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Normalcy was nowhere in sight. Activist Alaa Shehabi said:
"There are armored vehicles at the entrance to every village. If anyone emerges now they will just be shot at. The government has sent a very strong message."
After speaking to the Independent, Shehabi was arrested and detained. Inside the BIC, organizers and participants expressed relief at day's end without incident. For sure, they want to leave and head home. Some may wish they hadn't come. Who wants to race in a war zone?
London Guardian writer Ian Black headlined, "Bahrain Grand Prix fails to drown out angry protests," saying:
Though unable to disrupt the race, protesters "claimed a moral victory against their government in their campaign to focus attention on tensions and repression in the Gulf state...."
Black explained heavy security, armored vehicles, police attacking protesters, tear gas, rubber bullets, thick black smoke clouds, curfews, and overall conditions unfit to live in let alone race.
"A Bahraini photographer reported that police had threatened to smash his camera for taking pictures of them chasing protesters."Black quoted Brookings Doha Centre analyst Shadi Hamid saying:
"For Bahrain's regime, the F1 race was a massive, almost embarrassing, failure. For the opposition, it was a godsend."
He cited real grievances gone unaddressed. He quoted independent al-Wasat Bahraini journalist, Mansoor al-Jamri, saying he's "amazed by the (regime's) state of denial."
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