"There is a split within the royal family. Khalid bin Ahmed and Khalifa bin Ahmed are on one side and the King and Shaikh Salman on the other. The extreme violence are Khalid Bin Ahmed (head of the royal court - sectarian and racist responsible for political naturalization scheme) and Khalifa Bin Ahmed (minister of defense). Sources are saying that the King no longer has full control. There are outside forces (I'm guessing Saudi Arabia) pushing for these two to take over and for Nasir Bin Hamed (one of kings sons) to take over position of crown prince."
So the king, Hamad bin Isa, and the Crown Prince, Salman bin Hamad, lead one faction, but "no longer have full control". However, since these details were aired the Crown Prince has ordered the army off the street and called for a day of mourning for its victims. Perhaps a sign of a shift in control of the situation. Perhaps the hawks have gone too far and been called to heel by Washington.
The "political naturalization scheme" is a policy of large-scale naturalisation of foreigners who are Sunnis in order to alter the ratio of Shia Bahrainis (70%) to Sunnis. By some accounts these foreigners are disproportionally represented in the rampaging army.
So the Sa'udis are grooming a younger son, by Hamad's second wife, to succeed Hamad and blow out Prince Salman. But as the House of Sa'ud is equally riven by factionalism it may be the Prince has allies there who make friends of their enemy's enemy.
One commentator has pointed out that this is not so much a revolt of oppressed Shia, as a revolt of the oppressed poor, who are overwhelmingly Shia. But the enemies of freedom will no doubt insist on depicting Bahrain's Shias as Iran's fifth column.
Afterthought (20th February): " ... hawks ... called to heel" - mixed metaphor there. How are hawks recalled? There's sure to be a term in falconry. Calling attack dogs to heel might be better in this instance. Who knows?
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