[Bilge_Rat]

some more facts and news came out over the weekend.

The NY Times quotes a turkish doctor who was a passenger on the Mavi Marmara. He saw a small group of activists attack the soldiers as soon as they landed, stabbing them, beating them with wooden and metal poles and taking their weapons away. The "gunfire" from the helicopters appears to be rubber bullets shot to disperse the crowd. It's more and more clear that the IDF's version of what happened is the correct one.

The crack of an Israeli sound grenade and a hail of rubber bullets from above were supposed to disperse activists, but instead set them in motion. And when three Israeli commandos slid down ropes out of helicopters to take over the ship, a crowd set upon them.

“They ran at them without pause or hesitation,” Dr. Coskun recalled.

One soldier was stabbed and two were beaten. From that moment on, the attempted takeover turned into an armed assault, with angry Israeli commandos opening fire. Within an hour, the commandos had taken control of the ship, and nine Turks, including one who also had American citizenship, were dead.

On the morning of the raid, confusion ruled. The first soldiers who rappelled down the ropes appeared disoriented and frightened, Dr. Coskun, the Turkish witness, said, slipping a bit on the dewy deck and calling out in English, which Dr. Coskun said few Turks understood.

Of the two ropes that were dropped simultaneously from the helicopter, one was grabbed by men on board the boat and tied to an antenna, Israeli officials said. The pilot released it to avoid being tethered to the boat, and the commandos then slid down only one rope, slowing the incursion and leaving them vulnerable.

Some of the activists, hearing the pop of the plastic bullets and the sound bomb, believed they were being shot, according to witnesses, including some wounded now in an Ankara hospital.

It was a small group of aggressive activists on the upper deck who overwhelmed the first soldiers, wrenching away their weapons and, according to Dr. Coskun and video images supplied by the Israeli military, beating them with wooden poles and metal rods that they had ripped or sawed off the side of the boat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/wo...ref=middleeast

The NY Times also reports on the takeover of the Rachel Corrie. The IDF learned its lessons since the takeover took place 23 miles offshore, in daylight (12:30 pm). More importantly, Ireland and Israel had come to an agreement on friday that the cargo would be unloaded and inspected at Ashdod, but the activists rejected this:

On Friday, the Israeli and Irish governments reached an agreement to unload the vessel’s cargo in Ashdod, in southern Israel, and transport it to Gaza, but the group sponsoring both this ship and the Turkish flotilla, the Free Gaza Movement, rejected the deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/wo...ref=middleeast