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Despite his claims, rock musician Andrew W.K. (self-declared “King of Partying”) will not be America’s “cultural ambassador of partying” to Bahrain, the State Department confirms.

Bahrain government moves to disband Shia opposition →

Um, don’t the people usually dissolve the government in a governance crisis?

The government of Bahrain has gone to court seeking to disband two Shia opposition groups.

State media said the ministry of justice and Islamic affairs had “filed a lawsuit to dissolve the Islamic Action Association and al-Wefaq”.

The two groups were accused of violating the constitution and “harming social peace and national unity”.

The government has used force to put down protests calling for reform of the Gulf state’s Sunni monarchy.

Bahrain imposed emergency rule last month after weeks of anti-government protests in the kingdom, where many Shias accuse the monarchy of discrimination.

More than 25 people have been killed in the unrest.

Read More

(Source: BBC)

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March Madness: Democrats vs. Dictators

Foreign Policy’s epic bracket competition is, well, epic.

"Just how American bullets make their way into Bahraini guns, into weapons used by troops suppressing pro-democracy protesters, opens a wider window into the shadowy relationships between the Pentagon and a number of autocratic states in the Arab world."

— Nick Turse lays it all out in “America’s Bahrain Cop-Out.”

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One in every six Bahrainis is on the streets, braving tear gas and rubber bullets from authorities, including armed helicopters like this one.

For the latest, check in with Ashley Bates’ real-time explainer:

What’s Happening in Bahrain Explained

Anybody seen anything like this on US TV? Anybody? Anybody?

pantslessprogressive:

Here is that video I originally linked to on ShortFormBlog’s post, but had been taken down. I found another copy, via Al Jazeera English.

In this video, a Bahraini man is shot in the face with tear gas at point blank range.

(Source: youtube.com)

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pantslessprogressive:

Bahrain. March 13. [iShaf3i]

Updates on Bahrain:

774 people were injured and 107 were hospitalized on Friday during clashes in the town of Riffa. [CNN]

Three human rights activists received online death threats on Friday. Their photos were posted on Facebook, along with a request for them to be ‘killed and liquidated’. More on these threats at BBC. [The Canadian Press]

Demonstrators confronted police on the streets of Financial Harbor on Sunday. [Reuters]

More on the Financial Harbor clashes at NY Times, Guardian, Bloomberg and WSJ.

Multiple reports say police are firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters. [AJE; AFP; Washington Post]

A video shows a Bahrain protester getting hit with tear gas at point blank range. Another video shows use of tear gas and rubber bullets here. [AJE]

Secretarian strains continue Sunday as Shiite protesters and Sunni protesters clashed at Bahrain University. [LA Times]

On Saturday, the crown prince said Bahrain may hold a referendum if talks with opposition leaders produce an agreement. [Gulf Daily News]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew to Bahrain Saturday to meet with Bahraini leaders. Gates said leaders are serious about reform. [Voice of America]

In a statement released today, the White House urges the Bahrain government to ‘pursue a peaceful and meaningful dialogue with the opposition rather than resorting to the use of force.’ [Ha’aretz]

(Source: pantslessprogressive)

“Mother Jones web traffic up 400+ percent, partly thanks to explainers”

From Megan Garber at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab:

We wrote about MoJo’s Egypt explainer in January, pointing out the feature’s particular ability to accommodate disparate levels of reader background knowledge; that format, Adam Weinstein, a MoJo copy editor and blogger, told me, has become the standard one for the mag’s explainers. “It was a great resource for the reader, but it also helped us to focus our coverage,” Weinstein notes. “When something momentous happens, it can be hard for a small staff to focus their energies, I think. And this was an ideal way to do that.”

Note the important part: Readers. You guys. From Tunisia to Egypt to Libya to Bahrain to Wisconsin and beyond, nothing’s shaped our coverage so much as your questions, concerns, tips, and comments. So keep the dialogue open!

PS: The exact number on our growth was 420 percent. Yeah, we know.

Scenes of free Benghazi, Libya.

Joy in the streets. Citizens hand in hand. Songs and chants. Westerners greeted as liberators.

(Imagine, for a minute, if the US had never invaded Iraq. Imagine if we had never lost $776 billion and 4,439 troops, and the civil war never happened, and Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia never existed, and scenes like this could be playing in Baghdad nonetheless.)

(Source: CNN)

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“Members of Libyan army announce their split & the liberation of Benghazi from Gaddafi’s forces.”

Awww, yeah.

According to sources, this is the scene in Shiraz, Iran, today.

According to Iran’s state media: “Total calm.”

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“Use live ammunition”

Sent to our Twitter account from someone who apparently hates #wiunion demonstrators enough to see them killed.

There are people who think this way, but they’re a marginal minority — particularly in light of the government violence we’ve seen recently in Egypt, Bahrain, Algeria, Libya, and elsewhere. The only way to keep such people marginalized is to show the nation and the world what a peaceful, principled protest looks like.

Apparent (but unconfirmed) video of government violence in the Libyan city of Benghazi. It’s going around. Government violence, that is.

mohandasgandhi:

stfukyriarchy:

thelibyanrevolution:

Graphic Video of protestors being shot: Twitter says it’s Benghazi.

*TRIGGER WARNING*

I don’t want to watch this. I’ll just trust the comment is right.

It’s haunting how much this video reminds me of Neda.  We need to keep ourselves aware of what’s going on in other countries and stand by our brothers and sisters who are fighting for the freedoms we’re privileged enough to take for granted.  Stay strong, Libya.  The entire world is with you.

(Source: thearabspringrevolutions)

WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO

Bahrain’s ruling family has defied mounting international criticism by ordering the army to turn on its people for the first time since pro-reform demonstrations erupted five days ago.
As protesters attempted to converge on Pearl Roundabout, a landmark in the capital Manama that has become the principal rallying point of the uprising, soldiers stationed in a nearby skyscraper opened fire.

Since they took to the streets, Bahrain’s protesters have come to expect violence and even death at the hands of the kingdom’s security forces. At least five people were killed before yesterday’s protests.

But this was on a different scale of magnitude…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world…