THE POSTS MOSTLY BY GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

THE POSTS MOSTLY BY GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

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Boston artist Steve Mills - realistic painting

Thursday, June 3, 2010

NASA: Is Approaching Space Object Artificial?


May 29, 2010

NASA: Is Approaching Space Object Artificial?

Comet_1342249cNASA authorities report that an unknown object approaching the Earth from deep space is almost certainly artificial in origin rather than being an asteroid. Object 2010 KQ was detected by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona earlier this month, and subsequently tracked by NASA's asteroid-watching service, the Near-Earth Object Program headquartered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Observations by astronomer S J Bus, using the NASA-sponsored Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, indicate that 2010 KQ's spectral characteristics do not match any of the known asteroid types, and the object's absolute magnitude (28.9) suggests it is only a few meters in size.
The mysterious artificial object has apparently made a close pass by the Earth, coming in almost to the distance of the Moon's orbit, and is now headed away again into the interplanetary void. The object has used no propulsion during the time NASA has had it under observation. However the spacewatch experts believe that it must have moved under its own power at some point, given its position and velocity.
"The orbit of this object is very similar to that of the Earth, and one would not expect a object to remain in this type of orbit for very long," said Paul Chodas, at JPL.

 The experts believe that the object must be a spacecraft, or part of one - likely to be a booster stage from an interplanetary mission of the past, now drifting back in to Earth and out again. The next visit will probably be 2036, at which time there's a small chance that 2010 KQ will crash into the atmosphere and burn up. 
The NASA graphic above shows the trajectory of the near-Earth object known as 2010 KQ, which the space agency said is likely a spent rocket stage that escaped the Earth-moon system years ago, and not an asteroid.
Casey Kazan via The Register.

TODAY'S (3/6/10) CROP CIRCLE

http://www.silentcircle.co.uk/codford.htm

CROP CIRCLES 2010 - REPORT 9
Codford St Peter , Near Warminster. Wiltshire
Reported 03 - 06 - 10

This formation is in rapidly rising barley. Poor visibility unfortunately. When did it appear? I guess a few days ago.
Lucy Pringle
To be updated with ground images.
Photo by Lucy Pringle © 2010











INCREDIBLE!Israelis celebrating the murderous attack on 'Mavi Marmara' Aid Ship - in front of Turkish Embassy,Tel Aviv

 May 31, 2010 — Israelis celebrating the murderous  attack on 'Mavi Marmara' Aid Ship - in front of Turkish Embassy,Tel Aviv. This Video was filmed in the night of 31.5.2010 infront of the Embassy.



Bilderberg agenda before meeting in Sitges, Spain

Global cabal pushes agenda before meeting in Sitges, Spain

By James P. Tucker, Jr. – American Free Press Issue 23, June 7, 2010

Bilderberg-controlled news outlets in Europe and the Western Hemisphere are conditioning the public to accept two of the super-secret elite’s major goals in advance of its meeting June 4-7 in Sitges, Spain: a U.S. attack on Iran and a financial bailout of Greece and other European Union (EU) countries.



Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will open this year's meeting 
But even before the Bilderberg group gathered behind the sealed-off, guarded Dolce Hotel in Sitges, a resort community 12 miles from Barcelona, resistance to throwing more tax dollars at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out Europe sprang up in Congress.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) introduced legislation to require the Treasury Department to oppose further IMF “loans” to stricken European countries until all EU members are in compliance with their own constitutional limits on debt—and very few of them are. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

Just the threat of the legislation prompted Senate Democratic leaders to agree to an amendment to financial legislation that would prohibit the United States from participating in bailouts that are unlikely to be repaid. It requires the IMF to certify to the Treasury Department that it expects its loans to Europe to be repaid. It passed 94-0.

“America isn’t even close to getting our own fiscal house in order, and this is the worst time to ask taxpayers to borrow more from China to bail out foreign nations,” DeMint said.

The Bilderberg-controlled Washington Post called for making the IMF a “global overseer” on May 20. Bilderberg is exploiting the financial crisis in Greece and other EU countries to advance efforts to make the IMF a world Treasury Department under the UN.

“It may take a global agency like the IMF” to address the problem, The Post said, attributing the view to Liliana Rojas-Suarez, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.

Bilderberg warmongering continues. Following instructions from Russian Mikhail Slobodinsky (at the Trilateralist meeting [AFP May 24, 2010]), Russia and China joined in supporting a resolution condemning Iran’s imaginary “nuclear weapons program.” Israel restated that air strikes are not “off the table.”

The Bilderberg-Trilateral goal is for the U.S. to conduct air strikes on Iran, paid for with American taxpayer dollars and blood. Israel has had nuclear weapons since at least 1962, is not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses on-site inspections.

Obama continued calling for a new “international order” in a commencement address at West Point, addressing cadets, some of whom will probably die in the Middle East.

“The international order we seek is one that can resolve the challenges of our times,” Obama said. The president, who is owned by Bilderberg, never wore America’s uniform.

“We are not defined by our borders,” Obama said while standing beside Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Eliminating national borders and creating an “American Union” to include Mexico and Canada is a major Bilderberg goal.

Bilderberg is grimly aware that gas prices will drop this summer despite ordering oil-producing nations to pump at only 81 percent capacity. But Bilderberg is demanding significantly higher costs in the fall, looking for $3 to $4 a gallon in the U.S. This is entangled, too, with the huge British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is among the several oil producers that are major Bilderberg players, and the brotherhood is intact—and embarrassed.

AFP editor James P. Tucker Jr. is a veteran journalist who spent many years as a member of the “elite” media in Washington. Since 1975 he has won widespread recognition, here and abroad, for his pursuit of on-the-scene stories reporting the intrigues of global power blocs such as the Bilderberg Group. Tucker is the author of Jim Tucker’s Bilderberg Diary: One Man’s 25-Year Battle to Shine the Light on the World Shadow Government. Bound in an attractive full-color softcover and containing 272 pages—loaded with photos, many never published before—the book recounts Tucker’s experiences over the last quarter century at Bilderberg meetings. $25 from AFP. No charge for S&H in U.S.

Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003

Source: http://americanfreepress.net/html/bilderberg__global_cabal_224.html 
Last updated 03/06/2010

"Compound" in the desert

Feb 23, 2009. Over the past five months, this "compound" has taken shape out in the
central Arizona desert, in the middle of nowhere near Blackwater and Sacaton Arizona,
along the dry Gila River. It looks to be about a quarter mile long by an eighth mile wide.
It has razor wire all around it, power lines run to it and about half of it is cleared of
vegetation. It is in an inhospitable and inescapable area of the Sonoran desert.
The closest small towns would be about 10 miles away in any direction. You'd be lucky
to walk one mile in the summer heat there. April to November temps are commonly well
above 100F. Summertime temps are routinely 120 F or even higher. Could this be for
Guantanamo Bay detainees? Coming civil unrest? Illegal aliens? Mortgage defaulters? ...I
will keep you posted.
--Steve in Coolidge, AZ
sonoransteve@gmail.com



A JEWISH VIEW OF THE FLOTILLA AFFAIR

June 3, 110 Thursday 29 Sivan 3870 22:34 IST 
jpost
 
Rattling The Cage: I blame my country

By LARRY DERFNER
03/06/2010

As evil as the flotilla jihadists were, they were acting in a righteous cause: Freedom for Gaza.
 
Like every other country, Israel has done some awfully bloody-minded things over the years. We’ve tyrannized the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and colonized their land. We’ve sold billions of dollars worth of arms and military expertise to murderous dictators across Africa, Latin America and Asia. We elected two prime ministers, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, who headed national liberation movements that deliberately killed hundreds of Arab civilians along with scores of British officials and soldiers, and whose stated goal at the time was a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River.

Most recently, we elevated to the post of foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, whom even Martin Peretz, the belligerently pro-Israel editor-in-chief of The New Republic, describes as a “neo-fascist.”

But still, none of this takes away Israel’s right to sovereignty within its legitimate, pre-occupation borders, including its territorial waters and airspace. And what sovereignty means, finally, is that we have the right to use force to defend our land, water and airspace against any attempt by a foreign entity to take control over it.

A hypothetical case: If the UN, for whatever reason, decided to blockade Israel’s coast, to stop ships going in and out, we would have the right to forcibly break it. And if, being under blockade, we couldn’t break it ourselves, our supporters abroad would have the right to do it for us – certainly the moral right, maybe the internationally legal right, too.

Now let’s say that to break the UN blockade, several hundred international friends of Israel – hawks, doves, Jews, gentiles, etc. – got up a flotilla of ships and sailed for Haifa. And let’s say the lead ship, named the SS Baruch Goldstein, was loaded with Kachniks from America. And let’s say UN soldiers, determined to enforce the blockade, tried to commandeer the Baruch Goldstein and were attacked by a mob of Kachniks with knives, clubs and metal rods.

Now all decent people loathe everything that Kach and the example of Baruch Goldstein stand for. And even if they were fighting in a cause as just as Israel’s right to sovereignty, the Kachniks aboard the Baruch Goldstein would remain loathsome and so would their ideology.

But as evil as they are, it would still not justify the UN blockade of Israel’s coast. And as evil as they are, it still wouldn’t mean their attack on the soldiers enforcing the blockade was wrong.

Only a pacifist could say that, and around here there are very, very few pacifists.

WHICH BRINGS me to Monday morning’s raid on the Mavi Marmara. It was wrong. It was wrong because the Gazans, no less than Israelis, have the right to sovereignty within their legitimate borders, including their territorial waters and airspace. And nothing they’ve done, nothing they believe, no one they’ve elected gives Israel the right to control their country or take away the Gazans’ right to defend it with force.

The Palestinians are no more a nation than Israelis are, but they’re no less of one, either. Whoever’s guiltier in our 130-year conflict, there’s plenty of guilt on both sides, as there is on the side of every nation. But still, guilt doesn’t take away any nation’s right to be free.

I know what Hamas is. And I have no trouble believing the reports, Israeli and foreign, that this Turkish IHH organization behind theMavi Marmara is pro-Hamas, pro-jihad. These are not peace activists; these are not good people at all. These are loathsome people.

They’re no worse than Kachniks, but they’re no better, either.

But as evil as these jihadists are, they were acting in a cause the whole decent, democratic world knows is right: Freedom for Gaza. Freedom for the Palestinians. An end to the occupation. An end to the blockade.

And here’s the part that’s hard to accept, but that’s nevertheless true: The justice of that cause, and the injustice of Israel’s blockade, means those bastards on theMavi Marmara had the right to attack our soldiers.

I hate admitting that. I really do. I’m going to be sending two sons into the IDF, too. And I am furious at my country for giving those bastards the right, the legitimacy, to attack our soldiers.

I don’t blame the commandos for killing those people; they were defending themselves. I blame my country for putting them on that ship in the first place. And I blame my country for the deaths, for the injuries, for the blood that was spilled – on both sides. It was spilled, finally, because my country denies another country its freedom.

The UK and Islamist Terror: Conservatives Putting the Nation at Risk?

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Published on The Brussels Journal (http://www.brusselsjournal.com)

The UK and Islamist Terror: Conservatives Putting the Nation at Risk?

Created 2010-06-02 12:57
Nearly a month into Britain's new coalition government and perhaps the defining image of Prime Minister David Cameron shows him strolling casually along Westminster, without security, mingling with the crowd. At other times he has eschewed his motorcade, and sent away his police motorbike escort. We – and perhaps more especially those who despise Britain – are supposed to believe that he is a man of the people. He is like us, and we are like him. In the cold light of day, however, Cameron's actions reveal only that he is disconnected from reality:Lest we forget, Cameron is the leader of a wartime nation – a nation fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and facing terrorism at home.
Islamist terrorists have often stepped up their activity during the first twelve months of a new government, and there has already been some activity since the May 6 election. In what is now being treated as a terrorist attack, the Labour MP for East Ham, Stephen Timms, was stabbed by a Muslim woman, who had been "radicalized." Since then, the names of four other MPs have been discovered on a terrorist hit list, and security for all MPs has been put under review.
The Conservative-led coalition government faces serious challenges, perhaps most especially in regard to Islamist extremism, which it seems intellectually ill-equipped to combat.
Pundits suggest that the coalition ("Con-Dem") government will collapse, possibly within a year or two, and that the Labour party might even be swept back into office. With the Conservatives having abandoned their defining values, and having aligned themselves with the left-wing Liberal Democrats, another threat comes from the right, both from within and from without the party.
Three days before the election, the Conservatives issued their A Contract for Equalities - arguably their real manifesto – articulating how the party would make anti-discrimination "central" to a Conservative government. The problem is not that the Conservatives want people to be judged by their character rather than by the skin color, etc. That is entirely right and proper – as virtually everyone in Britain recognizes.
The problem is that this sort of "anti-discrimination" is ideological: those who openly reject cultural relativism, believe in Britishness, democracy, etc., constitute an oppressor class, that has, and that is, dominating various oppressed classes. This is not an ideology in which Whites are regarded as the exclusive oppressors of non-Whites, but, rather, one in which the West oppresses the non-Western. The Sikh that champions democracy and inveighs against radical Islam is also certain to be deemed a "racist" and lumped in with neo-Nazis.
Cameron believes that people become Islamists – and, perhaps eventually commit acts of terror – not because they are attracted to, and eventually believe in, Islamist ideology per se, but because they have been oppressed. Islamist ideology is not a factor, as attraction to it must be preceded by discrimination. The nation is to blame.
This was perfectly clear from his statements and actions in the lead-up to the election.
By pushing female, gay, ethnic and religious minorities into safe seats, and thus into government, Cameron asserted, other members of these groups would realize that they were equal citizens in Britain, with equal rights and opportunities. By merely seeing more "minority" MPs, the rifts in society would magically repair themselves.
According to the party's pre-election statement on national security, "Government cannot provide security without the trust and support of its citizens." In other words, if Muslims do not trust or support the government, then they might drift into extremism. The Conservatives thus promised to "review and consolidate […] counter-terrorism and security laws introduced by Labour," and especially to review the "Prevent" scheme, "supposed to stop vulnerable people from becoming terrorists but which has been accused of spying on innocent Muslims." (Prevent was set up by the previous government, specifically to combat the growth of Islamist extremism and terrorism, by working with Imams, and so on.)
Cameron shares his "anti-discrimination" worldview with coalition partners, the uncompromisingly left-wing, LibDems. Of greater consequence, though, it has also now become the defining ideology of most of those at the top of the "progressive" Conservative party.
In 2008, it came to the public's attention that Mohammed Ali Harrath, the subject of an Interpol red notice, and wanted on terrorist charges, had been advising the Metropolitan Police. Conservative MP Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones wasted no time in calling for him to be sacked - although the office of (Conservative) mayor Boris Johnson later rubber stamped an invitation for Harrath to speak at an Eid celebration at London's landmark Trafalgar Square.
Harrath is also the chairman of the Islam Channel, which the counter-extremist think tank Quilliam has said regularly features speakers who "promote intolerant and bigoted interpretations of Islam." Its presenters have included members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical worldwide political party that rejects democracy and wants to reestablish the Caliphate.
Now Minister for Security, Baroness Neville-Jones gave her first interview [video] to the Islam Channel, and spent the entire time reassuring its viewers that the new government was a friendlier one. The coalition is concerned that Muslims have felt isolated and picked on by Labour's apparently discriminatory and much-too-tough approach to national security. The Con-Dem government, she assured viewers, would:
"[…] review the operation of Prevent. I know that there is anxiety among British Muslims that first of all it is directed at them, that it's stigmatizing [them, and that] it isn't necessarily achieving its objectives. We want to look at all of those things. I have to say we will bear down on extremism, but we are going to do it across the board. You know, Right-wing, Right-wing extremists are no more going to be allowed to behave in society in ways which undermine values that we all stand for than anyone else. And so what we want to try and do is get a sense of equality and fairness in society and in return we ask for responsibility on the part of citizens - it's what runs through the coalition agreement."
Note: First "a sense of equality and fairness". Then "responsibility on the part of citizens."
By the end of May, the Home Office (headed by Conservative MP Theresa May, who launched the equalities contract) had given the go-ahead to "preacher of hate," Zakir Naik, to enter Britain. Naik is an Indian, Islamic preacher, who has said that "every Muslim should be a terrorist," and that he is "with" Osama bin Laden. He is scheduled to speak at the Al-Khair Peace Convention which will be held in London and Sheffield, and is being sponsored by the Al-Khair Foundation, Iqra TV (founded by Al-Khair), and Peace TV.
The launch of Iqra TV, in 2009, was attended by Lord Sheikh and Mohammed Amin, chair and vice chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum, an official Conservative party organization. At the launch event, Lord Sheikh gave a check for 5,000 pounds (approximately $7,500 US) to Al-Khair to build a new library.
There is no suggestion that the CMF has influenced the Home Office's decision to allow Naik into the UK. Nevertheless, that an official Conservative party organization has endorsed and given money to an organization hosting a "preacher of hate" surely raises questions - especially as the preacher in question has been cleared to enter the UK by a department headed by a Conservative MP, under a Conservative-majority government.
Also since Neville-Jones's interview, the Home Office has announced that it would slash 10 million pounds (approximately $15 million US) from the counter-terrorism budget, despite Police Minister Nick Herbert's acknowledgement that the fight against "violent extremism" had benefited from a "significant growth in funding."
Both Labour and Conservative MPs are said to be furious over the cut in the counter-terrorism budget.
Conservative MP Patrick Mercer told Channel 4 News that "our enemies are still out there; they still want to hit us," and with terrorist blogsites and websites "alive with threats," "we've got to be extremely careful what money we cut from where and when."
Even despite the warning signs prior to the election, however, who would have thought that in under a month of the new government, former Home Secretary Alan Johnson would be expressing shock at its undermining counter-terrorism? Interviewed for Channel 4 News, Johnson called the cut, "entirely wrong," and said that he was "very surprised that, as one of their first acts, this is what the new [Conservative-majority] government is doing." "We know," he said, "that the 3,000 police officers working in counter terrorism were a large part of the reason why we thwarted attacks over the last few years."
Nevertheless, many of the people who voted Conservative at the May election, did so because they had become alarmed at the spread of Islamism, and the apparent appeasement of extremist Islamists by the Labour government. Those voters are going to find themselves feeling dismayed, or worse.
Given its record already, should Britain suffer another attack, the Conservative party will have some very serious charges to answer.
If they are not to be held accountable as well, Conservative party backbenchers should be seen to raise the issue of Islamist extremism. They need to ask:
  • Why members of the party seem so often to be engaged with those accused of promoting hate, and
  • Who has formulated, and informed, the party's counter-terror strategy.
Most of all, they need to represent the British public, and insist that the Conservative party
  • Disassociate itself from radical groups and individuals, and
  • Formulate and properly finance a serious counter-extremist policy to prevent Islamist ideology from spreading and radical preachers from operating.
The safety of the British public should be of paramount importance to the government and authorities.


BP 'cuts pipe from leaking oil well'






Page last updated at 18:31 GMT, Thursday, 3 June 2010 19:31 UK




    Oil company BP says it has cut a ruptured pipe from the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well, a key step in the latest effort to cap the well.
    BP chief Tony Hayward hailed it as an "important milestone" and said BP could know within the next 12 to 24 hours if the capping effort will succeed.
    For now, undersea robots are preparing the well head to receive the cap.
    President Barack Obama is to visit the gulf on Friday, his third trip there since the leak began six weeks ago.
    News of the trip came with the White House under increasing pressure to show the administration is in control of the response and clean-up efforts.
    Florida threat
    Adm Thad Allen, the US official overseeing the response effort, said BP used giant shears manipulated by undersea robots to snip off the end of the pipe, after a diamond-edged saw failed to do the job.
    The challenge is now to place a containment cap securely over the cut and stop the oil flow. The company hopes to collect the oil on a surface ship above the well.
    The latest news came after a sheen of oil from the spill was seen within 10 miles of the white-sand beaches of the Florida "panhandle" region.

    ATTEMPT TO CAP OIL LEAK


    BP is attempting to siphon oil from the top of the blowout preventer, the set of failed valves on the seabed. The plan is to lower a cap onto the upper section of the blowout preventer known as the lower marine riser package (LMRP).
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    'Fair criticism'
    Meanwhile, BP said it would pay for the construction of six sand barriers off the coast of the US state of Louisiana.
    The barriers are designed to protect fragile wetlands from the huge oil slick that has leaked from the well.
    On Wednesday, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced that the White House had ordered BP to pay for the construction of the sand barriers. He was speaking at an emotional news conference after touring the wetlands.
    Mr Jindal has strongly criticised the Obama administration and BP over the past few days for being too slow to respond to the crisis.
    "Every day they wait, every day they make us wait, we're losing our battle to protect our coast," he said.

    BP IN NUMBERS


    • Profits in 2009: $13.96bn (£8.75bn)
    • Clean-up costs so far: $990m (£674m)
    • Estimated cost of sand barrier project $360m (£244m)
    • Dividend payment 2009: $10.5bn (£7bn)
    • BP scheduled to make a first-quarter dividend payment to shareholders on 21 June
    • At its worst BP saw 34% wiped off the company's value
    • Share prices on London Stock Exchange fell from a pre-disaster high of 655.4 pence to 429.75p
    Mr Jindal maintains the sand barriers would block oil from the fragile wetlands on the Louisiana coast, which scientists and officials say would be near impossible to clean once they become inundated with oil.
    In a statement, BP said it was "committed to implementing the most effective measures to protect the coastline of Louisiana".
    Meanwhile, BP chief executive Tony Hayward said it was "entirely fair criticism" to say his company was unprepared for the deep-water disaster.
    Plummeting share prices
    In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, he said: "We did not have the tools you would want in your toolkit."
    Two Democratic senators have written to Mr Hayward urging him to suspend payments to shareholders worth $10bn until all costs of the clean-up and compensation are paid out.
    BP estimates that the disaster has so far cost the company approximately $990m in clean-up costs.
    The sand barrier project will push BP's bill to about $1.4bn.
    BP share prices have continued to plummet in trading on the London Stock Exchange, amid news the US justice department has opened several civil and criminal inquiries into the Gulf spill.
    Oil washes up on an Alabama beach
    Obama has used the disaster to urge Congress to pass a bill to overhaul US energy policy and end tax breaks for oil companies.
    The oil began leaking into the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, leased to BP, exploded, killing 11 workers.
    BP is drilling two relief wells to permanently stop the leak but they are not expected to be completed until August.
    A "top kill" procedure, which had been considered the best hope for plugging the leak, failed over the weekend when engineers were unable to pump enough heavy mud into the well to staunch the oil flow.

    BBC graphichttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/10230252.stm

    Emotion high as Turkey buries its Gaza flotilla dead


    Page last updated at 16:22 GMT, Thursday, 3 June 2010 17:22 UK


      Funerals take place in Istanbul for Gaza ship activists
      Emotions are running high in Turkey at funerals for nine activists, all Turkish or of Turkish origin, killed in Israel's raid on the Gaza aid flotilla.
      The bodies were flown from Israel to Istanbul, along with more than 450 activists, to a heroes' welcome.
      Israel has said there is no need for an international inquiry into the incident, insisting its own will meet the "highest international standards".
      The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) voted earlier to set up an investigation.
      Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his troops had no choice but to stop the ships.
      He argued the flotilla had been aiming not to deliver humanitarian aid to Gazans, but to break Israel's blockade.
      It was Israel's duty to prevent rockets and other weapons being smuggled into Gaza to Hamas by Iran and others, he said.
      Turkey, one of Israel's few allies in the Muslim world, recalled its ambassador after the incident on Monday.
      'Barbarism and oppression'
      Its President, Abdullah Gul, said relations between the two countries would "never be the same".

      AT THE SCENE

      Jeremy Bowen
      The prayers for the dead before the funerals were not just about sadness and loss, though there was plenty of that.
      This was a political event as well.
      The mood of the crowd echoed remarks made by the Turkish president, who said that an irreparable and deep scar had been left in Turkey's relations with Israel.
      The Israelis and what they did were denounced repeatedly.
      Israel's version that its men opened fire in self-defence is utterly rejected here.
      At the end of the ceremony the dead were taken away to be buried close to their homes.
      For Turks, it is not just that civilians died. The raid is seen as an attack on their country's honour and sovereignty and, like the Gaza war and the Iraq invasion, it is detaching some Turks at least from old friends in the West and pushing them closer to the Muslim Middle East.
      "This incident has left an irreparable and deep scar" on relations, he told reporters in Ankara.
      In a fiery speech at Istanbul airport, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc accused Israel of "piracy" and "barbarism and oppression".
      Crowds of people, some wearing Palestinian-style scarves, gathered in the city to meet the coffins, swathed in Turkish flags, at the Ottoman-era Fatih mosque.
      The funerals took place in a strongly Islamist part of the city and emotions were running high, reported the BBC's Bethany Bell.
      One of the bodies was due to be buried in Istanbul while the other eight were being taken to their home towns, AFP news agency reported.
      Turkish post-mortem examinations found all nine of the dead had been shot, some at close range.
      The dead include a 19-year-old Turkish citizen with an American passport - hit by four bullets in the head and one in the chest - and a national taekwondo athlete, Turkish media say.
      The bodies arrived, along with the 450 activists, in three aircraft chartered by the Turkish government at Istanbul airport in the early hours of Thursday, after several hours of delays.
      Mr Arinc said his government saluted the Turkish Islamic charity, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), which played a leading role in organising the convoy - a charity Israel has accused of supporting terrorism.
      Swedish author Henning Mankell at a news conference in Berlin, 3 June
      On the ship I was on, they found one weapon: my razor
      Henning MankellSwedish authorFault lines among UK JewsIn pictures: Activists fly homeQ&A: Israeli raid on aid flotillaGuide: Gaza under blockade
      IHH leader Bulent Yildrim said upon his arrival back in Istanbul that he believed the death toll could be higher than nine, as his organisation had a longer list of missing people.
      British activist Sarah Colbourne told the BBC: "I couldn't even count the amount of ships that were in the water. It was literally bristling with ships, helicopters and gunfire. It was horrific, absolutely horrific."
      Swedish author Henning Mankell, who was aboard one of the ships in the flotilla, has dismissed the idea that weapons were being carried by the activists.
      "On the ship I was on, they found one weapon: my razor. And they actually came up and showed it off, my razor, so you see what level this was at," the author of the popular Wallander detective novels told Swedish radio.
      'Double standard'
      Consular staff were on hand in Istanbul to help the activists from other countries. They include 34 people who hold British passports.

      HOW ISRAEL RAID UNFOLDED
      The flotilla of six ships, including the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara, was on its way from Cyprus to Gaza carrying supplies including cement, paper and water purification tablets.
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      Doctors in Ankara, where some of the severely injured were taken, say they have been treating people for bullet wounds. Three people are in intensive care.
      Seven other activists are in a serious condition and will remain in Israeli hospitals until they can be moved, Israeli officials say.
      Another plane carrying 31 Greek activists, three French nationals and one American flew into Athens early on Thursday.
      More than 100 relatives and supporters cheered and shouted pro-Palestinian slogans at the airport.
      Rejecting the proposed HRC investigation, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said demands for an external inquiry showed a double standard towards the Jewish state.
      When American or British troops were accused of killing civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan, he said, it was the US or Britain that carried out the investigation, not an international body.
      Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested attaching international observers to an internal Israeli inquiry.
      "We have excellent jurists... one of whom will be willing to take it on himself, and if they want to include an international member of some sort in their committee that's alright too," he told Israel radio.
      The US, Israel's most important ally, has already made it clear it will accept an Israeli-led inquiry, the BBC's Andrew North reports from Jerusalem.
      New ship
      Talk in Gaza is now turning to the next ship on its way across the Mediterranean to try to break the blockade, the BBC's Jon Donnison reports from the territory.
      The MV Rachel Corrie (undated photo)The MV Rachel Corrie is expected in the blockade area within days
      The Rachel Corrie - carrying 15 people including Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire - had been due to be part of the original flotilla but was delayed because of technical problems.
      The ship could be in the region by Saturday, our correspondent reports. Israel has said it will not be allowed to dock in Gaza.
      "Everybody was very upset at what happened [with the flotilla]," Irish crew member Derek Graham told Reuters news agency by telephone.
      "Everybody has been more determined than ever to continue on to Gaza."
      Meanwhile, some of the 10,000 tonnes of aid seized from the flotilla by Israel has been returned to the Israeli port of Ashdod after being left stranded at a Gaza-Israel crossing.
      The Hamas government in control of Gaza refused to accept the aid until Israeli-Arab activists from the flotilla were released.