Mark Perry on the leaked Pentagon Red Team Report on Hamas and Hezbollah, we asked him to examine Israel's reasons for refusing Turkey's offer to negotiate a way out of the crisis posed by the Gaza flotilla killings.
Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 29:00
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here and at archive.org and radio4all.net
Mark Perry is a military and political analyst and author of eight books, including Partners In Command, George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, and Talking with Terrorists.
Journalist Mark Perry joins us to talk about a sensational five page Pentagon report from a so-called, "Red Team." The report written by senior intelligence officers at the US Central Command, CENTCOM. It suggests that marginalizing Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have worked against US interests in the Middle East. The report drafted May 7th describes a US Military view that runs contrary to Israeli policies of isolating Hamas in Gaza, and the officers suggested integration of Hamas and Hezbollah into their respective political mainstreams. The Red Team report could mean that Israeli Government and Military officials will have a more difficult time arguing that humanitarian aid workers on board the Mavi Marmara were terrorists. Nine were shot and killed and fifty shot and wounded by Israeli commandos on May 31st.
An Israeli military investigation found mistakes made, but said the US of live rounds were justified. Israeli leaders first called the incident self defense, later claiming that the passengers were terrorists after a video showed them targeting and firing from above prior to landing on the Turkish aid vessel. The ship was one of eight vessels trying to bring aid into Gaza to break a blockade that left hundreds of thousands without a way to rebuild homes and government buildings after Israeli air strikes of 2009.
Israel's portrayal of the aid workers on the Mavi Marmara as terrorists appears to be based on the links some passengers had to the Hamas government in Gaza. If the Military does not classify them as terrorists, that could remove Israel's argument for militant policy including the blockade and occupation of Palestine.
Ret. U.S. Col. Ann Wright, who was a passenger on one of the other ships, told an audience in Hartford June 30th that a passenger on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara appears to have been shot before the Israeli commandos landed on the aid ship.
Portions of our interview with Mark Perry were also used in Sprouts, a Pacifica weekly, you can download it at audioport.org. You can also find audio of the talk given by Ret. Col. Ann Wright about the Mavi Marmara killings and the Gaza Freedom Movement at WHUS Radio, FM 91.7, online at WHUS.org.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said the Turkish flotilla activists, “Had ties to agents of international terror, international Islam, Hamas, al Qaeda, and others”. Mark Perry's source said: “Putting Hizballah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda in the same sentence, as if they are all the same, is just stupid”. – “I don’t know any intelligence officer at CENTCOM who buys that.”
We will be providing more of this interview with Mark Perry asap.
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