Bahrain’s colonial flashback

It is perhaps a cliché to say history repeats itself, yet this saying seems to have held true over the past year in the Middle East, particularly in Bahrain. Uprisings have happened before, and been successful or crushed through counter-revolutionary forces. But it is in behind-the-scenes developments that there really is a flashback to the past.  Last month, Bahrain appointed two men — a former Miami police chief and John Yates, the former assistant commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police — to oversee the reformation of the state’s police force, which was found in an independent inquiry to have committed systematic human rights abuses and used torture to crush the 2011 pro-democracy uprising. By virtue of their nationalities and their countries’ strategic involvement with Bahrain, both former “top cops” are dubious choices. Yet Yates in particular stands out, as he was forced to resign from the Metropolitan Police in the summer