Guantanamo Bay forces on Friday fired warning shots at a surface vessel that demanded permission to berth at the naval station to medically evaluate the health of “unlawfully detained” officials held at Camp Delta, a GITMO source told Real Raw News.
At approximately 1:00 p.m., GITMO received a radio transmission from a vessel claiming to be a “medical ship on a mission of mercy” carrying a delegation of American Red Cross officials tasked with investigating reports of GITMO staff mercilessly torturing helpless prisoners. The caller, who refused to identify himself and the vessel, said the ship was 30 nautical miles south of the naval base and would dock within two hours. “This is a humanitarian relief craft. We are unarmed. Do not fire upon,” the calling party repeated.
The aberrant radio call marked the second time in two months GITMO had heard from the Red Cross. As reported, JAG’s office in Pensacola, Florida, received a letter from Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern. She had beseeched “military personnel with a stake in Donald Trump’s political ambitions” to cease extrajudicial tribunals and halt human rights abuses against persons detained at Guantanamo Bay. Sources at Naval Air Station Pensacola later told RRN that JAG ignored McGovern’s implied threat and trashed the letter.
“Apparently, our silence offended her,” a GITMO source told RRN. “We were already tracking the ship on radar, and assumed it was a large pleasure craft out of Venezuela or a Central American country. We advised it to change course or risk preemptive measures. It kept repeating the same message, which seemed automated.”
GITMO leadership, he added, sortied two UH-1Y Venom choppers crammed with Marines to intercept and identify the boat and persuade it to dock elsewhere. Spotters indeed identified it as a pleasure craft, the Sherakhan, a Denmark-flagged 230-foot luxury yacht with accommodations for 19 crew and 26 guests, according to charterindex.com.
“It was perplexing. The Sherakhan was too small to hold an invasion force. And why would the Red Cross even risk it in a $600,000/week rental? There were no indications it was a diversion or a trick. But heck, that ship could’ve been loaded with explosives for all we knew,” our source said.
As the Sherakhan ignored commands to change course, one of the Venoms swooped in low, its door gunner firing a phalanx of warning shots off the ship’s bow. Several bursts from the M134 minigun caught the crew’s attention. Whoever manned Sherakhan’s radio issued a fearful plea: “Are you mad? We have on board medical supplies and staff, with orders to dock at Guantanamo Bay to medically check Camp Delta prisoners. We have no weapons, so cease your attack.”
A man in a medical smock appeared on deck, waving a white flag emblazoned with a red cross. He dashed back inside as more warning shots hit the sea.
“Sherakhan, you have entered restricted waters and will be fired upon unless you immediately change course. No more warnings,” one of the Venom pilots told the Sherakhan.
Our source said the choppers were moments away from shredding the Sherakhan when it turned sharply to port and retreated south on a course that would eventually lead to the Venezuelan coast.
Asked why the Venoms didn’t blow the boat out of the water, he said, “We’re not murderers, and we don’t know who was actually on the Sherakhan. Maybe it was, or maybe it wasn’t the Red Cross. If it was, they took a hell of a chance. But they also had to know they weren’t docking here. It could’ve been another attempt by the Deep State to probe defenses for weaknesses. There are always ulterior motives. If they try again, we’ll be less lenient.”
The Sherakhan is worth $100,000,000 and owned by Jan Verkerk, founder of Unlimited Yacht Charter. RRN attempted to ask for a comment from the company, but a spokesperson named “Yana” said the business does not share clients’ names.