What happened at Qana?

It seems more and more likely that the tragedy of Qana was not caused by IAF bombings, but rather a staged event by Hizballah for the benefit of the world media, which has been grateful for the chance to prop up their anti-Israel rhetoric with pictures of "innocent civilians" bombed by the cold hearted Israelis!

It seems again that it is left to the blogosphere to uncover these staged events and find the truth as the MSM seems to have very little interest in the truth in these matters, they want their »Death Porn« and confirmation of the evilness of the Israelis! And again the blogosphere have provided evidence that things aren't exactly as they seem to be if you're only looking at the biased MSM coverage!

And as Islamic clerics have made abundantly clear – »There are no Civilians in Islamic Law« and it is mandated in the Qu'ran and Hadith that they should fight the infidels using every stragatem of war, and that »War is Deceit«... So when the Western media is so eager to help their cause, why not help them by staging some gruesome events and blame it on Israel... After all it's all Halal!

See the following webpages for an extensive coverage of the events at Qana:

• War Porn [Gates of Vienna]
• Were the Qana Bodies Staged? [Confederate Yankee]
• Qana's Unresolved Questions [Confederate Yankee]
• Milking it? [EU Referendum]
• Who is this man? [EU Referendum]
• A Tyre For Qana? [Riehl World View]
• Qana Staged? [Strata-Sphere]
• Who killed Mohammed al-Dura? [Worldnet Daily] – Background info.

*** ADD ONS ***
Read also:

• The Weaponization of Children by Vanderleun.
• What happened in Qana? Michelle Malkin on Hotair
• The curious Qana body count [The American Thinker]

*** UPDATE I ***

And now AP staffers are congratulating themselves with a job well done... patting each other on the back and awarding cash prizes. A letter sent to all staffers were intercepted at LGF, before reading you might want to grab a barf-bag, just in case you'll need it.

Dear Staffers:

Last Sunday proved to be one of the most dramatic days in the war between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. AP?s extensive photo team produced a stunning series of images that day that beat the competition and scored huge play worldwide.

Rumors surfaced early Sunday morning that an Israeli airstrike had flattened a house in the southern Lebanese village of Qana. The number of deaths wasn?t immediately known, but the seriousness of the incident was clear. Beirut-based photographer Hussein Malla immediately called AP photographers Nasser Nasser, Lefteris Pitarakis and stringer Mohammed Zaatari and advised them to rush to the scene. Nasser arrived as the bodies of many civilians ? including numerous children ? were being pulled from the rubble. Lefteris later took over, enabling Nasser to get his pictures swiftly onto the wire. Kevin Frayer was dispatched from Beirut to boost AP?s presence. Throughout the morning, AP?s team filed a steady stream of powerful images.

Meanwhile, in Beirut, a small Hezbollah demonstration exploded into violence at word of the Qana attack. Hezbollah supporters stormed the nearby United Nations building, scaling walls and smashing their way past bulletproof glass barriers to enter the building itself. Photographers Hussein Malla, Kevork Djansezian and Ben Curtis were all there to capture the rioting. Beirut-based photo editor Dalia Khamissy coordinated with photographers in the field and handled a steady stream of stringer photos. All day long, AP photographers relayed what they were seeing to AP reporters for print stories.

Nasser?s most haunting image showed a man emerging from the rubble carrying the lifeless and dust-covered body of a child. Calm, morning light shone down on man and child, highlighting them against an almost monochrome background of pure rubble. The photo is here. Nasser?s image ran on the front pages of at least 33 newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Post. It also won a double-page center spread in The Guardian of London. Lefteris?s image of a resident weeping next to a row of bodies made the front of The Washington Post, among many others. Hussein, Kevork and Ben?s images of the storming of the UN building easily beat those of the competition.

For a day of outstanding a memorable photos, taken in conditions of substantial danger, the Lebanon photo team of Nasser Nasser, Lefteris Pitarakis, Kevin Frayer, Mohammed Zaatari, Ben Curtis, Hussein Malla, Kevork Djansezian and Dalia Khamissy shares this week?s $500 Beat of the Week award.

*** UPDATE II ***

Jihad Watch reader S have posted an open letter to AP, AFP, and Reuters about the Qana photos:

To Whom It May Concern,

Many powerful photographs were taken following the recent tragedy at Qana. Legitimate questions have arisen regarding the actual times certain photos were taken.

News agencies have begun responding to some of the questions raised. Here is AP's response: http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/08/01/ap2920008.html:

The AP had three different photographers there who weren't always aware of what the others were doing, and filed their images to editors separately, said Santiago Lyon, director of photography.

There are also several reasons not to draw conclusions from time stamps, Lyon said. Following a news event like this, the AP does not distribute pictures sequentially; photos are moved based on news value and how quickly they are available for an editor to transmit.

The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse all distributed photos of which questions have been asked relative to the time shot. What Lyon of AP does not address, is that the exact time of digital capture is recorded along with the image. This EXIF information cannot be altered, and would give accurate timings as to the sequence of all photos released.

We urge AFP, AP, and Reuters to make available to this website a small JPEG file, with all EXIF data attached, of each of the photos analyzed on the various websites that have raised this issue. A list will be provided if they are not already known. Sensitive IPTC data may be removed, if any responding agency wishes. The EXIF is the only important data.

The actual capture times, between photos of all agencies, would then be made a public record -- chips falling where they may.

It is the responsibility of a free press to ferret out information that those in power wish to withhold. It is the responsibility of an informed citizenry to openly request information from press sources when there is the appearance that they are withholding information critical to their mission of maintaining the public trust.

We await response from AP, AFP and Reuters that could lay to rest this one important issue.

To which I have a slight nit-pick, that it is possible to alter the EXIF information embedded in the digital photos from most digital cameras, it's even possible that the date and time on different cameras aren't even close to being in sync with the real time or set to times in other timezones. So the time/date information will not be conclusive evidence – in a way the most fishy result would probably be doctored EXIF timestamps that shows a consistent and stringent timeline! However, that doesn't defray from the other suspicious points being raised in the Qana "incident".

*** UPDATE III ***

It seems like the Qana story isn't the only one that smells fishy... Riehl World View have the story of the Israeli bombing of two ambulances, that's also most likely a piece of fiction that the MSM have bought and brought uncritically!