A conspiracy of lies

Antiwar.com's blog reports the following.

Israeli Newspaper Reports That The Army Lied About Qana

In its lead story August 1, the Hebrew edition of Ha’aretz online reported that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) claim that Hezbollah missile launchers and Hezbollah fighters were in and around the building in Qana which they shelled early Sunday morning was false.

Oddly, this article, which points to Israeli culpability and recklessness in what some are calling the IDF’s second massacre in Qana (the first was in 1996), has been largely ignored in the international press.

According to the newspaper, the IDF “decided to attack houses in a specific radius of a place that was used in the past to launch missiles.” The article states that the tactic of choosing buildings as targets that are near areas from which rockets were launched in the past has been used before.

Initially, Israeli military sources had reported that the deaths in Qana where caused not by the Israeli air attack early Sunday morning, but by an accidental explosion, many hours later, of Hezbollah ordnance that was stored inside the building. According to the Ha’aretz article, this is not true. Israeli Air Force sources have admitted, according to Ha’aretz, that the deaths in Qana were caused by the Israeli shelling. Between 30 and 60 deaths were reported as a result of the building collapse. Many bodies are still believed to be buried beneath the rubble.

Additionally, the claim of the IDF that leaflets were dropped on the weekend warning of an attack were also untrue. The leaflets were actually delivered “some days” before the weekend, according to military sources.

So there you have it. The IDF has lied about the leaflets being dropped. The IDF has lied about causing the majority of deaths at Qana. The IDF has lied about rocket fire on the day of the attack. They lied about the use of the building as a 'stronghold' of Hezbollah. They lied about the positions of the 'rockets' and 'militants' up to and including the time of the attack. All lies.

Or of course, you can believe the man in the green helmet is behind it all.