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How weary can one get?
A wildfire has reached Los Alamos nuclear facilities. We are told that the 55,000 barrels of radioactive waste are safe. Although that may be true, are we?
It could all be balanced by the two Nuclear Power plants in Nebraska that may become flooded. It could go down the Missouri river, or Mizzurah river (if you are over 65 and have a double digit IQ), and thence to the Mississippi. Perhaps it will all meet up in the gulf which, as well all know, is environmentally safe.
The Flotilla is still having problems from sabotage. One in Turkey was sabotaged.
Rod Blago was convicted of being a typical Illinois Governor. Fitzgerald, a Republican prosecutor, finally got a jury to agree on most counts. The fact that Blago didn’t get a cent out of this is irrelevant.
This prosecutor did not get much done in the Valerie Plaime affair, except convict “Scooter” Libby. He named himself Scooter because of his baseball hero, Phil Rizzuto. I don’t get no respect. I tell ya. If I tried to name myself after my favorite all-time players, first choice would be “Dizzy,” the hell with that. Second choice: Jungle Jim. C’mon! Third choice? “Spaceman.” Screw that! I tell ya, life ain’t fair.
If you want to go after what people call corrupt, and want a Governor, just look at South Carolina. That Tea Party woman beats everything Illinois has ever produced, and that’s saying a lot. Use Google.
Here are a few transcripts proving that there are males on the flotilla. The featured one is Jewish and armed (with a harmonica):
June 30, 2011
Debunking the Israeli-US Effort to Thwart Gaza Freedom Flotilla: “We Are Committed to Non-Violence”
In addition to fears of ship sabotage and threats from the Israeli military, the U.S. citizens trying to sail to Gaza aboard U.S.-flagged ship “The Audacity of Hope” in the humanitarian flotilla are dealing with another challenge: their own government. The U.S. Department of State has warned U.S. passengers they could face "fines and incarceration" for taking part in the flotilla and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to have given Israel the green light to use force. Last week, Clinton said the flotilla would be [provoking] actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves." The threat of violence comes just one year after Israeli forces killed nine passengers in the first flotilla to Gaza after storming their ship. The passengers aboard the U.S. ship this year are a diverse group — parents, grandparents, young people, lawyers, doctors, nurses, social workers and peace activists. They include a Jewish survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, 87-year old Hedy Epstein; and the acclaimed writer, poet and activist Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Color Purple." As The Audacity of Hope prepares to depart from Greece, Democracy Now! producers Aaron Maté and Hany Massoud spoke to crew member and former Israeli air force pilot, Yonatan Shapira, about the Israeli-U.S. effort to thwart the ship’s journey.Yonatan Shapira, former Israeli Air Force pilot turned peace activist who is now a crew member on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s U.S.-flagged ship, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Aaron Maté, Democracy Now! producer reporting from Athens, Greece where he is covering the Audacity of Hope’s journey, part of the Second Freedom Flotilla to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Related stories
- Live Update From Jewish Holocaust Survivor on U.S. Ship in Gaza Flotilla
- Exclusive Tour of Gaza-Bound U.S. Ship, Audacity of Hope; Saboteurs Damage Other Ships in Flotilla
- It Takes People on the Outside: Prestigious Author Alice Walker to Confront Israeli Naval Blockade of Gaza on U.S. Aid Ship
- “We Are Eager to Get to Gaza”: Democracy Now! Exclusive Report from Greece on U.S. Gaza Aid Flotilla
- Obama Admin Warns of “Fines and Incarceration” if U.S. Citizens Set Sail with Gaza Aid Flotilla
Related Links
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
Related stories
- Live Update From Jewish Holocaust Survivor on U.S. Ship in Gaza Flotilla
- Debunking the Israeli-US Effort to Thwart Gaza Freedom Flotilla: “We Are Committed to Non-Violence”
- It Takes People on the Outside: Prestigious Author Alice Walker to Confront Israeli Naval Blockade of Gaza on U.S. Aid Ship
- “We Are Eager to Get to Gaza”: Democracy Now! Exclusive Report from Greece on U.S. Gaza Aid Flotilla
- Obama Admin Warns of “Fines and Incarceration” if U.S. Citizens Set Sail with Gaza Aid Flotilla
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JUAN GONZALEZ: Organizers of the humanitarian flotilla to the Gaza strip say another one of their ships has been sabotaged. The engine of an Irish ship docked in Turkey was reportedly so badly damaged it would have sunk in the middle of the ocean threatening the lives of the passengers on board. It’s at least the second flotilla vessel to be targeted this week following damage to a Greek-Swedish ship docked in a port near Athens.
Activists have accused Israel of orchestrating the sabotage but say they have no direct proof. The Israeli government is trying to stop the ships from leaving port and has vowed to intercept them should they set sail. An Israeli official quoted in the Jerusalem Post said the more "they have to run in place in Athens, the better it is for Israel."
AMY GOODMAN: Well one of the ships in the ten-vessel flotilla is the U.S.-based "Audacity of Hope," named after President Obama’s best-selling book. At least three dozen U.S. citizens are on board, carrying letters from Americans to the people of Gaza. Democracy Now! Producer Aaron Maté and videographer Hany Massoud are in Greece to cover the Audacity of Hope’s journey. On Wednesday, Yonatan Shapira — a former Israeli Air Force pilot turned peace activist who is now a crew member on the U.S. boat — gave Democracy Now! a rare look inside the ship and talked about the threat of sabotage. For our tv audience, we had to shoot this video carefully at the request of flotilla organizers who don’t want to give away the ship’s location.
YONATAN SHAPIRA: So, we are now inside the "Audacity of Hope". My name is Yonatan Shapira and I’m a crew member on the Audacity of Hope together with four other people. We have a captain from the United States, another crew member from Washington and two other crew members from the U.K. and I’m from Israel. And we have the passengers that are about 36-40 and probably around 10 media persons who are going to be on board. The boat is approximately 35 meters. It was bought in Greece and yeah, we are hoping to leave soon to Gaza. We are carrying a very dangerous weapon it’s letters from people in the United States to Gaza. I have my own very dangerous weapon that is my harmonica I hope the Israeli navy will not choose to do the mistake and stop us and arrest us for carrying letters to Gaza. So let me show you upstairs real quick.
It’s a lovely deck and that would be the place where probably we will spend most of the time cause it’s nice breeze and comfortable benches. What we know already happened to other boats, it was all published in the last 24 hours, is that the boat of the Swedish-Norwegian-Greek group was sabotaged by divers and I guess everyone can guess who did it. It’s my brothers from Israel. What they did is they cut, small cuts in both of the shuts that goes to the propellers and as soon as the captain of their boat, just for checking the engine, turned it on it completely "bended" it. The boat is now dry docked and they hope to be ready in maybe a couple of days or so.
They are definitely trying whatever they can not to let us go. Yesterday as an act of safety I dived around the boat in this quite filthy water, but we wanted to make sure that our boat is still fine, but we have to guard 24 hours a day and make sure that no one is sabotaging our boat, which of course is an act of crime, it’s a completely criminal thing to sabotage engines, propellers of a boat, it can create an accident, it can create a very very dangerous potential harm for passengers or crew. So we have to be very very careful, but determined with a lot of audacity and a lot of hope.
AMY GOODMAN: Israeli air force pilot Yonatan Shapira on the Audacity of Hope, the U.S. flag ship that contains more than 50 people, we’ll go there live in a moment, that are trying to set sail to challenge the Israeli blockade to Gaza. When we come back we’ll hear Yonatan Shapira’s own story.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
AARON MATÉ: Amy I’m standing on the Audacity of Hope. We’re still moored at dockside. They’ve just unveiled the banner on the side of the ship, it says "To Gaza With Love." And they’ve put an American flag on top of the boat to remind Israelis that they expect to intercede, that this is an American ship with U.S. citizens sharing the cargo, which I can see right now they’ve spread out some of the cargo, it’s a bunch of, they’re to Gaza residents, from U.S. citizens, I’m looking at one right now, I’m picking one up, it says, "To Gaza With Love," and it’s from Jason 5, and there’s a picture of a rainbow and a sun.
The passengers are here. They’re excited they’re getting ready to go. Of course there’s been a lot of raids. The police have been here a lot. Of course the ship has been held up by Greek authorities because there was a complaint filed by an Israeli group. But the spirit here is one of defiance. People are ready to go. And actually I’m going to pass you right now to one of the passengers, her name is Hedy Epstein, she’s an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, and she’s right here.
AMY GOODMAN: Aaron is turning to her right now. It’s not a great line, but they are on the Audacity of Hope, so we’re going to give this a try. Hedy Epstein why are you trying, why are you on this boat attempting to get to Gaza?
HEDY EPSTEIN: Why would I not want to go to Gaza? If I can go anywhere in the world, I go to Gaza because the Israelis don’t want me to go there. That’s not a good reason for me not to go. I’m determined to go. This is my try to go to Gaza and if I don’t make it this time [inaudible], until we can go to Gaza at any time we want to.
AMY GOODMAN: Hedy Epstein, a Jewish survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. She is 86 years old, on board the Audacity of Hope. We will continue to cover the attempted journey of the Audacity of Hope. They were expected to leave last Saturday. We will update you on our website, at democracynow.org. Hedy Epstein thank you for joining us. Democracy Now!’s Aaron Maté on board the ship he will be covering this journey.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
