Hezbollah may be doing a fair job of avoiding Israeli bombs, but they still need some work in the PR department. I chuckled last week as I saw
Anderson Cooper on CNN explain how Hezbollah was staging an ambulance show for reporters. This show involved ambulances racing off to nowhere, sirens
blaring, to aid victims in an attack that never happened. You should
read the entire article if you
get a chance, but here's some of the good stuff. (It was even more amusing to watch on television.)
Anderson is doing a few stand-ups, but the Hezbollah representative leading the tour is telling us it's time to move on. We tell him we want to talk
to some people who lived here, who witnessed what happened. "Not here," he says. "Maybe at our next stop."
Our car is being led through back streets to a broken-down building with five ambulances parked in front. "These are the emergency workers who
respond to casualty calls when Israel drops their bombs," the Hezbollah man says. "Take your pictures and talk to some of them if you'd like."
We're growing tired of what is now obviously a dog-and-pony show, but we decide to play along, and approach one driver with a few questions. Anderson
asks him what kind of casualties he's seeing, but before he can answer, the ambulance beside us turns on his siren and screeches out, followed by the
next ambulance, then the next. It's a well coordinated and not-so-subtle piece of propaganda that might as well come with a soundtrack titled
"Hezbollah Cares."
Now we have the tragedy in Qana. No doubt this is a real tragedy, but did the events happen as Hezbollah say they did?
Some are reporting that there was up to an 8 hour gap between Israel's bombing
and the time the building collapsed. Other oddities include the fact that the roof of the building was intact. This is really odd considering that a
bomb was said to have fallen on the building. The facts make you feel as if you have wondered in to Alice's wonderland. The more you look the
stranger things seem.
Another mystery is why the people who were in the basement of the building remainder there for seven to eight hours after it was struck.
There are other mysteries. The roof of the building was intact. Journalist Ben Wedeman of CNN noted that there was a larger crater next to the
building, but observed that the building appeared not to have collapsed as a result of the Israeli strike.
There was little blood, CNN's Wedeman noted: all the victims, he concluded, appeared to have died while as they were sleeping -- sleeping,
apparently, through thunderous Israeli air attacks.
The list goes on and on. There was the combat footage that showed the Israeli attack was accurate, and since the journalist were not allowed to
examine the dead bodies, some are now suspecting the the bodies were those of people killed days ago. This is most likely nothing more than another PR
attempt by Hezbollah to gain sympathy. It's really odd how the rescue mission didn't start until the morning when the journalist were summoned.
Are we really to believe that the survivors would wait for journalist before they started digging for their loved ones?
While Hezbollah and its apologists have been claiming that civilians could not freely flee the scene due to Israeli destruction of bridges and roads,
the journalists and rescue teams from nearby Tyre had no problem getting there.
Lebanese rescue teams did not start evacuating the building until the morning and only after the camera crews came.
My personal favorite item in this event is the actor we'll call "Green Helmet Man". This same man is seen in numerous pictures as he holds the
bodies of dead children. Over and over again we see this same worker, no doubt just an actor on the payroll of Hezbollah. The real "got-cha" is that
someone noted that this same man was seen in the same green helmet back in some 1996 photos.
Who is this man (Some graphic images)
If he had been a genuine rescue worker, he would deserve a medal. Mr "Green Helmet" is everywhere at Qana, rushing around pulling children out of
the rubble, carting them to ambulances and even, on the front page of the Guardian, escorting "White Tee-shirt", who also performs his own cameo
role, carting round the body of another unfortunate girl, emoting freely while he does so.
The New York Times, however, has "Green Helmet" dragging the body of yet another unfortunate child from the ruins
On 18 April 1996, the village was also visited by death and destruction. re-visiting the photographs of the time, however, who do we see at the centre
of the action? Why, "Green Helmet" of course. This is a younger man, without his glasses, but recognisably the same man, in his now classic pose of
handling a victim of an Israeli "atrocity".
The author of this blog believes that "Green Helmet Man" and others are taking turns posing with the dead bodies as if they were different victims.
How sick is that? "Okay, my turn to pose with the corpse".
One of the children was still seen being passed around hours after being photographed
in an ambulance. Evidently they had to keep her corpse around for more photo-shoots.
"Green Helmet Man" is obviously very mobile. He was recently featured in footage of Israeli bombings in Tyre.
And here he is again!
This time, according to Reuter's Zohra Bensemra, "Green Helmet" is a Lebanese rescue worker, watching "while a bulldozers clears away the rubble
of a building demolished by an Israeli air strike in Sreefa, 18 miles (30km) south east of the port-city of Tyre(Soure)". The dateline is 31 July,
2006, at 10:37 am.
Doesn't Hezbollah have anyone else the media can photograph?
Hat-tip to
Secular Blasphemy for the great links and commentary.
[edit on 31-7-2006 by dbates]