Saturday, 12 June 2010

IHH Premeditated Violence - Video Statements of Marmara Crew - 1Jun10

 
 
Interviews with Mavi Marmara crew members

Here's a link to two interviews with members of the crew of the Mavi Marmara that were apparently done by the IDF. One interview is in English with Hebrew subtitles and it's with the captain of the ship. The other is an interview in Turkish with English subtitles and it's with the ship's chief officer (Hat Tip: Shy Guy). It was also apparently conducted by the IDF (toward the end, you hear some Hebrew in the background.

You have to take these with a grain of salt, but the chief officer seems to imply in the middle there that the 'third captain' was an IHH member and was in cahoots with the terrorists. Both the captain and the third officer claim to have had no idea what was going on until they found the cut polls (I guess circular saws are not ordinary equipment on a boat - contrary to some claims that were made over the last week).

And by the way, what were all those people who were stuck below deck all week thinking? Isn't it strange that we haven't heard from them?

Hmmm. 
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More in-depth webpage of this is below 
 

 
One of the activists aboard the Mavi Marmara managed to get a 15-minute video out showing the passengers before and during the IDF raid.

It can be seen at the "Cultures of Resistance" site.
 
Some interesting parts:

Starting at around the 3:00 mark, we see an IDF helicopter hovering, and then at least 7 soldiers are seen rappelling down to the deck, much more quickly than those that came from the first helicopter. It appears that the IDF figured out very quickly what was going on and ensured that the mistakes from the first drop, where the soldiers were beaten, would not be repeated.

That section of the video was taken from the deck below the main deck. Even though it appears from other evidence that the IHH had a core of some 40 members who were planning to do the heavy fighting and who effectively took over the top deck (see next posting and video), there were people on the second deck who were also supplied with slingshots (3:40)

They mention having two soldiers "bleeding and wounded" but I'm not sure I see them (6:00) They might have been edited out.

Some of the IHH fighters are seen, wounded and dying.

Most interesting to me was the sequence at about 12:30, where an Israeli boat is speeding alongside the ship. Even though it is now morning, and clearly at least an hour since the first soldiers dropped onto the ship, the activists are still throwing debris towards the Israeli navy - which runs very much counter to the flotilla members' accounts of a white flag being immediately raised and a PA announcement of immediate surrender and stopping resistance. In this video we hear the captain telling people to go to their rooms and remain calm after daybreak, but we never hear the audio saying that the ship has surrendered.

More in the next post. 
 

The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center showed once again how closely aligned it is with the IDF, as it has posted two videos and one transcript of interrogations with the captain and the chief officer of the Mavi Marmara.

1. The videotaped statements of two Mavi Marmara crew members show that preparations for a violent confrontation with IDF forces were put in motion about two hours before the boarding began, when the Israeli Navy hailed the ship and told it to halt.

2. According to the statements, the atmosphere aboard the Mavi Marmara was tense and the crew noticed a gathering on the main deck. When they checked the upper deck they discovered that IHH operatives were cutting the ship’s railings with metal disks they had brought with them into lengths suitable to be used as clubs. The crew members said the activities worried them and that they tried to stop the operatives but were unsuccessful.
So it seems more and more clear that most of the passengers of the Marmara didn't know what the IHH plans were and possibly wouldn't have approved; yet they must have known that the IHH had taken control of the ship and was calling the shots - co-opting the European and American flotilla organizers. 

It also appears that the passenger/witnesses have closed ranks around IHH, not willing to say anything bad about a group that had violent intent. Keep in mind that the crew here is saying that the IHH was already cutting iron bars and chains at nightfall; they say two hours before the IDF was visible but probably some 6-8 hours before the helicopters arrived (at around 4 AM.) 

This brings up the question of, if the boats already saw the passengers with the chains and iron bars from the boat, why the first wave of soldiers still came only armed with paintball guns. 
 
 
'Witness' to Flotilla 'Murder' Admits She Was on Another Boat

by Gil Ronen     June 10, 2010     http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138002 
 
U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Ann Wright, on a speaking tour of the United States on behalf of radical pacifist women's group Code Pink, bills herself as an eyewitness to the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara and what she termed the “murder” of “nine innocent civilians.” However, in an interview with Aaron Lerner of IMRA, she admits she did not actually see the clash between the IDF soldiers and the armed passengers on board the Mavi Marmara. 

Lerner asks questions about what she saw, but does not remind her that the confrontation took place between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m., in the dark of night (IDF footage of the raid was carried out with night vision equipment) when she admits to being on another ship..

IPart of the recorded interview can be heard on this embedded player:    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138002

In a promotional e-mail on behalf of "Code Pink: Women for Peace," Wright says: “I just returned from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and started my speaking tour last night in NYC to share what I witnessed aboard the flotilla, and what people can do to end the siege.”

“I witnessed the Israeli attack that killed 9 persons and wounded 50 on the Gaza Flotilla... the murder of nine persons... Tragically, it took another example of disproportionate use of force by the Israeli military that resulted in the deaths of nine innocent civilians to force many governments of the world to call for the Israelis to end the siege of Gaza.” 

In the interview with Lerner she admitted that she was not aboard the Mavi Marmara but on a different ship, the Challenger, which was about 150 yards distant from the Marmara.

In the interview, Lerner asks Wright if she has seen the video that shows the passengers preparing weapons for attacking the soldiers.

Lerner: “You haven't seen the YouTube that shows the rods that had been cut and prepared and the piles of hatchets that were ready?”

Wright: “No, I haven't. I'm still in the process of catching up with all the stuff that's out there.”

She also claims that “the video” (apparently the same video that she said she did not see – ed.) stops at a certain point and does not show that “the captain of the ship and the director of the IHH came out of the wheelhouse and told the guys that were on top 'stop beating these soldiers up.'”

Lerner: Col. Wright I just want to make sure again – so you actually were on a different boat and did not witness the attack firsthand.

Wright: That's correct.

Lerner: So your witnessing is based on the information that you are getting from the other folks who were there.

Wright: My witness will be specifically what happened on our ship, the Challenger. And then I can comment on what happened in the very first three or four minutes as the Israeli commandos were trying to board the ship. We saw that from the stern of the ship. But after that that's when my witnessing from my own eyes of what happened on that ship would end. 

 

Video Recordings of Statements from Mavi Marmara Crew Members about Preparations Made by IHH Operatives for the Violent Confrontation with IDF Soldiers 1

 


Overview

1. The videotaped statements of two Mavi Marmara crew members show that preparations for a violent confrontation with IDF forces were put in motion about two hours before the boarding began, when the Israeli Navy hailed the ship and told it to halt.

2. According to the statements, the atmosphere aboard the Mavi Marmara was tense and the crew noticed a gathering on the main deck. When they checked the upper deck they discovered that IHH operatives were cutting the ship’s railings with metal disks they had brought with them into lengths suitable to be used as clubs. The crew members said the activities worried them and that they tried to stop the operatives but were unsuccessful.

3. The following are the statements of the one of the ship’s captains and an officer. This bulletin contains the text of the statements and the videotaped interviews.

Appendix

The Statements

Mehmut Tuval, Captain, Mavi Marmara

Mehmut Tuval

Click for Video

Chief Officer Gokkiran Gokhan

Chief Officer Gokkiran Gokhan

Statement: I was on the bridge after dark, before anything happened, the third captain and I were sent in the direction of the life boats, where there were a lot of people and a lot of noise. The captain told me something was happening down there, there are noises, go see what’s going on. There were a lot of people. I told the third captain, you are more senior than I, come with me.”
Q: When did that happen?
A: Around eight o’clock, I don’t know exactly when, but around eight. I went down the stairs with the third captain. We saw a senior person [from IHH].
Q: Who?
A: That guy.
Q: What guy?
A: That guy. Maybe the third captain knows his name.
Q: The guy from IHH?
A: Yes, from IHH.
Q: Whose name does he know? The name of the guy from IHH who cut the railings?
A: No, the third captain knows him from IHH. We [the third captain and I] went together, we saw a lot of people milling around and we asked what was going on.
Q: Did you see them cutting [the railings]?
A: They [the iron rods] were already cut. It was all over.
Q: Who did the cutting?
A: I didn’t see.
Q: Who was holding the disk?
A: The disks were lying in a corner of the stairs and the senior guy [apparently a reference to Bülent Yildirim] was next to them.
Q: The senior guy from IHH?
A: Yes.
Q: Who did the disks belong to?
A: I don’t know, they didn’t belong to the ship. We don’t have equipment like that on board. On deck there were metal poles with clips for cables, when I got there they had been cut.
Q: When did this happen?
A: When it was getting dark. I asked one of them who cut the poles, and he said he didn’t know.
Q: Was the man you asked a crew member?
A: No.
Q: Did he belong to IHH?
A: Of course.
Q: You seem to be saying that the people from IHH were in control of the ship. Did the crew need their permission to move around the ship?
A: Definitely, they [i.e. IHH operatives] didn’t let people they didn’t know move around.
Q: Did they prevent anyone they didn’t know from moving freely around the ship?
A: Yes, definitely.
Q: And was that from the first moment they went up on deck?
A: Yes, definitely.
Q: How did the IHH operatives communicate with one another?
A: When they [the IHH operatives] got on board in Istanbul they brought walkie-talkies with them. They were handed out to the IHH operatives and the crew.
Q: Did you [the crew] get them as well?
A: Yes, each one worked on a different frequency.
Q: I don’t understand, they didn’t let the passengers and crew go from one deck to another?
A: They could go anywhere except to the control center they set up on the bridge.
Q: How many IHH operatives were there on the upper deck.
A: Forty.
Q: The same forty all the time or did they change?
A: More of less the same forty.
Q: You’re referring to the group that joined the ship in Istanbul?
A: yes.

Click for Video


 Follow-up of the June 7, 2010 bulletin IHH Preparations for a Violent Confrontation with IDF Soldiers Aboard the Turkish Ship Mavi Marmara Initial conclusions from questioning passengers and examining equipment on board the ship at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e110.pdf.

 

Posted by Britannia Radio at 05:42