The left-hand billow in the doctored photo looks suspiciously like a fist. An iron fist.

Man, how do you get on the Terrorhouse email list? I’m stuck on the FreedomHaters ring, and Apeasement Street’s weekly newsletter.

Pleased to be repeating that everything is darkened for more contrast, not just the smoke. Except for the Fingerpaintshoped in clouds at the top.

I’m reminded, sadly, of the hubbub that the right pulled off a few months back, about the guy claiming to be the “hooded elctro-tortured muslim on a box” who actually wasn’t, and they were all like, “Bwaa-HA!!! FOOLS!”

I fail to see how slightly darker smoke so drastically changes the context of the original picture as to justify the all-too-typical “MSM ARE TRAITORS!!11!� freak-out.

Nuance.

Yay, an opportunity to say it again!!

Jesus Christ’s tits in a mason jar, Bradrocket! Just what exactly is their point? Is there something they want us to do? I mean, should we believe that there is NO bombing in Lebanon? Or, maybe, the bombing is minor and kind of fun, and the only injuries are treated with Band – Aids? I’m genuinely confused by this. Yeah, the photog was wrong, stupid, broke the rules and got canned. Seems to me like the system worked the way it’s supposed to. But because THIS photo was ‘Shopped, are we to believe that all the other photos and vids are also faked? That’s dumb. How does this prove ANYTHING AT ALL, and if it proves anything, what is it that it proves? If this photo was doctored to show lots of little stick – figures in hard hats building and painting schools and hospitals, it still would not convince anyone that what the Israelis are doing in Lebanon is right, or good, or admirable. Help me out here, willya?

mikey

Everybody knows that dying from light smoke-bombs is way less bad than dark smoke-bombs. Sheeesh! Where have YOU guys been? It’s called compassionate collateralism.

Let’s not forget how conservatives get about the whole “black thing.” You know, unless they’re useful, like Alan Keyes or Fee Benamon.

I’ll re-post my boring observation from before: Far more emotional impact comes from the cropping of the photograph so that the unaffected foreground does not show. This frames the story as the entire city being burned, as opposed to one building burning quite heavily.

The blackened, expanded smoke (and the attendant increase in contrast, which washes out the blue sky to a white sky) is would be less noticable if the cropping had not taken place, and has less of an affect than the cropping.

Contra Brad R., this cropping is a form of “(a)ltering a picture in (a) way, shape or form” that is not only permissable but expected from a professional photographer. Dynamic, dramatically set pictures sell newpapers, and selling newspapers is the business purpose for publishing newspapers.

The inept photoshopping is remarkable only because people naively think that otherwise pictures don’t lie. The smoke business is only remarkable because it is a form of image manipulation that readers do not expect to see.

The photo couldn’t pass The Charles Johnson Greyscale Test:

The sliding scale method:

a 1- 5) Burning Cross
a 6- 10) Book BBQ
b 1- 5) NASCAR Wreck
b 6- 10) Twin Towers Animated GIF
c 1- 5) Iraqi Oil Well
c 6- 10) Branch Dividian Compound

Wait — since when were conservatives able to see shades of gray? I thought the ability to see beyond black-and-white was a trait known only in French-looking, terrorist-loving, cutting-and-running Mexlamifascist traitors. What gives?

Otto- you’re right. To them, the grey smoke probably looks white, which means they think there’s no smoke at all. Now I understand the outrage.

The other funny thing is Moran’s post is all about how Left Blogistan is MUM on the whole shocking incident, and calls out Sadly, No! which has front – paged pretty much nothing else for freakin DAYS!!!

HT

Hey mikey Hizbullah Toady- when was the last time those cheap fuckers put anything in your PayPal account. I’m thinking of giving up my gig and working for Hamas- THOSE bastards at least look like they’ll pony up the bling every now and then.

And don’t forget, doctored photos are only bad when they make people we like look bad.

When the president happens to use one or two in his re-election campaign, that’s completely different.

Don’t go for it. The Hamas banks have pretty much shut down. My last three paychecks have taken FOREVER to clear.

Go for the petrodollars!!!

Dood, you gotta be dealing with the wrong Mullahs. They hit me with a few thousand Kran every couple weeks.

HT

“Altering a picture in any way, shape or form is a major no-no for any professional photographer …”

I’ve worked at several newspapers, and photos get touched up all the time by photographers. What, they can’t even crop them now?

I guess I’m no expert on professional photography practices, but absent the incendiary political context, it’s hard to believe this sort of thing would be a firing offense.

is this Rick Moran, of the

Get a Brain, Morans!

fame?

Steve-
Yeah, I’d say the guy should have gotten fired for this. He shouldn’t have added to extra smoke.

But what do I know- I’m just a Hizbullah toady.

I can’t believe you used Leslie Gore to make your point. You’re a man after my own heart, bradrocket.

As a paid shill/terrorist lover/useful dupe for Hizb’allah/Hezbollah/Hizballah I would like to just say that our plan has failed. See, it was our intent to dupe or use the coercive powers of the New York Times to portray the War in Lebanon as a terrible tragedy rather than the cause for freedom it truly is. See, if you look closely at the unaltered photography you can clearly see that all those fires are from terrorist building designed by Hezbollah to threaten Israeli children. The altered photograph suggests that the non-terrorist buildings were also burning and the darker clouds suggested the presence of innocent civilians being burned and not just terrorist-men, terrorist-women and terrorist-children. It was an ingenious plan really, but unfortunately we just aren’t as clever as Michelle Malkin in our attempts to manufacture outrage.

Did anyone check out his Update?

Malkin adds this:
If Reuters had half a brain, it would post all of Hajj’s photos on a separate site and welcome continued blogger analysis that uncovered this debacle in the first place.

I think a BWAH HA HA HA HA is appropriate. At least that is the sound I made when I read that.

NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.

You are all missing the importance of smoke color. Black smoke only comes from Israeli bombs (made in the USA). Grey smoke comes from Hezbollah killing their own children and burning down their own homes in order to make Israel look bad. The photographer is obviously complicit in this anti freedom fraud.

I wrote extensively about this at my blog and you should all rush over there and inflate my traffic numbers in time for my birthday.

White smoke, by the way, means we have a new pope. Red, white, and blue smoke means the Blue Angels are in town and we should all leave work early to grill some wienies, eat chips, and have a beer.

also, Brad, I would be flattered. Moran clearly hadn’t met his quota for use of “useful idiots” yet today, so needed to toss of a quick post.

Finally, can someone explain to me how, if Moran acknowledges that there is “little difference between the two pictures”, then the doctoring can possible “elicit a greater emotional response from the reader”? I just don’t get it. Really.

or are we back to “authorial intent” again? (and god I hope not)

Kathleen- the pictures mean whatever the gnomes and leprechauns tell Rick they mean.

No worries, Kathleen. In this case we’re back to “Terrorist enabling photo modifier intent”, which is a whole ‘nother can of worms that Goldstein and Thers won’t be involved in…

mikey

Rick Moran, Atlas’ Juggs, Charles “Check Out My” Johnson and the rest are the Baghdad Bob of the wingnut bleghosphere. They want to force us to believe that there are no tanks in Baghdad bombs falling on the innoncent Christians in Beirut and that every single IAF strike only hits Hezbollah members (or U.N. observers, which causes an hour-long round of penis-stroking among Reich-wingers).

David Iriving, Holocaust denier, once actually proved that the smoke above a crematoria in a photo had been airbrushed in.

Does that prove the Holocaust never happened?

Similarly . . . .

Reuters dumped Hajj’s entire body of work from their database and his career is over, as it should be. The one who perpetrated the fraud has been punished as he deserved, and any righty who wants to keep pretending this is something that in any way tars American lefties is too ridiculous to be heeded.

>> the context of the original picture as to justify the all-too-typical “MSM ARE TRAITORS!!

Isn’t this is all a distraction from the war America is losing? When did the Israeli-Hizbollah war become a cause celebre for American wingnuts?

…oh, you mean it always was one of a piece? I’m shocked. Knock me over with a feather and occupy my West Bank.

You’re all goin’ to hell.

It’s called compassionate collateralism.

That was funny. But it shouldn’t have been.

You’re all goin’ to hell.

I’ve yet to meet anyone who wasn’t, for one reason or another.

did someone say “authorial intent?”

I don’t know if anyone’s got started on this assignment yet,
but there are a couple of bloggers preparing to post on:

“Things to Do in Denver When You’re Jeff”

Anyone fancy doing some ‘continued blogger analysis’ of all the photos from the IDF? Or, say, from whitehouse.gov? Using the Malkin Scale, I’m sure we’ll be able to prove that George Bush is a hoax.

(I’m sure that Hajj wanted to make it clear that no Lebanese Pope had been elected.)

Examples:

1) Check Tip Jar
2) Measure Penis
3) Check Tip Jar

(Over to you …)

Hizb’allah is helped by their Hizb’blogah allies, such as Sadly No.

The fact of the matter is that Hijj’s photography has been proven to be Hizb’allah propaganda.

It’s sickening that the left is so cold and careless that they only call on Israel to ceasefire, but they refuse to call on Hizb’allah to ceasefire. Clearly the aggressor force here is Hizb’allah.

Just wait until the ‘wingers get ahold of the real original photo.

wow. it’s like, i can hardly see all that real smoke through all the hysterical outrage over that fake smoke. it kinda’ helps if you follow it up from that bombed out apartment building though.

Well, no, Mr Ruppert, all calls for a ceasefire have been calls for EVERYONE
to, you know, cease fire.

Dear Gary Ruppert,
Thank you for officially rendering the satire of Sadly, No! obsolete.

Clearly the aggressor force here is Hizb’allah.

Yep. Good catch on that one, Gar. Now, let’s talk about who the Aggressee might be. Let’s see, Hizbollah has attacked the Israeli towns and villiages in Northern Israel, killing almost a hundred people and destroing some buildings and some cars. Israel has retaliated by blowing the everloving fuck out of the entire country of Lebanon, who could not in any way have done anything about Hezbollah’s actions in the first place. So oddly, you’re kind of right (like a stopped clock I guess). Hezbollah attacked Israel. But Israel did not respond by attacking Hezbollah. Israel responded by collectively punishing the civilian population of Lebanon. Let’s see. Can anyone think of another time when a powerful country was attacked and it responded by blowing the shit out of an un-involved third party country? Anyone? Bueller?

mikey

It was sometime ago that it became almost too obvious to note:

Satire is redundant.

The original picture is probably no more smoke than you’d expect to see coming out of a hopping cigar club. It’s just Nasrallah & co celebrating their propaganda victories with a few Islamocommie Cuban stogies.

But hmm… the smoke that’s slightly to the left of center in the original – but which has been obscured in the doctored version (!) – is shaped like a puppy! This could obviously only happen if there was a puppy being burned!! The reporter is trying to cover up that Hezballah members are smoking puppies!!!

Wouldn’t you destroy the infrastructure of a country if you knew it harbored even one puppy smoker?

You gotta give the wingnuts a break. It has been bad for them lately.

Now that Hajj is unemployed, he should use his digital editing talent in the right way and work for Maxim or similar type magazines.

does anyone have the suspicion that is the photographer’s name had been John Richmond or Tim Rutherford, the wingers wouldn’t have made as big a deal about this? Is that just crazy talk?

I’m irritated by conflict supporters who are using a poor photoshop job in one picture as an excuse to ignore every reasonable argument against continued warfare, or who believe they can now tar Reuters itself as a mouthpiece for “the terrorists.�

That’s fucking stupid.

And I’m totally pissed that certain buttcracks are using the discovery of one doctored photo as an excuse to minimize all the suffering in Beirut: “Well, gee, the smoke was lighter in the undoctored picture, so it really wasn’t that bad.�

If the above statements somehow make me a toady for Hezbollah, so be it. I’d rather be smeared as a terrorist sympathizer than find myself counted in the company of vacuous assholes who think regurgitated jingoism – if you’re not for us, without reservation, than you’re against us totally – is a good substitute for intelligent discourse.

Kathleen, are you suggesting that our esteemed friends of the Right Wing
bring bigotry to these important questions of our time ?

Our esteamed friends bring bigotry and Cheetosâ„¢ to these important questions.

malkin was just on o’reilly talking about this. boy are they stupid.

Sane people, looking at the undoctored and doctored photographs, may find this whole phony “controversy” absurd and incomprehensible, but remember that an almost identical trick worked perfectly before in the famous Dan Rather “kerned evidence” case. By the time the campaign operatives of “Powerline” were done “uncovering” the clumsy forgery (which was almost certainly a Republican dirty-trick) they were able, right in the middle of a hotly contested Presidential election, to yank the story of G.W. Bush’s aborted military career right off the table.

Hizb’allah is helped by their Hizb’blogah allies, such as Sadly No.

I’m pretty sure I went to junior high with Gary. He didn’t get it then, either.

Damn, Devils Advocate, thanks for that. I wish I would have said it that way, but clarity sometimes eludes me…

mikey

That’s some lameass fucking photoshop.

I can’t believe someone actually published it.

Our very own Mel de Mer said

You’re all goin’ to hell.

But ‘specially all us New York Jooooooos, right?

wow. i just took a gander over into crazytown. they’re still finding “doctored” photos. i suppose it’s what would happen if you gave a room full of paraniod, drooling idiots a shitload of LSD and a book of Weegee photos: they’d find an entire world of deviant intentions, malevolently reconstructed.

At what point does being obviously, willfully delusional disqualify one from credibly employing the word “propaganda?”

(the gander emerged relatively unscathed.)

i suppose it’s what would happen if you gave a room full of paraniod, drooling idiots a shitload of LSD and a book of Weegee photos

Yep, you gotta watch those long-haired cats every second! 😛

Oh, Brad, you charming hizbollah [sic] toady, you!

Let’s see, Hizbollah has attacked the Israeli towns and villiages in Northern Israel, killing almost a hundred people and destroing some buildings and some cars. Israel has retaliated by blowing the everloving fuck out of the entire country of Lebanon, who could not in any way have done anything about Hezbollah’s actions in the first place.

Well, as one Islommunazi to another, I’d say almost right Mikey, except these two events are backwards. The rockets were retaliation for the bombing which was retaliation for the capture of two soldiers. And we won’t go any further back in the “causal” chain, ’cause that’s plenty far enough as is.

And besides, if we go any further back, we’d need to decide whether to have the decency to admit that the ultimate responsibility lies with the head of the NY Times’ Double Secret Editorial Board (which is who right now? Kos? Castro’s brother? Sheikh Nasrallah? Ned Lamont? The Clenis? It’s all so confusing…), or just blame some secret international cabal of neo-Zionist Texan venture capitalists like we dishonest, unimaginative Islamofascists usually do…

Wait just a minute.
There probaly are less than ten unaltered photographs in existance in the entire universe.
Any photographer will tell you that there ain’t no such thing as a perfect negative.
Just what do you think a photo editor does, exactly.
Unless the guy stated that he altered that phot to elicit a stronger emotional response, I don’t believe it.
And Reuters caved way to fast on the firing too, IMHO.

Anyone who is making a big stink about this seems to be overlooking the big, obvious, what-would-your-lazy-ass-do-in-Hajj’s-position angle. If you have the option of running through a war zone city, trying to get exciting, action-filled shots while dodging bullets or katushyas or whatever else is flying around, or just sitting at your laptop in the Beirut Starbucks (or wherever) and fake the picture, which would you choose?

I bet Hajj spent an hour or two taking climbing stairs and getting on the roofs of various buildings and then looked at what he had and found that the best he had was some crumby plumes of white smoke. So he headed back to the Holiday Inn (or wherever) and editing the picture with MSPaint.

Fire the guy, move on. Who cares?

Incidentally, there have been several instances of photo-trickery that lefty bloggers have found. I know of one case where a supposed Reuters (or is it al-Reuters now?) picture of a nuclear site in N. Korea showed up in another Reuters feed a few months later (rotated, cropped, and mirrored) as a nuclear site in Iran.

It’s not a conspiracy. People are lazy. You do the same thing at work. I know I do. 😉

I’m with bklynshome on the practice of news photography and photo editing, as it is actually practiced in the real world. Photos are edited all the time to, say, bring into sharper focus an element that wasn’t in focus in the actual shot. Or cropped or brightened or whatever needs to happen.

And, no, under the strictest guidelines you’re not supposed to do it, but everybody does it anyway.

But adding an element, like more smoke, is over the line. The only question is whether the guy just darkened existing smoke or added some. Since Reuters fired him, it seems more likely that he added some.

#

W. Kiernan said,

August 8, 2006 at 2:48

Sane people, looking at the undoctored and doctored photographs, may find this whole phony “controversy� absurd and incomprehensible, but remember that an almost identical trick worked perfectly before in the famous Dan Rather “kerned evidence� case. By the time the campaign operatives of “Powerline� were done “uncovering� the clumsy forgery (which was almost certainly a Republican dirty-trick) they were able, right in the middle of a hotly contested Presidential election, to yank the story of G.W. Bush’s aborted military career right off the table.

*GASP!* So does this mean that since “Wingnuttia” uncovered a doctored photo and forced an admission from Reuters, that it’s now okay for Israel to bomb the everlovin’ sh*t out of Lebanon? Even if Lebanon has no control over Hezbollah?

Temporarily seguing back to reality, does Assrocket actually make his living foisting his warped logic on juries, or has he joined the ranks of the conservative think tank brain trust?

Actually, the billow of black smoke is the dust cloud of Saddam’s statue being toppled finally arriving in Beirut. As you may recall, the statue was toppled by a large crowd an American tank as a large crowd Chalabi and his posse photo-shopped to look like a large crowd looked on.

The IsLambOFascists obviously used the wrong kerning on the smoke…

New slogan for Brad: “I’m an idiot, but I’m a useful idiot!”

From my medical understanding, gray smoke denotes the burning of biomass – such as innocent humans, whereas black smoke comes from burning plastic or rubber.

So the photographer was actually a Mossad agent doctoring to help ease the pain of the wingnuts.

Regarding Demogenes Aristophanes’s comments about editing photos:

Ive worked with photojournalists who explained that you can edit a photo legitimately in programs like Photoshop, only so much as could be done in a dark room. Such as:
Cropping, dodging, burning (plays with exposure intensity in specific areas).

Those are all 100% legitimate. Anything else is strictly forbidden.

It’s time to break out those John Kerry/Jane Fonda doctored photos released by the rightwingers during the last Presidential Election in order to stick it their faces. I bet they forgot all about those and other deceptions they were responsible for during Kerry’s and even Gore’s campaign.

Eric, TBogg already broke that photo out.

there are 69 comments on this.

I don’t really want to belabor it.

but…what picture in the last 150 years of the photographic record of life on this planet has not been subjected to the arbitrary and “dishonest” process of developement, cropping, enhancement?

Ansel Adams made dozens of prints of his famous “natural” wilderness shots until he got just the right (in his mind, artistic) balance and force. does that make it “dishonest” and not the “nature” that was there?

if you’re fool enough to have ever believed that “the camera doesn’t lie,” then of course you’re going to be all in a lather over this. oddly enough, all that the assholes who object to this have to do is call down to their own photo depts and editors and ask how they handle and post THEIR pictures. fact is, the camera has ALWAYS lied. only imbeciles don’t know it.

but of course the real intent is right wing smear. why bother with the truth when hypocrites can pretend we caught THEM in a lie. “fair and balanced” indeed.

anyone who looks at the 2 shots can see an immediate difference. the second is cropped and has its brightness and contrast enhanced. it is absolutely evident that it has been edited. is it less true?

happens every day, in every newspaper, all over the world. you think a front page editor is going to allow some schlock unedited pictures shot from Aunt Lucy’s 1950 Poloroid?

If I’m looking at the issue the wrong way ’round, forgive me, but regarding that Saddam-statue-toppling business: I read online somewhere within the last couple of months (not a wingnut site, I’m almost 100% positive) a debunking of the “debunking.” That is, if you put the now-known fact that the statue was pulled down by American soldiers into its larger context–that a group of Iraqis had been trying and trying to do so but were unable because the statue was too heavy or bolted into the ground or something, so the soldiers came to help with their tank, to the pleasure of the smallish mob of Iraqis–then it’s not propaganda after all. As much of a leftofascist as I am, I am also pleased to acknowledge the true story of how things happened, if in fact it is true. Does anyone here have other information?

It’s like the fabricated story of Saddam being captured in his “spider hole,” a story I believe was made up to make him look like a rat caught in a trap when in fact he was aboveground and fighting back when they got him.

P.S. It’s not my Polaroid I, Christian, was referring to. I wasn’t even born in 1950.

sorry Lucy.

forgot you were out there.

no harm, no foul(?)

That is, if you put the now-known fact that the statue was pulled down by American soldiers into its larger context–that a group of Iraqis had been trying and trying to do so but were unable because the statue was too heavy or bolted into the ground or something, so the soldiers came to help with their tank, to the pleasure of the smallish mob of Iraqis–then it’s not propaganda after all.

I think the problem with this was never so much the soldiers pulling down the statue for the “smallish mob”, but the composition of the smallish mob as a bunch of exiles brought into an otherwise-empty square entirely cordoned off by the US military that, in a strange coinicidence, happened to be right across from the Palestine Hotel. You know, that place with all the foreign journalists in it.

(See here for example.)

(Or maybe the problem was the tank for all y’all. I watched this on French television when it happened, so I saw the tank from the get-go.)

Ayeee, Nobrilisme! That’s the kind of rebuttal I was looking for. But is there a problem with “smallish mob”?

I, Christian, no problem at all. I was just being silly. Lucy isn’t even my real name.

wow. i just took a gander over into crazytown. they’re still finding “doctored� photos. i suppose it’s what would happen if you gave a room full of paraniod, drooling idiots a shitload of LSD and a book of Weegee photos: they’d find an entire world of deviant intentions, malevolently reconstructed.

Hell, I could find an entire world of deviant intentions, malevolently constructed, from a book of Weegee photos. But I’m a graphic designer.

I don’t suppose that the photo might have been “doctored” so it would reproduce better when converted from continuous tone to halftone for use in a one-colour process such as a newspaper? The wingnuts were all typographic experts during the Dan Rather memo “scandal” – are they not now graphic production gurus?

“I, Christian, no problem at all. I was just being silly. Lucy isn’t even my real name.”

I suspected as much. I mention “Lucy” and the next person up is actually named Lucy?

what are the odds?

bit a bit of civility in this instance can’t hurt.

No, actually, I post as Lucy all around the tubes, all the time. It was a coincidence that I posted right after you.

“of all the gin joints in all the towns…”

maybe it’s not a chaotic godless meaningless universe after all

Happy to participate in restoring the faith, and so easily, too. I promise if I see you use the name of Aunt Lucy again, I’ll try to oblige again.

Slicker than Dick. Consider the post swiped.
M1

News peddlers sell narratives more than they sell facts.

To that end shit is juiced up, whether per Hannitian word or per cordite billowing.
The truth always lies well elsewhere.

How, when, and who choses per convenience to extrapolate it from the narrative is my leading indicator when I wanna find the truth in a story more than I wanna find the martini I mixed and poured but a moment ago.

As for this ripple, I’m buying solidly into the puppy theorem.

– Unfortunately, that “original” is photoshopped also. Apparently thats the original fake of the original, rather than the fake of the fake of the original. Must have been all that pesky dust.

Digitally enhanced smoke added to a burning building to supposedly elicit a greater emotional response?
What type of person would sink that low ?

I guess the memory and personal impact the destruction of one of these buildings just means more to conservative bloggers than the other.

[…] Since Slightly-More Smokegate, the talking bowling pins of the Right Blogowhatsis have been obsessed with fake photos. Every single solitary photo of the bombing of Lebanon must have been faked by the liberal, terrorist-supporting MSM…somehow or another. Body Shop Bombed? […]

Lucy,

The entire statue bullshit lie was a fabricated psyops military smokescreen. Chalabi, Richard Perle’s friend/sole source of iraqi ‘intelligence’ that led to this war, was there, which is evidence enough that the whole thing was staged.

And thanks, sync, for reminding me of the dewine lie.

I’m most offended by the poor clone-stamping in the tattyshopped version.

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To: The United Nations General Assembly
The brutal bombings and invasion of Lebanon and Gaza are acts of Israeli state terrorism. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the present U.S.-Israeli threat to Syria and Iran indicate their ruthless struggle for hegemony in the oil-rich Middle East, which would escalate into a global war.

At least 900 people have been killed in Lebanon, more than one-third children, and 3,000 wounded. The number of refugees in Lebanon has already exceeded one million. Whole residential areas, roads, bridges, ports, power stations, factories and other infra-structure have been destroyed by Israeli precision bombing. Lebanon’s economic and infrastructure damage tops $2.5B as of 4 August 2006.

In Gaza hundreds have been killed. Homes, greenhouses, bridges, water and sewerage treatment plants and electricity generators have been destroyed in the latest acts of Israeli genocide sadistically code-named ‘Operation Summer Rain,’ which began on 27 June 2006. Israel continues its brutal air strikes on the Gaza Strip almost daily.

Israel must be prosecuted immediately for its war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine to stop the war escalating into a global catastrophe. Frances A. Boyle, Professor of Law, University of Illinois, has asserted the legal framework for The United Nations General Assembly to immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI).

“The United Nations General Assembly must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a ‘subsidiary organ’ under U.N. Charter Article 22. The ICTI would be organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council.

“The purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY did for the victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic Regime throughout the Balkans.

“The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans. Furthermore, the establishment of ICTI by the U.N. General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, Chief of Staff Halutz and Israel’s other top generals that they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international crimes upon the Lebanese and the Palestinians.

“Without such a deterrent, Israel might be emboldened to attack Syria with the full support of the Likhudnik Bush Jr. Neoconservatives, who have always viewed Syria as ‘low-hanging fruit’ ready to be taken out by means of their joint aggression.

“The Israeli press has just reported that the Bush Jr administration is encouraging Israel to attack Syria. If Israel attacks Syria as it did when it invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran has vowed to come to Syria’s defense.

“And of course Israel and the Bush Jr administration very much want a pretext to attack Iran. This scenario could readily degenerate into World War III.

“For the U.N. General Assembly to establish ICTI could stop the further development of this momentum towards a regional if not global catastrophe.�

We, the undersigned, demand that The United Nations General Assembly immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a ‘subsidiary organ’ under U.N. Charter Article 22 to prosecute the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, Chief of Staff Halutz and Israel’s other top generals and war criminals for their infliction of international war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine.

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