Power Line: Reuters Alleges Israeli Air Strike

Power Line: Reuters Alleges Israeli Air Strike Two Arab members of Reuter's staff were caught up in an incident in the Gaza strip yesterday. There is no doubt that the two men were injured as they were stepping out of the vehicle. The question is not whether the vehicle was hit by something, but it is about whether or not the vehicle was hit by an IDF missile. The bloggers have already begun to suspect that the vehicle was not hit by a missile. Here in Australia it was reported that the vehicle was hit by shrapnel. Since the Reuters photogs were in a "war zone", this is a situation of reporters beware. They are responsible for their own safety. The photograph of the vehicle indicates that it was not hit by a missile. A hole was punched in the roof from what appears to be shrapnel from the firing of a weapon. It could have been the remains of a rocket fired by Hamas at the Israeli soldiers that caused the damage. There is a real need for "TRUTH IN REPORTING" to be established in the western media.

The Red Cross Ambulance Incident

The Red Cross Ambulance Incident Zombie has done an excellent job exposing what has to be the worst of the hoaxes and allegations against Israel during the month long battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Whilst there are other incidents where the MSM remain complicit because of their enabling of Hezbollah propaganda, this one incident stands out above all of the others because of the implications of the accusation. Did Israel deliberately target two ambulances in the south of Lebanon, and near Qana? If the accusation was true then there is no doubt that Israel has violated the Geneva protocols on warfare. If the accusation is true then the commanders who ordered the air strike could be charged with war crimes. However, what is missing in this story is the living proof that the air strike ever happened. The ambulance that has been on show in front of the office of the Red Cross in Tyre has definitely been involved in an incident. The problem here is that it is more than likely that the incident occurred in June, and not at the time claimed by the ambulance drivers involved in this story. What is so incredible about the claim is the fact that if it were true the ambulances would have been burnt out shells, but that is not the case. There is no evidence that anything came through the roof and penetrated the floor. Yes, there is evidence of an explosion, and it is even a bomb explosion, but that happened when the driver turned on his ignition. If you look carefully at the photos that have been provided on Zombie's site, you will see a close up of the ambulance at the centre of the claim. It's window has been blown out. There is damage in the interior of the ambulance but it was not damage caused by an Israeli missile. Another Hezbollah claim bites the dust!

Abusing Freedom of speech

lgf: "Death to Israel" in Salt Lake City Someone in Salt Lake City has filed for a permit to stage a demonstration that will call for "Death to Israel". This kind of demonstration is not one that should be considered as an exercise of free speech. Its intention is to incite the demonstrators to do violence against Jews in Salt Lake City and elsewhere. There is a need for a responsible exercise of free speech. If the demonstration was simply to protest over the war against Hizbollah then it is not trampling the rights of others to survive. However, by naming the demonstration "death to Israel", the permit should not be granted on the grounds that it is denying the existence and freedoms of others. The right to freedom of speech is a two way street. It means that we have the right to speak out against the wrongs that we see around us. It does not mean that we have the right to incite others to do violence against other members of the USA population. It is time for the bleeding heart liberals to put up and shut up. It is time that this kind of attempt to trample the rights of others was refused and the initiator charged with a treasonable offence.

US probes Israel cluster bomb use

The US is to probe the charge that Israel used cluster bombs in areas known to be populated by civilians, the BBC reports. Since the Lebanese from the south began to return home there have been several minor explosions of unexploded bombs leading to the wounding of roughly 30 people and lilling perhaps another 8 people. (since the Lebanese have been prone to exaggeration about numbers I am inclined to halve these figures). The complaint against Israel is that it knowingly dropped these bombs in civilian areas, despite giving assurances to the USA that it would not use them in populated areas. However, there is a snag when one is dealing with Hezbollah. The bleeding hearts in the human rights groups are jumping up and down claiming that it is Israel who has breached the Geneva protocols where civilians are concerned. If only they would take off their rose coloured biased bleeding heart liberal glasses and look at the real facts here. How can this situation be avoided if Hezbollah are using civilian areas to fire their rockets? The Hezbollah fighters had hidden their rocket launchers amongst the civilian houses, thus the fine line between what constitutes a military and a civilian target has been blurred. If any blame is to be attached then these people need to have a good look at the tactics being employed by the jihadists. They are the ones who do not care about civilians, because they deliberately use the civilian population in order to kill other civilians in Israel. Either way the Lebanese civilians remain the losers until they summon up the will power to blast Hezbollah back to Iran.

lgf: About Those Israeli "Chemical Weapons..."

lgf: About Those Israeli "Chemical Weapons..." Now that we have a ceasefire, it is time for the world to examine more closely the many propaganda claims that have come from the lips of members of Hezbollah, accusing Israel of all manner of crimes. One such accusation is the claim that chemical weapons were used by Israel during an attack on a bridge. Tissue samples from the bodies were removed and taken by independent experts to Germany, where they were examined. What was the conclusion of the experts? I would hope that the International Commission that is looking into the allegations of war crimes will take the time to examine the conclusions of the independent experts. Perhaps the Lebanese doctor who made the claim in the first place needs to get a lesson in recognising the effects of smoke on a dead body.

Hezbollah blew up this ship?

 Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

What did you do in the war daddy? Well son, I blew up a ship that was sunk in 1998.

It seems that Flat Fatima had to get in on the act of deception and claim the hit on the Swan as a kill for the Hezbollah.

 

Link to Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Why the Media needs to clean up its act

I have been very interested in the progress of the work that is being done by Richard North from EUReferendum in the past week or so. The subject of the interest is how Hezbollah via Green Helmet and White T-shirt staged photographic opportunities for a hungry gaggle of fauxtographers. On one side of the Atlantic LGF (Little Green Footballs) was making his own discoveries about fauxtography, and on the other side of the Atlantic Richard and Helen have been leading the way by taking the issue to the media and asking them to "please explain". EUReferendum is now in the process of co-ordinating a blog-wide effort of bloggers who are studying the fauxtographs that have been reproduced onto the Internet, as well as videoclip footage that has become available. We really do have to thank Al-Jazeerah for their contribution in exposing the antics of Green Helmet, for we could not possibly have gotten this far without some excellent footage that has unwittingly exposed Green Helmet and White T-shirt, as well as Green T-shirt, and green checked shirt as Hezbollah operatives. I have no intention of stealing the thunder of all the bloggers who are putting so much into exposing how the media have been willing dupes with regard to how the Qana tragedy was reported. From all of the photographs that I have seen I believe that even the figure of 28 victims, even though a far cry from the 60 victims that caused such a world-wide storm and condemnation of Israel, is probably no more than about 14 civilians including children, at the very most. I base this estimate on a shot of bodies wrapped in plastic bags, laid out in a row at the hospital - at the most I counted 14 bodies. I am wondering how many of the dead were in fact Hezbollah operatives, and yes women can be involved in Hezbollah so it is not beyond the realm of probability that the women victims were not civilians. The media has failed to acknowledge that the fauxtographs at Qana were posed. Richard has been most astute in noting the way in which Green Helmet is seen looking directly at the photographers as they plied their whoring trade of doing the will of Hezbollah. Similar scenes were repeated at Chiyah where the bodies of a baby and two little girls were manhandled by a different rescue worker. At least Green Helmet and White T-shirt were nowhere to be seen at Chiyah. Yet, the children were treated to the same form of abuse as the children in Qana. Apparently it is common in Middle Eastern countries to put the bodies of dead children on show, especially if there is an opportunity to draw fire on the enemy (Israel). In this case, we are told that Israel has committed a war crime because of the deaths of these children. Western nations are not used to such a blatant abuse of the dead. It is totally offensive to abuse these children by turning them into propaganda plots. The world-wide condemnation of Israel is predictable. Koffi Anan has gone too far with his opinion that war crimes have been committed by Israel, without taking into consideration that Hezbollah are the war criminals because they have hidden rocket launchers and rockets in civilian areas. Also, in Israel the civilian population that has endured the bombings of Haifa and other portions of the Israel countryside have not suffered as much because Israel has proper bunkers. In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah, the organization that was started by Iran, trained by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and funded by Iran, has ingratiated itself to the civilian population by setting about rebuilding infrastructre such as hospitals, schools and community centres. These centres were built at an unusual cost. They were a cover for an underground bunker system that would keep Hezbollah safe, but not the civilian population. This brings me back to Qana, and why on earth the people were in the building that was bombed in the first place. The area was identified by the Israelis as a site for rocket launchers - this was done by following the path of a rocket launched from Qana. The IDF had the evidence that Hezbollah were in that location, but they were not aware that there were civilians in the building in question. Now comes a twist. The bombs dropped by the IDF did not land on the building but they were dropped in a nearby area. At this point, without some form of proper forensic analysis, it is not possible to confirm or deny that the building was hit with a bomb or that it was even a target of the IDF. How then can the UN claim that Israel committed a war crime? By being snap happy, the western media has played right into the hands of Hezbollah, who are, like their Hamas counterparts, masters with the propaganda shot. In effect they have become accomplices of the real terrorists and they have done this by propagating these fauxtographs around the world. Hezbollah have used these shots as a means of stirring up tensions amongst the Islamic populations in a variety of countries. This is a population that has a tendency to be hot headed, and if you add to that mix, the fact that many of these Muslim hot heads are also being brainwashed into becoming jihadi operatives by their firebrand imams, then one can see the kind of situation that is starting to bubble to the surface. Who is pulling the strings of Hezbollah? None other than Iran and her whore, Syria. Lebanon has been a country under seige for a very long time. The Lebanese government does not have the will to disarm Hezbollah because they believe that that Israel does not have the right to exist at least they do believe that in secret. It is not possible for the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah because they are complicit in allowing arms from Iran and Syria to cross the border. This is why Israel found it necessary to take out the supply route for these arms. This is why it was necessary to bomb Beirut airport and now to maintain an embargo on the port of Tyre. The media has been guilty of bias in their reporting, and yes there are notable exceptions with regard to the bias against Israel. The media need to be reminded that they are not an arm of government and that they do not have the right to make or break governments. They need to go back to the basics and learn how to present material that is well-balanced. Can this happen with the kind of people that are in powerful positions within the media? I have my doubts because some of them do not understand the word integrtity.

Lebanon refuses to Disarm Hezbollah

Captain's Quarters The UN and the negotiators of the Israeli-Lebanon peace deal thought that they had a workable solution. Not so. The BBC has reported that the Lebanese government has begun backing away from meeting all the necessary terms of the peace deal. The reason? They refuse to disarm Hezbollah. The issue of why Hezbollah have not been disarmed before now is a subject of a lot of concern . It appears now that Hezbollah have members in the Lebanese army, thus compromising the ability of the army to do as requested. The government in Lebanon was already compromised because of the members of cabinet who are either members of Hezbollah or they are Hezbollah sympathisers. The Lebanese government has turned a blind eye whilst Hezbollah was being armed by both Syria and Iran. This is not good news for the former Christian militias who have for years fought there own battles against Hezbollah. This Iranian backed fundamentalist group, which had its beginnings with the Iranian revolutionary guard on the orders of the Ayatollah Khomenei, have been doing what Muslims know best from the time of Mohammed. They have been waiting to strike when the time was right. They have done this by their building of hospitals, schools and other infrastructure. What the people did not comprehend as they have been sucked into the Hezbollah vortex is that underneath those hospitals there are bunkers of weapons etc. Whilst many refuse to believe that Mohammed was more than just a con-man claiming to be a prophet, and definitely he is not divine, he did not ascend into heaven and he has no claim on Jerusalem, the real historians know that Mohammed used similar tactics against both Christians and Jews. The people of the invaded countries were given a choice: follow our ways or die. This is the stark reality that lies behind fundamentalist Islam. The looney left continue to refuse to believe that such a scenario is true. They cannot comprehend that the aim of Iran is to establish the world wide caliphate. This to the current President of Iran would mark the return of "Mohammed" . I hope they realise that people in hell have no way of returning to this earth.

The evidence that Hezbollah has manipulated the media is mounting

The man in the above scene has been given the name Green Helmet. He claims to be a member of the civil defense in Lebanon, but there is mounting evidence that he is a member of Hezbollah, and that he has participated in the cynical manipulation of the western media. The above scene depicts the body of a child who is in fact dead. There are several pictures of this man, and another who has been dubbed white t-shirt holding up this child as they posed for the cameras. It is a sickening display of how Hezbollah has cynically used a willing media who seem to be too stupied to understand the threat that is posed by Hezbollah, not only to Israel, but also to the general population of Lebanon, especially the Christians. The location of the staged photographs is Qana. There are many photos that show how the two men chose their "victims". This child is the one that is more attractive and so she is used as a dead model as the stringers clicked away with their digital cameras. In the scen at the side we see how a "soldier" is mishandling the dead child as she is grabbed and held in a rather grotesque manner. To this man she is nothing more than a prop for a very macabre scene, and yes she is being savagely abused by Hezbollah as her privacy is breeched for the sake of propaganda. In some respects this cynicism has paid off and the U.N. has indeed attempted to condemn Israel, and has gone as far as saying that Israel will be investigated for war crimes. Will the U.N. also take note of the fact that Hezbollah was using the civilian population in a very deadly game of human shield? The German press has noticed that this man was on the scene in Qana 10 years ago when babies and children lost their lives when an Israeli bomb missed its target. Or did it on either occasion? Qana is located near the border of Israel. It is an ideal location for Hezbollah members to blend with a trusting population, build schools and hospitals, whilst cynically using these same facilities to hid their own deadly cache of weapons. On this second occasion, the first bomb that was dropped in the area of the collapsed building happened at about 1.00 a.m. It is claimed that some people inside the building went outside, had a look and then went inside again. There is no mention of warning the "other" occupants to leave because the building could collapse. Instead it is claimed that the people who allegedly died were taking shelter from the bombs being dropped in the countryside. This is also a made up story since Israel only targeted spots where they had evidence of the existence of Hezbollah positions and weapons. This begs the question about the specific purpose of the building that collapsed. Did it in fact house Hezbollah weapons? Were they using rocket launchers from on top of the building? Why were these civilans allowed to stay in the building in the first place? I believe that the answer to the last question happens to be that Hezbollah intended to make them into victims of the bombing raid. The German press have also been vigilant with regard to cynicism of Green Helmet. He pretends to be caring about the dead children but in reality he is enjoying every moment of parading over their bodies and using them as propaganda material on behalf of Hezbollah. The abuse of the children was brought to the attention of the German public via a TV station that was prepared to take Hezbollah to task over the way in which these children were being abused. Their evidence points out the Green Helmet was no ordinary civil defense worker. He was stage managing and directing the scenes out of Qana.

Shameless photojournalism - exploiting dead children in Lebanon

Reuters were caught with their pants well and truly down when photographs taken by Adnan Hajj were beamed around the world. After discovering that two photographs were doctored, Reuters have pulled all of the Hajj photographs from their archives. In some respects this is commendable because they have admitted that a mistake was made. However, what is not commendable is the way in which Reuters, AP and others have denied that photographs taken in Qana could have been staged.

As a Johnny-come-Lately to this controversy, I see no reason to rehash information that can be found at Little Green Footballs, European Referendum, Jawa Report, the Bullpen and other blogs in the blogosphere. The perspective that I want to bring to this discussion is my own outrage over the way in which dead babies and children have been exploited by the Hezbollah propaganda machine.

The Israelis did three raids over Qana on the morning in question. The first raids occurred somewhere between 12.00 - 1.00 a.m. The Hezbolloah propaganda machine claims that more than 50 people died in the raid, mostly women and children. I do not recall seeing any published photographs of the mass funeral that should have followed such a large number of deaths (that is another new line of enquiry). I have seen some photographs of what appears to be adults (approximately 4 adult males) that have been covered by sheets as they were left lying near the rubble of the building in question. There are no photographs depicting the alleged 34 women, but there are photographs of a baby and two very dead little girls. It is the photographs of the children that has made me feel so totally disgusted about the new lows that are being reached by photojournalists.

The whole incident raises many questions in my mind, but not one of those questions cast Israel in the role of war criminals, even though that is what Hezbollah wants to have seared in our minds. No, the real war criminals are Hezbollah for they are the ones who have taken their rocket launchers into civilian areas and have placed the civilian population at risk. To their credit the Israelis have warned the civilian population to leave prior to any bombing raid. If they did not leave the area then whose fault is that? This is not about apportioning blame on either side, because this is about the way in which these three children were used as a photo opportunity.

There are two men (perhaps three) who form a part of the method Hezbollah actors at Qana. The one known as Green Helmet is the one who had his mug plastered all over newspapers around the world. He is depicted carrying a little girl and crying. Yet, in another scene he can be seen manhandling this child and her dead companions. The baby's body is lifted up as though it is a trophy. Perhaps it is a trophy because the leftist ratbag journalists from around the world seized upon the photo opportunity to pour out their invective against Israel. Not one of them questioned whether the men looked too clean to be rescue workers as was claimed. The other man of interest is the one wearing a white t-shirt. He uses the same children as a phot opportunity. Then there is the third man in army fatigues who has entered the ambulance and he crudely manhandles the poor little dead girl.

The way in which these children have been manhandled is really quite sickening. They are pushed and prodded as the men pause to have their photographs taken in what can only be described as a piece of propaganda that has been designed to sir up world opinion against Israel, and at least amongst the Arabs the strategy appears to be working. The fearless and intrepid leader of the UN, Mr Koffi Annan has once again proven how little he know about the Geneva protocols regarding the placement of weapons amongst a civilian population, as he rages and rails against Israel, claiming that the Israelis are war criminals, whilst he turns a blind eye to the actions of Hezbollah.

The photo opportunities have not ended at Qana, for two year boy was also pulled from the rubble in raids that took place in Chiari. The same gruesome procedure was repeated. The baby was lifted up as though he was a trophy by a man who looked very much like he could be an Hezbollah operative.

We should be condemning the abuse of the dead by these war criminals in Lebanon. The real criminals are those who seem to have total access to the Hezbollah strongholds, and who condone the manhandling of dead children for the sake of a photo opportunity.

What bothers me the most about the photographs is the way that they appeared to have been staged by Hezbollah. The AP and Reuters have denied the staging of the photographs, but there are things about them that seem to be too well orchestrated, not to call into question the motive behind the shots. The first shots that I saw were those of a baby, taken from the rubble a Qana. He looks like he was in rubble, yet he has a clean dummy. Is that possible? To my untrained eye I cannot tell if what is covering him is dust or whether it is the decomposition of his body. I suspect that it is not dust. There are no marks indicating that he was injured during a building collapse. The latest picture that I viewed was of a slightly older child in Chiara. This child showed the obvious signs of injury upon his body.

If the men of Qana were so concerned about their families, why is it that they did not send them away and into a safe area? They had ample opportunity to remove them from harm's way. On the other hand, it is possible that the dead were not from Qana, but they were from the surrounding district (that is if they were alive prior to the bombing raids).

This form of photojournalism , a form that shows no respect for the dead, must not be allowed to continue. Whilst it is regrettable if civilians died at Qana, it is abhorrent to see the way in which the children have been used as political footballs.

REUTERSGATE!

Pajamas Media: REUTERSGATE! The Tipping Point First there are the rather troubling photos taken in Qana where the Hezbollah participated in a rather macabre photoshoot, using the bodies of young children in order to gain sympathy for their cause. Now we find that Reuters have been caught with their photographic pants down, as bloggers have once again proved that some of the photographs of victims of Israel's action over southern Lebanon have been staged. In this second case, a "distressed" woman was photographed wailing over the loss of her home on July 22 and the same woman was photographed again on August 5 lamenting the loss of her home after an Israeli bombing raid. Really? This begs the question of how reliable is any of the news reports that are coming out of southern Lebanon? How do we know that almost 60 died at Qana? We know that the body of one infant that looked more like he had been dead for at least a day was used over and over again in the hours after the building in Qana allegedly collapsed as a result of an Israeli strike. The air strike occurred at around 1.00 a.m. yet the building did not collapse until after 8.00 a.m.! How come? Is there another explanation as to how the building collapsed? The photographs of the dead bodies are also suspicious, and some bodies that were photographed do not look as though they were crushed by a building. Yet there are other questions regarding the body count at Qana: exactly how many times were these bodies counted? Was the building occupied by civilians? Were these people held in captivity within the building so that they could be used as fodder for publicity and attention seeking Hezbollah? There will be more on this subject as information becomes available, but in the meantime I will just take what I read and hear in the news with a grain of salt.

Al-Qaida's No. 2 welcomes Egyptian group - Yahoo! News

Al-Qaida's No. 2 welcomes Egyptian group - Yahoo! News It appears that the militant group responsible for the death of Anwar Sadat has decided to reform and join Al Qaeda. Is it just propaganda because of the heightened situation in Lebanon? Or is this just another step for Al Qaeda as they tighten their grip over the world?

Hezbollah shooting from between our houses

The Big Pharaoh � Christian Infidels: Hezbollah shooting from between our houses The Big Pharoah points out that the Christians in the village of Ainebel are the meat in the sandwich for Hezbollah and Israel. The Hezbollah thugs have moved their rocket launchers into the village and they have continued raining the rockets down on Israel. In response, the Israelis have come to the village in order to destroy the rocket launchers. This action by Hezbollah is in direct contravention of the Geneva Protocols regarding the conduct of war, especially in regard to placing miliatry equipment in the midst of a civilian population. Hezbollah have deliberately entered a Christian village in full knowledge that there actions will bring death to the villagers. What do they care anyway, since these are but Christian Infidel who deserve to die like the dogs in Israel.