More sad news about the flotilla attack today, via ABC News. Confirmation that a US citizen is among the dead:

A U.S. citizen who lived in Turkey is among the nine people killed when Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish aid ship heading for the Gaza Strip, officials said today. The victim was identified as Furkan Dogan, 19, a Turkish-American. A forensic report said he was shot at close range, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, according to the Anatolian news agency.

May he rest in peace. I am so sad for his family and our countries. This just didn't have to happen this way.

In other news, Max Blumenthal reports that the IDF is walking back their initial claim of an Al Qaeda connection:

Today, the Israeli Army’s press office changed the headline of its press release (see below), basically retracting its claim about the flotilla’s Al Qaeda links. The new headline reads: “Attackers of the IDF Soldiers Found Without Identification Papers” (the top of the browser screen still contains the original headline about Al Qaeda). The more Israel’s claims about the flotilla’s terrorist links are challenged, the more they fall apart.

Voice of America has video of the expelled Turkish activists returning:

From their report:

Nine activists died during the operation. Their bodies also arrived in Turkey and autopsies of the dead said all died of gunshot wounds.

Israel says its troops only used their pistols after they were attacked, and released a video showing soldiers in riot gear descending from a helicopter into a crowd of men with sticks and clubs. Three or four activists overpowered each soldier as he landed, beating each one to the deck.

One of the main organizers of the relief effort was the Turkish charity the Foundation for Humanitarian Relief, which has Islamic roots. Israel accuses the charity of having links to terrorism, a charge it denies.

WaPo:

After their release, Centanni and Wiig told reporters that they hoped that their experience would not scare other journalists from reporting on the Palestinians. After a brief news conference, they headed by van for the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, Fox News said.

The NY Times has a detailed account of what happened.

Two journalists kidnapped in Gaza were released unharmed today after being forced at gunpoint to say on a videotape that they had converted to Islam. The two journalists from Fox News — Steve Centanni, 60, an American reporter based in Washington, and Olaf Wiig, 36, a freelance cameraman from New Zealand — were held for 13 days in an abandoned garage in the Gaza Strip as hostages of a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades.

Pat Robertson on the Hot Seat?
"Fellow conservative religious leaders have expressed concern and even open criticism over Pat Robertson's habit of shooting from the hip on his daily religious news-and-talk television program, "The 700 Club." The Christian Coalition founder and former GOP presidential candidate has said American agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for pulling Israel out of the Gaza Strip...read on

I wish more religious leaders would speak out against these phony men of God. People like Robertson, Dobson and Falwell only diminsh the good that many people of faith perform throughout the world. When will the talking heads include other religious leaders on their shows to voice concerns other than bashing gay rights and attacking anyone who is for a separation of church and state?

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This is troubling news:

More than 10 pro-Palestinian activists were killed during a raid by naval commandos halting an aid flotilla heading toward the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said Monday.

An official said the soldiers were attacked with knives and clubs as they boarded the six vessels.

The Israeli military said the violence turned deadly after one of the activists grabbed a weapon from one of the commandos. The weapon discharged, though it wasn't clear whether the activist fired it or if it went off accidentally.

Al-Jazeera TV reported by telephone from the Turkish ship leading the flotilla that Israeli forces fired at the ship and boarded it, wounding the captain. The broadcast ended with a voice shouting in Hebrew, "Everybody shut up!"

Turkey's NTV network reported that at least 30 activists were wounded.

'Massacre'
Some 700 pro-Palestinian activists are on the boats, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, European legislators and an elderly Holocaust survivor.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the incident as a "massacre," the official Wafa news agency reported.

The raid came just after daybreak, with the flotilla still well away from the Gaza shore. Israel had declared it would not allow the ships to reach Gaza.

In Istanbul, Turkey, police blocked dozens of stone-throwing protesters who tried to storm the Israeli Consulate.

The UK reports indicate that the death toll is at least 16.

The Israeli ambassador to Turkey, the base of one of the human rights organisation which organised the flotilla, was summoned by the foreign ministry in Anakara, as the Israeli consulate in Istanbul came under attack.

One Israeli minister issued immediate words of regret. "The images are certainly not pleasant. I can only voice regret at all the fatalities," Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the trade and industry minister, told army radio.

But he added that the commandoes had been attacked with batons and activists had sought to take their weapons off them.

Israeli military sources said four of its men had been injured, one stabbed, and that they had been shot at.

"The flotilla's participants were not innocent and used violence against the soldiers. They were waiting for the forces' arrival," they were quoted by a news website as saying.

As you can see in the CNN portion of the above video, the real casualty of this affair may be Turkish-Israeli relations, which have played a critical role in maintaining the balance of power in the Middle East.