International Glance
Anti-George W. Bush protester John Boncore will be spared a criminal record for his attempts to gain access to the former U.S. president and arrest him for war crimes. Calgary provincial court Judge Manfred Delong ruled Monday that a conditional discharge for the Chase, B.C., resident would not be contrary to the public interest.Delong said if Boncore successfully completes a one-year period of probation, which includes making a $1,000 donation to his favourite charity, he will not have a criminal record.
Passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, the ship raided by Israel Monday, claim they found what they say is a list of people the Israeli military intended to target during their raid, a news report out of Great Britain states.
But the most recent video distributed on Friday by the Israeli government press office (which belongs to the Israeli prime minister's office and is responsible for accrediting foreign journalists) is distasteful and insulting to those killed and injured on the Freedom Flotilla, and quite frankly disturbing - especially since it was made by the Jerusalem Post's deputy managing editor, Caroline Glick, who also moonlights for the American Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC.
For one, Ostrovsky suggested, commandos could have approached the ship from under water and disabled the propellers, letting the activists drift for days until their food supplies ran out. He added that Israeli soldiers should not have fast-roped into a crowd as they had, instead suggesting that it would have been more productive to board the ship from the front and back, then work inward.
Israel faced heavy criticism in an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Monday in response to its deadly attack on an aid flotilla trying to breach the Gaza blockade, but attempts to issue a formal statement stalled after the United States rejected the strong condemnation sought by Turkey.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he was "shocked" by a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and demanded a full investigation.
An Australian journalist and photographer onboard aid boats headed for the Gaza Strip have not been heard from since at least 10 people were reportedly killed during a clash with Israeli commandos.
