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zak247

Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 950
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Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:49 pm Post subject: The dogs of war |
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Hey bro Fintan, I hope you are happily lapping up that ancient Druid Celtic mystery space in them there hills of the Erse countryside.
And on another note:
It seems to me, that with the Mumbai bombings, the fake US terror scares, the Mideast carnage, it may be just a little too much - lets call it energy- going on in one space at one time.
Someone is pushing real hard to stir this fake clash of civilization war up.
Perhaps this Israeli aggression is the end of it, or worst, the beginning of it.
Think about it: if the Iraqi insurgency hadn’t put a leash on the Bush march, they might now be in Syria and Iran - similar to the way the Nazis blitzkrieged across Europe in WWII. With Korea, the unexpected insurgency in Iraq, and other events being too much for the US to handle, these new Israeli incursions may be an attempt to draw Iran and Syria into hostilities so the original plan of the neo-cons to march across the Mideast taking not only Iraq, but Syria, as well as Iran can alas- still be done.
If you listen to the Mickey Mouse MSM (reminds me of a disease) all you hear is: “these missiles that are hitting Israel are made in Iran and Syria” or “Hezbollah is sponsored by Iran and Syria” This message of the Zionist controlled MSM is about as subtle as a Mike Tyson left hook. Additionally the supine response of the Bush regime is a clear indication that they support the Israeli incursions wholeheartedly and are secretly hoping it will flare up in a wider Mideast conflagration so the neo-con dream of sweeping across the sector could be fulfilled. Indeed this may be the last cacophony of bullshit coming out from the Zionist inspired neo-cons before they are hurled out of power and hopefully back to the dark pits of hell whence they came.
This also makes sense in terms of what (I think) Fintan suggests that Iran is really in cahoots with America (I think that is what Fintan has said, right?). If that be the case and all the Iran hoopla over nuclear energy is just a smokescreen, then who would really be the target here, Syria.?
On the face of it Syria doesn’t seem like to much of a prize to Israel or the US at this time. What Israel might be doing is: by dragging Syria into this, it would naturally bring Iran in it. The Iranian government statement that “if Israel attacked Syria, this would bring the whole Islamic wrath down on Israel seems to support this; and hints at a Iran intervention if Israel attacks Syria. None of this makes sense though, if Iran is secretly in cahoots with America, right? Wrong, if Iran is secretly in cahoots with America, for whatever reason, (maybe someone can provide a rational for this) then this serpentine mess might make a little sense after all, other then that all these guys running these regimes, are all mad.
Anyway the bottom line is that these dangerous people whether we are talking about the religious gangsters in Lebanon called Hezbollah or the political gangsters who run Israel and America, have hurled the ordinary people of Lebanon into a new hell on earth.
And it may be that this is the beginning of the last gasp of the neo-con( or neo-Nazis) of today, in their desire to militarily take over the Mideast, and install puppet regimes in all the countries like Iraq.
If anyone thinks this is too far fetched all one has to consider is the now established fact, that these same manic neo-cons, probably with the aid of Israel where behind the vicious slaughter of 911, and with their utter humiliating failure in Iraq because of the insurgency, they are now desperate and for these immoral Nazi-like savages to formant an all out war in the mid-east is no big thing.
One more point on this: What we must also take into consideration is the fact that the 911 truth movement may be getting close to wrecking the diabolical plot of 911, and if that be the case, the only thing to save the plotters hides is an all out war against “terrorism” that will divert the American, and international community from finding and bringing to justice the low down dirty dogs of hell who murdered 3000 Americans on September 11 in the year 2001.
Lets all think good thoughts, pray for, or whatever for the noble ordinary people of Lebanon
ZAK247
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3275886%2C00.html |
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bornfree
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 509
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Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:39 am Post subject: You are Suspect |
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| Quote: | | If that be the case and all the Iran hoopla over nuclear energy is just a smokescreen, then who would really be the target here? |
We are. |
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dilbert_g Guest
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:08 pm Post subject: Hezbollah |
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My friends tell me that Hezbollah is the direct result of Sabra and Shatilla, the merciless slaughter of Palestinian refugees by Maronite Christians under Ariel Sharon.
My friends tell me that Lebanon is divided into families of Christian Greek Orthodox, Maronite Christian, and Palestinian Arab-Muslim (roughly), none of whom liked each other much, all rivals.
Actually, I learned more recently, that for the most part THEY ALL DO LIKE EACH OTHER. Some problems with Hezbollah's right wing stance, but THEY ARE THE ONLY REAL MILITARY PROTECTION FOR THE MUSLIMS OR CHRISTIANS.
However, it is Israel who maintains the highly disproportionate force to stir up trouble.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0801/p09s02-coop.html
Last edited by dilbert_g on Fri Aug 04, 2006 9:17 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Ormond

Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1558 Location: Belly of the Beast, Texas
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Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:15 am Post subject: |
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It's bigger than Israel. Bigger than the US. The unfolding reality of globalist control renders nations archaic--fronts.
Israel, the US....these forms are playing their roles but the script has been written for years. Americans, Jews are associated with these acts but had nothing to do with the planning and don't want it. Put up front to take the heat for actions that serve long term globalist agendas.
The US and Israel are the pawns for the subjucation and standardization of the Middle East. The public is dragged along by our governments.
I think along the lines of Hezbolah being a created Hegelinan "opposition" too.
Whenever 'oppositions' play so blatantly into the hands of pretext for expanding the war theater for the 'oppressors' I figure the decision makers of all are working for the same thing. Unleashing the Dogs of War.
There can be the long anticipated full scale Mid East war out of this, and Israel, Hezbolah, and the US and (back, and to the left) Britain will get the blame, more or less in that order depending on who one studies with.
The real culprits pulling the strings of all this won't be mentioned.
I read on Henry Makow's site that 2/3 of Israeli citizens are appalled and frightened by current events. That's not getting press.
I can tell you that over 50% (conservatively) are wanting out of the Iraq and that's not getting press either. _________________ The anticipated never happens. The unexpected constantly occurs |
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Fintan Site Admin

Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 5568
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Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:04 am Post subject: Conquer and Divide |
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You've nailed the key issue Zak --Iran (and thus Hezbollah) are proxies.
Iran is running southern Iraq (peacefully) on our behalf, while the
Sunni resistance is in full cry in the North.
But:
| Quote: | ....this may be the last cacophony of bullshit coming out from the
Zionist inspired neo-cons before they are hurled out of power and
hopefully back to the dark pits of hell whence they came. |
The Neocons came from the G8.
Zionists and the Neocons twist the arm of the mighty U.S.?
Yeah, like... please twist My US Arm... and I'll give you 50 bucks.
Please twist my Imperial Arm and force Me to invade Iraq.
Please twist my Imperial Arm and force Me to demolish Lebanon.
As if the U.S. needs persuading to assert the G8 Imperium.
Remember what you saw happening in Iraq at the time of the invasion?
The looting, the gas shortages, the shortage of electricity to this day.
It's the deliberate implosion of democratic civil society. Old Iraq needed
to be broken up. And in the new mix, Northern Iraq (and Lebanon) is a
designated "No Development Allowed" zone.
Zones kept on ice at the G8's pleasure.
Lebanon was clawing it's way back to some kind of order and economic
potential. Oooops. Not Allowed!
Bam!, Whazoom!, Boom!
Back to the stone age you pesky peasants.
As to Syria, with it's mostly Sunni army and Sunni majority, well you
guys picked the wrong ethnicity. Check with your bro's in Iraq.
| Quote: | Ormond: It's bigger than Israel. Bigger than the US.
The unfolding reality of globalist control renders nations archaic--fronts. |
Yeah... fronts. Hollow toothless shells. Facades of national government.
Facades for "democracy". Implementers of corporate 'think tank' policies.
But MidEast WW4 is not imminent. Just some "stone age" treatment for
Lebanon and lots of newsprint... Lots... and lots....
The G8-Empire is bogged down in Iraq.
So the Israelis are putting on a good half-time show.
To keep the TV-eyed gobots entertained.
To feed the cable feed.
Feed the fear.
And so the Long Game continues:
Divide and Conquer.
And of course.... Conquer and Divide. |
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zak247

Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 950
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 8:15 am Post subject: |
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Well I will say this Fintan; there is no doubt that the G8 are at least the outer face of the powers of the earth that rule. The only thing to determine is if there is a behind the scenes group that guys like Ike and Jones types talk about: NWO, Illuminati, Bilderberger, etc… Fintan does cut across these meaningless names and calls a spade a spade. The devil before our eyes is the devil. That has an irresistible logic, because lets face it, nothing is hidden, there are no real secrets, I guess. Those that are ruling outwardly may have a hidden or behind the scene component, but are they really hidden? If we talk about the Rockerfellows, Rothschild’s, call them globalist or whatever, we know who they are, and what they do, so with all of this Fintan you may be on the money about it.
It boils down to being a power game, with psychological components being foremost.
But if this be the case, there still are the questions of:
How do we extricate ourselves from this? or
Can we extricate ourselves? or
Should we fight “city hall” or
As the captain says at one point:
Abandon ship, abandon ship,
All is lost
Everyman for himself, save yourself!
It seems to me, this last proposition may be REALITY |
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bornfree
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 509
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 8:46 am Post subject: The Final Solution |
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| zak247 wrote: |
But if this be the case, there still are the questions of:
How do we extricate ourselves from this? or
Can we extricate ourselves? or
Should we fight “city hall” or
As the captain says at one point:
Abandon ship, abandon ship,
All is lost
Everyman for himself, save yourself!
It seems to me, this last proposition may be REALITY |
Every major figure in this agenda has stated that population reduction is the goal. As soon as they're able the rest of us can kiss our ass goodbye.
So will we allow ourselves to be chipped and remotely controlled then detonated one day which they will call a heart attack or perhaps a deadly bird flu or will we find the courage to learn to live with each other so that we may reject the mark of the beast and its agenda?
| Quote: | Providing a biological twist to robotics, scientists have fitted live rats with remote controls to guide them through mazes, past obstacles and even up trees by typing commands on a laptop computer up to half a mile away.
http://sleepdealer.com/articles/robo-rat.html |
Everyone gets chipped and it delivers a signal, you die, they claim you had a heart attack or died from a current disease they promote on television.
When I was a young worker they told us technology would give us more vacation time, unburden us from labor, increased health care and so much more. When technology came, it was used against us. Then new implant chips will be used against us too.
The day before the stock market crash of 1929 the media was all rosey and bright. Everyone wake up the day of the crash believing it was juist another day in the neighborhood.
Well let it be known...Mr Rogars is dead.
Its up to us now. |
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Fintan Site Admin

Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 5568
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 9:15 pm Post subject: NATO Muscles Into Lebanon --Via Israelis |
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NATO Muscles Into Lebanon --Thanks to Israel
Ok, So now you see the ongoing objective of the Israeli bombardment
and incursion into Lebanon. As I pointed out earlier, already the U.N.'s
role has been carefully eclipsed by the G8 Summit -who okayed Israel's
assault on Lebanon.
That sidelining of the U.N. was not a freak of circimstance. It was all part
of the advance strategy to lever NATO into the heart of the Middle East.
With the U.N. out of the picture, U.N. troops are out of the picture, and out
also is all that cumbersome international accountability.
So, here come the Empire's 'other' army: NATO.
Israel is part of the New Europe, in case you hadn't heard.
The US-EU Empire is a movin' South.
Here's the word from the Israeli Defense Minister Peretz:
| Quote: | Diplomacy To The Fore As Military Stakes Rise
PRAGUE, July 23, 2006 (RFE/RL)
Defense Minister Peretz indicated on July 23 that diplomacy is an important element in Israeli thinking, saying that "we definitely see a combination of the existing military activity...alongside broad international diplomatic efforts accomplishing the job."
Peretz said on July 23 that Israel is willing to accept the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, saying the force should be led by NATO. The Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" quoted Peretz as telling German Foreign Minister Steinmeier that Israel would support such a force "because of the weakness of the Lebanese army."
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/07/b654ef07-3865-48fe-9b48-e2f5d1c8d697.html |
And here's more of the same -reportedly from Israeli Prime Minister Olmert:
| Quote: | Israel's Olmert Might Accept a Multinational Force in Lebanon
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he might accept a multinational force stationed in Lebanon as a means of ending the conflict, so long as it is manned by European Union troops and monitors Lebanon's border with Syria.
Olmert said in a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier that Israel would ``agree to consider stationing a military force with combat experience'' in south Lebanon adjacent to Israel and at crossing points on Lebanon's Syrian border, according to a statement posted on the Web site of his office today....
``We can support some ideas of effective forces that will help the Lebanese government'' dismantle Hezbollah and take control of south Lebanon, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said at a news conference today. ``Israel's position will be determined, among other things, according to the effectiveness of these forces, its mandate.''
Israel would be open to North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops policing the Israel-Lebanese border, where a United Nations force has been stationed since 1978, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon said today on CBS's ``Face the Nation.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aByFH2joYUl8&refer=home |
Now, of course, all this talk of a NATO force in the Middle East comes as a
total shock to the folks at NATO. Honestly. They are floored by this turn of
events. They're overstretched already. They couldn't agree among the NATO
members anyway. Their arms will have to be twisted to pull this off......
Yawn.
| Quote: | Israeli bid a surprise to NATO
By Judy Dempsey International Herald Tribune - July 23, 2006
BERLIN- With NATO straining to fulfill its commitment in Afghanistan and facing new demands from the United Nations to send troops to Sudan, Israel's proposal that NATO provide a buffer zone along the Israeli-Lebanese border surprised members of the alliance Sunday.
Amir Peretz, the Israeli defense minister, told the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, that Israel would welcome a NATO force, saying that the Lebanese Army was too weak to do the job.
Diplomats said it was also a clear signal to the UN that its force in the area was of limited importance since it had failed to disarm Hezbollah fighters or protect the border since Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.
At NATO headquarters in Brussels, there was a measured official response to the Israeli request.
"There has been no political discussion about the alliance's role in the crisis," said the NATO spokesman, James Appathurai.
Unofficially, Peretz's request caught NATO by surprise. Its secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, spoke last week with his UN counterpart, Kofi Annan, about the increasing violence in the Middle East, and there was no mention about what kind of role NATO could play, if any.
"We got the distinct impression that the UN would be prepared to adapt its mandate, making it more robust," said a NATO diplomat who insisted on anonymity because the issue was so sensitive among all 26 member nations. "We wonder why Peretz raised the idea now."
The United States has already responded favorably to the request. John Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said Israel's request would be taken seriously
Speaking in a interview on CNN, Bolton said, "We have been looking carefully at a multinational force, perhaps authorized by the Security Council, but not a UN-helmeted force."
Any NATO role would need an official request from both Israel and the Lebanese governments. If such a request were made, it would put NATO under immense pressure to say yes, provided it operated under a UN mandate and its role and duration was clearly defined.
Even at that, some alliance members would be reluctant to agree to such a mission.
France, which historically has had close ties with Lebanon, would oppose NATO assuming a big role in that part of the Middle East, NATO officials said.
France had opposed, but failed to stop, NATO from expanding "out of area" beyond its traditional base of Europe to Afghanistan in 2002, in Sudan, where the alliance is involved in airlift operations, and in Iraq, where it is training military officers.
France sees those developments as turning NATO into a toolbox for the Americans at the expense of preserving some European identity of the alliance.
The French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, who visited Israel on Sunday, said he was more concerned with obtaining a cease-fire. "My question to Jerusalem and Beirut is the same: How do we reach a cease-fire as quickly as possible?" he said.
Germany, too, would be reluctant to join the force because of its special relationship with Israel as a result of the Holocaust.
When asked about Germany joining such a NATO mission, Chancellor Angela Merkel replied: "At the moment, it is not on the agenda."
In an interview with a German public television channel, ZDF, Merkel said it was in Germany's interests to strengthen the government of Lebanon and that meant disarming Hezbollah.
"The government in Beirut needs help," she said.
Another issue facing NATO would be its image. According to an alliance official, a NATO-led force would be considered American, not European, even though Bolton said the Bush administration had not considered contributing U.S. troops to such an international force.
It probably would be commanded by a U.S. general, fueling Arab suspicion that it was pro-Israeli.
The alliance would face becoming bogged down in arguments over how many troops would be provided, when and from which countries. NATO estimates that 6,000 to 7,000 troops would be required.
Britain is already committed to Iraq and now commands the new NATO mission in southern Afghanistan, where it has sent 5,000 troops. Those are in addition to NATO's 9,700 soldiers deployed in other parts of the country.
By September, de Hoop Scheffer said, NATO forces in Afghanistan could reach 18,000.
If NATO did agree to send troops, it would amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul, said one alliance official.
What was meant by that was the likely rejection of the UN request for 7,000 NATO troops to stop the fighting in Darfur, northern Sudan.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/23/news/nato.php |
And finally, as if on cue......
| Quote: | Condition of Israel's Ariel Sharon worsens
Sun Jul 23, 2006
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The condition of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma since January, has deteriorated in the past two days, doctors caring for him said on Sunday.
Doctors at the Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv said Sharon, who fell into a coma after a stroke on January 4, was suffering from an accumulation of fluids in his body and problems with the functioning of his kidneys.
"Over the past two days the doctors have identified a deterioration in the kidney function...and changes in brain tissue," a statement issued by the hospital said.
"The doctors are continuing tests in order to diagnose the changes which have taken place in Sharon's body and to administer the appropriate treatment."
Sharon's family was with him, the hospital said.
[urlhttp://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-07-23T164751Z_01_L23884641_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-SHARON.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-newsOne-1]Link[/url] |
Last edited by Fintan on Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:09 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Useful Eater

Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 100 Location: London
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 11:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Can I ask what a NATO force in Lebanon going to achieve in the long run? |
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zak247

Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 950
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:04 am Post subject: |
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Fintan can speak for himself, but it seems to me he is suggesting that this NATO move is just a continuation of the G8 power grab. These organizations: G8, NATO, EU are just different names for the same group of powerful people, and apparently the G8 configuration is the new face of these people that will apparently be the final organizing structure formed to tell or show the world:
that we are ruling this thing, have ruled it, and not only will continue to rule it, but will rule it with a more controlling apparatus like never before, and whoever doesn’t go along, will get it’s ass kicked.
That’s what we call Gangsterism!
One more point: this is also a slap at the UN, that is also ruled by the G8 powers basically, but they find the third world countries, and the UN leadership as meddlers and pests (this is proven by the fact that the UN said Israel may be committing war crimes in Lebanon) and really wont give it too much real power.
That’s my take on it. |
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Fintan Site Admin

Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 5568
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject: While the world is turning its back |
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Chemical Weapons and indiscriminate targetting of civilians.
Somebody pinch me and remind me this is not Fallujah.
| Quote: | "The photos here are of two massacres Israel conducted yeterday and the
day before. One in Nabishiet village near Bealbeck city in east Lebanon
killing 7 members from one family (4 of them are children) by bombing
their four-floor house and injuring 3. The other one occured in the south
when Israel again targeted a car that was trying to escape to a safer
place killing the family that was in it."
While the world is turning its back and closing its eyes
by Raida Hatoum*
http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/176/index.php
I can hear the bombs as I write this: today, the 20th of July, is Day 8 of the Israeli war on Lebanon.
The bombing continues today especially in all the south and east of Lebanon. Today more massacres were conducted and more civilians were killed. Tomorrow we will count our lost ones from today and we will see more photos of murdered children and families.
Today we counted our lost ones from yesterday. We collected photos of the remains of families, of women and children who were killed. Yesterday was the worst, 70 civilians were killed - most of them are still under the ruins of their houses destroyed in the south and the Beqa'a regions.
On the television and radio people from the south and east Lebanon who are beseiged in their villages are asking for medicine, food, water, and are asking for mercy. They say there are still people buried under their houses that Israel bombed yesterday. They say there are still fires they cannot put off as Israel is using phosphorus bombs that burns everything. They say please give us one hour to allow us to have medicine and food at least for the children and to bury those who were killed.
They say there is a strong smell of death in their villages because there are bodies of killed people under the ruins of shelters and houses.
Reporters say they were able to hear voices screaming for help, moaning from pain, dying under the ruins, and no one was able to help because Israel is bombing any vehicle that moves and the people are not able to move the ruins of the houses to save the people who are buried underneeth.
Today doctors from the hospitals in the south are screaming saying many of the dead bodies they received were not even injured and didn't bleed, but they were burnt while the hair is not burnt and a strange strong smell comes from the bodies. These are evidence that Israel is using chemical weapons.
Yesterday the speaker of the human rights committee in United Nations, said that there is a "strong possibility that Israel is conducting war crimes". Of course Israel is conducting war crimes. This is a genocide. Would the UN and the international comunity act now before it is too late to force Israel to stop?
It is already one week of this and the UN gave Israel one more week to finish its dirty work in Lebanon. One week of this genocide and the result is more than half million displaced Lebanese and 325 killed civilians and 1000 injured civilians. Most of them are children.
The war is generating damages of one and a half billion dollars every day so far. It would take 15 years to rebuild what Israel destroyed in 7 days. But those who got killed cannot be brought back to life.
Yesterday Israel conducted several massacres, one of them in the village of Sreifah in the south by blowing up 10 houses with the people inside, killing 27; all were members of 3 families.
Israel orders the people in the south to evacuate their villages: when the people try to leave their villages Israel targets them with Apache helicopters and kills them. Israel did it again yesterday targeting 3 cars full of peole and children who were trying to leave the village Aitaroun killing 4 and injuring 7.
There will be no schools this 2006/07 schoolyear, as there are tens of villages and towns that were completely destroyed including schools, medical centers, shops, factories and houses of its citizens. Tens of thousands from among the half a million displaced people would have to stay in the public schools and gardens for 6 more months this is if the war were to stop today. Winter is coming, I wonder how the displaced Lebanese would survive in the public schools and gardens?
On Day 1 of the war the Israeli government said they would turn Lebanon back in time by 20 years. And they did it. But now they are murdering all of us. Lebanon is completely destroyed, no more bridges, roads, factories, stations, water, electricity, airports, seaports, they bombed medical centers and schools and internet stations, they even bombed the historical ruins of Bealbeck.
Today I had to go like hundreds of people to bring drinkable water from the fountain which is something my grand grand grandmother used to do in the 17th century. Then I went to buy milk and cigarettes: the shelves in the 7 shops I visited were almost empty.
The roads are cut and there is no way to provide goods from one region to the other. I didn't complain, I thought about the others who are trapped in their villages under attack with nothing at all for 8 days now.
I tried to call friends, Wafa and Fadi in Sida, Raed in Beirut, Sameera in Bealbeck, Sahban in Tyre and others, but while standing in front of the public phone in the street waiting for my turn, watching the tens of young women and children waiting to use the phone, listening to the conversations, the fear, the worries etc, I felt I couldn't wait, I couldn't make the phone calls, I was so scared that no one will answer at the other side of the phone, this other side that is only an hour or an hour and a half away now seems very distant, as if on another planet.
I went home feeling sad and helpless. Decided to occupy myself with reorganizing the old newspapers I keep in my room: I carry the first one and open it to find it is "Al Safeer" newspaper from 1996 and on the first page pictures of killed infants and children - it was the Israeli massacre of Qana. This massacre happened when people from the southern villages took refuge at a UN center in the village of Qana and were murdered as Israel bombed the UN center. Pain sweeps me and I crack down with the tears I tried very bravely and hardly to stop for seven days.
The whole picture is so shockingly clear to me: we will never live in peace and will never have a future as long as Israel is protected, tolerated and allowed to kill children and destroy houses and hospitals in Lebanon and Palestine.
It is a genocide. Nothing less. Nothing else.
Today on the television they showed Israeli children in north Israel writing messages on Israeli bomb missiles that will be fired - or have been already fired - at the Lebanese villages. Those messages say: "from the children of Israel to the children of Lebanon". Can any one explaine this... What is this madness? Can someone at least tell the world and Israel that those messages found their way to the flesh and blood of the Lebanese children? We got the message.
More survivors and displaced families are coming to the mountains today and they have even reached the northern mountain. Now people are hosting those displaced families in their own houses as all the public schools and universities are full. Cars with megaphones are driving in the roads asking people to donate matresses as there is a need for 11,000 matresses, in the mountain alone, and it is an immediate need.
When I think about the displaced people I imagine that I have to sleep wearing the same outfit I was wearing for a week, in the same underwear, I imagine how it would feel to be in a minivan on the road with tens of other people squeezed running away to what might be a safer zone, fearing that the Israeli missiles would hunt us at any second and that we would make the news like the family whose photos I sent you who were targeted after trying to escape with their truck on the road. And like many others. I try to imagine if I can stay with no shower for a week, with no medicine for a week, with no food, no bathrooms, no water to drink, no contact with other members of my family.
I stay at my room looking at each corner and think about those who lost their houses, their belongings, those who lost everything.
What does Israel want? - a land with no people in Palestine and Lebanon? What does USA want? A Middle East empty but for oil? Are they just displaying their weapons for buying and selling in the market, is it an exhibition of madness? Condy says "we won't ask Israel to stop firing because stopping it won't solve the problem". Yes Condy, it won't solve the problem. Dead Lebanese and dead Palestinians would solve the problem, no? A genocide. And Blair also share this position with Condy. Don't they know that ending the occupation is what would solve the problem?
What future are Israel, USA, UK and Iran planning for the region? More wars more killing more violence and hate. In this, superpowers fight over domination; we the ordinary people are the ones stuck in the middle, we are ones being used in their wars and conflicts, we are the ones who pay the price. In Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon, we deserve to live in peace.
All the violence is caused by the occupation.
Yesterday Israel bombed Borj El Brajneh district in the southern suburbs of Beirut with more than 23 tons of bombs!!! yes, 23 tons of bombs, even the global media confirmed it. The target was a mosque. They bombed it with the pretext that there are tunnels under this mosque and Nasrallah is hiding there!!!.
Till now 3 churches and 5 mosques were destroyed. I was thinking about Wafa'a and her husband Ali, both Palestinian refugees living in Borj El Brajneh camp. I just went to their wedding party one week before this war started, visited them at their new appartment in the refugee camp three days before this war started. I am dead worried about them. After Israel bombed the mobile/cellphone station it is almost impossible to make a phone call.
Dear friends, Lebanon that some of you you have visited once does not exist any more. Tell the world, keep carrying out what you do, all you can do, make this genocide stop, there is nothing left for Israel to destroy unless they want to kill us in our homes, house after house, family after family ... just like what is happening in Gaza, just like what happened in Sabra & Shatila massacre in 1982.
Yesterday the 19th July, we were no longer able to recognize day from night; our days are just like our nights all full of bombing, black smoke of fires (because Israel is bombing gas stations and gas tanks).
There's destruction of milk and cheese factories, burning tissue, wood, and carton factories, destruction of health care centers, destruction of schools and shops, photos of burnt children, news about families being targeted and killed in their shelters and relief centers...
I fear this might lead to a bigger war or conflict. I feel like every one lost their minds, even those who do know and do understand.
I have friends in all parts of Lebanon and I am dead worried about them.
I am worried about my friends in north Israel, too, in Haifa, Nazareth and Safad.
I write to Salman and his wife Nada, they live in Karmel mountain above Haifa, they tell me they are fine, yet their daughter left to Italy to stay with her brother. They ask me to be fine and not to crack down. Salman, who toured Italy last year talking about the verbal history of the Palestinians that he has collected for over 30 years, tells me that a storm is in his heart and mind.
Aida, my friend in Haifa, a brave activist and a mother of 2 children whom I met in Cyprus at a conference and became best friends since then writes to me saying she wishes to sacrifice herself for me and all the Lebanese. She told me that when people call her to see if she and her daughters are fine after the Hezbollah Catyoshia rockets hit Haifa, her daughters answer saying we are fine but what about the children of Lebanon?
What an ironic world.
What good would come from Hezbollah bombing Haifa, Acker, and Safad in north Israel? And what good would come from the Israeli systematic destruction of Lebanon and Gaza and West Bank and killing of civilians in Lebanon and in Gaza?
Nothing but more violence and madness.
Every day more civilians are being killed, more massacres. Every day more children within few seconds are turned from beautiful and innocent creatures full of life and laughter into pieces of burnt flesh and meat.
We see their images on our televisions and newspapers, and I wonder what future the surviving children can have with such memories, why should children in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq have to endure such brutality.
Make Israel pay for the crimes it is conducting.
Make it stop its crimes, or else Israel will continue this. I read today that the Zionist religious men in Israel said it is allowed for Israel to kill inoccent women and children who are not Jewish - what difference is there between this and what Bin Laden and Zarqawi and all those criminals are saying and doing in Iraq. killing innocent Shi'ites and Christians, Iraqis and foreigners?
The photos here are of two massacres Israel conducted yeterday and the day before. One in Nabishiet village near Bealbeck city in east Lebanon killing 7 members from one family (4 of them are children) by bombing their four-floor house and injuring 3. The other one occured in the south when Israel again targeted a car that was trying to escape to a safer place killing the family that was in it.
Also, there is a photo of the US embassador in Beirut turning his back to the photos of destruction and the murders which were displayed at a Government conference room where they invited ambassadors to ask them to pressure Israel to stop this war.
Thank you again for caring while the world is turning its back and closing its eyes.
Yours Raida
* Raida Hatoum was a founding member of the Lebanon IndyMedia organization in Beirut; is a volunteer active with the Palestinian Solidarity networks working at the Shatila refugee camp and with the Najdeh Association; member of the group which published the Lebanese paper Al-Yasari (the Leftist); and a committed Socialist.
Cyprus IndyMedia editorial collective
http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/176/index.php |
| Quote: | Fleeing civilian vehicles hit by Israeli missiles
By Nicholas Blanford in Tyre and Ned Parker in Jerusalem
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,323498,00.jpg
Lebanese Red Cross workers help an injured woman from
a minibus hit by a missile near Tyre (Nicholas Blanford)
WITH an expression of utmost calm on her blood-masked face, the woman allowed herself to be gently lowered from the minibus into the waiting arms of two Lebanese Red Cross volunteers.
The rescue workers had extracted her through a jagged hole in the roof of the crumpled bus, created by a missile fired minutes earlier by an Israeli helicopter that had blasted the vehicle off the road. Left behind in the vehicle, slumped over each other and soaked in blood, were the bodies of three people.
The narrow roads that meander through the valleys and undulating chalky hills east of Tyre were a place of terror and death yesterday as Israeli helicopters attacked civilian vehicles fleeing Israel’s 11-day onslaught in south Lebanon.
Dr Ahmad Mrowe, director of the Jabal Amel hospital in Tyre, said: “Today is the day of the cars. It has been very bad.”
By early evening, the Jabal Amel hospital alone had received 41 wounded, most of them serious, according to hospital sources, all thought to be civilians seeking refuge north of the Litani river after heeding Israeli warnings to leave the area.
The stricken minibus was hit along a road cut into the side of a steep valley beyond Siddiqine village, where Israeli artillery shells exploded in thick, dirty, white plumes of smoke and dust.
One man, his face half torn off by a missile, sat in his seat, his yellowing hand hanging from the window.
Beside him, covered in the dead man’s blood, a woman moved slightly back and forth.
“Can you stand?” asked a Red Cross volunteer. The woman mumbled an incoherent response.
A few yards away, some of the survivors lay on the ground, moaning and crying.
Red Cross medics said that 19 people had been in the vehicle, all of them from Tiri, a small village 7 miles to the south-east.
Abbas Shayter, 12, said: “Someone came for us and we drove with other cars out of the village.
“We were trying to keep up with the others when we were hit.”
He said his grandmother, uncle and another man had been killed.
An officer with the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon said that the Israelis had told them they would not hinder cars travelling north on the main roads.
But the evidence yesterday suggested that cars were being attacked regardless of their occupants and direction of travel.
Hezbollah rockets claimed the lives of two people and wounded 20 others in the Israeli city of Haifa. Another 50 people were injured in rocket attacks in at least 10 other towns across northern Israel.
The attacks came as Israeli troops battled to clear a mile-wide strip along the northern border, encountering resistance from Hezbollah forces in bunkers.
The Israeli Army went to the assistance of an Italian UN observer, Captain Roberto Punzo, who was hit by Hezbollah fire during the clashes. He was taken to hospital in Israel with serious injuries.
A Lebanese photographer, Layal Najib, was killed during another clash in the southern village of Qana.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-2282992,00.html |
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backandtotheleft
Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 92 Location: Deep Down
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Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:53 am Post subject: |
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Iran, 1953. Mossadeq nationalizes Iranian oil:
Oops:
and
(it's always the commies that get it...)
Enter the Shah:
But it doesn't last. Iran, 1979:
Of course, that's not the way Time saw it (they never do):
And wouldn't you know it, the American Embassy goes and gets itself taken over:
This "crisis" lasts for 444-days, during an American presidential election no less, and quietly ends at the exact moment this happens:
Does this not sound to you like an entirely stage managed "country"? |
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Fintan Site Admin

Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 5568
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:11 am Post subject: Zawahri tells Muslims to join Mideast conflict |
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What a surprise! Al-Qaida has a new video out on the Lebanon situation.
Al-Qaida's No. 2 appeares in a slick production denouncing Israel. And,
hold your breath, the big man --Osama, himself-- is rumored to be set
to appear in another video within days.
Plus, the latest video features a still photo of ol' Mickey 'Mouse-Ears' Atta
and the burning WTC, as a backdrop.
The latest video was al-Zawahri's tenth this year. And Bin Laden has
already appeared in five messages issued in 2006. Al-Qaida clearly needs
its own permanent TV channel.
It could start every day with 'Good Morning Jihadists', where Zawahri chats
to guests in studio about AK-47s and how to cook a healthy breakfast
while hiding in a cave. Maybe Dan Rather might do a comeback as a host
of an evening news show.
Seriously hough, the production quality of these latest al-Qaida videos is
up to network TV standards. Where are they coming from?
Well MSNBC says:
| Quote: | according to IntelCenter, a U.S.-based independent group that provides
counterterrorism information to the U.S. government and media.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14054482 |
and ABCNews Blog reports:
| Quote: | A new Osama bin Laden message from al Qaeda’s as-Sahab Institute for Media Production is to be released soon, according to IntelCenter, a private contractor providing counterterrorism support work to the intelligence community.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/07/websites_saying.html |
Back in June, on the release of a previous video, ABC said:
Here's a screenshot of Virginia-based, IntelCenter's homepage:
http://www.intelcenter.com/
But it isn't just Al-Qaida which has morphed into a slick video production
and communications entity. Abu Musab Zarqawi underwent a similar
transformation in 2004-2005, as the Wash. Post reported last year:
| Quote: | On June 29, the new release hit the Internet. "All Religion Will Be
for Allah" is 46 minutes of live-action war in Iraq, a slickly produced video
with professional-quality graphics and the feel of a blood-and-guts annual
report.... [with] a specially designed Web page, with dozens of links to
the video, so users could choose which version to download. There were
large-file editions that consumed 150 megabytes for viewers with high-
speed Internet and a scaled-down four-megabyte version for those
limited to dial-up access. Viewers could choose Windows Media or
RealPlayer. They could even download "All Religion Will Be for Allah" to
play on a cell phone.
Never before has a guerrilla organization so successfully intertwined its
real-time war on the ground with its electronic jihad....
Little more than a year ago, this online empire did not exist. Zarqawi was
an Internet nonentity, a relatively obscure Jordanian who was one of
many competing leaders of the Iraq insurgency. Once every few days, a
communique appeared from him on the Web. Today, Zarqawi is an
international name "of enormous symbolic importance," as Army Lt. Gen.
David Petraeus put it in a recent interview, on a par with bin Laden
largely because of his group's proficiency at publicizing him on the
Internet.
By this summer, Internet trackers such as the SITE Institute have
recorded an average of nine online statements from the Iraq branch of
al Qaeda every day, 180 statements in the first three weeks of July.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/08/AR2005080801018.html |
Yeah....
Wag, wag, wag.
The War on Terror is turning even more into a made-for-TV movie.
| Quote: |
Zawahri tells Muslims to join Mideast conflict
Al-Qaida No. 2 says 'the world is a battlefield' in taped message
July 27, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."
In a taped message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri said the terrorist organization would not stand idly by while "these (Israeli) shells burn our brothers.
"All the world is a battlefield open in front of us," said the Egyptian-born al-Zawahri, second-in-command to Osama bin Laden.
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires ... . It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahri said. "We will attack everywhere." Spain was controlled by Arab Muslims until they were driven from the country at the turn of the 16th century.
Al-Zawahri declared that Arab regimes were complicit in Israeli fighting against Hezbollah and the Palestinians.
"My fellow Muslims, it is obvious that Arab and Islamic governments are not only impotent but also complicit...and you are alone on the battlefield. Rely on God and fight your enemies...make yourselves martyrs."
Al-Zawahri wore a gray robe and white turban. A picture of the burning World Trade Center was on the wall behind him along with photos of two other militants. One appeared to be a bearded Mohammed Atta, the Egyptian ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks. The other was Mohammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri, a former top lieutenant of bin Laden who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.
Al-Qaida broadcasts are thought to contain coded messages to members. Three of images on the screen - that of al-Zawahri and the pictures of al-Masri and what was believed to be Atta - were Egyptian.
Zawahri: 'We cannot just watch'
The Arab satellite broadcaster did not transmit the entire tape, using instead selected quotes interspersed with commentary from an anchor.
"The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli (weapons), but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price," al-Zawahri said.
The message was al-Zawahri's tenth this year. Bin Laden has issued five messages in a particularly active year of messages from the top al-Qaida leadership.
"We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated," al-Zawahri said.
Al-Zawahri last appeared in a video posted on an Islamic Web site on the one-year anniversary of the train bombings in London. In the July 7 tape, he said two of the four suicide bombers in London spent time in an al-Qaida training camp, preparing themselves for a suicide mission.
Top al-Qaida leaders paid tribute in June to the slain leader of their Iraq network, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in separate video recordings. Many of their messages this year have dealt with current events in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
Bin Laden tape expected
Another new audio or video message from bin Laden was also expected in the coming days and was planned to deal with Gaza and Lebanon, according to said IntelCenter, a U.S.-based independent group that provides counterterrorism information to the U.S. government and media.
Al-Qaida's media production wing, Al-Sahab, announced the al-Zawahri tape would be ready soon in a message Thursday on and Islamic Web site.
Al-Zawahri said Muslims everywhere must rise up to attack "crusaders and Zionists... and support jihad (holy war) everywhere...until American troops are chased from Afghanistan and Iraq, paralyzed and impotent...having paid the price for aggression against Muslims and support for Israel."
Israel began an offensive on Gaza days after Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier on June 25. It opened a second front in Lebanon after Hezbollah guerillas abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12.
Since fighting began between Israel and Hezbollah, at least 424 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to figures compiled from the Health Ministry, military and Hezbollah. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed, including 33 members of the military, according to Israeli authorities.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14054482 |
| Quote: | Following is a chronology of major statements attributed to Osama bin Laden, Zawahri or their allies this year. At least 36 messages have been broadcast since Al Jazeera aired the first statement by bin Laden in 2001.
Jan. 6, 2006 - Zawahri says in a video that U.S. President George W. Bush's plans to withdraw troops from Iraq means Washington has been defeated by the Muslims.
-- Jan. 19 - Bin Laden warns that al Qaeda is preparing new attacks inside the United States but says the group is open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audiotape.
-- Jan. 30 - Zawahri says he survived a U.S. air strike in Pakistan. The attack struck a village stronghold of pro-Taliban Islamists in Pakistan on Jan. 13.
-- April 23 - Bin Laden says Western efforts to isolate the Palestinian Hamas government and the Darfur crisis in Sudan are examples of the West's "crusader war" against Islam.
-- April 25 - A video of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, is posted on the Internet, the first known tape to show an unmasked Zarqawi delivering an extended rallying address. Zarqawi was killed on June 7 in a U.S. air strike.
-- April 29 - Zawahri says in a video that hundreds of suicide bombers have "broken America's back" in Iraq.
-- May 23 - Bin Laden says in an audiotape that Zacarias Moussaoui had nothing to do with the 9/11 operations. The speaker says he personally assigned tasks to the 19 hijackers who staged the attacks.
-- June 1 - Zarqawi calls on fellow Sunnis to reject any reconciliation with "infidel" Shi'ites, in an audiotape.
June 9 - Zawahri urges Palestinians, in a video, to reject a referendum on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel.
June 22 - Zawahri vows vengeance against the United States for the death of Zarqawi in a U.S. air strike.
June 30 - Bin Laden praises Zarqawi as a "lion of jihad", and vows al Qaeda will continue to fight U.S. forces and their allies "everywhere", according to an Internet audiotape.
July 1 - Bin Laden warns Iraq's Shi'ite majority of retaliation for attacks on Sunni Arabs and says his group will fight the United States anywhere in the world.
July 7 - A year on from the London bombings, al Qaeda issues a video with comments from Zawahri, bin Laden and one bomber. Zawahri says bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan had been trained in al Qaeda camps.
July 27 - Zawahri, in video statement titled "The Zionist-crusader war on Lebanon and the Palestinians", calls on Muslims to fight attacks on their countries.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27662839.htm |
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Fintan Site Admin

Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 5568
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:06 pm Post subject: Here comes......NATO |
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Here comes......NATO
| Quote: | ....As the situation in Lebanon continues to aggravate—an attempt by UN-led talks in Rome—ended with no agreement to urge an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Rome conference did clinch a consensus on establishing a new multinational force for southern Lebanon — one far tougher than the existing, three-decade-old UNIFIL operation which has lacked a mandate to prevent hostilities.
"What we agreed upon is that there should be an international force under a U.N. mandate that will have a strong and robust capability to help bring about peace, to help provide the ability for humanitarian efforts to go forward and to bring an end to the violence," Rice told reporters......
Italian Premier Romano Prodi put a positive spin on the conference, saying; "what could be achieved was achieved......"
Prodi said the force must be "sizable" and drawn from a number of countries. He pledged that Italy would commit troops if it has a U.N. mandate......
Israeli officials have expressed support in principle for the deployment of an international force, recognizing that; "the Lebanese government could not likely subdue Hezbollah without assistance."
Rice said the force's mandate would be discussed over the next several days. "We also have asked that those meetings be held urgently so that force can be put together."
She said she did not anticipate American combat troops being used in the force.....
[Kofi] Annan said the emerging force would help Lebanon assert its authority and implement existing U.N. resolutions, which would ultimately leave Hezbollah disarmed.
http://www.pakistantimes.net/2006/07/27/top.htm |
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zak247

Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 950
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Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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Is Israel getting it's ass kicked?
Just a day ago, Bush and Rice were saying they didn’t want a cease fire until Hezbollah was annihilated or neutralized just enough to be impudent.
NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY WANT A CEASE FIRE!
What’s up with that?
Maybe Blair has brought orders from the NWO secret boys.
I bet they don’t even talk to Bush
He is too out of it
I think Blair is their number1 puppet and errand boy. When he goes to their secret hide out to get his orders I bet the first thing he does, is shine their shoes.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/28/us.britain/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/28/mideast.main/index.html
Smoke Signals From Battle
Send Warning To Israel
By Robert Fisk
The Independent - UK
7-27-6
QLAYA, Southern Lebanon -- Is it possible - is it conceivable - that Israel is losing its war in Lebanon?
From this hill village in the south of the country, I am watching the clouds of brown and black smoke rising from its latest disaster in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil: up to 13 Israeli soldiers dead, and others surrounded, after a devastating ambush by Hizbollah guerrillas in what was supposed to be a successful Israeli military advance against a "terrorist centre".
To my left smoke rises too, over the town of Khiam, where a smashed United Nations outpost remains the only memorial to the four UN soldiers - most of them decapitated by an American-made missile on Tuesday - killed by the Israeli air force.
Indian soldiers of the UN army in southern Lebanon, visibly moved by the horror of bringing their Canadian, Fijian, Chinese and Austrian comrades back in at least 20 pieces from the clearly marked UN post next to Khiam prison, left their remains at Marjayoun hospital yesterday.
In past years, I have spent hours with their comrades in this UN position, which is clearly marked in white and blue paint, with the UN's pale blue flag opposite the Israeli frontier. Their duty was to report on all they saw: the ruthless Hizbollah missile fire out of Khiam and the brutal Israeli response against the civilians of Lebanon.
Is this why they had to die, after being targeted by the Israelis for eight hours, their officers pleading to the Israeli Defence Forces that they cease fire? An American-made Israeli helicopter saw to that.
In Bint Jbeil, meanwhile, another bloodbath was taking place. Claiming to "control" this southern Lebanese town, the Israelis chose to walk into a Hizbollah trap. The moment they reached the deserted marketplace, they were ambushed from three sides, their soldiers falling to the ground under sustained rifle fire. The remaining Israeli troops - surrounded by the "terrorists" they were supposed to liquidate - desperately appealed for help, but an Israeli Merkava tank and other vehicles sent to help them were also attacked and set on fire. Up to 17 Israeli soldiers may have died so far in this disastrous operation. During their occupation of Lebanon in 1983 more than 50 Israeli soldiers were killed in just one suicide attack.
The battle for southern Lebanon is on an epic scale but, from the heights above Khiam, the Israelis appear to be in deep trouble. Their F-16s turn in the high bright sun - small, silver fish whose whispers gain in volume as they dive - and their bombs burst over the old prison, where the Hizbollah are still holding out; beyond the frontier, I can see livid fires burning across the Israeli hillsides and the Jewish settlement of Metullah billowing smoke.
It was not meant to be like this, 15 days into Israel's assault on Lebanon. The Katyushas still streak in pairs out of southern Lebanon, clearly visible to the naked eye, white contrails that thump into Israeli's hillsides and border towns.
So is it frustration or revenge that keeps Israel's bombs falling on the innocent? In the early hours two days ago, a tremendous explosion woke me up, rattling the windows and shaking the trees outside, and a single flash suffused the western sky over Nabatiyeh.
The lives of an entire family of seven had just been extinguished.
And how come - since this now obsesses the humanitarian organisations working in Lebanon - that the Israelis bombed two ambulances in Qana, killing two of the three wounded inside. All the crews were injured - one with a piece of shrapnel in his neck - but what worried the Lebanese Red Cross was that the Israeli missiles had pierced the very centre of the red cross painted on the roof of each vehicle. Did the pious use the cross as their aiming point?
The bombardment of Khiam has set off its own brush fires on the hillsides below Qlaya, whose Maronite Christian inhabitants now stand on the high road above like spectators at a 19th century battle. Khiam is - or was - a pretty village of cut-stone doorways and tracery windows, but Israel's target, apart from the obviously marked UN position whose inhabitants they massacred, is the notorious prison in which - before its retreat from Lebanon in 2000 - hundreds of Hizbollah members and, in some cases, their families, were held and tortured with electricity by Israel's proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army.
This was the same prison complex - turned into a "museum of torture" by the Hizbollah after the Israeli retreat - that was visited by the late Edward Said shortly before his death. More important, however, is that many of the Hizbollah men originally held prisoner here were captives in cells deep underground the old French mandate fort. These same men are now fighting the Israelis, almost certainly sheltering from their fire in the same underground cells in which they languished, perhaps even storing some of their missiles there.
In Marjayoun, next to Qlaya, once the SLA's headquarters, Lebanese troops are trying to prevent Hizbollah guerrillas using the streets of the Greek Catholic town to fire yet more missiles at Israel. Seven-man Lebanese army patrols are moving through the darkened roads of both towns at night in case the Hizbollah brings yet more Israeli bombs down on our heads.
In Beirut, one observes the folly of Western nations with amusement as well as horror, but, sitting in these hill villages and listening to how the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, plans to reshape Lebanon is clearly a lesson in human self-delusion. According to US correspondents accompanying Ms Rice on her visit to the Middle East, she is proposing the intervention of a Nato-led force along the Lebanese-Israeli border for between 60 and 90 days to assure that a ceasefire exists, the deployment of an enlarged Nato force throughout Lebanon to disarm Hizbollah and then the retraining of the Lebanese army before its own deployment to the border.
This plan - which, like all American proposals on Lebanon, is exactly the same as Israel's demands - carries the same depth of conceit as that of the Israeli consul general in New York, who said last week that "most Lebanese appreciate what we are doing".
Does Ms Rice think the Hizbollah want to be disarmed? By Nato? Wasn't there a Nato force in Beirut which fled Lebanon after a group close to the Hizbollah bombed the US Marine base at Beirut airport in 1983, killing 241 US servicemen and dozens more French troops a few seconds later? Does anyone believe that Shia Muslim forces will not do the same again to any Nato "intervention" force? The Americans are talking about Egyptian and Turkish troops in southern Lebanon; Sunni Muslims ruling Shia territory.
The Hizbollah has been waiting and training and dreaming of this new war for years, however ruthless we may regard the actions. They are not going to surrender the territory they liberated from the Israeli army in an 18-year guerrilla war, least of all to Nato at Israel's bidding.
Yesterday's assault on the Israeli army in Bint Jbeil proved that. The problem is that the US sees this slaughterhouse as an "opportunity" rather than a tragedy, a chance to humble Hizbollah supporters in Tehran and help to shape the "new Middle East" of which Ms Rice spoke so blithely this week.
It is Israel which is running out of time in southern Lebanon. Its attacks have for the fifth time in 30 years placed it in the dock for war crimes in Lebanon. The toll of Lebanon's civilian casualties has reached 400. And still the US will not intervene to prevent the carnage, even to call for a 24-hour ceasefire to allow the 3,000 civilians still trapped between Qlaya and Bint Jbeil - who include a number of foreign nationals - to flee.
The only civilian walking those frightening roads to Qlaya was a goatherd, guiding his animals around the huge bomb craters in the tarmac. Talking to him, it emerged that he was almost stone deaf and obviously could not hear the bombs. In this, it seemed, he has a lot in common with Condoleezza Rice.
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited |
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