{"id":7224,"date":"2010-06-03T17:14:45","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T01:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=7224"},"modified":"2010-06-03T17:14:45","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T01:44:45","slug":"ann-wright-returning-home-after-israeli-attack-on-humanitarian-aid-flotilla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=7224","title":{"rendered":"Ann Wright returning home after Israeli attack on humanitarian aid flotilla"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ann Wright, who was aboard one of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ships attacked by Israeli commandos,\u00a0 is safe and will be returning to Honolulu according to a report in the Honolulu Star Bulletin<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She discussed the attack in an interview on Democracy Now!<\/a>:<\/p>\n

JUAN GONZALEZ: <\/strong>Well, we also have on the line also someone else who was on that boat. Ann Wright is a retired Army colonel, a former US diplomat. She spent twenty-nine years in the military and later served as a high-ranking diplomat in the State Department. In 2001, she helped oversee the reopening of the US mission in Afghanistan. In 2003, she resigned her State Department post to protest the war in Iraq. She was on the Freedom Flotilla and just deported to Turkey.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN: <\/strong>Colonel Wright, welcome to Democracy Now!<\/em><\/p>\n

ANN WRIGHT: <\/strong>Hi, Amy, Juan.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN: <\/strong>Can you tell us what happened to you?<\/p>\n

ANN WRIGHT: <\/strong>Well, I was also on the Challenger 1<\/em> with Huwaida. And let me just give a great compliment to Huwaida and all of the Free Gaza Movement. It\u2019s a tremendous, tremendous thing that they have done in creating this movement of boats that had six large vessels that went toward Gaza. And let me tell you how thrilling it was to see all of those boats steaming, those civilians trying to challenge the governments of the world that say there must be a siege to strangle the 1.5 million people in Gaza, and yet the citizens of the world are challenging that with everything they\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

JUAN GONZALEZ: <\/strong>Tell us what you saw and how you were treated by the Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n

ANN WRIGHT: <\/strong>Well, I saw the attack on the Marmara<\/em> also of the helicopters coming over, the rappelling down of the soldiers, the sailors, the Zodiac boats coming up the side, the spraying of them. Then, with that, the captain of the Marmara<\/em> told us to go ahead to try to get as far away as we could, because we had the fastest boat. We were\u2014as Huwaida very accurately described, our boat was boarded. People were thrown on the deck. Windows were blown out. Flash bangs were used. One of our journalists was hit with something of an electric shock. I don\u2019t know that it was a taser. She doesn\u2019t know, either, yet. One of the women was hit in the face, in the nose, with one of the liquid-filled balls. They were very excessively rough, excessively forceful, on trying to slow down, stop\u2014actually, we were already stopped. They weren\u2019t stopping us at all. We were already dead in the water, and yet all of this force used on us.<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN: <\/strong>Colonel Wright, I wanted to get your response to Vice President Biden. He was on the Charlie Rose<\/em> show last night, and he was questioning what the big deal was getting this humanitarian aid directly to Gaza. This is the Vice President.<\/p>\n