Official: Hezbollah used U.N. post as a "shield" Merged with Accusations and Apologie

[Little-Acorn]

The Islamic terrorists sure have the routine down pat. Hide among civilians, use mosques and schools as arms depots and meeting places, even use supposedly "neutral" installations as shields while attacking your enemy. The article even has a picture from the destroyed post before the attack, showing the Hezbollah flag flying next to the U.N. flag. But higher and more prominently.

All of these acts are, of course, gross violations of the Geneva Convention accords. But we must still extend the protections of those accords to the terrorists - protections they plainly have utter contempt for, and have never extended to us.

-------------------------------

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51265

Official: Hezbollah used U.N. as 'shield'

Observer killed in strike wrote e-mail contradicting accusation against Israel

Posted: July 27, 2006
5:00 p.m. Eastern

United Nations flag flies with Hezbollah banner at U.N. post (photo: Canadian Jewish News)

The United Nations post in Lebanon at the center of controversy over a deadly Israeli attack likely was being used as a "shield" by Hezbollah to fire rockets into the Jewish state, according to a former U.N. commander in Bosnia.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has accused Israel of deliberately targeting the post where four officials of the world body were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of El Khiam Tuesday night.

But retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie points to an e-mail by one of the observers killed in the attack that backs Israel's claim that it was targeting Hezbollah, reported the CanWest News Service of Canada.

The dead observer, Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, wrote an e-mail last week to the Canadian television network CTV that alluded to Hezbollah's tactics.

"What I can tell you is this, we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery and aerial bombing.

"The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity."

MacKenzie said Hess-von Kruedener was indicating Israeli strikes were aimed at Hezbollah targets near the post, the Canadian news service reported.

"What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said.

McKenzie said this indicates Hezbollah purposely set itself up near the U.N. post, a tactic he observed in previous international missions. McKenzie was the first U.N. commander in Sarajevo during the Bosnia civil war, CanWest reported.


(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)

 

[dilloduck]

The Islamic terrorists sure have the routine down pat. Hide among civilians, use mosques and schools as arms depots and meeting places, even use supposedly "neutral" installations as shields while attacking your enemy. The article even has a picture from the destroyed post before the attack, showing the Hezbollah flag flying next to the U.N. flag. But higher and more prominently.

All of these acts are, of course, gross violations of the Geneva Convention accords. But we must still extend the protections of those accords to the terrorists - protections they plainly have utter contempt for, and have never extended to us.

-------------------------------

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51265

Official: Hezbollah used U.N. as 'shield'

Observer killed in strike wrote e-mail contradicting accusation against Israel

Posted: July 27, 2006
5:00 p.m. Eastern

United Nations flag flies with Hezbollah banner at U.N. post (photo: Canadian Jewish News)

The United Nations post in Lebanon at the center of controversy over a deadly Israeli attack likely was being used as a "shield" by Hezbollah to fire rockets into the Jewish state, according to a former U.N. commander in Bosnia.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has accused Israel of deliberately targeting the post where four officials of the world body were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of El Khiam Tuesday night.

But retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie points to an e-mail by one of the observers killed in the attack that backs Israel's claim that it was targeting Hezbollah, reported the CanWest News Service of Canada.

The dead observer, Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, wrote an e-mail last week to the Canadian television network CTV that alluded to Hezbollah's tactics.

"What I can tell you is this, we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery and aerial bombing.

"The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity."

MacKenzie said Hess-von Kruedener was indicating Israeli strikes were aimed at Hezbollah targets near the post, the Canadian news service reported.

"What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said.

McKenzie said this indicates Hezbollah purposely set itself up near the U.N. post, a tactic he observed in previous international missions. McKenzie was the first U.N. commander in Sarajevo during the Bosnia civil war, CanWest reported.


(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)

A bunch of arabs challenge the legitmacy of Israel by forming a band of illegitimate of thugs and fight in an illegitmate fashion. What a zoo!

 

[Annie]

Not before proven. Kofi was quick to say UN post was targeted. Israel was quick to call it a 'tragic mistake.' Kofi should have said nothing. Israel should have expressed regret for the loss of life and conducted an investigation, they are too quick to say 'they made a mistake', same with US, then you have to find you MISTAKE, even when it wasn't:

http://www.nysun.com/article/36860

Annan's Claims On Casualties May Unravel

BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 27, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/36860

UNITED NATIONS — An apparent discrepancy in the portrayal of events surrounding the deaths of four unarmed U.N. observers in Lebanon threatens to unravel Secretary-General Annan's initial accusation that Israel "deliberately" targeted the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

A Canadian U.N. observer, one of four killed at a UNIFIL position near the southern Lebanese town of Khiyam on Tuesday, sent an e-mail to his former commander, a Canadian retired major-general, Lewis MacKenzie, in which he wrote that Hezbollah fighters were "all over" the U.N. position, Mr. MacKenzie said. Hezbollah troops, not the United Nations, were Israel's target, the deceased observer wrote.

A senior U.N. peacekeeping operation official who briefed the press yesterday, however, said that on the day the deaths occurred, the only "known Hezbollah activity was 5 kilometers away."The official's briefing was conditioned on anonymity, but the undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Jane Holl Lute, supplied the Security Council with similar information at an earlier briefing yesterday.

"To our knowledge, unlike the vicinity of some of our other patrol bases, Hezbollah firing was not taking place within the immediate vicinity" of the base that was hit Tuesday.

Based on reporting by the U.N.'s peacekeeping chief, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Mr. Annan alleged in Rome Tuesday that the incident was an apparent "deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon." Although Mr. Annan began to backtrack yesterday, his spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said he stood by the accusation.

Mr. MacKenzie, who after retiring from the Canadian military became a politician, had a very different interpretation. "I happen to know" the now-deceased Canadian U.N. observer, Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, Mr. MacKenzie told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in a radio interview yesterday.

"We've received e-mails from him a few days ago and he was describing the fact that he was taking fire within, in one case, three meters of his position ‘for tactical necessity — not being targeted,'" Mr. MacKenzie said he wrote.

In one such e-mail, obtained by The New York Sun, Hess-von Kruedener wrote about heavy IDF artillery and aerial bombardment "within 2 meters of our position." The Israeli shooting, he added, "has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity."

The correspondence between the trooper and former commander amounted to "veiled speech in the military," Mr. MacKenzie, who once commanded the U.N. troops in Bosnia, told the CBC. "What he was telling us was Hezbollah fighters were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them, and that's a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the U.N. They use the U.N. as shields knowing that they cannot be punished for it."

A spokesman for the peacekeeping operation department, Nicholas Birnbach, told the Sun yesterday that when the U.N. official told reporters that there was no Hezbollah activity within three miles of the U.N. camp, she was referring only to the Monday incident and not to the time period of several days earlier described in the UNIFIL observer's e-mail.

Mr. Birnbach, however, declined to produce a UNIFIL report that would back up Ms. Lute's assertion that there was no Hezbollah activity in the immediate vicinity of the post, which was manned by three other observers beside Hess-von Kruedener.

Mr. Annan and the peacekeeping official yesterday said they now "accept" Prime Minister Olmert's conveyance of regret over the incident. They also said they accept Mr. Olmert's characterization of it as a "tragic mistake," the official said. Ms. Okabe, however, told the Sun yesterday that Mr. Annan would not retract his assertion that Israel deliberately targeted the post.

Mr. Annan and Ms. Lute yesterday welcomed Mr. Olmert's announcement that Israel would launch an investigation, which "we believe should be done jointly with the United Nations," Ms. Lute said.

France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, who holds the Security Council presidency, said yesterday he too would like to see a joint investigation, which he said would be beneficial to Israel, adding credibility to the results.

Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador, Daniel Carmon, told the Sun, however, that while the IDF would welcome "any U.N. input," it did not intend to launch a joint investigation. "We will conduct a thorough investigation and inform the U.N. of the results in detail," he said.

The council yesterday attempted to agree on a statement on the deaths of the U.N. observers, but the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, objected to any condemnation of Israel. Mr. Bolton also warned against using the incident as a "backdoor way of getting a cease-fire or other larger political and military questions," he told reporters.

Mr. Annan has called for "immediate cessation of hostilities." During yesterday's council briefing on the UNIFIL incident, Ms. Lute said, "I reiterate" that call.

Then again, one can just read through these, they pretty well back up the Canadian's email and they are from the UN:

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/unifilpress.htm

 

[Annie]

They've been busy:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21801_Hizballah_Attacked_UNIFIL_Twice_This_Week&only

Hizballah Attacked UNIFIL Twice This Week

Neither the mainstream media nor Kofi Annan have mentioned it, but Hizballah has attacked UNIFIL observers twice this week. (Hat tip: Larry.)

From the UN’s own press releases:

24 July 2006:

One unarmed UN military observer, a member of the Observer Group Lebanon (OGL), was seriously wounded by small arms fire in the patrol base in the Marun Al Ras area yesterday afternoon. According to preliminary reports, the fire originated from the Hezbollah side during an exchange with the IDF. He was evacuated by the UN to the Israeli side, from where he was taken by an IDF ambulance helicopter to a hospital in Haifa. He was operated on, and his condition is now reported as stable.​

Notice: in this instance, the UN observer was injured badly enough to be evacuated to an Israeli hospital. Where they saved his life.

Not a word of condemnation from Kofi Annan for Hizballah. And not a word of gratitude for Israel, for saving a UN peacekeeper’s life.

25 July 2006:

This morning, Hezbollah opened small arms fire at a UNIFIL convoy consisting of two armored personnel carriers (APC) on the road between Kunin and Bint Jubayl. There was some damage to the APCs, but no casualties, and the convoy was obliged to return to Kunin.

​

3:08 PM PDT

 

[dilloduck]

They've been busy:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21801_Hizballah_Attacked_UNIFIL_Twice_This_Week&only

Surprise Surprise---the UN is incompetent and the media won't talk report on it.

 

[Annie]

Surprise Surprise---the UN is incompetent and the media won't talk report on it.

Even more to the point, the 'leadership' of the UN, so quick to call out US and Israel for 'war crimes' without proof, do not put such statements out for others, including France in Africa.

 

[dilloduck]

Even more to the point, the 'leadership' of the UN, so quick to call out US and Israel for 'war crimes' without proof, do not put such statements out for others, including France in Africa.

The UN is anti-semitic? Weird huh--this is the same organization that gave the Zionists a country.

I'm so confused--maybe we should start all over again from 1947 and re-think this thing.

 

[Annie]

The UN is anti-semitic? Weird huh--this is the same organization that gave the Zionists a country.

I'm so confused--maybe we should start all over again from 1947 and re-think this thing.

Personally, I think they are just against US and Israel, but you can go for whatever floats your boat.

 

[dilloduck]

Personally, I think they are just against US and Israel, but you can go for whatever floats your boat.

Hey--Thanks, babes !