By Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright
I am in Malta with the group ready to board the Gaza flotilla ship “Conscience” which was bombed by Israel yesterday. As one of the organizers of the US Boats to Gaza and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla coalition, we have been working for months to bring activists from 22 countries to board the next ship to challenge the Israeli genocide of Gaza and break the illegal Israeli Siege of Gaza.
As an American citizen, and a retired US Army Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in opposition to the US war on Iraq in 2003, I have been horrified in the blatant complicity of the United States in providing bombs, weapons and targeting information to the Israeli military that has killed over 60,000 Palestinians and left hundreds of thousands wounded and homeless.
As best that we can piece together what happened,, our ship “Conscience” which was anchored in international waters 13 nautical miles off Malta, an Israeli C-130 aircraft flying from Israel at 5,000 feet dropped two drones from its cargo bay. The crew of the “Conscience” heard two drones before two explosions blew a hole in the bow of the ship and severely damaged the ship.
The participants from 22 countries were to board the “Conscience” the previous day, but Israeli instigated “lawfare” had resulted in the flag of the ship being taken after arriving in international waters off Malta. Therefore our participants including 8 US citizens were not onboard when the bomb, probably a US bomb supplied to Israel, hit the “Conscience.”
Only hours after the bombing of the “Conscience” we mobilized two boats to go from Malta to the “Conscience” in solidarity but not allowed to board.
On the 15th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the 2010 Gaza flotilla causing the deaths of 10 Turkish citizens, including a 18 year old Turkish American citizen and the wounding of 50 others on the ship Mavi Marmara, we call on the U.S. to stop its complicity with Israel in the Israeli genocide of Gaza and to investigate the use of U.S. bombs in attempting to destroy the “Conscience” and kill those who challenge the horrific Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.
A ship carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip sent out a distress signal overnight after it was bombed by drones in international waters near Malta. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the organizer of the voyage, is blaming Israel for the attack, which set the ship on fire, punched a substantial breach in its hull and cut off communication with those aboard. “We are dealing with a brutal attack on an innocent ship,” retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, who was in Malta waiting to board the flotilla, tells Democracy Now! “While we cannot yet identify the source of the drones, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a history of violence that has been directed toward the flotillas from the state of Israel.”
The climate activist Greta Thunberg was also set to join the flotilla and said in an online video that activists would “continue to do everything in our power to do our part to demand a free Palestine and demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor.” (Democracy Now!)
Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in US embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia. She resigned from the U.S. government 22 years ago in March 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq. She is the co-author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience.
