common enemies“, which implies the construction of two new military bases: a Turkish one in Qatar and a Qatari base in Turkey.

As it was made clear by the Turkish Ambassador to Qatar, Ahmet Demirok, Ankara is planning to construct a multi-purpose military installation that will become home to some 3,000 soldiers. By taking this step Turkey expects to become a state that is directly influencing security in the Persian Gulf. In the future, this base will also provide Turkish armed forces with an outpost for operations in the Red Sea, North Africa, along with the access to the waters of the Pacific, which Turkey lost back in 1950.

Just as with the creation of the British military base in Bahrain, and the French military base in the UAE, this deal is but a step in the implementation of Washington’s plan of enhancing the role of its allies in ensuring regional security in the Persian Gulf, that its satellites are to take at their own expense. It is expected that in late February, the US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Charles Johnson is going to visit Turkey to offer local authorities American technologies that should allow Ankara to enhance its own national security, including reconnaissance balloons, explosives spotting devices, and so on. It is believed that Secretary Jeh Charles Johnson is going to discuss the strengthening of the fight against ISIL along with “the mutual interests” the US and Turkey can protect with the Turkish base in Qatar.

Turkey has been a NATO member since the 1950s.

Of course, experts that have been watching closely Turkey’s and Qatar’s policies in recent years, won’t be surprised by this chain of events. In an effort to regain the influence that the Ottoman Empire enjoyed in the Middle East, President RecepTayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party have been using every pretext to justify the future deployment of its troops in the Persian Gulf through the “sincere” desire to intensify “the fight against common threats“, while making Turkey’s military presence in the region official.

However, a military agreement between Qatar and Turkey is of vital strategic importance for both states, since by coincidence or not, they share regional interests. Turkey and Qatar have been supporting similar extremist and even terrorist groups used extensively in the fight against the Syrian government. Both states have also been deeply involved in the political struggle for influence in Egypt, by sponsoring the Muslim Brotherhood organization and former President Mohamed Morsi, along with promoting Wahhabi ideas not only in North Africa and the Middle East, but also in Central Asia.

Qatar's Isolation a Geopolitical Trick?

Image: The West enjoys portraying Qatar as a modern nation-state
on the rise. Under the carefully managed facade lies barbarism and
institutionalized support for international terrorism in support of the
West's hegemonic goals across the planet - not to mention the fact that
it is ruled by an unelected, autocratic, hereditary dictatorship. 

March 13, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - New Eastern Outlook) - The sudden shift in Qatar's standings in the Middle East has left much of the world perplexed, suspicious, and skeptical. Others are hopeful that it indicates a fraying in an axis that has been sowing violence and destabilization across much of North Africa and the Middle East for years. 

The Irish Times reported in its article, "Saudi Arabia threatens to blockade Qatar over terrorism," that: 

Saudi Arabia has threatened to blockade neighbouring Qatar by air, land and sea unless Doha cuts ties with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, closes global channel al-Jazeera, and expels local branches of the US Brookings Institution and Rand Corporation think tanks. 

The threat was issued by Riyadh before it withdrew its ambassador to Doha and branded as “terrorist organisations” the brotherhood, Lebanon’s Hizbullah and al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra. 

Although the kingdom has long been the font of Sunni ultra-orthodox Salafism and jihadism, it now seeks to contain radical movements and media and other organisations giving them publicity.

The Irish Times would then go on to point out the bizarre contradiction of the Saudis' move, reminding readers that:

While the law and decree are meant to curb jihadi operations on Saudi soil as well as counter non-jihadi dissidence, these legal instruments appear to contradict government policy on foreign jihad. 

While 400 Saudis have returned home from Syrian battlefields, another 1,000-2,000 are believed to be fighting with jihadi groups funded by the government as well as wealthy Saudis, Kuwaitis and Qataris.

What then could the reason be for this clearly hypocritical, conflicting foreign policy shift? Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have also joined Saudi Arabia in isolating Qatar leaving many to speculate over a wide range of possibilities. 

1. An Axis in Need of  Renewed Credibility? 

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, and the United States have been inexorably linked geopolitically, financially, and even militarily for decades. In recent years, this axis has worked in tandem to destabilize, destroy, and reorder North Africa and the Middle East through a combination of covertly-backed political uprising (the US-engineered Arab Spring), terrorism, proxy-war (Syria), and outright invasion (Libya). The proxy networks used to carry out this vast geopolitical reordering includes the terrorist organization Al Qaeda and its various regional franchises, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood which provides the sociopolitical scaffolding upon which Al Qaeda builds its support, its ranks, and its material resources.

With Libya left decimated and in the hands of Western-aligned proxies, and Syria emerging from a prolonged proxy-war the victors over Western-backed militants, the spanning and vulnerable axis may no longer be needed to operate in such an overt manner upon the global stage. 

Continue reading at New Eastern Outlook... 

Tahrir turbulence: Washington & SCAF as obstacles to change in Egypt

Nile Bowie

Russia Today

As figures in Egypt’s powerful military collude with the political opposition to form a civilian interim government, what kind of political and economic solutions will the new regime offer, and is Washington’s hidden hand at play?

Political polarization has reached new heights in Egypt following the dramatic overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader. Recent polls taken before the June 30 protests showed that SCAF’s approval rating had reached 94 percent while the Muslim Brotherhood’s rating was at 28 percent and the opposition’s at 38 percent. It’s strange that Egypt’s anti-Morsi activists would place their trust in SCAF given its extensive crackdown on civilian protesters since the revolution began, and certainly no one can deny that the Muslim Brotherhood was isolated during its final days. It is highly unlikely that Morsi would ever be reinstated at this point, and the interim government can be expected to pursue austerity measures, economic restructuring, and a foreign policy in step with Western-Gulf states. Morsi had something that the current rulers of Egypt do not – democratic legitimacy – and despite that only 34 percent of Egyptians took part in the vote, the result should have been respected by the military. Morsi was by no means a democrat, but the Muslim Brotherhood captured the majority in parliament, and their persecution and total exclusion from the interim government is unacceptable.

After sweeping away two presidents since 2011, the original goals of the revolution, embodied in the popular slogan “Bread, Freedom, Social Justice and Human Dignity,” haven’t come close to materializing. For all intents and purposes, life for the average Egyptian is more difficult now than under Hosni Mubarak, and although Morsi’s shortcomings may not have justified a military coup, his tenure was a spectacular failure. Although many perceive Morsi and Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) as being hijackers of the 2011 revolution, the bottom line is that the revolutionary fervor emanating from Tahrir Square is not directed against one party or political figure, but against economic conditions and neo-liberal tendencies that have largely remained unchanged throughout the ebb and flow of Egyptian politics in recent times.

Continue reading >>

Nile Bowie is a Malaysia-based political analyst and a columnist with Russia Today. He also contributes to PressTV, Global Research, and CounterPunch. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Struggle for Influence in Syria

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Struggle for Influence in Syria

By Eric Draitser

StopImperialism.com

This week’s resignation of Ghassan Hitto, the so-called “Prime Minister in waiting” of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, coupled with the July 6^th election of Ahmed Assi al-Jarba to head the umbrella coalition of US-supported proxy groups attempting to topple the Assad government, has revealed further cracks in the edifice of the imperialist assault on Syria.

Qatar's Man in the Middle 

Ghassan Hitto, the Syrian expatriate and technocrat from Texas, was seen by most informed observers as the darling of the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar.  As noted by AFP shortly after Hitto’s election:

Some coalition members described Hitto as a consensus candidate pleasing both the opposition’s Islamist and liberal factions.  But some of the 70-odd Coalition members withdrew from the consultations before the vote could take place, accusing opposition heavyweight Muslim Brotherhood of imposing Hitto as a candidate. 

Indeed, the imposition of Hitto as the political face of the foreign-backed opposition was seen by many inside the opposition and around the world as a power-play by Qatar to control the direction of the conflict in Syria and establish Doha as the real center of power in a post-Assad Syria.

This connection between Hitto, the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar was the source of much tension within the opposition.  The NY Times reported that:

 [Hitto] faced several challenges: he was seen by some rebels and activists as out of touch with the country, and some members of the often-squabbling coalition complained that he was a favorite of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and of its main foreign backer Qatar.  Many in the opposition say Qatar wields too much influence in the movement.

What became clear during the course of Hitto’s short tenure as the public face of the foreign-backed opposition was that he was less a political leader than a proxy of Qatar and the United States.  This despite what can only be called competition between its allies in Doha and Riyadh who at times collaborate and at other times compete for power and influence among the extremist jihadi elements throughout the Middle East and North Africa.  Essentially then, Hitto must be understood as a placeholder, a man whose responsibility was not to lead, but simply to act as a foothold for the al-Thani regime and the Muslim Brotherhood within the leadership of the opposition.  The goal was of course to have Hitto in place for the potential fall of Assad, so that Qatar could immediately secure its control over the country in a post-Assad scenario.

Saudis Reclaiming Dominant Role?

Hitto’s resignation places even more significance on last week’s election of Ahmed Assi al-Jarba as head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition.  Whereas Hitto was understood to be a proxy of Qatar, Jarba can be correctly characterized as a proxy of Saudi Arabia.  As McClatchy News explains:

            

            Jarba is a chief of the Shammar tribe, one of the Arab world’s most powerful clans with members stretching from southern Turkey to Saudi Arabia...He was jailed early in the revolt against Assad…After being released from prison in August 2012, he fled to Saudi Arabia where his tribal connections put him into close touch with senior members of the Saudi intelligence services.

It should be noted that the innocuous-sounding phrase “close touch with senior members of Saudi intelligence” is a euphemism for Saudi agent, which is precisely what Jarba is.  Note the fact that, like Hitto, Jarba has already stated publicly his opposition to peace talks with the Assad government, thereby perpetuating the cycle of violence that benefits Riyadh and Doha and costs more innocent Syrians their lives. 

Jarba has said that “Geneva in these circumstances is impossible.”  However, one must consider precisely which “circumstances” he was referring to.  Keen political observers who have been following events in Syria for some time understand the “circumstances” to be the continued military defeats of the foreign-backed rebels and jihadis by the forces of the Assad government.  Jarba and his Saudi handlers understand quite clearly that they must first achieve substantive military victories on the ground before they can even pay lip service to peace talks.

It is precisely this desperate need for tactical victories by the rebels that has driven Saudi Arabia to become even more involved in fomenting this war.  Using Jarba as their proxy, the Saudis have attempted to launch a new and perhaps even deadlier phase of the war against Syria.  In his first two days as head of the coalition, Jarba has already announced that the rebels will soon receive “a new shipment of sophisticated weapons from Saudi Arabia” as well as proposing a truce during Ramadan. 

However, these announcements should be interpreted as cynical ploys designed to buy time for Saudi arms to reach their destination and for the rebels to train in their use.  Jarba said as much when he proclaimed to Reuters, “I will not rest until I procure the advanced weapons needed to hit back at Assad and his allies.  I give myself one month to achieve what I am intent to do.”  So, while proposing a one-month truce under the cover of religious piety in the observance of Ramadan, Jarba gives himself exactly that same one month window to procure advanced weapons.  The hypocrisy and duplicity needs no further explanation.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have a complicated relationship, at times friendly and at other times acrimonious.  Throughout the course of the destabilization and subversion of Syria, the two countries have collaborated in the funding, arming, and importation of jihadi elements from throughout the Muslim world.  They have both been linked to intelligence agencies of the imperial Western powers while maintaining close contact with terror networks foreign and domestic.  As such, both countries have played the indispensable role of intermediary between these disparate forces.  However, now that the threat to their terrorist proxies in Syria is an existential one, and Assad victories become ever more decisive, it seems the bond between the monarchies is fraying.  The recent changes in the political leadership of the so-called opposition merely reflect this.

Eric Draitser is the founder of StopImperialism.com.  He is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City.  You can email him at ericdraitser@gmail.com.

Is UK Defense Contractor Planning Syrian WMD False Flag?

Unconfirmed "leaked" documents indicate Washington-approved, Qatari-funded false flag attack using Libyan chemical weapons in Homs, Syria. 

January 28, 2013 (LD) - Documents allegedly "hacked" belonging to UK-based defense contractor Britam (official website here) appear to show the company considering an offer from Qatar to use Libyan chemical weapons in Homs, Syria in order to frame both the Syrian and Russian governments. The plan involves using Britam's Ukrainian mercenaries and Soviet-era chemical weapon shells brought in from Libya's large, Al Qaeda-linked, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) controlled arsenals.

West Savages Gaza - Slowly Burns Syria

Gaza destruction is one of many in an array of desperate measures to inject legitimacy into anti-Syria-Iran campaign ahead of final push.

November 20, 2012 (LD) - Even as nations like Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt protest the Western-backed and facilitated destruction of Gaza by Israel, they, along with these very Western nations they protest, including Israel, continue coordinating efforts with each other to topple and destroy Syria.

Weapons and aid that many Arabs would like to see sent to defend Gaza, are instead in the hands of terrorists killing fellow Arabs across the Levant in the pursuit of long-ago articulated US-Israeli-Saudi plans to reshape the Middle East for their collective hegemonic ambitions.

Israeli Attack on Gaza - A Feast for those Starving of Legitimacy

In fact, the Israeli attack on Gaza - an otherwise fruitless adventure assured to end in either an embarrassing early ceasefire for Israel, or another 2006 Lebanon-style strategic defeat - is designed to give Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, and others across the region currently working with the US, UK, EU, and Israel to destroy Syria, a renewed sense of legitimacy in the eyes of the Muslim World.

Not only are Muslim nations that are in league with the West benefiting from this "legitimacy windfall," so are international institutions like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The reputations of both have suffered for consistently backing and defending terrorists operating inside Syria as the general public increasingly becomes aware of the atrocities they are committing and their true, sectarian motivations. The nebulous Anonymous group, which has also lent tremendous support for Western-backed terrorists operating in Syria, has also used the Israeli-Gaza conflict to continue casting doubt as to where their real loyalty lies. 

Manipulative Roll-Out for US-Created "Opposition Council" 

CONFIRMED: Turkey Running Proxy-Invasion of Syria

Admits hosting foreign fighters seeking to enter Syria, trucks in weapons to rearm terrorist groups.
by Tony Cartalucci

July 26, 2012 - The Washington Post has just published an article with the very misleading titled, "Turkey a hub for Syria revolution as illegal border crossing points abound," in which it describes "Salafi Muslims," who have "come to offer help from the countries of the Persian Gulf region" arming and joining the so-called "Free Syrian Army." The article also claims "weapons are ferried into Syria, delivered by Turkish military trucks and picked up by fighters on the other side in the dead of night."

A more apt title would be, "Turkey hosts invading Saudi and Qatari mercenary army."

This confirms earlier reports featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, that not only are the Gulf States of Saudi Arabia and Qatar funding and arming militants via Turkey, but that the US is coordinating the logistical aspects of the operation as well. 

Likewise, CNN has attempted to spin concessions made by its own Ivan Watson, traveling with sectarian extremists into Syria, where it was admitted:

Meanwhile, residents of the village where the Syrian Falcons were headquartered said there were fighters of several North African nationalities also serving with the brigade's ranks.

A volunteer Libyan fighter has also told CNN he intends to travel from Turkey to Syria within days to add a "platoon" of Libyan fighters to armed movement.

 CNN has now added:

On Wednesday, CNN’s crew met a Libyan fighter who had crossed into Syria from Turkey with four other Libyans. The fighter wore full camouflage and was carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. He said more Libyan fighters were on the way.

The foreign fighters, some of them are clearly drawn because they see this as … a jihad. So this is a magnet for jihadists who see this as a fight for Sunni Muslims.

CNN then attempts to claim the "real" Syrian "revolutionaries" "do not want an Islamist political agenda to be mixed in with their revolution."



Photo: The face of Libya's "revolution" was literally Al Qaeda. Abdul Hakim Belhaj, commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) listed by the US State Department as a "Foreign Terrorists Organization," was armed and backed by NATO (including the US) in his efforts to topple the government of Libya. Belhaj more recently pledged (NATO) weapons, cash, and Libyan militants to the "Free Syrian Army."

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Unfortunately for CNN, despite its best efforts, it cannot qualify its claim that these foreign fighters are "unwanted," - for the so-called "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) has long since exposed itself as a sectarian extremist front infiltrated with foreign fighters and foreign weapons, stretching back as far as 2007. 

Saudis and Qataris Attempt "Arab League-UN" Rescue of Faltering Mercenaries

Perhaps as a sign the Gulf States of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are stretched to the limits of their ability to covertly undermine Syria, they have announced plans to seek "UN General Assembly action" for a "political transition and establishment of a democratic government in Syria." For the despotic, unelected, grandiose nepotism of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to call for a "democratic government in Syria" is truly a move made as much out of desperation as it is one of farcical hypocrisy.

Image: In "progressive" Saudi Arabia, who is calling for a "democratic transition" in Syria, women are not even allowed to drive, let alone vote for their leaders - who with Qatar, are amongst the few remaining absolute monarchies on Earth.

....

Both Gulf State nations are run by absolute monarchies - some of the only kind still left in the world. In Saudi Arabia, not only are elections out of the question, but women are in fact, prohibited from even driving. How the Saudis themselves are not subject to UN resolutions, open condemnations, sanctions of all kinds, and ultimatums over their own dictatorship is a true indication of the bankrupted, hypocritical, self-serving dysfunction that punctuates a Western corporate-financier dominated "international order." It is an "international community" that creates the illusion of urgency and injustice when it seeks to expand its interests into one nation, but conveniently ignores real injustice when it jeopardizes their interests elsewhere.


Turkey Supports Subversion of Syria, While Crushing Dissent at Home

Turkey itself has been waging a decades-long bloody campaign against its own armed uprising in predominately Kurdish areas bordering Syria, Iraq, and Iran. In fact, at one point, the US allowed Turkish tanks to cross into American-occupied Iraq to attack villages suspected of harboring armed Kurdish separatists in 2008, mirroring the very tactics Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is now condemning Syria for. The Guardian reported in their 2008 article, "Iraq demands Turkey withdraw from border conflict with Kurds," that the conflict had been raging since 1984 and had cost the lives of 40,000 people.

Turkey has in recent weeks, violated Iraq's airspace in order to strafe and bomb Kurdish villages inside Iraqi territory. Iraq has lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council - a complaint likely to go unnoticed.

One can only imagine the "threat" Syria would be portrayed as if it were to likewise strafe and bomb targets beyond its borders in pursuit of now admittedly foreign-armed, foreign fighters invading its country via Turkey. Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, would most likely invoke "Chapter V" of NATO's treaty, a mutual defense clause that makes an attack on one alliance member an attack on all members - thus opening up the door for more direct foreign military intervention. 

Turkey's ruling government led by PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in fact undermining its own national security by running errands for NATO versus Syria. By supporting foreign terrorists invading neighboring Syria, it undermines the legitimacy of its own campaign against Kurdish rebels within its borders, not to mention beyond them. Turkey's current stance vis-a-vis Syria is not shared by all members of Turkey's government, and at this critical stage, now more than ever they need to make their voices heard both to the Turkish people and to the people of the world.

Carving Out "Safe Havens" for the US State Department's SNC

The ultimate goal of inundating Syria with foreign fighters and weapons while Saudi Arabia and Qatar farcically call for a "democratic transition" in Syria is to create a "safe haven" from which the US State Department coached and directed "Syrian National Council" (SNC) can rule from - further dividing and undermining the Syrian nation-state.

This geopolitical objective was first summarized in the Fortune 500-funded Brookings Institution's March 2012 Middle East Memo #21 "Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf) and recently reiterated almost verbatim by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The US foreign-policy think-tank, Brookings Institution blueprinted designs for regime change in Libya as well as both Syria and Iran. In their report, "Assessing Options for Regime Change" it is specifically stated (emphasis added):

"An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts." -page 4, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.

Image: Also out of the Brookings Institution, Middle East Memo #21 "Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf)," makes no secret that the humanitarian "responsibility to protect" is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.

....

The Brookings Institution's "safe havens" and "humanitarian corridors" are meant to be established by NATO-member Turkey, who had been threatening to partially invade Syria in order to accomplish this. And while Turkey claims this is based on "humanitarian concerns," examining Turkey's abysmal human rights record in addition to its own ongoing armed campaign against the Kurdish people both within and beyond its borders, it is clear they are simply fulfilling the agenda established by their Western patrons on Wall Street and in the city of London.

There is still extreme danger that with Aleppo still under threat by foreign fighters and the so-called "Free Syrian Army," NATO is preparing cross-border provocations to justify the "limited military power" Brookings calls for in establishing its prescribed "safe havens." Fabricated "massacres," "humanitarian crisis," and false flag attacks involving chemical weapons are also pretexts the West might use for a limited military incursions into Syria in an attempt to cripple its military and lend its militant proxies a "safe haven" in Syria to rule over.

Bahrain: The Key to Saudi-Qatari Servitude

Neo-Con's pet project in Bahrain serves as point of leverage for Saudi-Qatari capitulation.
by Tony Cartalucci

April 11, 2012 - Like an axe poised above one's neck at execution, the despotic hereditary regimes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar have the specter of their own US-fueled "Arab Springs" looming over them, ever ready to be triggered. A constant reminder of this is the destabilized Sunni royal family in Bahrain, in the epicenter of Saudi and Qatari power.
Image: A map of eastern Saudi Arabia featuring the island nation of Bahrain situated between Qatar and the Saudi mainland. Bahrain, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, is a despotic Sunni monarchy - selected by the West to be made an example of and to keep its neighbors in check and on board for the current "Arab Spring" blitzkrieg upturning the rest of the Arab World. (click image to enlarge)

....

The Bahrain protests, like those of Egypt, Libya, Syria, Myanmar, North Korea, Thailand, and beyond, were trained, equipped, and supported by the US State Department. Leading opposition organizations, such as the US-based "Witness Bahrain" and Bahrain Center for Human Rights, are partnered directly with US State Department-funded fronts like the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) while a high-profile self-proclaimed leader of the protests, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, was regional coordinator of "Frontline Defenders," a Ford Foundation, Freedom House, American Jewish World Service, Soros Open Society Institute-funded "human rights" advocacy group. Al-Khawaja is now carrying out a "hunger strike" while in prison.
Image: Screenshot from Front Line Defenders - yet another disingenuous "human rights" advocacy front funded by Fortune 500 corporate foundations, including the US State Department-funded Neo-Conservative-lined Freedom House, Wall Street speculator George Soros' Open Society Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Oak Foundation, and the Sigrid Rausing Trust. Note the "Hunger Strike for Freedom" banner on the right-hand side for Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja. The Bahrain protests are a carbon-copy Western destabilization as seen in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria. (click on image to enlarge)

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Al-Khawaja has received the full support of of his Frontline Defender sponsors, including Freedom House who has even farcically changed their Twitter icon into a "Save Al-Khawaja" banner and has been relentlessly tweeting as of late in regards to the "pro-democracy" struggle in Bahrain. As noted, Freedom House is anything but a "human rights" advocacy organization, and is instead leveraging the cause of human rights for overtly self-serving corporate-financier global hegemonic objectives.

Video: Noam Chomsky in 1993 on the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Freedom House's umbrella organization: "It's about what you would expect from a bipartisan democracy campaign - it's an attempt to impose what is called democracy, meaning rule by the rich and the powerful, without interference by the mob but within the framework of formal electoral procedures."

....

As covered in "NED & Freedom House are run by Warmongering Imperialists," Freedom House, in tandem with its umbrella organization, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (which funds directly the Bahrain Human Rights Society) are run by some of the most overt warmongers and corporate-financier interests imaginable and have demonstratively abused their positions within so-called "human rights" and "democracy promotion" organizations to outright topple targeted nations.

Image: A screenshot of Freedom House's Twitter page as of April 11, 2012, shows a "Save Al-Khawaja" icon where Freedom House's own logo is usually seen. Freedom House, a notorious Neo-Conservative front, has been uncharacteristically focused on Bahrain lately in tandem with the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), the reincarnation of William Kristol's Neo-Conservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC). Coincidentally, pressuring Saudi Arabia and Qatar's neighboring monarchy seems to coincide with Washington's requests for Saudi and Qatari support with military operations versus first Libya, and now Syria.

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Joining Freedom House in a recent torrent of attention given to the often neglected protests in Bahrain, is the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) which is for all intents and purposes the Project for a New American Century's (PNAC) latest reincarnation. Notorious Neo-Conservatives William Kristol, Robert Kagan, Dan Senor, Eric Edelman, Ellen Bork, and Jamie Fly - all of whom operate in and out of Fortune 500-funded think-tanks like the Brookings Institution, Harvard's Belfer Center, and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) - constitute FPI's membership and churn out primarily pro-war endorsements, just as PNAC did before it. Their most recent work involved promoting the NATO-led evisceration of Libya and its handing over to Al Qaeda's Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). They now seek a repeat performance in Syria.

Video: "The Unfinished February 14 Uprising: What's Next for Bahrain?" US State Department funded POMED and Neo-Con meddlers of FPI converge to conspire over Bahrain's future in the US-engineered "Arab Spring."

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FPI in February of 2012 held an event titled, "The Unfinished February 14 Uprising: What's Next for Bahrain?" in partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy-funded propaganda front Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED). Speakers included Neo-Con Elliott Abrams of the CFR and Joost Hiltermann of the Soros-funded International Crisis Group (ICG) which played a pivotal role in the destabilization of Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria.

Image: Screenshot of FPI's April 11, 2012 Tweet regarding its collaboration with NED-funded POMED in calling for the release of US-backed Bahraini opposition leader al-Khawaja from prison. FPI, in tandem with NED and Freedom House have been uncharacteristically interested in Bahrain lately, coincidentally, just as they need Saudi and Qatari backing for another push against Syria. Bahrain is Washington's point of leverage against these two Sunni monarchies. (click image to enlarge)

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The sense one gets from listening to the 90 minute FPI-POMED event is of stretching out the conflagration in Bahrain for as long as possible while ultimately threatening neighboring Saudi Arabia. And while Bahrain has, like Libya, Syria, and Egypt responded to street violence with security forces wielding deadly force, Bahrain is not spoken of in the same "dire" and "urgent" terms as Libya, Syria, or Egypt were. Panel members at the event note that the fate of Bahrain is tied directly to that of the Saudis, and that the survival of the Bahraini Al Khalifa royal family is "existentially" linked to the House of Saud. Certainly then, US subversion turned up sufficiently as to overthrow the Al Khalifa family would in turn "existentially" threaten the Sauds who are themselves sitting upon a powder keg of instability resultant from decades of despotic rule.

Saudi Arabia's stability is owed to its immense security apparatus, constructed, armed, and funded by the United States. In many instances, the US has cooperated operationally with Saudi security forces in maintaining internal order. To simply pull the legs out from under the Saudis, especially after allowing Bahrain to fall entirely, would be a simple matter. What then are the Saudis paying in return to keep this card from being played? Where does the "soft spot" of humanitarian concerns in Bahrain come from amongst Neo-Con warmongers within both Freedom House and FPI? Quite clearly in the case of Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Syria, it is a crass, clumsy pretext for naked military aggression. In Bahrain's case, it is much more nuanced.

Photo: Saudi troops were "allowed" to enter Bahrain and help crush US-backed uprisings. Little to no mention was made across Western media primarily because Saudi Arabia and neighboring Qatar had already fully committed to supporting Western ambitions in Libya.

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Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar have provided immense resources to the West's "Arab Spring" blitzkrieg starting in Tunisia, across Libya and Egypt, and now embroiling Syria. Qatar provided troops, aircraft, arms, and cash for Libyan terrorists as they swept the government from power and has throughout the "Arab Spring" provided 24/7 propaganda via Qatari government run Al Jazeera, which masquerades as a news agency. Tellingly, "requests" for Saudi arms and support for US-led NATO operations against Libya came in tandem with news of a planned "day of rage" aimed at Saudi's ruling family. The date came and went with little consequence, after Saudi Arabia and Qatar pledged full support against Qaddafi.

Similarly in Syria, both kingdoms are likewise providing arms and cash, and even "wages" for Syrian terrorists to take up arms against the Syrian government. And as the next step comes for Syria, backing NATO-member Turkey in establishing Washington prescribed "safe havens" and "humanitarian corridors" in a Libya-style escalation, the West has begun to predictably turn the screws on Bahrain.

Image: From the beginning, the uprising in Bahrain bore all the markings of the US-engineered "Arab Spring" sweeping the Arab World. Even the CIA-funded "Otpor-fist" would find its way into Bahrain's protests.

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It is quite clear then that Saudi and Qatari support for the US-engineered "Arab Spring" is born not out of altruism or fellowship, but out of fear for their own survival, with unrest already being triggered and encouraged by the West in at least Saudi Arabia, and with Bahrain resigned to a slow burn, briefly fanned by the West at junctures such as these, where a great amount of support is required against Syria to overcome recent setbacks. It is difficult to sympathize with either Qatar or Saudi Arabia, who have committed as much in the betrayal of their neighbors on behalf of Wall Street and London as they have against their own people. One wonders if amidst their spectacular betrayal of their Arab brothers, whether or not they realize they are next when Syria and Iran falls.

There are no seats at the tables on Wall Street or in London for the despotic regimes of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Ultimately, their self-preservation lies in both reforming themselves and balking foreign meddling in their backyard - not facilitating it.

Editor's Note: Bahrain is the home of the US Naval Forces Central Command and 5th Fleet meaning that the US has a significant military presence on the island nation and can at any time breath new life, support, funds, and even weapons into either the Bahraini opposition to inflame the protests or government forces to crush it. It is the ideal foreign-destabilization scenario.