The TRUTH Is Starting To Come Out

[reefer]

Activists caught in the aid flotilla raid by Israeli forces have claimed that the commandos had beaten passengers and used electric shocks.
Six Greeks and several others, including a Turkish woman and her one-year-old baby, have been released, but Israel has barred access to hundreds of others seized.
Most of those killed were aboard the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, and there have been conflicting accounts of what happened during the assault.
Turkish activist Nilufer Cetin, who had hidden with her baby in her cabin's bathroom aboard the Mavi Marmara, said she believed there were 11 dead.

"The ship turned into a lake of blood," Cetin told reporters in Istanbul, having returned after Israeli officials warned that jail would be too harsh for her child.
"We were aware of the possible danger" in joining the trip, she said. "But there are thousands of babies in Gaza. If we had reached Gaza we would have played with them and taken them food."
She said Israeli vessels "harassed" the flotilla for two hours starting around 10pm on Sunday, and returned at around 4am on Monday, fired warning shots and told the ships to turn back. She said: "When the Mavi Marmara continued on its course the harassment turned into an attack. They used smoke bombs followed by gas canisters. They started to descend onto the ship with helicopters.
"I was one of the first victims to be released because I had a child," she said, but "they confiscated everything, our telephones, laptops are all gone." Her husband - the ship's engineer - was still being held by Israel.

[Ankou]

what on earth was that woman doing on board such a ship with a baby ?

[jake-the-peg]

Wouldn't take either sides account at face value

There needs to be an independant international inquiry

[squarebear]

I agree. She even says, "We were aware of the possible danger". Madness!

[reefer]

"they confiscated everything, our telephones, laptops are all gone."

Mobile phones have cameras, The laptops can store the images ?

In international waters you would think that you would be SAFE from TORTURE and able to send photographs back home.

[Gromit]

// "they confiscated everything, our telephones, laptops are all gone." //

With the Israelis apparently mopping up any available evidence to suppress, then any independent investigation will be lacking any real evidence.

In the end it will be the Israeli Governments word against the aid workers.

[Gromit]

More accounts here

http://english.aljaze...0106193546785656.html

[Ankou]

but the egyptians also offered a way out for the activists prior to the boarding but the activist organisers rejected it. it seems the activists were intent on pushing for military reaction.

[jake-the-peg]

Of course the other way out was for Armed Israelii soldiers not to forcibly board a foreign boat in international waters wasn't it?

Next you'll be telling me the British Gave Ghandi a way out - to leave India and not get involved in Politics

Or Mandela had a way out - not opposing Apartheit

[reefer]

Thank You Gromit

( There was great mistreatment after our arrest. We were essentially hostages, like animals on the ground.
They wouldn't let us use the bathroom, wouldn't give us food or water and they took video of us despite international conventions banning this.)

When will people realise that international conventions don't apply to Israel

[jake-the-peg]

This isn't the first time the Israeliis have acted with such contempt for the rest of the international world

Using British Passports to assassinate that Hammas leader

Illegal use of White Phosphorus

We can go back years to the kipnap of Mordacai Vanunu in Rome

They have done what they like for years and expected the Americans to back them up - they may find a little less enthusiasm in future

[Ankou]

so jake, why didn't they go to ashdod then ?

[Gromit]

Ankou

Are you sure the Egyptians offered a way out. Do you have a link.

The activists declined to go to Ashdod because they knew they were carrying items the Israelis do not want the palestinians to have such as Concrete and building materials. That cargo would have been confiscated, and the whole point of the aid ships was to deliver badly needed raw materials.

The blockade is illegal. Attacking a ship in International waters is illegal, and murdering civilians on the ships is state sponsored terrorism.

[Cugetit]

When are the world's powers going to wake up? Most of its problems would disappear if they could just treat all in the Middle East fairly .... not just the Israelis. At last, the USA is going to find it a little more difficult to treat Israel favourably when they are obviously in the wrong. Let's forget the "holocaust" and stop making excuses for these people using the same old let-out. Note that the usual outcry from the Israeli supporters seems to be a little lacking just lately!! I would recommend an immediate cessation to the continuous hounding of Mahmood Ahmadinajad and instead arrange funding and technical assistance be provided so that he may achieve his aim!!!

[Ankou]

i'm not condoning israel or anyone actually, would prefer to hear all the facts before forming a firm oipinion. but it is a fact that the activists on board were filmed leaving cypriot waters (as cyprus wanted nothing to do with them) singing 'gaza or martyrdom'.

[Gromit]

Ankou

You are either halucinating or making things up.

Cyprus is divided, the Greek side and the Turkish side. The boats left the Turkish side so why would the Turkish Cypriots want nothing to do with them?

Also, why would a ship full of aid workers be singing about martyrdom? The passenger list included British, Greeks, Americans, Germans, Swedish who do not normally go in for suicide missions. Possibly they thought they would be safe in an Aid convoy in International waters.

[Cugetit]

Ankou

How odd that you say you prefer to hear all the facts and then go on to say but it IS a fact regarding the departure from Cyprus. Let's hope you have more reliable sources for any more FACTS you ellicit regarding this fiasco in International waters. If, and only if, the passengers, all or some, were singing "Gaza or martyrdom", why not. The inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have been held hostage for long enough, as have the Palestinians in the other ghettos controlled by the Israelis. It has long been claimed that the Jews have been persecuted since the year dot. It begs the question, "Why?" and perhaps over the past few years we have been given some answers.!!! hth

[Ankou]

the ihh have long been on the radar of the international scene. they have been viewed with deep suspicion by the turkish since 1997 when they carried out criminal investigations against them. as i said above, it appears from the main part that the flotilla - or at least many of the people on board - were actively provoking a military response in the name of islam from israel. they suceded.