RETIRED US ARMY COLONEL BILLS HERSELF AS A WITNESS BUT WAS NOT ON THE MAVI MARA…
by Gil Ronen (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Published: 06/10/10, 9:52 PM / Last Update: 06/10/10, 10:00 PM
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 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.
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.
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).
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.
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