UN; Annan says Israel, a rebuttal

[Shammu]

UN; Annan says Israel, a rebuttal

The UN Observer post was hit by an IAF airstrike, killing all 4 UN peacekeepers. Israel has said they “deeply regret” the incident and vowed to investigate.

But Kofi Annan already knows who to blame, Annan himself, is to blame.

I thought the head of the United Nations was supposed to be a diplomat, someone who understands the gravity of making hasty accusations with no evidence, and refrains from heated rhetoric that could make situations worse.

“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a UN Observer post in southern Lebanon,” Annan said in a statement later.

Annan said in his statement that the post had been there for a long time. and was marked clearly. It was hit despite assurances from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would not be attacked.

Yet did the UN peacekeepers ever report to the UN, that Hezbollah was bring in missles?? NO!! Later it was reported, and still later admitted that the UN had on tape, the kidnapping of 2 Israel's soldiers. That was after the UN was pressed about the indicent.  Did the UN ever do anything after Israel became a nation, besides sit on their butts??  NO!  The only thing the UN has done is blame all the mideasts trouble, on Israel.

As I hear the news, now Hezbollah has launched 151 missles at Israel so far today. 

“I call on the goverment of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on UN positions and personnel must stop,” Annan said in the statement.

If Annan would have checked history, he would have found 257 UN peacekeeper have been killed in  in Lebanon.  Have we ever heard Kofi blame anyone else??  I can answer that in one word, NO! 

All in all, the fault, lies the the Useless Nation.

[Soldier4Christ]

"A none" knows what he was saying. Such a statement just goes right along with calling Israel terrorists.

[Shammu]

"A none" knows what he was saying. Such a statement just goes right along with calling Israel terrorists.

I know brother, as brother Tom would say.... "I need to work on being more Blunt."

[Shammu]

And the truth comes out, an email received at Foxnews. A UN soldier reported that Hezbollah was using the UN base as cover.  So it is little wonder that Israel bombed the base. Again Kofi had the chance, and probably knew that, Hezbollah was using the UN base as cover.

So the question remains, why didn't the Useless Nations not pull those soldiers out??

[Soldier4Christ]

Because they wanted the end results they got.

[Shammu]

Because they wanted the end results they got.

Exactally!!

It is coming down to who is on what side. Or, a line is being drawn in the sand. England, United States, and Israel, against the world. Course we know who will win in the long run.

[Soldier4Christ]

And England is like shifting sands. England is quickly turning into an islamic society.

[Shammu]

And England is like shifting sands. England is quickly turning into an islamic society.

Yup it all depends to when it all comes down, where England will stand.

[Shammu]

Annan's Claims On Casualties May Unravel

BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 27, 2006

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.

Annan's Claims On Casualties May Unravel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only a fool, would leave those soldiers in place.

[BLAD]

Only a fool, would leave those soldiers in place.

Brother i believe they planned to leave those guys for a reason.  >:(Maybe to help their Hezbolah friends have shelter.

They know Israel attack the position coz' they know their Hezbolah friends are there.

and they got twant they want. condemn israel or their friends are safe.

[Shammu]

Brother i believe they planned to leave those guys for a reason.  >:(Maybe to help their Hezbolah friends have shelter.

They know Israel attack the position coz' they know their Hezbolah friends are there.

and they got twant they want. condemn israel or their friends are safe.

Well this is one Christian, that won't condemn Israel for her actions.  I'm speaking as a Christian, and an American.  I firmly believe the the Useless Nation also left those soldiers there.

GO ISRAEL!!

[Shammu]

Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield'
Canadian wrote of militia's presence, 'necessity' of bombing

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.

Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield'

[Shammu]

[rant-on]

Kofi Annan and his warped mind

The UN's Kofi Annan betrayed his political guise yesterday, as was manifest by his preposterous allegation that an Israeli attack on a U.N. post in southern Lebanon was "apparently deliberate." Mr. Annan knows full well that Israel would never, even if it suited its interests, deliberately attack U.N. personnel or other innocents, not when the entire world is waiting to unleash its righteous indignation against any perceived "disproportionate" Israeli response to ongoing Hezbollah terror.

Most tellingly, Mr. Annan's comments did not come during an impromptu press conference with reporters, where any number of silly things are often mistakenly said. Rather, they came via a prepared statement, released by Mr. Annan's Rome office, meaning, the secretary-general had ample time to consider his words. That being the case, perhaps Kofi Annan's intent was to increase pressure on Israel to accept terms of a ceasefire. Especially since he later called for participants in a Middle East conference to push for an immediate halt to hostilities. That his first instinct was to blame Israel seems to have lifted the curtain on Mr. Annan's pre-existing prejudices against Israel.

The curious part is that if anyone, aside from Hezbollah. Should be blamed for the deaths of the four U.N. observers, is Kofi Annan himself. The purpose of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, is primarily to support the Lebanese government's re-establishment of authority in the area. Judging by Hezbollah's re-entrenchment of southern Lebanon over the last few years. UNIFIL seems to have utterly failed in that mission, which is par, for the course.

Nevertheless, U.N. posts near Hezbollah targets have been accidentally hit or caught between small-arms fire, and several U.N. workers have been wounded. Despite this, according to a July 23 2006 UNIFIL press report, "All UNIFIL positions in the area of operation remain permanently occupied." Mr. Annan surely knew this, yet he elected to keep his workers in the middle of a war zone and surrounded by Hezbollah anyway. As it can be said, it was only a matter of time.

[/rant-off]

edited to add; The views expresed here are my own, and not the general forum.