The 350 activists left of the 1,500 activists originally planning to sail nine boats against Israel's naval blockade on Gaza – among them Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal's son-in-law Hamoud Tareq - never imagined their expedition would be stopped in Greece and Turkey even before they set sail. They certainly did not mean to have their Freedom Flotilla II served up as the founding step of the nascent pro-US Israel-Greek-Turkish alliance. Indeed, one of its organizers' objectives had been to sabotage the tight strategic ties between Israel and Greece.
The Papandreou government did not act alone. The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan quietly held back the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish vessel which led the first pro-Palestinian flotilla last year, from taking part in Flotilla II. His security agency, the MIT, also warned the Turkish Islamic IHH not to take part in the expedition -even aboard vessels sailing from ports outside the country. Flotilla vessels were mysteriously sabotaged in Greek and Turkish ports.
For more: DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security
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