Hezbollah Is A Terrorist Group

[Rasputin]

The march of 'God's Army'

"Hezbollah is a military force funded, trained by and answerable to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iran that is pledged -- as it has been since the Khomeini revolution of 1979 -- to the destruction of Israel and the genocide of the Jews, as a prelude to destroying the West and infidels everywhere." -- Melanie Phillips, The Spectator

Hezbollah was founded in 1982 with a manifesto of driving Israel out of Lebanon and creating an Iranian-Style Islamic Republic in the multi-religious nation. The organization receives one hundred million dollars annually from the Iranian government to pursue their religious and social objectives. Besides financial assistance they also receive monumental moral, technical and logistical support from the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards. During the recent conflict with Israel hundreds of Revolutionary Guard forces crossed the border of Iran to enter the battle. As confirmation of their presence Israeli forces discovered tens of Islamic Revolutionary Guards among the dead fighters in Southern Lebanon.

Israeli intelligence forces have confirmed that the Shia militant organization's leader, Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, takes direct command from Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On the streets of Beirut Hezbollah fighters are not just carrying posters of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, but also of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In a recent speech on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei resiliently backed their campaign by stating, "Your unprecedented holy war and steadfastness are beyond the limits of my description. It's a divine victory. It is a victory of Islam. With God's help you were able to prove that military superiority is not in the number of soldiers, planes warships and tanks. Rather it depends on the power of faith and holy war."

Using the democratic institutions of Lebanon to win the favor of the Lebanese people through hospitals, civil service institutions and schools, Hezbollah is successfully seeking and obtaining more authority and legitimacy by waging their own version of 'Holy War'. Encouraged by the 'Holy War' against Israel and emboldened by Iran's support, Hezbollah is now pursuing an extensive propaganda campaign of "social justice" throughout Lebanon. They seek to gain the widespread support of the people so they can establish themselves as a legitimate political and social force. Under their campaign of "social justice" they hope to gain the support of those who were once weary of their intentions and further solidify their support among the 40% of Shias in Southern Lebanon.

After the 34 day war with Israel the Iranian government provided Hezbollah fighters with one hundred fifty million dollars, equaling $12,000 per family, to rebuild their homes. Hezbollah, with the help of Iran, is attempting to take advantage of the crises. Even though President Bush boosted American aid to Lebanon from $50 million to $230 million the charge was taken slowly and the $230 million offered by the US administration is overshadowed by the $500 million currently being offered by the Iranian government.

Hezbollah's agenda also includes further undermining the already weak international community's will to disarm the organization as they have been called to do under both UN Resolution 1559 and the newly established Resolution 1701. The recently enacted UN Resolution 1701 laid out the ceasefire between Israel and the Shia militia, demanded the disarmament of all armed groups, and prohibited any sale and/or supply of weapons to Lebanon except as authorized by the government. But, even before it began, the Resolution has turned out to be a dismal failure as both the 2,000 French and the 15,000 Lebanese troops have dismissed plans to follow through on the plans of disarmament.

Meanwhile Hezbollah's representative in Tehran has not only formally objected to any form of disarmament of the militia but openly encouraged the government to rearm the organization. It's likely that once troops have been fully established Iranian and Syrian weapons will start flowing back into the hands of Hezbollah. The new Hezbollah will be equipped with modern weaponry and backed by the military knowledge they have gained from the thirty four day battle and a further resurgence in support due to their "social justice" programs.

If the US administration and the International community are not vigilant in challenging Hezbollah's social campaign and their military rearmament then the Iranian government will emerge victorious -- further plunging an already insecure region into mayhem. Intellectuals should note that fundamentalists tend to take advantage of democratic institutions to gain influence and power, which once achieved will be used to destroy those institutions. This was the type of Islamic dictatorship the original manifesto was established to form in Lebanon. If given the support it needs to achieve victory it will not hesitate to create another Iranian-style regime in the tiny mid-east nation.

Once Hezbollah has achieved their goal of stifling democracy and installing an Iranian-styled dictatorship they will move on to their ultimate objective of eradicating Israel and all of the Jews. In an April 9th, 2000 speech Sheik Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said "Jews are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment.. the Jews invented the legend of Nazi atrocities... they can speak of fabricated or exaggerated massacres that occurred during the Second World War, but must forget the massacres they committed against us which are documented and proven." In another speech on October 22nd, 2002 he said that "if the Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.'

The threat of the rise of radical Iran and the terrorist organization Hezbollah should be taken seriously by moderate Muslims and Western powers. Moderate Muslims need to understand that the ultimate objective of Hezbollah is to secure fundamentalist governments similar to Iran's within their region. They need only ask the Iranian people about the misery, torture and brutality to which this form of government gives birth.

The West must pursue a more extensive campaign of funding to pro-American movements within the region and work to counter the influence the Hezbollah. If ignored, the world could be facing a region ruled by radical fundamentalists with an eye for 'Holy War' and with the essential objective of world domination under the banner of their form of fundamentalist Islam.

[Timsar]

RedWine PLZ STOP PUTTING ALL THESE LONG POSTS, it very annoying, and that you should write your own opinion, instead of copy and pasting.
tnx

[mike435]

RedWine PLZ STOP PUTTING ALL THESE LONG POSTS, it very annoying, and that you should write your own opinion, instead of copy and pasting.
tnx

no its acctualy very good many times it is his posts that stimulate conversation.

kepp theme up

[Rasputin]

RedWine PLZ STOP PUTTING ALL THESE LONG POSTS, it very annoying, and that you should write your own opinion, instead of copy and pasting.
tnx

If you don't like it, don't read it and Good Bye !

Thx

[Rasputin]

در روزهای اخير انتقاد از دولت اهود اولمرت و خصوصا عملکردش در بحران لبنان و جنگ عليه حزب الله به شکلی فراگير در رسانه های اين کشور بازتاب يافته است.
بر اساس نظرسنجی های انجام شده، اسراييلی ها به ترتيب، اهود اولمرت نخست وزير، امير پرتز وزير دفاع و دان هالوتس رئيس ستاد ارتش را مسئول اصلی ناکامی در مواجهه با حزب الله می دانند.

شدت انتقادات گاه به حدی می رسد که همه سابقه دولت اين کشور را زير ضرب می گيرد و آن را فاقد هرگونه نقطه مثبتی معرفی می کند.

در يکی از تندترين مقالات، برادلی بورستون، نويسنده روزنامه ها آرتص تا آنجا پيش رفته که به کنايه سيد حسن نصرالله را مناسب ترين شخص برای نشستن بر مقام نخست وزيری اسرائيل معرفی کرده است.

او با اشاره به بحرانی که گريبانگير اهود اولمرت نخست وزير فعلی اين کشور است، اسرائيل را عملا کشوری بدون نخست وزير خوانده است.

نويسنده برای توجيه نظر خويش به سلسله ای از مشکلات گريبانگير مقامات حکومتی اشاره می کند و سعی دارد خواننده را به نبود شخصيت های سالم و کارآمد در سطوح بالای اداره اين کشور مجاب کند.

قحط الرجال



تنها نصرالله است که توانست به مسائلی که طی چهار دهه گذشته جامعه اسرائيل را متفرق کرده بود خاتمه دهد


برادلی بورستون، ستون 'جای ويژه ای در دوزخ'، ها آرتص

وی با اشاره به پرونده ای که اخيرا عليه رئيس جمهور اسرائيل و بر اساس ادعای زنی از کارمندان سابق رياست جمهوری باز شده می نويسد: "کسی که بايد اسوه پاکدامنی باشد، اتهام تجاوز را به دوش می کشد".

او می افزايد: "فرمانده ارتش کشور که بايد سمبل فداکاری و جانبازی باشد، درست موقعی که مردم در مورد اين که آيا ارتش برای رفتن به جنگ آمادگی، برنامه، تدارکات و آموزش لازم را داشته يا نه، چند روزی مرخصی گرفته تا به امور مالی اش برسد".

و بعد تيغ تيز انتقاد را متوجه نخست وزير اسرائيل کرده و اهود اولمرت را چنين معرفی می کند: "مردی که از ۴ ژانويه بعد از آنکه شارون گرفتار سکته مغزی شد، به عنوان نخست وزير وارد ميدان شد و تا ۱۲ ژوئيه با بی مسئوليتی روشن، ضعفش را آشکار کرد".

نويسنده سپس شرايط فعلی حاکم بر دولت اسرائيل را به بی دولتی تشبيه می کند و معتقد است در واقع اينک دولتی بر کشور حاکم نيست و با اشاره به گذشت شش دهه از تشکيل اسرائيل، دولتش را با دولت خودگردان فلسطين مقايسه می کند: "برخلاف فلسطين که دولتش از عدم استقلال در رنج است (و تعدادی از مقاماتش توسط اسرائيل به زندان افتاده اند)، اسرائيل کشور مستقلی است که دولت ندارد".

برادلی بورستون در ادامه مقاله اش از عدم وجود افراد لايق برای اداره کشور سخن می گويد و با اشاره به جايگزين های ممکن برای پست نخست وزيری، آنها را شخصيت هايی تاثير گذار معرفی کرده که هچ يک توانايی شان را به اثبات نرسانده اند.

او سپس به کنايه می نويسد: "در وضع فعلی، تقريبا تنها چيزی که می تواند سر اولمرت را حفظ کند، سر حسن نصرالله است."

رهبری نصرالله


نويسنده ها آرتص اولمرت را رهبری بی مسئوليت معرفی کرده است

وی با طرح اين پرسش که اگر هنوز کشتن رهبر حزب الله در دستور کار است، چرا از نصرالله برای هدف مفيدی استفاده نشود، ويژگی های او را بر می شمرد: "سابقه اش را ببينيد. مردی که در امور امنيتی قوی و معقول است. نيروهايش از آمادگی لازم برخوردارند، خوب آموزش ديده اند، خوب مجهز شده اند و به خوبی محافظت می شوند".

برادلی بورستون سپس به سرعت عمل حزب الله در بازسازی و کمک به آسيب ديدگان جنگ و کمک های نقدی به آنان اشاره کرده و با يادآوری مصاحبه اخير نصرالله با تلويزيون لبنان می نويسد: "او مردی است که به اشتباه محاسبه اش اعتراف کرده و برخلاف اولمرت، رهبری است که اگر در قضاوتش اشتباه کرد، می تواند به صراحت آن را بپذيرد".

نويسنده ها آرتص در ادامه رهبران دهه های اخير اسرائيل را به تفرقه افکنی متهم می کند: "بيش از ۲۰ سال است نخست وزيران اسرائيل به سر کار می آيند و متعهد می شوند رهبری برای همه مردم باشند، اما فقط شکاف موجود را گسترده تر می کنند و اختلافات تازه می آفرينند".

وی به طنز نتيجه می گيرد: "چرا از رهبری بهره نبريم که برخلاف همه نخست وزيران اسرائيل توانسته مردم را متحد کند؟ تنها نصرالله است که توانست به مسائلی که طی چهار دهه گذشته جامعه اسرائيل را متفرق کرده بود خاتمه دهد: او به شکلی موثر استدلال های له و عليه موضوع زمين در برابر صلح را متوقف کرد. در حال حاضر هيچکس نمی خواهد چيزی بدهد. خصوصا در تنها جايی که برای همه مهم است: ساحل غربی."

"راست و چپ بيش از هر زمان ديگری از ژوئن ۱۹۶۷ تاکنون به هم نزديک تر شده اند. راست ها با از دست دادن غزه رويای اسرائيل بزرگ را به فراموشی می سپارند و چپ ها هم هدف حملات موشکی حماس، جهاد و حزب الله قرار گرفته اند و پايه ايدئولوژی پايان جنگ با پايان دادن به اشغال، را ويران شده می بينند."

برادلی بورستون در پايان مطلب نتيجه می گيرد که نصرالله با اين سوابق، لياقتش را به اثبات رسانده و می پرسد: "رهبران فعلی اسرائيل برای نشان دادن توانايی شان چه می کنند؟".

[Parinaz_M]

حزب الله از نوع حزب الله

[Rasputin]

سخنانی كه برای امريكا و اسرائيل دلنشين تر از حزب الله لبنان است
مصباح يزدی
نصرالله سرباز آيت الله العظمی خامنه ايست
و در لبنان فقط عكس رهبر ايران ديده می شود




همزمان با مصاحبه غافلگير كننده سيد حسن نصرالله با تلويزيون لبنان كه طی آن به اشتباه بودن گروگان گرفتن دو سرباز اسرائيل اعتراف كرد، محمد تقی مصباح يزدی در جريان سفر به خوزستان كه معمولا انگيزه های "شكر"ی دارد، درباره جنگ لبنان گفت:

حزبالله لبنان گروهی كوچك از اقليتی در كشوری كوچك است كه پاسداری را از پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی و حضرت امام خمينی آموخته است. او كه در مراسم روز پاسدار در اهواز سخنرانی می كرد اضافه كرد: من در گذشته به يكی از شهرهای لبنان سفر كرده بودم و ديدم در اين شهر هيچ اثری از عكسهای مقامات دولتی لبنان به چشم نميخورد، درعوض همه جا با عكسهای بزرگ از امام خميني(ره) و مقام معظم رهبری تزئين شده بود.

در حال حاضر رهبر حزبالله يكی از محبوبترين مردان جهان است و اين در حالی است كه او افتخار خود را اين ميداند كه سرباز آيتالله العظمی خامنهای است.

حزب الله كه يك گروهی كوچك با امكانات محدود بود بر چهارمين ارتش دنيا پيروز شد؛ آبروی اسرائيل ريخت و شكستناپذير بودن آن برباد رفت.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Nasrallah - There was something refreshing in your admission this week that you had failed to predict Israel's reaction to the attack you ordered July 12, and that you would not have ordered it had you known its consequences in advance.

Frankly, that's a lot more responsibility than our own leaders are for now prepared to assume, not to mention the political norm across the Arab world, where presidents, princes, monarchs and Generalissimos, like Catholic popes, never err.

Your admission is even more impressive concerning your frequent boasts to have studied us thoroughly. Well Hassan, since at least this one time you actually realize you have still got what to learn about us, let me draw your attention to a few more aspects of the situation of which you are apparently unaware, and which may help you avoid more mistakes in the future.

FIRST, you must understand that the whole world and its sister saw through your statements. They realized that the situation at which you have arrived, whereby you are constantly on the run, is even more difficult for you than it might have been for others, because publicly addressing large audiences has become for you a way of life and a source of energy. Otherwise why did you dedicate to that TV reporter - a poorly veiled blonde female, God forbid - a full two-and-a-half hours of your time?

Similarly, it took no Arabist to understand that the confession you made was meant to address the growing displeasure across Lebanon with the Israeli counterattack's impact, the one you now admit having both caused and failed to predict. Yes, curiously enough the Lebanese masses to whom you promised so conceitedly "a share in the victory" are unhappy, very unhappy, to foot the $10-billion-bill of damages with which your war games have left them, not to mention their displeasure with their human toll.

In other words, Hassan, unlike what you and your Iranian masters believe, even where freedom is scarce there is a limit to the abuse that ordinary folk are prepared to take; at the end of the day they do speak their minds, and those minds in their turn seek life, opportunity and prosperity much more than the bickering, triumphalism, belligerence, chauvinism and eye-rolling piety that you offer them instead.

Secondly, now that you concede having misread us, the question is in what way?

WHAT YOU would like the Lebanese people to believe is that you have merely failed to predict Israel's response to one specific situation, but otherwise you remain convinced, as you have boasted many times, that no one knows Israel better than you. Well, the fact is that what you have misread runs deeper than one situation, and demonstrates that with all due respect to your efforts on this front, too, you are still in no position to say you know us.

Yes, we may now be engaging in the kind of soul-searching which you and your puppeteers in Teheran think you can forever flee, and in the coming months we will be busy probing, despite our leaders' shameful trickery, various aspects of their conduct that we found unsatisfactory. Still, none of this should change the fact that beyond Israel's response to the attack you now admit you regret having launched lurks a popular will to fight that refutes your famous gloating that Israel had lost its will to fight.

Evidently, Hassan, diligent though you may have been in studying the situation you are so obsessed with reinventing, here too you have been doing something fundamentally wrong.

First, you completely misunderstood the very concept of democratic protest. Back in 2000, when you saw ordinary Israeli citizens both protest Israel's Lebanese policy and affect it, you mistook all this for weakness. Well, it turns out that this analysis was no more valid than Vietnam's illusion that it had beaten America - a conventional wisdom that proved so unfounded that the Vietnamese soon afterwards shed their ostensibly victorious communist faith, and in fact begged the US to restore its ties with them.

[Rasputin]

Never mind the fact that we Jews are convinced that your fundamentalism's aftermath will be the same as communism's, fascism's, and all the other isms that were bent on oppressing their own people and conquering everyone else. What I wonder is - just what makes you think you know us; how do you go about studying us before you jump to your sweeping conclusions?

Do you really think that by getting a daily digest of headlines written somewhere within the journalistic Bermuda Triangle that lies between Yediot, Ma'ariv and Haaretz you can purport to know us? The Jews? How much do you know about our origins, how long we have been around, what we have been through, how many swords have been smashed on our heads over the centuries, and how many pens have been broken in efforts to besmirch, debilitate or even just decipher us?

Surely, no one here expects you to now start exploring, say, Exodus, Isaiah, Ecclesiastes, Philo and Maimonides, or Marx, Spinoza, Freud and Einstein, or S.Y. Agnon, Natan Alterman, Moshe Shamir and A.B. Yehoshua, or even just Ben-Gurion's memoirs, so as to get a somewhat broader perspective about us. Nor do I see you contemplating the many premature eulogies of the Jewish nation delivered by assorted scholars from Hegel to Toynbee, people who were probably even more learned than you.

What we do urge you to do, as long as you live off your current diet of intellectual fast food, is to not take too seriously Israeli admirers on the one hand or European anti-Semites on the other.
Your journalistic admirers here are the same ones who only yesterday hailed, and now condemn, our current political and military leaders. As for those Europeans, yes, they may happily accept this baloney about you being merely after the Jews, but they are taking you for a ride when telling you they are still in the business of shaping the Jews' history. In fact they have even given up on shaping their own destiny.

Courting the devil has long been a European specialty, so much so that it took foreigners to save Europe from both fascism and communism. Back in the 1930s, most Europeans remained deaf to warnings that Hitler was after them, preferring to delude themselves he was "merely" after the Jews, and that the beast could be soothed by feeding it the Jewish prey it just could not resist. When Europe finally understood that the Jews were merely Fascism's warm-up act, it was too late.

Today you and your Iranian masters are cleverly following that script, telling Europe all you want is the Jews, while what you are really after is Beirut, the most Western corner of the Arab world, the Paris of the Middle East, the metropolis whose takeover by Iran would be equal in its impact to Constantinople's fall to the Ottomans in 1453.

Unfortunately, many Europeans still respond to all this with the same moral apathy and political appeasement that only a few decades ago set their continent ablaze. Even more unfortunately from your viewpoint, we Jews - that stiff-necked lot you thought you knew so well - are no longer prepared to play our part in the script: We fight.

[Rasputin]

Two local MPs want to make it clear their parties aren't taking a soft stance on Hezbollah.

"They're a terrorist organization. We certainly condemn their attacks against Israel," said Keith Martin, Liberal MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca and the party's foreign affairs critic.

Martin's comments followed a statement from Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj that Hezbollah should be removed from Canada's designated list of terrorist organizations. He made the comment after returning from a fact-finding mission in Lebanon with a bipartisan committee that included NDP MP Peggy Nash and Bloc Quebecois MP Maria Mourant.

Wrzesnewskyj's statement created a controversy in the Liberal caucus, which asked him to retract his comments. Last week, he quit as the party's deputy foreign affairs critic.

"Borys recognized that he voiced comments that did not recognize the party's position at all. He resigned in order to avoid any confusion because he recognized that his comments proved to be deeply divisive within the party," Martin said. "He did the honourable thing by stepping down."

It wasn't necessary, Martin said, for Wrzesnewskyj to step down from his post as retracting the comments was sufficient.

Only if Hezbollah renounces its position that Israel should be destroyed and stops attacking the country, should the organization be included in negotiations for resolving the conflict in Lebanon, Martin said.

The NDP didn't object to the then-Liberal government adding Hezbollah to Canada's list of designated terrorist organizations in 2002, Victoria NDP MP Denise Savoie stressed.

"The NDP has never requested that the government remove them," she said.

While some media reports indicated that Nash suggested that Hezbollah be removed from Canada's terrorist list, that isn't the case, Savoie said.

"I think some media outlets mistakenly reported that Peggy Nash called for Hezbollah to be removed. But what she did call for was for Canada to support a way for all parties to be part of a solution in the conflict in Lebanon," she said. "She didn't advocate for an amendment for the terror list."

During the initial stages of the conflict in Lebanon earlier this summer, Savoie joined her NDP colleagues by calling for Canada to take a stronger leadership role in the Middle East while urging for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

On the issue of Israel's right to self defence, Savoie said she personally supports any country's right to defend itself. At the same time, she said she's reminded of Mohandas Ghandi comments that "an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind."

"So I think that I like to balance those two views and this is an incredibly complex situation. It's complicated by geopolitical problems so there's no easy solution," Savoie said. "But I still think Canada should strive to support sustainable peace in that region and do what we can."

The Liberals support Israel's right to exist and defend itself, Martin said.

"But we do not support the killing of civilians, obviously. We made our position very clear to Israel that by all means go after Hezbollah but do not take actions that result in the deaths of civilians."

The same position applies to Hezbollah and Iran and Syria, which both support the organization.

"They must pull back Hezbollah because Hezbollah is attacking civilians in Israel," Martin said, adding that at the end of the day, none of the conflicts in the Middle East will be resolved through warfare.

"They're only going to be resolved through negotiation, diplomacy and development," he said. "When the different groups in the region understand that and begin to act accordingly, then peace will occur."

However, Martin admits that it's not easy to be optimistic about establishing peace in the region.

"But one has to keep trying because it is, not only important for the region, but important for the rest of the world."

[Rasputin]

A Dear Reader corrected an historical error I made in a previous column: I attributed American's entry into World War I to the sinking of The Lusitania. He said sinking The Laconia, a passenger ship, prompted our entry into World War I. I apologize for my error.
As Dear Reader states, many people get this wrong. Including many Web sites, which claim that The Lusitania was the reason for U.S. entry into World War I.
A line from a movie ("Who Shot Liberty Valence?") seems perfect: When the facts conflict with the legend, print the legend. Or, try this for solace: just look at how our mainstream media portrays the current Middle East situation.
Hamas, the terrorist group elected to replace the terrorist group Fatah in Gaza, crosses an internationally recognized border, murders Israeli soldiers and kidnaps another. Israel, as any other country, (except France, or the U.S. under "President Kerry"), reacts militarily, and the world condemns Israel.
Later, the Iran-Syria-backed Hezbollah terrorist group, which runs southern Lebanon, bombards Israeli towns with missiles aimed at civilian targets. Israel responds militarily against military targets. Again, the media portray the "innocent Lebanese civilians" as the "victims" of "Israeli aggression." Never mentioning Hezbollah's intentional targeting of Israeli civilians, who are just as dead, maimed or missing as the Lebanese "civilians." (Never mind that even an anti-Israel group - Human Rights Watch - reduced the total number of Lebanese killed in Hana to 28 at most, and said that most of these were probably Hezbollah.)
Never mind that the media refuse to publish anything even resembling the truth. Such as the fact that a Lebanese man saw Hezbollah building bunkers for missiles, then building mosques, hospitals or apartments above them in his town. When he asked his town's sheik what was going on, the sheik replied, "Either way, the Jews lose." Wisely, the man left Lebanon.
As the late humorist Jean Shepard ("Shep") said, "Life is like a B-Movie." Shep was right, but I do all my own stunts, and I make all my own mistakes. Therefore, I also apologize for all the other mistakes, which Dear Reader claims I made, (which he alluded to but did not list).
However, that brings up the matter of history itself. It has been said that newspapers provide the first draft of history. If that's true, we are in trouble. Especially if one considers the mainstream media's penchant for getting everything exactly wrong.
Take CNN. CNN admitted that it had let Saddam Hussein's regime censor it's "news" in exchange for being allowed to "report" from Iraq. Yet people still watch CNN. Some people even believe what they see and hear on CNN.
Take Reuters wire service. Reuters was forced to admit that some photos taken by one of its photographers were doctored to make Israel look even worse than Reuters normally makes Israel look. It removed 920 photos ("for further examination") taken by this photographer. Yet Reuters still has "mainstream media" customers who pay to get "news" from Reuters, which they print, broadcast or telecast. People still read, watch or listen to "news" from Reuters. And some people still believe "news" from Reuters.
Take the AP wire service. According to the Littlegreenfootballs.com Web site, the AP furiously spun the fact that Salam Daher, aka "Green Helmet Guy" staged an incident involving "finding" then loading a child's body onto an ambulance, then removing the body, holding it up for photographers and reloading it onto the ambulance so the press could get better shots. It is obvious from the film on the Web site, that the press cooperated in this deception.
According to Littlegreenfootballs.com, "The AP's bureau chief in Iran, Kathy Gannon, brushes off the video proof of Salam Daher's activities with one sentence: 'One Website posted video purporting to show Daher arranging to have the body of a child taken off an ambulance and displayed for photographers.'"
Purporting? Purporting! See for yourself. Go to:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22123_Green_Helmet_Admits_Staging_Photos&only

Take The New York Times, which likes to think of itself as "the paper of record." It was home to Walter Duranty, who covered up Stalin's murder of millions of Ukrainians, and Stalin's many other crimes. The Times still displays Duranty's Pulitzer Prize. (Albeit with a small disclaimer.) People still read The Times. Some people still believe what they read. Even after the recent errors by their editors in hiring "reporters" who made up stories out of whole cloth.
If we cannot expect "the paper of record" to have fact checkers, perhaps they and we get what we deserve: bias instead of news.
So much for "the first draft of history."
Here's a simple history test. All answers must be from the top of your head. Googling or using a reference work is cheating.
Just as in real life, every question is a "trick" question.
1. Who won "The Battle of Valley Forge?"
a) The Americans
b) The British
c) The French
d) The Spanish
e) (other) __________
2. Who shot down Admiral Yamamoto's plane?
a) U.S. Army
b) U.S. Navy
c) U.S. Marine Corps
d) U.S. Air Force
e) (other)___________
3. The "Battle of New Orleans" occurred during which war?
a) The Revolutionary War
b) The War of 1812
c) The Civil War
d) The Spanish-American War
e) (other)______
4. Which war did April Glaspe start?
a) The French and Indian War
b) The War in Afghanistan
c) The Gulf War
d) The Iraq War
e) (other)______
5. The U.S.S. Panay was attacked in
a) 1936
b) 1937
c) 1938
d) 1939
e) (other)________



ANSWERS:

1. e) (other) There was no "Battle" of Valley Forge. It was a winter encampment.
2. e) (other) According to one documentary on The History Channel, The Navy shot down the plane. Another History Channel documentary claims The Army shot it down.
3. e) (other) The Battle was fought Jan. 8, 1815, after The Treaty of Ghent, which ended The War of 1812, was signed. So, the battle could not have taken place "during" the war.
4. c) The Gulf War. Ms. Glaspe was U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. An Iraqi official asked her if the U.S. would mind if Iraq "took back" what it called "Province 19" - Kuwait. She replied that the U.S. had no interest in internal Iraqi matters. Iraq invaded Kuwait. The U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq.
5. b) On Dec. 12, 1937, Japanese forces sank the U.S.S. Panay, which was patrolling the Yangtze River to protect American commerce and nationals during the Chinese Civil War.

[Rasputin]

Russian-made, state of the art weapons Israel says Hizbullah used during the recent war in Lebanon will be one of the main topics of discussion during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's two-day visit that begins on Thursday.

Israel, according to diplomatic officials, wants Russia to stop supplying arms to Syria and Iran, because some of these weapons ended up in Hizbullah's hands. Russia has claimed that the arms with Russian markings Israel found in south Lebanon were either of old Soviet issue, or came through other channels, not necessarily through Syria or Iran.

Lavrov is scheduled to meet Thursday evening with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and on Friday with Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni. He is also scheduled to go to Ramallah on Friday for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Lavrov will be the first of a number of foreign statesmen arriving over the next three days for talks. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema is also arriving for two days of talks on Thursday, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Polish President Lech Kaczynski are scheduled to arrive over the weekend.

The arms issue has caused some tension in the Israeli-Russian relationship, with some diplomatic officials saying this was behind a Russian decision to cancel an Israeli-Russian trade exhibition this week in Tel Aviv. The Russians say the fair was cancelled because not as many firms as expected signed up to feature their wares.

Soon after the war, an Israeli delegation headed by Mark Sofer, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director-general for Euro Asia, went to Moscow to discuss the arms issue. The delegation complained that Iran and Syria passed Russian-made Fagot and Kornet anti-tank missiles onto Hizbullah. These missiles were responsible for killing many of the 118 IDF soldiers who died in the war.

Although Israeli officials left Moscow satisfied that "their message was heard," a few days later Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said the Israeli claims were baseless.

Ivanov said Israel had provided no evidence of Hizbullah having the Russian-designed missiles, and Russian officials said Moscow maintained strict controls over its weapons sales to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

However, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said in an interview broadcast Wednesday in Russia that Hizbullah had indeed used Russian-made weapons. He told Ekho Moskvy radio that Israeli authorities were aware that Russia had asked Syria to explain how the weapons had gotten into the hands of Hizbullah.

"We saw these weapons. They had certain markings," Peres said. "As far as we know, the Russians demanded explanations from Syria."

In addition to discussing the weapons issue, the talks in Israel with Lavrov are also expected to center around implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and the possible role Russia could play in implementation on the ground.

While Russia has not committed any troops to the international force in Lebanon, there was some talk in Moscow of sending army engineers to help rebuild the country's damaged infrastructure.

"Who knows," one Israeli official said, "they may come with other ideas as well." The official said that Lavrov's visit now must be seen within the context of the visits over the last two weeks of numerous foreign ministers.

[Rasputin]

"They want to be relevant," the official said, "and not leave all the work to the Americans, Germans and French." The Russian claim to relevance stems from the fact that unlike the US, it has an open channel of communications with both Teheran and Damascus.

Another issue that will be discussed is Iran, and the question of imposing sanction on Teheran now that it has decided to go ahead with the uranium enrichment. Lavrov suggested on Wednesday during a visit to Cape Town, where he was accompanying President Vladimir Putin on a state visit, that the Kremlin was contemplating the possibility of sanctions but remained opposed to harsh and quick punishment.

Russia, along with China, has steadfastly opposed efforts by the United States and other Western nations to bring sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program.

Lavrov said the UN Security Council's recent resolution on the issue holds out the possibility of further measures on Iran such as economic penalties, banning air travel or breaking diplomatic relations, but not the use of armed force.

"This article envisages measures to exert influence on a country that is not cooperating, including economic ones, but it is written unambiguously there that this excludes any kind of forceful measures of influence," ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

Another issue that will be discussed in Israel, according to Israeli officials, is a planned visit by Olmert to Russia in mid-October. This would be Olmert's first trip to Russia since he became prime minister, and his first trip abroad since June.

[Rasputin]

Lebanon has always been the postcard picture of what is fundamentally wrong and what is potentially hopeful about the Arab and the Muslim world in general--its divisive and factious politics oscillating fatefully between destructive sectarianism and thriving cosmopolitanism, and the year 2005 brought this historic paradox to perfect realization--a year that brought both grief and solidarity to Lebanon, both outspoken demands for freedom and democracy and heavy prices paid for those ideals. In February 2005, Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri was killed by a car bomb in Beirut. The assassination of Hariri, admired by the business community and the middle class Lebanese, while severely criticized by the progressive left, ignited both pro- and anti-Syrian sentiments and resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami's cabinet. By March 2005, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese joined pro- and anti-Syrian rallies in Beirut. By the following month, in April 2005, Karami resigned as Prime Minister, having failed to form a government, and yielding to the moderate pro-Syrian MP Najib Mikati.

Pressure on Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon was now intensified, and finally Bashar Al-Assad yielded to the collective will of the Lebanese--endorsed by the UN, and abused by the US and France--and ended the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. This was not to be the end of the Lebanese woes. In June 2005, the prominent journalist Samir Qassir, severely critical of the Syrian presence in Lebanon, but curiously silent on other forms of military occupations in the region, was assassinated. His death was a major trauma in Lebanese consciousness. Posters and even an oversize statue of Samir Qassir sprang all over Beirut, and his diehard followers pushed for a UN investigation and punishment of those responsible for his murder.

What was now dubbed a Cedar Revolution by the US neocons and a Gucci Revolution by the progressive Lebanese left was fully underway. Middle class Lebanese bourgeoisie was now fully in line with a pro-American, pro-French, anti-Hizbullah, and anti-Palestinian (and thus effectively pro-Israeli) disposition. Under these circumstances an anti-Syrian alliance, led by Rafik Al-Hariri's son, Saad Al-Hariri, won control of the Lebanese parliament. The new parliament elected the major Hariri ally, Fouad Siniora, as Prime Minister. But the political circumstances in Lebanon were still purgatorial. George Hawi, an anti-Syrian former leader of the Lebanese Communist Party, was killed by a car bomb. But despite all these turmoil, by July 2005, the Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora met with Syria's President Assad, working towards a new, bilateral, relationship. By September of that year, four pro-Syrian generals were charged over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and before the year ended, a prominent anti-Syrian MP and journalist, Gibran Tueni, was assassinated. Who ever was behind these assassinations, what ever one might think of the pro- and anti-Syrian sentiments among various Lebanese factions, a fragile parliamentary democracy seemed to have held Lebanon together not just despite its factious politics but in fact paradoxically because of it.