In addition to e-mailing friend and family and visiting Occupy DC to spread the word about the fast, I called my Ohio Senator's offices. It always surprises me how easy it is to get in touch with someone at their office. They even have something like "office hours" once a week, which I'm thinking of visiting some time soon. I called to express my support for the bill passed by the Senate to delay the U.S. arms sale to Bahrain, and to suggest that the arms sale should now be canceled entirely.
To clarify, the Senate passed Resolution 28, which delayed the arms sale until certain conditions were met, one of which was that the Secretary of State certifies that "the Government of Bahrain is conducting good faith investigations and prosecutions of alleged perpetrators responsible for the killing, torture, arbitrary detention, and other human rights violations committed since February 2011." (SJ 28 IS, p. 6) The results of this investigation have been released, but human rights groups continue to call for the release of political prisoners and Bahraini activists consider the commission to be illegitimate, since the members were chosen by the Bahraini government. For this reason, I think it is important for American citizens to express opposition to the arms sale.
It is easy to understand why the opposition continues to oppose the entire process, since the condition of investigating human rights violations rely on "good faith" as defined by the U.S. Secretary State, and the commission itself is chosen by the Bahraini government, who are being accused by the violations. As Nikki said, "you can't ask the accused to investigate his own crime." (rough quote)
We're planning to write our responses to the al-Jazeera video tonight or tomorrow. We would love to read other people's responses if you have time!
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