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Double standards

If you are going to engage in politics, particularly global ones, it helps to be consistent.

Not so the Obama Administration toward Bahrain - whereas there has been at least some muted criticism of Syria and Yemen. And, of course, the attack on Libya. Why not? Strategic alliances? It almost looks like Bahrain has been given a leave-pass.

"If President Barack Obama wanted to place Washington "on the right side of history" during the ongoing "Arab Spring", his reaction to recent events in Bahrain will likely make that far more difficult, according to a growing number of analysts and commentators here.

While his administration has become ever more outspoken against repression in Syria and Yemen - not to mention Libya, where Obama has called for regime change - it has remained remarkably restrained about the escalating crackdown by the Sunni monarchy against the majority Shia population and prominent pro-democracy figures.

The strongest criticism in weeks came from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday night at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum here when she appealed for a "political process that advances the rights and aspirations of all the citizens of Bahrain" and asserted that "security alone cannot resolve the challenges" facing the government.

More than two dozen people have been killed by security forces since the government declared martial law Mar. 15, while more than 400 others have been arrested or are otherwise unaccounted for, according to international rights groups. Three detainees have died in custody, at least one apparently from "horrific abuse", Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.

Last weekend, HRW accused the regime of creating a "climate of fear", particularly in Shia neighbourhoods and villages where night-time raids appear designed mainly to instil terror among the mostly poor residents.

Professionals, including doctors, lawyers, and human rights activists, have not been immune from the repression. Media critical of the government have been effectively muzzled, bloggers arrested, local journalists hauled into court, and foreign journalists expelled. Even star football players have been booted off the national team and arrested for taking part in peaceful protests."

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