TailOverTeaKettle.com

Amnesty International released their initial ‘findings’ in the Hezbollah-Isreal affair.

Their initial ‘report’ (Israel/Lebanon Deliberate destruction or “collateral damage”?), released in both English and Arabic… but not in Hebrew, changes “Amnesty International’s findings point to an Israeli policy of deliberate destruction of Lebanese civilian infrastructure, which included war crimes, during the recent conflict.” Back to the ‘disproportionate response’ theory… regardless of the fact that Hezbollah used the civilian population as shields.

The most interesting snipet to me is this one:

Nor does (the report) address the attacks by Hizbullah into Israel and their impact on civilians – these are being addressed elsewhere.

Elsewhere? Something tells me that there won’t be quite the same press release generated ‘elsewhere’.

              

Following up the counterfeit cash story further today, the opinion pages of the USA Today are good for a laugh. In the Op-Ed How to counter terrorists who also pass out cash, it seems to imply that the best way to the “hearts and minds” is to hand out sacks of cash.

Imagine you’re in a financial bind. You can’t pay your electricity bill. Or your child wants to go to college but family finances don’t stretch that far. Some men turn up at your apartment, pay your bills and negotiate future reductions with the power company. They foot the college tuition. They ask for nothing in return but gratitude.

Welcome to the way Hezbollah has been operating in poor, Shiite southern Lebanon since the group was created, with Iran’s help, in the early 1980s. In recent days, it has been handing out wads of cash to people whose homes were destroyed in the month-long war between Isreal and Hezbollah. Just business as usual.

Therein lies a challenge for the United States: how to counter terrorist groups that double as popular, effective social service organizations.

On Monday, President Bush boosted an American aid offer to Lebanon from $50 million to $230 million. After Hezbollah’s well-publicized generosity, it looked like belated catch-up. And the U.S. offer carries credibility problems, given that some Israeli bombs were made in the USA, sparking a fierce anti-American outburst among the Lebanese.

Even so, the enhanced aid effort in Lebanon can be a first step toward recognizing something long lost in the Bush administration’s approach to the world: that military might can’t solve every crisis.

The United States can’t hope to match the laser-targeted aid given by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. Both have networks of informants who know everyone’s business. But showing understanding and respect of other people, as well as a willingness to help, is key to winning hearts and minds - as that Dale Carnegie classic How to Win Friends and Influence People preaches.

The Bush administration’s post-9/11 approach to the world - dividing it into friends and enemies and relying on bullying rhetoric and military might - has stirred so much anti-Americanism that it could be called How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

To be sure, terrorism and anti-Americanism aren’t going to be solved by niceness or naive PR. But recent history provides a solid example of success. During the Cold War, the United States ran programs to reach out to people under communist dictatorships. Many an Eastern European fell in love with America and what it stood for by hearing a visiting jazz musician, stopping by a U.S. library, studying at a U.S. college or developing a friendship with an exchange student. Solid relationships develop over time and at a very personal level. That’s something Hezbollah understands - and the United States needs to relearn.

The world, and the enemies, are different today. Religious fanatics are harder to convert than godless communists. Satellite TV and the Internet have changed communications. But reaching out is still possible. Major aid efforts after Indonesia’s tsunami and Pakistan’s earthquake, for example, boosted the U.S. image in those Muslim nations.

In 2000, when Bush was a candidate for president, he defined his future foreign policy: “If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us,” he said. “If we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us.” It’s not too late to start acting on those forgotten, pre-9/11 words of wisdom.

Let me get this straight. The United States is the ‘bad guy’, because the bombs used by Isreal were made in America - which sparks anti-US feelings. Hezbollah uses the civilian population as human shields and is responsible for provoking the Isreali response in the first place… and they are the ‘good guys’. If this logic is indeed true, why doesn’t the editorialist realize that there is then no way for the USA to provoke good feelings. [Remember back in 2004 when Iran refused earthquake aid because of its ‘Zionist’ taint!]

‘Both have networks of informants who know everyone’s business’: that doesn’t sound like a very good thing — sounds more like intimidation to me. How are they suggesting that the social networking be accomplished? Instead, Bush is belittled for saying that democracy is the best medicine, and it should be the people of each nation that start to experience what power this can really be for themselves - it is not just a gift from the USA.

I can’t even comment on the Dale Carnegie reference. We’re not going on a sales call here. It wouldn’t matter whether the US hands out $50 million or $230 million or $1 billion dollars in aid. As they say… “money can’t buy me love”. (But heck - if the Hezzbollah is handing out counterfeit cash maybe we should consider sending over some counterfeit Iranian rials as our aid packages!) People’s homes would not have been destroyed if the Hezzbollah rockets hadn’t been fired in the first place. A real peace (and then prosperity) can come to the region only if the population and government divorce themselves from those who do not want peace at all. I certainly can understand the predictament of the government officials. Maybe they will lose their power (or their lives) if Iran is unhappy. But they will not have a lasting peace, a real peace, until they remove that influence.

And by the way, the protest against ‘dividing the world into friends and enemies’ doesn’t ring true at all. The innocent people in Lebanon, Iraq, and elsewhere are not the enemy. But trying to pretend that there is not evil is just foolish. The rest is just a nice bumper sticker slogan.

The degree of effectiveness of the P.R. job with the Lebanese people is unclear. However, the Western MSM has bought in - hook, line, and sinker.

              

Alabama Liberation Front has been collecting more puzzling facts in the case of the Hezbollah Counterfeit Charity work (Cash-Bollah 3: Advancing the story) which he dubs “Cash-Bollah (a/k/a Hez-Dollars)” — nice name!

For me, at the time when the Hezbollah “charity work” news releases were flooding the MSM network, was the strange terminology. Everytime the money was mentioned… the money was not only American, but “crisp”. (Every reporter working from the same press release, script, or something? Don’t say plagerism??) Over and over:

• Seattle Times (via LA Times): “At a school in south Beirut’s Bourj el-Barajneh neighborhood, Hezbollah started handing out crisp $100 bills to residents who lost homes in the Israeli bombing campaign — $12,000 to each claimant. The stacks of bills were pulled out of a suitcase. Hezbollah is financed by oil-rich Iran.”
• SF Chronicle (via NY Times): “Hezbollah volunteers handed out grants of $12,000 — in stacks of crisp U.S. $100 bills — as part of its campaign to help families whose houses were destroyed over the past month.”

• Sunday Herald: ““Hezbollah keeps it promises and here is the proof,” acknowledged one man pocketing some of the crisp $100 bills handed out by Hezbollah members, who also called people by phone to come and collect their financial assistance.”
• AP: “In an embarrassment to the Lebanese government, Hezbollah started handing out crisp $100 bills Friday to residents who lost their homes in the Israeli bombing campaign — $12,000 to each claimant at a school in south Beirut.”

But beyond the phraseology of the MSM, it comes down to where the money is flowing from. If in fact this is counterfeit cash, we already know that North Korea has been in the counterfeiting business. And that’s a lot easier to bankroll the “generousity” than by using Iranian oil money. I suspect it will only be a short time before we see a more concrete link betweek North Korea - Iran - Hezbollah.

This morning Neal Boortz tips the story about English night vision goggles recovered by the IDF that travelled England - UN and then via Iran to Hezbollah. (But don’t worry… diplomacy and negotiation with Iran will work this time with respect to their development of nuclear capabilities.)

Here’s hoping that we keep on the trail of these crisp $100 bills!

              

Appeasement does not work.

Over the weekend, there has been a suspect arrested in connection with the failed plot to bomb commuter trains in Germany. A student from Lebanon is being held. The USA Today reports on the arrest today (In Germany, terror suspect’s arrest shakes sense of security).

“I am shocked,” said Jürgen Lesch, 56, a Dresden software developer. “Now it looks like terrorism has reached us, as well.”

Germany’s refusal to take part in the U.S.-led war in Iraq once had Germans thinking Islamic terrorists would focus elsewhere, said Lesch’s wife, Marita, 52, a teacher. “We didn’t fight in Iraq, and until now we assumed that if we behaved well in the world, nothing would happen to us,” she said.

You can hide your eyes, but it does not make the evil disappear.

              

After all of the hoopla over photoshopped images being distributed by Reuters, other questions about the mysterious “Green Helmet” man who appears in many ‘massacre’ photos and has been scene directing camera shots, comes an interesting twist. Newsbusters reports that one of the AP stringers also gets quoted regularly and there identifies himself not as a photographer, but rather as a Red Cross volunteer. See AP Stringer Was Lebanese Red Cross Volunteer at Qana 1 & 2 for all the details.

              

Amid all of the speculation over John Mark Karr, his transportation from Bangkok, and possible charges in the JonBenet Ramsey case - there is an interesting tidbit in todays AJC (NOTED):

Nearly 200 people confessed to the abduction and slaying of the Lindbergh baby, reports Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at Williams College (Mass.) and an expert on false confessions. The Denver Post quotes Kassin as saying that people fabricate admissions to crimes simply to get attention, because they are mentally ill or because they have a desire to punish themselves for other misdeeds. Kassin took no position on the validity of the confession by suspect John Mark Karr in the JonBenet Ramsey case.

Time will tell what involvement Karr may have had in the Ramsey case… but a pretty creepy guy nonetheless. If for no other reason, at least he can face the child porn charges in California from which he fled the country. And he won’t be teaching kids again anytime soon.

              

This morning’s AJC brings the grim report: Georgia leads nation in illegal immigrant growth. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a report estimating the number of illegals (or “unauthorized immigrant population” in their terminology) in the country. They guess the number nationwide to be 10.5 million on January 2005, of which 60% are from Mexico.

You can read the entire report here: Estimates of the Unauthorized
Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2005. From the report:

California was home to more unauthorized residents than any other state. In January 2005, an estimated 2.8 million unauthorized immigrants lived in California, followed by Texas with nearly 1.4 million and Florida with 850,000. […] The states with the greatest percentage increases in unauthorized immigrants from 2000 to 2005 were Georgia (114 percent), Arizona (45 percent), Nevada (41 percent), and North Carolina (38 percent).

Georgia’s Security and Immigration Compliance Act is a start, but it has to be something more than a campaign slogan, but really enforced. A good summary:

Among the key provisions of Senate Bill 529:

• Penalties for violations after July 1.

• A requirement that employers prove the legal status of workers before claiming tax deductions.

• A requirement that companies doing business with the state participate in a federal verification program for their employees.

• Denial of nonessential taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens.

• A requirement that the immigration status of anyone imprisoned on a felony charge be verified.

• A crackdown on fraudulent document traffickers.

• Employers, including contractors and subcontractors, must be compliant with the electronic verification of work authorization programs by July 1, 2007, in order to receive state contracts for services.

• The Commissioner of Labor shall prescribe forms and promulgate rules and regulations deemed necessary in order to administer this law and publish rules and regulations on the Department of Labor’s Web site.

• Criminal penalties for any person or corporation that knowingly recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides or obtains another person for work or service by another person and induced or obtained through coercion or deception.

              

In honor of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor’s pronouncement that “there are no hereditary Kings in America,” - enjoy Groucho Marx from Duck Soup - a President who really knows how to make his own rules!

These are the laws of my administration
No one’s allowed to smoke
Or tell a dirty joke
And whistling is forbidden…
If chewing gum is chewed
The chewer is pursued.
And in the hoosegow hidden…
If any form of pleasure is exhibited
Report to me and it will be prohibited.
I’ll put my foot down, so shall it be.
This is the land of the free.

The last man nearly ruined this place
He didn’t know what to do with it
If you think this country’s bad off now
Just wait ’til I get through with it
The country’s taxes must be fixed
And I know what to do with it
If you think you’re paying too much now
Just wait ’til I get through with it…

I will not stand for anything that’s crooked or unfair
I’m strictly on the up and up
So everyone beware
If anyone’s caught taking graft
And I don’t get my share
We stand ‘em up against the wall
And pop goes the weasel.

If any man should come between her husband and his bride
We find out which one she prefers
By letting her decide
If she prefers the other man
The husband steps outside
We stand ‘em up against the wall
And pop goes the weasel.

              

Must is being made of the fact that Hezbollah is running around south Lebanon handing out cash (Hezbollah’s charity wins southern Lebanese loyalty, Hezbollah vows to pay for rebuilding, and Hezbollah hands out cash to Lebanese war victims). The point is clear - hand out money and the people will love you!

But Newsbusters is all over the story: A Sudden Lack of Context. Notice that the cash being handed out is US currency? Very interesting. What the heck would people in Lebannon be doing with US currency?

Counterfeit U.S. currency perhaps?

              

With the UN-sanctioned cease-fire in place in Lebanon, it looks like the Jimmy Carter-style effort is moving along as expected. The Lebanese Army, previously afraid to get involved, is moving south with a strong commitment (Lebanese Cabinet Agrees to Deploy Troops):

“There will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hezbollah,” Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the Cabinet meeting. “That is not the army’s mission. … They are not going to chase or, God forbid, exact revenge (on Hezbollah).”

Of course not. Why attempt to eliminate Hezbollah - it’s not as if they were firing rockets into Israeli cities or anything… it’s not like they provoked the latest confrontation.

Meanwhile, the French-led UN effort seems to have hit a couple of unexpected snags. For such a well thought-out plan, it seems that there are just a couple loose ends.

As French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie pointed out (France defends sending 200 troops) - “Since the start of the crisis, France is on the frontline and it is the top contributor.”

I mean really… there will be two hundred extra observers just waiting to write up reports should Isreal not behave.

As the story goes on to say:

France and Italy — another potential European contributor — have said the peacekeeping mandate is not explicit enough, and demanded the U.N. set clear rules of engagement for troops bolstering the force.

“You have to tell the troops why they are there. To support the Lebanese army, certainly, but to what extent? In what fields? Secondly, we also need to know what are the material and judicial means at our disposal,” said Alliot-Marie.

“You can’t send in men and tell them: ‘Look at what is going on, (but) you don’t have the right to defend yourself or to shoot’,” she said.

No kidding. If the UN force is not set to do what the Lebanese army is unwilling or unable to do, namely remove Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, then the UN resolutions are not worth the paper on which they are written.

Maybe they should pick up some of the bundles of cash reportedly being passed out by Hizbollah (rather than apologies for causing the conflict).

“Americans, American administration: you are partners in massacres, you are partners in killing us, partners in destroying our country,” (senior Hizbollah official Sheikh Nabil Kaouk) declared.

No word on who the French are partnering with.