Bahrain Document: A List of 56 People Killed Since 14 February 2011

Ali Alsheikh (killed Sept 2011) & Sayed Hashim (killed Dec 2011)Activist Mohammed Ashoor gives the names and claimed cause of death of 56 people slain since the start of the uprising in Bahrain on 14 February 2011. The list does not appear to include five policemen who have died in the violence:

1- Martyr Ali Mushaima - 14 February 2011 - Killed by birdshot in Al Daih
2- Martyr Fadhil Salman Al Matrook - 15 February 2011 - Killed by birdshot during the funeral of martyr Ali Mushaima
3- Martyr Ali Mansoor Khudair - 17 February 2011 - Killed by birdshot during the first Lulu attack [the assault by security forces on Pearl Roundabout, the symbolic centre of the protests]
4- Martyr Mahmood Abu Taki - 17 February 2011 - Killed by birdshot during the first Lulu attack
5- Martyr Ali Mo'men - 17 February 2011 - Killed near Lulu and left to die on the street
 near Al Gufool traffic lights
6- Martyr Isa Abdul Hussain - 17 February 2011 - Killed by splitting his head open near SMC [Salmaniya Medical Centre]

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Bahrain Special: Identifying The Tear Gas Companies Who Profit While Bahrainis Suffer and Die

Footage taken after a home was tear-gassed

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Some of the companies exporting tear gas to Bahrain have been identified. There may well be more. In the meantime, however, the corporations below should be shamed of the suffering their products have inflicted. They may want to consider making a public statement regretting their decision to export to a regime flagrantly abusing the human rights of its citizens. They may also want to consider compensating the families of those killed by their tear gas, or making a sizeable donation to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, to help stop the abusive use of their "non-lethal" products.

Defense Technology / Federal Laboratories

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Bahrain Feature: The Sustained Strength of the February 14th Movement (Jones/Shehabi)

Writing for Foreign Policy, Toby Jones and Ala'a Shehabi outline the methods and the achievements of the February 14th movement in Bahrain. In a week where the escalating repression of protests saw the death of a 16-year old boy, Sayed Hashim, at the hands of the security forces, Jones and Shehabi are perhaps too light in their critique of violence sanctioned by the government. Similarly, the authors possibly invest too much faith in the potential of the regime to reform, given its steadfast refusal across 2011 to countenance any real structural changes.

That aside, the article gives a vital depiction of a opposition movement which has retained --- indeed, developed --- strength and solidarity across 11 often unforgiving months. Significant, too, is the article's appearance in Foreign Policy, a central forum for the opinion makers in Washington. Indeed, it is enough to make one wonder whether Saqer Al Khalifa, the media attaché to Bahrain's Embassy in the US, who worked so tirelessly last year to spread the Kingdom's message, is falling out of favour in 2012....

Bahrain's revolutionaries
Toby Jones and Ala'a Shehabi, Foreign Policy

Bahrain's February 14th movement has become a symbol of resistance and fortitude...and the most powerful political force in Bahrain today. This confederation of loosely organized networks, named after the date of the beginning of Bahrain's revolution, is faceless, secretive, and anonymous. Its tens of thousands of supporters have abandoned the failed leadership of the country's better established, but listless, political opposition. They have suffered the most and have weathered the worst that the regime has so far meted out.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Noticing the Violence

2311 GMT: An activist with extensive contacts in Damascus has given EA these videos, reportedly showing protests "in Shahbandar square in the heart of Damascus just a few meters from Sabaa Bahrat square," approximately here. There are, according to the activist, only 500 meters between the squares.

Protests in the center of Damascus are always significant, and this appears to be a significant protest, in a significant area.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Teenager's Death for the New Year

Claimed footage of the moment that Bahraini security forces opened fire today on the funeral procession of 16-year-old Sayed Hashim (see 1530 GMT)

See also Bahrain (and Beyond) Opinion: Does Sayed Hashim's Death Matter?
Happy New Year: 10 Predictions for 2012 --- From US Election to Syria to No War With Iran to EA WorldView
A Resolution for a 2012 WorldView: A Global Community Built On Communication, Not Conflict
Saturday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Protesting, Filming, Dying

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2115 GMT: Video from Bahrain today of security forces chasing a young man and finally shooting at him:

2100 GMT: 1954 GMT: A mass demonstration in the Qosour section of Homs in Syria denounces the "Tyrant who murders his own people":

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A Resolution for a 2012 WorldView: A Global Community Built On Communication, Not Conflict

See also Happy New Year: 10 Predictions for 2012 --- From US Election to Syria to No War With Iran to EA WorldView
Happy New Year: Rap News Presents #Occupy2012

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Without question, 2011 has been a humbling and profound year for us. Humbling, as we relay the accounts of citizens in Syria, Bahrain, Iran, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and countless other countries across the globe. Profound, as in following these stories of struggle --- and often devastation and destruction --- we have witnessed a passion and resilience almost unimaginable to us, especially for those of us sheltered in Western abodes. We have seen a human spirit that burns bright with hope and possibility for our shared future on this planet. What is more, we have repeatedly heard the roar of that spirit in its refusal to be silenced.

This is not to be naive in the face of brutality, oppression and exploitation. Rather, it is to take sustenance and nourishment from the interconnections of ideals that form the core of our individual, local, national, and global struggles.

This underpins our optimism: it is communication that is building community. The recourse of tyrants is to violence because they refuse to hear the voice of critique or to grant an individual the time of day to express his or her wishes. Dialogue demolishes barriers, especially when it takes places amongst equals. Indeed, it creates equals by fostering understanding, empathy, shared experience, and solidarity.

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Bahrain (and Beyond) Opinion: Does Sayed Hashim's Death Matter?

Ali Shaikh and Sayed HashimIf these circumstances of Sayed Hashim's death are tragic, they are easy to explain. He is just another case of a person being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What he and his friends seek --- justice, democracy, equal rights - could disrupt the oil supply from Bahrain and create disturbances throughout the Persian Gulf. The implications of what a 16-year-old wanted could have been significant for cities from New York to London to Beijing to Tokyo.

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