Free Gaza Flotilla Attacked -- as many as 10 civilians killed by Israeli Navy

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201053133047995359....

Up to 16 people were killed and more than 30 people injured when troops stormed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, the Israeli Army Radio said.

The flotilla was attacked in international waters, 65km off the Gaza coast.

Footage from the flotilla's lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, showed armed Israeli soldiers boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead.

Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, on board the Mavi Marmara, said Israeli troops had used live ammunition during the operation.

The Israeli Army Radio said soldiers opened fire "after confronting those on board carrying sharp objects".

Perhaps this is the best time to educate Americans of the attack on the USS Liberty, another unarmed ship attacked by Israel in international waters.

I was up past 2 am PDT last night watching a twitter storm erupt over this and very quickly a meta-twitter storm: the tag #flotilla was obviously in extremely heavy use (200+ new tweets per minute there for a while) and did NOT show up in the "trending topics" list. A visit to an independent twitter trend analyst (trendistic) showed it as the NUMBER ONE trending topic by about 2 am, with something like .85% of tweets including the tag. ZOMG -- Twitter was censoring! By this morning, Twitter has apparently realized the error of its ways and the tag appears in its trending topics list.

On Facebook, it's especially hard not to be crabby this morning. I'm seeing stuff in friends-of-friends commentary along the lines of, well, what do you think the US would do if an armada of terrorist boats was headed for the Oregon coast! Yeah, they're still in international waters, blah blah blah... but they're going to come ashore at Manzanita! Rule number one: the behavior of the United States government should never be used as a yardstick for compliance with international/maritime law or for fuck's sake ETHICAL HUMAN BEHAVIOR.

"siege of Waco"ish doesn't it? is this a recycled, retooled psy-op? what if it was a "Northwoods-type" incident?

Israel Attacks Gaza humanitarian fleet, kills aid workers

The shills at true faction seem to be discussing this--but what does it have to do with 9/11? The true factioners think only jew-haters could suspect Israel of being involved in 9/11, so what's the connection to 9/11? I don't get it, are they just trying to prove that they are willing to criticize Israel?

Some discourse from this article's comments: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/may/31/israel-troops-gaza-ship...

Nothing would surprise me at this point, including the possibility that the flotilla was infiltrated and sabotaged, perhaps with provocateurs who would provide the "evidence" of wrongdoing by the otherwise peaceful activists... in fact, the IDF's version, whether true or not, seems like it would be pretty convincing to the average person: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2010/Israel_Navy_warns_...

Does anyone know anything about this leader of the Free Gaza Movement, Greta Berlin? The name sounds so phony (says Gretavo) - totally German - almost as if to say "look it's the Nazis and Arabs ganging up on poor Israel AGAIN!!"

Anyway, I posted these comments to show some of the range of the reaction... it will be interesting to see how each side's narrative gels, and whether there will be anything resembling a consensus on what happened, or if in fact this is just going to deepen the divisions and polarization over these issues.

burberryturban
31 May 2010, 9:22AM
Nice of you to join us Guardian. Nicely re-written wire too.

Will Obama now cancel Bibi's visit? Where does this place

Given the assault happened in International waters - with AL Jazeera reporting the flotilla had changed course to avoid a conflict does this mean that Israel has committed an act of piracy?

There are also reports that the seizure of cargo is against Israel's own laws.

It seems like another vintage cock up by the current Israeli administration - forcing Turkey further into the arms of Syria and Iran. All so that they can stop cement from enetering gaza "without being attached to a specific [construction] project". And at least 10 are dead.

On a purely tactical note - the abseiling of commandos onto deck seems a ridiculously risky decision - surely it is easier to snare the propellors of the ships and then tow them into harbour a day later when tensions have died. In this context it seems like wanton provocation to storm the vessels in such a manner.

Tactical, diplomatic and strategic idiocy then.

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Clip | Link SebastianWrottingham
31 May 2010, 9:23AM
Tit for tat ArbeSamim

Reporting is only good if digestible to you? Acceptable casualties if your side is "shot at"? If there's no mention of soldiers being lynched with knives and axes maybe it's because the propaganda you listen to is false.

From you no condemnation or condolences regarding the murdered activist / aid workers?

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Clip | Link TheVoiceOfIsrael
31 May 2010, 9:23AM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted. DeclanT
31 May 2010, 9:23AM
I know it's a bank holiday but what took the Guardian so long?

Shocked and angry and truly sickened by the actions of the IDF, the rapid reaction force of spinmeisters hitting the internet to defend the IDF, while not surprising, is tragic in it's own way.

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Clip | Link MJTValfather
31 May 2010, 9:23AM
Before we all start screaming "holocaust", "massacre" or anything else here, I think we need to calm down, step back and look at this calmly.

1. Israel is oppressing the Palestinians inhumanely in Gaza, no doubt about it

And

2. The ship had not only the option of being received at Israel to transfer its humanitarian cargo to Gaza - but also Egypt expressly offered this as well.

If that's true, then the purpose of what this convoy was about wasn't humanitarian delivery (because they could have gone to Egypt and ensured delivery) - but to force something like this to happen.

So what they were really doing was to make a political point by trying to break the blockade. Note - I am not judging whether this is right or wrong, but it should be made clear what this was all about really.

Then we can judge it one way or another.

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Clip | Link shiran
31 May 2010, 9:23AM
A terrible tragedy.

It would have been much better if the 'peace activists' had transported the aid through Israel together with all the other aid that is reaching the Palestinians, and as Israel offered to do repeatedly. Israel's only request was to be allowed to ispect the cargo for secluded weaponary.

Unfortunately this PR stunt staged by knife wielding "peace" activists went terribly wrong. Did they really expect the Israeli commandos to behave like Shiite Suicide attackers, as the Israeli minister stated.

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Clip | Link truthout
31 May 2010, 9:23AM
Guardian - pity you don't quote Audrey Bomse, one of the spokespersons for the Free Gaza Movement:

"We were not going to pose any violent resistance. The only resistance that there might be would be passive resistance such as physically blocking the steering room, or blocking the engine room downstairs, so that they couldn't get taken over. But that was just symbolic resistance."
Bomse: "... absolutely no evidence of live fire".

So the boat gets boarded by fully armed paratroopers descending from helicopters under cover of darkness in a pre-dawn raid.

But - as usual - the Israelis are portrayed as halpless victims - laid upon by weapon-bearing peace activists. 'Mark Regev - the Australian-born Israeli spinmeister - is already hard at work this morning pushing this line.

Given all the lies and dissembling that emerged during Operation Cast Lead - much of it exposed in Judge Goldstone's Report - I take anything Regev says with a large pinch of salt.

Netanyahu declared that Israel would continue to blockade the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave, saying that to lift the embargo would turn it into a base for Iranian missiles that would threaten both Israel and Europe.

"Iran is continuing to smuggle weapons into Gaza," said Netanyahu in a televised address. "It is our obligation to prevent these weapons from being brought in by land and sea. The previous government understood this and imposed a closure."

...

"Gaza is a terror state funded by the Iranians, and therefore we must try to prevent any weapons from being brought into Gaza by air, sea and land," he said.

Netanyahu acknowledged that militants were still capable of smuggling weapons in via tunnels from Egypt, but emphasized that the large amounts of weapons that could be brought by sea made the threat a completely different affair.

"On the Francop ship alone we confiscated some 200 tons of weapons being smuggled to Hezbollah," the prime minister said, in reference to the Antiguan-flagged ship Israel intercepted off the coast of Cyprus in November 2009.

"Opening a naval route to Gaza will present an enormous danger to the security of our citizens," said Netanyahu. "Therefore, we will stand firm on our policy of a naval blockade and of inspecting incoming ships."

"It's true that there is international pressure and criticism of this policy, but [the world] must understand that it is crucial to preserving Israel's security and the right of the State of Israel to defend itself."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-world-hypocritic...

Anyone else think that the withdrawal from Gaza, leading to the election of Hamas, was all a ploy to set up this situation where it's now claimed that Gaza is Iran's little foothold for their coming aggression against "us" and Israel?

http://www.truthout.org/us-navy-veterans-continue-seek-justice-israeli-a...

US Navy Veterans Continue to Seek Justice for Israeli Attack

Tuesday 01 June 2010

by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report

photo
Damage to USS Liberty, June 1967. (Photo: U.S. Navy)

The Israeli military has attacked a flotilla of international peace activists, killing as many as 19 innocent civilians while they were carrying ten tons of aid to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. This is not the first time the Israeli military has attacked a nonthreatening entity in international waters.

On June 8, 1967, while sailing in international waters, the US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty was attacked by air and naval forces of the state of Israel. Of the Liberty's crew of 294, more than half were killed or wounded. More than 40 years later, survivors are still seeking justice.

The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that the Liberty was an American ship, yet survivors have been forbidden to tell their story under oath to the American public.

Joe Meadors was on the Liberty during the attack.

"I watched some jets pass us then turn left after they passed our ship, then they started strafing [attacking repeatedly with bombs or machine-gun fire from low-flying aircraft] us," Meadors told Truthout.

"The attack lasted 90 minutes, during which we got a message off to the 6th fleet asking for assistance, and we learned later, Joe Tully, commanding officer of the USS Saratoga, launched aircraft within minutes of the attack, but he told us later they were recalled before they reached the horizon. We found this out 20 years after the attack."

Meadors said he and his group, the USS Liberty Veterans Association, believe that Rear Adm. Lawrence Geis, the Sixth Fleet carrier division commander at the time of the attack, was following orders from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who called off the Navy's rescue mission for the USS Liberty.

Meadors, along with other survivors of the attack, have been engaged in what has evolved into a more than 40-year struggle to find justice.

"The most frustrating thing has been a lack of reaction from the US government," Meadors explained, "On June 8, 2005 we filed a war crimes report, and they [the US Government] are required to investigate these allegations. They've created reports about our mission, but they never did conduct an actual investigation of the attack itself."

Meadors and the other veterans he works with to bring about a governmental investigation of the attack take the position that they should not have to force the government to do this.

In 2003, an independent commission of highly regarded experts was created to look into the matter. The Moorer Commission, named after its chairman, included Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, United States Navy (Ret.), former chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gen. Raymond G. Davis, United States Marine Corps and former assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.

Findings of this commission included: "Israel launched a two-hour air and naval attack against USS Liberty ... Israeli torpedo boats later returned to machine-gun at close range three of the Liberty's life rafts that had been lowered into the water by survivors to rescue the most seriously wounded ... Israel's attack was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew."

Ray McGovern is a senior CIA analyst who served under seven presidents - from John Kennedy to George H. W. Bush.

McGovern is clear about why he believes the US government continues to refuse to launch an investigation. "For the same reason that President Johnson called back the fighter/bombers; i.e., so as not to embarrass our friend Israel," McGovern explained to Truthout, "It is my view that the killing of 34 USS Liberty crew and wounded more than 170 others and the fact that the US Navy, Congress, executive branch not only prohibited the survivors to speak about it, but also launched faux 'inquiries,' is the poster child for what is wrong with the US relationship with Israel, showing the penchant of senior US officials to sacrifice honesty, justice, and US servicemen on the sacral altar of "compassionate attachment" to Israel."

McGovern added that, in his view, the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty is "the archetypical example of how Israel was given convincing affirmation of its belief that it can get away with murder, literally, and the US Gulliver would be bound to ignore it ... or even mount 'official' inquiries to explain it away."

Bryce Lockwood survived the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty and was awarded the Silver Star for his heroic actions during the attack, when he saved at least one wounded sailor's life.

Lockwood, like McGovern, feels there is no doubt whatsoever that the attack was no accident.

"It was deliberate," Lockwood told Truthout. He went on to explain why he thinks Moshe Dayan, who was appointed as Israel's Defense Minister in 1967, ordered the attack.

"I only learned recently, via a document released by the CIA, that Dayan ordered the attack, despite objections from his staff members," Lockwood explained, "Our ship had the capability of monitoring virtually everything ... all communications. The Israelis had nuclear capability, and it was extremely important to the Johnson administration that the Israelis not use the nuclear option. We could monitor all of this, even when it was done by the Israelis. The Israelis wanted unbridled use of the nuclear option, and they didn't want us to know about it ... that's why they attacked us."

Another reason why Lockwood is so certain that the attack was deliberate is because he watched Joe Meadors hoist three US flags up a pole in an attempt to insure the Israeli pilots knew they were firing on a US ship.

"The Israelis claim they didn't see a US flag, but they shot down two, and Joe raised three of them, since they kept firing on them," Lockwood explained, "They riddled the third with bullet holes, but it stayed up."

In addition, writing in his memoirs, Richard Helms, the director of Central Intelligence at the time of the attack, explained that the CIA undertook a "final" investigation after more evidence became available, and he offered the following information concerning the CIA's final finding:

"Israeli authorities subsequently apologized for the incident, but few in Washington could believe that the ship had not been identified as an American naval vessel. Later, an interim intelligence memorandum concluded the attack was a mistake and not made in malice against the US.... I had no role in the board of inquiry that followed, or the board's finding that there could be no doubt that the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing in attacking the Liberty. I have yet to understand why it was felt necessary to attack this ship or who ordered the attack."

Meadors' and Lockwood's struggle to find justice spans decades, and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.

Meadors is measured in his explanation of how he perceives the politics behind the lack of an investigation. "Politicians feel the Israeli lobby is so powerful, that if they do anything about this it will cost them votes. Nobody thinks it was a mistake, everybody knows it was deliberate. But they won't investigate it because they feel it would damage the relationship between the US and Israel."

"I'm disgusted with our country and our representatives," Lockwood concluded, "My country doesn't give a damn about me or the people on the Liberty. I'm terribly disappointed in the way our country has dealt with us."

While both Meadors and Lockwood urge people to contact their Congressional representatives and demand an investigation, Meadors is moving ahead with looking for an attorney who will help the USS Liberty Veterans group to which he belongs determine if they have a course of action through federal courts.

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note:
no endorsement of the website intended

...staged (in whole or in part) in order to make it look like Turkey and Israel have "fallen out", in preparation for some kind of action against Iran where Turkey will in fact be assisting Israel? and what if Turkish reluctance to go along with this plan was tempered by threats to escalate the media visibility of the Sibel Edmonds-linked Turkish corruption of U.S. congresspeople with lesbians, etc. story?

with a hat tip to erstwhile friend of WTCD Scott Creighton aka Willy Loman...

U.S Congressman Calling for the Prosecution (and death penalty?) of U.S. Citizens Attacked by Israel
Posted on June 6, 2010 by willyloman

by Scott Creighton

You gotta be fucking kidding me..

Brad Sherman must resign right now. Even writers from the American Conservative are finding this hard to believe.

In a conference call organized by The Israel Project, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) told reporters that activists participating in the flotilla were aiding Hamas and therefore breaking US law.

“The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 makes it absolutely illegal for any American to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete or weapons to Hamas or any of its officials,” Sherman said, as quoted at Jim Lobe’s foreign policy blog. “And so I will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization.”

TalkingPointsMemo’s M.J. Rosenberg, a frequent writer on Middle East issues, describes Sherman as “the most pro-Likud Democratic member of Congress,” referring to Israel’s most prominent conservative political party. “But this is crazy even for Sherman.”

Sherman’s declaration has taken heat from conservative commentators as well. Writing at The American Conservative, Kelley Vlahos declares that “the overall reaction to the abuse of our citizens has been strangely muted and flaccid — whether at the White House, Capitol Hill or in the corporate media.”

Writes Vlahos: “Instead of demanding an accounting — you know, like Turkey is doing for its own citizens — we have elected leaders trying to put Americans on that flotilla in jail.” Raw Story

The Clintons and their corrupt DLC have sold this nation out to the globalists and leaders of foreign nations to the point where the Democratic Party is actually an instrument of another sovereign state.

They have no fear of reprisal in the voting booth from the American people because of the fraudulent electronic voting machines of Diebold and ES&S.

We have an out of control foreign nation exerting undue influence on our leaders in congress and the White House which can only end badly for all parties concerned if we do not take action to remedy the situation.

The more pressure other nations put on Israel to investigate their illegal activities in international waters, the more pressure AIPAC puts on their puppets in the U.S. The only hope Israel has is to use their unwarranted influence in America to crush any and all forms of dissent in order to maintain at least some kind of hold on the growing international condemnation of their criminal behavior.

Israel is desperate and out of control. The Brad Sherman’s of this nation are only inviting still more damaging and deadly actions in the future. The assertion that we are forcing Israel into a bigger and more criminal act of war against the state of Iran by attempting to hold them accountable for their criminal behavior is a contrived spin of Orwellian scale.

“What really matters is the Iran nuclear program and we have a short amount of time to stop that program,” Sherman went on. “And our failure to take all the action to stop that program could force Israel to take an action far more controversial than what they’ve done this week.” lobelog

Each and every politician who steps forward to repeat the Israeli lies about what happened to our citizens and the humanitarian aid volunteers from around the world, must be held accountable by the American people as AIPAC and the rest of the Likud-Party apologists in America struggle desperately to keep control of the story.

This is now an all-out struggle for the sovereignty of the United States of America. Nothing less.

We either stand with the rest of the civilized world or we will suffer under the rule of the liars and criminals who are themselves merely pawns of a failed and belligerent foreign state.

Brad Sherman must be removed from office and his cowardly attack on the U.S. citizens aboard the Freedom Flotilla must stand as a lesson to all who have sworn an oath to the constitution of these United States and her people.

If we cannot stand together, republicans and democrats, greens and libertarians, if we cannot come together as a nation to oppose this kind of outright treason, then there is nothing left that holds us together as a people.

Filed under: Free Gaza, Israel Attacks Gaza Flotilla, Lying Warmongers, Memorial Day Massacre, Run-Up to War, Scott Creighton, What Our Intersests in the Region Did This Week, palestinian rights | 1 Comment »

Gaza convoy tapes edited, Israel acknowledges
By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Edits made for easier listening, Israel says
* IDF can't ID source of transmissions
* Free Gaza: Israel "doctored" tapes
* New story makes "no more sense," group says

(CNN) -- Israel acknowledged Sunday that it edited recordings of what it said were anti-Semitic and anti-American radio calls by pro-Palestinian activists who tried to run the Gaza blockade and that it could not identify the origin of the broadcasts.

The Israeli military released a 26-second recording Friday night in which a warning call to a ship in the flotilla was met with the reply of "Shut up -- go back to Auschwitz." After another voice reports that the convoy has the permission of Palestinian officials to dock in Gaza, a third voice responds, "We are helping Arabs going against the U.S. Don't forget 9/11, guys."

But after the organizers of the aid convoy accused Israeli officials of manipulating the tapes, the Israel Defense Forces reported it had mistakenly identified one of the six ships in the activists' "Freedom Flotilla" as the source of the broadcasts. And it released a nearly six-minute recording of radio traffic that included those calls and several others, along with bursts of static and calls in other languages on the same channel.

"So to clarify: The audio was edited down to cut out periods of silence over the radio as well as incomprehensible comments so as to make it easier for people to listen to the exchange," the Israeli military said in a statement posted on its Web site. And it added, "Due to an open channel, the specific ship or ships in the 'Freedom Flotilla' responding to the Israeli Navy could not be identified."

Israeli commandos intercepted the convoy at sea on May 31 and stormed the largest vessel, the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, killing nine people aboard. The ships were carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, the Palestinian territory that has been blockaded by Israel since its takeover by the Islamic movement Hamas in 2007, and the deadly raid sparked international condemnation.

Convoy organizers from Free Gaza said Israel "doctored" the recordings "in order to paint the flotilla passengers as anti-Semites." The group denied its vessels were the source of the broadcasts and said the Israeli accusations made "no more sense with the explanation."

"All radio transmissions on the sea are heard by all captains," the group said. "Once again, Israel is caught in a lie trying to defend itself for the murder and mayhem it committed the morning of May 31, 2010."

On the full recording, an Israeli warship hails one of the vessels in the flotilla to warn it was approaching a blockade zone and warned that "all necessary measures" would be taken to prevent it from docking in Gaza. After three warnings, Free Gaza activist Huwaida Arraf replied that the blockade was a violation of international law and that the convoy was carrying only humanitarian aid.

"We do not carry anything that constitutes a threat to your armed forces," she says on the recording.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/06/gaza.flotilla.recordings/index...

"Just what the world needs - one more funny jew."

-John Albanese

http://www.vivapalestina.org/alerts/cement.htm

Sent them 5 bags...