Striking a Pose - New Qana Video Starring Green Helmet Guy

August 16th, 2006 12:27 AM

Thanks to some intrepid digging from commenters Lancelot and Harris at EU Referendum, another video of the events at Qana has been found. This is one that I have never seen before and really shows what was going on that day. It is truly a must see for anyone that believes that the photos at Qana were staged. It completely debunks the "our photographers do not set up photos" and "the rescuers were not holding up the children for photos" claims.

Believe it or not, it is a link from Wikipedia of all places. Here's the direct link to the video. If you can't the video to load through the direct link, go to Wikipedia and scroll down to External Links (Resources) and click on the first video listed. The video is approx 13 minutes long and does have a good bit of anchorperson commentary in Arabic. Also be advised that some of the images are graphic...

Pay close attention to this footage...

At 0:53 there is new footage of Mr. Green Helmet serving as director of the scene. He's standing over some victims and gesturing to someone off camera. One thing is for sure - he is in NO HURRY in this footage.

At 8:29 we see Mr. Green Helmet taking off for his run with the little girl in the multicolored pants. What makes this interesting is Mr. Green Helmet is standing still with the child, then turns and starts off at a quick pace. As Mr. GH turns, a cameraman crosses behind him. It is obvious that Mr. GH was posing with the child for the cameraman prior to his "run".

The footage continues with Mr. White TShirt standing at the "staging area" looking like he is lost. He then turns and takes the little girl in pink pj's from another man and starts off on his "famous" rescue run.

At approx 8:56 there is a longer version of White TShirt holding the little girl in the multicolored pants by her upper arms with her little body just dangling. Then Mr. Green Helmet comes up and takes the little girl from him (obviously the video is not in real time sequence).

There is also an interview with Mr. Green Helmet (not the same one we've seen before). This time he is out of breath and sweating like he has just ran two miles.

This proves that the photos were setup photo ops to specifically fan the flames of Israeli hatred. The children were used as props and their bodies treated with a total lack of respect. The crush of photographers surrounding the "rescue workers" shows their complicity with the set up photos. The AP and its comrades enabled the terrorist propaganda and they did it willingly. This time the pictures don't lie...

UPDATE 08-16 00:40 by Matthew Sheffield. LGF catches the AP's Kathy Gannon apologizing for Helmet Guy, even attempting to explain away his captured on video news staging:

The 20-year veteran civil defense worker said he shows dead children to photographers to make clear that Israeli airstrikes killed young Lebanese during the monthlong conflict. Some Internet bloggers have accused him of setting up photos and of treating the dead insensitively.

In one photograph, taken after an Israeli airstrike hit a building in the village of Qana, Daher held a dead infant over his head. The boy's blue pacifier was pinned to his nightshirt.

"I did hold the baby up, but I was saying 'look at who the Israelis are killing. They are children,'" Daher said. "These are not fighters. They have no guns. They are children, civilians they are killing.' "

He said he had no regrets and he made no apologies. "I wanted people to see who was dying. They said they were killing fighters. They killed children."

After the photograph taken at the July 30 Qana strike, which killed 29 people, Daher has found himself under attack, accused of being a propagandist for Hezbollah guerrillas.

One Web site posted video purporting to show Daher arranging to have the body of a child taken off an ambulance and displayed for photographers.

Daher has lived in Tyre since 1996, and was among rescue workers who helped the wounded and removed the dead after an Israeli missile slammed into a U.N. compound in 1996, killing 106 people. At that time, he was photographed holding a mutilated baby.

Daher, now 39, said he doesn't care what was said about him.

"I do my job, and I take many risks for my job, to help people. This is what I do," he said. "When I am rescuing people or taking dead bodies out I try not to think with my heart because then it is very hard for me. But sometimes it is too much, when I see many people or many children.

"I tell you there are many faces that will always be in my mind," Daher said.

It's a tough job but someone's got to stage news events. Gannon pretty clearly thinks so.