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“Why Is the U.S. Government Deaf to What Has Been Done to My Son?” Asks Father of an American Murdered on the Gaza Flotilla
Through his lawyers in Turkey, Ahmet Dogan, the father of Furkan Dogan, the 19 year old American citizen who was executed by Israeli commandos has challenged the U.S. government its lack concern about the death of his son.
Dogan was killed by commandos who shot him twice in the head and three times in other parts of his body on May 31, 2010 on the Mavi Marmara in the Gaza flotilla.
"Up to this moment, I still do not understand why the United States government is deaf to what has been done to my son, an American citizen. I urge the U.S. government to act to defend the rights of my son. I also would like to know why the U.S. voted against the Gaza Flotilla Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission at the Human Rights Council last week, as that report included information about the execution of my son, " said Dogan. (http://www.huffingtonpost.
U.S. votes against the U.N. Human Rights Council Fact Finding Mission report
The only country to vote against acceptance of the U.N Human Rights Council fact finding report (http://www2.ohchr.org/
Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said "The report's language, tone and conclusions are unbalanced." According to the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office called the U.N report "biased" and "distorted." In a radio interview, Israel's deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon said the report was "a big lie."
The United States has not conducted its own investigation into the death Furkan Dogan, but instead is relying on Israel to conduct "a thorough investigation" into his death and to "share its findings" with the U.S.
U.S. Passengers Send Letter to Secretary of State Clinton about U.S. Government Lack of Effort in Conducting an Investigation of the Death of a U.S. Citizen
On October 6, Furkan Dogan's father joined the U.S. passengers on the Gaza Flotilla in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that stated that they "are appalled at the lack of any visible, active effort on the part of any agency in our government to conduct and release an independent investigation of the killing of one and assaults on other Americans by a foreign military force, the Israeli commandos." (http://www.freegaza.org/
The U.S. passengers also challenged the Obama administration's protection of criminal actions by Israel at the expense of American citizens. "Protecting Israeli actions, particularly the complete reliance on its reports on the acts of its own military at the expense of American citizens, is an absolute dereliction of the responsibilities of our government. The State Department has allied itself with Israel, ignoring its responsibilities to its own citizens. We have been abandoned by our own government, and we demand an investigation of why and how the Department of State and the American Embassy in Tel Aviv have totally failed in their responsibilities to us."
With passengers' video and photo evidence of the attacks on the Mavi Marmara and the five other ships of the flotilla still in the hands of the Israeli government after four months, the passengers wrote: "We are also angered by lack of any concerted effort by the State Department to secure our possessions. We appreciate the efforts of junior and mid-level officials, but without the full weight of the senior leadership of the State Department, the Israeli government will continue to ignore our concerns."
New Report Gives Minute-by-Minute Timeline of the Israeli Attack on the Gaza Flotilla
Since the U.S. government cannot find the time to conduct its own investigation, U.S. officials might at least look at the 193 page report "Timeline & Inconsistencies Report Relating to the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla Attack" researched by the International Bureau of Humanitarian NGOs (IBH) and the Friends of Charities Association (FOCA) that was published this week that provides a minute-by minute timeline of the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Flotilla.
The report is based on publicly available accounts from the flotilla organizers and participants, ships' logs, reports, photos and video released by the Israeli government, news reports from around the world, the report of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Fact Finding Mission report.
A key part of the report is the evidence provided from film footage of the attack. Official videos from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) as well as from the Israeli Eiland Team investigation are cited in the report, in addition to video taken by one passenger that escaped confiscation by the Israeli authorities. The "Inconsistencies" portion of the report contrasts the different reporting of the incident, and includes clarifying analysis.
(http://www.foca.net/media/
Several of the videos that were released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and IDF on the Internet and on media broadcasts to support its version of events were found to have been digitally enhanced, computer-manufactured or fraudulent. The report provides screen shots of examples of the computer-generated segments within videos released by the Israeli government, several of which, although already exposed as false, were integrated into the Israeli military report "Eiland Team's Flotilla Incident Timeline."
10-12 Ships in the Next Gaza Flotilla
While investigations continue concerning the Israeli attack on the May, 2010 Gaza flotilla and on the Jewish German boat "Irene" on September 26, 2010, (http://jewishboattogaza.org/)
U.S. Ship Named "Audacity of Hope"
Join us to launch a U.S. ship in the next flotilla. In a challenge to U.S. complicity in the blockade of Gaza, the U.S. ship will be called "The Audacity of Hope." (www.ustogaza.org)
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33 Comments so far
Show Allmy sincere condolences, first.
collectively, we seem incapable of bringing justice to any crimes committed in our name, on our dime, and with our blood.
we who are silent in order to stay well fed, clad, and housed don't deserve to, but will, harvest what your son's ultimate sacrifice will produce in the future, though.
we are only repeating what the germans did under Hitler.
The United States is a disgrace.
The problem is what to do about it. As long as AIPAC continues to fund congressional election campaigns and vilifies anyone who stands against Israel, the congress will continue to do nothing. Clinton has long been an Israel lover, so the State department will do nothing, as will the rest of the Administration.
Well, we can burn a Torah. We saw that even the US wouldn't stand by and let the Koran be burned. That might make some news.
We can start murdering Jews in America the same way Americans have been murdered at the hands of the Israelis - like Rachel Corrie, troops on the USS Liberty, and passengers on the flotilla. Of course, that's what the Palestinians do in defense of their land and Israelis break more international law in their disproportionate revenge killings, so that wont work. Besides, somehow Jewish stallwarts in identifying Israeli crimes and other Israeli and US offenses, like Amy Goodman, Sy Hersh, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn(already gone), would end up being targets too. Besides, murder is wrong, but that dosen't stop Israel or the US military.
We can elect Ralph Nader President - he would do something about Israel. Of course, bolstering his 600,000 votes in 2008 will take some doing. He couldn't even get a debate along side the DemoCans candidates. US - a democracy - right.
So, what options does that leave us to get results. We can all go to Canada or get 'Tea Party' angry and go insane. Or we can continue to do what we've done all along, write congressmen, protest and hope that peaceful civil disobedience will work - it worked for Ghandi - but there are no Ghandis in America and there never will be.
It is not true that "murdering Jews...is what the Palestinians do in defense of their land..." Palestinian resistance against Israeli murder, torture, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is not "murder" if Israelis are killed. All occupied people (even Palestinians!) have a RIGHT to resist.
Israel's strategy has been to encourage Israeli "settlers" (i.e. violent squatters) to move onto Palestinian land, and then Israel moves in IDF troops to "protect" those "settlers" while they destroy the Palestinians' orchards, wells, farm animals and subject the Palestinians to ceaseless harassment and terror.
Then Israel screams "murder" when "settlers" are hurt or killed during the commission of their disgusting crimes.
Here's a good explanation: "Israel's Human Shields and Live Bait," by Sharmine Narwani of St. Antony's College, Oxford University:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharmine-narwani/israels-human-shields-and_b_755439.html
Be sure to click on the links to the youtube videos documenting the vicious Israeli "settlers" as they torment Palestinian mothers and children while the IDF troops stand by.
thanks for keeping things in perspective.Hit nail on head with this.
Boycott, divest, sanction
Mookie,
Have you read about the new Israeli "loyalty" pledge? It was passed by the Israeli cabinet just yesterday. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-cabinet-approves-loyalty-oath-for-nonjews-2103194.html. It's an interesting article.
Yeah, that's another piece of news that doesn't get coverage in the US. It is apalling that our President, Senators, and Representatives support a country that is ethnically cleansing territories it occupies and is intent on ethnically cleansing 20% of the population of its own territory (pre-1967 borders). And when Israel executes an American the President, Senators, and Reps remain silent.
The loyalty oath is a step for Israel to delegitimize people within its legally and illegally occupied territories. Israel/AIPAC regularly require our Congressmen to sign letters/bills supporting Israel (another form of loyalty oath).
I was thinking this morning about what powerful thing it would be for every congresscritter to wake up one morning and find a teepee inhabited on their lawn. These "Settlers" should, of course, be of the tribe that inhabited the area historically.
"We can all go to Canada..."
As a Canadian I thank you for a good laugh.
Do you think it is all sunshine and roses up here? Think again! We don't even have the right to a lawyer when facing police questioning in this country. The "authorities" rounded up hundreds of people during the G20 this summer for nothing more than walking down the street at the wrong time and according to most opinion polls the majority of Canadians thought nothing was wrong with that.
Canadians are simply more complacent, don't confuse that with being any better off in the rights and freedoms departments.
It is something to make a father proud, that his son would join an aid convoy bringing food and supplies to a people who have been ethnically cleansed from their homes, walled into a ghetto, bombed, bulldozed, and tied tight in a blockade. It is impossible to imagine that such a fine son would be executed on the high-seas by attacking commandos, for doing such a humane and humanitarian actions. It is impossible to imagine that the US government would vote against condemning this. But these impossibilities now happen. What does it mean, that the USA, alone, approves such attacks and such executions? We are a nation truly lost in our own arrogance, completely out of touch with reality and with our own heritage.
Ther report referred to in this article is the fact finding report on the murders of the activists on the Mavi Mamara. The US Congress' condemnation of the Goldstone Report is another, separate outrage and disgrace.
What degree of outrage would Israel have to commit to be condemned by the US?
9/11?
Mr: Dogan,
My sincere condolences for the loss of your son, but don't expect our government to do anything.
In a challenge to U.S. complicity in the blockade of Gaza, the U.S. ship will be called "The Audacity of Hope."
Great! Israeli commandos will kill a few of the activists on the ship, then Obama will sue the next of kin for copyright infringement.
"Why Is the U.S. Government Deaf to What Has Been Done to My Son?” Asks Father of an American Murdered on the Gaza Flotilla"
Waldon Bello - see his article on Common Dreams today - says it's because our leaders in the Democratic Party majority are "hypnotized" bunny rabbits out on the railroad tracks.
The strike in France has demonstrates why our government cares nothing about its citizens. The USA tells us that we exist to serve the state and we believe them. There is nothing any other state can do to anybody that will bother our leaders. Our government cares only about relations with other states.
People don't matter and any country who thinks they do will find itself ostracized by our government. Our government is a friend only to other governments who use, abuse, and then throw away people. Israel, China, know how to handle liberals. France, Sweden, need to take some lessons from Blackwater.
The USA was never the shining city on a hill, but until recently it was not comparable to other brutal, repressive regimes on the planet.
In case you think they might leave us alone when they own 99% of the country's wealth guess again. If you are weak you deserve whatever the strong say you deserve. There never has been, there never will be a powerful, greedy pig who decides all on his own that he has enough, and should leave the underlings with what little they have left.
Why is AIPAC's Dennis Ross Obama's point man in Israel/Palestine talks?
I am so sorry about the murder of Furkan Dorgan. I was called "anti American" yesterday, because I have antiwar stickers, and plates on my car. OK. I will now accept that label.
Why? Ask Rachael Corrie's parents or the survivors of the USS Liberty.
The death of a fine young man like Furkan Dogan on the Gaza Flotilla is a tragedy that pains me deeply. But the apathy of the US government, disgusting as it is, does not surprise me in the least.
The obscenely powerful nature of the pro Israel lobby is well known, but the muted reaction to the killing of Rachel Corrie, as well as the largely forgotten 1967 USS Liberty incident does not bode well for the odds of justice for Furkan.
The silence of the US and its citizenry on this issue as well as Rachel's and the USS Liberty is positively thunderous and ear-splitting.
I just wanted to thank Ms. (Col.) Wright for doing something about the holocaust of our time: having her feet on the ground (or, in this case, aboard) and bearing witness to the truth. Her courage is defined not by her years of service but by her principled (and solitary - how sad) resignation as the madness intensified.
"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger
I'd also like to thank Ms. Wright and other flotilla members and supporters and encourage people to support them in anyway they can. These are people who have decided that if their countries won't take action to help the Palestinians, they themselves will do it. Attempts to break the blockade may not occur initially and with each additional attempt, more pressure is put on Israel to lift the blockade and more awareness will be created. The next attempt with 10-12 ships appears to be an attempt to raise the stakes for Israel.
Another group that also works hard is the International Solidarity Movement, who also deserve support.
The reason why is because a coup d'etat occurred in the US. In 1982 when the US government under Reagan violated my Constitutional rights by having me declared insane.No one would protect me from the counter revolutionaries. Somebody in the government made that decision. No politician would have dared to be involved in such a decision, which contradicts all law and justice and would result in a disastrous scandal if it were discovered. If the government was involved then you can see that the US isn't one iota better than any dictatorship in the entire world. It was the government that had me declared insane. I remember how before that time the US government was always condemning USSR for having dissidents declared insane. You don't see that information in papers anymore.
It never ceases to amaze me, how we have reached the point, where a tiny country like Israel has so much influence over the World's largest superpower. How have so many people holding dual nationality (Israeli/US) been allowed to infiltrate the most important sectors of the US administration? What is the current population of the US, 300 million, maybe more? How many of those people are Zionists or support Zionism? The Middle East conflict is like a cancer affecting the rest of the World, gradually spreading and infecting surrounding countries, and what does the US do? Instead of finding the cancer, making a sensible diagnosis, and then removing the malignant parts, it simply ignores the obvious, thus allowing the cancer to flourish and become more deadly.
If the US continues to aid Israel and turn a blind eye to its wrongdoings, then the end result will be a war, the like of which has never been witnessed before.
I have heard Ms. Wright speak on several occasions. I asked her a question about this event a couple months ago after a talk she did on the subject.
I asked her why israel did this, knowing the backlash that would occur, PR wise. She said that as far as she could figure out, it is just to show that they *can*.
In answer to the question posed in the title of this article, (Why is the u.s. deaf....?) What would you expect from a 'government' that tortures with abandon? And besides, israel is the u.s. twin in evil.
Actually, i think that this tact of asking these rhetorical question, over and over again is not very helpful. I think it is time to let go of the pretense that the God Blessed USA is some kind of ....well....Blessed entity. Just like it is time to see that the pope isn't the transmitter of universal light and wisdom.
Old beliefs die hard and it is time to break through and face reality, or else it is all over. Nothing new will emerge until that happens. It is time for humanity to grow up and get real.
And i don't believe in martyrdom, by the way. I think the flotilla idea was a great one, but they need something like a quarter million dollars to fund a boat. I think there may be better things to do with that money, since it is apparant that this is becoming the new civil disobedience move that no one is going to pay attention to.
On the other hand, i don't think israel will kill anyone else on these boats. It will just be arrests and confiscations, over and over again.
I could be wrong, however i do know that the average american (mainstream politically) - and i have spoken with many - assume that israel had the right to invade the flotilla's since they could well have been terrorists.
The question of why the US has remained silent, even covered for the Israeli crimes, cannot be answered adequately. But that it happened is no surprise. Remember that the Israelis attacked the USS Liberty killing tens of US sailors with absolutely no recriminations from the US government, indeed when a US admiral sent aircraft to protect our ship, Washington told him to recall them. Obama is just following in the footsteps of his predecessors.
Remember that passage in ANIMAL FARM when the animals looked through the window and saw the pigs (rulers of the animals) drinking with the humans who were ostensibly enemies of the animals?
One of the pigs decided to make a joke. Restraining his laughter only with effort he said to the humans "If you have your lower classes, we have our lower animals."
Israel, the US, China, (look for North Korea to become a pal of the US government soon) , Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and others have formed a cabal dedicated to the creation of a slave class. Hell, we already have families with both parents working who can't escape poverty. Our government doesn't care.
If the poor have to go to work (they dare not miss a day) with a toothache or have a child at home alone who is sick, or can't afford to hire a lawyer to protect their rights---tough. They are, after all poor and dispensible.
Poor and want to educate your children? Forget it. Now in this country if you are born poor the odds are overwhelming that you and your children and grandchildren will die poor.
Want to live in a land of opportunity? Move to Sweden, France, Germany, Canada, ----almost any country except Iraq and Iran. Tell me again why we are fighting these countries which our leaders are trying so hard to emulate?
I do not mean to make light of any of this disgrace...but...there are the universal Laws of Karma...they may not act when we want or in the manner we think they should but they are very real...discernment, mindfulness and compassion towards all...there is a world of sickness and pain right outside your door, it needs healing and that can only begin from within, in order to bring about peace and justice we first have to develop those qualities within ourselves so that we may extend them to others...I do not mean this to be feel good garbage, it's painful and a lot of hard work to look within but how else are we going to help this poor man and humanity without perpetuating more sickness?...Peace
The US Govt has been taken over by Israel's fifth column, AIPAC.
Netanyahu says America is easy to manipulate.
“Why Is the U.S. Government Deaf to What Has Been Done to My Son?” Any serious peace activist can give the obvious answer to that question. It's because the minority of US citizens who see themselves gaining personally from official "Jewish" advantage in an officially Jewish-supremacist Israel, created by ethnic-cleansing, and constantly forcing itself deeper into multi-ethnic Palestine through explicitly racist "Jewish Only" settlements, are incomparably more focused, organized, and energetic than the majority of Americans, who hardly see how this issue affects them, and tend to believe the lies of their self-interested Zionist friends, neighbors, co-workers, lovers, and fellow "peace activists." Even the "peace movement" is so thoroughly saturated with Zionist "two-state peace" posers (a patently racist position) as to be unable to take an ordinary egalitarian, zero-tolerance stand against the most flagrant campaign of ethnic violence supported by any significant portion of the US population since Southern slavery. The US government is only doing what the Zionist-corrupted US population wants it to do. The US government is not going to stand up against Zionist racism until sometime AFTER a US peace-movement can begin to treat Israeli racism with the same primary emphasis and zero tolerance that applies in all other cases.
Here is a picture of Furkan Dogan:
http://www.ihh.org.tr/uploads/10/06/30/09/1e5/furkan-dogan-1.jpg
My most sincere sympathy to Furkan's father and family. This handsome young American was living according to his conscience and his "higher self". He did not deserve to be murdered by the Israeli's because he had love and compassion in his heart. Obama declared his murder and the murders of the others who were with Furkan as "unfortunate".
What is "unfortunate" is the fact that Israel has what appears to be a political stranglehold on The United States Congress and Executive branch of our government. This must change.
It appears that this is the way the world is headed:
http://www.raceforiran.com/iran-the-post-american-world-and-the-security-council’s-looming-legitimacy-crisis
It is only a matter of time before the truth will come out about a whole lot of things.
Some truths may not come out in our lifetimes, but have heart. We must have faith and keep on keeping on with what we all know is the right and honorable way to live.
We must keep on talking the talk of truth and walking the walk of justice every day of our lives. We must never lose hope that someday peace, truth and justice WILL be the rule of the world.
Here is Professor Francis Boyle's take on the future of Israel:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/10/01/prof-francis-boyle-the-impending-collapse-of-israel-in-palestine/