Bahrain Special: The Air Show, the "Black Smoke" Campaign, and the Dark Arts of Regime Propaganda

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The public relations campaign in Bahrain is a fierce and increasingly ugly one, which brings in a multitude of competing interests seeking to frame the situation for their own purposes. For regime supporters working to spread a certain message to the West, it is about obfuscating any apparent excesses by the monarchy and their forces and amplifying the alleged threat posed by the opposition, using sectarian rhetoric both for Bahrainis and expatriates.

What is particularly troubling about the regime's manipulation of the "black smoke" campaign is its possible links to more nefarious purposes, connecting propaganda, targeted at the Shia community, with violence.

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Bahrain Feature: Dar Kulaib --- The Regime's "Sectarian" Tactics and A Village Under Assault

See also Bahrain Interview: Nabeel Rajab - How Police Attacked the Manama March and Beat Me

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In the last month, I have seen several reports and images of violence in Bahrain that I dismissed as "minor", in relation to other news and pictures. These reports included smashed windows of cars, graffiti daubed on neighbourhood walls, and vandalism to the outside of homes.

I was wrong to set aside these items. I was blind to the significance that they all came from a single, somewhat isolated, village in the south of the country: Dar Kulaib.

I failed to recognise the signs of a continued campaign of harassment. I missed indications that the attacks on Dar Kulaib mya be a strategic attempt by the regime to provoke retaliatory violence, re-framing the opposition movement for democratic reform as a faction advocating sectarian conflict --- a re-framing the regime has repeatedly sought, and failed, to achieve since February.

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Bahrain Video/Picture Feature: Are Police Allying with "Thugs" For Attacks?

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A series of images and first-hand reports from Bahrain last night pointed to a new phase in the conflict between security forces and protesters. It appears that, whether or not the police requested assistance, they have been joined by plainclothes men in the use of force and intimidation.

The main location was Dar Kulaib. Police mingled with men hurling stones and other objects and then the force, armed with sticks and metal rods, moved into the village, damaging vehicles and property:

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