Welcome welcome Mr. Henderson!

Ian Henderson with wife talking Dr. Saeed Al-Shehabi at London Heathrow Airport before departing to Bahrain

Your exalted excellency, you are in excellent company here, sir, do relax and enjoy the festivities in your honour and let whoever asks for reparations with your past be damned. You are – after all – a retired gentleman of 81 and could not be held responsible for bygone eras, surely. The world’s powers – to one of which you belong – have turned a blind eye, and why shouldn’t they, it has become their culture. Generations who will continue to have nightmares for the rest of their lives and those who succeed them be damned. The almighty Pound and Dollar rule supreme.

Welcome welcome your excellency, to the land of milk and honey!

Comments

  1. Just me

    It would be good to get a transcript of the conversation that went on. Was it recorded?
    I understand it went something like this:

    Shehabi: When are you going to apologise for the people of Bahrain for your crimes and fully disclose your role, like the apartheid officers in South Africa?
    Henderson: I did nothing wrong, it was you the opposition in London that was wrong.
    Shehabi: So who tortured and killed Saeed Eskafi and Nooh Alnooh?
    Henderson: Well it’s natural to have casualties in situations like this.

    and so on…

    Brave encounter by Shehabi with an evil man once called the “Butcher of Bahrain”

  2. mahmood

    Depends on how you look at it, but it seems you can’t have one without the other. Vicious and viscous circle.

  3. Ammar

    its like a big joke. it really really is, like a huge joke; the news doesn’t sound real at all. But hey, with Bahrain, expect anything.

  4. bahrainiac

    😈 It’s a ploy by the MOI to “lure” Mr. Henderson back to our little island and then arrest him!! 👿

    SLAP!!! 😳

    Thanks for that, guess I was dreaming again…. 🙄

  5. The Joker

    Santa Clause is coming to town!

    Where is the king from all of this?

  6. Jaffar Bin Henderson Al Scotlandi

    الأسماء التالية هي لضباط قام الشيخ حمد بمنحهم أوسمة بتاريخ 29/3/2000م تكريماً لهم على ما قدموه من ( خدمات جليلة ) للبحرين 0

    (انظر الجريدة الرسمية الصادرة في 29 مارس 2000ØŒ لتقرأ فيها أسماء الذين منحوا “أوسمة البحرين” من الدرجات الأولى والثانية)

    Several names were honoured (on 29 March 2000) by the Al-Khalifa including (names are re-translated from Arabic and hence may have different spelling):

    1. Ian Henderson,

    2. Raymond Michael Mather Lou,

    3. N. C. G. Raffle,

    4. J. Stone,

    5. Fernon Barry Wamsley,

    6. A. B. McInt (or MacKent),

    7. Donald Joseph Bryan,

    8. Samuel B. Ishaq,

    9. James Windsor,

    10. David B. R. Darby.

    The honouring of these intelligence and interior ministry officers by the Al-Khalifa shows that they are intent on continuing to repress the citizens of Bahrain.

    Other security officers honoured by the Amir for their inhuman services were:

    1. Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Khalifa

    2. Rashid Khalifa Al-Khalifa

    3. Khalid Mohammed Al-Khalifa

    4. Abdul Aziz Atteyat-Allah Al-Khalifa

    5. Isa Ahmed Al-Khalifa

    6. Ahmed Abdul Rahman Bu-Ali

    7. Hassan Isa Al-Hassan

    8. Mohammed Jasim Al-Thawadi

    9. Abdl Salam Mohammed Al-Ansari

    10. Abdulla Mohammed Jabr Al-Musallam

    11. Rabea Hamad Senan

    12. Abdul Rahman Rashid Al-Khalifa

    13. Mohamed Ali Fadl Al-Nuaimi

    14. Duaij Khalifa Al-Khalifa

    15. Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Aziz

    16. Khalifa Sultan Al-Khalifa

    17. Naser Mohamed Jabr Al-Musallam

    18. Isa Abdulla Bu-Khowwah

    19. Khalifa Ahmed Al-Ghatam

    20. Isa Rashid Flaifel

    21. Faisal Salim Rashid Al-Absi

    22. Rashid Abdul Aziz Al-Khalifa

    23. Farooq Salman Al-Maawdah

    24. Ahmed Abdulla Al-Abbasi

    25. Kamal Abdul Rashid

    26. Faez Ahmed Melik

    27. Hamad Abdulla Al-Khalifa

    28. Ahmed Hasan Al-Dowseri

    29. Abdulla Isa Jabr Al-Mussalam

    30. Khalifa Mobarak Al-Ghatam

    31. Khalifa Salman Al-Khalifa

    32. Salman Mohammed Al-Khalifa

    33. Ali Duaij Al-Bin-Ali

    34. Mohammed Aziz Jalal Khan

    35. Javid Latif Kalon

    36. Abdulla Salman Al-Maawdah

    37. Isa Mohammed Al-Dowsery

    38. Adel Jasim Mohammed Flaifel

    39. Soud Haji Abdulla

    40. Salim Khalifa saad Moftah

    41. Abdul Rahman Saqr Al-Khalifa

    42. Sabah Duaij Al-Khalifa

    43. Mobarak Ahmed Al-Fadil

    44. Mohammed Hamad Al-Maawdeh

    45. Awatef Hasan Al-Jeshi

    46. Ibrahim Habib Al-Ghaith

    47. Ali Abdulla Al-Khalifa

    48. Naji Fahad Al-Hashel

    49. Sultan Ali Al-Suleiti

    50. Abdulla Seif Al-Nuaimi

    51. Mahmood Hussain Al-Akkori

    52. Abdulla Abdul Latif Al-Sadeh

    53. Mobrak Najim Al-Najim

    54. Monira Ahmed Al-Khalifa

    55. Zakkiyya Isa Al-Darraj

    56. Nora Abdulla Al-Khalifa

  7. Bernie

    Teflon coated grade A bastard. He has a permanent home up someone’s ass that’s for certain. 👿

  8. Esra'a

    I was under the impression that he has always been in Bahrain!

    Yes, he was occupying my guest room for years!

    In all seriousness, don’t worry guys, the good folks at BYSHR are preparing something to protest this.

  9. Yvonne Dettwyler

    Isn’t this the man who tied the Mau Maus in Kenya onto a grill”sizzling them like sausages” discussed in the British Parliament in the fifties?

  10. Kiwi Nomad

    I wonder if #38 on the list, the notorious Adel Flaifel, is still also highly regarded by the King… or has his honouring been revoked?

  11. bahrainiac

    SBG,

    He has been living in the south of England since 2000. Carlton did a documentary on him in 2003 I believe, implicating him in the Bahrain atrocities as well as the Kenyan atrocities.

  12. The Joker

    Its pretty obvious that the government wants to make a clear message by publicizing his arrival. I think that message is “Fuck You!”

  13. Just me

    I don’t think he has been living in England over the past few years. He actually is shit-scared of a case being brought against him so his lawyers request clearance from the British police everytime he enters the UK and re-assurance that no charges will be pressed against him.

    The human rights organisations on his case, like Redress, have been actively pursuing Henderson but were intentionally deceived by Scotland Yard regarding the exact date of his arrival.

    This case against Henderson needs some intensive lobbying. It is morally wrong that Bahrain has given him a safe haven where his own country, the UK will hold him account.

    I suggest some kind of collaboration with any Kenyan activists to build a joint case against this man. He is completely unrepentant.

  14. mahmood

    Interesting minutes of the British Parliament (thanks eMoodz for the heads-up) which interested parties might want to read. They have been made by George Gallaway on the 3rd of June, 1997:

    The House rightly made it possible to try people in this country for war crimes that had been committed in Ukraine or Belorussia more than 50 years ago. I have legal advice which says that the United Nations convention against torture places an obligation on Britain to arrest or attempt to extradite Henderson. Lord Avebury said in another place that, should Henderson return here, having eaten his fill at the trough of the dictatorship, he will face a battery of civil actions for damages from victims of his crimes.

    That is not enough. Ian Henderson is Britain’s Klaus Barbie. The European Parliament has called Britain to prosecute Henderson and there is another fundamental point that cannot be gainsaid about Henderson’s provenance. Britain’s relations with the island of Bahrain have been warm, close and special for 150 years. Ian Henderson was appointed as deputy director of security on the island in 1966, which was five years before the British left and the territory became independent. Therefore, he was appointed by a British Government, I regret to say by a British Labour Government, to his position in the secret state apparatus of Bahrain.

    read full minutes

  15. Yvonne Dettwyler

    a Midas black gold situation wrapped up in Sunni-Shia-Christian-jewish fundamentalism.

  16. Theanagain

    Anyone heard the rumours that someone is very seriously ill with a blood clot on the brain and undergoing treatment in Germany?

  17. mahmood

    There is Murtadha Bader (ex Muni council) who was in Jordan with a similar problem and who is now sponsored by the PM to get fixed in the Saad Hospital in Khobar…

    Who else?

  18. alcazar

    OK guys, just a short question: whose order was Henderson following?

    Why not chase after those first and launch your civil cases? Hold them to account first, after all they live here don’t they and are known to most of us.

  19. mahmood

    That philosophy is correct, but flawed. With this, the only person who the allies should have gone after is Hitler, and as he killed himself, well, the other generals can’t be prosecuted as “they were just following orders” weren’t they?

    But your question demonstrates why having a full Truth and Reconciliation Commission is so important. We have many wounds that need attended to and healed and only by full disclosure and owning up to wrongs made are we to finally turn the page and get on with our lives, rather than what we are doing now, stumbling toward catastrophe.

  20. alcazar

    Mahmood, I said:

    Why not chase after those first …

    with ‘first’ being the operative word.

    and, ‘correct but flawed’ does not make sense, as well as noting that I did not invoke the ‘I was only following orders’ defense.

    Henderson should be held to account for what he did, but I notice the ease with which many people run after him FIRST rather than take on thornier targets at home. We Bahrainis (well, in my opinion most of us) like to sound off on other, softer targets in public forums (like this one) while we let the more virulent culprits off the ‘public shaming’ hook. Why? because we are far too scared to follow through and publically, identifiably name them (all the way up to the top) and take the consequences. Yes I am one of those also so I am a coward as well.

    I admire the things you have done on Bandergate and defending yourself against Mad Bad Raj. But you are in a very small minority.

    There is a band of people ready to stand and be counted on these issues and expose themselves to the consequencies, but I am not one and I suspect that I am part of the vast majority.

    Let’s vent our public anger on Johnny Foreingner. After all he can’t really fight back…….

  21. mahmood

    You’re right, I was having a brainfart at the time I wrote that “correct but wrong” crap! Okay, I chose the wrong phrase but I suspect you know what I mean.

    As to naming names, do you notice that until today none of the national papers name the Malkiya Baron but just refer to him as “the influential one”! If his office manager has been on Al-Jazeera looking all prim and proper and his name is has always been in the public domain, why can’t our beloved, independent, courageous papers not just call him Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa? I’m sure he won’t mind his name being mentioned, especially that he himself has given an extensive interview to one of the papers during his wall’s debacle. I can’t remember the paper, if you do please let me have a link if you could (anyone).

    My insistence on a commission for truth and reconciliation emphasises the fact that we (Bahrainis) are not seeking revenge. What we are rather, is to seek social justice in order for us to live in harmony and jointly prosper. The mandate of that commission should not be restricted; in that it should have access to anyone they deem necessary to talk to and if warranted, ask for an unrestricted apology to those who have been wronged should sufficient evidence be available which implicates that person, be that the prime minister or any other high or low official. This is absolutely necessary for us to go forward.

    If you notice, there are now 11 associations pushing through this Truth and Reconciliation Commission mandate and the king himself has given them his blessings. They are due to launch their program on Dec 10th, the international day for victims of torture. That is a good step an dit is in the right direction.

    Therefore, on a higher level the public institutions are putting the framework for accountability. There is no harm then for people to voice their indignation, concern and demand for a torturer to be brought to justice. He will not be the only one to be put on the spot, I assure you.

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