reminder : A Voyage of Life and Death
Ynet learns military police suspect officer, soldier sold laptop computers stolen from aid ships while they docked in Ashdod, after controversial IDF raid. Officials say investigation likely to prove ‘highly shameful’ for Israel
Hanan Greenberg
Published: 08.18.10, 22:20 / Israel News
An officer and a soldier are suspected of selling goods they took from the highly controversial aid flotilla to Gaza, which was raided by the IDF on May 31, Ynet learned from the military police on Wednesday.
Investigators say they are currently trying to ascertain whether laptop computers were sold by a soldier to three other soldiers, and whether they were initially taken from the flotilla vessels by an officer.
A high-ranking officer familiar with the case said the suspicions are highly likely to prove true. “The investigation has just begun, but as it appears now it will prove embarrassing and shameful,” another official said. “These are soldiers who don’t understand what their uniform represents.”
The investigation could prove extremely harmful to Israel as the state strives to fend off global criticism for the raid, which resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish citizens. Recently the Turkel committee, which is investigating the raid on behalf of the state, has called various leaders to testify before it, and a UN committee is not far behind.
The soldier suspected of selling the computers was arrested late Monday night, along with three soldiers suspected of buying them. In the process police say they discovered additional stolen goods in the soldier’s possession, including more laptop computers and cellular phones.
Later an officer was arrested on suspicion he sold the goods to the soldier. The officer, a second-lieutenant in rank, is a commander of an army unit who had access to the ships while they docked at Ashdod port, awaiting their return to Turkey.
Police say the officer stole 4-6 laptops from the ship and then sold them to the soldier, who in turn sold them to three other soldiers two months ago. The three have already admitted to making the purchases during questioning, and the computers were confiscated by police. They were found to be brand new, and not meant for sale in Israel.
They also told interrogators that the soldier who sold them the goods told them they had been stolen from the flotilla ships, yet they did not pass the information on to their commanders.
Activists complained of theft
The soldier and officer have yet to appear before the court for a hearing on the remand of their arrests. Police say other soldiers are yet to be arrested, but refuse to give further details.
Meanwhile investigators are intent on discovering where exactly the goods came from, and whether they were stolen from flotilla passengers. One investigator said that if indeed the goods were found to belong to activists on board, they would be recompensed.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirmed reports of an investigation Wednesday, but said that it was “not at all certain the equipment was taken from the flotilla”.
Complaints by flotilla passengers about stolen equipment surfaced not long after the raid. Activists told the British Guardian in June that credit cards confiscated by the IDF had been used.
The Guardian reported that soldiers had used the cards to purchase various items, including iPod accessories. Claims regarding calls made from confiscated cell phones followed.
The IDF responded to the claims by stating that all of the personal effects brought by the activists to Israel had been placed aboard planes that transported them from the country, but that audio and video cassettes had been confiscated for security reasons.
Source : Ynetnews
Journalist and author Reese Erlich spoke on, “Obama’s Challenge: Iran, Nuclear Weapons and the Fate of the Middle East.”
Scott Horton :
On April 1, 2010 I participated in a panel discussion at the University of California at Riverside titled “Obama’s challenge: Iran, Nuclear Weapons & the Mideast” with Reese Erlich, Larry Greenfield and Christopher Records – here is some of my part. Thanks to Mansoor Sabbagh for the video.
He survived his vindictive spell in isolation, and pariah status, with head unbowed – now Israel must allow him to go
When the nuclear whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, was released from prison in 2004 after serving 18 years, 12 of them in solitary confinement, he said he was ready to start a new life. The authorities in Israel were not. He was charged with breaking the terms of his parole which forbade him from speaking to foreigners, a restriction which can be traced to the emergency regulations of the British Mandate. A week ago Vanunu was released once again, after serving 10 weeks for that so-called offence.
He said he hoped the prime minister and the head of Shin Bet would solve the problem of having to rearrest him by letting him leave the country. The idea that 24 years after he leaked details and pictures of Israel’s nuclear bomb programme to the Sunday Times, and six years after he completed his sentence, this junior technician from Dimona would still have sensitive secrets up his sleeve is plainly ludicrous. It is one that no serious Israeli military analyst accepts.
He survived his vindictive spell in isolation, and his pariah status as Israel’s most reviled man, with his head unbowed. As Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the Pentagon Papers has said, Vanunu is the preeminent hero of the nuclear era. By telling the truth, and revealing that his country’s stockpile was much larger than the CIA and others had guessed, he certainly caused it mild problems 24 years ago, when Norway announced a ban on exports of heavy water. He causes no problems now. Israel must allow Vanunu to go.
Hello all,
Tonight’s (Monday) Panorama programme was truly appalling
even by the BBC’s dire standards.
Willem happened to spot it just before it started – to the
best of our knowledge it had not been advertised in advance.
It claimed to be looking into “what really happened” when
the Israeli navy attacked the Mavi Marmara. No chance.
It’s hard to know where to start, but here are just some of the
aspects of bias that struck us:
– copious interviews with Israeli military spokespeople including
one who took part in the assault, whose anonymity was
preserved by blurring his face and anonymising him as “Lieutenant A”;
– use of film footage either shot by the Israelis or stolen
by them from those on the boat;
– use of some film footage by “Cultures of Resistance”, but always
with the implication that this was a group which encouraged
violence;
– portrayal of the IHH as a terrorist group which took control of
the ship;
– NO interviews with any Palestinian person, to the best of my knowledge,
apart from a Hamas spokesman;
– interviews with only ONE non-Turkish person on the boat, so that
most of the testimony from those on the boat was mediated by
translation;
– no interviews with representatives of any organisation participating
in the flotilla apart from IHH;
– no interviews with anyone on any of the other boats, indeed hardly
any mention that the Mavi Marmara was part of a large flotilla
organised by international humanitarian groups;
– no indication whatsoever that Israel’s attack might have been illegal
under international law – the emphasis was only on whether the force
used was “proportionate”;
– scheduling the broadcast during the evening in the first week of
Ramadan when many Muslim viewers were unlikely to be watching because
they would be breaking their fast;
– worst of all, playing the tape provided by the Israelis which has a
voice supposedly saying to them, from the Mavi Marmara, “go back to
Auschwitz”.
This tape has been SHOWN to be a fake. Any pretence at investigative
journalism has gone right out of the window.
As some of you know, Tony Greenstein has been collecting signatures for an
advertisement to be placed in the Independent (and also the Guardian if funds
permit) raising the issue of the BBC’s consistent pro-Israel bias. Now is
the time for that advert to be published! But Tony still needs funds. Send
your pledges to him at tonygreenstein@yahoo.com and he will tell you where to
send the cheques. You can add your signature too if you have not yet done so.
Tony can let you have the full text of the proposed advertisement.
Here are the BBC web pages covering this abysmal piece of broadcasting – the
tone of the web pages are exactly the tone of the programme itself:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/default.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8909000/8909361.stm
And here is how to make a complaint to the BBC if you saw any of this
shameless hasbarah and want to tell them what you think of it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/
Please forward this post to appropriate lists and individuals. Apologies
for the inevitable duplication.
Targeting: Barack Obama (President, USA), Rt Hon David Cameron (Prime Minister, UK) and Binyamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister, Israel)
Started by: Gail Vaughn
The following letter has been sent by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, and Gerry Grehan, Chair of the Peace People, Northern Ireland, to President Barak Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, other world leaders and prominent personalities, to ask for their help in obtaining the lifting of all restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu and for him to be granted freedom to leave Israel.
Please express your support for this letter by signing this petition.
28 July 2010
We are writing to you on behalf of a good man, a man of peace and conscience, who was returned to prison for three months on 23 May 2010.
He was released from prison on Sunday 8 August 2010. We need your support to help gain his freedom from Israel.
He is Mordechai Vanunu the Israeli nuclear whistle blower. In October l986, Vanunu told the world that Israel had a Nuclear Weapons Programme. He was kidnapped and given 18 years imprisonment for espionage and treason. Twenty four years later he continues to be punished. In the Jewish Scriptures there is great emphasis on justice and freedom. He served the full 18 years of his sentence (twelve years in solitary confinement, described by Amnesty International as “cruel, inhuman and degrading”). Upon his release, the Israeli Government put severe restrictions upon him, including forbidding him to leave Israel and speak to the foreign media. It was the breaking of these restrictions, in summer 2004, by speaking to the foreign media, (mainly a long interview to the BBC), which resulted in his being returned to solitary confinement again this May.
Last month Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and called on the Israeli authorities to lift the restrictions immediately. “The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu arbitrarily limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association and are therefore in breach of international law. They should be lifted and he should be allowed to start his life again as a free man. Mordechai Vanunu should not be in prison at all, let alone be held in solitary confinement in a unit intended for violent criminals. He suffered immensely when he was held in solitary confinement for 11 years after his imprisonment in 1986 and to return him to such conditions now is nothing less than cruel, inhuman or degrading.” 18 June 2010 Amnesty International
Yet, when he is released from prison he will still have to remain in Israel and the restrictions will be reviewed and probably renewed yet again, as they have been renewed each year for the past 6 years.
Vanunu is seen as a traitor by some, a hero by others. One thing is clear, he has been punished and served the full sentence and it is time after 24 years to do the human thing and let him live as a free man.
The Israeli Supreme Court continues to accept the Secret Services’ claims that he still has secrets, but a report by Reuters, 20 December 2009, shows that he does not :
” … Yet Uzi Eilam, a retired army brigadier-general who ran the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission between 1976 and 1986, said anything that Vanunu — a cause célèbre among disarmament campaigners — might still disclose about Dimona is of little relevance. “I’ve always believed he should be let go,” said Eilam.
“I don’t think he has significant things to reveal (about Dimona) now.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE5BJ0A5
However, we believe that he will be free and our hope is that you will in some way facilitate his early release which would be welcomed by a world waiting and watching for a peaceful and secure future for Israel and its people. We would greatly appreciate your advising us of any action you take – info@peacepeople.com.
Shalom,
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
Gerry Grehan, Chair of the Peace People
Vanunu has been nominated year after year for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The many prominent names who have called for his release and respect of his human rights over the last 24 years include:
The late Nobel Laureates Joseph Rotblat and Harold Pinter; Nobel Laureates Former President Jimmy Carter; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Mary Ellen McNish (on behalf of AFSC); Betty Williams; Adolfo Perez Esquival; Rigoberta Menchu; Shirin Ebadi; Wangari Maathai; Mairead Maguire; John Hume
Kidnap victims Brian Keenan; Anthony Gray
Politicians and human rights activists: the late Robin Cook, former UK Foreign Secretary; former Israeli Minister Shulamit Aloni; Helen Bamber; Simon Hughes; Daniel Elsberg; Bruce Kent; Noam Chomsky; Rabbi Philip Bentley (USA); Michael Mansfield QC; Dr Paul Oestreicher; Baroness Helena Kennedy QC; Tariq Ali; Jeremy Corbyn; Ken Livingstone; Ben Birnberg; David Goldberg QC; Alex Salmund
Actors, writers, musicians and artists: Emma Thompson; Julie Christie; Susannah York; Vanessa Redgrave; the late Corin Redgrave; Yoko Ono; Bono; Peter Gabriel; the late Graham Greene; the late Yehudi Menuhin; Janet Suzman; Gilad Atzmon; Richard Hamilton; Michael Rosen; David Gilmore; Benjamin Zephaniah, Alexie Sayle; Maggie Hambling; Tom Conti; Simon Callow; Jeremy Hardy; Miriam Margolyes; Prunella Scales; Arnold Wesker; John Williams; Roger Lloyd-Pack; Christopher Logue; the late Adrian Mitchell
Journalists: Andrew Neil; Jon Snow; John Pilger; Robert Fisk; Duncan Campbell; Victoria Brittain; Richard Norton-Taylor
