Israel is Attacking a Civilian Ship in International Waters!

This is from freegaza.org
Please take action immediately! Along with medical supplies and food, Cynthia McKinney is on that ship.

URGENT! Israeli Navy Attacking Civilian Mercy Ship! TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY!

Date : 12-30-2008
The Dignity, a Free Gaza boat on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, is being attacked by the Israeli Navy in international waters. The Dignity has been surrounded by at least half-a-dozen Israeli warships. They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage. Contrary to international maritime law, the Israelis are actively preventing the Dignity from approaching Gaza or finding safe haven in either Egypt or Lebanon. Instead, the Israeli navy is demanding that the Dignity return to Cyprus - despite the fact that the ship does not carry enough fuel to do so. Fortunately, no one aboard the ship has yet been seriously injured.

There are 15 civilian passengers representing 11 different countries (see below for a complete list). At approximately 5am (UST), well out in international waters, Israeli warships began surrounding the Dignity, threatening the ship. At 6:45am (UST) we were able to establish brief contact with the crew and were told that the ship had been rammed by the Israeli Navy in international waters, and that the Israelis were preventing the ship from finding safe harbor. We heard heavy gunfire in the background before all contact was lost with the Dignity.

It is urgent that you TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION!

URGENT! Israeli Navy Attacking Civilian Mercy Ship! TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY!

The Dignity, a Free Gaza boat on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, is being attacked by the Israeli Navy in international waters. The Dignity has been surrounded by at least half-a-dozen Israeli warships. They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage. Contrary to international maritime law, the Israelis are actively preventing the Dignity from approaching Gaza or finding safe haven in either Egypt or Lebanon. Instead, the Israeli navy is demanding that the Dignity return to Cyprus - despite the fact that the ship does not carry enough fuel to do so. Fortunately, no one aboard the ship has yet been seriously injured.

There are 15 civilian passengers representing 11 different countries (see below for a complete list). At approximately 5am (UST), well out in international waters, Israeli warships began surrounding the Dignity, threatening the ship. At 6:45am (UST) we were able to establish brief contact with the crew and were told that the ship had been rammed by the Israeli Navy in international waters, and that the Israelis were preventing the ship from finding safe harbor. We heard heavy gunfire in the background before all contact was lost with the Dignity.

It is urgent that you TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION!

CALL the Israeli Government and demand that it immediately STOP attacking the Dignity and endangering the lives of its passengers!

CALL Mark Regev in the Prime Minister's office at:
+972 2670 5354 or +972 5062 3264
mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

CALL Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence at:
+972 33697 5339 or +972 50629 8148
mediasar@mod.gov.il

We Lost

I don’t know exactly what we were trying to win.
Maybe we wanted to teach Russia how to colonize not only Afghanistan but also Iraq to boot. Well, we didn’t. We showed the world that the assessment, back when the U.S.S.R. fell, was the correct assessment.
Maybe we wanted oil, well we didn’t get it. We got an economy looted before our very eyes, in much the same manner as curators from Baghdad’s ancient museums watched relics and artworks that have survived for millenia, crushed to smithereens or sold on Ebay.
Maybe we wanted to bring democracy (sponsored by WalMart, Home Depot, Halliburton, Burger King, Black Hawk, Disney, GE, Exxon, Kellogg, Brown and Root, Microsoft and Starbucks) to those poor ol’ Muslims who invented civilization 4,000 years ago.
In any case, we lost.

Yes, I am the New York Times. I am CNN. I have millions of blogoreaders across the blogosphere and you heard it here first.
The brutal occupation of Iraq is over.
Our troops must be out of Iraq by December, 2011. All troops in cities, towns and villages must leave by June, 2009. The Green Zone is to be handed over to the Iraqi government practically immediately. Best of all! Private contractors (a.k.a. Dick Cheney’s best pals) will no longer have legal immunity, so everyone who murders tortures and/or rapes Iraqi folks or women associated with the occupation from now on will actually face some kind of penalty.
This seems like big news to me.
In the rest of the world it’s big news.

So there you have it. All the protests, all the petitions, all the articles and essays and organizations that started in outrage of this brual occupation have been vindicated.
There were no weapons of mass destruction
There was no democracy-bringing.
There wasn’t even a war.
There was a shameful, brutal occupation.
Millions of people died, were illegally incarerated or lost their homes. Millions of people can now officially able to be diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (which is a lot more luxurious than on-going traumatic stress disorder).
It’s over.
George Bush and his pals will lose a little face, but they made so much money off this shit, the point of “winning” or “losing” never entered those bitches consciousness.
If they aren't tried for war crimes then I might have to become a terrorist.
The people of Iraq lost a lot.
We lost too, but what exactly we lost will only come to light when the Iraqi people begin the arduous process of rebuilding their country.
Allah be with us all.

Thanks to Alexander Cockburn at Counterpunch for letting me know it was over. Here is his article, entitled: "It's Official: Total Defeat for the U.S. in Iraq."

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/112768/it%27s_official%3A_total_defeat_for_u.s._in_iraq/

P.S. Bush did not go there for a "farewell lap." He went there to get shoes thrown at him and to sign the papers saying "You failed, you miserable piece of shit."