Posted on 07/19/2006 10:36:44 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch
U.S. to evacuate 7,000 from Lebanon by Friday State Department waives fees for Americans fleeing fighting (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it will help evacuate 7,000 Americans from war-torn Lebanon within the next two days. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told CNN's "American Morning" that 1,000 would leave Wednesday, 2,000 Thursday and 4,000 more by Friday. About 450 of the estimated 25,000 Americans in Lebanon have been evacuated to the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants started July 12. Wednesday's arrivals in Cyprus included dozens of U.S. college students who endured an 11-hour voyage on a dirty, crowded Norwegian-chartered car ferry to escape the violence. (Watch 'floating refugee camp' heads to Cyprus -- 2:34) Ashley Marinaccio, 20, a college student from Long Branch, New Jersey, said the ferry was like a "floating refugee camp" with "tons of flies," few places to sit or sleep, five toilets, a shortage of toilet paper and several ill passengers. "It got really dirty," Marinaccio said. "We knew that it would be over, and we were going to safety, so it was all we thought about." The ship carried 1,100 Europeans -- but also made room for 127 U.S. citizens, including the students and several American families. Marinaccio said it was it "really disappointing" that the U.S. Embassy told the students "we're assessing the situation" while others from the Netherlands, Switzerland and France had been evacuated three days earlier. Thousands of people have been shipped out of Beirut's port on cruise ships and military vessels that must pass through an Israeli naval blockade as they take people to Cyprus, about about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Lebanon. About 800 Americans and Britons left Beirut on Wednesday aboard the Orient Queen, ....
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Gee, another "sociology" major.
Why am I not surprised.
By now we expect nothing more from CNN.
google her name... she seems to be a liberal hack that cnn found...
Ping!
If there is one thing I admire about the Lebanese people (and this goes for my Palestinian friends too) is their resilance. They are completely unbreakable. It's amazing to see how strong people are in the face of complete distruction. They cannot be broken.
The only gripe I really had was that so much of the best sites and soccofogusses, artifacts etc. had been moved out and put in museums around the world...
Okay... and my favorite part of the ancient ruins (bare with me) was the amplitheatre (of course)... which the Phoenicians had built as a tribute to Baccas (the god of wine and theatre).
Is she not a theater major? She means Bacchus, right?
Oh yes, the theater major who can't spell "amplitheatre".
Don't misunderstand me, I am glad the students got out. BUT, there were state department warnings before they left for school in Lebanon. The students chose either not to read them or to ignore them. Then the students were criticizing the Administration for not getting them out immediately. It was all Bush's fault that they were inconvenienced. Now, I'm sure it will also be Bush's fault that they had to endure dirty conditions for less than a day. I am getting tired of listening to people whine. This writer should be grateful that she got out of Lebanon even ahead of people with small children. She needs to take some responsibility for putting herself in harm's way. She was warned by this administration. Instead of writing about all the things that were wrong, how about writing something positive about how great it was to be out of a war zone.
Paging Drudge, Malkin and National Review Online. This a gem you can't deny.
this girl doesn't need a boat, she needs a dictionary
Oh, poor spoiled dear. She's use to travelling in far plusher circumstances than this. I wonder if it was a problem that the Perrier was served at room temperature. And the bar wasn't even stocked with Dom! I mean, anyone who'd travel to Lebanon must have high standards and high expectations if they'd vacation in such a posh and high class destination like Lebanon!
I'm REALLY sick of these spoiled rich kids and their bitching that we're not hopping too quickly enough to evac. their dumb a--es. Who told them to go to Lebanon? So we have to send Marines into harm's way and devote MY tax money to evacuate a bunch of college chicks who went to Lebanon because Europe has become too run of the mill for them? Did it ever occur to you that Europeans got their people out quicker BECAUSE EUROPE IS CLOSER TO LEBANON THAN THE US IS YOU TWIT???
We all apologize to you Ashley that the US Navy was busy in the Pacific containing North Korea and China and not waiting off shore from Lebanon just in case you and your airhead, vapid friends got into trouble while backpacking through the Bekaa Valley. Next year, go to Orlando...and pay attention to State Department travel warnings.
Yes, quite bad. Yeah, this is a junior in college.
And she can't spell resilience or destruction, either. Her bio says she is researching Palestinians on something.
Which means the PR people for the Palestinian terrorist orgs. are escorting her around and offering her tea and sympathy and warm human contact.
Good grief. Even an ignoramous can figure out how to use spell check. Too much to ask from this brilliant lass.......er ass.
I am totally enjoying her discomfort!
Thats just a quick cut out of pages and pages of er blog. I am sure there are more. I guess college juniors really rely on spellcheck.
I am a third year sociology/anthropology and theatre double major with minors in women studies and Middle Eastern Studies at Pace University in Manhattan. I have been a reporter and contributor to the Pace Press student newspaper for the past 3 years and have written for the Scribe and Black Coffee, two other campus publications. I am also very active on campus in political, human rights and social justice groups. I am founder/president of Pace CARES- HIV/AIDS organization and have served as president of the Women’s Action Network. This summer I am working as a stringer for MTVU and Frommer's "Summer Road Trip" where I will be travel writing in New England. I am also studying abroad in Beirut, Lebanon for 5 weeks beginning at the end of June where I will be participating in the Lebanese American University’s Summer Arabic Intensive and doing extensive research on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
Along with activism, my greatest passion is theatre. I am interested in documentary theatre (creating theatre from true life stories) and have been very active in political and social justice theatre in NYC as a director, actor and writer. My goal is to reach as many people as I can through the arts, writing and media to broaden people’s knowledge of other cultures and raise awareness of the human rights issues. I would like to inspire people to become socially conscious to bring about positive change.
I am very interested in contributing to SOP as a writer and photographer. I am primarily interested in writing news stories, especially those dealing with international and human rights issues. I can also provide SOP with articles on the arts and culture.
I don't like my tax money going to bailing out these mental midgets who choose to be in the middle east on vacation.
Run your mouth and complain about how bad it (was/is), getting your a?s saved. I say dump you over the side of the cruise ship.
Can't wait to see how her student loans are paid back. Maybe CNN will hire her as a "star reporter".
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