It’s a perilous world, as our so-called leaders love to remind us. And for a change they’re right. It is a perilous world. But guess who is most responsible for the peril to Americans? Those very same “leaders” and a long line of predecessors.Continue
Recalling that he himself had been the intended target of a CIA hit squad in 1972, Ellsberg suggested, "As I look at Assange's case, their worry that he will reveal current threats, I would have to say, puts his well-being, his physical life, in some danger. And I say that with anguish. ... I think Assange would do well to keep his whereabouts unknown."Continue
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Wikileaks Pentagon Manhunt US ‘Desperately’ Trying to Keep Wikileaks from Publishing US Communications About Arab States
By Philip Shenon
Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of the Australian-born founder of the secretive website Wikileaks for fear that he may be about to publish a huge cache of classified State Department cables. Continue
Must Read - By By Tim Dickinson The inside story of how Obama failed to crack down on the corruption of the Bush years – and let the world's most dangerous oil company get away with murder.Continue
A multimillionaire House Republican who owns thousands of shares of BP stock has no plans to recuse himself from a congressional investigation related to the Gulf oil spill or from votes on Capitol Hill that could affect his investments in the oil company. Continue
* Don't be distracted by the "British-bashing" propaganda!!!
Who Owns BP? Biggest Shareholder is JPMorgan Chase: According to the European financial database Amadeus, JPMorgan Chase is the No. 1 holder of stock in BP. That distinction also has earned the Wall Street bank the title of “Global Ultimate Owner” of the oil giant, as it owns 28.34% of BP.
How BlueDog Boys kept Obama's boot off neck of BP's U.S. partner: "...The American owners of the drilling rig at the centre of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have been involved in nearly three-quarters of all significant safety incidents on rigs in the region since 2008, according to new figures.
Transocean, the world’s largest rig operator, has so far avoided much of the fall-out from the environmental disaster heaped on BP by President Obama and members of Congress following the Deepwater Horizon explosion..."
The worst thing that ever happened to the Jewish people is the Holocaust. The second worst thing that ever happened to the Jewish people is the state of Israel.
Things internationally are so dispiriting there's nothing left to do but fantasize. I picture Turkey, as a member of NATO, demanding that the alliance come to its defense after being attacked by Israel. Under Article 5 of the NATO charter an armed attack on one member is deemed to constitute an armed attack on all members. That is the ostensible reason NATO is fighting in Afghanistan — the attack against the United States on September 11, 2001 is regarded as an attack on all NATO members (disregarding the awkward fact that Afghanistan as a country had nothing to do with the attack). The Israeli attack on a Turkish-flagged ship, operated by a Turkish humanitarian organization, killing nine Turkish nationals and wounding many more can certainly constitute an attack upon a NATO member.
So, after the United States, the UK, Germany, France and other leading NATO members offer their ridiculous non-sequitur excuses why they can't ... umm ... er ... invoke Article 5, and the international media swallows it all without any indigestion, Turkey demands that Israel should at least lose its formal association with NATO as a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue. This too is dismissed with scorn by the eminent NATO world powers on the grounds that it would constitute a victory for terrorism. And anti-Semitism of course.
Turkey then withdraws from NATO. Azerbaijan and five other Central Asian members of NATO's Partnership for Peace with Turkic constituencies do the same. NATO falls into a crisis. Remaining member countries begin to question the organization's policies as never before ... like please tell us again why our young men are killing and dying in Afghanistan, and why we send them to Kosovo and Iraq and other places the Americans deem essential to their endlessly-threatened national security.
When Vice President Biden tells the eminent conservative-in-liberal-clothing pseudo-intellectual Charlie Rose on TV that "We have put as much pressure and as much cajoling on Israel as we can to allow them [Gaza] to get building materials in," 1Rose for once rises to the occasion and acts like a real journalist, asking Biden: "Have you threatened Israel with ending all military and economic aid? ... Have you put the names of Israeli officials on your list of foreigners who can not enter the United States and whose bank accounts in the US are frozen, as you've done with numerous foreign officials who were not supporters of the empire? ... Since Israel has committed both crimes against the peace and crimes against humanity, and since these are crimes that have international jurisdiction, certain Israeli political and military personnel can be named in trials held in any country of the world. Will you be instructing the Attorney General to proceed with such an indictment? Or if some other country which is a member of the International Criminal Court calls upon the ICC to prosecute these individuals, will the United States try to block the move? ... Why hasn't the United States itself delivered building materials to Gaza?"
When Israel justifies its murders on the grounds of "self-defense", late-night TV comedians Jay Leno and David Letterman find great humor in this, pointing out that a new memoir by China's premier at the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square violent suppression defends the military action by saying that soldiers acted in "self-defense" when they fired on the democracy activists. 2
When Israel labels as "terrorists" the ship passengers who offered some resistance to the Israeli invaders, the New York Times points out that the passengers who resisted the 9-11 highjackers on the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania are called "heroes". (As an aside, it's worth noting that the United States uses 9-11 as Israel uses the Holocaust — as excuse and justification for all manner of illegal and violent international behavior.)
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reminds its readers that in 2009 Israel attacked a boat on international waters carrying medical aid to Gaza with former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney aboard; and that in 1967 Israel attacked an American ship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 and wounding about 173, and that President Johnson did then just what President Obama is doing now and would have done then — nothing.
And finally, Secretary of State Clinton declares that she's had a revelation. She realizes that what she recently said about North Korea when it was accused of having torpedoed a South Korean warship applies as well to Israel. Mrs. Clinton had demanded that Pyongyang "stop its provocative behavior, halt its policy of threats of belligerence towards its neighbors, and take irreversible steps to fulfill its denuclearization commitments and comply with international law." 3 She adds that the North Korean guilt is by no means conclusive, while Israel doesn't deny its attack on the ship at all; moreover, it's not known for sure if North Korea actually possesses nuclear weapons, whereas there's no uncertainty about Israel's large stockpile.
So there you have it. Hypocrisy reigns. Despite my best fantasizing. Is hypocrisy a moral failing or a failure of the intellect? When President Obama says, as he has often, "No one is above the law" and in his next breath makes it clear that his administration will not seek to indict Bush or Cheney for any crimes, does he think that no one will notice the contradiction, the hypocrisy? That's a callous disregard for public opinion and/or a dumbness worthy of his predecessor.
And when he declares: "The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground", 4does it not occur to him at all that he's predicting a bleak outlook for the United States? Or that his conscious, deliberate policy is to increase the size of America's army and its stockpile of missiles?
Comrades, can the hypocrisy and the lies reach such a magnitude that enough American true believers begin to question their cherished faith, so that their number reaches a critical mass and explodes? Well, it's already happened with countless Americans, but it's an awfully formidable task keeping pace with what is turned out by the mass media and education factories. They're awfully good at what they do. Too bad. But don't forsake the struggle. What better way is there to live this life? And remember, just because the world has been taken over by lying, hypocritical, mass-murdering madmen doesn't mean we can't have a good time.
Bad guys and good guys
In Lahore, Pakistan, reported the Washington Post on May 29, "Militants staged coordinated attacks ... on two mosques of a minority Muslim sect, taking hostages and killing at least 80 people. ... At least seven men armed with grenades, high-powered rifles and suicide vests stormed the mosques as Friday prayers ended."
Nice, really nice, very civilized. It's no wonder that decent Americans think that this is what the United States is fighting against — Islamic fanatics, homicidal maniacs, who kill their own kind over some esoteric piece of religious dogma, who want to kill Americans over some other imagined holy sin, because we're "infidels". How can we reason with such people? Where is the common humanity the naive pacifists and anti-war activists would like us to honor?
And then we come to the very last paragraph of the story: "Elsewhere in Pakistan on Friday, a suspected U.S. drone-fired missile struck a Taliban compound in the South Waziristan tribal area, killing eight, according to two officials in the region." This, we are asked to believe by our leaders, is a higher level of humanity. The United States does this every other day, sending robotic death machines called Predators flying over Afghanistan and Pakistan, to send Hellfire missiles screaming into wedding parties, funerals, homes, not knowing who the victims are, not caring who the victims are, many hundreds of them by now, as long as Washington can claim each time — whether correctly or not — that amongst their number was a prominent infidel, call him Taliban, or al Qaeda, or insurgent, or militant. How can one reason with such people, the ones in the CIA who operate the drone flights? What is the difference between them and a suicide bomber? The suicide bomber becomes one of the victims himself and sees his victims up close before killing them. The CIA murderer bomber sits safely in a room in Nevada or California and pretends he's playing a video game, then goes out to dinner while his victims lay dying. The suicide bomber believes passionately in something called paradise. The murderer bomber believes passionately in something called flag and country.
The State Department's Legal Advisor justifies the Predator bombings as ... yes, "self-defense". 5 Try reasoning with that.
These American drone bombings are of course the height of aggression, the ultimate international crime. They were used over Iraq as well beginning in the 1990s. In December 2002, shortly before the US invasion in March, the Iraqis finally managed to shoot one down. This prompted a spokesman for the US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, to call it another sign of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's "campaign of military aggression." 6
This particular piece of hypocrisy may have actually been outdone by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's comment about the US flights and bombings over Iraq during that period: "It bothers the dickens out of me that US and British pilots are getting fired at day after day after day, with impunity." 7
Send me a stamped self-addressed envelope for a copy of the revised edition of "An arsonist's guide to the homes of Pentagon officials".
When politicians misbehave. By speaking the truth.
The German president, Horst Koehler, resigned last week because he said something government officials are not supposed to say. He said that Germany was fighting in Afghanistan for economic reasons. No reference to democracy. Nothing about freedom. Not a word about Good Guys fighting Bad Guys. The word "terrorism" was not mentioned at all. Neither was "God". On a trip to German troops in Afghanistan he had declared that a country such as Germany, dependent on exports and free trade, must be prepared to use military force. The country, he said, had to act "to protect our interests, for example, free trade routes, or to prevent regional instability which might certainly have a negative effect on our trade, jobs and earnings".
"Koehler has said something openly that has been obvious from the beginning," said the head of Germany's Left Party. "German soldiers are risking life and limb in Afghanistan to defend the export interests of big economic interests." 8
Other opposition politicians had called for Koehler to take back the remarks and accused him of damaging public acceptance of German military missions abroad. 9
As T.S. Eliot famously observed: "Humankind can not bear very much reality."
What is the opposite of being a conspiracy theorist?
David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker magazine and former Washington Post reporter, has a new book out, "The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama". In the three pages Remnick devotes to Obama's 1983-4 employment at Business International Corporation in New York he makes no mention of the well-known ties between BIC and the CIA. In 1977, for example, the New York Times revealed that BIC had provided cover for four CIA employees in various countries during earlier years of the Cold War; 10BIC also attempted to penetrate the radical left, including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). 11
Did Remnick not think it at all interesting and worthy of mention that the future president worked for more than a year with a company that was a CIA asset? Even if the company and the CIA made no attempt to recruit Obama, which in fact they may have done? It's this kind of obvious omission that helps feed the left's conspiracy thinking.
Because Remnick has impeccable establishment credentials the book has been widely reviewed. But none of the many reviewers has seen fit to mention this omission. And the way it works of course is that if it's not mentioned, it didn't happen. And if you mention such a thing, you're a pathetic conspiracy theorist. Like me, who discussed it in the January edition of this report. 12
Spam, myself and my readers
As some of you now know, someone hacked into my website and used my address book to send out emails to many of the readers of this report. The emails indicated that they had been sent by me and directed people to a website which sells handbags, shoes and watches. What bothers me the most about this incident is that several of my readers believed that it was actually me who had sent out the emails, that I was peddling handbags, shoes and watches. The only thing I sell are books. But I think these readers have now learned something about spam. And hopefully about me.
Oh, by the way, can I interest any of you in some nice T-shirts, hats, or sunglasses?
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire
Portions of the books can be read, and signed copies purchased, atwww.killinghope.org
Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website.
To add yourself to this mailing list simply send an email to bblum6 [at] aol.com with "add" in the subject line. I'd like your name and city in the message, but that's optional. I ask for your city only in case I'll be speaking in your area.
(Or put "remove" in the subject line to do the opposite.)
Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission. I'd appreciate it if the website were mentioned.
'We'll be Back - With Bigger Flotillas' Mel Frykberg interviews HUWAIDA ARRAF,
leader of the Free Gaza flotilla
RAMALLAH, June 8, 2010 (IPS) - In an exclusive interview with IPS Huwaida Arraf, the chairwoman of the Free Gaza (FG) movement, which tried to break Israel’s crippling blockade on Gaza, explains what happened on the night of May 31 when Israeli commandos raided the FG humanitarian flotilla, shooting nine people dead and injuring dozens more.
Controversy surrounds the events following the deadly commando raid with survivors from among the 700 activists on board the flotilla giving a very different version of events from that of the Israeli government.
Q: Critics have accused FG of deliberately provoking a confrontation with the Israelis and argued that the attempt to break the siege was political and not just a humanitarian relief operation.
A: They are correct to say that FG’s aim was more than just bringing humanitarian relief. We are deeply disturbed by Israel’s deliberate and calculated creation of a humanitarian crisis in the coastal territory and we intended to draw international attention to this.
We are not interested in simply perpetuating the siege and the humanitarian crisis by bringing in aid alone. Gazans are not interested in being aid dependent either. Eighty percent of Gaza’s population is dependent on food aid. This is not the result of a natural disaster but a deliberate and cruel Israeli policy. We are concerned that the human rights of Gazans be respected and they are allowed to live a normal life as human beings.
Q: Did the activists provoke the Israeli commandos into using deadly force?
A: This is nonsense. We went out of our way to inform the Israelis that we were an unarmed civilian boat delivering aid, that we presented no threat to them and there was no need to board our vessels. We explained repeatedly who we were and what our mission was. Our boats were checked by different security at the various ports of departure and we also hired independent security personnel to verify that we were arms-free.
We were attacked in international waters, in the middle of the night when most people were asleep. The Israelis used a highly-trained naval force, not the coastguard, against unarmed civilians.
Q: But videos show activists beating Israeli navy seals with bars.
A: Let’s not forget the Israelis confiscated all equipment from the media and released selective video footage so as to try and justify their extreme violence.
Furthermore, this was the response of a small number of individuals out of nearly 700 people. The FG organisers specifically held workshops for passengers prior to departure to explain how to respond in a non-violent way to an attack on the boat. However, the Israelis attacked first by shooting even before the commandos had boarded.
When such unjustified violence is used against a civilian vessel, in international waters, which poses no threat to Israel’s security it is not always possible to control the response of some people who are scared, angry and who may wish to defend themselves.
Q: You were not on board the 'Mavi Marmara’ where the violence took place. How do you know the Israelis attacked first?
A: I was on board 'Challenger One’ which was sailing right next to 'Mavi Marmara’. I saw the Israeli dinghies surrounding the 'Mavi Marmara’. I heard the explosions as they started shooting. They were unable to board because activists trained hoses on them. This was before the helicopters arrived and the navy seals succeeded in boarding. It was after this that people were shot dead.
Q: Reports are coming out that a number of the dead were shot several times in the head from above.
A: I’ve heard this too from eye-witness accounts but am awaiting further information.
Q: Activists have also claimed that during the first few hours after the assault the dying and seriously injured were deliberately denied medical treatment.
A: This is true.
Q: The Israelis state that violence was only used against the passengers on the 'Mavi Marmara’ who resisted. Do you agree with this?
A: This is a lie. The Israelis used excessive force and violence on all the boats even when no resistance was offered. Journalists were attacked, some activists were beaten so badly that they needed to be hospitalised when they arrived in Ashdod.
An Israeli commando stood on my head with his boot and ground my head into the deck until I screamed. I was handcuffed and a hood was put over my head. Later on in Ashkelon I was hit through the face by a policeman, elbowed in the jaw and dragged by my hair when I refused to get into a police car.
Q: The Israelis claim that some on board were 'terrorists’ and had ties to 'terrorist’ organisations including al-Qaida and Hamas. What is your response?
A: This is part of their propaganda and an attempt to discredit FG. They can’t de-legitimise the hundreds on board, who included European Union parliamentarians, international journalists and ordinary citizens from over 40 countries as 'Jihadists’, so they focused on a few individuals. I don’t know all of the activists personally so I don’t know what their political views are but the FG is not connected to any political organisation.
The Turkish charity Isani Yardim Vakfi or IHH which helped organise the flotilla, and had volunteers on board, provides humanitarian aid all over the world. It has an office in Gaza and probably has to deal with the Hamas authorities there as they are in charge. So do all the other international NGOs including the Red Cross and the U.N. It is just a fact of life in Gaza. There is no military association.
Q: The Israelis distributed doctored videos which they confiscated from journalists on board, as well as an edited audio tape which they later retracted and corrected. In the audio an 'activist’ is alleged to tell the Israelis, amongst other slurs, "to go back to Auschwitz." What are your comments?
A: I was near the VHF radio the entire time the captains communicated with the Israelis. The captains were the only people who spoke with the Israelis apart from myself. They spoke in a professional manner and I can confirm none of those slurs were made. The so-called 'activist’ who made the alleged slurs spoke in a phony American accent from the south. We had no Americans on board from the south. They also said I was on board the 'Mavi Marmara’ but I was on the 'Challenger One’.
Furthermore, the Israelis were forced to retract and correct the original tape. A new one was released five days later but there are still discrepancies.
Q: Do you believe that despite the bloodshed and loss of life that the FG campaign has helped highlight the humanitarian situation in Gaza?
A: I believe increased international attention has been drawn to Israel’s inhumane siege of Gaza and that there will be more pressure on Israel to ease the blockade. This is part of an overall snowball effect to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories in general following campaigning by grassroots activists. This in turn has led to political involvement on an international and diplomatic level.
Q: The Israelis possibly hoped that the extreme force they used would prevent future FG boats trying to reach Gaza. Have they succeeded?
A: Quite the opposite actually. We have been inundated with people from all over the world, from various organisations, wanting to participate in future flotillas. People everywhere are outraged by Israel’s behaviour.
Q: What are the future plans of GF?
A: More boats and bigger flotillas until we break the siege on Gaza completely. We will be back.
There are poignant studies of the indignation and the rage of those who have been cast asideas the state-corporate programs of financialization and deindustrialization have closed plants and destroyed families and communities.Continue
Much of Obama's "base" behaves as if the First Black President is an innocent party -- a victim of circumstances -- rather than a facilitator of the corporate enterprise that has spawned the Mother of all Pollutions. But then, Teflon is a petrochemical product.Continue
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has demanded that Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately in the wake of a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.Continue
By ZOE MAGEE A Canadian on board, Farooq Burney, described watching an elderly man bleed to death. The head of a Turkish charity that organized the aid flotilla said an Indonesian doctor was shot in the stomach and a photographer was shot in the forehead.Continue
The notorious Bilderberg group made up of politicians, business leaders and other power-brokers are having their annual meeting in an exclusive Spanish resort. But who is in this Club and What's on the Bilderbergers agenda? RT is investigating.Continue
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Gaza aid attack
The world is reeling from Israel's assault on an aid flotilla trying to reach Gaza. It's time for a full investigation to begin -- and for the siege of Gaza to end. Sign the worldwide petition, then forward this message:
Israel's deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships headed for Gaza has shocked the world.
Israel, like any other state, has the right to self-defence, but this was an outrageous use of lethal force to defend an outrageous and lethal policy -- Israel's blockade of Gaza, where two thirds of families don't know where they'll find their next meal.
The UN, EU, and nearly every other government and multilateral organization have called on Israel to lift the blockade and, now, launch a full investigation of the flotilla raid. But without massive pressure from their citizens, world leaders might limit their response to mere words -- as they have so many times before.
Let's make the world's outcry too loud to ignore. Join the petition for an independent investigation into the raid, accountability for those responsible, and an immediate end to the blockade in Gaza -- click to sign the petition, and then forward this message to everyone:
The petition will be delivered to the UN and world leaders, as soon as it reaches 200,000 names -- and again at every opportunity as it grows and leaders choose their responses. A massive petition at a moment of crisis like this one can demonstrate to those in power that sound bites and press releases aren't enough -- that citizens are paying attention and demanding action.
As the EU decides whether to expand its special trade relationship with Israel, as Obama and the US Congress set next year's budget for Israeli military aid, and as neighbours like Turkey and Egypt decide their next diplomatic steps -- let's make the world's voice unignorable: it's time for truth and accountability on the flotilla raid, and it's time for Israel to comply with international law and end the siege of Gaza. Sign now and pass this message along:
Most people everywhere still share the same dream: for two free and viable states, Israel and Palestine, to live side by side. But the blockade, and the violence used to defend it, poisons that dream. As a columnist wrote to his fellow Israelis today in the newspaper Ha'aretz, "We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege. The siege itself is becoming Israel's Vietnam."
Thousands of pro-peace activists in Israel today protested the raid and the blockade in demonstrations from Haifa, to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -- joining demonstrations around the world. Regardless of which side threw the first punch or fired the first shot (the Israeli military claims it did not initiate the violence), Israel's leaders sent helicopters of armed storm-troopers to raid a convoy of ships in international waters bringing medicine and supplies to Gaza, and some now lay dead.
Their lives cannot be brought back. But perhaps, together, we can make this dark moment a turning point -- if we arise with an unshakable call for justice, and an unbreakable dream of peace.
With hope,
Ricken, Alice, Raluca, Paul, Iain, Graziela and the rest of the Avaaz team
Support the Avaaz community! We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here.
Avaaz.org is a 4.9-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
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Israel Navy troops opened fire on pro-Palestinian activists aboard a six-ship aid flotilla sailing for the Gaza Strip early Monday.
Posted May 31, 2010
Part 2
Recording Of Live TV Report
Civilians Under Attack by Israel (Cypro us, June 1, 2010, 6:30 am) Under darkness of night, Israeli commandoes boarded the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot. According to the live video from the ship, two have been killed, and 31 injured. Al Jazeera has just confirmed the numbers. Israel says they are taking over the boats.
Streaming video shows the Israeli soldiers shooting at civilians, and our last SPOT beacon said, "HELP, we are being contacted by the Israelis."
The coalition of Free Gaza Movement (FG), European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), the Perdana Global Peace Organisation , Ship to Gaza Greece, Ship to Gaza Sweden, and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza appeal to the international community to demand that Israel stop their brutal attack on civilians delivering vitally needed aid to the imprisoned Palestinians of Gaza and permit the ships to continue on their way.
The attack has happened in international waters, 75 miles off the coast of Israel, in direct violation of international law. The Free Gaza Movement
George Galloway Speaks Out About Attack On Humanitarian Aid Ships
Israeli police say 16 Gaza-bound activists sent to jail: Israel has said it will deport the roughly 700 activists in the flotilla. But those who refuse to cooperate will be jailed. About 80 activists have been brought to shore so far.
Erdogan: Aid ship raid is Israeli state terrorism: Turkish PM says raid on Gaza-bound aid flotilla 'totally contrary to principles of international.' Merkel speaks with Netanyahu, Erdogan in bid to ease tensions. Irish PM: Israel de facto occupying force in Gaza
Turkey vows response to Israeli attack: "It should be known that we will not stay silent and unresponsive in the face of this inhuman state terror," he was quoted as saying by AFP on Monday. - "International law has been trampled underfoot," Erdogan argued.
Turkey seeks Security Council meeting, condemns Israel: Turkey canceled joint military exercises with Israel and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after pro-Palestinian activists were killed when Israeli marines stormed a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza.
Live coverage: Israel's flotilla raid: We'll be live-blogging the aftermath of this incident throughout the day; keep checking back for international reaction, news from our correspondents on the ground, photos and video
Turks rally against Israeli attack: Around 10,000 people marched from the Israeli consulate in Istanbul towards the city's main square shouting slogans and waving banners saying "Killer Israel".
In pictures: Flotilla protest outside UN building, Beirut: Demonstrators gathered outside the main UN office in Beirut, ESCWA, today to protest against Israel's attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla heading to Gaza. According to media reports, at least 19 people have been killed.
I was born in Melbourne, Australia. In my youth, I was a draft resister and anti-war activist against the American War in Viet Nam, and Australia's participation in it. I 'dropped out' of a teacher training course to work full-time against the war and for peace, a life-changing decision. Later, I lived for 19 years in Cassilis, East Gippsland for an alternative country lifestyle. In 1996, I came to Viet Nam on an adventure holiday with Intrepid Travel, which became another life-changing event. I found my new home here in Viet Nam, and worked as a tour group leader for nearly 27 years, travelling up and down this amazing and beautiful country. In Viet Nam, even my name changed to "Lemon Juice" Bruce, but really I am still the same Bruce McPhie. What an inspiring country this is. The anti-Vietnam propaganda and misinformation of the past sometimes continues today. It's not easy to clear the mind of a lifetime of this, but when you discover the true magic of Viet Nam you are richly rewarded, enlightened, and understand the world in a whole new way. "Come to Viet Nam, and visit the world!"
Media took gov't cash during trial of 'Cuban 5'
Nader says reinstate Helen Thomas
Wilkerson on Cheney
Capping the 'truth spill'
Israel boards another Gaza aid boat
Monday, June 14, 2010 at 12:54PM
