Green Helmet Guy: Abdel Qader ( photo ops in Qana, Lebanon )

Little Gren Footballs ^ | August 02, 2006

[george76]

Green Helmet Guy, the “rescue worker” who posed for photo ops with children’s bodies in Qana, is interviewed by Al Jazeera in Arabic, in a video clip at YouTube:

UPDATE at 8/2/06 8:48:14 am:

Watch in the background at around the 1:20 mark, as rescue workers carrying a stretcher pause and set it on the ground, to allow photographers to get in position and take pictures.

[george76]

The link...after the 1:20...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyZsq3jyJ6w&mode=related&search=qana%20

[TommyDale]

Unbelievable!

[TommyDale]

Unbelievable!

[Andy from Beaverton]

Didn't I see him in Michael Moore's movie too?

[jdm]

A story on Green Helmet Guy from Little Green Footballs.

Just an observation.

[george76]

The action stops so that they can get repositioned.

[sportutegrl]

He sounds like the Monty Python players in drag.

[beltfed308]

Just another Pallywood production. Nothing to see here, move along.

[Peach]

The rescuers, including Green Helmet man, says they couldn't get to the scene of the building bombed in Qana, yet the media got there almost immediately.

[kidd]

Even more disgraceful than the Clinton's funeral cry for the camera.

[attiladhun2]

Although it would be kind of sick, a Sat. Nite Live parody of the Hizbo staging of this Qana incident would almost make good schtick.

[No Blue States]

LOL at "Green Helmet Guy"...no relation to tourist guy or looterguy.

We need a pic so we can photoshop him into every war scene.

[Argus]

Green Helmet looks like Michael Moore.

[justiceseeker93]

Can anyone get us a translated transcript of the interview?

[GeorgiaDawg32]

Green Helmet Guys voice sounds like someone has hold of his package and is squeazing pretty hard..oh yea, prolly the hizballah handler..so to speak..:-)

[Fighting Irish]

These Hezbolla creeps need to be erased form the face of the earth ... GO ISRAEL!!

[Rane _H]

Wow. I wonder if there'll be any kind of cult following for this green helmet guy now. Maybe an "All your green helmet are belong to us" website? I can just see him on people's shirts like Che! lol

[george76]

"Baghdad Bob has a cousin..."

[jdm]

"Although it would be kind of sick, a Sat. Nite Live parody of the Hizbo staging of this Qana incident would almost make good schtick."

I agree. Although the season premiere of SNL isn't until Oct. 7 (no new episodes 'til then).

[Sax]

"He sounds like the Monty Python players in drag."

Yep, everything about this smacks of an orchestrated production - the green helmeted guy they cast has a hysterical high pitched voice (ala Python dudes in drag,) the medics pause and ready for the photographers as they carry in their 'prop.'

The sick bastards put a flashing neon target over those childrens' heads by firing and leaving the launcher.

[george76]

Thanks to a friendly Arabic speaker, I got this brief summary of what he said and a bit of the translator's commentary.

His name is Abdel Qader.

He claims that they couldn't reach the building before 8 am because of the conditions of the road and the danger of being hit by the Israeli airforce.

His voice is girly and his clothes look impeccably clean!

http://allisonkaplansommer.blogmosis.com/history/032691.html

[martin_fierro]

Green Helmet Guy is Greg Packer.

[browardchad]

It also looks like one of the stretcher guys (in their cute, and clean, orange outfits) gave Green Helmet a signal (both hands to head) before they picked up the stretcher again.

[george76]

Qanagate is the new Rathergate.

[george76]

Fake but Accurate.

[Rutles4Ever]

I just watched the YouTube link - INCREDIBLE!

[556x45]

This staging of a 'news event' isn't new in that region. The Palis did it too. I think it was a French news team that documented an entire 'scene' which was aired on TV (History channel I think). Clearly the Palis put lots of effort into making their 'production' realistic. The only prob was the Israelis were watching the whole thing from their OP about 100yrds away. The Palis were firing into a mostly vacant field (away from the Israelis) but set the media up in a position to make it appear to be a pitched battle. The interesting part of all this was the media was in on the fact it was a setup. They knew what they were doing wasn't a news event and totally staged! Yes, it was irritating that the Palis were playing dirty but totally outrageous that the media knew and didn't care.

[NonLinear]

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[george76]

Al Jazeera is trying to compete with the NY Times, CNN, CBSABCNBC, MSNBC,...

[Cardhu]

TV capture from Al Jazeera of poster displayed at a demonstation.


Green Helmet Guy as poster boy emoting in quite a different way.


Notice how the arm, head and shoulders are being held up to display the "Trophy".

[FreedomPoster]

There are tons of pics of Green Helmet Guy. Let me look.

Here:

Milking it?
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/milking-it.html

[Lx]

Bump for later.

[No Blue States]

Thanks.

[george76]

For a "rescue worker," he seems very uninterested in rescuing.

His clothes are clean and he seems to spend all of his "rescue time" giving interviews to the media.

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/188968.php

[dead]

[No Blue States]

LMBO! Good one.

[fanfan]

Thanks for the ping.

[newcthem]

We need a pic so we can photoshop him into every war scene

Looks like you won't have to.........LGF has photos back to 1996 showing the same green helmet guy again carrying a dead baby.

These pukes are really sick! (and moslim)

[TomGuy]

Looks like they are graduates of the Michael Moore School of Propaganda Videotaping Techniques.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

For the Video impaired:

Here we see the rescue workers coming into view with the stretcher and a photographer taking pictures:

The video cameraman zooms in:

The photographers reposition themselves as they put down the stretcher:

The rescue workers put the stretcher down and one of them adjusts his helmet for the pictures:

Now we see them picking the stretcher back up with the photographers still taking pictures:

Source: Screen captured from the Google Video

[TomGuy]

from an earlier report:

Lebanese report: Hezbollah planted disabled children in basement to die

[reagan_fanatic]

He sure gets around...

[MarcusAurelious]

I just watched this piece from YouTube, that I found linked from Neal Boortz's website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_B1H-1opys&eurl=

Pallywood is alive and well. if the lowly Palestinians can do it, why can't Hez/Hizbollah?

[FreedomPoster]

Make sure you see the posts just a few after your "thanks" posts.

;-)

[RaceBannon]

Mainstream media once again shows how a slanted story, using posed pictures, distorts events. Shouting "fire" in a crowded movie theater effect?

 

Note: we are AT WAR but have become sissies and vulnerable to media attempts to impose their liberal views. America lost more people in the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers than we have lost soldiers in yeas of war in Iraq. Yet  the liberals, including the Media and people like Ex-Marine John Murtha, are squealing like stuck pigs and demanding we withdraw our forces to prevent more casualties.

 

For focus, one bombing raid, on one night, on a German town in World War II killed 40,000 civilians - including women and children. Wars were fought to be won. Something the bleeding hearts prevent and the death of some 60 civilians - among whom the Hezbollah hide and operate and thus they the Hezbollah put in harm's way - create an anti-Israeli passion which is undeserved. Place the blame where it belongs - on who started this - yes, the Hezbollah. And who puts the civilians up front and center to be killed, yes, the Hezbollah.

 

Alan

Monday, July 31, 2006

Milking it?

Certainly, the photographs are distressing, and indeed they are meant to be. As this piece tells us:

Until recent years, images of civilian casualties in wars often took days to appear in newspapers, but now they can be captured and transmitted around the world to newspaper Web sites, where they are posted immediately, adding to the shock value that sketchy words by reporters often cannot capture. This happened again Sunday morning in the case of the Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana that left dozens dead, reportedly at least half of them children sleeping in their beds overnight.

The photos, taken by The Associated Press, Reuters, and others, showed bodies in the rubble, or being taken away; survivors digging or wailing…

But the photographers, it seems, are not too fussy about how they go about "adding to the shock value". These two sequences illustrate the extent to which photographers on the scene are prepared to ensure that the "shock value" is maximised.

In this first of the two sequences, we see a shot by Reuters and taken by Adnan Hajj, timed at 2:21 pm. It has the caption:

Rescuers pull the body of a toddler victim of an Israeli air raid on Qana that killed more than 60 people, the majority of them women and children, in south Lebanon, July 30, 2006.

Note the "rescue worker" in the foreground, complete with olive green military-style helmet and fluorescent jacket, with what appears to be a flack jacket underneath. His glasses, "designer stubble", blue tee-shirt and jeans make him quite a distinctive figure. Note also, he has a radio in his jacker pocket and he has bare hands, things which becomes relevant later.

The next shot in this sequence is credited to AP's Kevin Frayer. Timed at 4.09 pm, it shows the same "rescue" worker, and has this caption:

Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense workers carry the body of a small child covered in dust from the rubble of his home that was hit in an Israeli missile strike in the village of Qana, east of the port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday. Lebanese Red Cross officials said 56 people died in the Israeli assault on the village, including 34 children. Rescuers dug through the debris to remove dozens of bodies.

This is horrific, but a scrutiny of the framing does suggest that the subject is offering the victim to the photographer.

Just in case you missed it, however, we get another view, courtesy of Reuter's Adnan Hajj, with a time given of 4:30 pm - some 20 minutes after the first shot. The caption reads:

A rescuer carries the body of a toddler victim of an Israeli air raid on Qana that killed more than 60 people, the majority of them women and children, in south Lebanon, July 30, 2006.

Interestingly, in this sequence, the pocket radio is missing. And, although the positioning of the child looks the same, the angle of the shot looks to be about ninety degrees from the first, but in each case, the "worker" is facing towards the camera. The shots are clearly posed.

But now, timed at 12:45 pm, an hour and twenty minutes before the child's body is pictured being pulled from the ruins, we get a picture from AP's Kevin Frayer of the same child's body being paraded by our ubiquitous helmeted rescue worker.

Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense workers carry the body of a small child covered in dust from the rubble of his home that was hit in an Israeli missile strike in the village of Qana, east of the port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday, July 30, 2006. Lebanese Red Cross officials said 56 people died in the Israeli assault on the village, including 34 children. Rescuers dug through the debris to remove dozens of bodies.

At 12.53 pm, after an interval of eight minutes, Frayer photographs the child's body again, from a different angle. The caption is the same. This time, though, our helmeted worker is showing some distress, which was absent in the previous photograph.

The photographs show the characters moving down the hill, with little distance between the scenes, which suggest that they have been taken sequentially and spontaneously. But they have not. The eight minute interval has allowed a crowd to gather around "green helmet". Furthermore, "orange jacket" has switched from left to right. Note also the tee-shirted man in the centre of the picture.

Then, timed at 1:01 pm, eight minutes on, we get another picture from Frayer. Once again, the caption is the same but this time the child's body is being paraded aloft by our ubiquitous helmeted rescue worker, but the tee-shirted character had moved from centre to right and is taking his turn to displaying his emotion to the camera. The UN soldier in the background has turned away, confirming a time lapse. The scene is clearly staged, as have been those preceding it.

Next, we have the second of the two sequences, the first shot of which, timed at 7.21 am shows a dead girl in an ambulance. Taken by AP, the caption reads:

Among others, the body of a child recovered under the rubble of a demolished building that was struck by Israeli war plane missiles at the village of Qana near the southern Lebanon city of Tyre, is placed in an ambulance Sunday July 30.

In the next frame, we have the same girl, this time apparently being placed in the ambulance. Also taken by AP,this time by Mohammed Zaatari the caption here reads:

A Lebanese rescuer carries the body of a young girl recovered from under the rubble of a demolished building that was struck by Israeli warplane missiles at the village of Qana, near the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday, July 30, 2006. Dozens of civilians, including many children, were killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike that flattened houses in this southern Lebanon village - the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting.

Intriguingly, though, the dateline given is 10.25 am, three hours after she has already been photographed in the ambulance.

Also from AP's Nasser Nasser, we see the same worker, showing obvious distress, carrying the same girl. But now he is wearing his fluorescent jacket and helmet and has acquired latex gloves. He has also got his radio back. The photograph is timed at 10.44 pm and the caption reads:

A civil defense worker carries the body of Lebanese child recovered from the rubble of a demolished building that was struck by an Israeli airstrike at the village of Qana near the southern Lebanon city of Tyre, Sunday, July 30, 2006. Israeli missiles struck this southern Lebanese village early Sunday, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents. The Lebanese Red Cross said the airstrike, in which at least 34 children were killed, pushed the overall Lebanese death toll to more than 500.

Here we are now, same "worker" and same girl, but this time it is done for the benefit of EPA, the photographer, Mohamed Messara, the worker rushing towards a uniformed Red Cross worker. This caption (without a time) reads:

A rescue worker carries the body of a Lebanese girl after an Israeli air strike on the village of Qana, east of the southern port city of Tyre, on Sunday 30 July 2006. At least 51 people were killed, many of them children, and several others wounded in the raid Sunday, witnesses and rescue workers said.

But now, for the benefit of AFP, the photgraph taken by Nicolas Asfouri, we have the same unfortunate child being handled by another worker, the original worker showing in the background, having passed the casualty on. The timing of the photograph is 7.16 pm and the caption reads:

A rescue worker puts the body of a dead girl on a gurney after Israeli air strikes on the southern Lebanese village of Qana. Israel agreed to temporarily halt air strikes in south Lebanon a day after 52 people were killed, many of them sleeping children, when Israeli warplanes bombarded the Lebanese village of Qana, triggering global outrage and warnings of retribution for alleged "war crimes".

Remember, however, earlier in the sequence, the girl is being carried to the ambulance, by the other worker, sans jacket, helmet and gloves.

Fiunally, in this sequence, we get another shot from AP's Nasser Nasser, again without a timing but with this caption:

A civil defence worker carries a body of a young Lebanese child recovered from the rubble of a demolished building that was struck by Israeli war plane missiles at the village of Qana near the southern Lebanon city of Tyre, Sunday, July 30, 2006.

Whatever else, the event in Qana was a human tragedy. But the photographs do not show it honestly. Rather, they have been staged for effect, exploiting the victims in an unwholesome manner. In so doing, they are no longer news photographs - they are propaganda. And, whoever said the camera cannot lie forgot that photographers can and do. Those lies have spread throughout the world by now and will be in this morning's newspapers, accepted as real by the millions who view them.

The profession of photo-journalism thereby is sadly diminished by them, and the trust in those who took them and in those who carried them is misplaced. Truly, we are dealing with loathesome creatures.

COMMENT THREAD

permalink posted by Richard @ 12:46 AM | Comments forum |

 

[Lekker 1]

We need a pic so we can photoshop him into every war scene.

LOL...kinda like that Bert is Evil website.