Lebanon civilian deaths morally not same as terror victims — Bolton
Mon Jul 17, 4:47 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from “malicious terrorist acts”.
Asked to comment on the deaths in an Israeli air strike of eight Canadian citizens in southern Lebanon Sunday, he said: “it is a matter of great concern to us …that these civilian deaths are occurring. It’s a tragedy.”
“I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts,” he added, while defending as “self-defense” Israel’s military action, which has had “the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths”.
The eight dead Canadians were a Lebanese-Canadian couple, their four children, his mother and an uncle, said relatives in Montreal.
The Montreal pharmacist and his family had arrived in Lebanon 10 days earlier for a vacation in his parents’ home village and to introduce his children to relatives, they said.
Three of his Lebanese relatives died too, a family member told AFP.
“It’s simply not the same thing to say that it’s the same act to deliberately target innocent civilians, to desire their deaths, to fire rockets and use explosive devices or kidnapping versus the sad and highly unfortunate consequences of self-defense,” Bolton noted.
The overall civilian death toll from the Israeli onslaught in Lebanon since last Wednesday reached 195, in addition to 12 soldiers, officials said. Twenty-four Israelis have also been killed since fighting began last Wednesday, including 12 civilians in a barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire across the border.
Original article :
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060717/pl_afp/mideastconflictlebanon_060717204728
WOW!! Pour eux nous sommes des gens de deuxieme classe! 250 morts libanais ne vaut pas les peu du coté israéliens! C’est immoral! c est revoltant! Je ne peux pas comprendre comment un représentant au nations unis puissent dire de tel chose c’est innaceptable! Je me retiens pour ne rien dire de vulgaire sur ce peuple d’ “Israel” entre guillemet car au départ ce pays etais et sera toujours PALESTINE!!!
Comment by eva — July 21st, 2006 @ 11:37 AMWHO IS THIS BASTARD?
Critics allege Bolton tried to spin intelligence to support his views and political objectives on a number of occasions. Greg Thielmann, of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), was assigned as the daily intelligence liaison to Bolton. Thielmann stated to Seymour Hersh that, “Bolton seemed troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear … I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, ‘The Undersecretary doesn’t need you to attend this meeting anymore.'” According to current and former coworkers, Bolton withheld information that ran counter to his goals from Secretary of State Colin Powell on multiple occasions, and from Powell’s successor Condoleezza Rice on at least one occasion. [30] Frederick Fleitz, from the CIA, was loaned to Bolton’s office to assist in intelligence matters.
In 2002, Bolton accused Cuba of transfers of biological weapons technology to rogue states and called on it “to fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.” [31] According to a Scripps Howard News Service article, Bolton “wanted to say that Cuba had a biological weapons capacity and that it was exporting it to other nations. The intelligence analysts seemed to want to limit the assessment to a declaration that Cuba ‘could’ develop such weapons.” [32] Bolton attempted to have the chief bioweapons analyst in the State Department’s bureau of intelligence and research and the CIA’s national intelligence officer for Latin America reassigned. Under oath at his Senate hearings for confirmation as Ambassador, he denied trying to have the men fired, but seven intelligence officials contradicted him[33]. Ultimately, “intelligence officials refused to allow Bolton to make the harsh criticism of Cuba he sought to deliver,” [34] and were able to keep their positions. Bolton claims that the issue was procedural rather than related to the content of his speech, and that the officers behaved unprofessionally, but neither official worked under him.
Bolton is alleged by Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman to have played a role in encouraging the inclusion of statement that British Intelligence had determined Iraq attempted to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union Address[35](pdf). These statements were claimed by critics of the President to be partly based on documents later found to be forged [36]. Waxman’s allegations have no visible means of support as they are allegedly based on classified documents [37](pdf).
Bolton stated in June 2004 congressional testimony Iran was lying about enriched uranium contamination: “Another unmistakable indicator of Iran’s intentions is the pattern of repeatedly lying to … the IAEA, … when evidence of uranium enriched to 36 percent was found, it attributed this to contamination from imported centrifuge parts.” However later isotope analysis by the IAEA supported Iran’s explanation of foreign contamination for most of the observed enriched uranium [38]. Yet despite that, the IAEA’s Board of Governors “Expressed serious concern at the 1 August 2005 notification to the IAEA that Iran had decided to resume the uranium conversion activities at the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Esfahan, at the Director General’s report that on 8 August Iran had started to feed uranium ore concentrate into the first part of the process line at UCF and at the Director General’s report that on 10 August Iran had removed the seals on the process lines and the UF4 at that facility.” [39]
Comment by RBN — July 21st, 2006 @ 2:05 PM-Ce pays sera toujours Palestine.- dit le commentaire ci-haut. ben c,est avec ce genre de mentalité radicale et fermée qu’on fait des guerres justement. N-é-g-o-c-i-e-z.
Comment by Francois — July 22nd, 2006 @ 10:03 AMChers Amis, il ne faudrait pas entrer dans ce piège… plus que jamais nous devons être unis.
Comment by Nicolas — July 22nd, 2006 @ 10:20 PMJe ne suis pas Libanais, je ne suis pas arabe, mais ce que je vois me touche, on ne peut accepter ce terrorisme d’état, et ne rien dire représenterait l’acceptation. Des déclarations comme celle de M. Bolton prouvent que le pouvoir n’est pas entre bonnes mains en ce moment. Plus que jamais, la vigileance des citoyens doit se manifester, afin que nos gouvernements soient poussés à prendre des positions qui nous ressemblent. Ce n’est pas vrai que les Canadiens appuient cette guerre. Pas question de négocier lorsqu’il est question du droit à la vie de millions d’innocents.
Lebanon will get through this.. together with the INDEPENDENT governments in the region, only Syria and Iran, as all the others have become puppets of the American government.
Shame on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordon, Kuwait.. and many others who prefer the Americans to their Arab brothers.
Comment by Mo — July 26th, 2006 @ 7:08 PM