More MSM Propaganda Exposed
There's a story just starting to make the rounds of the MSM outlets - that Israel is targeting ambulances. You can find it mentioned in the New York Times, the Guardian and several more outlets. But it appears our friends from ... wait for it, that's right, Qana, may be up to some new tricks.
The story goes that the Israeli's struck two ambulances, injuring nine people, severing one man's leg. There's only one problem; it looks as though it isn't true.
Look at this:
Another medic fumbled for the radio and began: "We have an accident …" He didn't finish the sentence. A second missile smashed into the ambulance behind them. "When we were driving in the ambulance before, we did not feel we are safe 100 per cent," Mr Chaalan told the Los Angeles Times from hospital on Monday. "But now it's direct on us."
Unfortunately for Mr. Chaalan, it's doubtful the second ambulance exists and his ambulance wasn't struck by a missile at all.
A Lebanese Red Cross ambulance worker peers from the roof top of an ambulance that was bombed, at the Red Cross station in Tyre, south Lebanon, August 1, 2006. The ambulance was hit on July 26 during an Israeli air raid
It seems when he first told the story, there was only one ambulance and the alleged missile strike took place on the 23. And that's also what he told the Red Cross, though the second ambulance was added.
"The night of July 23 we were called to rescue a family whose home was bombed," Kassem Shaulan, a 28-year-old medic with the Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre told IPS. "Just as I finished loading the three injured people in my ambulance, it was struck by a rocket and all of us were injured."
The ambulance, now parked outside of the Red Cross headquarters in this coastal city, had a hole through the centre of the red cross painted on its roof. The inside was heavily damaged and pieces of the metal frame of the van hung limply, riddled with shrapnel holes.
The Red Cross worker had several wounds on his body, and stitches on his chin and leg. He said he could not hear very well any more.
"There was an old man on a stretcher in the ambulance who lost his leg from the bomb," Shaulan said. "And a child with us is now in coma. The third person is critically injured."
So, why add this second mysterious ambulance? Because there's photographic evidence such a strike never took place. The image at right above is one circulating showing the alleged missile strike at 300x magnification. Does that look like a missile strike to you? Or did someone simply remove the blue flashing light casing that should be there? But there's more.
Click here for a large blow up of the inside of the ambulance. It seems the missile that allegedly hit the van from above never managed to get inside. There is no hole in the floor, though someone was smart enough to pile up some rubbish where it should be. But there's also another problem. From the accounts, there was a man lying on one of the built in gurneys pictured - his leg severed by the missile. So how is it that neither gurney shows any damage at all? What was this, laser surgery? And still there's much more, please read it all.
The roof of the ambulance is caved but the floor and side board are perfectly flat. The driver said there was a huge explosion and a fire, I couldn't tell it from the image of the inside of the van, can you? And in the image at left you'll see that the windshield caved in. There's no way that would happen from an explosion where it is alleged to have taken place. And in the large image linked above, note the complete absence of any glass at all inside the van from the many side windows - not one shred of glass at all. That's likely because it was removed months ago.
Also, inside the van - no smoke damage at all. There is no discoloration, but we're supposed to believe that the ordinance exploded in there while the van was closed? No singe marks on anything, nothing. There's no way this adds up to an explosion and fire as the driver stated. Not to mention not a visible drop of blood from what is described as a severe wound taking off part of a man's leg and injuring two others.
Now click on this link to see the van from the top front right in a MSM piece. This incident is alleged to have just happened, but there are several gouges which don't appear related to any missile and they are all extremely old, as they are completely surrounded with rust. Here the picture is brightened, hiding the rust.
Thanks to of all places, aljazeera, I submit that this is the van in question, one in which someone planted a bomb back in June.
Initial reports suggested the explosion occurred when the driver of the ambulance was inspecting the vehicle.
But eyewitnesses later said that a device exploded when the driver had tried to turn on the ignition of the ambulance.
Jihad Halaweh, the ambulance driver was struck in the stomach and feet when the blast went off.
The ambulance, which bore the Hizb Allah insignia was also badly damaged.
Hizb Allah, a Shi’a Muslim group backed by Syria and Iran, is largely credited with driving Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in May 2000.
The image being shopped around with the story by the MSM is of this van:
The ambulance, now parked outside of the Red Cross headquarters in this coastal city, had a hole through the centre of the red cross painted on its roof. The inside was heavily damaged and pieces of the metal frame of the van hung limply, riddled with shrapnel holes.
Unfortunately for the propagandists, an Indymedia story actually published the image of the entire van
Here are all the Red Cross bulletins from the region, they barely mention the van incident. I doubt they believe it themselves. But Time sure loved the story. The Boston Globe made four stories out of it. It's even a Yahoo favorite photo.
Update: Some might say another conspiracy theory. Really? While it's linked above, read this, you'll see he claims to have been dispatched to a home. There is nothing about meeting another ambulance, as other versions claim. And why would he make this statement:
As a Red Cross volunteer I need to be very clear that we are not political -- we rescue anyone who needs help," the 32-year-old Zatar told IPS. As a colleague unloaded bodies from bloody stretchers, Zatar said "whether they are civilian, a resistance fighter or an Israeli soldier, our policy is to help any human who needs help. But the Israelis seem to be attacking us now."
No, he's not political. Not much. So why the different versions of the story then? It doesn't add up. In one version:
A middle-aged man lost his leg, his mother was partly paralysed, and shrapnel pierced a little boy's head.
In another:
Mr Fawaz was unconscious after losing one leg, and suffering severe fractures to the other. His son had lost part of a foot
In one story the elderly woman is critical, in another she's unscathed.
An elderly woman patient was relatively unscathed,....
Google different versions, you'll find him inside the ambulance giving an IV in one version, but all of the medics standing outside in another. Maybe he should make up his non-political mind.
But just like with the story from Qana ... see lgf - the AP will probably just give themselves more rewards.