Qana update

The site EU Referendum demonstrates the extent to which the Qana deaths are being exploited heartlessly by Hezbollah propagandists and their willing enablers in the mass media. The cynical exploitation of the dead bodies of children over a period of hours shows beyond any doubt that Hezbollah has no respect for or compassion for the the mortal remains of these victims of violence.

Which fact adds weight to the hypothesis that Israel's attack did not kill the children, but they were rather kept inside the building afterward, and it collapsed hours later due to either its weakened state or to vibrations from an attack half a kilometer away, or perhaps from the explosion of weapons kept in the building by Hezbollah.

The IDF is reporting that evidence suggests that it was not, in fact, responsible:

Addressing the possibility that the building may have collapsed because the IAF bombing triggered a delayed explosion of weapons stored inside, Eshel said: "I don't want to get into conspiracy theories. We will work diligently and collect every detail, so as to understand what happened there. I hope that we will know in the end, but I'm not sure. It's possible that we will never know what exactly happened there."

The IDF screened a video yesterday showing rocket launches from Qana, and said it chose the objectives in the village by analyzing the locations from which Hezbollah had fired rockets on Israel. However, the house that was hit had no direct connection to the rocket—launching cells. Nonetheless, IAF officials said that immediately after firing rockets at Israel, some Hezbollah cells hide in civilian houses in built—up areas in southern Lebanon.

IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and other senior officers expressed regret yesterday over the deaths of the civilians. They said the IDF was not aware that the civilians were in the village and had expected them to leave Qana the week before, following Israeli warnings of an impending attack.

Eisencott blamed Hezbollah for the deaths, saying the group uses the civilian population as a human shield.

Meanwhile, The Washington Times and Chicago Sun—Times editorialize that the blame for the civilian deaths lies with Hezbollah.

Ed Lasky  7 31 06

Update: it is obvious that the photogs at the Qana "massacre" site were in on the game. The Strata—Sphere reports a follow—up to the EU Referendum investigation:

This Reuters photo is actually of the same dead baby from the previous links. But now the poor child has been adorned with a nice clean pacifier to accent the propaganda value of this child's corpse. Where are the Geneva Convention thought police when a child's body is being used for propaganda by these terrorists? Where are the human rights organizations? Terrorists and photographers are gaining from the craven abuse of this child's body!"

The evidence that the photographs at Qana were staged is so evident that the following photographers must be called to account for their conduct. Surely it is a crime to misuse their privileged media position to aid in propaganda.
 
Adnan Hajj of Reuters; Nicolas Asfouri of AFP; Mohammed Zaatari of AP; Kevin Frayer of AP

Kevin Frayer is the husband of CNN's Middle East bureau chief.  
 
I want to contact the agencies ro express revulsion for such evident professional misconduct. 

Clarice Feldman   7 31 06

Update: The Confederate Yankee has more on the possibility of staging the event. 

Further update: the same man featured in the Qana photos appears to have been posing the dead in 1996.

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