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Turkish Court Indicts Senior Israeli Military Officials in Murders on Gaza Flotilla
On the Second Anniversary of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Turkish Court Indicts Senior Israeli Military Officials in Murders of Nine Passengers
By Ann Wright
Two years ago I was a passenger on the first Gaza Freedom Flotilla which was sailing to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. I watched from a small boat called the Challenger 1, as a much larger boat, the Mavi Marmara, with almost 600 passengers, was brutally attacked by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) commandos. 30 minutes later, our boat was attacked.
Using snipers from helicopters Israeli commandos shot many of the passengers on the exposed top deck of the ship. Other commandos in boats fired live ammunition, as well as percussion grenades, into all levels of the ship. As commandos repelled down from helicopters and boarded the ship, they executed at point blank range 5 passengers, including a 19 year old American citizen Furkan Dogan, whose body had five bullets including one to the back of his head. 9 persons, 8 Turkish citizens and one American citizen, were murdered and 50 others were wounded. One severely wounded Turkish man later died after being in a coma for many months.
Each of the six ships in the flotilla was attacked by IDF commandos. Passengers on the ships were shot with tasers and beaten by commandos. Potentially lethal paintballs were shot into the faces of passengers narrowly missing eyes and soft parts of the skull.
IDF commandos took the computers, cameras, identification and credit cards and several hundred thousands of dollars in cash from the passengers. IDF commandos sold many of the stolen computers. Very few of the items taken by the IDF have been returned to passengers.
The Mavi Marmara was returned to Turkey with a new coat of paint to cover the blood stains of those wounded and killed. The other five ships are still held by the Israeli government in the port of Haifa.
Turkish Court Indictment of Senior Israeli Military Officials
On May 28, 2012, almost two years after the Israeli attack, a court in Istanbul, Turkey, voted unanimously to approve an indictment against Israel's former military chief Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as for Eliezer Marom, Amos Yadlin, and Avishai Levi, the former heads of the Israeli Navy, Air Force Intelligence, and Military Intelligence. If convicted, each faces nine consecutive life terms in prison for "inciting to kill monstrously, and by torturing." http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/turkish-court-charges-senior-idf-officials-over-gaza-flotilla-deaths-1.432983#article_comments
The indictment also charged several unidentified soldiers who shot passengers. The charges against members of the Israeli military include commandeering vehicles, voluntary manslaughter, attempted murder, persecution and causing damage to the ship.
The indictment specifies 490 victims and complainants, among them 189 who were injured during the raid. The indictment rejected Israeli claims that Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmara acted in self-defense, saying that Israeli commandos used disproportional force by firing with heavy weapons and automatic rifles on passengers who only carried "plastic flag masts, spoons, and forks." The indictment stated that some of the victims were shot dead from close range and from the back.
2011 Gaza Flotilla and Freedom Waves
Despite the lethal Israeli attack a year earlier, in 2011, international citizen activists prepared ten ships to sail to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. The Israeli and US governments pressured the Greek government to prevent the sailing of 8 of the ships that were in Greece. Three ships from the 2011 Gaza Freedom Flotilla eventually challenged the Israeli blockade. One ship that had sailed from France in July, 2011 and two others (one from the Irish campaign and one from the Canadian/Australian campaign) that sailed from Turkey in November, 2011 were intercepted by the Israeli navy, the boats confiscated and the passengers deported from Israel.
Next Challenge to the Israeli Blockade--Gaza’s Ark
Committed to continue to bring international attention to the continuing brutal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, international activists are working with the sailing and boating community of Gaza to prepare a ship to sail FROM Gaza carrying Gazan exports goods that will have been purchased by the international community. The boat will be called “Gaza’s Ark” and will provide job skills and employment for workers on the boat as well as a market for the beautiful crafts of Gaza. http://www.tahrir.ca/en/gazaark
About the Author: Ann Wright spent 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was a US diplomat for 16 years and resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. She travelled to Gaza three times in 2009, helped organize the 2009 Gaza Freedom March and was a passenger on the 2010 and 2011 Gaza Freedom Flotillas. She was an organizer for the US Boat to Gaza, the Audacity of Hope and is an organizer for the US campaign for Gaza’s Ark.
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Yes, like Wiki Leaks and CLASSIFIED WOMAN, Julian Assange and Sibel Edmonds have shown, that Western Fascist Elites, class/totalitarian thugs, routinely bribe, corrupt, threaten, coerce governments around the world. Obama and Hillary are classic thugs, class whores/shills who interfere in investigations of War criminals, bribing European governments like Spain to protect Bush officials from prosecution. Any ordinary person engaging in this criminal activity, bribing judicial investigations would have been prosecuted, but not Obama. Democrats, like all class parties have morphed into totalitarians, Fascists. Bribing, threatenig NATO nations, like the "new European" , former Stalinist states, to support torture, kidnappings, renditions, has made NATO a fascist instiution of the West, AND THE EUROPEAN UNION is helping in the coverup.
This generic bribery and corruption has now completely destroyed, undermined all international laws as this corruption has even bribed U.N. officials, including, U.N. agencies, like the U.N. nuclear agency, the I.A.E.A. TO LIE, BRIBE, CORRUPT, THREATEN the U.N. into war with Iran. The U.N. will not prosecute Bush officials, Obama officials for their War crimes, even with the latest, new revelations about ILLEGAL DRONE MURDERS and the ILLEGAL STATE TERRORISM, against Iran, whether covert murder of Iranian civilians, scientists, or the sabotage of LEGAL CIVILIAN NUCLEAR programs allowed in the NPT treaty. The U.N. and human rights organization have been prevented from PROSECUTING BOTH OBAMA AND BUSH for their crimes by bribing, corrupting U.N. officials , going so far as to set up FAKE INVESTIGATION of the MURDERS BY ISRAELI NAZI COMMANDOS against civilians on the high seas.
These class WHORES/SHILLS, like the equal opportunity, opportunists, Hillary Clinton and Obama, goes around the world to BRIBE, THREATEN, CORRUPT, COERCE , Western officials, recently in Sweden to prosecute Julian Assange for journalism. The CORRUPT CORPORATE MEDIA, like the NY TIMES, cheerleads the criminality, of OBAMA, as if aggression, state terrorism, FASCISM , is normal.... which I suspect is the case. Sibel Edmonds proved WHOLESALE INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION, CRIMINALITY OF ALL THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT, where the FBI, State Department, and FASCIST JUDGES, helpd coverup the criminality of ZIONIST AMERIKAN POLITICIANS, and corrupt Turkish connections with democrats and republicans who were traitors, selling nuclear secrets to the highest bidder. SUCH GENERIC CORRUPTION, TOTALITARIANISM , FASCISM is now routine for the Western World, who have turned the U.N. into a Fascist instrument in the cover up of ISRAELI WAR CRIMES, its Nazis. Obama, Hillary, however, could not BRIBE ALL NATIONS, EVEN TURKISH OFFICIALS, WHO TOLD HER AND OBAMA TO GO TO HELL FOR THEIR CORRUPTION, BRIBERY AND THREATS. When Turkey indicted ISRAELI NAZIS, they indicted Hillary, Obama, democrats, republicans, all three branches of government, FOR THEIR FASCIST APPEASEMENT OF ZIONISM AND AMERIKAN EMPIRE.
It looks like the world is going to have to REJECT ALL CLASS POLITICIANS, FASCIST ELITES, if they do not want nuclear war, global war by corporate, military, NAZIS/FASCISTS. DO NOT VOTE FOR ANY CLASS PARTY, DEMOCRATIC OR REPUBLICAN, ANY SO CALLED "MAINSTREAM" PARTIES AND SAVE YOURSELF and THE WORLD BY TAKING ON THIS GLOBAL FASCISM:
Warning to US Journalists: Do NOT Ask Difficult Questions of Powerful CEOs(Video)
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2012/06/01-4
EXCERPT:
"Labor journalist Mike Elk on Thursday attended a Capitol Hill conference where he performed the unspeakable act of behaving like a journalist. During the Q&A portion of a panel discussion, Elk rose to ask a question of Honeywell CEO David Cote, but as Congressional staffers nearby realized that his question wasn't a soft-ball about how a young entrepreneur might climb to the heights of corporate America, but a serious question regarding "labor practices and the recent release of radioactive UF6 gas" at a Honeywell uranium facility in Metropolis, Illinois," the microphone was ripped from Elk's hands and his questioning cut off..."
FOR TRUE JOURNALISM, REVEALING THE CRIMINALITY, ROTTEN REALTY OF FASCIST ELITES, ASSANGE, MANNING, EDMONDS were attacked by these fascist elites, with prison, loss of job and even death. Obama and his FASCIST PENTAGON THREATEN THE WHOLE WORLD WITH WAR IF CYBER ATTACKS ARE DIRECTED AT US......AND THEN STARTS A WAR WITH IRAN WITH JUST THIS ACT OF STATE TERRORISM:
Obama Ordered Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran: NYT
"Unnamed" US and Israeli officials admit use of cyber weapons
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/01
SO THE WEST CREATES THE FAKE, BUSH DOCTRINE, "AXIS OF EVIL", TO JUSTIFY THEIR SECOND ROUND OF WESTERN FASCISM, THEIR AXIS OF FASCISM UNDER FASCIST ZIONIST ISRAEL AND FASCIST OBAMA WHO PROVOKES WAR WITH IRAN. SIEG HEIL. THE WORLD NEEDS TO TAKE DOWN ALL THESE CORRUPT FASCIST , CLASS ELITES AND PARTIES TO SAVE THEMSELVES. THE U.S. HAS ALREADY GONE TO WAR WITH IRAN AND THE UN IS COMPLICIT IN THIS FASCISM:
Tough Guy Leaking: Iran Edition
A White House obsessed with secrecy and punishing whistleblowers loves classifed disclosures that glorify Obama
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/01-12
EXCERPT:
"The primary fear-mongering agenda item for the National Security and Surveillance State industry is now cyberwarfare. The Washington cadre of former military officials who seek to personally profit by exploiting national security issues — represented by Adm. Michael McConnell and Gen. Michael Hayden — has been running around for several years shrilly warning that cyberwarfare is the greatest threat posed by Terrorists and other of America’s enemies (and, just coincidentally, they also argue that it’s urgent that the U.S. Government purchase wildly expensive cyber-security technology from their private-sector clients as well as seize greater control over the Internet to protect against the threat).President Obama being briefed by members of his national security team in the Situation Room (Credit: AP/The White House)
But — as is usually true when it comes to Washington warnings about the evils of Others — this is pure projection. The U.S. is the leading developer and perpetrator of cyberwarfare, not the leading target. The New York Times this morning has a long excerpt from a new book by its hawkish national security reporter David Sanger — the book is entitled “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power” — which reveals that President Obama personally oversaw the development, and ordered the deployment, of the world’s most sophisticated computer virus, unleashed (in cooperation with Israel) on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility..."
LIKE THE WHOLE OF CLASS HISTORY SINCE PATRIACHY CORRUPTED, INVERTED, THE SOCIAL MATRIARCHY INTO DESPOTISM, AND INVERTED REALITY, THROUGH CLASS IDEOLOGIES, LATE CAPITALISM, CO OPTED, CORRUPTED, INVERTED THE REALITY OF IRAN TO AMERIKA'S FASCIST CYBER ATTACK. TIME TO END THIS ORWELLIAN FASCIST, CLASS/EMPIRE PROPAGANDA AND TAKE ON THE FASCIST DEMOCRATS, FASCIST OBAMA, FASCIST CONGRESS, WESTERN FASCISTS AROUND THE WORLD AND EXPOSE THEM AS NAZI LIARS.
MAKE SURE YOU READ THE COMMENTS OF GLENN GREENWALD ON COMMON DREAMS AND REALIZE THAT IT IS HIS BASE, HIS ONCE SUPPORTERS, THAT CONSIDER OBAMA A WAR CRIMINAL, A LIAR, A BETRAYER, LIKE BUSH AND ALL CLASS POLITICIANS, ALL CLASS PARTIES HAVE BEEN SINCE CLASS HISTORY BEGAN.
I have always said that class deformed civil societies have defined their class centers as (FALSE CENTRISMS), and that social parties, social ideologies represent the SOCIAL CENTER, not the class deformed parties..........throughout class history......AND NOW THE GREEKS ARE SHOWING THE WAY TO TRUE SOCIAL CONTROL, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AGAINST ALL CLASS WHORES, ALL CLASS PARTIES, ALL CLASS THUGS, ALL FASCIST SUPPORTERS OF AUSTERITY, FASCIST CAPITALISM, AND DESTROYING THEIR FALSE IDEOLOGY:
Greek Leftists Lead Poll; Vow to Kill Bailout, Nationalize Banks
"The time of the Left has come"
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/01-8
EXCERPT:
"As the June 16 elections in Greece near, the final public polls show that the leftist Syriza party continues to build on it's strong showing in the May 6th elections. Syriza maintains a clear lead over second place New Democracy party: 31.5% to 26.5%. (Public Issue poll for the Kathimerini newspaper)
The number of people who would vote for Syriza continues to grow. In the May 6th elections Syriza received 16.7% of the vote. Now all opinion polls consistently show Syriza's support between 25% and 31.5%.
Also Friday, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras laid out his party's economic program. Tsipras said that a Syriza-led government would reject the terms of Greece’s bailout, repeal some of the measures that have been passed and increase public spending.
"The first act of a government of the left, as soon as the new Parliament is sworn in, will be a cancellation of the bailout and its implementation laws," Tsipras said...."
THE SOCIAL CLASSES ARE MOVING AGAINST FASCISM, AGAINST CLASS HISTORY, AGAINST FALSE CLASS IDEOLOGIES, FALSE CLASS PARTIES AND TELLING OBAMA, DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, ALL CLASS PARTIES THAT THEIR FASCISM, CLASS HISTORY, TOTALITARIANISM HAS TO END,
Trying to bring the arrogant incorrigibles of Israel to justice over the Mavi Marmara massacres is like trying to bring the Great Satan to justice over 1.4m murdered Iraqi's.