THE ATLANTIC: ‘Forsaken by the West’: Obama and the Betrayal of Democracy in Bahrain. “The use of torture by Bahraini security services against detainees has been widespread and systematic, aimed at punishing, humiliating, and breaking the spirit of the protest leaders. . . . The AJ’s of Bahrain were our natural partners in the quest for freedom in the Arab world, and we have failed them. We expected something better of Barack Obama after he declared in Cairo in June 2009 that freedom, democracy and the rule of law ‘are not just American ideas; they are human rights. And that is why we will support them everywhere.’ In Bahrain, and in too much of the Arab world, those remain mere words.”

How’s that Nobel Peace Prize workin’ out for ya?