THREE WOMEN STILL HELD ‘HOSTAGE’ ON AMERICAN BOAT TO GAZA

Desert Peace



Athens, July 16, 2011 - Day 16 of the imprisonment of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, at a U.S. Embassy shared pier near Piraeus, Greece, just outside of Athens.

The U.S. Embassy has done absolutely nothing to help us in 100 + degree heat at a U.S. Government shared pier! No shore power, no alternatives provided (like another pier). No consular visits to see the conditions for themselves. NOTHING, ABSOULTELY NOTHING!!!

This weekend, please call the State Department 202-647-4000 and ask for the 24 hour Emergency Operations Center. Tell them that 3 people are still enduring the inhumane, dangerous conditions on the boat.

All are women–2 Americans and 1 UK citizen. They are:

Regina Carey (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/06/18683952.php) from San Rafael, California, is a consultant specializing in strategic planning and planned giving. In her lifetime commitment to human rights she has focused her time and energy to the Rights of the Indigenous (original people), Water Rights and Peace. She is a co-founder of the Black/Jewish Dialogue Group in Marin County, California. She has been an active participant in the World Social Forum and the UN Conference Against Racism (Durban, South Africa).

Crew member Jenny Linnell, is a British citizen from Devon, England, and was a Free Gaza crew member in 2008 on the first boat that broke the naval blockade of Gaza. She stayed in Gaza for a year and worked with the International Solidarity Movement. Her exit from Gaza into Egypt a year later took over 6 weeks because she had arrived by boat. She holds a “Day Skipper” license from the Royal Yachting Association and founded a sailing collective called “Learning the Ropes”.

Ann Wright is a former U.S. diplomat with 16 years in the State Department and Deputy Chief of Mission (Deputy Ambassador) at 4 U..S Embassies (Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia) and who got the State Department’s award for Heroism for her actions protecting civilians during the civil war in Sierra Leone. She resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to Bush’s war on Iraq.

Lawfare: Israeli-AIPAC attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Ann Wright
Sabbah Report

Israel is hard at work to stop international citizen activists groups from 22 countries that form the Gaza Freedom Flotilla from sailing in less than three weeks to bring international attention to Israel's brutal siege on Gaza. As a part of Israeli government propaganda, the civil society to civil society project is purposefully and wrongly portrayed by the Israeli government as sending weapons and "material support" to Gaza's democratically elected government headed by Hamas — a group Israel and the United States have designated as a terrorist organization.

Extensive investigations by the United Nations, Turkey and even the Israeli government concluded there were no weapons on any of the six ships of the 2010 flotilla and that the cargo was consigned to non-governmental organizations in Gaza. However, the Israeli government never lets truth get in the way of its propaganda machine!

Israel's massive diplomatic offensive on European countries, Turkey, Canada and the United States that strongly demands countries not allow ships and passengers to sail has been followed by a new type of warfare called "lawfare."

Instead of direct military "warfare," the Israeli government and its front organizations, American Israeli Public Affairs Council (AIPAC) and the Shurat HaDin Law Center, are using lawsuits filed against insurance and satellite telephone companies that may sell equipment to the flotilla organizers and against citizen activist groups that have raised funds to purchase ships as strategies to attempt to stop the flotilla.

AIPAC Joins Israeli Government Attack on the Gaza Flotilla 

On June 2, New York City corporate attorney Neal Sher, the former executive director of AIPAC, the most powerful lobby in the United States, filed a lawsuit in Toronto, Canada against the organizers of the Canadian Boat to Gaza for "raising funds and providing material support to Hamas."

The lawsuit was on behalf of a Canadian-Israeli citizen and asks for an interim and permanent injunction to stop the Canadian Boat to Gaza initiative "from continuing to raise funds, purchasing equipment or supplies, and purchasing or renting a vessel for the purpose of delivering goods or funds to the Gaza Strip." The lawsuit also wants to block the Canadian grassroots group "from sending goods, funds or any other material support, directly or indirectly, to Hamas or any of its representatives, and/or from aiding and abetting Hamas by assisting in bringing imports and exports to and from the Gaza Strip."

In addition, the Canadian-Israeli citizen, 68-year old Cherna Rosenberg, wants $1 million in damages "for trauma and injuries suffered as a consequence of the defendants' conspiracy" from the time she lived in the Israeli town of Sderot, where she "endured the constant and relentless mortar attacks emanating from Gaza."

The lawsuit's aim is to continue the Israeli government's six-decade control over the economic future of Gaza by refusing to allow the export and import of goods by sea and the free movement of Palestinian people without the approval of either the Israeli or Egyptian government.

One would hope that a counter-suit by a citizen of Gaza would be brought asking for millions of dollars in damages for the daily attacks on Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces "for trauma and injuries suffered as a consequence of Israel's aggression on civilians" in all parts of Gaza where "they endured constant and relentless attacks by F-16s, Apache gunships, naval bombardment, drones, white phosphorus, dense inert metal explosive bombs and countless other weapons."

Lawsuits in the US Against Companies Offering Services to Participating Ships 

A second lawsuit attempts to prevent the flotilla from sailing by bringing lawsuits in the United States against companies that provide services to ships in the flotilla.

Shurat HaDin Law Center, reportedly an independent non-profit organization but certainly supporting and working for the policies of the State of Israel, sent letters to worldwide maritime insurance firms and satellite communications companies, warning that companies that provide services that assist in the breach of the Israeli blockade on Gaza will be sued in the United States for aiding the Hamas terrorist organization.

Shurat HaDin's Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner demanded that mobile satellite services company Inmarsat, one of the companies providing communication and navigation services to ships that sail in the region, refuse to provide their equipment and services to ships participating in the flotilla. Darshan-Leitner said, "We informed them that if they do so, they will be in violation of the American Neutrality Act, which prohibits aiding a group in their struggle against the military of an ally country. Since Imarsat has offices in the US, the law binds them."

Shurat HaDin has also sent letters to 30 of the top maritime insurance companies in the world announcing the law center's intent to sue if the companies provide insurance to ships participating in the flotilla.
Relentless Campaign of False Information Used Against the Flotilla

"Maritime insurance companies insuring the boats utilized by the Gaza Flotilla surely have no idea that the passenger boats that they are indemnifying are being used by the organizers to run the coastal blockade, violently challenge the IDF and smuggle weapons into Gaza. No legitimate insurance company nor its shareholders would reasonably agree to insure an expedition like that. We have begun to send letters placing the maritime insurance companies on notice concerning the Gaza Flotilla, and warning them that if they provide insurance (a necessary component in the effort to smuggle contraband to the terrorists) that they themselves will be legally liable for any future terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas."

Lloyd's, the world's largest maritime insurance company, reportedly said that it would not insure ships participating in the flotilla. Lloyd's Senior Manager of International Regulatory Affairs, Andy Wragg, responded to Shurat HaDin's letter…

"As you correctly point out in your letter, Hamas is subject to UK and EU terrorist-financing sanctions. As such, any vessel identified as being owned or controlled by that organization would not be permitted to be insured by underwriters at Lloyd's, or any other EU insurer. The Lloyd's Market has robust systems in place to ensure international sanctions are followed, and therefore, any underwriter identifying an insured or prospective insured acting on behalf of, or for the benefit of Hamas, would not insure such a risk."

However, none of the ships of either the 2010 or 2011 flotilla have any connection with Hamas and no amount of false Israeli propaganda can change the truth. Although the truth is not what much of the commercial media is concerned with.
Force is not the Best Way to Stop the Flotilla
Darshan-Leitner commented…

"We…think that the war on the flotilla should not be left for the Special Forces to fight alone. There is no need for Israeli soldiers to repel down ropes in order to stop the next flotilla — all that's needed is some courage and original thinking. There are various ways to prevent, postpone, limit and avert the danger — and force isn't always the best way."

We Agree-Force is not the Way to Stop the Flotilla-Ending the Naval Blockade is!
On this, we agree with Darshan-Leitner. Force is not the way to stop worldwide condemnation of Israel's blockade of Gaza. The way to stop the flotilla is to end the naval blockade of Gaza!
Until the blockade ends, Flotillas filled with citizens from around the world will continue to challenge Israeli's brutal policies and the United States complicity in them.

* Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserve Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. As a U.S. diplomat, she served in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia, serving a Deputy Ambassador in the last four Embassies. She travelled to Gaza three times in 2009 after the Israeli attack on Gaza that killed 1440 Palestinians and wounded over 5,000 and left 50,000 homeless. She was a passenger on the May, 2010 Gaza flotilla and is an organizer for the U.S. Boat to Gaza, “The Audacity of Hope,” that will sail in the second flotilla.

“Why Is the U.S. Government Deaf to What Has Been Done to My Son?” Asks Father of an American Murdered on the Gaza Flotilla

uruknet.info

by Ann Wright

Through his lawyers in Turkey, Ahmet Dogan, the father of Furkan Dogan, the 19 year old American citizen who was executed by Israeli commandos has challenged the U.S. government its lack concern about the death of his son.

Dogan was killed by commandos who shot him twice in the head and three times in other parts of his body on May 31, 2010 on the Mavi Marmara in the Gaza flotilla.

"Up to this moment, I still do not understand why the United States government is deaf to what has been done to my son, an American citizen. I urge the U.S. government to act to defend the rights of my son. I also would like to know why the U.S. voted against the Gaza Flotilla Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission at the Human Rights Council last week, as that report included information about the execution of my son, " said Dogan. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vincent-warren/the-us-must-answer-what-d_b_755709.html)

U.S. votes against the U.N. Human Rights Council Fact Finding Mission report

The only country to vote against acceptance of the U.N Human Rights Council fact finding report (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/15session/A.HRC.15.21_en.pdf ) on the Gaza flotilla, was the United States.

Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said "The report's language, tone and conclusions are unbalanced." According to the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/29/AR2010092907857.html?sub=AR), another senior U.S. official said the Human Rights Council had rushed the establishment of the panel and "not made adequate efforts to get Israeli cooperation in the investigation," although the report itself details the numerous attempts by the fact finding mission to gain cooperation from the Israeli government.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office called the U.N report "biased" and "distorted." In a radio interview, Israel's deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon said the report was "a big lie."

The United States has not conducted its own investigation into the death Furkan Dogan, but instead is relying on Israel to conduct "a thorough investigation" into his death and to "share its findings" with the U.S.

U.S. Passengers Send Letter to Secretary of State Clinton about U.S. Government Lack of Effort in Conducting an Investigation of the Death of a U.S. Citizen

On October 6, Furkan Dogan's father joined the U.S. passengers on the Gaza Flotilla in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that stated that they "are appalled at the lack of any visible, active effort on the part of any agency in our government to conduct and release an independent investigation of the killing of one and assaults on other Americans by a foreign military force, the Israeli commandos." (http://www.freegaza.org/attachments/1255_Letter.pdf)

The U.S. passengers also challenged the Obama administration's protection of criminal actions by Israel at the expense of American citizens. "Protecting Israeli actions, particularly the complete reliance on its reports on the acts of its own military at the expense of American citizens, is an absolute dereliction of the responsibilities of our government. The State Department has allied itself with Israel, ignoring its responsibilities to its own citizens. We have been abandoned by our own government, and we demand an investigation of why and how the Department of State and the American Embassy in Tel Aviv have totally failed in their responsibilities to us."

With passengers' video and photo evidence of the attacks on the Mavi Marmara and the five other ships of the flotilla still in the hands of the Israeli government after four months, the passengers wrote: "We are also angered by lack of any concerted effort by the State Department to secure our possessions. We appreciate the efforts of junior and mid-level officials, but without the full weight of the senior leadership of the State Department, the Israeli government will continue to ignore our concerns."

New Report Gives Minute-by-Minute Timeline of the Israeli Attack on the Gaza Flotilla

Since the U.S. government cannot find the time to conduct its own investigation, U.S. officials might at least look at the 193 page report "Timeline & Inconsistencies Report Relating to the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla Attack" researched by the International Bureau of Humanitarian NGOs (IBH) and the Friends of Charities Association (FOCA) that was published this week that provides a minute-by minute timeline of the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Flotilla.

The report is based on publicly available accounts from the flotilla organizers and participants, ships' logs, reports, photos and video released by the Israeli government, news reports from around the world, the report of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Fact Finding Mission report.

A key part of the report is the evidence provided from film footage of the attack. Official videos from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) as well as from the Israeli Eiland Team investigation are cited in the report, in addition to video taken by one passenger that escaped confiscation by the Israeli authorities. The "Inconsistencies" portion of the report contrasts the different reporting of the incident, and includes clarifying analysis.

(http://www.foca.net/media/documents/timeline-inconsistencies-gaza-flotilla-attack-31052010.pdf)

Several of the videos that were released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and IDF on the Internet and on media broadcasts to support its version of events were found to have been digitally enhanced, computer-manufactured or fraudulent. The report provides screen shots of examples of the computer-generated segments within videos released by the Israeli government, several of which, although already exposed as false, were integrated into the Israeli military report "Eiland Team's Flotilla Incident Timeline."

10-12 Ships in the Next Gaza Flotilla

While investigations continue concerning the Israeli attack on the May, 2010 Gaza flotilla and on the Jewish German boat "Irene" on September 26, 2010, (http://jewishboattogaza.org/), citizen activists from around the world are fundraising for ships to participate in the next flotilla to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Organizers of the next flotilla are working with groups that may have 10-12 ships in the next flotilla.

U.S. Ship Named "Audacity of Hope"

Join us to launch a U.S. ship in the next flotilla. In a challenge to U.S. complicity in the blockade of Gaza, the U.S. ship will be called "The Audacity of Hope." (www.ustogaza.org)

Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. She travelled to Gaza three times in 2009 after the Israeli attack on Gaza that killed 1,440, wounded 5,000 and left 50,000 homeless. She was an organizer of the Gaza Freedom March in December, 2009, that brought 1350 persons from 44 countries to Cairo, Egypt, and was one of the passengers on the Gaza flotilla. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."

SUPPORT ON NEW YORK’S ‘HIGH SEAS’ FOR UPCOMING FLOTILLA

New Yorkers Turn Out to Support U.S. Boat Sailing to Break Gaza Blockade

More than 400 New Yorkers crowded into the Marco Polo Marina on 23 rd Street at the FDR Drive last night for a sunset cruise around Manhattan to support the U.S. Boat to Gaza.

The boat, named The Audacity of Hope, will sail under the U.S. flag as part of a new international Freedom Flotilla whose organizers are vowing to break the siege of Gaza this fall.

Ranging in age from 18 to 89, supporters from around New York and as far away as Hawaii heard prominent journalists, actors, musicians, poets, and survivors of past flotillas express feelings of urgency about the situation in Gaza and distress at their own country’s role in it.

Jane Hirschmann, an organizer of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, emphasized the significance of sending a U.S. boat as part of the next flotilla: We in the United States participate in this siege whether we know it or not, because the U.S. gives over three billion dollars a year to Israel, most of which is military aid. We need to say a resounding No! to U.S. complicity in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the siege of Gaza, she said. Interest in the venture has been overwhelming, and the capacity crowd on tonight’s cruise is indicative of a new surge of popular support for a change in U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine.

Speaker Ann Wright, a former deputy ambassador to Afghanistan and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, was a participant in the most recent flotilla this past May when Israeli armed forces killed nine passengers as Israeli soldiers rappelled down from a helicopter onto the deck of the Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara. Wright spoke about the importance of continued international efforts to break the blockade and specifically of the need for a U.S. boat as part of the next flotilla.

The effort to send a U.S. boat to break the blockade also comes in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, a massive Israeli military attack in December 2008 January 2009, which resulted in the deaths of over 1400 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, and exacerbated a dire humanitarian crisis there. An extensive and detailed list of human rights violations and possible war crimes were documented as part of the UN investigation that produced the Goldstone Report. After vilifying the Report and its lead author, Justice Richard Goldstone, Israel has recently admitted that many of its findings were in fact accurate as determined by an internal investigation.

Concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza was on the minds of many aboard tonight’s New York City cruise. Joel Bitar, another organizer, explained, Despite Israeli government propaganda to the contrary, the siege of Gaza is ongoing. Though the Israeli government is allowing a few more goods into Gaza in the wake of the May 31 attack, the Palestinians of Gaza are still prevented from coming and going. They can’t sell their goods, they don’t control their air space, their electricity or their water, and they have been unable to rebuild all the homes, schools, hospitals, police stations and other essential structures destroyed by the Israelis in the winter of 2009. She added, They are living, as British Prime Minister David Cameron said last week, in a prison camp.

“The comparison to a prison camp is an apt one,” said Laurie Arbeiter, another U.S. Boat organizer. “The definition of a prison camp is a place where people and goods cannot go or come without the say-so of the guards , in this case, Israel. One can argue whether the guards are nice guards or mean guards or whether the prisoners are well treated or poorly treated. But there can be no dispute that Gaza is a prison for 1.5 million people who have committed no crime other than voting. The purpose of these flotillas is to open the gates of the prison.”

The U.S. Boat to Gaza is part of the larger international movement to achieve justice and freedom for the Palestinian people. As nonviolent protests against Israeli government policies, including the vast expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, are held regularly in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and as the Palestinian-initiated non-violent campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel grows in international support, the U.S. Boat to Gaza joins the growing global movement to end the Israeli siege of Gaza and its illegal occupation of Palestine.

Ann Wright Was on the Flotilla!

Note: Met Ann Wright. Not a terrorist.

kitv.com
Activist Was On Aid Mission Attacked By Commandos

HONOLULU -- Retired Army Col. Ann Wright, a Honolulu resident, is reportedly being held by the Israeli government after commandos stormed a flotilla of ships taking aid to Palestinians in Gaza, killing 9 and wounding dozens of others.

Wright is a former state department official who resigned in protest over the Iraq war. She was on one of the ships attempting to take supplies to Palestinians cut off by the Israelis in Gaza.Wright has been highly critical of Israel.“They've been able to get away with any criminal act and violation of international law, and America protects them," Wright said in an interview conducted aboard one of the ships just before the attack.A YouTube video shows a person who appears to be Wright being escorted off one of the boats that had been diverted to Israel.“It appears from the video that she was walking OK, but people who were deported have reported beatings after they were arrested. They've been reporting harsh interrogation techniques, so of course you worry about her,” said Carolyn Hadfield, a friend of Wright. Protestors gathered at the Federal Building in downtown Honolulu on Tuesday to show support for Wright and criticism of the Israel.“We're all worried about getting our people back home, and a little alarmed that the U.S. government seems unconcerned. If you look at all the other nations involved, they're very angry and demanding Israel return their people. The U.S. is protecting Israel in the United Nations,” said Michael Rivero at the demonstration.The Israel government said those who are being detained will be released and deported within 48 hours. Friends of Wright hope she comes home safe.“She was a Colonel in the military. She had a very sober understanding of the stakes and knew what was happening to Palestinian people,” Hadfield said.