Over the course of an average week (26 August-2 September), the leading figure from Human Rights First, Brian Dooley, sent 23 tweets and 25 retweets (@Dooley_Dooley). All but three of these Tweets concerned a single country.
You may have guessed that this offending country that deserved so much attention was perhaps the Syrian regime; or Russia for its abuses in Ukraine. Perhaps you may have guessed he was referring to atrocities in Iraq; or a rogue state like Iran or North Korea.
In actual fact, more than 95% of Mr. Dooley’s Tweets concerned the tiny Kingdom of Bahrain. This is not an anomaly. If you google Mr. Dooley’s media articles and public appearances; you’ll find that his activity is almost exclusively dedicated to Bahrain. If you read his published output, you’ll find him talking endlessly about events that happened more than three years ago and continual calls for the US to take harsh action against Bahrain.
It is reasonable to ask whether this obsession with a single issue by a human rights official responsible for covering the globe is healthy, balanced or normal. Of course it isn’t.
Brian Dooley is not an independent human rights campaigner; he acts within the framework and objectives of extremist elements of the Bahraini opposition in order to force regime change and bring an end to the Constitutional Monarchy in Bahrain. He coordinates and interacts closely with leading opposition figures, such as the Khawaja family, the Bahrain Islamic Freedom Movement in London, the BCHR and other Bahraini exiles.
Brian Dooley is one of a number of Western figures, including human rights groups and academics, who dedicate themselves exclusively to attacking Bahrain and other Gulf Monarchies, while proclaiming themselves to be independent and objective.
Factors in common between these figures include:
The failure to ever criticize Iran and Russia’s human rights record and no mention of the Syrian regime’s genocidal war.
Repetitive and extreme attacks against Monarchies in the Gulf, dedicating numerous tweets to tiny issues and returning again and again to historical issues that show the Arab Gulf states in a bad light.
Excessively close relations with opposition figures from Bahrain and other Gulf states; retweeting each other’s material obsessively. They often interact closely and coordinate with figures who are open apologists for the Syrian and Iranian regimes.
It is obvious what the agenda of figures like Brian Dooley is; they take an openly political stance and clearly share the objectives of more extreme elements of the Bahraini opposition. The interesting question is what these people’s motivation is for putting so much time and effort to a single issue and associating themselves with figures who represent an extreme end of the political spectrum within Bahraini society.