From The Hill: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/288443-ten-years-on-i-want-answers-for-my-daughter-rachel-corrie
By Craig Corrie, co-founder, Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice -
03/15/13
On March 16, 2003, my daughter Rachel Corrie was crushed to death under a bulldozer driven by an Israel Defense Forces soldier. The bulldozer was manufactured in the United States by Caterpillar, Inc. and paid for by U.S. foreign military financing aid. My tax dollars paid for the machine used to kill my daughter.
In a telephone conversation the next day, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon promised President Bush a “thorough, credible, and transparent” investigation into Rachel’s killing with a report to the U.S. Government. In response, April 24, 2003, our family received a printed PowerPoint presentation circulating in Congress purporting to explain the death of our daughter. This report, created by officers in command of the IDF unit that killed Rachel, concluded, “Ms. Corrie was not run over by a bulldozer, but sustained injuries caused by earth and debris which fell on her during bulldozer operation.”
Not only was this statement not supported by accounts from Rachel’s friends and their photographs, it was subsequently contradicted by Captain R.S., the highest ranking IDF officer on the scene. In Haifa District Court in April 2011, he pointed to the blade marks on the ground in one of the photos, and swore he knew in the first minute that the bulldozer had run over Rachel.
On May 23, 2003, our family was informed by the U.S. Department of State that the Israelis had closed Rachel’s case, that no charges would be brought, and that they declined to release the promised report to our government. Members of the State Department, U.S. embassy, and our family were subsequently permitted to read the report. It remains the U.S. position, restated as recently as August 2012 by U.S. Ambassador Daniel Shapiro, that the Israeli investigation did not meet the standard of “thorough, credible, and transparent.”
Continue reading at: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/288443-ten-years-on-i-want-answers-for-my-daughter-rachel-corrie
