The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its exchanges with the Gaza flotilla in order to paint the flotilla passengers as anti-Semites. I am beginning to wonder if the Israeli military hired James O’Keefe to handle its press shop.
This is the IDF’s “clarification:”
Yesterday evening on 4 June 2010, the IDF released an audio recording of a radio transmission between the Israeli Navy vessel and the Flotilla ships wherein unidentified flotilla passengers tell the Israeli Navy vessel to “shut up, go back to Auschwitz” and “we’re helping Arabs go against the US, don’t forget 9/11.” There have been questions regarding the authenticity of the recording as well as its attribution to a communication with the Mavi Marmara.
So to clarify: the audio was edited down to cut out periods of silence over the radio as well as incomprehensible comments so as to make it easier for people to listen to the exchange. We have now uploaded the entire segment of 5 minutes and 58 seconds in which the exchange took place and the comments were made.
This transmission had originally cited the Mavi Marmara ship as being the source of these remarks, however, due to an open channel, the specific ship or ships in the “Freedom Flotilla” responding to the Israeli Navy could not be identified. During radio transmissions between Israeli Navy and the ships of the “Free Gaza” Flotilla on 31 May 2010, the Israeli Navy ship attempts to make contact with the ‘Defne Y’ on channel 1-6. Other ships from the flotilla respond on the channel, without identifying themselves. At some point during the radio exchange the Israeli Navy is told by one of the ships to “shut up, go back to Auschwitz” (2:05) and “don’t forget 9-11? (5:42).
It’s nice that the IDF has “clarified” its doctoring of footage. But the new clip it has released that supposedly shows “the entire segment…in which the exchange took place and the comments were made” is highly suspect as well. Why? Because it contains an exchange with Huwaida Arraf that Arraf claims took place on an entirely different attempt to break the siege — Arraf has led previous aid boats to Gaza that were intercepted and hijacked by the IDF. Arraf told Ma’an News:
“I was by the radio the whole time there was any communication. Mine was the only boat in which I answered and not the captain and they all answered in a very professional manner.” Arraf told Ma’an that while she might have spoken of having permission from the Gaza Port Authority on a previous attempt to break the blockade, she is certain that she did not say it on Monday morning. ”When they radioed us, we were still 100 miles away,” she explained.
Mya Guarnieri of Ma’an goes into more detail about the suspicious nature of the new clip the IDF has released, demonstrating how absurd their latest attempt to save face is. The lesson of the debacle is that nothing the IDF says can be trusted by anyone. Not ever. (Of course, that should apply to any nation’s military, and not just “the most moral army in the world”).
Hours after the IDF’s admission, major news outlets which reported on the doctored audio clip as though it was a shocking revelation and not a scandalous forgery have still not corrected themselves. The most blatant stenographer of IDF propaganda is the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler. Here is what Kessler reported after being participating a briefing session with an IDF flack:
Israeli forces spent four hours trying to persuade the 300-foot-long Turkish ship to shift course away from Gaza, senior Israeli officials said in a briefing Friday for a small group of reporters.
The activists responded repeatedly with shouts — “Go back to Auschwitz!” — and kept the ship at its maximum speed of 10 knots.
Besides the fact that Kessler reported on the “Go back to Auschwitz” claim without investigating it, he claimed that the passengers “repeatedly” shouted the slur. But even the IDF did not claim that anyone “repeatedly” shouted anything; the “Auschwitz” statement is heard in the doctored audio clip only once.
Kessler’s report was so slanted in favor of the Israeli military he was compelled to include this as his opening line: “This is the Israeli version of the deadly raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza.” But Kessler also cited the opinions of “Turkish officials,” and worded his article as though it were an authoritative report on what really happened on board the Mavi Marmara.
Finally, Kessler reports the IDF’s discredited claim that numerous Mavi Marmara passengers were terrorist “mercenaries:”
The activists also had substantial funds, perhaps 1 million euros. Many of the activists who battled the soldiers were each carrying 10,000 euros, which officials speculated meant that they were mercenaries who had been paid to fight.
Right. The IDF had retracted its claim about terrorist mercenaries on board the Mavi Marmara a full day before Kessler filed. Kessler and the Washington Post have let the Israeli military play them for fools. They should issue corrections immediately.
If the Post does not correct, readers should let WaPo Ombudsman Andrew Alexander know that his paper’s coverage of the flotilla massacre remains riddled with major factual errors. Alexander can be reached at ombudsman@washpost.com or 202-334-7582.
Who are the isrealis kidding? The way they did this was to scare them to death. First live rounds then dropping out of the helicopters firing paintball guns that looked like real guns.. I thought they were using silencers (i was watching the live feed they couldnt jam) it looked like a total masacre… im sure the turks just figured they would take out as many of them as possible before they were all killed… this is a total sham…
One other lie the IDF have made, is that the audio was originally edited down to remove radio silences.
In the shorter audio version, Huwaida Arraf only utters one short sentence ‘we have permission from the Gaza Port Authority to enter’. In the new longer clip, it is revealed she utters 3 or 4 sentences as part of this exchange. If her comments were edited down as apparent ‘radio silence’, how can we believe that the other voices in the recording weren’t also manipulated.
I would like to see the IDF spokeskman have to add another cavat, namely that whole sentences as well as radio silence where cut from audio tape.
Paintball guns that looked like real guns? Has anybody seen or examined these “paintball guns?” Israel is one of the biggest arms dealers in the world. I didn’t see anyone sprayed with paint, although I saw pictures of many real wounds with real blood. Surely if they were firing paintball guns, some of the passengers would have been sprayed with paint. My guess is that they had real guns, with silencers, that were made to look like paintball guns.
Although the autopsies showed that most of the bullets in the dead were 9mm, apparently the Israeli Navy doesn’t usually use 9mm bullets, so these must have been specially designed guns, probably designed not only to look like paintball guns, but also to fire the 9mm rounds they don’t normally use, so that they could blame the deaths on the unarmed passengers. Since 9 mm rounds aren’t fired by slingshots, and aren’t fired by the Israeli Navy’s usual weapons, and all but one of the bullets found in the bodies were 9mm rounds, the 9mm rounds that killed the unarmed passengers had to have come from the “paintball guns.”
That’s sad – you get schooled by the IDF who didn’t ‘doctor’ the tape to make it say or imply anything other than what the miscreants yelled, they just cleaned up the static and removed the long periods of silence.
So instead of being a man and apologizing, you dig the hole deeper…. and the IDF doesn’t have to “paint” them as racist anti-semites, they do quite a good enough job on their own.
And do you just ignore the “we’re helping Arabs go against the US, don’t forget 9/11.”
Does it bother you that you support terrorists who murdered 3000 American citizens on 9/11???
[...] Uppdaterat 2010-06-06: Israel erkänner att videon var manipulerad. [...]
Max Max Max – come on now Max…Can you really be serious? Can you really?????????
The Israeli navy edited 6 minutes of radio communication into a short clip highlighting the 2 noxious statements and you claim this is them “doctoring audio” and claim it is fake NOT BECAUSE HUWAIDDA NEVER MENTIONED THE GAZA PORT AUTHORITY ON THIS TRIP…SHE ADMITS IT WAS HER VOICE BUT SAYS SHE WAS NOT ON THE Mavi Marmara…
so then they release the entire radio exchange and clarify that the audio was from an open channel in which any of the ships of the freedom flotilla could listen and communicate…
So now this new unedited version is fake…because Huwaidda, who when previously heard her voice ACKNOWLEDGED that it was her and never said anything about not saying those statements, only that she was not on the Mavi Marmera – now CHANGES her story and claims it must be faked because she said what she did on a PREVIOUS trip…DESPITE THE FACT THAT IF YOU BOTHERED TO TAKE 5 MINUTES AND LISTEN TO THE AUDIO..THE VOICE, WHICH SHE ADMITS IS HER, VERY CLEARLY AND UNINTERRUPTEDLY SAYS – “this is the Freedom Flotilla. We are comprised of six motor vessels, carrying only passengers and humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip…”
Don’t take my word for it – go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dE2StbDL_Q and scroll to 3:26 – ITS VERY CLEAR THAT THE VOICE SHE ALREADY ADMITTED IS HERS IDENTIFIES THE “FREEDOM FLOTILLA COMPROMISED OF 6 SHIPS!!”
Seriously Max – the problem with you is that you don’t let the facts get in the way of your propaganda. Its really quite ironic – that what you are most well known for is getting a bunch of drunk 17 year old Americans to say stupid racist things and claiming to be concerned about what this deep seated hatred means but get so defensive when it becomes clear that some would say stupid things about Jews and try with all your might to defend them.
Really quite ironic that what you are known for is getting drunk 17 year old Americans to say stupid racist comments and claim to be so concerned about the “hatred” that this represents – and yet when confronted by fascist hatred of Jews you will grasp any sort of flimsy evidence to exonerate and defend those accused…guess you’re not “feeling the hatred” here
Accents and the Filipino Monkey
The first guy who says “go back to Auschwitz” has a clear Israeli accent. The second one has a clear Russian accent. As far as I know, there were no Israelis or Russians operating the Marmara.
What it may be is that prankster civilian Israeli radio operators interfered (there are many Russians in Israel) in the conversation, much like there was that incident in the Persian gulf a few months ago. The other option is that IDF doctored this tape amateurishly in some sort of a black flag operation, which seems less plausible but they have done some amateurish stuff in the recent past (such as this whole incident).
First pwned by O’Keefe, now pwned by Israel.
When you turn the garage lights on, the roaches usually run for cover – not little Max, he shouts defianty as he’s stepped on.
Priceless.
[...] Ich glaube, diese Junge Frau war nicht der gewünschte Interviewpartner für die ARD- Journallie. Sie hat sich bestens informiert gezeigt und deutlich ihre Meinung gesagt. Sie war der Propaganda nicht aufgesessen und hat sich von den Suggestiv- Fragen nicht manipulieren lassen. Hat mir gut gefallen, aber die “ Reporter“ haben sich unermüdlich weitere Opfer gesucht, um das Interviwergebnis zu bekommen, welches sie sich vorgestellt haben. Schön mal gesehen zu haben, wie die ARD arbeitet und manipuliert. Die zionistische Propaganda macht es auch, und ist mal wieder aufgeflogen, “ IDF Admits It Doctored Flotilla Audio Clip. Washington Post’s Kessler Must Retract“ [...]
It’s almost comical how the hasbara defenders try to change the subject, isn’t it? One would love to eavesdrop on one of their classes: the tactics they learn seem to be, first of all, mirroring the accusation, i.e., “you people do that too,” and if they can’t think of a way to do this, then to concentrate on a minor and distracting detail, and then if this fails, just to change the subject completely.
[...] Post on this blog. The sins of the Washington Post are innumerable. Yesterday, Max Blumenthal called out Glenn Kessler, an Israeli shill masquerading as a reporter, for his lies and distortions about the [...]
[...] IDF Admits It Doctored Flotilla Audio Clip. Washington Post’s Kessler Must Retract [...]
Got to love it! Rowan Berkeley – who writes “I do not think you can expect Jewish critics of Israel to share the views of non-Jewish critics…Disagreement would arise not so much on this as on whether certain Nazi and right-wing claims were nevertheless true, such as that Jewish finance may sometimes systematically enslave whole nations. Someone like Max would have a hard time looking at this question objectively, on its merits.” – (http://niqnaq.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/here-is-the-idfs-audio-and-i-for-one-think-it-is-utterly-phony/#comment-12691)
is now defending the fact that this auschwitz quote was fabricated – even as he claims at the same exact time that “certain Nazi claims were true, such as that Jewish finance may sometimes systematically enslave whole nations.”
Got to love it – “Zionists try to make peace activists out to be neo-nazis! Dont let them get away with this! Oh and by the way, the Nazis had a point! Jewish finance enslaves whole nations!”
LOL nice fan base you got here Max – ohh, Perhaps Rowan Berkeley’s blog is some kind of Zionist psy-ops fabrication! Come on Max get on it…
LOL Max – maybe you should run for the Mayor of Chelm?
[...] http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/idf-admits-it-doctored-flotilla-audio-clip-washington-posts-kessler... [...]
Apparently “E” above (below?) has absolutely no idea what digital audio editing is about these days. Nothing in this entire so-called “unedited” version put out by the IDF could NOT have been fabricated. Even though Huwaida Arraf now says she’s not sure whether she said the part about the port of Gaza this time or a previous time, even the apparently continuous statement she makes on the recording could EASILY have been pasted together from any number of radio transmissions. The whole thing just seems so amateurish–aimed above all at Israeli public opinion. Why on earth would anybody on one of these boats say “Go back to Auschwitz” at this very moment? It is so heavy-handed that you have to wonder what sort of jingoistic mentality the IDF spin doctors think they’re playing on in Israel. The very assumption that this would go over with Israeli public opinion is terrifying.
Check out my blog on AlterNet. So far the IDF has given absolutely no plausible explanation of where the fatal 9mm bullets came from.
Those 9mm Paintball Guns
http://blogs.alternet.org/folkie/2010/06/06/those-9mm-paintball-guns/
Israel is claiming that no guns at all were found aboard the Mari Marvara, and that Israel’s weapons do not fire 9mmm rounds. So we’re supposed to believe that there are at least nine dead and dozens wounded by 9mm bullets that weren’t fired by any weapons on the scene, not even a throwaway gun?
“Edited” video was published on the 4th June 2010. “Unedited” video was published on the 5th June 2010. How is it possible that “UNEDITED” VIDEO WAS UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE ON THE 4TH JUNE 2010? 1) Travelling in time is possible. 2) Clarification/correction video was prepared and uploaded to YouTube at the same time as misleading “edited” video. It was ahead prepared misleading practice!
[...] maxblumenthal.com 06.05.10 [...]
In Max’ defense:
The edited, longer version may turn out to have fake components.
Spectrographic analysis of the IDF voice vs. the 911 voice:
http://i.imgur.com/R4NbJ.gif
The voices saying Antisemitic slogans, actually using Auschwitz as a *taunt*, do not have the multi-frequency static of the other recorded voices. They may have been recorded in a studio, but not through ship-to-ship communications.
There was no need to add these slogans to the official story, and I am disappointed in whoever manages the YouTube channel. We can do better than this by telling the truth.
[...] not”, to judge from the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler’s flat refusal to admit he ran with a bogus story he was spoon-fed by the IDF. Max Blumenthal reports the following: The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored [...]
“However, due to an open channel, the specific ship or ships in the “Freedom Flotilla” responding to the Israeli Navy could not be identified.” Or indeed, whether it was coming from a ship at all or instead from a land-based radio, say one in Israel.
The US pulled this trick on us in 2008, regarding those Iranian patrolboats which were allegedly attacking the 8th Fleet–http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004121278_iran12.html
oooh, perhaps Rowan Berkeley’s blog is some kind of Zionist psy-ops fabrication!
Damn, I’ve been rumbled
[...] More here. [...]
When all cameras and phones were confiscated and the press was excluded or jammed, what would we expect? Certainly not the truth from Israel!
Now they have killed 4 palestinian ‘commandos’ in wetsuits with two missing…In Gaza’s waters..Shameless–BBC has the full report as it is coming in!
More terrorism from Israel! Wonder what they will do if Iran does escort the Red Crescent into the waters! Israel is pushing for a confrontation to justify their abhorent action over the past two years! Repugnant
[...] “Hours after the IDF’s admission, major news outlets which reported on the doctored audio clip as though it was a shocking revelation and not a scandalous forgery have still not corrected themselves,” Blumenthal writes. [...]
[...] Mavi Marmara passengers told an Israeli navy vessel to “go back to Auschwitz,” already partially retracted and seemingly on its way to a full retraction; the claims that passengers had opened fire on the [...]
[...] Mavi Marmara passengers told an Israeli navy vessel to “go back to Auschwitz,” already partially retracted and seemingly on its way to a full retraction; the claims that passengers had opened fire on the [...]
[...] back to Auschwitz!” Even though the IDF retracted its claim about Al Qaida operatives and was forced to concede that its “Auschwitz” audio clip was doctored, Israeli and American media outlets that [...]
We often hear the phrase “Israel’s right to exist” and along with it, “Israel’s right to self-defense.” Notwithstanding the faux-legitimacy given these concepts by decades of repetition, there is another, truth-based, ethics-based point of view.
In 1917, the British imperial executive (the Foreign Office) and the World Zionist Organization colluded in a criminal conspiracy to steal Palestine from the 95% Arab population who had lived there for 70 generations, and to give it to the Jews/Zionists. This “plan” was a crime then, as it is a crime now. A crime is still a crime, despite control and censorship of the media. A crime is still a crime despite 90 years of impunity from prosecution or 90 years of propaganda. NO AMOUNT OF TIME CAN CHANGE A LIE INTO THE TRUTH; NO AMOUNT TIME CAN CONVERT A CRIME INTO A LEGAL ACT.
The Zionist entity called Israel is nothing less than a geopolitical crime-in-progress. This is reality.
So when next you hear about Israel’s “right to exist”, consider: no crime has a “right to exist”, no criminal enterprise has a “right to exist”. Correspondingly, no criminal has a “right to self-defense”. No criminal has a right to commit violence in the furtherance of a crime. No criminal has the right to fight back against the lawful authority that arrives to halt the crime and arrest the criminals.
Israel, the Zionists, their enablers, and their supporters are criminals: thieves and murderers on a global scale. They have no “right to exist” (as criminals) and they have no “right to self-defense” as they commit their crimes.
But they do have rights. They have the right to surrender to a competent authority. The right to a fair trial. If found guilty, the right to a proportionate penalty. And once the offending parties have “done their time”, the right to rejoin society and resume a peaceful cooperative existence.
[...] [...]
[...] telling the IDF to ‘go back to Auschwitz’.” Caught red handed, Blumenthal further reports on the non-clairification clarification made by the IDF, revealing the lengths the Israeli [...]
[...] If the Post does not correct, readers should let WaPo Ombudsman Andrew Alexander know that his paper’s coverage of the flotilla massacre remains riddled with major factual errors. Alexander can be reached at ombudsman@washpost.com or 202-334-7582 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-334-7582 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. source [...]
[...] If the Post does not correct, readers should let WaPo Ombudsman Andrew Alexander know that his paper’s coverage of the flotilla massacre remains riddled with major factual errors. Alexander can be reached at ombudsman@washpost.com or 202-334-7582 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-334-7582 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. source [...]
In the video “Unedited Radio Transmission Between Gaza Flotilla and Israeli Navy”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dE2StbDL_Q
by the IDF there is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING which isn’t edited.
This is a fabrication of copy & paste!
Segments are often duplicated and slightley changed in pitch and speed to fake differences. Others are put into larger sements to fake communication interruption. Sometimes parts of a larger segments (navy voice) were just cut out in an duplication.
I ran this through an audio editor and it’s so obvious that it insults the intelligence of everyone who knows how to edit audio. Audio Warp techniques were used to slow down or speed up parts without a change in pitch. If you put put one segment on top of the other, the rhythm of speech is the same and sometimes the segments are even in sync.
If you want details, just let me know and I will give you some examples!
I challenge any audio engineer on this!
[...] Max Blumenthal [...]
[...] ausgewählte und von Israel editierte Aufnahmen davon veröffentlicht hat und inzwischen zugeben musste, auch vorsätzlich manipulierte Audio-Beweismittel veröffentlicht zu [...]
[...] look at the Hollywood-magic videos released by the IDF that outright fabricated a narrative. IDF Admits It Doctored Flotilla Audio Clip. Washington Post’s Kessler Must Retract IDF was walking the ship with an execution list, killing people at point-blank range. IDF opened [...]
[...] Více zde: http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/idf-admits-it-doctored-flotilla-audio-clip-washington-posts-kessler... [...]
[...] IDF Admits It Doctored Flotilla Audio Clip. Washington Post’s Kessler Must Retract The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its exchanges with the Gaza flotilla in order to paint the flotilla passengers as anti-Semites. (Read more from maxblumenthal.com) [...]
Why do Israel officials bother doctoring evidence when Glenn Kessler and other American “journalists” are willing to doctor their reporting of Israeli actions?
[...] IDF Admits It Doctored Flotilla Audio Clip. Washington Post’s Kessler Must Retract http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/idf-admits-it-doctored-flotilla-audio-clip-washington-posts-kessler... [...]
[...] woran man angesichts dessen, dass die israelische Hasbara auch bezüglich des Überfalls bei groben Fälschungen erwischt wurde, ernsthafte Zweifel haben muss, ist die Analyse [...]
[...] [...]
[...] an audio tape to demonize the peace flotilla which they attacked and massacred nine people. One article notes “The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its [...]
[...] an audio tape to demonize the peace flotilla which they attacked and massacred nine people. One article notes “The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its [...]
[...] an audio tape to demonize the peace flotilla where they attacked and massacred nine people. One article notes “The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its [...]
Israel still holds out that the recordings released on 4 and 5 June were genuine. Of course they appear to be fake. It is difficult to conclusively prove this unless other Channel 16 recordings are obtained from passing ships or coast guards that may have recorded the communication.
For a transcript of the ‘unedited’ version released by the IDF see:
http://israelandpalestinediary.blogspot.com/2010/07/gaza-flotilla-transcript-of-unedited.html
Whilst I would hold the tapes to be doctored (especially as noone on the Gaza Flotilla heard the remarks eg Huwaida Arraf, the captain of the Mavi Marmara); the only other possibility is if a prankster such as Filipino Monkey [see in the blog above] made such statements. Despite this being a possibility the Israeli armed forces do not offer this as a possibility; and instead have sought to smear and demonise the GAza Flotilla participants.
Only if the Israeli armed forces returns all the recording equipment back to the Gaza flotilla participants or releases them to an international inquiry will anyone be able to test the material publicised on government websites.
[...] Seite 187; siehe auch http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/under-s… [↩] http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/idf-adm… [↩] Eine Liste mit den verbotenen und nun erlaubten Gütern (Positiv-Liste) kann hier [...]
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