"Flying Pig Moment Of The Day": Amnesty International Accuses Hezbollah Of War Crimes
The story was picked up by Charles Johnson @ LGF, and it is also the title of his piece. Yahoo News has the story:
The militant Shiite group Hezbollah committed war crimes in its deliberate targeting of civilians in the recent conflict with Israel, according to Amnesty International.
The London-based human rights group said the guerillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, killing 43 civilians, seriously injuring 33 others and forcing hundreds of thousands to take refuge or flee.
About a quarter of all rockets -- some packed with thousands of metal ball bearings -- were fired directly into urban areas, it added in a nine-page document called "Under fire -- Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel".
It was only because Israeli civilians fled their homes or took shelter in bunkers that a higher death toll was prevented, it said.
"The scale of Hezbollah's attacks on Israeli cities, towns and villages, the indiscriminate nature of the weapons used and statements from the leadership confirming their intent to target civilians make it all too clear that Hezbollah violated the laws of war," said Amnesty's secretary-general Irene Khan.
Here is the part that I think Charles might have missed, which does not make this a TRUE "pigs flying" moment:
"The fact that Israel has also committed serious violations in no way justifies violations by Hezbollah. Civilians must not be made to pay the price for unlawful conduct on either side."
Let me state for the record that we, at The Asylum, agree that civilians should be off limits. They should not be targeted. I sincerely doubt that Israel directly and intentionally targeted civilians in Lebanon. While the loss of civilian life is always condemned, and never accepted (except by our enemies), it was a conflict nontheless. That means that some civilians will end up being casualties. It is a simple fact of life.
However this is the first time I have ever seen Amnesty International admit that animals like those in Hezbollah have committed atrocities. They will not even acknowledge that in Iraq where our enemies there use civilians all the time. They did in Haditha. They have used civilians as shields for the better part of the last year. When you have an enemy that lives among the civilians, those civilians are always in danger.
Hezbollah not only staged their forces in civilian population centers, but staged their rockets there, as well. So when the Israelis had to strike Hezbollah it was hitting civilian areas. And there have been unconfirmed reports that Hezbollah refused to allow the civilians to seek shelter when those raids were initiated.
Of course Amnesty International also does not refer to the most serious crime above all committed by Hezbollah: The direct refusal for medical treatment of wounded civilians. They withheld medical attention for several as "stringers" snapped propoganda photos and listened to the Hezbollah spin about there not being weapons or Hezbollah around the civilian centers.
Indeed, when reporters were led around by Hezbollah they were given little time to look around and investigate Hezbollah's claims. Many reporters stated that they were staging photos for Hezbollah because they were afraid. (From that link--a post by Thomas--is this from Bryan Denton, a journalist who was working in Lebanon at the time):
i have been working in lebanon since all this started, and seeing the behavior of many of the lebanese wire service photographers has been a bit unsettling. while hajj has garnered a lot of attention for his doctoring of images digitally, whether guilty or not, i have been witness to the daily practice of directed shots, one case where a group of wire photogs were choreographing the unearthing of bodies, directing emergency workers here and there, asking them to position bodies just so, even remove bodies that have already been put in graves so that they can photograph them in peoples arms. these photographers have come away with powerful shots, that required no manipulation digitally, but instead, manipulation on a human level, and this itself is a bigger ethical problem.
And why were they doing this? Why were they taking deliberately manipulated photos for their news services? Because Hezbollah was calling the shots, and they were holding their passports and harrassing them:
Time magazine stringer Christopher Allbritton, writing on his blog while reporting from southern Lebanon, casually illustrated this latter technique: “To the south, along the curve of the coast, Hezbollah is launching Katyushas, but I’m loathe to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist’s passport, and they’ve already hassled a number of us and threatened one.”
This is what the world witnessed. So it is no wonder why Amnesty International accuses Israel of the same misdeeds in the same conflict. But it is not true. The Israelis were fighting a war wityh their hands tied behind their backs thanks to the incompetant leadership of Ehud Olmert. It is a good thing that they recognize Hezbollah's role in the crimes, but it is wholly disingenuous to point their fingers at Israel, too.
Marcie
The story was picked up by Charles Johnson @ LGF, and it is also the title of his piece. Yahoo News has the story:
The militant Shiite group Hezbollah committed war crimes in its deliberate targeting of civilians in the recent conflict with Israel, according to Amnesty International.
The London-based human rights group said the guerillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, killing 43 civilians, seriously injuring 33 others and forcing hundreds of thousands to take refuge or flee.
About a quarter of all rockets -- some packed with thousands of metal ball bearings -- were fired directly into urban areas, it added in a nine-page document called "Under fire -- Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel".
It was only because Israeli civilians fled their homes or took shelter in bunkers that a higher death toll was prevented, it said.
"The scale of Hezbollah's attacks on Israeli cities, towns and villages, the indiscriminate nature of the weapons used and statements from the leadership confirming their intent to target civilians make it all too clear that Hezbollah violated the laws of war," said Amnesty's secretary-general Irene Khan.
Here is the part that I think Charles might have missed, which does not make this a TRUE "pigs flying" moment:
"The fact that Israel has also committed serious violations in no way justifies violations by Hezbollah. Civilians must not be made to pay the price for unlawful conduct on either side."
Let me state for the record that we, at The Asylum, agree that civilians should be off limits. They should not be targeted. I sincerely doubt that Israel directly and intentionally targeted civilians in Lebanon. While the loss of civilian life is always condemned, and never accepted (except by our enemies), it was a conflict nontheless. That means that some civilians will end up being casualties. It is a simple fact of life.
However this is the first time I have ever seen Amnesty International admit that animals like those in Hezbollah have committed atrocities. They will not even acknowledge that in Iraq where our enemies there use civilians all the time. They did in Haditha. They have used civilians as shields for the better part of the last year. When you have an enemy that lives among the civilians, those civilians are always in danger.
Hezbollah not only staged their forces in civilian population centers, but staged their rockets there, as well. So when the Israelis had to strike Hezbollah it was hitting civilian areas. And there have been unconfirmed reports that Hezbollah refused to allow the civilians to seek shelter when those raids were initiated.
Of course Amnesty International also does not refer to the most serious crime above all committed by Hezbollah: The direct refusal for medical treatment of wounded civilians. They withheld medical attention for several as "stringers" snapped propoganda photos and listened to the Hezbollah spin about there not being weapons or Hezbollah around the civilian centers.
Indeed, when reporters were led around by Hezbollah they were given little time to look around and investigate Hezbollah's claims. Many reporters stated that they were staging photos for Hezbollah because they were afraid. (From that link--a post by Thomas--is this from Bryan Denton, a journalist who was working in Lebanon at the time):
i have been working in lebanon since all this started, and seeing the behavior of many of the lebanese wire service photographers has been a bit unsettling. while hajj has garnered a lot of attention for his doctoring of images digitally, whether guilty or not, i have been witness to the daily practice of directed shots, one case where a group of wire photogs were choreographing the unearthing of bodies, directing emergency workers here and there, asking them to position bodies just so, even remove bodies that have already been put in graves so that they can photograph them in peoples arms. these photographers have come away with powerful shots, that required no manipulation digitally, but instead, manipulation on a human level, and this itself is a bigger ethical problem.
And why were they doing this? Why were they taking deliberately manipulated photos for their news services? Because Hezbollah was calling the shots, and they were holding their passports and harrassing them:
Time magazine stringer Christopher Allbritton, writing on his blog while reporting from southern Lebanon, casually illustrated this latter technique: “To the south, along the curve of the coast, Hezbollah is launching Katyushas, but I’m loathe to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist’s passport, and they’ve already hassled a number of us and threatened one.”
This is what the world witnessed. So it is no wonder why Amnesty International accuses Israel of the same misdeeds in the same conflict. But it is not true. The Israelis were fighting a war wityh their hands tied behind their backs thanks to the incompetant leadership of Ehud Olmert. It is a good thing that they recognize Hezbollah's role in the crimes, but it is wholly disingenuous to point their fingers at Israel, too.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 2:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home