Jew World Order

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others have been arrested in Manama’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

Press TV has conducted an interview Saeed Shehabi with the Bahrain Freedom Movement from London to further discuss the issue.

The video also offers the opinions of two additional guests: political analyst Sara Marusek and author and investigative journalist David Lindorff . What follows is a transcript of the interview:

Press TV Mr. Saeed Shehabi, one year on where has the revolution come to, your opening remarks, do let us know.

Shehabi Thank you very much, I think the revolution has come a long way forward. First of all, it has managed to convince the world that the regime of the Al KIhalifa is a torturous regime, is a murderer, this is the product of the BICI, Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, that issued its detailed report in November headed by [former BICI chairman Professor Mahmoud] Sharif Bassiouni.

It established clearly that systematic torture was rampant and that the regime was killing its adversaries in an extrajudicial manner and of course, it had also established that the regime was destroying mosques, more than 53 religious sites.

So on one hand we have managed to convince the world that we are being ruled by a regime that commits international crimes or crimes against humanity. On the other hand the people have become more clear in their vision.

When they started, they wanted some marginal demands, the restatement of the 1973 constitution, the release of the prisoners, the stopping of the naturalization process and ending discrimination.

Today the people are saying wholeheartedly for the past several months that we want regime change, the Al Khalifa has no place in this country. So I think that we have come a long way ahead especially also that when we started we had only a few sectors of the society calling for reform.

Today everybody, the medics, the athletes, the lawyers, the women, the children, everybody is in the street preparing for the final hour of this regime.

Press TV Mr. Shahabi, let’s just touch upon the role of Saudi Arabia here as well. When we’re looking at Saudi Arabia’s role both in Bahrain and now very much increasingly in Syria, we’re seeing Saudi troops entering Bahrain to help the Bahraini regime suppress the protests, while in the case of Syria, Saudi Arabia is accused of sending rather terrorists inside Syria to suppress the regime.

So Saudi Arabia saying it supports democracy for Syrians but then suppressing a peaceful movement in Bahrain. What do you think about the intentions of Saudi Arabia here and what are these interests and how far is Saudi Arabia willing to go to safeguard these interests?

Shehabi We have finished one year of revolution in the Arab world, the Arab spring is one year old and now we are entering the second year but this second year is the year of the counter revolution unfortunately.

And the counter revolutionary forces are headed by Saudi Arabia of course the United States and Britain. They are putting every effort at their disposal to ensure that none of the revolutions does really win, even in Egypt or in Tunisia.

Yes, we have the president of both countries defeated or overthrown but the movements, which are working for the counter revolutionary powers, are there and we are still not confident of what is going to happen in those countries.

Now as for the Saudis, I think they have committed major mistakes by invading Bahrain, Bahrain is under occupation today and will continue to resist this occupation but the Saudis have not been successful in putting down the revolution because the revolution despite the international blackout has been going on in the streets nonstop for the past year.

Last night at least 50, 48 or 50 demonstrations took place in all parts of the country and today thousands of people went to the Pearl Square. Now the Saudis are playing this game of terror, terrorizing a small country, and occupying its land.

And I think their fate there will not be much different from the Soviet Union who invaded Afghanistan, or when it invaded Hungary in 1956, or when it invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. So I think the Saudis will be defeated eventually.

Now as for their involvement in Syria, this is ridiculous for the Saudis or for that matter any of the six [Gulf Cooperation Council] GCC countries [Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates] to claim moral high ground in terms of democracy.

They are the worst regimes in the world, the most reactionary, backward, hereditary dictatorships in the world. You can never find a worse situation than in those countries.

Yet they want to champion the cause of democracy on one hand. But they want to also champion the cause of the current democracy on the other hand. I think that’s not going to work.

Press TV Mr. Shehabi, looking at how maybe the United Nations should intervene, how the domestic situation in Bahrain should change in a way that protests would stop, as someone who has been involved in the protest movement and the demands of these protestors, what is basically the solution that these demonstrators in Bahrain are looking for?

Is it for the king to give up some of his power? Is it for the king now to essentially go and for the monarchy system to go? What is it that the people are looking for?

Shehabi I think the demands have developed over the year. They are not the same now as they were a year ago. When they started, they were calling for the reinstatement of the 1973 constitution or the change of the constitution that was imposed on the people in 2002.

We have to remember that 14th of February was chosen to coincide with the repeal of the only legitimate constitution and that is of 1973. It was repealed on the 14th of February 2002 and that’s why the people chose that day for the revolution.

Now when they started they wanted that constitution to be back or they wanted more constitution changes. Of course they wanted other things like as I mentioned earlier, they wanted a stop to the discrimination and the political naturalization.

However, after a year experience they have now realized that they are living with an enemy; the Al Khalifa have become the real enemies of the Bahrainis. They have brought outside powers; they have given up the sovereignty of the country to them; to the outsiders.

And also they have treated Bahrainis in an enemitic (sic) way, they killed, they maimed, they destroyed, they just attacked, they raped. So all this put together has convinced the Bahrainis that they cannot coexist; they cannot cohabit with the Al Khalifa monarchy. It has to go; in the same way as that of Mubarak and that of Bin Ali.

So I think at the moment the people are saying we do not want the Al Khalifa to remain in power anymore.

VG/JR