PEPE ESCOBAR, [in Brazil] Skype: pepeasia
Escobar just wrote the piece “Exposed: The U.S.-Saudi Libya Deal,” which states: “You invade Bahrain. We take out Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently confirmed that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy movement of their neighbor in exchange for a ‘yes’ vote by the Arab League for a no-fly zone over Libya — the main rationale that led to United Nations Security Council resolution 1973. …
“A full Arab League endorsement of a no-fly zone is a myth. Of the 22 full members, only 11 were present at the voting. Six of them were GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] members, the U.S.-supported club of Gulf kingdoms/sheikhdoms, of which Saudi Arabia is the top dog. Syria and Algeria were against it. Saudi Arabia only had to ‘seduce’ three other members to get the vote.
“Translation: only nine out of 22 members of the Arab League voted for the no-fly zone. The vote was essentially a House of Saud-led operation, with Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa keen to polish his CV with Washington with an eye to becoming the next Egyptian President.
“Thus, in the beginning, there was the great 2011 Arab revolt. Then, inexorably, came the U.S.-Saudi counter-revolution.” [Brazil is one of a few non-Arab countries granted observer status at the Arab League.] Escobar’s books include “Obama Does Globalistan.” His recent writings for the Asia Times are at: http://atimes.com/atimes/others/Pepe2011.html .
The AP is reporting this morning: “Bahrain Wages Unrelenting Crackdown on Shiites.”
Also available to assess these developments and revelations:
HUSAIN ABDULLA
Abdulla is director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain. He said today: “Despite the total regime crackdown, Saudi invasion, lack of attention or outside support, the protests in Bahrain are continuing.”
VIJAY PRASHAD, @vijayprashad
Author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World, Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. He recently wrote the piece “Intervening in Libya.”
SAM HUSSEINI, @samhuseini
Communications director for the Institute for Public Accuracy, Husseini recently wrote the piece “U.S. Not Guilty of Double Standards.”
Background:
The British Telegraph reported this week: “Saudi officials say they gave their backing to Western air strikes on Libya in exchange for the United States muting its criticism of the authorities in Bahrain, a close ally of the desert kingdom.”
Former British ambassador Craig Murray wrote on March 14: “A senior diplomat in a western mission to the UN in New York, who I have known over ten years and trust, has told me for sure that Hillary Clinton agreed to the cross-border use of troops to crush democracy in the Gulf, as a quid pro quo for the Arab League calling for Western intervention in Libya.”
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
