With Bahrain home to 5th Fleet, US faces dilemma over crackdown on protests Reports of brutality A 500-page report commissioned by the king after U.S. prodding and released in November by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry sheds light on how bad things were on the streets in 2011. The report faults the government for systemic brutality in putting down the protests in February and March, which marked a return to the “pattern of impunity for torture and other mistreatment by law enforcement personnel” last seen when similar unrest engulfed the country in the 1990s. In one chilling example cited in the report, Isa Abdulhasan Ali Hussain was in the streets Feb. 17 as protesters clashed with police. A policeman pointed a gun at Hussain’s head, and a witness “heard a loud shot and saw the man’s head explode.” http://www.stripes.com/with-bahrain-home-to-5th-fleet-us-faces-dilemma-over-crackdown-on-protests-1.168370