What were UN observers at al-Khiam reporting?

UN officer reported Israeli war crimes before deadly bombing: widow

The original CBC report was deleted or archived, but here is a capture of the report found August 13, 2014, at Militaryphotos.net.  http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?128478-UN-officer-reported-Israeli-war-crimes-before-deadly-bombing-widow:

Last Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 2008 | 10:03 PM ET 

CBC News 

A United Nations military observer sent e-mails home to Canada reporting that Israel was bombing schools and waging "a campaign of terror against the Lebanese people" shortly before he was killed by an Israeli bomb in Lebanon, said his widow.
Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener of Kingston, Ont., a member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was one of four UN military observers who died when the Israeli Defence Forces bombed a marked United Nations post on July 25, 2006.

Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener said she believes her husband, Paeta, and three other UN observers were specifically targeted when their post was bombed by Israel.
(Submitted by Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener)

Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener said her husband's mission was to report on the hostilities in the area and she believes that is why Israeli forces attacked the Israeli United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) post, despite Israel's claims that the bombing was accidental.
"Obviously they were unhappy with what they were observing. Maybe that post was in the way as well," she said. "I know my husband was reporting war crimes. And I guess they don't want to deal with that."
Hess-von Kruedener said she is speaking out this week because a Canadian Forces board of inquiry report issued recently about the bombing has left questions unanswered.
The report, released Jan. 31, blamed the Israeli Defence Forces for the incident, but also found the Israeli military refused to provide documents other than a summary of its own internal investigation, "which lacked sufficient detail to explore certain issues to their fullest extent." The report said the UN also refused to provide documents requested for the investigation.

Israeli government spokesman Ariyeh Mekel said Wednesday from Jerusalem that Israel is examining the report, and has no response yet. Mekel also offered Israel's condolences to the families of the four dead men.
Hess-von Kruedener said she is not satisfied with the response of the Canadian government, which she alleges did not protest Israel's refusal to co-operate in the probe.
"Well you expect your government to step in and do the right thing, but that doesn't seem to be the case," she said. "So we are just … We don't know where to turn. We're just beside ourselves I guess."

PM wants to get to the bottom of things

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said shortly after the attack that he did not believe Israel deliberately targeted the UN post, but would ask Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "for his full co-operation in getting to the bottom of this."
Israel said the attack was an accident, but took responsibility for errors that reportedly led to the bombing.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Hess-von Kruedener called on the House of Commons to debate the findings of the board of inquiry report through the foreign minister, and take the issue to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.
She also asked the public to get involved by writing their MPs.
"I know that Paeta would also want the international community to speak up," she said. "I'm only one voice … I definitely need other people to speak out and say something needs to happen."

Haaretz on Winograd: "we were defeated"

Three words would have sufficed - Haaretz - Israel News

On the foreseeable consequences of the war, see posts here such as this one from July 2006.

Board of Inquiry - Bombing of UNTSO al-Khiam post, July 25, 2006

On July 25, 2006, four un-armed UNTSO observers died when their outpost at al-Khiam in southern Lebanon was bombed by the IDF. This Canadian armed forces page includes a statement about the incident and a link to the Board of Inquiry report, a "secret" report [removed in 2009]. The report has been redacted, and appendices are listed but not provided.  Even so, the report [from my archive] is informative about UN peacekeeping procedures, and the July 25, 2006 incident in which the four observers were killed. The board did not find any individual responsible for the bombing, but it did blame the IDF as an institution. The report notes that in other cases incidents of "close shelling" that were reported to the IDF, the shelling ceased after it was reported. In this instance, the shelling continued, even after the IDF was told, "you are killing my men." The Board received some cooperation from the United Nations, but very little from Israel, which provided only a "non-paper" with a general explanation of events.


[Added Oct. 2011 Canadian Forces News Release {no longer available, but a somewhat different archived version is now available here, August 13, 2014} and this NGO factsheet [now found here, August 13, 2014}.  The BOI report is no longer posted at the Canadian site. I did retain a copy, so you may find it here.  arn]

As a former UN observer in southern Lebanon I fully appreciate the dangers of serving there. As the Canadian report indicates, however, the deaths of Major Paeta Hess-Von Kruedener and his three colleagues were avoidable.  [The BOI report, which has been hidden by Canadian authorities, clearly lays the blame for the deaths on the IDF, which claimed there was an "operational error" despite being forcefully warned by the Chief of Observer Group Lebanon that Israeli shelling was endangering the lives of the UN observers.  The Canadian authorities justify deleting the BOI report in order to protect the operational security of the Israeli army.]

Board of Inquiry - FOB Robinson | National Defence and the Canadian Forces: "Major Paeta Hess-Von Kruedener"  [now a dead link].

Winograd Commission- Preliminary spring 2007 report

Released April 30, 2007
Excerpts from the Winograd report - Israel News, Ynetnews
I have not yet seen a link to the full report, or even a thorough summary of the report. If you have, pls send me the link.

Bolton on the UNSC reso. 1701 negotiations

He claims that the Qana attack by Israel led to a reappraisal by Sec. of State Rice, who then pushed hard for a resolution to end the fighting in August 2006 to Bolton's presumed chagrin.

Bolton: IDF ground push did not influence UN cease-fire - Haaretz - Israel News

"Bolton is not very proud of his final product. "Resolution 1701 wasn't as good as the first draft, and even it hasn't been fully implemented - just like previous resolutions that sought to impose order in Lebanon and reduce Syria's influence on its neighbor," he said. "Hezbollah hasn't been disarmed. The Lebanese army does not control the entire country. UNIFIL [the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] was not expanded sufficiently."

"In his view, "Hezbollah still constitutes as big a threat to Israel as in the past, and the threat it poses to the Lebanese government has only grown since the war."

"Was this an Israeli failure? "The problem was the disconnect between the goals you set and the military operation," he said. "Hezbollah survived, and could portray itself as the victor. You should have said from the start that the goal was to exact a price for the soldiers' abduction." "

This article is also relevant.

"According to media reports over the weekend, [Yehezkel] Dror [member of Winograd Commission] gave in to pressure from his fellow members of the Winograd Committee, which is examining the performance of decision makers in the Second Lebanon War. The others pressed for less harsh language in the final report, scheduled to be released next week. He also relinquished his demand to append his own minority opinion to the document.

"In fact, Dror has already expressed his view concerning Ehud Olmert's decisions in the final stages of the war. Just days before the committee was assembled, Dror published a document entitled "A Breakout Political-Security Grand-Strategy for Israel," under the auspices of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. In that paper, Dror addressed the premier's claim that the result of the last 60 hours of fighting, when those 33 soldiers were killed, was United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war.

""The wording of Resolution 1701 does include components which constitute an Israeli achievement," Dror writes, "but this is more the result of U.S. pressure than the results of Israeli achievements on the battlefield... Moreover, it remains doubtful whether Resolution 1701 will have long-term significance, and deducing that Israel has genuinely succeeded in improving its international standing [thanks to] the resolution requires one to strain one's imagination."

"Dror argues that the lack of success in wiping out the bulk of Hezbollah's ranks, the fact that the organization's leaders were unhurt, and the damage that Israel had sustained on the military front and in terms of economical infrastructure have weakened Israel's deterrence capabilities. "

HRW: The Other Shoe

Israel's bombing campaign in the summer 2006 war.
Israel/Lebanon: Israeli Indiscriminate Attacks Killed Most Civilians (Human Rights Watch, 6-9-2007)

Touring the suburbs

World Press Photo: "The picture shows a group of young Lebanese driving through a South Beirut neighborhood devastated by Israeli bombings. The picture was taken on 15 August 2006, the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah when thousands of Lebanese started returning to their homes.

World Press Photo jury chair Michele McNally describes the winning image: 'It's a picture you can keep looking at. It has the complexity and contradiction of real life, amidst chaos. This photograph makes you look beyond the obvious.'"

But the picture is not quite what it seems.

Advance Copy of Hala Mustafa and Richard Norton's article on stalled reform in Egypt

The article appears in the January issue of Current History.

Anthony Shadid on Hezbollah's miscalcuation

This report has well-captured the miscalculation made by Nasrallah and company on July 12, and the extent to which Hezbollah's operation was founded on utter confidence in the militia's successful deterrence of Israel. What Hezbollah did not take into account was the extent to which its calculations were founded on rational strategist on the Israeli side. Moreover, for deterrence to succeed profoundly it must "work" across the spectrum of threats. In this instance, once Israel escalated the war to wholesale attacks on Shi'i population centers in the suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah lacked the capacity to deter Israel's continuation of the bombing campaign.

Israel's failure, despite its domination of the escalation game, turned on its strategic miscalculation about the nature of Hezbollah's political support and its unwillingness to pay a high human toll for recapturing and occupying southern Lebanon.

The requiem for war in Lebanon is still developing. The most important debate in Lebanon is likely to be the one that takes place within Hezbollah, where Nasrallah's image as a supreme strategist and analyst has been considerably tarnished. Nasrallah has been in office for 14 years, or eight YEARS longer than the prescribed term the secretary-general. Will the party decide it is time for a change? Probably not right now, but even asking the question is a step-level change.

Egyptian Organization for Human Rights on systematic patterns of torture in Egypt

Daily Star Egypt - Full Article: "Torture in Egypt’s prisons and police stations is almost systematic, claims the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) in its recent report on conditions in Egyptian prisons. With dozens dead as a result of torture, the report claims, the organization has asked for a full and independent investigation into such reports."

A General's Candor on Iraq

A General's Candor on Iraq - washingtonpost.com: "Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus led the 101st Airborne Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the first year of the occupation. Then, for 15 months, he took charge of training and equipping Iraqi security forces, and he returned to the United States last year. Army insiders have said they believe he may return to Iraq next year, perhaps as the replacement for the senior general there, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. Yesterday Petraeus had this to say about sectarian tensions in Iraq, in response to questions at the Brookings Institution:

The February bombing of the gold-domed mosque in Samarra was 'hugely harmful' and a 'very, very devastating blow' to security efforts, he said. 'It took the gloves off the . . . Shia militia,' starting 'a downward spiral that is very hard to arrest. . . . It's had a horrific effect on the security situation,' he said, evidenced by the violence in Baghdad that is 'played out sadly day after day.'

Powell on Geneva Convention

A very fitting tribute to a remarkable scholar of extraordinary conscience--Deborah "Misty" Gerner

Misty’s ethical fiber, her sheer stubbornness about right and wrong, and her physical courage in face of a horrendous enemy describe a colleague who did not know the meaning of surrender or even acquiescence. We shared a common foe, so perhaps I had some inkling of what she was facing.  When we spoke occasionally we did not talk about disease.  Frankly, while friends and family mean well, all too often the patient wishes for a recording device that would play the latest medical bulletin.  Instead, we talked about the Middle East, about politics and scholarship.  Misty told me a couple of times that that she was grateful that I addressed her as a serious scholar not as a pitiable patient. 

Once though, in a garden in Istanbul, we spoke about death, about curtailed dreams, about all that will remain incomplete when we leave.  Misty was angry that her time was short. I told her then, as I repeat here now, that she had marked the path for others to follow and that that was a job well done.  She paused for a moment and then she told me about plans to return to the West Bank.  There is nothing incomplete about the life model that is Misty’s legacy, nothing at all.

Stacher and Shehata on Ikhwan in Parliament

KU News - University mourns Professor Deborah Gerner

Professor "Misty" Gerner was a scholar who earned the respect of her colleagues for her moral and spiritual bearings, her compassionate scholarship on the Middle East and her personal courage. She died on June 19, 2006. She was afflicted for eleven years with a virulent cancer that rampaged through her body, yet she maintained her focus on the compelling human tragedies of Middle East. I was deeply moved by my several several conversations with her, and I was left in awe of the remarkable would who stood in front of me. She was an uncommon person and I suspect that many who knew her better than I were profoundly influenced by their friendship with her. She was snatched from this life far, far too soon.

KU News - University mourns Professor Deborah Gerner

Paying The Iraq Bill

TomPaine.com - Paying The Iraq Bill: "The most important things in life, like life itself, are priceless. But that doesn't mean that issues involving the preservation of life (or a way of life), like defense, should not be subjected to cool, hard economic analysis.
Shortly before the current Iraq war, when Bush administration economist Larry Lindsey suggested that the costs might range between $100 and $200 billion, other officials quickly demurred. For example, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels put the number at $60 billion. It now appears that Lindsey's numbers were a gross underestimate.
Concerned that the Bush administration might be misleading everyone about the Iraq war's costs, just as it had about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al Qaeda, I teamed up with Linda Bilmes, a budget expert at Harvard, to examine the issue. Even we "opponents of the war" were staggered by what we found, with conservative to moderate estimates ranging from slightly less than a trillion dollars to more than $2 trillion."

Read it in the NYT in 2006 or from cutting edge scholars in 1996 and earlier

Good for Thomas Friedman, he reached the same conclusions that the Civil Society in the Middle East program reached in the mid-1990s. Of course, he exaggerates the poverty of associational life in several Arab countries, but the regimes' penchant for the weakening secular oppositionis certainly accurate. The result is that public space is de-politicized leaving a vacuum in which Islamists political forces have been able to move without too many obstructions.

Addicted to Oil - New York Times:

"Why? Because once you sweep away the dictator or king at the top of any Middle East state, you go into free fall until you hit the mosque--as the U.S.discovered in Iraq. There is nothing between the ruling palace and the mosque. The secular autocratic regimes, like those in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Iraq, never allowed anything to grow under their feet. They never allowed the emergence of any truly independent judiciary, media, progressive secular parties or civil society groups--from women's organizations to trade associations. The mosque became an alternative power center because it was the only place the government's iron fist could not fully penetrate. As such, it became a placewhere people were able to associate freely, incubate local leaders and generate a shared opposition ideology."

Where is Posse Comitatus when we need it?

The Other Big Brother - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com: "But that's not how the Pentagon saw it. To U.S. Army analysts at the top-secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the peanut-butter protest was regarded as a potential threat to national security. Created three years ago by the Defense Department, CIFA's role is 'force protection'--tracking threats and terrorist plots against military installations and personnel inside the United States. In May 2003, Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy Defense secretary, authorized a fact-gathering operation code-named TALO--short for Threat and Local Observation Notice--that would collect 'raw information' about 'suspicious incidents.' The data would be fed to CIFA to help the Pentagon's 'terrorism threat warning process,' according to an internal Pentagon memo.
A Defense document shows that Army analysts wrote a report on the Halliburton protest and stored it in CIFA's database. It's not clear why the Pentagon considered the protest worthy of attention, although organizer Parkin had previously been arrested while demonstrating at ExxonMobil headquarters (the charges were dropped). But there are now questions about whether CIFA exceeded its authority and conducted unauthorized spying on innocent people and organizations. A Pentagon memo obtained by NEWSWEEK shows that the deputy Defense secretary now acknowledges that some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained. The number of reports with names of U.S. persons could be in the thousands, says a senior Pentagon official who asked not be named because of the sensitivity of the subject."
[Updated link, 10/2014]

Or is Posse Comitatus a myth? [Added: 2008 "Democracy Now" discussion "Is Posse Comitatus Dead? US Troops on US Streets".

Johnny Burns and Dexter Filkins--a fan rave

NYO - News Story 1: "This Odd Pair Is the Most Excellent Buddy Team in Journalism: Biblically Bearded John Burns, Cocoa Beach, Fla.'s Speedy Dexter Filkins, Two Brave Timesmen Serving You�Different Styles, Mutual Regard"