http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/authors/Lonaker-9-11.html
Peace.
Michael Santomauro
@ 917-974-6367
What sort of TRUTH is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?
By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times
3:54 PM CDT, October 21, 2010
Reporting from Haifa, Israel
| The bulldozer driver who crushed to death American activist Rachel Corrie seven years ago struggled Thursday just to recall her name. |
"It's Rachel-something," he testified in a Haifa courtroom. "Carrie?"
The former Israeli reservist's courtroom appearance, his first public comments since the college student's 2003 death, was expected to be the dramatic climax of the Corrie family's long-running civil lawsuit against the Israeli government. But during more than four hours of testimony, the 38-year-old Russian immigrant, speaking from behind a screen to hide his identity, said he remembered little about that day and the young woman he ran over.
He said he thought she was American. But he noted that he never followed the news coverage of Corrie's death and only learned six months ago that he would have to testify in the family's wrongful-death lawsuit.
The Israeli government has maintained that Corrie and her fellow international activists were responsible for the incident, saying protesters entered a "war zone" and put themselves at risk by attempting to prevent Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip. A military inquiry concluded that no disciplinary actions should be taken against the driver, who now works as an equipment supervisor for an Israeli food company.
The driver insisted that he never saw the 23-year-old Washington state resident until her friends rushed over to dig her body out of the dirt. He said he couldn't remember the time of day when his bulldozer rolled over Corrie and then backed up over her a second time.
The Corrie family's attorney, Hussein abu Hussein, prodded the man's memory. Perhaps you recall someone fitting her description? She was about 5 feet, 8 inches and 140 pounds, the attorney said. Fair-skinned. Attractive. Wearing a bright orange safety jacket?
The reservist, identified only as Y, responded: "I don't remember. I saw all kinds of people."
Corrie's parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie, said his vague, sometimes flippant responses were hard for them to take.
"He sounds like he has not given much thought to this in the past seven years," said Cindy Corrie, her voice cracking slightly and tears welling up in her eyes. "That's hard to hear, since for us, Rachel is in every day, every hour, every moment. How could you not remember the time of day? If I killed somebody, I would surely know when it happened."
It's not that the family expected the driver's testimony would bring comfort or solace, Corrie said. But for years the family has anticipated — and simultaneously dreaded — the day when they would finally hear directly from the man who ran over their youngest child.
"It's hard to articulate why it's something the family needs," said Rachel's sister, Sarah Corrie Simpson. "It just is. Ultimately it comes down to my sister and the individual on the other side of this act, looking at us in the eye and telling his story."
At the government's request, the bulldozer driver was visible only to the judge and attorneys. State prosecutors said the former soldier's life could be at risk if he were identified publicly.
The Corries requested that they also be allowed to see the driver, but the judge turned them down.
The courtroom partition covered everything except a fidgety pair of brown leather tennis shoes, sprouting from the gap at the bottom. New Balance, about size 9. For most of the day, those brown shoes rested stiffly on their toes. But when questioning got tense, they would tap and shift.
The Corries' attorney pressed the driver about what the lawyer called inconsistencies in the man's testimony regarding the size of the blind spot in the bulldozer cabin, how he first learned that Rachel Corrie had been run over and whether he once admitted to having seen the young woman climbing atop the dirt mound in front of him.
But during his testimony, the driver insisted that he never saw Corrie and didn't realize there was a problem until he saw other protesters waving frantically, rushing toward his bulldozer and taking pictures of him.
Other witnesses said the driver must have seen Corrie, who had been protesting in the area for hours, was wearing a fluorescent jacket and was struck in a flat grassy field.
The driver said he and other soldiers had been warned that day that foreign activists were protesting at the site and had been told to exercise caution. When asked by the Corries' attorney why he did not suspend his work until the civilians had been removed, he replied: "We just did our job. Those were our instructions."
Cindy Corrie questioned whether the screen, which she called "dehumanizing," was intended to protect the driver's security or to allow him to avoid facing the family.
"They don't want him to have to look at us," she said. "That's the point, isn't it? The state is protecting soldiers from having to come face to face with the acts they committed and the people they've impacted. Israel is hiding behind that screen."
edmund.sanders@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times
Being happy–is it good for the Jews? "Before Professor Dershowitz accused me of being an anti-Semite (news to me), I was a happy person. Since then, I'm still a happy person". –Michael Santomauro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFtNMWBRlK0
The Pariah, Apartheid, Racist State of Israel - The Zionists have shown their macabre, satanic interpretation of peace, . We got rid of Apartheid South Africa, we got rid of the Neocons, we can get rid of the Zionists. We want all peace loving true Jews to speak up and be counted. The names of all the Palestinian babies and children massacred by Israel are available on gazasupport.net. We respect the dignity and steadfast resolve of the Palestinian People. We salute our brother, Micheal Heart.
Yahoo Study Group: Holocaust Reincarnation
A Yahoo study group since 2003. As of March 23, 2010 there are 219 members -- the Holocaust industry keeps getting more bizarre!!!--Michael SantomauroPS: Below, is a sample from the group list.
Description
HOLOCAUST REINCARNATION - A safe and supportive place for those who had past lives during and were victims of the Holocaust. You do not have to be Jewish (in this life or the past) to join, but the general slant of the group will be Jewish in nature. No discussions of politics, no proselytizing, and any disagreements must be respectful of others. All new members must be approved by the moderator. Above all we want this to be a safe place for traumatized people to come, to share, to learn, to unburden themselves, or just to lurk awhile. Please join us!
"All beginnings require that you unlock a new door."- Rabbi Nachman of Breslov Group Information
Hi,
thought I'd introduce myself before reading more posts but what caught my attention was someone posting that they had been accepted on the day they skyped with someone in Poland (if I remember correctly) and I was thinking of how true this was for me.
I've always known that I was a child in a concentration camp but never which. I also managed to find my brother from the camp some years ago. I just knew it was him and he picked up on it too. We even told people we were brother and sister, though he discouraged me from regressing to that life. Now, I know why.
About a year ago I saw someone who scared me so deeply like no one else ever has. I'm pretty open when it comes to making friends so they tend to come from all walks of life and normally that type of guy, your basic alpha male, never scared me, actually one of my closest and dearest friends is your quintessential alpha male and I'd trust him with my life. But with this guy, all of a sudden I was having anxiety attacks, panic attacks and what I call anaphylactic emotional shock all rolled into one, plus a headache that started at the top of my head and I never get migraines. I knew, when I saw him for the second time that he'd been an SS guard. I would stand there and physically retreat from him or, if that was impossible, cower against the wall. This guy never did anything to deliberately scare me, in fact he was always nice to me. But I was so scared of him just the same. Something told me to text a friend of mine and he let me hang out with him after I'd seen the Scary Guy again. Somehow my friend managed to calm me down.
The next time I saw the Scary Guy, my friend was there and when I went outside for a smoke and the Scary Guy came out to talk to me, my friend came out as well. It was an interesting conversation, since right after we'd introduced ourselves and shook hands, I flew in his face, literally because of something he'd said, which was innocent. With my eyes I was asking him if he'd murdered my family and suddenly I felt him slam down a wall between us. He just stood very still. I realized then that the reason my friend had followed me outside was to offer me protection from the Scary Guy simply by being there.
A month after that, I saw the Scary Guy again and this time it was so bad, I was literally shaking and unable to move. My friend was there again and the next thing I know was that he put himself between myself and the Scary Guy, with his back to me, offering me protection. Here's the interesting thing, the Scary Guy greeted me in a really friendly manner and then, later, asked me if I was having a meltdown, still, being very nice. I was too scared to react much but still managed to talk to him some. I honestly don't know how I managed to get home that night, I was trembling and shaking so hard. Every time I pictured his face, I would start shaking all over again. I remember falling asleep and waking up after about fifteen minutes because I'd seen the guy's face in my dream and screaming his name. The following day someone - I really believe that my friend had something to do with it - blocked the Scary Guy's face from my memory but I was still shaking. On Thursday, still unable to sleep, I went to see my best friend and on my way there, I could see shadows of people wherever I turned. She calmed me down enough so that I could finally sleep and she knows him as well and assured me that he was nothing to fear.
In the end I decided to tell him that I was scared of him, even though most people told me not to. I sent him an email and I swear I knew when he was reading it because I'd just managed to compose myself and then started shaking all over again. Two months later I ran into him again. The thing about this guy, when he was in company, he always opened up the circle so I could join, he was never mean. I told him that he really scared me and he said that he knew, in a very kind and compassionate way and even really went out of his way to put me at ease, making me laugh etc.
To cut a long story short, turns out the guy hit me over the hit with a whip or iron bar in the camp and my friend in this life, attacked him for it. I'm almost positive that my friend was shot for it. But that explains so much about how I feel about him and how I always knew he would protect me even though he isn't the type in this life.
The story goes on but I wanted to post this because I believe that in some cases we are able to heal when we meet the people again. And here's something I find very interesting. when I was younger, my family and I lived in Germany for a while. And please don't flame me for this but I really cannot stand Germany. Even growing up in the 80s, there was so much anti-Semitism, even a History teacher telling the class openly that "the number of Jews killed in the camps wasn't as high as they claim it to be." Being the only Jewish kid in the class, you can imagine how that felt, even the neo-Nazi kid was given immunity by the leftwing teachers. So I can't forgive the many faceless Germans and the ones I met but this guy, the Scary Guy, who personally assaulted me, who split up my family, him I am able to forgive just because I could see how deeply sorry he was about what had happened. Deep down, he knows even though he doesn't believe in reincarnation.
I've been trying to find a scenario like the above off and on. I say off and on because sometimes it just gets too much and I need a break. My dad was a Holocaust survivor and I really believe that was part of the reason I chose this particular family. Who knows maybe I even met him in a camp.
Hope this wasn't too long and apologies if it was. Thanks for reading.
Ilana--
http://robertfaurisson.blogspot.com/2010/05/two-heroic-champions-of-humiliated-and.html
Peace.
Michael Santomauro
@ 917-974-6367
What sort of TRUTH is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?
My apologies: the previous send was a link for the broadcast of Nov. 11, 2008.Here is the URL for the very recent one, of last Friday, October 15, 2010:http://www.radiofreemississippi.net/audio/RFM-2010-10-15-RobertFaurisson.mp3=
