10 Deaths Aboard Gaza Flotilla--Is It Because Of Their Terrorist Connections?

One of the organisers of the flotilla, which includes three vessels from Turkey, is IHH, a humanitarian aid group supported by Ankara.
The Guardian 

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During the boarding of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.

As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, including live fire.

According to initial reports, these events resulted in over ten deaths among the demonstrators and numerous injured, in addition, more than four naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners are currently being evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.
Israel Defense Force Spokesperson

The IHH is a humanitarian group? Not by a long shot.


CAMERA notes:

Missing from all coverage thus far is any indication of the radical nature of the organizations sponsoring the flotilla. To characterize them as "pro-Palestinian," while accurate, hardly conveys adequately who they are and what they promote. The organizations include far-left individuals, such as members of the Communist Party in Sweden and members of the extremist International Solidarity Movement which advocates "armed struggle" against Israel as well as Islamist groups fronting for Hamas and with ties to the global jihad and Al Quaeda.

Uri Goldflam of the Canada-Israel Committee writes:

When watching the coverage of the intl. media I noticed that the boat people are chanting. Fair haired and bright eyed "human rights activists" from all over the world who are sure they are doing the right thing are sitting hand in hand and chanting in Arabic:
Haibar Haiber ya Yahud – Jaish Muhammad Sa'ufa Ya'ud
Translation: Remember Haibar Oh, Jews – Muhammad's Army will return.

What does this mean? Don’t believe me, ask any Arabic speaker with a basic Islamic education.

The battle at Haibar is an episode that every Muslim knows from the early days of Islam. After Muhammad traveled to Medina from Meca he tried to convert the Jewish tribes living there. When the Jews refused to convert he expels them from the city. At a place called Haibar he slaughtered the men and sold the women into slavery. The loot from this carnage was used to buy much support for Muhammad and strengthen his leadership.

What does this have to do with Gaza? With human rights? Nothing. When Muslims chant "remember Haibar" – it is not a figure of speech it's a genocidal political program. And the misguided "human rights activists" are chanting right along thinking they are singing Kumbaya or "we shall overcome".

Based on the paper: The Role of Islamic Charities in International Terrorist Recruitment and Financing by Evan F. Kohlmann, published by The Danish Institute for International Studies, the court papers of the case of the United States of America v. Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi (especially page 17), and Right Side News, it emerges that:

• This is supposedly a human rights organization, but they work with directly, support, aid and are closely affiliated with the Islamic terror network: explicit ties to Hamas, Al Qaida, as well other militant Islamic organizations based in Algeria,Libya, Turkey.
  
  
• Cooperation between the Hamas government & IHH is pretty blatant. There was a recent joint press conference between a Hamas official, "the chairman of the governmental committee for breaking the siege on Gaza" and a representative of IHH. The Hamas minister of communications announced a month ago that the Hamas government made special preparations for the ships in the Gaza port including "repairing and dredging the basin of the port so that mid-sized ships could pass through". So Hamas is coordinating closely with this initiative. (Source: Right Side News)
  
  
• In December 1997, Turkish authorities began a criminal investigation into IHH when sources revealed to them that the IHH had purchased semi-automatic weapons from Islamic militant groups. Their Istanbul bureau was thoroughly searched and the local leaders arrested. Inside the bureau an array of items were found: "firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions and a jihadi flag." After analyzing seized IHH documents, the Turkish authorities determined that the arrested leaders were about to be sent to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.
  
  
• Famed counter-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere found that in the mid 1990's the IHH president conspired to recruit members for jihad, and sent members to war zones in Muslim countries in order to gain combatant experience. He obtained support by these Muslim countries by transferring weapon and explosives caches to these countries.
  
  
• In 1996, phone records of the IHH showed calls to an Al Qaida guesthouse in Milan and to Algerian terror cells throughout Europe.
  
  
• Jean-Louis Bruguiere also testified to a U.S. Court that the IHH played a "central role" in the attempted Al Qaida Millenium bomb plot targeting LAX. He added that the IHH is a "cover-up" NGO which served to recruit, forge document and traffic weapons for these Mujahideens.
  
  
• During the Iraqi war, IHH funneled funds to insurgents in a Sunni dominated area of central Iraq. These were funds used to kill American soldiers in Iraq.
  
  
• They have doctored their photos of providing humanitarian aid and relief supplies.
  
  
• During the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, the IHH was banned from providing relief aid efforts because it was deemed by the government as a fundamentalist organization and would not provide transparency to Turkish officials of their bank accounts.
  
  
• The IHH has also had contact with Abdurahman Alamoudi, founder of the American Muslim Council, who is serving a 23 year sentence for illegal transactions with the Libyan government and was part of a Libyan plot to assassinate the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
  
  
• The IHH organization is banned in Israel. Defense Minister Ehud Barak signed an order citing the IHH as an organization that fund-raises for Hamas as well as assisting them. A worker from the organization was arrested on April 27th of this year in Judea and Samaria for assisting the IHH and other illegal organizations for "compromising the security of the area" according to the Shin Bet. [hat tip: Augean Stables]

Not surprisingly, the media continues to give this group--and everyone associated with the flotilla--a pass.
And that was before Israel confronted the ships.
Now that there have been deaths, how much more tilted can we expect the media to be?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Gaza Flotilla.