US Cutting Gaza Lifeline

In the mid-60's, I was at Gio Lin just below the DMZ in South Vietnam. Each day we would accompany the bulldozers as they leveled trees, homes, etc. The idea was to create a barrier of cleared land several hundred feet wide that would extend from the Coast of Vietnam to Laos, becoming less comprehensive as it moved west into the mountains. It would be filled with electronic and chemical sensors, minefields, watchtowers and troops that would interrupt the flow of supplies and fighters from the north. As the strip of land beame cleared, the US proceeded to build watchtowers at regular intervals down the center.

One night, before the towers were put into use detecting these Vietnamese fighters infiltrating, marines watched as the towers burned like giant candles in the night.

History shows that the US never successfully implemented the "McNamara Line" as the little electronic devices were diverted to defend Khe Sahn further along the line. All we managed to do was kill and wound many of our soldiers, Vietnamese fighters and countless innocent civilians. The politicians got to do their strategy and war games from afar while industry, and their engineers, made all kinds of money designing and building weapons to kill and maim.

Here we go again . . . and again.

Making an American 'Impenetrable Underground Wall' the Laughing Stock of the World—Leave It to the People of Gaza

By Ann Wright

December 10, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- No doubt at the instigation of the Israeli government, the Obama administration has authorized the United States Army Corps of Engineers to design a vertical underground wall under the border between Egypt and Gaza.
In March, 2009 the United States provided the government of Egypt with $32 million in March, 2009 for electronic surveillance and other security devices to prevent the movement of food, merchandise and weapons into Gaza. Now details are emerging about an underground steel wall that wil be 6-7 miles long and extend 55 feet straight down into the desert sand.

The steel wall will be made of super-strength steel put together in a jigsaw puzzle fashion. It will be bomb proof and can not be cut or melted. It will be "impenetrable," and reportedly will take 18 months to construct. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8405020.stm)

The steel wall is intended to cut the tunnels that go between Gaza and Egypt.

The tunnels are the lifelines for Gaza since the international community agreed to a blockade of Gaza to collectively punish the citizens of Gaza for their having elected in Parliamentary elections in 2006 sufficient Hamas Parliamentarians that Hamas became the government of Gaza. The United States and other western countries have placed Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations.

The underground steel wall is intended to strengthen international governmental efforts to imprison and starve the people of Gaza into submission so they will throw out the Hamas government.

Just as the steel walls of the US Army Corps of Engineers at the base of the levees of New Orleans were unable to contain Hurricane Katrina, the US Army Corps of Engineers' underground steel walls that will attempt to build an underground cage of Gaza will not be able to contain the survival spirit of the people of Gaza.

America's super technology will again be laughed at by the world, as young men dedicated to the survival of their people, will again outwit technology by digging deeper, and most likely penetrating the "impenetrable" in some novel, simple, low-tech way.

I have been to Gaza 3 times this year following the 22-day Israeli military attack on Gaza that killed 1,440, wounded 5,000, left 50,000 homeless and destroyed much of the infrastructure of Gaza. The disproportionate use of force and targeting of the civilian population by the Israeli military is considered by international law and human rights experts as as violations of the Geneva conventions.

When our governments participate in illegal actions, it is up to the citizens of the world to take action. On December 31, 2009, 1,400 international citizens from 42 countries will march in Gaza with 50,000 Gazans in the Gaza Freedom March to end the siege of Gaza. They will take back to their countries the stories of spirit and survival of the pople of Gaza and will return home committed to force their governments to stop these inhuman actions against the people of Gaza.

Just as American smart bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq have not conquered the spirit of Aghans and Iraqis, America's underground walls in Gaza will never conquer the courage of those who are fighting for the survival of their families.

One more time, the American government and the Obama administration has been an active participant in the continued inhumane treatment of the people of Gaza and should be held accountable, along with Israel and Egypt for violations of human rights of the people of Gaza.

Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserve Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in as a US diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience" . Her March 19, 2003 letter of resignation can be read at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0303/032103wright.htm.

-thanks to Information Clearing House and Leah Bolger

See the GAZA Freedom March

and from the Huffington Post:

Egypt Working On Wall Across Gaza Border To Stem Smuggling

|

SARAH EL DEEB / 12/10/09 / AP

CAIRO — Egypt is installing a series of metal sheets some 60 feet deep along its border with Gaza in an attempt to block tunnels that serve as a key conduit to get weapons into the Palestinian territory, border guards and area residents said Thursday.

The work poses a risk to Egypt's relations with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and could undermine its role as a regional mediator. Egypt is already under fire from Arab and Muslim groups for cooperating with Israel in its two-year blockade of the impoverished territory, with 1.4 million residents.

The border project appears to be one of a series of measures Egypt has taken, some of them in cooperation with the U.S., to crack down on smuggling since the end of Israel's war on Hamas last winter. The tunnels were a main target of Israel's offensive.

"We in Hamas can't believe that Egypt would put barriers between us," Hamas lawmaker Yehiye Moussa told The Associated Press. "We know that Egypt is under American and international pressure, but we hope that this is not true. We demand that Egypt open its border."

But the tunnels also create an issue for Egypt, allowing terrorists to slip into the country from Gaza and attempt attacks.

Residents along the border said in recent weeks they have seen Egyptian construction crews clearing a corridor along the frontier, then drilling deep holes. They said the workers then filled the trenches with sand. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

A resident of Rafah, a city divided by the Egypt-Gaza border, said Egyptian crews near his home were clearing a dirt corridor about 90 yards from the border over the past 20 days. The man who identified himself only by his first name, Ashraf, for fear of harassment, said they were drilling holes about 20 yards deep and filling them with sand.

A Gaza security official said he has seen drilling machines operating on the other side of the border, equipped with an attachment to hoist metal. He said the workers are installing metal into the trenches at night.

The official and a Hamas border guard said the Egyptians have been digging for the past 17 days in the area where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza meet. They said they dig during the day and put metal into the ground at night. Both men requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the subject.

Government officials did not return calls seeking comment.

On Thursday, heavy drilling machinery could be seen operating on the Egyptian side of the border. Nonetheless, on the Gaza side tunnels were active with Palestinian smugglers lowering themselves into the deep shafts.

Egypt has been wary of cooperating to shut the tunnels, which are also used for smuggling everything from food to medicine and construction material. Without tunnel smuggling, Gaza's already shaky economy – facing a crippling blockade since Hamas seized control of the strip in 2007 – would likely collapse.

Egypt's gamble is substantial. It could undermine its central role in mediating Mideast conflicts, including the bitter rivalry between Hamas and Fatah for control of the Palestinian territories. Egypt also has been trying to arrange a prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel that could ultimately lead to an easing of the Gaza blockade.

Egyptian and Israeli officials said the project along the border was in cooperation with the U.S. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.

A U.S. Embassy official in Cairo denied there was American involvement in any barrier project on the border.

At the conclusion of Israel's offensive last January to halt rocket fire from Gaza, the U.S. agreed to provide Israel, Egypt and other countries in the region with military and intelligence assistance, including detection and surveillance equipment. It also agreed to provide logistical help and training.

In February, U.S. Army engineers set up ground-penetrating radar in the region to detect smuggling tunnels.

Israel has long criticized Egypt for not doing enough to halt the smuggling. Recently, Egypt increased funds specifically for improving security in the Sinai Peninsula, where the border is located.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Wednesday quoted Egyptian sources as saying the construction has begun on a massive iron underground barrier, which cannot be cut or burned through. It will be about six miles long, and 60 to 90 feet deep, the report said.

Associated Press Writer Dalia Nammari contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.