Opinion Maker

Israel's disdain for an American family's values

By Wayne Madsen

Cindy and Craig Corrie, the parents of 23-year-old Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist killed by an Israeli military Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza on March 16, 2003, a mere few days before the U.S. military attack on Iraq, spoke at the National Press Club on Wednesday about their attempts to bring justice to their daughter. Corrie was run over by the bulldozer as she and other non-violent International Solidarity Movement (ISM) members tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family's home.

On March 10 of this year Corrie's parents brought a civil lawsuit against the Israel Defense Force in Haifa, Israel. The case, thus far, has been tainted by mistranslations between Hebrew and English, conflicting testimony by Israeli military witnesses, and an utter lack of support from Hillary Clinton's State Department. One interesting fact arose during the hearing: there is no Hebrew word for "occupation," meaning the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Two observers from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv have been present at the hearings in Haifa but they have taken a low-key approach to intransigence by the Israeli government over conducting a meaningful investigation of the murder by Israeli troops of Corrie. With news from the Lebanese newspaper,Al-Haqiqa, that Wikileaks's founder Julian Assange met with Israeli agents in Geneva earlier this year and, in exchange for money from Israel, agreed to suppress State Department cables portraying Israel in an unfavorable light, the world may never know what role, if any, either the Bush or Obama State Department played in investigating the Corrie murder.

The Israeli military conducted a cursory and incomplete investigation that determined that the bulldozer operator never saw or heard Corrie as he ran her over and the report concluded that Corrie was killed by "falling debris" and not by the bulldozer crushing her to death.

The civil trial is due to resume on December 22 and the Corries, once again and at their own expense, will travel back to Haifa for the hearing. The Rachel Corrie Foundation was established to support "grassroots efforts for peace and justice around the world."Cindy and Craig Corrie were in Washington yesterday and this editor had the opportunity of listening to description of the incident that took their daughter's life and briefly spoke to them about their future plans. The Corries have taken up their daughter's peace cause and they have traveled to Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and Egypt in support of the cause of justice for the Palestinian people.

After the Israelis killed Corrie, they killed two British citizens, James Miller, a documentary film maker and Thomas Hurndall, a photography student. They were killed along the same two-mile stretch of territory near the Egyptian border where Corrie was killed. In the course of the Corries' civil suit trial, it was learned that the Israeli military had issued a standing military order that states: "There is no such thing as civilians in the Gaza Strip." In fact, the bulldozing operation in Rafah in March 2003 was part of an overall military "clearing operation" and there is evidence that a senior Israeli military commander gave orders for the bulldozers to "make a run" at ISM activists in the area being cleared.

The Israelis later made an out-of-court settlement with Miller's family after a British inquest concluded that an Israeli sniper murdered Miller. The inquest also determined that Hurndall was intentionally killed while he was trying to rescue a young Palestinian child from Israeli sniper fire. Then Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had determined that the Miller killing was harming Israeli-British relations and a "large monetary settlement" was provided to the Miller family.

Some Israeli military witnesses claim that the order was not given by radio so there are no recordings available. However, the Israelis concede that the order was given by cell phone by the senior commander. However, most communications in the Middle East are intercepted by the joint U.S. National Security Agency/British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) signals intelligence base on Cyprus and could be used to bolster the Corries' case if not for the influence of the Israel Lobby in Washington in suppressing information about the murder of an American citizen by the Israelis.

The autopsy on Rachel Corrie's body was performed by Dr. Yehuda Hiss of the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv. Hiss was later identified as a key player in Israeli human organ trafficking and he was dismissed from his position. Hiss stood accused of stealing organs, bones and tissue samples from corpses and selling them. Hiss's removal of the human organs and other material was done without the permission of the next-of-kin.

During Hiss's autopsy of Corrie, there was no representative from the U.S. embassy present, which is required by U.S. regulation. The Corries revealed that Hiss had taken "samples" from their daughter's body during the autopsy. Hiss was later implicated in the scandal involving the theft of the organs of young Palestinians killed by the Israeli military and reported in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, after which Sweden and the newspaper were subjected to vile insults of "anti-Semitism" from Israel and its Zionist lackeys around the world.

The Corries also said that grass roots initiatives to disinvest in Israel and boycott Israeli products are gaining momentum around the world, including in the United States.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. He has written for several

renowned papers and blogs.

Madsen is a regular contributor on Russia Today. He has been a frequent political and national security commentator on Fox News and has also appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and MS-NBC. Madsen has taken on Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity on their television shows.  He has been invited to testifty as a witness before the US House of Representatives, the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and an terrorism investigation panel of the French government.

As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He subsequently worked for the National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation.

Madsen is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Association for Intelligence Officers (AFIO), and the National Press Club. He is a regular contributor to Opinion Maker.