Repression: made in America
It’s painfully obvious. If a government is imprisoning, torturing, and killing protesters, American weapons should never reach their hands.
Then why is the administration doing a runaround on Congress and selling arms to the government of Bahrain?
As Amnesty International points out, not a single Bahraini official has been held accountable for torture, imprisonment and killings in response to peaceful protest. But the administration has decided that its ability to station a Navy fleet in Bahrain and have a regional counterweight to Iran is more important than holding the government accountable for detestable treatment of its own citizens.
To hold the US to its own rhetoric about democracy and human rights, Rep. Raul Grijalva has introduced the Arms Sales Responsibility Act, which would prohibit arms sales if there is a serious risk they would be used to abuse human rights.
Human rights must be universal, not based on what the US needs from a country’s leaders. Tell your representative to cosponsor the Arms Sales Responsibility Act today.
Radhika Sainath, a US citizen deported from Bahrain for her participation in protests, asked, “Why is the United States supporting the Bahraini police with tear gas and with weapons? You know, we want basic freedoms such as the ones that you have in the United States.”
Let’s show Radhika and others striving for democracy around the world that the people of the US are with them. Take action now.
