Annan: Israel bombed UN base for hours

[bennywhale]

The UN general secretary, Kofi Annan, today accused the Israeli military of carrying out a sustained bombing of the UN base on the Lebanon-Israel border that culminated in the killing of four unarmed monitors.
Mr Annan said he had suggested to the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, that they carry out a joint investigation into the events that led to the shelling of the "well-established and well marked" Unifil (UN interim force in Lebanon) post in the town of Khiyam.

"I spoke to Mr Olmert and he definitely believes it was a mistake and has expressed his deep sorrow, " Mr Annan told a press conference in Rome.

"But the shelling started in the morning and went on until after 7pm. You cannot imagine the anguish of the unarmed men and women peacekeepers who were there."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1830397,00.html

[babylonsister]

1. Not quite the apology Israel was looking for.

Is there any doubt this was done intentionally?:grr:

[acmavm]

2. I'm surprised Olmert even offered a half-assed apology. He's

of the opinion that he can murder as many civilians as his good old buddy george apparently.

[Amonester]

4. And he appears to be as much a Liar as his Masters R ...

You'll hit us, warned UN staff (Autralian Murdoch owned media)
Martin Chulov, Beirut
July 27, 2006
...
A UN report released last night said the peacekeepers were told during each of the calls that the bombing would cease, but they were then hit by a precision-guided missile.
...
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telephoned UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to deny warplanes had deliberately bombed the UN position.
...
The UN chief said the strikes had taken place "despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire".

China condemned the strike, saying it was "deeply shocked" and demanding a ceasefire.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19925375-31477,00.html

[TAPat]

3. None whatsoever - CNN just ran a piece

on how many Peace Keepers have been killed since the inception of the UN trying, IMO, to make it sound like it happens all the time!?! But, I say, how many of those were killed by "friendly" fire?

Keep it up Kofi - don't let this one be tossed into the memory hole!

[alfredo]

6. Like the USS Liberty. They knew they were murdering unarmed

US sailors but continued their attack for two hours. They even sunk the lifeboats. Our government covered for Israel.

The only ones punished were two Israeli pilots who refused to kill Americans.

[Vitruvius]

24. Yes, "accidentally" attacking observers is part of the Israeli playbook --

especially when they are doing the unspeakable.

For more information:
http://www.ussliberty.org / :

"I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. . . . Through diplomatic channels we refused to accept their explanations. I didn't believe them then, and I don't believe them to this day. The attack was outrageous "
-- US Secretary of State Dean Rusk

"...the board of inquiry (concluded) that the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing in attacking the Liberty."
-- CIA Director Richard Helms

"I can tell you for an absolute certainty (from intercepted communications) that the Israelis knew they were attacking an American ship."
-- NSA Deputy Director Oliver Kirby

"That the Liberty could have been mistaken for the Egyptian supply ship El Quseir is unbelievable"
-- Special Assistant to the President Clark Clifford, in his report to President Lyndon Johnson

So much for Israel's "accident" excuse for that particular war crime.

Also see:
http://home.cfl.rr.com/gidusko/liberty /

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/margolis12.html

[Ms. Clio]

8. yeah, that's like American papers including the "age of consent"

in their stories about the raped and murdered Iraqi 14-year-old.

[Just Me]

25. The U.S. destroyed the UN in Iraq UP FRONT!!!! UN is "enemy" to,...

,...those who want to rule the world.

:cry:

FUCK THE TEARS,...WE ARE DEALING WITH BARBARIANS, INDIVIDUALS WHO BELIEVE IN THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS WITHOUT ANY PROOF THEY ARE "THE ANSWER" OR BETTER THAN THE REST OF US.

THE "CRAZIES" ARE LOOSE. They MUST be restrained/contained because they wreak more destruction than any common criminal.

Justice.

[fooj]

30. You're right. We did take the UN out...at the very beginning.

Holy shit. These people are murdering thugs who will destroy whatever gets in their way.:cry:
Or...whoever.:cry:

[uppityperson]

5. kick for UN peacekeepers, my condolences to their families, friends

I don't care if UN peacekeepers "get killed all the time", that is no excuse for doing so. I do not understand how Israel admin will think this could play out positively.

[rodeodance]

14. k

[rodeodance]

15. k

[Ms. Clio]

7. I'm sure it was somehow just an "accident"

After all, I can shoot at my neighbor's house all day long without "intending" to hit anyone who lives inside, right?

[Deja Q]

9. Well, either fine them $50, blow up their big buildings, or shut up Kofi.

Forgive me, but his talk is going to resolve NOTHING. Nothing positive, anyway. :(

And this isn't a game of tiddley winks.

And Israel no longer has my support if it can't tell the difference between a terrorist organization and world unity peacekeeping one. Are the Israelis THAT stupid??!

Will the UN ask for protection?

What is to happen?

[Amonester]

10. Apparently... it seems he HAS to try to "calm down" the...

Chinese...

Who would really "want" them to stay THAT "upset" for too long?

US Taxpayers?

[Deja Q]

12. Good point. But I just don't know anymore.

I don't mean offense as much as showing some sort of defense that's more than the trite "Think of the innocents!". In other words, the attitude of "Don't fuck with me, fellas!!!" might present something more... encouraging to any animal that prefers to wantonly destroy. And Israel is losing its humanity to a bunch of people no better than animals (Hizbollah).

You cannot deal rationally with those so irrational that they are prepared to kill just for the sake of it. The sob stories don't work. Self-defense is the only way possible and sometimes it has to be done in the only way such critters know how. :(

[AliceWonderland]

11. Those peacekeepers were murdered

...and it is an internatioal outrage. War is loathesome, the opposite of life, and this sort of murder always happens -- it's time to strip away the language of self-righteous moral highground and just see the situation as it is: war, with all its brutality and ugliness. No party is righteous and as always, the innocent and marginalized pay the price.

The M.O. of the United States and Israel is to insist that everything is an accident -- thereby always preserving the moral highground, far above the sub-human ragheads. But these kinds of incidents have happened far too many times for this to carry a breath of weight anymore.

I support Mr Annan's position. This time, I'm thinking Israel was ill-advised to play the ol' chesnut of "ohhh, but we're GOOD, we NEVER meant this, that's the evildoers and we're GOOD." The UN lost its own here, in a nasty deliberate way, as a way of flipping off the interational body and international community. But while we rush to laud the loyalty of military troups, we must understand that peacekeepers have their loyalty as well. From the SG's remarks, talking of the anguish of the murdered peacekeepers, he is angry in a personal sense. We should all be so angry.

[Deja Q]

13. Yet some people have no qualms over the decimation of America and its

infrastructure, aka "offshoring". (I don't mean you, but there are DUers who really think offshoring is great. I only hope their debts are far bigger than mine, pigeonholed, and then lose their jobs. Then they'll rethink the situation.)

[mom cat]

16. This whole invasion is an illegal war of aggression.

The two kidnapped soldiers was a flimsy pretext for the massive assault that followed. Israel made no attempt at a diplomatic resolution of the kidnappings. It just openned fire and has not stopped.

[struggle4progress]

17. Israelis ignored repeated warnings before killing UN observers

· 16 pleas for firing to stop went unheeded
· Furious Annan condemns targeting of post

Rory McCarthy in Haifa, Suzanne Goldenberg in Tyre and Oliver Burkeman in New York
Thursday July 27, 2006
The Guardian

Israel came under mounting pressure last night to explain why its military ignored repeated warnings and bombed a prominent UN post in southern Lebanon, killing four unarmed international observers.

The four UN soldiers, from China, Austria, Finland and Canada, were taking shelter in a bunker at the white, three-storey building in Khiyam on Tuesday after at least six hours of Israeli bombing and shelling, when it was destroyed by what UN sources say was a precision-guided aerial bomb.

The UN contacted Israeli forces up to 10 times about the strikes. The UN's deputy general secretary, Mark Malloch Brown, made several calls to the Israelis to protest at the shelling and to call for it to stop, he told the security council yesterday.

In response, Israel reportedly promised to halt the firing. An Irish army officer warned the Israelis six times ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831067,00.html

[Raster]

18. Murder most foul. Call it what it is. These weren't Hezbollah soldiers

firing rockets. They were unarmed UN peacekeepers. And Israel knew it. Murderers.

[goforit]

20. Well, John Bolton didn't like them though.

[Raster]

26. bolton is a neocon bullyboy criminal to the bone. He doesn't belong in

the UN. He belongs in prison with the rest of the neocon scourge.

[goforit]

19. Israelis won't getting brownie points in the U.S. on the streets either.

holocost or no holocost the past is the past and the PRESENT is
the PRESENT!

[theanarch]

21. oh, you're being much to harsh on poor, little...

...defenseless Israel...why the UN post in question has been there for ONLY twenty years, not nearly enough time for the IDF to find it, and tell their subordinates to not target it; and besides, the UN logo is practically identical to Hezbollah's, isn't it?

[Rex]

22. Holy shit! I didn't know it went on for hours!

I thought it was a straffing run by jets, I'm just speechless. Just fucking wow.

[chill_wind]

23. The little things the American corporate ho cable news

conglomerate tends not to mention. Hence you have to read the finer details in some other international paper. Blitzer was a freaking disgrace tonite, doing his best to try to paint UN's Jan Egeland as a loon. Over and over, "But do you really think that site was a deliberate target?" Then he ran and asked several other Israeli analyists and experts, begging them to deny it. Which, of course, they did.

[Rose Siding]

27. Here's the NYT coverage-

U.N. Says It Protested to Israel for 6 Hours During Attack That Killed 4 Observers in Lebanon

The United Nations said Wednesday that its top officials in New York and its officers on the ground in Lebanon made numerous calls on Tuesday to the Israeli mission and the Israeli military to protest repeated firing on its outpost in Lebanon where four unarmed observers ended up being killed.

Jane Holl Lute, the assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, said at an emergency meeting of the Security Council that over the six-hour period in which the United Nations’ warnings were being conveyed to the Israelis, the observation post at Khiam, in southern Lebanon, continued to come under fire.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/world/middleeast/27nations.html

[daleo]

28. Those U.N. soldiers were in a bunker too

So this had to be a precise hit, else the bomb shelter should have protected them. That's another hole in the accident story, and one that hasn't been pointed out much.

[chookie]

29. Collective punishment of the UN

Deliberate message: they better stop passing those resolutions against Israel for war crimes and violations of international law, or die. No differentiation between "terrorists" and those folk who try to defend those folk who happen to live in a country who voted Hezbollah representation in their democratically elected government.

>>well-established and well marked" Unifil<< Just like the Israeli use of the mark of the Red Cross on the roofs of ambulances.

Yeah yeah yeah -- a regrettable mistake -- because they got caught. I guess they were counting on the US media to censor incidents like this to reinforce the myth of "little Israel's" self-defence.

[Tom Joad]

31. What do you expect of a terrorist State? UN should be armed,

and so it can defend itself against attacks by rogue countries.