Coulda, Mighta, Coulda

The Australian newspaper is all over a quote from an Israeli Army spokesman that it's possible they shelled an ambulance. They can't resist crowing at the idea that Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was the one who was sucked in, not them:

THE Israeli army has admitted its soldiers may have fired on a Red Cross ambulance during the war in Lebanon - an incident Foreign Minister Alexander Downer claimed was a hoax that had duped a gullible Australian and international media. The claims centred on a controversial July 23 attack in southern Lebanon in which two Red Cross ambulances were destroyed, either by artillery or missiles - injuring at least six Lebanese, including one man whose leg was later amputated. Initial media reports claimed the Israeli Defence Force targeted the vehicles, firing a missile directly through the roof of one ambulance using the international Red Cross symbol as a target marker.

Journalist Mark Dodd once again reports the missile/artillery destruction of the ambulance as fact - 'ambulances were destroyed, either by artillery or missiles' - when the photographic evidence shows they quite plainly weren't.

And his report goes on to say the Israeli spokesman 'has now gone closer than ever before to admitting responsibility' but the fact is that his comments, in response to reporters' questions, don't do any such thing:

"We (IDF) certainly do not target ambulances but in a combat zone, we cannot always co-ordinate their safety," Captain Benjamin Rutland said. "It (the ambulance) could have been struck by our mortar or artillery. There was (Israeli army) shelling in the vicinity of the ambulance, but we do not have UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) footage and we don't have access to the ambulance so we cannot tell for sure."

Caught out swallowing Hezbollah propaganda and manipulation hook, line and sinker, the mainstream media will go to any lengths to suggest they're not the gullible ones - or, worse, that they let their anti-Israeli biases blind them to the absolutely bleeding obvious lies of terrorists.

-- Nick

Note: The 'photographic evidence' link above takes you to a Fox News report. The actual ambulance expose and full analysis was carried out here by zombietime but the link was down at the time of writing.