Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (21751)	7/27/2006 4:43:47 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Harper Says UNIFIL Attack Not Deliberate, General Explains Why By Captain Ed on Israel and Palestinians Captain's Quarters Two figures of Canadian leadership came forward today in opposition to Kofi Annan's assertion that Israel deliberately targeted a UNIFIL position, resulting in four deaths, including one Canadian soldier. PM Stephen Harper told reporters that he thought the attack had been a mistake, and retired Major General Lewis MacKenzie told CBC that the Canadian soldier who was killed in the attack complained that Hezbollah exploited their position as a shield: <<< “I certainly doubt that to be the case given that the government of Israel has been co-operating with us in our evacuation efforts and our attempts to move Canadian citizens out of Lebanon and also trying to keep our own troops that are on the ground involved in the evacuation out of harm's way,” Mr. Harper said. “I seriously doubt that but we obviously want to get information.” He said Ottawa now wants to know why the UN post was attacked and why it remained occupied during “what is now more or less a war.” >>> Meanwhile, Gen. MacKenzie gave a radio interview which gave a little more clarity to the situation on the ground near UNIFIL (via It Shines For All and a number of CQ readers): <<< "...the tragic loss of a soldier yesterday who I happen to know and I think probably is from my Regiment. We've received e-mails from him a few days ago and he described the fact that he was taking within - in one case -- three meters of his position "for tactical necessity - not being targeted". Now that's veiled speech in the military and what he was telling us was Hizbullah fighters were all over his position and the IDF were (sic) targeting them and that's a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can't be punished for it." Retired Canadian Major General Lewis MacKenzie interviewed on CBC Toronto radio 26 July 2006 >>> The interview can be heard at the link below. Oddly, the CBC itself didn't bother to include that information in its own reporting on the story. Meanwhile, Kofi Annan said he "accepted" the explanation of Ehud Olmert that the attack had been an error and not a deliberate strike at the UN. Given this development, one wonders why he would have jumped to his conclusions so quickly. captainsquartersblog.com theglobeandmail.com imra.org.il shinesforall.com cbc.ca cbc.ca

To: Sully- who wrote (21751)	7/28/2006 2:48:00 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

General MacKenzie Responds To Annan At G&M By Captain Ed on Israel and Palestinians Captain's Quarters General Lewis MacKenzie told the CBC yesterday about communications from the Canadian soldier killed in the Israeli bombardment at their UNIFIL position, information that Kofi Annan could have used before leaping publicly to the conclusion that the IDF deliberately attacked the UN. Today he expands on his comments in the Globe & Mail in an article entitled, "Kofi's Rush To Judgement" (via Newsbeat1, one of the best aggregators in Canada): <<< The blast on Tuesday claimed the lives of Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener, a Canadian serving with the UN Truce Supervision Organization mission in southern Lebanon, and three other UN soldiers. On July 18, Major Hess-von Kruedener had sent a number of his colleagues, including regimental officers such as myself, an e-mail describing what the situation was like at his location since the Israeli attacks began against Hezbollah in Lebanon. "Based on the intensity and volatility of this current situation and the unpredictability of both sides (Hezbollah and Israel), and given the operational tempo of the Hezbollah and the IDF, we are not safe to venture out to conduct our normal patrol activities. We have now switched to Observation Post Duties and are observing any and all violations as they occur." ... The penultimate paragraph of Major Hess-von Kruedener's e-mail is prophetic, to say the least: "The closest artillery has landed within two metres of our position and the closest 1,000-pound aerial bomb has landed 100 metres from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity." This is what we call "veiled speech" in military jargon. It means hiding the truth in lingo that outsiders would not necessarily understand. What he is saying translates roughly as: "We have Hezbollah fighters all over our position engaging the IDF and using us as shields. They will probably stay, hoping that the IDF won't target them for fear of hitting us." Surprising? Not really. >>> The general explains that he has personally experienced the deliberate placement of weapons systems around civilian assets such as hospitals, schools, and churches to take advantage of their status and avoid returning fire. He himself saw this happen around his own UN positions in Sarajevo, when MacKenzie served as the first UN commander of peacekeeping forces in Sarajevo -- and Annan served as the UN undersecretary of peacekeeping. MacKenzie solved the problem by informing the forces attempting to take advantage that he would start firing on their positions within the hour, a message that the terrorists took as a good piece of advice. Unfortunately, the UNIFIL forces did not have that kind of option. MacKenzie writes that as unarmed observers, they had no ability to fend off Hezbollah terrorists and keep them from using UNIFIL positions as shields against the Israelis. That is what led to the death of the four soldiers. Had the IDF refused to fire back, Hezbollah would still be using the UNIFIL position as a shelling station. That begs the question: why didn't Annan get the UNIFIL troops out of southern Lebanon when the fighting erupted? They could do absolutely no good, and wound up being exploited by the terrorists. Perhaps Annan wanted them to "observe" in order to report on war crimes, and that would only mean pursuing those issues against the IDF. After all, Hezbollah is not a member of the UN. Annan has some explaining to do. In the meantime, the Globe & Mail should pull this column out from behind its paid-subscription firewall and allow all Canadians to read the general's explanation. The good folks at G&M will shortly conclude that this information should be readily accessible to all of their nation; this issue is too important to let Gen. Mackenzie's words get screened away from readers. captainsquartersblog.com captainsquartersblog.com theglobeandmail.com

To: Sully- who wrote (21751)	7/28/2006 6:37:39 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

UN Observers Attacked Two More Times - Kofi & MSM Yawn Perception is Reality.... posted by Sully That's interesting. Two attacks on UN Observers are a snooze fest, yet a third one is worthy of cable "newz" outlets breaking into regular programming to alert their viewers & the MSM was all a twitter for the next two days. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was hopping mad. Within minutes of learning about an Israeli airstrike that U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon, killing three Observers, Annan angrily issued this statement: <<< "I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon" >>> So why do all we hear are chirping crickets with the other two attacks on UN Observers in southern Lebanon? <<< 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. >>> <<< 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. >>> Hmmm.... UN Observer is shot by Hezbollah. He is rescued & operated on by Israeli's. A UN convoy is shot up by Hezbollah. Not so much as a tisk tisk from Kofi to the Hezbollah "guerrillas" (musn't call them what they really are now). And the MSM? All we get are chirping crickets. However, an Israeli airstrike hits a UN Observation post & we get an immediate allegation of "deliberate targeting" from the Secretary General of the UN. Within hours there are tens of thousands of reports* of the incident unquestioningly quoting Annan's outrageous allegation. Adding insult to injury, it now seems that Kofi was not just over zealous in making his immediate & unsubstantiated "deliberate targeting" allegation against Israel. Now it seems Kofi knew or should have known that Hezbollah was to blame. A UN Oficial has reported that the UN Post hit Tuesday sent an e-mail warning of Hezbollah engaging the IDF near their position. Also, the UN Report on the pathetically incompetant UNIFIL mission in Sothern Lebanon shows that UN Observers there watched as Hezbollah built & reinforced their positions, often very near to UN observation posts. In other words Hezbollah also used UNIFIL as human shields just like they do with civilians. And they have a handy propaganda tool if Israeli forces fire on Hezbollah but hit a nearby UNIFIL post just as happened Tuesday. (Hat tip to Captain Ed) * A Google search of, "Annan" & "deliberate targeting", currently returns 92,100 hits less than three days after the incident. I tried several combinations of keywords to isolate the number of stories on the two Hezbollah attacks on the UN Observers, but each one came back with most of the stories relating to the Israeli airstrike. perception-reality-facts.blogspot.com foxnews.com un.org un.org perception-reality-facts.blogspot.com captainsquartersblog.com captainsquartersblog.com google.com