Hezbollah war crimes: Amnesty International cries Uncle
By Jules Crittenden
Boston Herald City Editor
Thursday, September 14, 2006

Amnesty International has introduced a comprehensive report accusing a terrorist group of war crimes.In utter defiance of the predominant American left, European and United Nations view that Israel engaged in gross war crimes against civilians and freedom fighters in Lebanon, Amnesty International has announced that in its opinion, Hezbollah is guilty of war crimes. Hezbollah purposefully and indiscriminately targeted Israeli civilians.

The AI report notes that despite Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s subsequent protestations to the contrary, he stated publicly and repeatedly during the conflict that he was firing his missiles at civilian areas to make Israeli civilians pay for their army’s actions, and with his uncontrolled Katyushas, an indiscriminate weapon, he killed 43 of them.He had advised Israeli Arabs to leave those areas.He had provoked the war with a cross border attack in which some Israeli soldiers were killed and others seized.

AI did not address the issue of an estimated 1,000 Lebanese civilians killed when Israel attacked Hezbollah fighting and command positions that had been established within populated villages, or the use of civilian vehicles, buildings and clothing by Hezbollah fighters, who also sometimes fought in Israeli uniforms.That is still the subject of investigation, and AI announced those issues, unlike the Hezbollah violations, are too complex for immediate comment. Readers will recall that perceived Israeli transgressions were what attracted the most attention and condemnation during the Lebanon conflict, and that those occurences were largely presented as Israel’s fault. It will be interesting to see if AI attempts to sort out how many of those 1,000 were actually Hezbollah guerrillas, and how many cases of “Israeli” attacks on civilian buildings and vehicles — such as ambulances — were staged Hezbollah propaganda events, and in some cases, if the dead were actually dead, or play-acting, or being recounted and shuffled around.

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Is it really possible that a group like Amnesty International might take an unbiased critical look at a conflict between a Western nation and terrorist group and not blame the Western nation for everything that transpires between them? We are so accustomed to terrorist groups being given a pass on their brutal, horrific tactics that it is somewhat shocking to see an international political organization giving a fair evaluation of the conflict.

We can only hope that something like this might become a trend. Honest reporting of the facts would be such a breath of fresh air. It might actually give us some hope that the incessant stream of propaganda we are exposed to, day in and day out, would begin to away from it’s contant anti-Western spin.

What would really happen to these terrorist organizations if their real nature was exposed to the world? Could they survive without the support of the Western media and international organizations?

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