# Bahrain Intifada (1994)

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Bahrain Intifada (1994)," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-intifada-1994/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The first Bahraini Intifada, a Shia uprising against the Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy that began roughly two months into John Kiriakou's 1994 Bahrain posting with a bombing at the Ministry of Labor, led by Abdul Amir Al-Jamri, and met by the government first with police, then armored personnel carriers and tanks, and executions.*

- **Start:** "Uprising" (Arabic Intifada) began c. October 1994, roughly two months into Kiriakou's posting
- **Trigger:** Bombing at Bahrain's Ministry of Labor
- **Leader:** Abdul Amir Al-Jamri
- **Government response:** Police, then military with armored personnel carriers and tanks; executions

The **Bahrain Intifada** was a Shia uprising against Bahrain's Sunni [Al Khalifa](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/isa-bin-salman-al-khalifa) monarchy that began roughly two months into [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s 1994 [Bahrain posting](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting), when a bombing at Bahrain's Ministry of Labor set off what became known as the first Intifada, Arabic for "uprising."[1]

## Warning and trigger

Kiriakou learned of brewing unrest from Indian journalist Indira Chand of the *Gulf Daily News* (later a World Bank spokesperson), who told him, off the phone lines both of them assumed were bugged, that *"there is a civil uprising, bubbling just beneath the surface and it's ready to explode."*[1] Kiriakou attributes the unrest to Shia unemployment combined with the government importing Sunni foreign workers, including Indians, for jobs, a policy of demographic dilution that had already been fueling resentment. The government responded to unrest with executions, which Kiriakou says had previously been very rare in Bahrain.[2]

## Abdul Amir Al-Jamri

Kiriakou identifies Abdul Amir Al-Jamri as the uprising's leader. The Bahraini government first sent police into Shia villages, who found themselves outgunned, and then the military with armored personnel carriers and tanks.[3] Kiriakou had first met Al-Jamri in 1981, on an official CIA trip, when a junior political officer, who later became U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait, brought him along to interview Al-Jamri for a human rights report; Bahrain's prime minister then had that officer expelled from the country for it, telling the ambassador he wanted him out "like today."[4]

By the mid-1990s uprising, Kiriakou says he was literally the only person at the U.S. embassy in Bahrain who had personally met Al-Jamri, per Ambassador David Ransom, *"nobody knew as much about Bahrain"* as Kiriakou did.[5]

## Government crackdown and Saudi anxiety

Kiriakou, serving as the U.S. embassy's human rights officer during the uprising, says the Bahraini government responded with extrajudicial killings, simply disappearing people.[6] He says Saudi Arabia has long feared that unrest among Bahrain's Shia population would spread across the causeway to Saudi Arabia's own Shia-majority Eastern Province, precisely where the kingdom's oil is, driving Riyadh's preemptive instinct to arrest or kill Shia activists there before they could "get ideas about democracy and human rights."[7]

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Bahrain Posting (1994–1996)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting)
- [Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/isa-bin-salman-al-khalifa)
- [Bahrain Prime Minister "Mr. 10 Percent"](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-prime-minister-mr-10-percent)

## Sources

1. S1E5 Singin' In Bahrain (2025-11-24), at 08:33. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69224fd4e842b164ee8d9071/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-24-dead-drop-s1e5-singin-in-bahrain/
2. S1E5 Singin' In Bahrain (2025-11-24), at 09:05. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69224fd4e842b164ee8d9071/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-24-dead-drop-s1e5-singin-in-bahrain/
3. S1E5 Singin' In Bahrain (2025-11-24), at 11:09. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69224fd4e842b164ee8d9071/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-24-dead-drop-s1e5-singin-in-bahrain/
4. S1E5 Singin' In Bahrain (2025-11-24), at 11:42. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69224fd4e842b164ee8d9071/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-24-dead-drop-s1e5-singin-in-bahrain/
5. S1E5 Singin' In Bahrain (2025-11-24), at 12:47. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69224fd4e842b164ee8d9071/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-24-dead-drop-s1e5-singin-in-bahrain/
6. Doing Time Like A Spy — On Prison Survival & the CIA (2017-06-06), at 12:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5yxHqYJ-k&t=774s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-06-disruption-network-lab/
7. INSIDE THE CIA: What They Aren't Telling You — John Kiri (2024-12-21), at 1:18:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYx6oycyKww&t=4681s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-12-21-not-a-grayman/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-intifada-1994/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt