Was Qana Staged? (Banner of Sec. Rice had to be made well in advance)

NRO ^ | 7/31/2006 | Jonah Goldberg

[Uncledave]

Was Qana Staged? Cont'd [Jonah Goldberg]

A giant banner denouncing Rice and the "Qana massacre" might have been made a bit too quickly.

I don't want to get too far out ahead on this, but I know we've got a zillion printer-type folks among our readers. Do you guys think such a banner could be made in 2-4 hours (particularly in a supposedly war-ravaged area)?

Update: From a reader:

"Do you guys think such a banner could be made in 2-4 hours (particularly in a supposedly war-ravaged area)?"

Heck no. A designer could throw it together in probably 15 minutes or so, but the longest part would be the printing. Notice how deep the reds and blacks are - this means they didn't just bust it out. I wouldnt be surprised if that job itself (requiring special equipment, as it looks to be printed on canvas or nylon, not merely paper) took 6 hours simply to print.

Also, that puppy would be expensive.

Update II: From a reader:

Nope. Not possible in 2 hours to design, typeset, print, assemble and transport to the site. 24 hours if you're really good to do all the above. I say that as an career commercial artist of 18 years now.

Update III: From another reader:

called a close friend who has a very large printing company in NY with the question.  he called out to one of his technicians as to how long a color 30 foot banner would take to produce.  the response was that it would have to be done by a special machine and that machine would take "5 to 6 hours."     by the way, their rather enormous, state of the art (less than 6 months old) facility doesn't even have the equipment necessary to do it.  so make a guess as to what's available in a war-ravaged area...

 

[listenhillary]

14'x 20' @ 1000 sq ft per hour would be 2.8 hours. It 's also not wide enough to do a 15 ft wide banner.

[stlnative]

cross ref...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1675562/posts

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

How does this news get to the media?

Everyone has at template, including you and me. In my case the template is that mass-market journalism attracts its mass market by promoting itself, and it promotes itself by criticizing anyone and everyone who we count on for things we need.

• You need water? Journalists will suggest that something serious is wrong with the water company.

• You need food? Journalists will suggest that something serious is wrong with the chemicals used to promote the growth and retard the spoilage of your food.

• You need security? Journalists will suggest that the police and the military are brutal but ineffective.

Journalism is negative, and since it is written on a short deadline it is superficial, and is written to a predictable negative template. Journalism is arrogant in promoting itself above all the people who are doing the serious things like providing food, water, and security to us all. And journalism is hypocritical in the way it attacks safe targets which will not hit back:

• Christians and Jews, not Muslims,
• American authorities in America and not Iraqi authorities in Saddam's Iraq,
• Churches and not other journalists.

The journalistic template simply does not include admitting that it was wrong in any significant way. Once they have told us that there was a massacre, journalism is unwilling to admit that it was a con. It would much rather continue to run with what fit its template in the first place. Just as they continue the "McCarthyism" slur even though the evidence against McCarthy is also largely evidence for him.

[Barney59]

I'm afraid the only one O'Reilly is for is... O'Reilly.

[HawaiianGecko]

14'x 20' @ 1000 sq ft per hour would be 2.8 hours. It 's also not wide enough to do a 15 ft wide banner

A 14x20 is 280 sq ft.  280sqft/1000sqft/hour = .28 hours.  0.28hours x (60 min/hour) = 16.8 minutes which converts to 16 minutes and 48 seconds to be precise. Secondly there are no 15 ft wide printers running around that I'm aware of. This particular one is 42" there are 60" wide printers in both the HP and Xerox series. It prints in 4 parts of 3.5' x 20 and you glue the segments together. Ever watch a billboard go up?

 

[pke]

What does the print say?

"Thankyou American liberals and media outlets for your continued support."

[listenhillary]

Bad math apology.

[Dave Elias]

What a load of crap this whole article is. Israel actually have admitted bombing this building and it's subsequent collapse.

There is absolutely no context for the banner (where is it hung, when was it hung?)

The conspiracy theories listed on this thread are risible to say the least.

It is far more plausible that the banner is photoshopped on the photograph or the letters are simply stuck on.

[balk]

A closer look at the poster as it is being unfurled:

Caption:

Reuters - Sun Jul 30, 12:55 PM ET

Lebanese protesters unfold a poster of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a protest in Beirut, July 30, 2006 after an Israeli air raid on Qana, killed more than 54 people, 37 of them children, in south Lebanon, July 30, 2006.

[Miss Behave]

What does the print say?

It says that Hillary Clinton was named after Sir Edmund Hillary.

[woollyone]

wondered the exact same thing. Who is that?

Also of note...Condi's lipstick is intentionally smeared in the banner photo...maybe to appear as blood...that, plus the exagerated fang. Interesting.

[Warren_Piece]

It is far more plausible that the banner is photoshopped on the photograph or the letters are simply stuck on.

See #169. It's not just the banner. It's "the preponderance of the evidence". It's overwhelming that this was a setup.

And those here that know me know that I'm a cautious type who doesn't fall for wild conspiracy theories.

[Steve_Seattle]

" . . . the American MSM are the foolish and willing dupes of a cynical and murderous terrorist evil. This cinches it, IMHO."

I have gone over similar problems with local journalists, and the simple fact is this: the MSM are extremely unwilling to admit that their reporting reflects any bias, conscious or otherwise. A certain professional arrogance almost blinds them to that possibility. They simply do not recognize the degree to which they operate with a group mentality. Last week, when the Wa State Supreme Court upheld the state's no-same-sex-marriage law, virtually every columnist and editorialist on the Seattle Times wrote a column blasting the decision. The proverbial herd of independent minds . . .

[Steve_Seattle]

"52 people were killed . . . triggering global outrage"

Meanwhile, in Iraq, the terrists killed dozens more, as they do on a regular basis. Where's the global outrage?

[RayChuang88]

I think the folks who tried to stage that event at Qana just found out how it was like to be Mary Mapes and Dan Rather when the Rathergate scandal ruined Mapes and Rather's career in no time flat. Seems like the jihadist crowd (which are supposed to be quite Internet savvy) forgot about how fast we can do fact-checking on the Internet.

[Remole]

The poster mentions the Aug 30 incident as Qana 2. Qana 1 was a very similar incident in 1996, when it is likely that the Hezzies staged a mass casualty event after an IDF bombing run.

[Steve_Seattle]

"I long ago lost count of the number of times I've switched on the TV and seen crazy guys jumping up and down in the street, torching the Stars and Stripes . . . "

Or marching around with posters of their favorite mullah or sheik. Whatever happened to their so-called prohibition of idolatry and human images? (Which they have invoked as an excuse not to participate in art classes in American public schools.)

[Warren_Piece]

No rescue efforts. Dead, but apprently uninjured child. Green Helmet guy (everything about him, including the fact that he is the Greg Packer of bombed buildings).

All of this, combined with the strange timing of the banner, make one go hmmmmmm....

[Steve_Seattle]

Re: Your and others info on large-scale print technology.

This is one of the things that makes FR great; all the varied expertise that people bring to it. You can be sure that no one watching CBS/ABC/NBC is getting any of this info, because the MSM takes that banner at face value, despite the questions it raises.

[jcdc]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3284514,00.html


Lebanese website blames Hizbullah for Qana deaths



Anti-Syrian elements in Lebanon openly point finger at Hizbullah as guilty of killing of dozens of civilians in order to curtail plans for disarming group. 'Hizbullah has placed rocket launcher on building's roof and brought invalid children inside in bid to provoke Israeli response,' they write
Roee Nahmias


Is Hizbullah behind the tragic incident in the village of Qana that claimed the lives of some 60 people? While the Israeli army continues to investigate the circumstances leading to the building's collapse, some in Lebanon do not hesitate to point the finger at the Shiite organization and claim it is to blame for the death of dozens.


The Lebanese website LIBANOSCOPIE , associated with Christian elements in the country and which openly supports the anti-Syrian movement called the "March 14 Forces," reported that Hizbullah has masterminded a plan that would result in the killing of innocents in the Qana village, in a bid to foil Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's "Seven Points Plan", which calls for deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hizbullah.


'Disabled children placed inside building'


"We have it from a credible source that Hizbullah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations.
Knowing full well that Israel will not hesitate to bombard civilian targets, Hizbullah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the negotiation initiative," the site stated.


The site's editors also claimed that not only did Hizbullah stage the event, but that it also chose Qana for a specific reason: "They used Qana because the village had already turned into a symbol for massacring innocent civilians, and so they set up 'Qana 2'." Notably, the incident has indeed been dubbed "The second Qana massacre" by the Arab media.