Michael Ware on on CNN from Marjayoun, Lebanon...

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

...says (in not so many words) Israeli troops used Lebanese soldiers as human shields after having several of their tanks destroyed in fierce fighting--And it was an effective tactic, Hezbollah fighters did not attack the Lebanese military encampment.

Interesting. When Hezbollah (supposedly) uses civilians has human shields IDF targets them anyway without regard for civilian casualties, but when IDF troops use Lebanese soldiers as shields Hezbollah ceases their attacks.

Who are the terrorists here?

[tocqueville]

1. check my post on this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1877200&mesg_id=1877926

it gives some perspective about civilian targets in Israel.

[uppityperson]

3. thank you for that tocqueville.

[Oversea Visitor]

2. The US today do not work on logic anymore

I am afraid that you are all in the grip of madness.

You leader lie and lie and lie and people die but yet has 33% approval.
And you let a president to be impeach for a blowjob
You congress and senate is full of rabib dogs real to tear all who disagreed with them like Murtha
Thet rob and steal from your treasury and your children future is left with a big debt.
While billions are spend without question of accountability
You healthcare funding is destroy, your education funding is destroy, why even heating for poor during winter can be destroy like it is more important that asking why 8 billion disapper in Iraq

You news are full of nonsense and it appears to be the daily feed for many.

LOGIC does not work anymore.

SOLDIER AS SHEILD IS GOOD ATTACKING CIVILIAN AND SAYING THEY BEING USE AS SHEILD?????

[malaise]

4. What you see and hear is

merely an inversion of reality.

[The Stranger]

5. Any link to this story?

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. I got it from CNN live coverage---I'll look for a link.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. This from CNN.com...

...It's not really specifically about my OP, but makes reference to the Lebanese base and the fact that the IDF had occupied it. Ware's report was more current than this reference. He was indicating that they retreated back to this base after a tough engagement with Hezbollah.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/11/mideast.main/index.html

<snip>

Also Friday, a U.N. convoy departed the Lebanese army base in Marjeyoun, helping to evacuate Lebanese soldiers and police, Lebanese Internal Security Forces and a U.N. Forces in Lebanon spokesman said.

Two UNIFIL armored personnel carriers escorted the convoy, which consisted of 80 Lebanese security force vehicles carrying more than 350 members of the Lebanese security forces, plus 100 civilian vehicles.

The civilians, many who have been trapped in southern Lebanon for weeks, had come to the base Thursday in hope of getting safe passage out of the battlefield.

The base in a largely Christian town was occupied Thursday by Israeli forces as they moved toward a nearby area known as place where Hezbollah fighters fired rockets into Israel, Lebanese military intelligence and Lebanese police told CNN. (Watch as Israel puts more pressure on Hezbollah -- 2:49)

[wellst0nev0ter]

7. So They Are Just Following Standard Order Of Procedures

Soldiers using Palestinians as human shields in Gaza.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

11. Wow. Those are terrorist tactics.

[kittykitty]

9. Michael Ware is great! He tells it like it is. I'm surprised that CNN

airs some of his reports. He reported from Iraq several weeks ago, and his report was very negative but he spoke the truth. It is a mess and a failure.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

10. He does seem to have integrity.

[chill_wind]

12. I pay very close attention to every word he says. I also fear for him.

A lot, some days.

Journalists Who Lie, Journalists Who Die

A veteran journalist assesses the international trend of journalists targeted for their truth-telling against a backdrop of recent fraud in American newsrooms.

By Betty Medsger
April 26, 2004

(...)
most journalists who were killed were hunted down and murdered, often in direct reprisal for their reporting.

(...)


...in more than 90 percent of the cases, those who killed journalists did so with impunity.

(...)


http://foi.missouri.edu/mediacredibility/jwholie.html




Press Freedom Archives
DEATHS BY CIRCUMSTANCE
1996-2005

Murder: 238 (70.4 percent)
Crossfire in war: 67 (19.8 percent)
Reporting in other dangerous circumstances: 33 (9.8 percent) *

* Includes such things as street demonstrations and catastrophes.


MURDER'S BACK STORY
1996-2005

Murders with impunity: 202 (84.9 percent) **
Kidnapped before slain: 29 (12.2 percent)
Threatened before murdered: 61 (25.7 percent)

** Cases in which those who ordered killings have not been arrested and prosecuted.

http://www.cpj.org/killed/killed_archives/stats.html


Jailings (data link)

The United States, which is holding journalists in detention centers in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, rose to sixth among countries jailing journalists, just behind Uzbekistan and tied with Burma, CPJ found.


more

http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2005/imprisoned_05/imprisoned_05.html

Missing:

http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/missing_list.html

[bananarepublican]

13. Great post! Micahel W. strikes me as being the real deal also. n/t

[chill_wind]

14. As well knowns go right now, he appears to be an endangered breed.

We can count guys like him on one, perhaps two hands at best.

In fact I'm having trouble coming up with even five big names off the top of my head right now, as field reporters go. Depressing and scary.


I often wondered what would have become of David Bloom, had he lived longer.

One of the last times I saw him reporting in Iraq, right before his reported death, he was reporting soberly on the troops being bogged down somewhere out in the middle of a sandstorm desert on that infamous first historic race up to Baghdad, troops down to 2 bottles of water a day, short and tightly rationed on MRE's and out of frickin fuel, we would only find out much later, sitting ducks and cut off from their supply lines, some of which had been ambushed, we would only find out much later... and perhaps it was a freak of the conditions, but I remember his feed suddenly getting cut-off mid-sentence while he was relaying what it was like.

I didn't see him resurface again for several days, at which time he was rapidly revising and correcting earlier misperceptions he might have given, he was explaining. The guys were tough. Everything was ok etc etc. That was right after all the Pentagon wheels had made their very first Sunday morning press rounds, firing red-hot warning shots at all the press critics alarmed at the first bad news that all was not going quite as planned and trumpeted. The message was you--the media and retired generals-- were either with us or with the terrorists.

I had this eerie mental image for some reason of someone standing just a few feet away, off-camera, with something pointed or trained on him the whole time. Even though he was embedded, I think he thought he was still part of a previously free press and was going to be allowed to report a bit more freely than reality quickly came to bear. I think a few did in those first few days--- actually thought they could do that. I think they didn't begin to know the Rumsfeld and Cheney rump Pentagon in those first days the way the world knows them now. A few wasted fruitless sessions at the first big Centcom briefings quickly made it all evident.

A few days later, he was gone, claimed by a blood clot, it was said, a promising man barely starting, in his 30's. The first in what would eventually be many claimed lives, and of all nationalities.

[bananarepublican]

15. I've read reports that many journalists have in fact been deliberately...

... targeted. As they say, only the good die young. It appears that many of them die for reasons other than of their own choosing.

As a general comment, I think a lot of good people have died in Bush's wars for reasons other than those advertised.