From jad@ckuxb.att.com Ukn Jan 29 08:51:53 1993 Received: from att-out.att.com by css.itd.umich.edu (5.67/2.2) id AA06466; Fri, 29 Jan 93 08:51:52 -0500 Message-Id: <9301291351.AA06466@css.itd.umich.edu> To: pauls@css.itd.umich.edu Date: Fri, 29 Jan 93 08:49:10 EST From: jad@ckuxb.att.com Status: RO X-Status: Article 19840 of alt.conspiracy: Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy,alt.activism,alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.individualism,alt.censorship,talk.politics.misc,misc.headlines,soc.culture.arabic,soc.rights.human Subject: Part 13, Within America's Soul, Hitler is Victorious Message-ID: <1993Jan28.231010.4178@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> Followup-To: alt.conspiracy Keywords: Within America's Soul, Hitler is Victorious Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU Organization: UVA. FREE Public Access UNIX! Lines: 114 These passages are from: "ISRAEL'S WAR IN LEBANON: EYEWITNESS CHRONICLES OF THE INVASION & OCCUPATION", compiled and edited by Franklin Lamb, publisher and sole distributor: Spokesman for the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Bertrand Russell House, Gamble St., Nottingham, England NG7 4ET. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The nearly 70 days of the Israeli siege of West Beirut caused human suffering on a scale not often witnessed since the end of World War II. The Israeli blockade of West Beirut which sealed off the city from medical supplies, added to the trauma of the half million residents in the western sector and has been widely reported. With respect to the bombing of August 7, U.S. Ambassador Robert Dillon cabled Washington as follows: "Simply put, tonight's saturation shelling was as intense as anything we have seen. There was no "pinpoint accuracy" against targets in "open spaces". It was not a response to Palestinian fire. This was a blitz against West Beirut .... The magnitude of tonight's action is difficult to convey. The flare of exploding shells reflected against the cloud of smoke was an awesome sight .... a city burning." The final calculus from the siege is still incomplete and may remain so for a long while. It will be some time until the mass graves at Sabra and Shatila are exhumed and the truckloads of bodies and people carted off by the Phalange and their associates during the massacre are accounted for. According to initial Lebanese government statistics, now more than a year old, compiled by local Lebanese police districts using death certificates and hospital records, 19,085 persons were found to have been killed as of mid-November, 1982. Of these, 6,775 were killed during the 70 day period in Beirut. 12,310 were killed elsewhere in Lebanon, and 30,302 wounded. As of March 1, 1984, the number is estimated by the Lebanese government to have risen to 33,000 dead and 49,000 wounded. The Lebanese government found that 84 percent of the Beirut casualties were civilians. This figure is approximately 15 percent higher than had been estimated by the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose calculations had been dismissed by the Israeli government as cynical exaggerations and propaganda. According to the Lebanese police, over 2,300 of those killed or wounded during the first four months of the invasion were under 15 years of age, and more than 1,700 were over age 50. Of the 30,302 wounded during this same four month period, more than 1,800 required amputations because of fragmentation bomb or cluster bomb wounds, according to medical personnel working with the Lebanese Red Cross. In addition, more than 350,000 people were made homeless, 100,000 were without shelter, and several hundred thousand made destitute. The Lebanese government has estimated that physical damage from the invasion amounted to more than $3 billion, while destroyed housing alone accounted for nearly $1 billion. The cost of rebuilding Lebanon is now estimated to be $24 billion. Of the 25 hospitals and clinics operating in West Beirut during late July and August, 1982, many were partially destroyed by Israeli aerial, sea and land bombardment, despite exhibiting Red Cross and/or Red Crescent insignias. Dr. Samir Thabit, acting president of the American University of Beirut, stated that he considered having the large red cross painted outside Jessup Hall and West Hall removed. His reason was that from what he had been advised by civil defense workers and Red Cross personnel around West Beirut, the Red Cross insignia actually appeared to draw Israeli fire -- certain elements of the Israeli military apparently feeling that bombing hospitals presented an opportunity to "finish the job" against wounded "terrorists" and their sympathizers. A partial list of damaged or destroyed hospitals and clinics in the Beirut area, some of which were hit by cluster bombs, includes the following: Haifa Hospital Dar Al Ajazy Handicapped Center Islamic Mental Hospital Al Kafayat School for the Disabled Ras Beirut Hospital Makassed Home for the Elderly Development Organization for Human Abilities at Aramoun (DOHA) (an International Year of the Handicapped project) Al Ramadham Orphanage in Ouzai Islamic Psychiatric Hospital in Beirut The Armenian Hospital at Aazzouniye, 16 miles southeast of Beirut Al Mau Hospital Triumph Hotel Clinic La Hout Hospital (Near East School of Theology) Gaza Hospital Berbir Hospital Makassed Hospital Mouseitbi Medical Center Antranic Canter French Center (College Protestante) The functioning clinics of West Beirut were primarily makeshift, put together from the salvage and supplies of hospitals and clinics bombed earlier in the invasion. La Hout Hospital, for example, was set up in the library of the Near East School of Theology, and other clinics were set up at the Triumph Hotel and at the French Protestant College, Basta Center, and others. Many of the most serious cases were transferred to the American University Hospital (AUH), a facility partly funded by the U.S. Government. On August 4, 1982, a day of intensive Israeli bombing and shelling, more than 2,000 refugees sought haven in the AUH. These desperate people correctly believed that, partly because the hospital was American, they might be safe at AUH. They slept in the hallways and many children were placed, with blankets, in large "Project Hope" cardboard boxes. (to be continued) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Transcribed, with published permission, by John DiNardo