From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Jihadis
Playing Possum
Back in May
2002, we noted that the Israel Defense Forces had provided a reconnaissance
video showing a staged funeral of a Palestinian at the "refugee camp"
in Jenin, supposedly the site of an Israeli massacre. As Ha'aretz
reported at the time:
IDF field intelligence chief, Colonel Miri Eisen, told reporters that the film shows someone who is supposedly dead--and on the way to burial--falling off his stretcher and then running away.
The same scam seems to be popping up in Lebanon--quite literally. Look at this July 30 photo, shot by the Associated Press's Lefteris Pitarakis:
The caption reads: "Bodies of Lebanese residents of the southern village of Qana near the port city of Tyre, Lebanon, are laid covered after they were removed from under the rubble of a demolished building, background, that was struck by Israeli war plane missiles Sunday, July 30, 2006. At least 50 people, including scores of children, were killed Sunday in an Israeli air strike on this southern Lebanon village--the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting."
The death toll subsequently declined, and a close look at this photo shows that the Hezbollah side of the conflict was exaggerating it with images as well as words. Note the "victim" denoted by the arrow here:
It's a little hard to see exactly what's going on at this size, but as luck would have it the Washington Post used the photo on its July 31 front page, and a sharp-eyed reader scanned it for us. Here's an enlargement of the portion in question:
It's a bit reminiscent of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: "I'm getting better.")
Plainly this scene was staged for the benefit of the cameras, though it is important to note we know of no evidence that the photographer was complicit in the staging. It is, however, a clear example of how terrorist groups use journalists to spread their propaganda.
(Update: This blog post offers pretty convincing evidence that we were mistaken.)
Speaking of which, TimesWatch.org's Clay Waters notes that Saturday's New York Times featured a front-page photo from Adnan Hajj, the Reuters photographer who was fired the following day after it turned out he doctored photos to make Israel look bad. The photo ran four columns, at the top of the page.
Yet while Reuters says it has purged Hajj's photos from its database, the Times has not even covered the scandal. At this writing, the only mention of it on the Times Web site is Reuters' own coverage of it.
Yeah,
Adnan Hajj's Editor!
"You Know Anybody Who Needs an 'Anti-Stupid' Pill?"--headline, Reuters,
Aug. 7
Will
Sanity Prevail?
Although we generally agree more with Republicans than with Democrats, let it
never be said that this column is partisan. The proof: We are rooting for Connecticut's
Sen. Joe Lieberman to win his primary and Georgia's Rep. Cynthia McKinney to
lose her run-off today, even though the opposite outcomes would be good for
Republicans and would provide us with lots of good material.
Lieberman is under fire from the Angry Left for supporting the liberation of Iraq; his opponent, Ned Lamont, advocates a policy of escapism. As he explained to us in a May interview:
George McGovern's slogan [in 1972] was "America, come home," and Mr. Lamont echoes the theme as he describes his conversations with voters.
"You talk to striking workers at Sikorsky [a Stratford-based helicopter maker]--they've since settled--and . . . they say, how come we can spend $250 million a day in Iraq and we can't afford health care for all of our citizens? I teach a course at Bridgeport High School about how to start your own business. You talk to the guidance counselors there, and [they] say, how come we're cutting back on sports and arts and [have] not enough money for preschool education, and yet we can afford $250 million a day in Iraq? . . . We ought to be investing in our own future here in this country."
Nursery schools may be nice, but they don't prevent terrorism. Lamont has been leading in the polls, but Reuters notes his advantage has dwindled to six percentage points, 51% to 45% in the latest Quinnipiac poll, down from 13 points a week ago. We are on record as predicting a victory by both Lieberman (on "The Journal Editorial Report," July 29) and Lamont (on "Lou Dobbs Tonight," Aug. 4). We're going to go out on a limb and say that at least one of these predictions is likely to prove correct.
McKinney, meanwhile, has been running behind challenger Hank Johnson in the polls. The Associated Press notes that McKinney has a new campaign ad in which she describes herself as "not perfect"--surely the first understatement of her political career. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that McKinney "said she would call for the impeachment of President Bush for 'high crimes and misdemeanors' ":
"It's the failure to protect the people who survived Hurricane Katrina. It's failure to protect the American people with respect to the events of Sept. 11. This administration has failed across the board," McKinney said.
These two elections will help define the range of acceptable opinion in the Democratic Party. If Lieberman loses, it will mean you cannot be strong on national security and be a Democrat. If McKinney wins, it will mean you can embrace the wackiest sort of Angry Left moonbattery and still be a Democrat. Either outcome would give the most partisan Republican cause to smile. But either would be bad for the country, which would benefit from having two sane parties.
The
Hillary Haters
The Boston Herald's Brett Arends reports that New Hampshire voters have some
nasty things to say about Hillary Clinton, New York's junior senator:
Dick Bennett has been polling New Hampshire voters for 30 years. And he's never seen anything like it.
"Lying b**** . . . shrew . . . Machiavellian . . . evil, power-mad witch . . . the ultimate self-serving politician."
No prizes for guessing which presidential front-runner drew these remarks in focus groups. . . .
We're not talking about "soft" negatives like, say, "out of touch" or "arrogant."
We're talking: "Criminal . . . megalomaniac . . . fraud . . . dangerous . . . devil incarnate . . . satanic . . . power freak."
Satanic.
And: "Political wh***."
(Note: I don't usually like reporting such personal remarks, but in this case you can hardly understand the situation without them. I have no strong personal feelings about the senator.)
We assume the asterisked words rhyme with "rich" and "poor," respectively. Anyway, what's astonishing about these descriptions of Mrs. Clinton is that all of them come from Democrats. According to Bennett, 45% of Granite State Dems have a bad impression of her, and for many of them it is very bad indeed.
Must be a vast left-wing conspiracy.
If
at First You Don't Succeed . . .
"Cuban officials on Monday mocked opponents who had hoped that unrest would
erupt in the Communist-ruled nation following the hospitalization of veteran
leader Fidel Castro," Reuters reports from Havana:
A leading intellectual and Cuban government member said the country had set in motion a "peaceful succession"--the first official to use the word succession.
Wait. Castro is (was?) dictator for life. If he's being succeeded, that would mean . . .
But hold on. Agence France-Presse reports from Caracas, Venezuela, that "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his Cuban counterpart, Fidel Castro, was already 'getting out of bed.' "
Then again, as blogger Rodger Thomas notes, out of bed could mean six feet underground.
Funny that Cuba's communists are desperately asserting Castro is still alive while Hezbollah's supporters are pretending to be dead.
He
Doesn't Sound Like a Happy Camper to Us
"A body recovered from the Klamath River last month has been identified
as that of Jonathon Christopher Samuel, 28 of Happy Camp."--Siskiyou Daily
News (Yreka, Calif.), Aug. 8
On
the Bright Side, at Least They're Fatal
"Oklahoma's Lethal Injections Called Fatally Flawed"--headline, Los
Angeles Times, Aug. 8
Playing
to Type
"Tri-Cities Police Waste No Time Finding Stolen Doughnut Truck"--headline,
Associated Press, Aug. 7
Man,
Does He Need It
"Barry Manilow to Have Hip Surgery"--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 7
After
6, They Stop Believing in Santa
"After 10 Years, Few Believe in Life on Mars"--headline, Associated
Press, Aug. 5
Thanks
for the Tip!--XCIII
"Health Tip: Take Care of Your Fingernails"--headline, HealthDay.com,
Aug. 8
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "Bedford High School Construction 'Looks Great' "--headline,
Union
Leader (Manchester, N.H.), Aug. 8
- "Big Truck Could Slow Freeway Traffic"--headline, Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, Aug. 7
- "Dixie Chicks Cancel Shows, Add Others"--headline, Associated
Press, Aug. 8
- "90-Year-Old Remembers Calmer Times"--headline, Berwyn
(Ill.) Life, Aug. 6
- "CORRECTED: Pre-Teen Girls Ignore Hilary Duff's Fashion Picks"--headline, Reuters, Aug. 8
Is
There a Plan C?
We'd like to be the first to congratulate Dilbert creator Scott Adams on his
recent marriage. On his blog, Adams describes his first trip with his new bride:
I had my familymoon last week. That's like a honeymoon, but in our case included our two kids (6 and 9) plus two sets of grandparents. Our brilliant plan was to enroll the kids in the spectacular child activity centers offered on the Disney Magic cruise ship to the Western Caribbean. Once checked in, the kids would be entertained with a plethora of games and activities that would stimulate and delight them. This would leave the adults free to do adultish things. Everyone wins.
Unfortunately, our kids only have one question when it comes to entertainment: Who else will be there?
It turns out that our answer--"a bunch of strangers"--did not please them, especially after they tried it. So Plan B went into effect . . .
Sorry, Scott, Plan B works only if she takes it within 72 hours.
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to John Cohn, Ed Lasky, Max Rosett, Michael Segal, Tom Lipscomb, Carl Stritter, Charles Purnell, Ethel Fenig, Sam Wakim, George Kooshian, Donald Aites, Richard Kopitzke, Gary Pomeroy, Greg Askins, Mike Squire, Jeff Dobbs, Ruth Papazian, Thomas Dillon, Bill Heyman, Christopher Conrad, John Neal, Daniel Goldstein and Brian Allendorfer. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: Of all things, some useful U.S.-French diplomacy.
- Brendan Miniter: How President Bush made Ned Lamont possible.
- Lanny Davis: Bigotry and hate aren't just for right-wingers anymore.
