Hezbollah’s UN Accomplices

The people who continue to insist that the UN is needed to help stabilize the situation in Lebanon really, really need to read this post by David Kopel over at the Volokh Conspiracy. I was not aware of a lot of these details. This is an extremely well researched and thoroughly documented indictment of the UN and it's "peacekeepers". And it will chill you.

UNIFIL's most notorious collaboration with terrorists involved the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli soldiers, and the subsequent cover-up.

On October 7, 2000, Hezbollah terrorists entered Israel, attacked three Israeli soldiers on Mount Dov, and abducted them Lebanon. The kidnapping was witnessed by several dozen UNIFIL soldiers who stood idle. One of the soldier witnesses described the kidnapping: the terrorists set of an explosive which stunned the Israeli soldiers. Clad in UN uniforms, the terrorists called out, "Come, come, we’ll help you."

The Israeli soldiers approached the men in UN uniforms. Then, a Hezbollah bomb detonated—-apparently prematurely. It wounded the disguised Hezbollah commander, and three Israeli soldiers.

Two other terrorists in U.N. uniforms dragged their Hezbollah commander and the three wounded soldiers into a getaway car.

According an Indian solider in UNIFIL who witnessed the kidnapping, "By this stage, there was a big commotion and dozens of UN soldiers from the Indian brigade came around." The witness stated that the brigade knew that the kidnappers in UN uniform were Hezbollah. One soldiers said that the brigade should arrest the Hezbollah, but the brigade did nothing.

According to the Indian soldier, the UNFIL brigade in the area "could have prevented the kidnapping."

"I’m very sorry about what happened, because we saw what happened," he said. Hezbollah "were wearing our uniforms and it was too bad we didn’t stop them."

It appears that at least four of the UNIFIL "peacekeepers," all from India, has received bribes from Hezbollah in order to assist the kidnapping by helping them get to the kidnapping spot and find the Israeli soldiers. Some of the bribery involved alcohol and Lebanese women.

The Indian brigade later had a bitter internal argument, as some members complained that the brigade had betrayed its peacekeeping mandate. An Indian government investigation sternly criticized the brigade's conduct.

There is evidence of far greater payments by Hezbollah to the UNIFIL Indian brigade, including hundreds of thousands of dollars for assistance in the kidnapping and cover-up.

Read the rest. It will turn your stomach. Especially Kofi Annan's involvement in covering for the higher-ranked UN personnel involved in trying to hide the incident. I have maintained since this war started that if there are to be peacekeepers, they need to be European, possibly under NATO but not the UN. This only cements my opinion.

Manufacturing News

In what has got to be the most obvious attempts at manufacturing a controversy I have seen lately, the New York Times proves it will stoop as low as they can to attempt to stir up something they can blame the administration for. Stay with me on this one:

From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers … as only NASA can.”

In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted. In this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s mission is “to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”

David E. Steitz, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the aim was to square the statement with President Bush’s goal of pursuing human spaceflight to the Moon and Mars.

But the change comes as an unwelcome surprise to many NASA scientists, who say the “understand and protect” phrase was not merely window dressing but actively influenced the shaping and execution of research priorities. Without it, these scientists say, there will be far less incentive to pursue projects to improve understanding of terrestrial problems like climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

“We refer to the mission statement in all our research proposals that go out for peer review, whenever we have strategy meetings,” said Philip B. Russell, a 25-year NASA veteran who is an atmospheric chemist at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “As civil servants, we’re paid to carry out NASA’s mission. When there was that very easy-to-understand statement that our job is to protect the planet, that made it much easier to justify this kind of work.”

Several NASA researchers said they were upset that the change was made at NASA headquarters without consulting the agency’s 19,000 employees or informing them ahead of time.

Though the “understand and protect” phrase was deleted in February, when the Bush administration submitted budget and planning documents to Congress, its absence has only recently registered with NASA employees.

Note the highlighted sections. The change made in February wasn't noticed until the end of July. And this is news? This is such a big deal that a major newspaper devotes time to it? The griping coming from "some employees" has more to do with their priorities than with NASA's priorities, doesn't it? And at the end of the article, the real intent of the hit piece. To regurgitate old news:

The shift in language echoes a shift in the agency’s budgets toward space projects and away from earth missions, a shift that began in 2004, the year Mr. Bush announced his vision of human missions to the Moon and beyond.

The “understand and protect” phrase was cited repeatedly by James E. Hansen, a climate scientist at NASA who said publicly last winter that he was being threatened by political appointees for speaking out about the dangers posed by greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr. Hansen’s comments started a flurry of news media coverage in late January; on Feb. 3, Mr. Griffin issued a statement of “scientific openness.”

The revised mission statement was released with the agency’s proposed 2007 budget on Feb. 6. But Mr. Steitz said Dr. Hansen’s use of the phrase and its subsequent disappearance from the mission statement was “pure coincidence.”

Dr. Hansen, who directs the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a NASA office, has been criticized by industry-backed groups and Republican officials for associating with environmental campaigners and his endorsement of Senator John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

Dr. Hansen said the change might reflect White House eagerness to shift the spotlight away from global warming.

“They’re making it clear that they have the authority to make this change, that the president sets the objectives for NASA, and that they prefer that NASA work on something that’s not causing them a problem,” he said.

Sorry, Hansen is behaving like a politician, not a scientist. And make no mistake, this article is a hit piece. A minor wording change unrelated to anything measurable that isn't noticed for six months is wheeled out just so some old charges can be rehashed.

Hurry up and go broke, would you, Times?

Pajamas At The Front Lines

Pajamas Media is providing extensive coverage of the situation in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza and has a huge roundup, continuously updated. If you're looking for information on the war that you will not find in the MSM, that's the place to go.

With full-time editors in Sydney, Barcelona and Los Angeles working with contributing bloggers worldwide in such places as Tel Aviv, Haifa, Baghdad and Washington, Pajamas Media has been offering round-the-clock battlefield reporting in tandem with the most thoughtful commentary from the global blogosphere and traditional sources. Under the guidance of Editor-in-Chief Gerard Van der Leun in Seattle, Pajamas Media mixes the best news and views from on-the-scene citizen journalists with seasoned professionals in an unprecedented manner.

A literal living chronology of the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah War has been created and made available on the Pajamas Media front page (http://www.pajamasmedia.com). "This chronology's intention is to give the public moment-to-moment access to the vicissitudes of the war and ultimately to provide historians with a record of the evolving struggle," says Pajamas' CEO Roger L. Simon.

Podcast Interviews with Middle Eastern Bloggers and Citizens

In the early stages of the war, PJM wanted direct and exclusive coverage from the Middle East. With this Politics Central readers could actually hear what was going on from the people on the ground themselves.

"When we discovered a seventeen-year old — Eugene — blogging from a bunker in Haifa ('Live from an Israeli Bunker' @ http://www.israelibunker.blogspot.com), we jumped at the opportunity to do a podcast interview with him," said Simon. After Simon's podcast with Eugene was published on the Pajamas Media site, the young man from Haifa was immediately interviewed by the Washington Post, CNN and NBC, creating a virtual blog firestorm.

A situation like this is where bloggers can really be an enormous asset and source of information. Let's face it, a war correspondent only goes where the troops are. They wouldn't go see what life in a bunker is like.

Hezbollah Continues Rocket Barrage

Hezbollah launched some 65 rockets at civilian targets in Israel. Ha'aretz is reporting ten civilian casualties.

Ten people were injured Saturday morning as 65 Katyusha rockets landed across the north of Israel.

In Israel's northernmost city of Kiryat Shmona, six people were lightly injured as approximately 26 rockets landed in and around the city.

Fourteen Katyushas landed in Nahariya.

Carmiel was hit by 13 rockets, and one person was moderately injured and another lightly injured in direct strikes on their homes. Rockets also landed in Safed, Rosh Pina, Ma'alot, the Golan Heights, and the northern Galilee panhandle.

Alerts were sounded in Haifa, Acre, Tiberias, and several northern towns and villages to warn residents of possible rocket strikes.

Four people suffered moderate wounds and 12 were lightly hurt by rocket attacks in Haifa on Friday. After a reprieve of nearly a day, Hezbollah renewed its attacks, firing ten rockets into the northern city and its suburbs in two waves.

The wounded were taken to Rambam Medical Center, Carmel Medical Center and Bnei Zion Medical Center (Rothschild) for treatment.

Most of the wounded were hurt when a rocket slammed into a central post office branch. Another rocket hit a residential building. No one was in the apartment that was hit in the strike, and no injuries were reported. A third rocket hit a parked car in the city. Shortly after the rocket strike, municipality workers began clearing the rubble.

Hezbollah also fired rockets Friday at the Galilee, where two people were hurt. One person was lightly wounded in Yesod Hama'aleh from rocket shrapnel, and a Rosh Pina resident was very lightly hurt in a strike. Two houses were damaged in the Western Galilee, near Ma'alot. Rockets hit two empty homes in Nahariya, causing no injuries. Rockets also landed in open areas near Safed and Kiryat Shmona, Tiberias, and in the vicinity of Carmiel.

The lower number of rockets fired in total may indicate that Israel is starting to take a toll on Hezbollah's capacity to carry out attacks. One hopes.

Sending Bombs

The New York Times on Israel's request for an expedited shipment of precision-giuded bombs:

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike.

…..

The new American arms shipment to Israel has not been announced publicly, and the officials who described the administration’s decision to rush the munitions to Israel would discuss it only after being promised anonymity. The officials included employees of two government agencies, and one described the shipment as just one example of a broad array of armaments that the United States has long provided Israel.

One American official said the shipment should not be compared to the kind of an “emergency resupply” of dwindling Israeli stockpiles that was provided during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when an American military airlift helped Israel recover from early Arab victories.

David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said: “We have been using precision-guided munitions in order to neutralize the military capabilities of Hezbollah and to minimize harm to civilians. As a rule, however, we do not comment on Israel’s defense acquisitions.”

Israel’s need for precision munitions is driven in part by its strategy in Lebanon, which includes destroying hardened underground bunkers where Hezbollah leaders are said to have taken refuge, as well as missile sites and other targets that would be hard to hit without laser and satellite-guided bombs.

Pentagon and military officials declined to describe in detail the size and contents of the shipment to Israel, and they would not say whether the munitions were being shipped by cargo aircraft or some other means. But an arms-sale package approved last year provides authority for Israel to purchase from the United States as many as 100 GBU-28’s, which are 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs intended to destroy concrete bunkers. The package also provides for selling satellite-guided munitions.

An announcement in 2005 that Israel was eligible to buy the “bunker buster” weapons described the GBU-28 as “a special weapon that was developed for penetrating hardened command centers located deep underground.” The document added, “The Israeli Air Force will use these GBU-28’s on their F-15 aircraft.”

The New York Times, working to actively undermine the US by knowingly printing information that could anger Arab governments and hamper Condi Rice's efforts at diplomacy. By their own admission, no less. One hopes the Times hurries it's rush to bankruptcy and ceases operations.

UPDATE: The Real Ugly American points out an ugly truth.

Israel Continues Airstrikes

Ha'aretz is reporting over 1,800 specific targets have been hit by the IAF since Hezbollah provoked the war. (The Ha'aretz server appears to be struggling under the readership load, incidentally).

The Israel Air Force continued its bombardment Friday night and Saturday morning in Lebanon, hitting some 70 targets.

Troops destroyed Hezbollah headquarters, six missile launchers, missile storage facilities, weapon storage facilities, communication lines, and over 40 rocket launch sites.

Over 1,800 targets have been targeted since the beginning of the Israel Defense Forces operations in Lebanon.

IDF troops uncovered several anti-tank missiles and several surface-to-surface missiles Friday night during an operation in the village of Marwaheen. They also found a machine gun, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and ammunition.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public health reported early Saturday that at least 396 people have been killed and over 1,350 injured since the beginning of operations against Hezbollah.

According to the ministry, fatalities include 20 Lebanese soldiers and six Hezbollah gunmen.

Among the citizens killed are eight Canadians, two Kuwaitis, an Iraqi, a Sri Lankan and a Jordanian.

One wonders how much lower the civilian toll would be if Hezbollah was not hiding rockets in civilian homes trying to use the occupants as human shields. Or if Hezbollah was not setting up roadblocks to prevent civilians from leaving the combat zone so they can use the civilians as human shields. Which are war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.

Why doesn't the left denounce those activities? Just wondering.

UPDATE: For more on the left and the reality of war, see Bruce Kesler at the Democracy Project.

Information War

There's an op-ed in the Washington Times (not a source I normally link to) that is worth reading. Diana West gives us a glimpse of the information war we may very well be losing within our own country. It also gives a valuable history of what Hezbollah has done through the years.

   As the New York Times reported from Dearborn, "For miles along West Warren — in hair salons, restaurants and meat markets — shopkeepers and their relatively few customers stared at televisions tuned in to Al Jazeera." Incidentally, there were "relatively few" customers out and about only because, as one baker knew, "most of his regular customers were home watching [Al Jazeera], just as they had all day, every day," since Israel's offensive began.
    Why does this matter? Al Jazeera, of course, is the relentlessly anti-American, anti-Israeli, jihad-boosting "news" network. To find TVs in the heartland tuned in to this station today is roughly akin to coming across an American town, circa 1942, tuned in to Axis propagandists Tokyo Rose and Lord Haw Haw.
    But this isn't, as they say, your father's heartland. Hezbollah itself is popular in Dearborn, which can fill a banquet hall to celebrate "Lebanon Liberation Day" — the day Hezbollah claims as victory when Israeli forces withdrew in 2000. Osama Siblani, the publisher of Dearborn's Arab American News, considers members of Hezbollah — along with Hamas and other jihadist groups — freedom fighters. And, as Mr. Siblani tells it to the Detroit News, he's not alone: "If morally supporting Hizbollah or associating with [Hezbollah spiritual leader Muhammad Hussein] Fadlallah is a crime, 'there is not going to be enough buses to haul the people out and take them to jail.'"
    Mr. Siblani was speaking before the Israeli offensive began. But not before the 1983 Hezbollah bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 241 U.S. servicemen, 63 U.S. Embassy personnel and 58 French paratroopers. And not before the 1984 Hezbollah torture-murder of CIA station chief William Buckley in Lebanon. And not before the 1985 Hezbollah hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and the torture-murder of Navy diver Robert Stethem. And not before the 1988 Hezbollah torture-murder of Lt. Col. William Higgins. And not before the Hezbollah bombings of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, killing 29; the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 96; or the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, killing 19 U.S. servicemen.

The fact that al Jazeera has a large and devoted following in the US is troubling. The fact that these same fans also support Hezbollah says we have a problem blooming in our midst. Read the whole thing and decide for yourself.