After the Gaza Blockade Fiasco,

a New Approach to Hamas?


Blocked by the Israeli navy, Palestinian fishermen linger in the port of Gaza City on June 5, 2010 Hatem Moussa / AP

Jun. 07, 2010 Israel's siege of Gaza, having failed to achieve its primary objective of toppling the Hamas regime, may be drawing to a close. In the wake of last week's aid-flotilla debacle, the Israelis have been told by the U.S. and its allies that it is untenable for Israel to continue blocking a wide range of basic economic commodities from entering Gaza. Instead, the policy discussion is shifting toward finding ways to open the border crossings into Gaza while keeping out weapons. On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden met with Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak, in search of new solutions "to address the humanitarian, economic, security and political aspects of the situation." Egypt last week reopened the Rafah crossing into Gaza, with a security official telling the Associated Press that it would remain open indefinitely because the blockade had failed.

The Gaza blockade's purpose, of course, was never simply to prevent Hamas from rearming; it was designed to topple the movement from power. From the moment Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, Israel — with the support of the U.S. and other Western powers — began to restrict Gaza's economic lifeline to the outside world. Continued

When the History is Already Written but Roles are Reversed!

Uri Avnery: Kill a Turk and Rest

The British and the Jewish Holocaust survivors as to Palestine. The Palestinians as to the Jewish overlords in Israel and the controlled Gaza.

05/06/10 ON THE high seas, outside territorial waters, the ship was stopped by the navy. The commandos stormed it. Hundreds of people on the deck resisted, the soldiers used force. Some of the passengers were killed, scores injured. The ship was brought into harbor, the passengers were taken off by force. The world saw them walking on the quay, men and women, young and old, all of them worn out, one after another, each being marched between two soldiers…

The ship was called “Exodus 1947”. It left France in the hope of breaking the British blockade, which was imposed to prevent ships loaded with Holocaust survivors from reaching the shores of Palestine. If it had been allowed to reach the country, the illegal immigrants would have come ashore and the British would have sent them to detention camps in Cyprus, as they had done before. Nobody would have taken any notice of the episode for more than two days.

But the person in charge was Ernest Bevin, a Labour Party leader, an arrogant, rude and power-loving British minister. He was not about to let a bunch of Jews dictate to him. He decided to teach them a lesson the entire world would witness. “This is a provocation!” he exclaimed, and of course he was right. The main aim was indeed to create a provocation, in order to draw the eyes of the world to the British blockade. Continued

Today has many similarities to the yesterdays, just different roles by different groups but one, the Palestinians!

Terror Detainees Experimented On?

Did the Bush Administration Experiment on Detainees?

As more slowly comes forward, thankfully quicker then our occupation Vietnam, they were out doing Saddam on a much faster pace as to torture, killing and maiming and turn once peaceful people into refugee's and some into insurgent guerilla forces, and others, as to Human Rights Violations and Laws we helped write and implement as well as use against others in condemnation of or prosecutions!

Jun. 6, 2010 Not only were terrorism suspects tortured, they were also used as human guinea pigs, a new report alleges.

In the course of trying to prove that its "enhanced" interrogation program was legal, the Bush administration may have broken the law, according to a new report (PDF) by Physicians for Human Rights. The watchdog group claims that in an attempt to establish that brutal interrogation tactics did not constitute torture, the administration ended up effectively experimenting on terrorism detainees. This research, PHR alleges, violated an array of regulations and treaties, including international guidelines on human testing put in place after the Holocaust.

According to the report, which draws on numerous declassified government documents, "medical professionals working for and on behalf of the CIA" frequently monitored detainee interrogations, gathering data on the effectiveness of various interrogation techniques and the pain threshholds of detainees. This information was then used to "enhance" future interrogations, PHR contends. Continued

For many still around much that has gone on and continues reminds of a similar time, really not that long ago!

Nick Clegg on Chilcot Inquiry

Iraq: Nick Clegg says Chilcot inquiry must not be a whitewash

07 Jun 2010 Nick Clegg has warned that the Iraq inquiry will be viewed as a whitewash unless it is able to publish previously secret information to the public.

Nick Clegg: this is a new kind of government

The Deputy Prime Minister warned that the legitimacy of the inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot, would be in doubt unless there was “real, meaningful, thorough disclosure”.

He also launched an outspoken attack on Tony Blair's government, accusing it of being “hell-bent on going to war” and able to "bamboozle Parliament and the British people".

In opposition Mr Clegg accused Gordon Brown’s administration of attempting to “gag” the inquiry by keeping vital documents classified, something he said had “all the hallmarks of a cover-up”.

Under protocols for releasing confidential information, Sir John and his inquiry team were allowed to see some classified papers but could not refer to them during evidence sessions. Continued

Sen. Webb and Agent Orange

Jim Webb, D-Va: Not a Friend of Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange

Jun-06-2010 Years of denial, small breakthroughs, and a large setback, or is it a stab in the back?

Senator Jim Webb, a Vietnam Veteran himself, has won approval to STALL the newest three presumptive illnesses from the Agent Orange list which Secretary Shinseki had already approved.

This is, at least for now, a temporary and 60 day freeze. However, if he receives congressional momentum in favor of what he is proposing, these three new presumptives, COULD be prevented from being approved.

I continue to urge everyone to submit your claims.

I also urge you to contact your local congressional and Senate representatives ASAP. I also urge you to write to the Secretary as well as our President urging they all take our side and override this amendment sponsored by Webb. It is not, I repeat, NOT supportive of the Agent Orange victim.

In his article on Herald.net, "Spending limits placed on new Agent Orange claims", Tom Philpott wrote:

"The chief architect of the pricey new GI Bill education benefit for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era could become a new champion — for taxpayers — against what he perceives as excess spending on military pay and on a new wave of Agent Orange claims[1]. Continued

Senator Webb, this is not a good move on your part, it's been forty plus years for us and our brothers and sisters and what do you think they've been doing as many have been dying from, especially after your stellar record as to your brother and sister veterans, not a good move at all!

This is that famous so called conservative side you're known for showing and frankly that ideology has been destroyed, or what once was.

Our occupation didn't just happen yesterday, nor is it a part of the two, and the many other fronts, going on today! You're showing your Politics as has been by this country since Korea, send and ignore after they return! Why?, because that would mean the Country would have to pony up for the results of their Wars of Choice, like Vietnam, and that's just not acceptable. After all they ignored us on PTSD which covers all our Wars and the living veterans as well as many in civilian life who experience extreme trauma, they ignored us on Agent Orange and the other Defoliants, they've ignored the Gulf War I veterans on Gulf War Syndrome, they've been ignoring a number of issues as to the present veterans, issues that were and are the same and now even added issues because of the nature of both conflicts!

Don't play Politics and Political Obstruction with those of us who've served, you included, the Country has ignored Long Enough, to many have already died, they need to know about and sacrifice because of, that which results from!

Green jobs for vets

Grant helps equip work force for environmental jobs

click graphics to enlarge
In response to high unemployment among veterans, the Department of Labor started a $7.5 million nationwide initiative in July 2009 to provide 3,000 veterans with “green” jobs training in fields such as energy efficiency, weatherization and hazardous materials removal.

The unemployment rate among veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq was 14.7 percent in March — significantly higher than the country's jobless rate of 9.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Veterans Inc., a Worcester nonprofit that offers shelter and training to veterans, received a $300,000 grant, one of 17 distributed through the Veterans Workforce Investment Program. Once veterans are trained, agencies receiving the grants are expected to help veterans secure green jobs.

The challenge for Veterans Inc. has been that the green jobs industry has suffered like the rest of the economy, leading to a slow start to the program. But observers predict an eventual increase in green jobs because of new weatherization projects. Continued

Growth, at a snails pace, but not fast enough growth. Reason Private Capital, as the so called 'free market' economics, is not being invested as it was sold to the country,over the past three decades, as it would be if capital went to the top and the investors thus 'trickling down' to the once middle class and poorer workers! The Government, us, can only do so much to stem the collapse and stabilize it with our fingers crossed! Add to the lack of the private capital, we've been witness to the not regulating these industries, even with the laws already on the books let alone improving them to match the technology, and those who run them. From Wall Street to the Gulf of Mexico, across the spectrum of our economy!

Combatants For Peace: Flotilla Take-over

"Combatants for Peace" condemns the aggressive take-over of the international flotilla on the dawn of the 31st of May 2010 and the killings of over 10 activists on the deck. The raid on civilian boats far out of the territorial waters of Israel, in an attempt to silence and prevent a legitimate act of protest and empathy, constitutes an additional step in the reduction of the available space for protest in Israel. The attempt to prevent a demonstration by using violent means is a dangerous one, and reflects the aggressive manner of handling the conflict, regardless of the behavior of some of the flotilla participants.

This is another expression of the belligerent, violent and oppressive policy which has been used by governments of Israel for over 4 decades and above all, by the current government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Avigdor Liberman. Continued

Combatants for Peace Promotional Film



Thousands demonstrate in Tel Aviv against blockade

06/05/2010 Thousands of demonstrators from across the left-wing of Israeli politics held a rally in Tel Aviv Saturday afternoon to protest 43 years of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, and a government that organizers said is “drowning Israel”.

The protestors began their demonstration with a march from Rabin Square to the Tel Aviv museum, where speeches were held. The demonstration, which was held under the slogan "The Government is Drowning Us All", was originally planned solely to protest the occupation, but following last Monday’s deadly raid on a Turkish boat attempting to break the Gaza blockade, the rally also addressed those upset about the government’s policies in regard to the Gaza Strip and the raid that left 9 foreign citizens dead and several IDF soldiers wounded.

Periodically during the course of the demonstration, dozens of right-wing counter protestors attempted to disrupt the proceedings, and at one point a smoke grenade was thrown at the rally. While the main rally was proceeding at the museum, counter protestors gathered in an adjacent patch of sidewalk and sang praise for the Israeli Navy SEALS and performed renditions of the Israeli national anthem.

As busloads of left-wing activists drove past at the end of the evening, counter protestors chanted “traitors”, “terror supporters”, and “go to Gaza” behind a wall of border patrolmen and YASSAM riot police. Continued

How Israel planned the Flotilla attack

As the MV Rachel Corrie ship is dragged to Israel, TRNN investigates Israel's plan for Flotilla attack.

 

As the MV Rachel Corrie, the last boat in the Free Gaza Movement's Flotilla, is being dragged to Israel's Ashdod port after being boarded and taken over in the early hours of Saturday, Israel continues to react to its Flotilla attack. Protests have been taking place throughout Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories. In the meantime, The Real News' Lia Tarachansky investigates how Israel prepared for the Flotilla attack, and how the media repeatedly portrayed a connection between the activists and terrorism. After the attack, Israel went on the offensive to prove there was indeed a connection to terrorism. The IDF published a press release saying the activists on board the Mavi Marmara ship that was the site of at least 9 deaths on Monday morning were actually al Qaeda mercenaries. When Tarachansky and journalist Max Blumenthaul questioned the IDF for evidence of this allegation, the IDF said it didn't have any and changed the title of the press release to "attackers of the IDF soldiers found without identification papers."

A Brother Comes Home

A Brother, from before ours, Finally Comes Home

Soldier Missing From Korean War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Master Sgt. Roy E. Head of Clinchport, Va., will be buried Saturday in Duffield, Va. Head was assigned to Headquarters Company, 49th Field Artillery Battalion. After the 1953 armistice, it was learned from surviving POWs that he had been captured in February 1951, marched north to a POW camp in Suan County, North Korea, and died of malnutrition a few months later. Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200-400 U.S. servicemen. North Korean documents turned over with one of the boxes indicated the remains were exhumed near Suan County. This location correlates with Head’s last known location. Continued

A Medal for Murder

If there was as much chaos' as not only shown but he describes in this report and following an earlier report about the autopsies, that many were shot in the head, he most certainly wasn't repelling down onto the deck nor had he reached the deck, these were snipper sharp marksmen fired shots aimed for maximum kill, he wasn't in the mist of the chaos'! The shots could have only come from a marksman on either the boats, near by, or the troop gunship helicopters these commando's repelled from!

Israeli commando who shot six passengers in aid convoy in line for medal

June 4, 2010 Six of the nine passengers killed in an Israeli raid on an aid convoy bound for Gaza were shot by a single Israeli commando, who is being considered for a medal of valour for saving his injured comrades as passengers attacked them with clubs, knives and even guns they had taken from downed Navy Seals.

Snip

The Israeli commando who killed six of the passengers of Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ferry owned by the IHH charity, said that he had been the last of 15 soldiers to rappel down the rope from an overhead helicopter on to the decks of the ship, which he described as “a battlefield”.

Snip

“When I hit the deck, I was immediately attacked by people with bats, metal pipes and axes,” the sergeant recalled. “These were without a doubt terrorists. I could see the murderous rage in their eyes and that they were coming to kill us.” Continued

I'm amazed that someone would actually write this up the way it was and go to press with it for all to see!

But then again, we here have the FOX type journalism? that is even a bad mask for propaganda!

A 'rambo' movie this wasn't, and this spin is very similar to the dozer driver who 'couldn't see Rachel!' as he ran over her then backed up over her again!

The Public Admission of War Crimes {UpDated}

Bush's Glib Waterboarding Admission Sparks Outrage

3 June 2010 George W. Bush's casual acknowledgment Wednesday that he had Khalid Sheikh Mohammed waterboarded -- and would do it again -- has horrified some former military and intelligence officials who argue that the former president doesn't seem to understand the gravity of what he is admitting. Continued

Bringing more proof of the War Crimes, already on the books as not only domestic but long time international we helped write, that he doesn't find anything wrong with torture and he'd ok same again!!

War Crimes that have Enhanced and Widely Expanded the ghost enemy al Qaeda as well as other criminal terror groups around the world. Brought death and maiming to military personal occupying two theaters of operations, with another front in a third, called wars, and not only the military occupiers but the even greater numbers of civilians in these theaters!

All for those who ordered these crimes to perceive some sort of personal feel good feelings while gathering No Useful Intelligence and causing our Countries Policies to sink to the level of those we've always condemned for same!

Bush admits waterboarding

June 3: Countdown’s Keith Olbermann comments on former President George Bush’s recent expression of support for the torture by waterboarding committed under his administration.

UpDate

Putting much more then the soldiers at risk!

And that's WHY we have Laws, International, that we helped implement, and domestic Against The Using of Torture techniques that don't work at all as well! It is also why we once held the high ground in Condemning those that Torture their own people and others!

June 4: Former Air Force interrogator Matthew Alexander explains how former President George Bush’s defense of torture will affect the actions of U.S. and enemy troops.

In todays world, and for a long time before 9/11, our policies have given rise to a criminal terrorist element, the past decade has only enhanced that growth in more regions and in the creation of more blowback to everyone not just the soldiers in occupied countries!

The MV Rachel Corrie

The MV Rachel Corrie carries forward the Freedom Flotilla Movement

June 3,2010 Details about the Freedom Flotilla captured by Israeli warships in international waters continue to develop. Many in the international community are describing the incident as an act of piracy, others as an act of state terrorism. The six vessels that were seized were only the first wave of what is shaping up to be an ongoing Flotilla Movement intent on breaking through Israel’s naval blockade to deliver humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Gaza.

The MV Rachel Corrie, named for the American activist who was crushed by Israeli bulldozers in 2003, was originally intended to be the first ship to reach the coast of Gaza but unexpected mechanical problems forced her to stay behind. Continued

Students at Rachel Corrie’s alma mater urge divestment

June 3, 2010 (JTA) -- The student body of Rachel Corrie's alma mater voted to urge the college to divest from companies that supply equipment to Israel's military.

The student body at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. passed two resolutions. The first, which passed with nearly 80 percent of the vote, "calls for The Evergreen State College Foundation to divest from companies that profit from Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine, as part of instituting a socially responsible investment policy." The second resolution, which passed with nearly 72 percent of the vote, "calls on the College to ban the use of Caterpillar, Inc. equipment from campus."

Student divestment bills did not pass in recent months at the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Berkeley. At those universities, however, the bills were voted on by the student governments, whereas the Evergreen bill was voted on by the entire student body. In any case, the vote does not carry any actual authority; it merely urges the college do divest. Continued

Grey power for Gaza

They are the generation who protested in the 1960s and have girded themselves again to campaign for Palestinian rights. The Free Gaza movement, which chartered the Challenger yacht as part of the flotilla that was attacked by Israel on Monday, is led by a group of women of pensionable age.

Founding members of the organisation, which is also operating the MV Rachel Corrie, include a US-based 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, and a 76-year-old grandmother originally from Bolton, Mary Hughes. Continued

Flotilla Aid Activist Become Palistinian Citizens

A very interesting development coming from Abbas, very interesting indeed!

Abbas gives flotilla activists citizenship

June 3, 2010 BETHLEHEM, West Bank, June 3 (UPI) -- Activists on the humanitarian aid flotilla raided by Israeli forces
as it headed to Gaza will receive Palestinian citizenship, President Mahmoud Abbas said.

The Palestinian Authority president announced the decision during a speech before the Palestine Investment Conference, which was launched in Bethlehem, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.

Abbas also announced the conference would be called the Conference of Freedom after the Free Gaza flotilla. Continued

Watch For: Oil Disaster Scam Job Calls

Job seekers targeted in latest scam

June 02, 2010 The cleanup of the BP oil spill is going to be a massive job. But if you are out of work, beware of the oil spill cleanup scam.

British Petroleum has issued that warning since apparently scammers posing as BP employees are out there taking money from job seekers instead of offering a job.

Out of work for eight months, Taurean Brock says he's more than willing to work cleaning up the Gulf oil spill.

He said, "I would definitely jump on that ASAP and it's something that I think we need to get into." Continued

Hitler's Holocaust: Ghetto

Episode 3

Description

Part 3 of this 6 Part series called Ghetto looks at the creation of Jewish ghettos in Poland, such as the ones in Krakow and Warsaw, and the mass deportation of Jews from all over Poland into them. Examines conditions and life in the ghettos, and how many succumbed to disease and hunger, before the later planned deportations to concentration camps such as Treblinka. Watch This Episode

Timely indeed!

Israel is Committing Genocide in Gaza

02 June 2010 `What we're seeing in Gaza now, is pretty much slow-motion genocide against the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza.... If you read the 1948 Genocide Convention, it clearly says that one instance of genocide is the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a people in whole or in part,'' stated Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois in Champaign. ``And that's exactly what has been done to Gaza, since the imposition of the blockade by Israel; then the massacre of 1,400 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were civilians, in Operation Cast Lead. And that also raises the element in the Genocide Convention, of murder, torture, and things of that nature.''

Boyle spoke to {EIR} on Jan. 15, 2010, giving his assessment of Gaza, one year after the Israeli attacks. He stressed that he was speaking only for himself.

While the Israelis stopped the artillery bombardment and air strikes just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, the deaths of Palestinians continue--from lack of medicines, infrastructure, clean water, and everything else that the world community--as shown in emergency aid to Haiti--{knows} is necessary to sustain human life. Continued

Ship Attacked: "To Large To Stop By Non-Violent Means!"

The Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, stated that in an interview, on the NPR Diane Rehm show this morning, 2 June 2010. "Particular ship was too large to stop by non-violent means.". The discussion with the ambassador starts at about the 13:40 point in the show, at around the 30:22 min mark is when he makes the statement above near the end of that discussion, it was picked up quickly as they came back to the other guests and it was commented on.

Israel and Aid Ships to Gaza

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 International condemnation and protests follow a deadly confrontation between Israel and Gaza-bound aid ships. Guest host Frank Sesno and our panelists explore what the crisis could mean for U.S. relations with Israel and other allies.

Guests

Hisham Melhem Washington bureau chief for Al-Arabiya TV, and Washington correspondent for "An-Nahar"

Aaron David Miller public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; former adviser to six U.S. Secretaries of State on Arab-Israeli negotiations; author, most recently of "The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace."

Adam Shapiro co-founder, Free Gaza Movement

Michael Oren Israeli ambassador to the U.S. former senior fellow at the Shalem Center; author of "Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East"

To listen to the discussion:

Their Site Popup Player

Windows Media Player

Real Audio Player*****or at site

Listen to the full show or just the section interviewing the Ambassador, you can slide the play button once completely loaded.

With just that statement, added to those made since the tragic incident, many changing story lines from the Israeli's to say the least, tells me that the attack on that ship was premeditated, i.e. all planned ahead, a military operation not a police action, which also means so were the orders for the live fire, reason there was live ammunition in the weapons of the Israeli commando's as they dropped from the troop gunships to board the ship. That also means that there was no provocation for the Israeli commando's to justify the rappelling onto the ship armed and ready for confrontation, which once started would have put into the minds of those on board that they were being attacked not for security but to do physical harm to as many as possible to gain control of the ship!

This all took place in International Waters which would mean that the planned attack was against International Law in possibly many area's.

Freedom Flotilla

Attack On Freedom Flotilla Pits Israel Against World Community

June 2, 2010 Battles between Israel and Palestine or other Arab countries are no longer something extraordinary but the current situation where Israel has to face activists from various countries and condemnation by many nations following its attack on a Gaza-bound humanitarian ship is really something.

Snip

In the face of mounting world criticism of Monday`s assault, Israeli officials said all 680 activists held would be released, Israeli media Haaretz reported.

"It was agreed that the detainees will be deported immediately," Nir Hefez, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said in a written statement to reporters.

According to data from Israel, the expelled activists, including those wounded and killed, came from the following countries : Australia (3); Azerbaijan (2); Italy (6); Indonesia (12); Ireland (9); Algeria (28); United States (11); Bulgaria (2); Bosnia (1); Bahrain (4); Belgium (5); Germany (11); South Africa (1); Holland (2); United Kingdom (31); Greece (38); Jordan (30); Kuwait (15); Lebanon (3); Mauritania (3); Malaysia (11); Egypt (3); Macedonia (3); Morocco (7); Norway (3); New Zealand (1); Syria (3); Serbia (1); Oman (1); Pakistan (3); Czech Republic (4); France (9); Kosovo (1); Canada (1); Sweden (11); Turkey (380); Yemen (4).

Snip

Ann Wright said in a statement the Israeli blockade of Gaza which was supported by the US and Egypt banned the entry of all goods, except only 44 items, into the territory. "Who can survive in such conditions?" she said. * Continued

Spilled Blood **** Spilled Oil

Is spilled blood not as pressing as spilled oil?

June 2, 2010 In the middle of a presidential news conference that was supposed to be about the government's response to the BP oil spill, Helen Thomas had the gall to go off script.

When President Barack Obama called on her, the 89-year-old White House correspondent asked him about the blood of American troops that flows in Afghanistan, not the oil gushing out of a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico -- the largest oil spill in American history.

Though the U.S. death toll in Afghanistan crept above the 1,000 mark just a few days earlier, Thomas was the only journalist to ask about that human carnage during Obama's first full-blown meeting with the White House press corps in nearly a year.

"Mr. President, when are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are we continuing to kill and die there?" Thomas pressed Obama. Continued

The question shouldn't only be posed at the President but at the Country! The Country that long ago lost interest as we still send soldiers into two theaters over and over, many not new to either theater but over and over of many tours in one or both!

While at the same time it isn't only the Oil, it's the total collapse of the economy caused by what caused the explosion, deaths and destruction of an offshore oil rig and huge mass of continued free flowing oil into the Gulf, Corporate Incompetence! We've been witness to the same incompetent corporate leadership and structure across the spectrum of the economic world hitting almost all area's of while the leaderships of same were getting ever growing praise and compensation for being much more then just thieves as they grew they're fiefdoms all the while many were also profiting off the killing and deaths of Soldiers sent into Quagmires of Choice!

End the occupations of choice now and the country must dismantle the corporate structures, destroying themselves and us, that have been built over the last three decades plus as well. And rebuild the education system that has turned into an Industry as it dismantled much of the purpose of real education!

Fiachra Ó Luain, Gaza Flotilla

Cape man assails Israeli raid that swept up his son

A Brewster man whose son was on board a ship attempting to deliver relief supplies to the Gaza Strip says Israel acted without justification when it raided the vessels, killing nine people.

Joseph Bangert described his son, Fiachra Ó Luain, a 28-year-old Irish activist, as a "seed of peace.''

"This was an attack on a completely peaceful flotilla," Bangert said by telephone today, as Boston activists protested the raid on the flotilla for a second day and supporters of Israel in Massachusetts defended the country's right to protect itself.

Bangert said his son is in Israeli custody in the port city of Ashdod. He has not been able to speak with him directly but has received updates from several sources, including the US State Department, the office of Senator John F. Kerry, and the Irish diplomatic corps. His son is contesting deportation proceedings, Bangert said.



Bangert had received earlier reports that his son had been injured in the raid. But he said that he saw an online video of his son leaving the ship and that he did not appear to be seriously hurt.

"I saw him alive and walking, which was a great relief," he said.

The Israeli Consulate in Boston said today that neither Ó Luain nor Sheetz was injured in the raid. Continued

Joseph Bangert, the father, is a brother Vietnam Veteran and I understand a brother member of Veterans for Peace as well.

Brother 'Nam Vet's Son on Flotilla and Injured

MA man's son seriously injured in Israeli attack on aid ship"

Son ‘seriously injured’ on aid ship, Cape Cod man told, Boston Globe.

A Cape Cod man was awaiting word last night from his 28-year-old son, who was on board one of the flotilla of ships Israeli commandos stormed.
Related Content

Brewster resident Joseph Bangert said an aide from Senator John F. Kerry’s office told him yesterday that his son, Fiachra Ó Luain, was “seriously injured’’ in the bloody confrontation between Israeli soldiers and pro-Palestinian activists aboard the ships trying to bring aid to the Gaza Strip.

Snip

Joseph Bangert, a retired Marine and Vietnam veteran, said he was preparing to go to a Memorial Day service yesterday when he heard the news.

He said he has been glued to the computer and news reports since, and is in shock.

“I’m the veteran, and today, I find my son — who never put the uniform on — is in combat,’’ he said. Continued

Man on attacked flotilla has Cape ties

"The irony did not escape me," he said. "It is Memorial Day. I am a Vietnam veteran, and my first thought is to whether my son, a peace activist, survived an attack by the Israeli army."

Snip

"I'm scared for Fiachra, but I am also proud of him. My son is heroic," he said. Continued

Military Service!!

Yep to below!! But should he win and as he's seemed to be a strong advocate for veterans affairs, but not holding office where he can really make a difference, he will now be held to show that advocacy by all of us Real 'Nam In-Country Veterans, at least the ones still alive, and more for the present day Veterans of our now Wars of Choice!!


Commentary: Blumenthal's military service deception is inexcusable

1 June 2010 Lots of people embellish.

Benchwarmers promote themselves to the starting lineup. Childhood circumstances become more hardscrabble, youthful adventures more daring and glamorous.

Most times it's harmless. People accept the pervasiveness and give embellishers a pass, even if the chronic ones come off as a bit foolish.

But there are limits. The big one is military service. Continued

As same goes for those embellishing in any way, i.e. Mark Kirk Do You Hear!!

One who's served knows exactly where they did, when they did, and what was awarded personally to them and so does the DoD!!

And the 'chickenhawks' beware, especially those who think? they're strong political party members, either party, and those Dems giving excuse to the Not 'misstatements, his use of words are a very big tool in his profession, we're here Still taking you down for the phony rhetoric used asnd it's much easier to do in this day and age and getting easier!

Military and the Gulf Oil Disaster

Mullen: Military Will Continue to Support Spill Effort

May 31, 2010 – The military will continue to support the effort to cap and mitigate the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but it does not have the technical expertise to take over the operation, the nation’s top military officer said on the morning news shows today.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also used the opportunity to ask Americans to remember the sacrifices of servicemembers throughout history and today in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to note the progress made in the two wars.

Mullen spoke the day after BP announced the latest effort to stop the leak – “Top Kill” – had failed. The Pentagon has looked at the capabilities the military can provide to the oil companies as they battle the spill, he said.

“There are some limits to the skills that we have to do this,” Mullen said on CNN. “We’ve looked at the technical side of this enormously difficult challenge. The oil industry really has the technical expertise to go after this.” Continued