Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): An announcement made by the Bahraini Interior Minister including photos and names of people, dubbed "inciters" of online chaos on social media, raised questions about their identities. The five-member group who tampered with the sensors used to control and stop the competition between the two ruling wings made the Prime Minister issue two statements within two weeks, followed by one made by the Interior Minister and another by the King's son.

In fact, at least three of the chaos instigators are state employees in critical ministries. However, the name of Abdulaziz Mohammad Matar Jassim Al-Shawoush, who was believed until recently to be an ordinary Interior Ministry employee, was conspicuously displayed.

Al-Shawoush had appeared in a number of TV talk shows during the crisis, saying that he received intensified training in Vienna through his participation in the Academy of Change programs funded by Qatar. As a result of all of this training, Al-Shawoush said learned about the methods used by activists to create political chaos and a non-violent war as an introduction to topple the regimes in the Arab Gulf. What's new; however, is the confessions of prisoners, who were released and tortured at the hands of the National Security Apparatus (NSA).

One of the dissidents who served his prison term over his prominent activism and involvement in the political protests said: "I, most probably, have seen him with the prison's torture staff (...) between March and June 2011." "They were all masked, however, he (Matar) was one of the two who exposed their faces by mistake," he further stated. The same narrative is recounted by other political prisoners who have served their prison terms. A number of them also confirmed seeing Matar in a number of night raids launched by the NSA on prominent human rights defenders' homes.

Abdulaziz Matar is not the only security personnel in this accused group. One of them, who escaped this time from the Interior Ministry's campaign against "abusive [Twitter] account owners", is an employee in the Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security General Directorate, which is affiliated to the Interior Ministry. It is Rashid Ahmad Al-Dosari, who used to assume a security position that involves hacking into the accounts of dissidents and fabricating and planting files that would implicate them in an introduction to their arrest and prosecution. Al-Dosari was released earlier this month and was not included in the second "cleansing" campaign announced by the Ministry at the beginning of April. Meanwhile, there is information that he was given his "hacker" job back at the anti-cybercrime department.

Not only did the "chaos inciters" list announced by the Ministry comprise a large number of its security employees, but it also contained a number of jokesters. The former TV presenter Mohammad Abdullah Salem Ahmad "Al-Sharkawi" used to hide for years behind the surname of the noble Bahraini family "Al-Shorouqi" in his television and public appearances. One of his previous battles with number of this family members on social media led to stripping him of how he identifies himself and instead referring to him by using the nickname "Al-Bashari, i.e. the "human being".

Nonetheless, a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior put an end to this and revealed that his family name is in fact "Al-Sharkawi". This prompted author Mariam Al-Shorouqi to sarcastically comment, saying: "We told him a long time ago that you are not our kin. Thank God his surname appeared in the official documents as "Al-Sharkawi" and not "Al-Shorouqi". God help him, even his name is forged." However, the reason why he continued to feel ashamed of using his real surname which represents that of a noble Bahraini family as well is rather a personal issue that it is not related to the subject of this report.

The fourth jokester of this group is Zafer Hamad Fahed Khamees Al-Zayyani, who is known on social media as the "Tikrit Lion". He was also referred to by other nicknames such as the "Lion of the Truth" and "White Lion". He also manages the "Bahrain Knights" network that represents an aggregator that embraces all these fake lions that are ready to attack.

Most of Al-Zayani's life is a "virtual reality" in which he launches imaginary battles and conquers all through his ego, as his delusional thinking led him to think that he is a lion, and even various kinds of lions as well. Thus, he constantly flexes before hypothetical virtual swordsmen that only exist in his imagination. This is an example of a personality disorder of a "masked" unemployed online warrior, who has gone mad by social media.

Commenting on the Interior Ministry's announcement of the inciters of the "online chaos",  Lawyer Abdullah Hashem said that "Twitter gangs are the social consequences of the 2011 crisis that intensified in the light of the public awareness crisis that turned offenders into heroes."  That's absolutely true, but what about the one who as a result of the crisis thinks he is now a lion? Not only the lion of Tikrit, but also the lion of all Sunnis, and also their exposer and annihilator, the executioner of the Magis among other roles as well. Well, psychiatry has the answer.

Arabic Version