Thursday, 10 June 2010

Suzanne noticed, and I agree, that two of the people who were killed on the Mavi Marmara have a strong resemblance to the two people to Osama Qashoo's left on the video of the pre-flotilla, anti-Jewish "Khaybar" rally. One is Ali Haydar Bengi and the other is Cengiz Songur.


They were sitting in a semi-circle, with Qashoo in the middle:


At the 0:30 point, we see two people who strongly resemble two of the dead:


But I'm sure that they were very "humanitarian" as they called for the massacre of Jews.

Israel's Intelligence and Terror Information Center, which has close ties to the IDF, has released a report that discusses in some detail the real story behind the Mavi Marmara, based on unreported IDF investigations in the days following its capture.

(Past experience has shown that the ITIC has been highly accurate. It is a far cry from Debka, for example, which has a more checkered track record.)

The upshot is that there was a core of about 40 IHH members who, with Turkish government support, unofficially took over the Mavi Marmara and planned the clashes with the IDF.

Their summary:

1. An initial analysis of statements taken from passengers aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara after it was towed to the port of Ashdod show that operatives belonging to the radical Islamic Turkish IHH1 led the violent confrontation with the IDF.

2. The statements confirmed that the violence met by the IDF soldiers was not spontaneous but rather an organized, premeditated action carried out by a hard core of 40 IHH operatives (among the 500 passengers). The operatives, who acted according to a clearly-defined internal hierarchy, boarded the ship in the port of Istanbul without undergoing a security inspection (as opposed to the other passengers, who boarded in Antalya after a full inspection).

3. The IHH operatives’ preparations included handing out walkie-talkies as they boarded the ship, taking over the upper deck, setting up a situation room for communications, and a briefing given to the operatives two hours before the confrontation by IHH head Bülent Yildirim, who was on board the ship and commanded his men. IHH operatives wore ceramic vests and gas masks, and were armed with large quantities of cold weapons which they had prepared from equipment found on board (knives, axes, metal cables, metal pipes used as clubs, wrenches, etc.). They were also equipped with box cutters which had been prepared on the upper deck in advance.

4. The passengers, including the IHH operatives, stated that there were close relations between the organization and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and that the Turkish government was involved in preparations for the flotilla. The statements reinforce the original assassment that the objective of the flotilla was not merely to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, but focused on provocation and a violent confrontation with Israel.
Interesting details:

* The Turkish prime minister Erdogan would not have been elected without the help of the IHH.

* " During the voyage a group of IHH operatives supervised the ship. IHH guards were posted in the passageways and did not permit passengers to reach the upper deck. They also limited the movements of the crew, who needed permission from the IHH men to go from one place to another."

* Eight of the nine killed were IHH operatives and volunteers (including an IHH journalist.)

There has been criticism in Turkey as well concerning the ties between Erdogan and the IHH.

As far as the accuracy of the passenger "eyewitness testimony," YNet reports on the firestorm in Egypt over an Egyptian passenger that detailed how the IHH took IDF soldiers captive:

A storm has been kicked up in Egyptian media after experiences on the flotilla are recounted. The version of events on the Gaza-bound flotilla as heard by an Egyptian member of parliament have evoked the ire of a number of state-run media outlets in the country because, they claim, the stories help Israeli PR efforts.

An Egyptian member of parliament from the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Beltagy, took part in the flotilla to the Gaza Strip that was commandeered by the Israeli Navy. After participating in the clashes on the deck of the Mavi Marmara, he was arrested by Israel and later released to Egypt.

On Tuesday of last week, he was interviewed on the "10 at Night" program on the Egyptian channel Dream. During the interview, he said that the flotilla participants overtook three Israeli commandos and snatched their weapons from them. This admission of employing force against IDF soldiers has evoked a media storm among Egyptian columnists, who claim this was a "public relations gift to Israel."
In other words, there is a usually unspoken rule in the Arab world not to say anything that could help Israel, especially if it is true. Pseudo-"peace activists" adopt the same rule as their hatred of Israel is what colors all of their actions, not their desire for helping Gazans.

The main factor that has helped Israel confirm its narrative has indeed been Muslims whose cultural desire to show their manliness in resisting the IDF outweighed their realization that this very testimony of supposed IDF weakness is really a clear demonstration of initial IDF restraint. The Free Gaza folks wouldn't fall into that trap because their own fake public narrative is that they are against all forms of violence - but Arabs and Turks have cultures that celebrate militancy and abhor any appearance of weakness, ironically making their testimonies more accurate.

(Update: deleted a sentence - I misunderstood a part of the report.)

Retired Archbishop Hilarion Capucci joined the Free Gaza Movement's aid Flotilla to the Gaza Strip on the Mavi Marmara.


To Reuters he said:

"Our trip to Gaza was a trip of love and God was with us. Israel by its actions had rightly drawn world outrage over its brutality against unarmed people carrying a message of love to an innocent occupied people under siege."

However, Reuters does not fail to mention in this article that this "peace-loving" Bischop was imprisoned by Israel in 1974 and later deported.

Camera has more and dug into his past:
Capucci was arrested by Israeli police on Aug. 18, 1974 and charged with smuggling weapons into the West Bank. The following day the New York Times reported that Capucci, who was born and raised in Syria, was accused of “acting as undercover liaison man between Al Fatah guerrilla group [in Lebanon] and Palestinian guerilla cells” in the West Bank[see also the article below as published in Star-News - Aug 19, 1974 , Suz.] . According to a Times summary, police reported that
large quantities of weapons and explosives were found hidden in his Mercedes sedan in Aug after he returned from visit to Lebanon. Source says Capucci was associated with abortive incident in May during Sec Kissinger's visit in which 3 Katyusha rockets were aimed at the center of Jerusalem. Rockets were discovered before they went off.
Later that month (Aug. 24), the Times reported that Capucci had allegedly told Israelis that he was “forced into guerrilla service by threats of blackmail.” Capucci told the Israelis that he was threatened with physical violence and “the disclosure of actions that might jeopardize his position” within the church. The Times also reported that Capucci faced charges of being accessory to murder because three men who were accused of murdering a Jerusalem taxi driver obtained their weapons from one of Capucci's drop points.

During the trial, Capucci refused to give a statement or sworn evidence because he said Jerusalem was Arab territory and that “Israeli law does not apply in the city” (New York Times, Oct. 30, 1974).

Eventually, Capucci was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He spent two years in prison before the Israeli government released him after a special request from the Vatican. On Nov. 4, 1977 the Washington Post reported from Jerusalem about Capucci's impending release:

Demands for Capucci's release have turned up regularly in the lists submitted by airplane hijackers, including the Entebbe hijackers, but where the threats have failed, a personal letter from Pope Paul has apparently succeeded. …. The price Israel extracted from the Vatican for Capucci's release was a personal letter from the Pope which, according to officials here, contains some admission of Capucci's guilt and the acknowledgement that he received a fair trial. At the very least, sources said, the letter cannot be construed as a denial of his guilt. The appeal is being made on humanitarian grounds.

The understanding with the Vatican, according to Israeli sources, is that Capucci will not be allowed to make propaganda for the Arabs against Israel and that he is to be posted to a place outside the Middle East.
….

There seems to be very little question that Capucci was in fact smuggling arms for the Palestinian Liberation Organization and at least one Israeli is thought to have died as a result. The PLO denies his guilt and has declared him a martyr, but privately many PLO members do not bother to deny his guilt and deplore his carelessness in getting caught.
.…

Capucci has been held in the maximum security prison in Ramleh since his conviction, according to diplomatic sources who have visited him, and has been accorded better treatment than the average prisoner.
Israel's demand that Capucci would not propagandize was likely a response to a letter he wrote from prison which was published in a number of venues including the Journal of Palestine Studies. In the letter, Capucci portrays Israel as violating and desecrating the Holy Land, undermining the Al Aska Mosque and violating the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. “Our most precious land has been desecrated and we have shuddered with repulsion to see it happen.”
Upon his release from Israeli prison on November 4, 1977, Capucci was assigned to serve Melkite communities in Latin America (Washington Post, Dec. 23, 1977). “His assignment to a post outside the Middle East was thought to be a condition of his release,” the Post reiterated.

On May 8, 1979, the Washington Post reported that Capucci “surprised the Vatican and irked Israel by attending a Palestine Liberation Organization Meeting in Damascus. The Vatican reportedly has told Israel it will try to keep him out of the Middle East.”

During the Iran hostage crisis, Capucci was sent to Iran to ascertain the condition of the Americans held in Tehran. His presence was not welcome by the American hostages. On Jan. 29, 1981 the New York Times reported the following about Capucci's visit to the hostages in Iran:

From his home in Olyphant, Pa., Michael J. Metrinko, political officer, criticized Archbishop Hilarion Capucci of the Melkite Church of the Eastern Rite. He said the Archbishop, who made one trip with Father Rupiper [another priest who had visited the hostages], had seen a few well-treated prisoners ''and spent the rest of the time enjoying himself with the guards.''

''I tried to tell Capucci what things were like, and he just went into a diatribe about how bad things were in Israeli prisons,'' Mr. Metrinko said.
Hilarion Capucci, man of peace.
Such a peaceful man, indeed! At least he admits he did not serve the years he should have served in jail. To the Brisbane Times he said:
''They warned if I tried to return again they would lock me up for the eight years of the jail sentence which I did not serve,'' he told the Herald.

''I would prefer to be in a small jail in Palestine than in the bigger prison of exile.''
Israel let him go, though.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 08:53