July 27, 2006: Rush to judgement ... & more

Canadian General: UN Observer Post Used By Hizballah LGF, July 26, 06
littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21786_Canadian_General-_UN_Observer_Post_Used_By_Hizballah&only

[....] the Canadian peacekeeper killed there had previously emailed [Retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie] telling him that Hizballah was using their post as cover.

Just as they use women and children ...



Retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie: Kofi Annan's rush to judgment G & M, July 27, 06
www.theglobeandmail.com/

On hearing the news that a United Nations observation post manned by four unarmed peacekeepers at the nexus of the Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian borders was struck by an Israeli bomb, an uncharacteristically forceful Kofi Annan bolted out of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to proclaim his shock at the "apparently deliberate targeting" by Israel Defence Forces of the post.

Canadian among four UN observers killed
-- Kofi Annan calls Israeli attack 'deliberate' Steven Edwards, with file from Allison Hanes (NationalPost), CanWest News Service; with files from National Post, July 26, 2006
www.canada.com/topics/news/story.ht
ml?id=4b9ba160-82a2-4cd4-ac4e-d0152ae6b964&k=88237

"We do not target UN personnel and, since the beginning of this conflict, we have made a consistent effort to ensure the safety of all members of (the UN peacekeeping force). This tragic event will be thoroughly investigated," said Regev.

The strike came on a day Israel stated it was prepared to hand over control of southern Lebanon to an international peacekeeping force but one that is more robust and with stronger more highly trained soldiers than is UNIFIL.

It would be stupid to target the UN post and the Israelis are not stupid.



Soldier missing at UN border post, presumed dead -- The PMO has identified Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener as the Canadian Forces soldier missing and presumed dead in an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon Tuesday. CTV's Robert Fife / AP

10 calls in six hours: UN

An initial UN report says UN observers contacted Israeli troops 10 times in six hours before an Israeli bomb killed four of them.

The Israeli officer promised after each call to have the bombing stopped, but then a bomb exploded directly on the UN post, said an officer from the UN force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.

Knowing the veracity of the stories coming out of the Middle East, perhaps one should wait for more information.



Globe and Mail Reporter Leaves the Facts Behind -- unproven allegations July 26, 2006
blog.honestreporting.ca

[....] Globe and Mail's Mark MacKinnon .... filed a story today (July 26) entitled "Toll higher than stated, civilians say," replete with unproven charges against Israel by people who have no credibility with Canadian readers.

Reporting from the Hezbollah stronghold of Tyre in south Lebanon, MacKinnon quoted a Red Cross worker, a mortician, a medical student and a motorcyclist who collectively implied that Israel intentionally targets civilians, killing many more civilians than reported by the Lebanese government.

[....] Did his Lebanese translator take him to them? Or did a "Hezbollah press officer" make the introductions? MacKinnon didn't say. But considering that Tyre is home to Hezbollah loyalists and rocket crews, MacKinnon should explain why he took its residents at their word.

Check for yourself whose words are reported ... assess their credibility.


Toll higher than stated, civilians say -- Lebanese counting the bodies say hundreds remain missing, MARK MacKINNON reports July 26, 06.
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/LAC.20060726.MIDEDEATHS26/TPStory/

The first casualty of war is truth. Do you remember videos showing the UN ambulance being used for transporting Palestinian "militants" (in CBC speak) or the funeral procession where the coffin was dropped and viewers were treated to sight of the "corpse" jumping up? Truth is not easily found in the Middle East.



The UN and israel -- and check Kofi's friend in the photo Hillel C. Neuer, National Post, July 26, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas
/story.html?id=22ee2b99-fe77-4a21-b1c2-ff5745b36647

Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch, and editor of its Web site, www.unwatch.org.

GENEVA - The war between Israel and Hezbollah has prompted many international leaders and commentators to support a deployment of an expanded UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. This idea should be rejected for a variety of reasons. The most important is this: The UN is not a neutral actor in the Middle East. Time and again, it has been co-opted by Israel's enemies. [....]

Real change at the United Nations will require moral clarity and courage -- the kind that Stephen Harper exhibits when he identifies Hezbollah and Hamas as the true source of Middle East instability and warfare. So long as the UN eschews such clarity, and remains the diplomatic plaything of terror apologists, the idea of the United Nations safeguarding Israel's security -- in Lebanon or anywhere else -- will remain a pipe dream.

Search: Switzerland's Jean Ziegler , Moammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize , French Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy , defamation of religions , Special Rapporteur on Palestine, John Dugard

A must read article.



Israeli Soldiers Die to Save Lebanese Civilians July 27 2006
blog.honestreporting.ca

While some Canadian news reports imply that Israeli forces intentionally attack civilians, this article in the Jerusalem Post tells a different story: Israeli soldiers are dying in close-quarters combat because Israel refuses to indiscriminately bomb civilian areas.

"On Wednesday, a well-planned Hizbullah ambush on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbail devastated Battalion 51 of the Golani Brigade, leaving eight soldiers, including three officers, dead and 22 wounded. [....]

United Nations an Accomplice in Hezbollah Kidnapping: via smalldeadanimals
volokh.com/posts/1153523571.shtml

After Hezbollah's kidnapping of a pair of Israeli soldiers spurred an Israeli counter-attack, many critics of Israel actions have suggested that the United Nations can serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah. To the contrary, the United Nations has a well-established record of collaboration with Hezbollah in the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been deployed since 1978, not long after Israel first entered Lebanon in pursuit of PLO terrorists. UNIFIL was created pursuant to Security Council Resolution 425, for the purpose of "confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces, restoring international peace and security and assisting the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area." Quite obviously UNFIL has utterly failed to achieve the Security Council's objectives, either before or after Israel's 2000 complete withdrawal from Lebanon. One reason is that UNIFIL does not interdict Hezbollah attacks on Israel. Instead, UNIFIL allows Hezbollah to set up positions next to UNFIL units, in effect using UNIFIL as human shields against Israeli counterstrikes. (Aluf Benn, Israel accuses UN of collaborating with Hezbollah," Haaretz, Sept. 11, 2005.)

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

Canadian authorities on lookout for terrorists Stewart Bell, National Post, July 26, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=f8b05859-b49a-4756-b5c5-e5da6501bd9e

[....] At least two senior terror suspects with Canadian citizenship were living in Lebanon when fighting broke out two weeks ago between Hezbollah and the Israeli defence forces.

Kassem Daher, an alleged extremist recruiter from Leduc, Alta., and former Toronto resident Fawzi Ayub, a Hezbollah operative, were among the 50,000 Canadians living in Lebanon. [....]

Hezbollah has had an active presence in Canada for more than 15 years. [....]

Search: CSIS and CBSA , Asbat al-Ansar, an al-Qaeda-linked faction , used a Muslim charity as a cover , taking part in a hijacking in Romania , new identity , Bekaa Valley , wife and Canadian-born children

How did these guys get into Canada? Make an educated guess.



Judge grants Ripudaman Singh Malik standing to defend reputation at Air-India inquiry CanWest NewsService, July 26, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=3ebb5561-c10b-44ac-ba00-ded977c2d35

This is the man who managed to have two members of his family join his defense team of lawyers at public expense, if I remember correctly.

VANCOUVER - Vancouver businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik has been denied the sweeping standing he requested at the Air-India inquiry, but will be allowed to be an intervenor on evidence that affects his reputation, retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice John Major ruled yesterday.

Respect Kelowna accord, Tories told -- or else ... April Lindgren, CanWest, July 26, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=fca2ca82-59b1-412d-8fb1-19d9b6d4eb71

CORNER BROOK, Nfld. - Premiers and native leaders urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to live up to the terms of the Kelowna accord yesterday as one Aboriginal clan mother warned failure to do so could lead to an outburst of protests.

"If things don't progress, we can't control the situation," Beverly Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada warned following a meeting between premiers and First Nations leaders. "We know that the issues are escalating and to me it is a fine line that we are at right now. There does need to be positive movement by Canada."

Ms. Jacobs is a member of the Six Nations negotiating team at Caledonia, Ont., where native people have laid claim to and occupied land slated for a housing development. When police raided the site on April 20, she said, Aboriginal people from many other communities were present to support the Six Nations claim. "So we basically had to get people to hold off from doing anything drastic so that we can move forward in a positive way."

[....] But federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has described the accord as an "empty" promise and his government's first budget outlined a new two-year, $450-million plan.

Dalton McGuinty offers his usual sage advice on handling these pesky situations ... you know, give in.

And if you don't give the rest of us what the natives want, that is, an equivalent $5.1-billion ... we'll ... hold our breath.




Jaspal Singh Atwal gives new meaning to the word "activist"

MP made visa call for failed assassin -- North Shore Liberal Don Bell queried India consul-general Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun, July 25, 2006

A Liberal MP has intervened on behalf of a would-be assassin trying to get a visa to visit his native India.

North Vancouver MP Don Bell confirmed he made a call to the Indian consul-general two weeks ago for Surrey resident Jaspal Singh Atwal, convicted in the attempted murder of a visiting Punjabi cabinet minister in 1986.

Bell said he was asked by fellow Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh, MP for Vancouver South, who Atwal approached for assistance several months ago. Dosanjh thought that it would be inappropriate if he followed up, given that Atwal was charged with and acquitted of beating him with a metal pipe in 1985.

Why would Ujjal Dosanjh want to help Atwal to travel to India?

[....Atwal] said he went to the Liberal MPs for help despite living in the Surrey riding of Conservative MP Nina Grewal because he is a complainant in an RCMP investigation of Grewal's husband Gurmant Grewal -- the former MP for Surrey Newton.

"So I don't want to go to Nina. And she is not going to help me anyway," Atwal said.

Didn't Ujjal Dosanj have something to do with ex-MP Gurmant Grewal ... phone calls related to trying to get him to cross the floor to save Paul Martin's government? Then Belinda Stronach did the job. Anyway, I'm guessing there is more to this than at first appears.

The plot thickens.