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 downforpot
Stranger
Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 5,715
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 Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' 
#5905873 - 07/27/06 04:00 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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The words of a Canadian United Nations observer written just days before he was killed in an Israeli bombing of a UN post in Lebanon are evidence Hezbollah was using the post as a "shield" to fire rockets into Israel, says a former UN commander in Bosnia.
Those words, written in an e-mail dated just nine days ago, offer a possible explanation as to why the post -- which according to UN officials was clearly marked and known to Israeli forces -- was hit by Israel on Tuesday night, said retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie yesterday.
The strike hit the UN observation post in the southern Lebanese village of El Khiam, killing Canadian Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener and three others serving as unarmed UN military observers in the area.
Just last week, Maj. Hess-von Kruedener wrote an e-mail about his experiences after nine months in the area, words Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie said are an obvious allusion to Hezbollah tactics.
"What I can tell you is this," he wrote in an e-mail to CTV dated July 18. "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."
Those words, particularly the last sentence, are not-so-veiled language indicating Israeli strikes were aimed at Hezbollah targets near the post, said Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie.
"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.
That would mean Hezbollah was purposely setting up near the UN post, he added. It's a tactic Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie, who was the first UN commander in Sarajevo during the Bosnia civil war, said he's seen in past international missions: Aside from UN posts, fighters would set up near hospitals, mosques and orphanages.
A Canadian Forces infantry officer with the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the only Canadian serving as a UN military observer in Lebanon, Maj. Hess-von Kruedener was no stranger to fighting nearby.
The UN post, he wrote in the e-mail, afforded a view of the "Hezbollah static positions in and around our patrol Base."
"It appears that the lion's share of fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has taken place in our area," he wrote, noting later it was too dangerous to venture out on patrols.
The e-mail appears to contradict the UN's claim there had been no Hezbollah activity in the vicinity of the strike.
The question of Hezbollah's infiltration of the area is significant because UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, speaking Tuesday just hours after the bombing, accused the Israelis of the "apparently deliberate targeting" of the base near Khiam in southern Lebanon.
A senior UN official, asked about the information contained in Maj. Hess-von Kruedener's e-mail concerning Hezbollah presence in the vicinity of the Khiam base, denied the world body had been caught in a contradiction.
At the time, there had been no Hezbollah activity reported in the area," he said. "So it was quite clear they were not going after other targets; that, for whatever reason, our position was being fired upon.
"Whether or not they thought they were going after something else, we don't know. The fact was, we told them where we were. They knew where we were. The position was clearly marked, and they pounded the hell out of us."
Even if Hezbollah was not firing rockets at the time of the bombing, Maj. Hess-von Kruedener's e-mail indicates they were using a terrorist tactic of purposely drawing out enemy forces near a neutral site, said retired Capt. Peter Forsberg, who did two UN tours between 1993 and 1995 during the Bosnian war.
The UN's limited mandate, meaning that its observers are unarmed and have few options, put the observers in a poor position, he said.
If indeed Israel was attempting to hit Hezbollah fighters in the area, it hasn't yet used the excuse to explain its actions because it wouldn't make it any less guilty in the world's eyes, Capt. Forsberg said.
http://xrl.us/prfi
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http://www.myspace.com/4th25
"And I don't care if he was handcuffed
Then shot in his head
All I know is dead bodies
Can't fuck with me again"
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 Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: downforpot]
#5905894 - 07/27/06 04:06 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Israel knew exactly what they were hitting. As they have shown time and time again, they have the ability to put a rocket or LGB through any particular window of a residence or compound that they want. For them now to sit back and say that it was an error of targeting that created this situation is absurd.
(And that is exactly what they're saying, this article is from some Canadian on the ground in NO WAY connected with the IDF)
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After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway
If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy
He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: Madtowntripper]
#5906001 - 07/27/06 04:38 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Your paranoid delusions of Israeli omniscience and omnipotence are rather laughable, but probably not treatable. Although I will continue, as long as I am able, to send you as many reality pills as I can spare.
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downforpot
Stranger
Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 5,715
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: zappaisgod]
#5906534 - 07/27/06 07:44 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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'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.
So the dead Canadian was lying?
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http://www.myspace.com/4th25
"And I don't care if he was handcuffed
Then shot in his head
All I know is dead bodies
Can't fuck with me again"
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 10 months
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: downforpot]
#5906702 - 07/27/06 08:18 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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I don't think you meant to respond to me.
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downforpot
Stranger
Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 5,715
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: zappaisgod]
#5907153 - 07/27/06 10:19 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Oh it was.
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http://www.myspace.com/4th25
"And I don't care if he was handcuffed
Then shot in his head
All I know is dead bodies
Can't fuck with me again"
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 8 months, 8 days
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: zappaisgod]
#5907379 - 07/27/06 11:24 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
zappaisgod said:
Your paranoid delusions of Israeli omniscience and omnipotence are rather laughable, but probably not treatable. Although I will continue, as long as I am able, to send you as many reality pills as I can spare.
Thanks, I dont remember saying either. And I wont stoop to trading insults with you. But, you'll see I'm not alone in my feelings that Israel knows exactly what they are doing. Here's an excerpt from the CNN article on the frontpage today.
Quote:
U.N. officials repeatedly told Israeli commanders to direct their fire away from the post before the observers were killed, Jane Lute, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, told Security Council members Wednesday.
After the Tuesday incident, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the strike "apparently deliberate," a charge Israel has vehemently denied.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/27/mideast.main/index.html
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After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway
If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy
He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 2 months, 6 days
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: Madtowntripper]
#5908005 - 07/28/06 04:51 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Mr. Annan is basing his statement on the assumption that precision guided weapons were used. Even if his assumption about the type of munition is correct, which it probably is, this is still not proof of a deliberate act. Mr. Annan let his emotions get the better of him when he should not have. If you fast forward a few days, you will see that once Mr. Annan got his emotions under control, his wording softened. Of course by then, the damage in world opinion had already been done.
Here is a good question to ask yourself. Why would the UN leave observers in the line of fire when they know it is only a matter of time before they get killed? The UN knew that Hezbollah was using the UN location as a human shield. The UN also knew they were in the line of fire, with bombs and artillery going off within meters of their location for days. Perhaps the headline should have read "U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan deliberately sacrifices UN observers".
I'm not trying to excuse Israel for what happened. At the same time, I highly doubt that somebody in Israel sat down and said, "Hmmm... lets bomb a UN observer location today and see if we can really get the entire world upset at us!" However, it doesn't seem much of a stretch that somebody in the UN sat down and said, "Hmmm... they are eventually going to kill some UN observers. Lets make sure they aren't from my country and then use their deaths as an excuse to force Israel into a ceasefire."
(P.S. Watch the insults, please. And thank you to those that don't take the bait.)
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Just another spore in the wind.
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Luddite
I watch Fox News
Registered: 03/23/06
Posts: 2,946
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: Seuss]
#5909194 - 07/28/06 03:02 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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The UN wanted martydom?
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 2 months, 6 days
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Re: Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield' [Re: Luddite]
#5909522 - 07/28/06 04:51 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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> The UN wanted martydom?
*shrug* The deaths gave the UN a lever against Israel that they would not otherwise have had.
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Just another spore in the wind.
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