The final moments of Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist crushed to death beneath a pile of earth and rubble in the path of an advancing Israeli army bulldozer, were described to an Israeli court by an eyewitness yesterday.
The parents of the 23-year-old, who was killed by the bulldozer in March 2003, were present to hear the harrowing account on the first day of hearings in a civil lawsuit they have brought against the state of Israel. The country has never acknowledged culpability over Ms Corrie's death.
Richard Purssell, a British activist with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), said he watched in horror as Ms Corrie was dragged four metres by the bulldozer moving forward at a "fast walking pace". Related articles
He told how her fluorescent orange jacket became invisible beneath a pile of earth churned up by the blade of the 56-tonne D9 Caterpillar machine. Mr Purssell explained that he and two other ISM volunteers had been summoned from the Rafah neighbourhood of Tel Sultan earlier in the day to help five activists prevent bulldozers from carrying out what they feared would be the demolition of Palestinian homes. The five, including Ms Corrie, were in the suburb of Hai Salaam, close to the border with Egypt.
Mr Purssell said the incident took place about 20 metres from the house of Dr Samir Nasrallah, a pharmacist well known to ISM activists, who often place themselves between Israeli forces and Palestinians to try to stop the Israeli military from carrying out operations. Ms Corrie climbed on to the earth mound being created in front of the bulldozer, with her feet just below the top of the pile.
"She is looking into the cab of the bulldozer," Mr Purssell recounted. "The bulldozer continues to move forward. Rachel turns to begin coming back down the slope ... As she nears the bottom of the pile, something happened to cause her to fall forward. The bull- dozer continues to move forward and Rachel disappeared from view. The bulldozer moves forward approximately another four metres before it stops." Mr Purssell, who works as a landscape gardener in the UK, said that before the bulldozer came to a stop, other activists started running towards her – as he himself did a few seconds later.
"I heard a lot of people shouting and gesturing to the bulldozer to stop," he told the court, adding that the bulldozer then "reversed back in the tracks it had made, in a straight line; Rachel is lying on the earth".
He said three ISM activists – Alice Coy, Greg Shnabel and Will Hewitt – rushed to adminster first aid. "They began to support her neck," he added. "They were holding her. She was still breathing. I did not get involved because I am not first aid trained." He insisted "everything that could be done was done" by the volunteers. Ms Corrie died of her injuries soon afterwards.
Asked in cross-examination by the state's attorney why Ms Corrie acted as she did by standing in front of the bulldozer, Mr Purssell said he did not know but could only speculate that "she didn't want the bulldozer to go any nearer Dr Samir's home".
Ms Corrie's parents, Craig and Cindy, from Olympia in Washington state, have brought their civil action in part to challenge the military's account of their daughter's death. Israel claims its troops were not to blame and the bulldozer driver did not see her or run her over deliberately, even though witnesses insist she was clearly visible.
Within weeks of her death, the Israel Defence Forces accused Ms Corrie and the ISM of behaviour that was "illegal irresponsible and dangerous". In 2004, Lawrence Wilkerson, an aide to the then US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, wrote to the Corries saying Israel had failed to carry out the "thorough, credible, and transparent" investigation promised at the time by Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.
The Corries' attorney, Hussein Abu Hussein, claimed before the hearing began that the troops "acted in violation of both Israeli and international law prohibiting the targeting of civilians, and the disproportionate use of force against non-violent protest with blatant disregard to human lives".
Mr Corrie said the family had been seeking justice for seven years. "I think when the truth comes out about Rachel, the truth will not wound Israel, the truth is the start of making us heal."
His wife said they were still waiting for an open investigation. "I just want to say to Rachel that our family is here today trying to just do right by her, and I hope she will be very proud of the effort we are making," she added.
More of our Tax Dollars at Work
[Alternative headlines: How to eradicate "terrorism"...”Our Allies At Work...”] 00:45-Sec Clip...
A group of Israeli settlers destroy a spring by the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan in the Salfit district of the occupied West Bank. Palestinian villagers were forced to watch helplessly as settlers poured sand and cement into the spring, guarded by five armed members of the Israeli military... http://uruknet.info/index.php?p=m64021&hd=&size=1&l=e
Joe Cortina is an ex-Green Beret, a former airborne special operations officer and US Army Training Center commander. Cortina’s subsequent experiences as an intelligence investigator and anti-terrorist adviser brought him to such hotbeds of turmoil as the State of Israel, adjacent Middle East nations, and Central America. Cortina’s hard hitting Web Site, “My Name Is Joe Cortina,” is a showcase of crimes committed against humanity by the Zionist global elite. What follows is an interview by Nathaniel Kapner... MOUT – Military Operations in Urban Terrain http://www.realzionistnews.com/?p=484
“Forget about Al-Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden. The chances are that VERY soon (with the declaration of martial law as the catalyst) you will be brutalized - murdered - raped – arrested – your home confiscated - by YOUR OWN SONS who have been taught that YOU are the enemy of the State and that THEY MUST follow orders. Sound familiar?”
Nathanael Kapner: What was your military background?
Joe Cortina: I was initially attached to the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, NC, with the Strategic Army Command (STRAC) as an artillery officer. The time frame of my military leadership began in 1960 during the Vietnam war and the outset of the Berlin crisis
I later was assigned to the USATC as a training instructor at hand grenade and machine gun ranges, infiltrating courses, bayonet training, and many other traditional basic soldiering drills. Subsequently, I was made a USATC Basic Training company commander.
Kapner: Was civilian killing taught?
Cortina: Absolutely not. Every trainee understood that the murdering of innocent defenseless civilians was one of the most loathsome acts imaginable and attributable only to Godless barbarian animals.
I trained soldiers to DEFEND our nation against aggressors – not to murder innocent civilians and created-enemies by another foreign power like the illegitimate State of Israel that brought us into the immoral war and slaughter of the Iraqi people.
Kapner: Are home and business invasions a normal part of basic Army training?
Cortina: No. Urban warfare training - a war going on in a civilian neighborhood which implies inevitable suffering and the immoral terrorizing of innocent civilians - should have absolutely NOTHING to do with US ARMY basic training. ONLY for unique incidents such as freeing hostages could it even be considered in Advanced Infantry Training Schools.
Kapner: Official USATC post cards appear to indicate that inexperienced soldiers will be asked to conduct violence against civilian homes and establishments as policy. Can you elaborate on this?
Cortina: The Basic Training Postcards promote special military operations known as “MOUT” – “Military Operations in Urban Terrain.” In other words – home invasions which have resulted in the worst military war crimes in the history of the US such as looting, pillaging, raping, and murder - is now part of basic training.
We provided no such controversial training in any of the companies or battalions or regiments I was associated with during my military tenure.
Kapner: Can you describe the nature of the card you showed me that was a ‘red flag’ to what you have experienced as normal basic infantry training?
Cortina: I saw several cards, all reminiscent of my experiences as a basic trainee myself. BUT ONE CARD drew my attention and I found it alarming. As I began connecting the dots of the offensive card, it led me to the 29 Palms Military Survey which I will soon discuss.
The card showed soldiers forcing their way into private businesses not unlike those you might find in your OWN HOME TOWN. These were of course fabrications in the Training Center built to simulate an urban environment. It showed a “Fish Market” in Fallujah alongside of another business which could be located in any American city, “The Palace Night Club.” The front of the post card was marked URBAN WARFARE - as if it were some sort of Disney attraction.
Kapner: What about the reverse side of the card?
Cortina: Comments on the back of the card by a current trainee reads as follows: “MOUT – Military Operations in Urban Terrain.” What is interesting about it – my own home will be considered something abstract and impersonal: “URBAN TERRAIN.”
The psychology of war teaches that before an American soldier can kill a perfect stranger, a non-combatant - the first thing you do is dehumanize that person into a faceless ‘thing.’
Now devoid of all those qualities we cherish in ourselves, the US soldier does not have to deal with the dictates of his conscience when murdering a civilian in cold blood. Thus we find the use of dehumanizing terms: “hostiles” -”insurgents” - “extremists” - “terrorists.”
As the post card MOUT heading states, it can be a matter of months in which the arrival of a “civilian trainee” - (YOUR SONS) and their deployment to an “urban combat situation” becomes a real life event. Your very own 18 year old son’s first assignment may be to terrorize people in their homes or businesses – kick in their doors – smash their property. Apparently that was EXACTLY what the trainee who wrote the post card was taught.
Kapner: What exactly was stated on the postcard’s reverse side?
Cortina: The sender wrote in ink: “We were trained to enter a house – kick in a door – clear a room – check for explosives – create a foothold – engage hostiles – and call for a medevac.”
Now – if a fellow soldier had described these presumed orders to me – the following is what it means. The trainee was to forcefully smash his way into a civilian’s home – kill anyone who even looked like they would defend their home - search for their weapons to neutralize anything they may use to defend themselves - and if anybody survived their terrorist invasion to send them to sick bay for questioning. More On MOUT Here & Here.
Cortina: “29 Palms,” named after the US military base in which the survey was made, is one of the most frightening and most disgusting testimonies to the ACCEPTANCE of military brutality and cold-blooded murder of one’s OWN citizens by American military ever revealed anywhere. A significant percentage of the Marines interviewed admitted that if ordered to do so they would kill their own neighbors.
Kapner: How can we be sure that the US Army’s Basic Training has degraded to the alarming degree you claim?
Cortina: Because the example I cited of the young trainee who seemed so eager to perform his ‘duty’ and carry out orders without question happens to be my own son. What we are teaching our children at this horrible place is unconscionable.
You will hear arguments from these war mongers to counter my concerns that: “It is necessary.” NECESSARY FOR WHAT? To murder more civilians here in our own country? So that these young men will now blindly follow orders and attack their OWN neighbors if Zionist-puppet Obama orders them to?
IT MAY BE TOO LATE to save my son’s soul from those who wish to transform him into a mindless murderer. But for the Love of Christ – please do not let these greedy Godless war mongers destroy your sons’ lives as well. Just Say “No” To This Evil!
Forget about Al-Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden. The chances are that VERY soon (with the declaration of martial law as the catalyst) you will be brutalized - murdered - raped – arrested – your home confiscated - by YOUR OWN SONS who have been taught that YOU are the enemy of the State and that THEY MUST follow orders. Sound familiar?…
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