Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Nailing Jelly to the Wall
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 13:21 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 1935 GMT: The New York Times is now covering the story that we reported earlier of Saudi blogger Feras Bugnah, who was arrested for his a documentary "We Are Being Cheated" that was critical of the Saudi regime and the economic reality in Saudi Arabia. Bugnah's colleagues have responded that the Saudi government is “trying to control the new Internet media” by making the arrest.
1921 GMT: Bahrain's Minister of Interior Lt. General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa appeared on Al Arabiya. He expressed his concern about the alleged Iranian plot to bomb the Saudi embassy, insinuated that there were links between this plot and violence in the streets of Bahrain, he accused militants of attacking protesters and security forces, and he distinguished between legal protests, which, Khalifa said, were permitted, and illegal protests that were disrupted. When asked about the use of live ammunition, this is how he answered:
"First of all, I personally have never received orders from any officer to fire [on demonstrators]. This has never happened even on the days of the crisis, if it can ever be called a crisis, nor in any other event. On the other hand, if the Ministry of Interior ever issued an order during the said period [of dealing with demonstrators] who were present at the GCC roundabout, then such an order was to affirm commitment to the provisions of the Public Security Law on matters pertaining to the use of arms."
1835 GMT: Claimed video from a funeral for yesterday's martyrs in al Harak, Houran region, Daraa province, Syria. The sign that is held up has today's date:
1818 GMT: According to Al Jazeera,the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has a reported that 17 civilians and 7 soldiers have been killed today in Syria: