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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 08:44 am: | 
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Amnesty report accuses Israel of war crimes
David Fickling
Wednesday August 23, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Israel deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and committed war crimes during the month-long conflict in Lebanon, according to an Amnesty International report.
The report said strikes on civilian buildings and structures went beyond "collateral damage" and amounted to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks under the Geneva conventions on the laws of war.
Kate Gilmore, the Amnesty executive deputy secretary general, said the bombardment of power and water plants and transport links was "deliberate and an integral part of a military strategy".
"Israel's assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong," she said.
"Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes. The pattern, scope and scale of the attacks makes Israel's claim that this was collateral damage simply not credible."
Amnesty called for an official UN inquiry into human rights violations on both sides of the conflict.
The report's authors described the destruction of up to 90% of some towns and villages in southern Lebanon, releasing aerial photographs that showed Beirut's southern Dahiya district had been transformed from a bustling suburb into a grey wasteland.
"In village after village the pattern was similar - the streets, especially main streets, were scarred with artillery craters along their length," the report said.
"In some cases, cluster bomb impacts were identified. Houses were singled out for precision-guided missile attack and were destroyed, totally or partially, as a result.
"Business premises such as supermarkets or food stores and auto service stations and petrol stations were targeted, often with precision-guided munitions and artillery that started fires and destroyed their contents."
Israel launched more than 7,000 air strikes against Lebanon during the 34-day war, and naval vessels launched 2,500 shells, the report said.
Around one third of the 1,183 people killed in Lebanon were children, while 4,054 people were injured and 970,000 displaced.
Lebanese estimates suggest that 30,000 houses, along with up to 120 bridges, 94 roads, 25 fuel stations and 900 businesses, were destroyed.
Two hospitals were destroyed and three others severely damaged, while 31 "vital points" - such as airports, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, and electrical facilities - were also completely or partially destroyed.
The overall cost of the damage amounted to $3.5bn (£1.8bn), the report said.
Around 4,000 Hizbullah rockets were fired at northern Israel during the conflict, killing around 40 civilians. Up to 300,000 people in northern Israel were driven into bomb shelters by the fighting, and 117 soldiers died.
The Amnesty report said Israeli military policy seemed directed at destroying Lebanese popular support for Hizbullah, a tactic prohibited by the Geneva conventions.
"The widespread destruction ... in addition to several statements by Israeli officials, suggests a policy of punishing both the Lebanese government and the civilian population in an effort to get them to turn against Hizbullah," it said.
Red Cross officials were quoted as saying that people left behind in inaccessible villages in southern Lebanon had been unable to get hold of fresh water.
Refugees from the border village of Rmeish had told Red Cross delegates that locals had had to drinking foul water from an irrigation ditch.
The report's allegation of disproportionate action echoes comments made during the conflict by international observers including French, Russian and EU officials and the UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland.
However, the British government has avoided the term, which could be considered an accusation of war crimes, although former the foreign secretary Jack Straw and the Conservative foreign affairs spokesman William Hague both used it.
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Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 11:05 am: |
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“Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.” —Voltaire
Night brings darkening, hope is adjourning.
Despair spreading its relentless spawn.
Yet prayer brings harking to hope reforming.
It's always the darkest just before dawn, Jimbo
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 04:01 pm: |
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Jimbo, I feel that the so called disproportionate action is a new phrase that the media has created to prosecute Israels response...and the international observers are all afraid of the Muslims.Hence the rap on Israel.When a tiny country is hated by the entire muslim and arab world and (which many have spoken of their wish in anihilating Israel from the face of the earth)one must wonder what an appropriate response should have been. You bad guys better quit that now? Ten more times and you will make us angry!!????
I like that last quote by Voltaire. I studied his logic for years in the electrical business...
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 04:04 pm: |
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Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die.
Salvador Dali |
Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 04:08 pm: |
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"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse."
John Stuart Mill |
Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 09:00 am: |
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"Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die".
Salvador Dali |
Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 10:29 am: |
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It's not like we can't read the so called news..so why post it here? You are obviously anti-Israel and we all get that.As a former soldier,I can tell you that during all wars,the rule books go out the windows. Arm chair quarterbacks have the leisure of picking apart the war to their own satisfaction.They don't have to be on the ground doing the grunt work.
War is a cruel business and NOBODY plays fair!!
If you want fair,stick to hopscotch. |
Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 10:30 am: |
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and if you want to persecute Israel,go to Israel and do it. |
Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 03:49 pm: |
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the allegations will lead down a one way street towards Hezbollah...its not over...Hezbollah is just re-arming for another assault...and the beat goes on. |
Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 05:21 pm: |
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/mort/zuckerman_new_anti_sem.php3 |
Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 05:22 pm: |
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/toons/coxandforkum/coxandforkum1.asp
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 05:36 pm: |
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"We are definitely looking" |
Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 08:35 pm: |
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Well now it is obvious that those folks reporting "Israels War Crimes" has a magic chrystal ball or some similiar devise to ascertain just where were the civilians who didn't have terrorists hiding amongst them. Certainly such upstanding folks would at least have considered informing Israel to avoid the innocent and just where were the innocent. Of course such outstanding honest unbiased folks must have considered the widely known tactic of the terrorists to hide behind the skirts of women and the bodies of children while they launch explosives loaded with steel bearings in hope of murdering as many innocent civilians as possible and decided that it was unnecessary to mention such.
Personaly I find it rather silly to act as though the Moslems as a group are somehow too dumb to understand the simple logic of "Lay down with dogs -- get up with fleas". Or as the bible puts it -- "Live by the sword -- die by the sword".
Night brings darkening, hope is adjourning.
Despair spreading its relentless spawn.
Yet prayer brings harking to hope reforming.
It's always the darkest just before dawn, Jimbo
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 08:53 pm: |
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Jimbo, I feel you need more sensitivity training.You just cant come in here with that type of logic and expect these people to believe it.Their minds are made up and they want CSI on the scene immediately.I'm sure the ACLU is checking into this also. There has to be someone to blame this war on.Lets blame it on Slim Whitman.It was his singing that created this turmoil and now we have to listen to this Islamo-Fascist rhetoric.Whars my spillchucker whin ah needz it?Oh Egantry,whar art thou? Art thou reading Jimbo's Truth? How does it make you feel? Doth thou truly dislike America and it's allies? How about a little Slim Whitman? How about a little Audie Murphy? |
Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 08:55 pm: |
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Should we consider amnesty fur Egantry?
and we hear a chorus of :"Nay"
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Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 10:13 pm: |
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Hey I would give Egantry to Amnesty -- I don't know what they would do with her but I bet she would feel right at home. But now would Amnesty grant amnesty to Egantry? Hmmm -- now that is a puzzling proposition/ a real crazy cond -- err conondrum.
Now Bub I done been to sensitivity training, one time. They wouldn't schedule me to go back anymore. It wasn't my fault that PHD lady had PMS or something and ran out of the class bawling. But they blamed it on me. I mean she asked for comments and discussion. Just because I was grinning like a possun under a persimmon tree don't mean it was all my fault. The military will only let an enlisted man have fun once with any given PHD. (Prissy Highbrow Dame) Actually, the military is pretty savvy about that sort of thing. Once is more then enough in those circles.
Night brings darkening, hope is adjourning.
Despair spreading its relentless spawn.
Yet prayer brings harking to hope reforming.
It's always the darkest just before dawn, Jimbo
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 11:05 pm: |
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Amnesty is what I want for me...so I can be all I can be...and that is.....FREE....awww sing it Jimmy...
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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 11:38 pm: |
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AP — The State Department is investigating whether Israel misused American-made cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon.
The United Nations said unexploded cluster bombs — anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area — litter homes, gardens and highways in south Lebanon.
"We are definitely looking into these allegations and we'll see where they lead," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said Friday.
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Reuters - "On Tuesday, a U.N. demining official told Reuters that Israel dropped cluster bombs on at least 170 villages in southern Lebanon during its 34-day war with Hizbollah guerrillas. The official accused Israel of deliberately hitting built-up areas with the bombs, in violation of international law, which states those munitions must not be used in areas where there are civilians."
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"The New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch has come out strongly against Israel's use of cluster bombs, which it argued were indiscriminate weapons. The bombs released multiple "bomblets", which did not distinguish between soldiers or resistance fighters (or "combatants") and civilians.3
Although cluster bombs are not (yet) banned under international law, it is illegal for any military to use weapons or tactics that do not make such a distinction. It is therefore not the weapon itself, but Israel's use of these weapons in such an indiscriminate way, in civilian areas, which have amounted to potential war crimes.
Towards the end of July, Human Rights Watch also began investigating gruesome reports by medical doctors of bodies that had been blackened, but had not been burnt. According to a medical doctor in Beirut, such injuries were consistent with the use of unconventional weapons, such as white phosphorous.
These were confirmed by Italian scientists of the International Peace Bureau, who on the 9th of August issued an urgent appeal. Referring to these and other "countless" reports from hospitals and journalists, the appeal claimed that "new and strange symptoms are reported" that are consistent with the use of banned weapons, including "chemical and/or biological agents". Similar allegations were reported by doctors in Gaza."
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"A Congressional investigation of Israel's use of cluster bombs during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon found that the IDF used them in civilian areas. The Regan administration subsequently imposed a 6-year ban on the sale of cluster bombs to Israel."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HmcJwK28y4&eurl=
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 11:57 pm: |
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Here is your investigating team.Just point them in the right direction..
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 12:00 am: |
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Human Rights Watch? Tell them to check with all of the Muslim women first. |
Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 12:15 am: |
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Check with Muslim women about "Shock and Awe" and the slaughter at Qana? Good idea!
Those guys the ones that raped and murdered that young Iraqi girl? They burned her after, didn't they?
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Aimstraight
Starlite Member
Username: Aimstraight
| | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 02:56 am: |
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The Corruption of the Media
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/08/corruption-of-media.html |
Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 07:48 am: |
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What’s your point, Michael? Are you implying that the massacre at Qana never took place? Surely you know Israel has admitted bombing the building, not once but twice and they also admitted, after first lying about it, that the building was not a Hezbollah rocket site. Or would you have us believe the victims weren’t really dead? What about the first Qana massacre, you think that was manipulated by the media, too? Regardless of whatever the media did or didn’t do, those innocent civilians, men, women and children were massacred by Israel and that my friend is a war crime.
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 09:02 am: |
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Is beheading innocent civilians a war crime? Where is your indignation there?...oooh I forgot,that's not YOUR concern.Regardless of whatever the media did or didn't do? From digging up dead bodies from graves and using them as examples? |
Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 09:20 am: |
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It certainly is a war crime, Bubby, did you think otherwise?
The media dug up dead bodies, is that what you're saying? What a silly person you are.
Anyway, have a lovely day. I'm heading out so you, Michael and Jim carry on as best you can without me.
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Bubby
Starlite Member
Username: Bubby
| | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 10:04 am: |
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Damn terrorists have sunk to a new low
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