Blue Crab Boulevard

Caught Red-Handed

The Sunday Herald-Sun in Australia carries pictures that were smuggled out of Lebanon. They show, quite distinctly, that Hezbollah is taking up positions in civilian areas, are carrying arms and launching rockets from those areas and are wearing civilian clothes while doing so so as to be able to hide once they've don't what they came to do.

All of these things are war crimes. Every single one.

THIS is the picture that damns Hezbollah. It is one of several, smuggled from behind Lebanon's battle lines, showing that Hezbollah is waging war amid suburbia.

The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.

Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.

The photographs, from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut, were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend.

They emerged as:

US President George Bush called for an international force to be sent to Lebanon.

ISRAEL called up another 30,000 reserve troops.

THE UN's humanitarian chief Jan Egeland called for a three-day truce to evacuate civilians and transport food and water into cut-off areas.

US SECRETARY of State Condoleezza Rice returned to the Middle East to push a UN resolution aimed at ending the 18-day war, and:

A PALESTINIAN militant group said it had kidnapped, killed and burned an Israeli settler in the West Bank.

The images include one of a group of men and youths preparing to fire an anti-aircraft gun metres from an apartment block with sheets hanging out on a balcony to dry.

Others show a militant with AK47 rifle guarding no-go zones after Israeli blitzes.

Another depicts the remnants of a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket in the middle of a residential block blown up in an Israeli air attack.

The Melbourne man who smuggled the shots out of Beirut and did not wish to be named said he was less than 400m from the block when it was obliterated.

"Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets," he said.

"Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated.

"It was carnage. Two innocent people died in that incident, but it was so lucky it was not more."

Why is it that I doubt I'll see these pictures in the US media?

War | Gaius Sunday, 30 July , 2006

By Bill Franklin, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 7:09 am

Your implication is that Americans, even when confronted with a more powerful enemy, would never do such things? You migh want to research Francis Marion. I consider him a hero and a patriot, but you would declare him guilty of war crimes. Or is this more of “when they do it it’s bad, but when we do it it’s OK” like the WP debacle?

I’m sure Hezbollah is displaying pictures of the weapons being used against them and saying “look who supplies our enemy!” That was the impetus behind the 9/11 attack, and here we are throwing more fuel on the fire. Delightful.
By Gaius, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 7:40 am

Ah, so your position is that only the US and Israel can be held to the Geneva conventions. Thanks for clarifying that you give the terrorists a pass.

Bringing in an example from the Revolution is particularly disingenuous since what rules there were then were completely different.
By jefferson101, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 8:46 am

The first comment begs for two questions.

First, was there a Geneva Convention (or more correctly, Conventions) at the time of the American Revolution?

Second, would you care to speculate on how the British would have disposed of Francis Marion had they captured him?
By Gaius, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 8:58 am

It’s also easy to counter with a question: who came first, Marion or Tarleton? But that is not really relevant since tit-for-tat is noever a good excuse. It is instructive of what was considered acceptable behavior during that time frame, however.
By JVP, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 12:23 pm

Israel agreed to abide by the Geneva Conventions in 1949:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/0/35D52356F487FC85C1256402003F9563?OpenDocument

The United States agreed to abide by the Geneva Conventions in 1932:
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/geneva02.htm

When did Hezbollah agree to abide by the Geneva conventions? Is the US guilty of breaking the Kyoto agreement because everyone else signed it?

And since we’re on the subject of the Geneva convention, where does waterboarding prisioners and holding prisioners indefinitely without trial fit into the Geneva convention?
By Gaius, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 12:38 pm

Thanks for showing your lack of a moral compass. Yep, they get a pass.
By Gaius, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 12:48 pm

Lebanon 08.12.1949 10.04.1951 - signatory to the Geneva conventions, Hezbollah being part of the Lebanese government is bound by the conventions. Try your moral relativism somewhere else.
By pt sargent, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 12:50 pm

jvp..what’s the point re waterboarding and the Geneva convention….since Hezbollah does not subscribe to Geneva convention, ditto terrorists held in guantanamo, prisoners from these terrorists units have no rights period! that’s zero, none, zilch, nada! They are terrorists and we can do with them as we like. Any courtesies extended them are simply that..just courtesies, nothing more.
By C.S. Scott, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 4:37 pm

This is a little off topic, but I thought of this blog upon reading this story…check it out.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=307
By Gaius, Sunday, 30 July , 2006 @ 4:42 pm

That’s great! Thank you! We’re almost famous or something!