Amnesty intl slams Israel's report as ”whitewash”

Amnesty International on Friday condemned a new Israeli panel report on the deadly commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla as a "whitewash." The Turkel Commission last week released a report clearing the Israeli military and government of any wrongdoing in the May 31 attack on board the Turkish Mavi Marmara aid ship that left eight Turks and one American of Turkish descent dead. Both soldiers and activists involved in the raid have said they acted in self-defense. Amnesty criticized the commission's findings as inconclusive and for excluding details linking the soldiers' actions to the activists' deaths. "Despite being nearly 300 pages long, the report crucially fails to explain how the activists died and what conclusions the commission reached regarding the IDF's (Israeli Defence Force) specific actions in each case," said an Amnesty statement.