2009-08-04T10:24:00.014-04:00

Vice Admiral Bruce W. Clingan, USN

PSC 817 Box 70

FPO AE 09622

Dear Sir:

Pardon my stepping a bit out of the chain of command. I've been outside the club for awhile now, so emboldened to bring my concern to your attention directly and publicly.

In patrolling the waters of the Mediterranean, the US Navy has a long and honored tradition of safeguarding the peace of littoral peoples. The tradition goes back to the eighteenth century when we ranged against barbary pirates, and, as the President recently noted, it included the signing of the Treaty of Tripoli, when Morocco was the first country to recognize the newly formed United States. It included my own naval service -also a long, long time ago- keeping the Fleet abreast of events in the area at the Fleet Intelligence Center, then based in that same North African country.

A mounting atrocity waged by the Israeli Navy is taking place at the eastern corner of your command. Unarmed vessels of the humanitarian "Hope Fleet" bringing relief supplies to the desperate citizens of blockaded Gaza have been intercepted, challenged, boarded, and even rammed at sea by Israeli naval units, their crews badly treated and imprisoned. Such criminal acts on the high seas must not be allowed to go unchecked by US Naval forces in the area. I am proposing that you detach armed escorts for planned successive sorties of the Hope Fleet to Gaza.

See http://freegaza.org/en/hope-fleet as well as filmmaker/eyewitness Adam Shapiro's 7/17/09 account in Huffington Report at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

2009/07/17/threatened-and-beaten-on_n_238460.html

What's happening is nothing very new. As you recall, forty two years ago last month, Israel attacked our own plainly identified, unarmed USS Liberty in international waters, killing 34 crewmen. Nothing much was done, aside from a few cash settlements by Israel to families of the deceased and wounded.

Of course a war was going on, perceived threat levels were high, tempers raging, chances for confusion running rampant. Nothing much new about that either. Israel continues to cover her belligerence with what can only be called old fashioned smoke-screening of narrowly perceived self-interest.

Last month Secretary of State Clinton made a major address to the Council of Foreign Relations. In it she stressed that "...we will remain clear-eyed about our purpose. Not everybody in the world wishes us well or shares our values and interests. Some will seek to undermine our efforts . . . To these foes and would-be foes, let me say: 'You should know that our focus on diplomacy and development is not an alternative to our national security arsenal. You should never see America's willingness to talk as a sign of weakness to be exploited. We will not hesitate to defend our friends and ourselves vigorously when necessary with the world's strongest military. This is not an option we seek. Nor is it a threat; it is a promise to the American people.' "

Perhaps she didn't have in mind our mideast ally -some even say 'client state'- of long standing. Perhaps she did, given the President's very clear intent expressed recently to the visiting Israeli President about discontinuing settlements in the West Bank and improving the lot of Gaza's people.

To be sure, Admiral, this action I'm proposing is not one you'll be wanting to take alone. So I'm inviting the attention of a few policy movers & shakers up the line. I do thank you for giving this matter your ear.

Very Respectfully,

James J. Rucquoi

Lieutenant Commander, USNR (retired)

cc:

President Barack Obama

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

George Mitchell, Special US Presidential Envoy to The Middle East

Senator Carl Levin, Chair, Senate Armed Services Committee

Senator Ted Kennedy, Chair, Senate Sea Power Sub-committee

Senator John Kerry, Chair, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Senator Robert Plasey, Chair, Senate Sub-committee on Near Eastern and South/Central Asian Affairs

Congressman Howard Berman, Chair, House Foreign Affairs Committee

Congressman Gary Ackerman, Chair, House Sub-Committee for Mid-East/So Asia

Congressman Ike Skelton, Chair, House Armed Services Committee

Congressman Gene Taylor, Chair, House Sub-Committee for Sea Power & Expeditionary Forces

Open Letter to the Commander, US Sixth Fleet