March 09
2007
UN says Fisk's piece is nonsense
» Posted on March 9, 2007 07:30 AM » Category: Middle East

Another day, another UN report proving that Robert Fisk is spewing out nonsense again.

Here's what Mr Fisk wrote last October:


[S]cientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used against targets in Lebanon.

…Asked by The Independent if the Israeli army had been using uranium-based munitions in Lebanon this summer, Mark Regev, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "Israel does not use any weaponry which is not authorised by international law or international conventions." This, however, begs more questions than it answers.

…Chris Bellamy, the professor of military science and doctrine at Cranfield University, who has reviewed the Busby report, said: "At worst it's some sort of experimental weapon with an enriched uranium component the purpose of which we don't yet know. At best - if you can say that - it shows a remarkably cavalier attitude to the use of nuclear waste products."

…Many Lebanese, however, long ago concluded that the latest Lebanon war was a weapons testing ground for the Americans and Iranians, who respectively supply Israel and Hizbollah with munitions. Just as Israel used hitherto-unproven US missiles in its attacks, so the Iranians were able to test-fire a rocket which hit an Israeli corvette off the Lebanese coast, killing four Israeli sailors and almost sinking the vessel after it suffered a 15-hour on-board fire.

What the weapons manufacturers make of the latest scientific findings of potential uranium weapons use in southern Lebanon is not yet known. Nor is their effect on civilians.

It's the usual Fisk style of piece - entirely partial, pulling together all sorts of outlandish and wild accusations against Israel based on the default premise that everything Israel does is wrong.

And it's the usual Fisk style of piece because it's completely wrong:


A panel of experts from the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international agencies announced a unanimous determination Monday that no depleted-uranium weapons had been used in the summer 2006 war in Lebanon. "To date, there is no evidence of depleted-uranium-ammunitions use during the 2006 conflict in Lebanon," Didier Louvat, IAEA head of radioactive waste issues, told a news conference hosted by the National Council for Scientific Research in Bir Hassan.

…Senior UNEP' scientist Mario Burger conducted intensive research on soil samples collected in South Lebanon at the Spiez government laboratory in Switzerland. "No use of weapons containing depleted uranium" was found, he said, adding that "no use of weapons containing any uranium - depleted, natural, or enriched" was found.

An above-normal level of concentration of uranium had been found in Khiam, Burger said, but an investigation showed the level of uranium was consistent with levels naturally occurring in soil in the area.

The findings contradicted claims made in December by Chris Busby, secretary for the European Committee on Radiation Risk, who said there was "no way the signs of uranium found in Khiam were the result of natural or industrial materials. Their only source is nuclear reactors."

Not, of course, that Fisk believes anything he is told which paints Israel in a bad light. Of course not.


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Comments

Yet one more anti-Israeli libel bites the dust. Of course, no one (except thee, me and a few million Jews who really don't count), especially no one who reads the Independent, will ever know that it has bitten the dust. Like all the other terrible lies that have been spread in the past about Israel it will take on a life on its own and feed into that great eternal anti-Semitic blood lust that has re-emerged in Europe in recent years. The cry of "Kill the Jews! Kill the Jews! that was heard as late as 1946 in a murderous pogrom in Poland against Holocaust survivors has now mutated into "Death to the Zionists! Death to Israel!"

The real shame of it is that the Independent has a Jewish editor (or at least someone who is a Jew by reason of Jewish law), a man who has cheerfully overseen articles such as this and also what is widely viewed as the most openly anti-Semitic cartoon to have been published in a European newspaper since the fall of the Third Reich. There are many more pertinent comments I could make about this man, but not wanting to embarrass our extremely tolerant host any more than I usually do, or, alternatively, have this post struck down in its prime by those unforgiving gods of censorship, I shall, just this once, keep shtum.

Stated by: Joshua on March 9, 2007 10:10 AM

You have to give Mr.Fisk credit. Is there another British journalist alive whose name is likely to pass into common language? "To fisk" = to subject a poor and tendentious piece of journalistic prose to a suitably ruthless analysis, showing its essential hollowness and fraudulence. Rejoice, Robert - your literary immortality is assured.

Stated by: Paolo on March 9, 2007 10:32 AM

I wrote a letter to the Independent asking when or if they will retract Fisk's story. I'm still waiting for a reply or them to print a retraction. I reckon my wait will be eternal...

Stated by: annie on March 10, 2007 11:26 PM
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