I am ever so grateful to the Ministry of Interior for foiling the plot to overthrow the government [Arabic], yet again, by a group of 35 youths who have confessed to not know each other yet intricately coordinate their heinous activities and practice the seditious act of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at printed targets attached to trunks of palm trees (shown above) in secret palm groves. This has been confirmed by the GDN which is the ultimate credible investigative journal in the Island kingdom.
The police have reportedly found twenty-five empty bottles in a farm in Bani Jamra, about a couple of kilometers from where I live, which the police believe are the conclusive incriminating evidence used by these misguided youth as practice objects of throwing Molotov cocktails the purpose of which is to topple the government of the land. A one year old picture of these cocktails was released to the press to elucidate the point and to act as a graphic representation of the find, one that overshadows the recent find of a 4000 year-old Delmonian palace nearby.
It is also purported that the above graphic was confiscated from the perps’ secret and Mo(d)I-blocked internet forum which was used by these completely anonymous rock/Molotov throwers to benefit from each others’ experience in the Art of Hurling Objects (AHO) and was used by their balaklaved and voice obfuscated trainers to encourage their charges to outwit, outperform and outlast each other on the fiery streets of Bahrain.
Thank you, ever vigilant, Ministry of Interior.
I can sleep better tonight!
Comments
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I hope your not making light of a serious situation.. these people destroy public property and physically harm public enforcement officials.. any sane person would want these people off the streets!
hahaha but they weren’t on the streets, they were in the Bani Jamra palm grove!
May i extend an invite to my own notes on another GDN gem:
http://nowhere-news.blogspot.com/
Mahmood, this is very serious business mate! We all tend to make fun of our governments, but this is one case where the job was done well, before any innocent people got hurt. 20-25 year olds are pretty old for this kind of fun. I don’t think that any of you really wants boys of that or any age target practicing with Molotov cocktails.
What do you think are the chances that these are only innocent kids having fun at a farm?
Unfortunately, I don’t think that these are times to NOT take such things seriously, especially in your region.
Funny as it may be, this does not take away from the fact that there is a guy sitting in a hospital bed right now with third degree burns ’cause someone tossed an incendiary projectile (the russian didn’t invent it, he just found out that they were incredibally effective when thrown at the air intake/exhaust of Panzer tanks) into the car he was driving. In Italy, this happened a few weeks ago at a football match (apparently also by a teenager) and the entire country came to a standstill.
You’re jumping into a situation that you know nothing about and making ignorant conclusions. Stay out of it until you actually know the situation and what you are talking about.
That goes to the other moron commenting above as well.
Mahmood, I happen to be Bahraini, and so I am well aware of the situation.. calling someone’s response ‘ignorant’ and another person a “moron” doesn’t really help make your point.. most of the comments seem to be against your views, there’s no need to lash out at those that have different points of views than you.. and to think you were an advocate for open, constructive dialogue :pouty:
Bikeshed: the molotov cocktail was first used by the spanish and then was further developed and mass produced by the Finns in the winter war against the russians. they stole the idea and used it later on.
Sorry stranger, had you made the fact that you are a Bahraini I would have changed my response to have included you in the moron category too. Which I have corrected now by this comment. Contrary to common belief, I cannot read minds. Make yourself known if you wish to have a conversation based on your ethnic or personal background.
“Attacking” others opinions I find disagreeable is fine, I – nor you – have to be “nice” all the time, especially when I find an uninformed position from someone who should know better.
Constructive dialogue too, like truth, is sometimes ugly, but as long as it elicits thinking about the situation it should be accepted.
That is different from being civil though, which I have been throughout.
>>docspencer …
When you asses (sp?) things with one eye shut, you tend to make those sorts of comments. A story that ran in the Alwatan daily almost one month ago had a picture with the exact same box of bottles in the exact same spot as the one shown a few days ago! I didn’t discover that, but someone else did and posted it on a message board.
Instead of worrying about some poverty-striken kids from Bani Jamra who live in heart-aching conditions and survive on the King’s generous 150BD/month minimum wage, why don’t you worry about the real evil-doers who continue to suck this island dry of everything that lives.
3,000+ Iraqi Baathists (some report a number much higher than that) have recently been naturalized and imported into the Defense force. The move is so dangerous, yet comes as no surprise, that it has even caused neighboring Kuwait to consider requiring travel visas for all Bahrainis entering their state.
One day you’ll open your eyes and see yourself a stranger in your own land, and then it will be too late to do anything about it. It’s already too late right now.
Actually the picture appeared in Al-Watan more than a year ago, Jan 22, 2006 to be exact, and here’s Al-Ayam’s Article a few days ago using the same picture presumably provided by the police. Unless of course Al-Ayam used a poetic licence which in the absence of a printed notification of an error, we are to believe what we see. The same picture appeared in other papers too on the same day.
Here’s the Al-Watan’s front page in pdf format (1.9MB) if anyone would like to see how it appeared then.
Mahmood, let me get this straight, instead of focusing on all this nonsense of when the picture of the bottles were taken and such lets get down to the issue.. you’re okay with people practicing throwing molotov cocktails? You think this is a mere pastime for them, a hobby perhaps?
Mahmood I hope you get your act together soon, as you are well aware people from all around the world read your blog, and for them to see you making fun of a situation as dangerous and serious as this is quite disturbing..
Adel Marzouq‘s article is so well written.
i guess you have to be here to maybe appreciate how ludicruous the whole thing is..
Talk about moral equivalence.
>>Stranger: I hope your not making light of a serious situation.. these people destroy public property and physically harm public enforcement officials.. any sane person would want these people off the streets!
Sorry, but how would you know considering you live half a world away, probably studying on a state-sponsored scholarship whose money comes from the sweat that my forefathers watered the grounds with for centuries? It’s impossible to be objective unless you can smell and feel a situation from up close.
Also, could you please clarify what exactly you mean by the term “these people”. I’ll even help you out and provide some choices for you:
a) The poor?
b) The frustrated?
c) The oppressed?
d) The unemployed?
e) Those who don’t live in W. Riffa?
f) Those with one or more friends or relatives behind bars?
For anyone reading my blog for just a few minutes would rightly deduce that I abhor violence in all its forms. I do not condone, not for an instant, anyone lobbing Molotov cocktails, burning tyres, throwing rocks, or any other violent reaction to situations which should and could be solved politically.
However, exploding the situation of a foolish and even criminal act of carrying or even lobbing a Molotov cocktail from being an isolated incident into one that would topple a government is even more ludicrous. And if our government is that weak that this kind of incidents could precipitate its downfall, we simply do not want it. To hell with such a weak and impotent government.
Japan had two nuclear bombs dropped on it and their Royal family is intact, and so is their government, essentially, and you come here high and mighty and try to convince me that you are disturbed because of my making fun a such a ludicrous reaction?
What piffle.
I would advise you rather strongly to reevaluate your positions and find someone to help you do so.
Stranger is your chosen nickname, and stranger still are you to this land we call home. A land that is not as brittle as you like it to sound.
Anonymous, by “these people” I meant the youths who are being accused in this case, those that clearly had the intent to burn people alive if they get the chance to.. as I’m sure you are well aware, youths and policemen alike have been hospitalized due to these molotov cocktails, and it does not matter who is throwing them, I’m sorry, but being ‘poor’ and ‘oppressed’ does not give you the right to slash and burn..
Mahmood, you’re flip flopping on the issue.. one second you denounce the country as being a police state that is wrongly using an iron fist to cement the government’s place, and the next you call the government “weak and impotent”.. would you make up your mind already?
And by the way Mahmood, for someone that supposedly wishes fo peace and stability in our country you really are starting to sound like an anarchist..
Okay Stranger, I’ve made up my mind and although I do not know you I am now convinced that you are a grade A moron.
Finish your studies, get an education and I suggest you also take up a “critical thinking” subject. It would do you good and you do need it.
first they’re “accused” and then you flip to convicting them without knowing the facts.
brilliant.
Let me repeat once again my advice, take a course in critical thinking, please. You desperately need to learn how to use your faculties, if any.
Typical Mahmood, avoiding the issue by looking down at the person who has a different point of view.. this hostile reaction from you shows that your ego is getting in the way of you thinking reasonably
You are the perfect example of what a hypocrite is; you act like you’re a freedom of speech lover, and yet look down upon the opinions of others.. shame on you..
says s/he who prefers to hide behind nicknames while throwing epithets at people!
have a good life.
Bandar mentioned that in feb 2007 there will be a series of arrests based on ficticious grounds just to add salt over the ethnic wounds..
I remember forwarding that peice to you mahmood.
Could that be the arrests of the Haq people begining this month, or does this mean the 007s, otherwise known as members of the bani jamra academy?
I think its the latter.. because people are used to the Haq people being detained, but don’t appreciate their sons being taken in.
Best way to understand the whole situation is reading Al Wasat’s 4 page coverage on it the next day, they even visited the farms in Bani Jamra and took some pictures of the individuals involved, Apparently the leader of this organized terrorist group is a monkey and his right hand is a donkey with one ear.
Their “evidence” is a confession of some dude and a picture of cocktails that was used ages ago, Do you smell what am smelling??… arresting political activist, cases against writers and the the media is spinning a new story of a “terrorist group” (just look at al watan’s coverage). Hello Bandargate =)
Yes I remember that Joker. Things have been escalating alarmingly over the last few months especially, with both sides don’t seem to want a solution any more. Parliament is dormant, and Al-Wefaq has done nothing of their election promises. It seems to me that they too are scared shitless and have elected to “forget” about the constitutional amendments they promised people – as well as themselves – that they will raise immediately they get into parliament.
They even reneged on their promise, aired by Ali Salman in the 6/6 Kuwaiti program that the very first thing they will do is demand an investigation into Bandargate as well as the resignation or firing of Attiyatallah.
What a bunch of wankers.
They’re more interested in which luxury cars they can get now rather than anything else.
I do hope that people will see them for what they are, nothing more or less than grabbing politicians.
So the situation is spiraling out of control. People are losing faith. And I have no earthly idea what is going to happen next other than by my smelling the tear gases every night for the last week, and add to that of burning rubber, well, I haven’t lost hope yet, but am – like the majority of Bahrain I suspect – am just awaiting the bubble to burst.
So to answer you question my friend, Bandargate or no, if nothing sincere is done very very soon, it just wouldn’t matter. Just pack your bags and go somewhere where you can concentrate on your quality of life, rather than continue to be in fear for it.
Its just getting more and more ludicrous by the day. Almost everyone (except Stranger in the US) can see the propaganda and scaremongering thats going on in the press initiated by the Ministry of Interior. Good sense and wisdom over the years made Bahraini’s conscious of the bullshit thats printed a mile away. Bandargate only came to confirm the crap thats going on in terms of fabrication, funded/bribed journalists who actually get paid to MAKE UP this nonsense. They mock our intelligence by printing old photos and then the cherry on the cake is picking a farm in Bani Jamra of all places. I mean u go to a village and pretty much every1 knows each other and what goes on.
Qassim Hussain makes a good point. Spinning this crap as ‘terrorism’ has done more damage than 1000 demos that the govt claims to harm Bahrain’s image abroad.
>>They even reneged on their promise, aired by Ali Salman in the 6/6 Kuwaiti program that the very first thing they will do is demand an investigation into Bandargate as well as the resignation or firing of Attiyatallah. What a bunch of wankers.
Sorry, but up yours!!
I was with a number of Wefaq MP’s yesterday and know for a fact that their bloc is working strategically and intelligently towards truly (sp?) solving as many of our ills as the limited power they’ve been given allows them to. If you think for a second that Sh. Ali Salman is in this joke of a parliment for a luxury car or for a 4 figure salary (both of which he has said he wants nothing to do with) then please stop writing about Bahrain and just carry on bettering your gardening skills.
What a completely stupid thing to say!
I agree, what you said is really stupid.
So I pushed your psychological button, so what? Does that give you the right to insult me in such a manner? Or am I – once again – regarded as the oracle and supposed to read minds? Ah, my mistake, I am and I should have known that you had a meeting with your Wefaq buddies who keep their plans for the country secret only to be divulged to the initiated.
Well, tell your buddies they can keep their secrets and their “strategic plans” what WE want to see is action on promises they made in their collective election manifesto.
Now you can resume inserting your head in where the sun don’t shine.
Dickhead.
It beats me how this person has come to represent the voice of Bahrainis and gets invited to different places to speak on our behalf. He can’t even make a single solid and clear argument without tripping over himself or lashing out with some lame comment.
Just goes to show that you can’t be a good (maybe popular, but certainly not good) political analyst, if in fact that’s what you think you are, if you spend your days isolated from the very people you’re writing about.
Let’s see how long this post lasts.
Mahmood, why do you call people names if they have a different opinion than you?
I don’t and didn’t.
I stated a fact that you are a moron based on your shallow understanding of our environment, yet find it quite permissible for you to tell us what we should and shouldn’t do.
Now to the other moron just above you, I did not, will not, and have not positioned myself as a representative of the Bahraini people, nor did I ever describe myself as a political analyst. I am just me. A regular Bahraini with everything that entails. You took umbrage at something I wrote and you were not kind enough to show me what you actually took offence by.
I only “lashed out” at people who chose to hide behind their anonymity while throwing epithets at me. What I did is simply retort. You might not find that retort civil, but that is not my concern as whoever I am replying to did so in the first place and should therefore be prepared to take some of his or her medicine.
Now I have no idea what happened over the last couple of weeks which seem to be mounting and increasing verbal attacks on me. I did not invite those attacks, nor do I welcome them. I find them at best distracting from discussing the point at hand.
I suggest if anyone has a problem with my views, then by all means discuss them, but don’t go personal, if you do, you will get the same medicine thrown back at you.
I did not and will not restrict anyone’s freedom of speech, and I welcome criticism as this is the only way that I can really grow as a person. But do so in a conducive manner please. You are more than welcome to start a blog and write you own comments linking back to my articles or comments if you so wish. I shall not stop you. I would happily pay for your pleasure by hosting your blog on my own server under your complete control if you so wish. If you don’t, there are a myriad of other blogging engines freely available and I invite you to use those too.
What I want to continue to do and will continue to do is publish my thoughts regardless of these inane distractions I have been suffering from recently. If you (or anyone else) thinks that this will stop me from doing so, then you are sorely mistaken.
anyone who knows this country would know that it would be a real stretch to find any thirty-five people aged 20-25, none of whom know each other, let alone recruitable ones!!
the concoctors of this super-whopper clearly don’t
Mahmood, you ate just too much dingleberries for breakfast before you published your opinion today.
May I make a small comment as one who is completely ignorant of the situation other than articles I read and opinions I take note of.
In my opinion it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a genius to realise that the whole article and premise for the article not to mention the authority’s case is a complete load of crap.
I am of the opinion that if one has a head full of crap then it follows that one will talk verbal diarrhea (read a goodly proportion of politicians, news media people and corporate employees of all nations) I therefore concur completely with Mahmood on this particular subject.
I am however, being an ignorant English person, prepared to be shouted at and flamed for the above opinion but I must also say that I am constantly surprised by the more inane schemes that are created to strike fear into the hearts of various populations and even more surprised by the idiots who believe these schemes.
Thank you for a very balanced viewpoint Mahmood and if I am perchance in serious error here then I apologise. 🙂
So am I Bernie. It was this feeling of incredulity that overtook me when I read the various reports. The paramount evaluation in my mind was: Yes, they do take us for complete idiots!
Even more so, they are at ease with the notion that no one will dare criticise their position.
I hope that now they recognise the error of their ways. Judging by the various backtracking articles in our illustrious press yesterday, I think the message finally got through numb skulls.
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