(NEW YORK) MintPress — The Obama administration is imposing new sanctions on seven government agencies and private companies in Syria and Iran as part of a new campaign to crack down on the use of technology to suppress dissent.
The sanctions, including a U.S. visa ban and financial restrictions, come after the President issued a unique executive order allowing American officials to punish foreign nationals who have used techniques such as cell phone tracking and internet monitoring to carry out human rights abuses.
In the order, Obama states that “the same GPS, satellite communications, mobile phone and Internet technology employed by democracy activists across the Middle East and North Africa is being used against them by the regimes in Syria and Iran.”
“This unprecedented direction from the president, and the development of a comprehensive strategy, sends a clear message that we are committed to combating atrocities, an old threat that regularly takes grim and modern new forms,” said Samantha Power, the National Security Council’s senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights.
Power will serve as chairman of the new Atrocities Prevention Board, whose mission is to help “the U.S. government identify and address atrocity threats and oversee institutional changes that will make us more nimble and effective.” The board plans to meet with as many as 200 representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), university chapters of anti-genocide groups and others involved in the issue.
While Obama has earned the praise of some human rights organizations for taking the action against Damascus and Tehran, others have criticized his policies as weak and want him to do more to stop the brutality on the part of their security forces.
Critics also take issue with the fact that the administration is turning a blind eye to similar abuses by its allies.
Hypocritcal oath
Last year, in explaining his decision to back military intervention against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Obama said, “To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader and — more profoundly — our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are.”
On Monday, Obama, speaking at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, talked about his efforts not only in Libya but also in Sudan, the Ivory Coast and other places where mass killings have attracted Washington’s attention.
Missing from the list: Bahrain, where civil unrest also erupted during the Arab Spring, and where the government has also used social media and violence to crush demonstrations.
Bahrain’s crackdown continues
Last year, clashes between pro-democracy protesters and police led to the cancellation of the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix. This past weekend, the race was again held in the kingdom, despite Shiite Muslim-led opposition calls for international organizers to cancel it in the face of the Sunni Muslim ruling family’s ongoing discriminatory policies and human rights abuses.
Shiites make up a majority of Bahrain’s population but are prevented from holding top government and military positions.
The Bahraini government wanted the Grand Prix to show the world that the island nation had returned to normality and that its people were united behind the event. Instead, thousands of people took to the streets calling for democracy.
On Saturday, the body of a 36-year-old local protest leader was found dead in a village outside the capital Manama. Opposition groups blamed the police for the death, while government officials said they are waiting for the autopsy results.
The following day, Bahrain deported a group of British journalists who were covering the protests. According to Britain’s Channel 4 foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller, “On the face of it, the veneer is normality and business as usual. You go out of the city, though, and you go to these Shiite Muslim villages and it’s a different story. There is poverty and as I have seen repression too.”
Protesters have accused the Obama administration of ignoring their struggle while backing other reform movements in the Middle East. Although Washington has called on the ruling Al Khalifah family to hold talks with the opposition, it has also been careful to preserve its close relationship with the regime. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, one of the Pentagon’s main counterweights to Iran in the Gulf.
Contentious stance on Saudi extremists
While Obama continues to back efforts to support the opposition movement in Syria, Human Rights Watch says there is evidence that rebels have themselves committed serious human rights abuses.
In an open letter last month, the group wrote, “The Syrian government’s brutal tactics cannot justify abuses by armed opposition groups. Opposition leaders should make it clear to their followers that they must not torture, kidnap, or execute under any circumstances.”
The letter supported fears in some corners that the opposition is not only highly disorganized but may also be comprised of destabilizing sectarian groups, including radical Salafi Islamists backed by Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has also used its security forces to help protect the regime in Bahrain. In March, 2011, as the protests raged, hundreds of Saudi troops crossed the causeway that connects the country to the kingdom to defend government facilities.
In addressing Obama’s latest moves against foreign rights abuses, the NSC’s Powers said, “This doesn’t make atrocities go away. But it does give us a new set of tools and should prevent presidents from ever saying again that they didn’t have options to confront mass killings.”
Perhaps those options should be exercised across the board.