No Comment to Memorial Day Execution of US Citizen

[georgephillip]

Last May 31st when America traditionally mourns her war dead Israeli commandos took control of the Mavi Marmara in international waters and executed 19 year-old Furkan Dogan, a US-Turkish citizen who was filming the assault when first shot.

"The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos.

"The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot, and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.

"The report say Dogan had apparently been 'lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time' before being shot in his face."

"Although the report's revelations and conclusions about the killing of Dogan and the five other victims were widely reported in the Turkish media last week, not a single story on the report has appeared in the US news media."

UN Report..

 

[georgephillip]

"Based on both 'forensic and firearm evidence,' the fact-finding panel concluded that Dogan's killing and that of five Turkish citizens by the Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmari May 31 'can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions.' (See Report [.pdf] Page 38, Section 170)

"The report confirmed what the Obama administration already knew from the autopsy report on Dogan, but the administration has remained silent about the killing of Dogan, which could be an extremely difficult political problem for the administration in its relations with Israel."

"The Turkish government gave the autopsy report on Dogan to the US Embassy in July and it was then passed on to the Department of Justice, according to a US government source who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the administration's policy of silence on the matter.

"The source said the purpose of obtaining the report was to determine whether an investigation of the killing by the Justice Department (DOJ) was appropriate."

UN Report