This is an e-mail from the UN soldier that was killed today..

[Swede]

Canadian Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedenerr reports from Lebanon.

I have been here for nine months of a one-year tour of duty. Since I have arrived here in Lebanon, this current incident is the fourth I have seen and by far the most spectacular and intensive.


The first was 21 Nov 05, when the Hezbollah tried to capture IDF soldiers from an IDF observation position overlooking the Wazzani river near the town of Ghajjar on the Blue Line. This action was unsuccessful and resulted in the deaths of the Hezbollah raiding force.

On 01 Feb 06, a young shepherd boy was Killed by an IDF patrol near an abandon goat farm called Bastarra. Hassan Nasrallah (note: Hezbollah's leader) vowed that there would be consequences to this action. Team Sierra was tasked on 2 Feb 06, to assist in the investigation of the incident, and we sent one team to do so while the other team conducted its normal mobile patrolling activities.

On 03 Feb 06, a limited engagement took place initiated by the Hezbollah on several of the IDF defensive positions located in occupied Lebanon.

Then on 28 May, the Islamic Jihad (PLO) fired rockets from South Lebanon, into Israel, which elicited an immediate aerial bombardment of positions near our patrol base and in the Bekka valley.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060718/mideast_lebanon_UN_060716/20060718/

[AlamoDemoc]

1. background on CTV

CTV (Canadian Telivision) is owned and operated by CHUM LTD, a group similiar to that of Robert Murdock of f* news in the US.

--------------------------------------

Why big is better in the world of media

Critics of Globemedia's takeover of CHUM are nostalgic for an era that never existed

STEVE MAICH

Amid the aftershocks of last week's mega-merger of Bell Globemedia and CHUM Ltd., a familiar echo rumbled across the country: a traditional lament over the increasing concentration of Canada's major news outlets in fewer and fewer hands. The $1.7-billion deal will add 33 radio stations and 33 television channels to the Globemedia empire -- which already includes the CTV network, the Globe and Mail, and a handful of coveted cable channels such as TSN -- and the familiar voices of dissent greeted the news like a death in the family.

Despite assurances that the company will maintain separate and competitive newsrooms in major markets, and though the deal must still be approved by competition authorities, critics were unmoved. "We've gone too far down the road of media concentration," Liberal MP Dan McTeague said, echoing the conclusion of a Senate report released just a few weeks ago. And no one, except the deal-makers, was inclined to disagree.


http://www.macleans.ca/switchboard/columnists/article.jsp?content=20060731_131012_131012

[SidDithers]

7. You couldn't be more incorrect...

CTV is not owned by CHUM. CHUM is a company with mostly local Toronto and area channels and radio, as well as bunch of specialty cable channels like Bravo, MuchMusic and SexTV. They are both now owned by BellGlobe Media, which also owns TSN and the Globe and Mail.

Yes, they're a big Canadian media conglomerate, but to compare them to Rupert Murdoch is beyond wrong.

CTV as a Canadian national network may lean slightly right in their editorial bias with regard to Canadian politics, but they are NOT Fox News Canada.

You might want double check your facts before providing background.

Sid

[KoKo]

2. CNN did a WHOLE SEGMENT on this "questionable e-mail."

Until it's verified...I take this as the NeoCons Rove Plant to Blitzer that they just HAD TO GET THIS ON AIR!

Karen Hughes is BAAAAAACK doing Propaganda on the Payroll of CNN!

For some reason my gut tells me this will end up on "SNOPES." But..hey..I try to have an "open mind." :-( If it ends up on SNOPES then CNN will never RETRACT. It will be like "Al GORE CLAIMS TO HAVE INVENTED INTERNET...AND HE AND TIPPER WERE THE MODELS FOR BOOK/MOVIE..."LOVE STORY."

[Swede]

3. What's questionable about it?

The Kingston woman spent yesterday praying that the Canadian soldier killed at a United Nations observation post in Lebanon was not her husband.

"I'm sure he's OK," Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener said, clutching a telephone. "He knows what he's doing, and what he should be doing in that situation. There's a bunker there that he could have gotten into. We're not giving up hope."


http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=122136&catname=Local+News&classif=

[Marie26]

4. It's real

I posted that here after the news broke about the UN bombing, before the Canadian soldier was ever identified. His name is the same as the man who was later identified as missing. It's his email.

[Fredda Weinberg]

5. This has not been deliberate targeting,

>but has rather been due to tactical necessity.

Hmmm ... I guess Kofi Annan does owe an apology - to the UNIFIL soldiers who were kept under fire.

[CuteNFuzzy]

6. you're joking right?

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. Wow. I can't even imagine

the level of self-delusion it would take to feel that way.

[Fredda Weinberg]

9. Sure you can - look in a mirror

I waited patiently for an eye-witness report who confirmed what I had already suspected: the Israelis were telling the truth.

[leesa]

10. Right. Especially when they repeatedly said they would stop the bombing

when asked to do so that day over and over again by the UN Observers. You must be really gullible.

[Fredda Weinberg]

11. No ... just recognizing the fog of war

I can imagine the terror of those desperately seeking to protect their peacekeepers - but can also see how those pleas would fail to reach the front line in time. Israel has been following a consistent policy of targeting the source of fired rockets ... and this email confirms that the situation was as they described it.

[QuettaKid]

12. What does that particular email have to do with

the incident when they were killed? Answer: NOTHING. They weren't sending out emails as they were coming under attack. They were making phone calls telling the IDF to STOP FIRING. They were targeted by BOTH artillery and the bomb which took them out was dropped from a plane. The place had been there for 20 years. You don't think the IDF knew about it?

[Fredda Weinberg]

16. The email supports Israel's assertion.

That's why it's relevant. Israeli pilots are targeting rocket launchers - I can understand how pleas directed to headquarters would fail to reach the front line in the fog of war.

As for the place being there for 20 years, I want to know why the peacekeepers weren't evacuated when hostilities began - observing cease-fire violations is meaningless under the circumstances. So the email is even more relvant to Kofi Annan's accusation.

[Pale Blue Dot]

13. Whether or not it was intentional has nothing to do with

your absurd statement that "Kofi Annan does owe an apology - to the UNIFIL soldiers who were kept under fire."

Is this how you would feel - honestly - if the situation was reversed.

The golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you", is too often forgotten these days, yet I believe it's the most important thing we can do for each other.

Empathy for all sides is sorely lacking in you post and in much of the arguments going on around this conflict.

[Fredda Weinberg]

17. Absurd? I think youi're the one losing perspective

They were peacekeepers observing violations of a ceasefire. Two weeks after hostilities broke out, why were they still there? It's definitely relevant - considering who's being blamed for their deaths.

I don't see how my concern for the way these soldiers were abandoned by the Secretary General reflects a lack of empathy. I think what you're trying to say is that I don't share *your* sense of outrage - which may or may not be misdirected ... I won't assume.

If the situation were reversed and the UNIFIL troops had been killed by an Hezbollah shell, my feelings would remain the same. Why were they left like sitting ducks in a war zone?

[QuettaKid]

18. The IDF is to blame for their deaths. End of story.

.

[Norquist Nemesis]

14. "occupied Lebanon"?

But they keep saying they pulled out of Lebanon. :shrug:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. I think he's talking about Shebba Farms.

Which in reality is probably owned by Syria, rather than Lebanon.