Posted on 08/11/2006 6:27:12 PM PDT by pitinkie
TYRE, Lebanon (AP) - After hours of digging in the blistering heat, Salam Daher emerged from the wreckage with the body of a 9-month-old baby, a blue pacifier still pinned to its nightshirt.
Daher, a member of the civil defense for 20 years, has been photographed with bodies of the dead in two wars now - first in 1996 and most recently with the baby on July 30 -- both times after Israeli attacks in the village of Qana six miles southeast of the city.
For that reason, some Web sites have labeled him the "Green Helmet," and accused him of being a member of the Hezbollah guerrilla group, and of showing off bodies as propaganda.
"But that isn't true," he told The Associated Press. He is not affiliated with any party, he said. "I am just a civil defense worker. I have done this job all my life."
When bombs strike, he said he is often the one who takes the phone call alerting the civil defense to an emergency, and he is often part of the first team to reach the site.
The baby at Qana died when Israeli missiles slammed into a house - a response, Israel said, to rockets that Hezbollah fired from nearby.
Bloggers have accused rescue workers and volunteers of showing off victims for the media.
Ten years ago, on April 18, 1996, Daher was one of the first to arrive in Qana after Israeli artillery slammed into a U.N. compound where 800 Lebanese had taken shelter.
In 1996, he moved to Tyre, a city where Hezbollah's influence is weaker than other parts of the south because of the power of more secular Shiite parties.
(Excerpt) Read more at home.bellsouth.net ...
Daher, a member of the civil defense for 20 years, has been photographed with bodies of the dead in two wars now - first in 1996 and most recently with the baby on July 30 -- both times after Israeli attacks in the village of Qana six miles southeast of the city.For that reason, some Web sites have labeled him the "Green Helmet," and accused him of being a member of the Hezbollah guerrilla group, ...
No! Not for that reason. We don't accuse him of working for Hezbollah because he was filmed twice. We accuse him because he plays a key role in staging lies for Hezbollah.
This is a bold face lie and misrepresentation of something that any competent reader of the blog reports on Green Helmet guy could now.
A typical and cheap rhetorical trick. Misrepresent the position of ones opponent in an indefensible manner, then ridicule it.
Green Helmet - Why am I thinking Green Hornet and Marvel Comics? The AP is trying to make this propagandist into a super-hero.
LOL
Can it be? Is that him??? Unless my monitor's gone haywire, that's a BLUE helmet.
He must be getting ready for his role as a UN Peacekeeper.
He's a badass, with a badass mamma.
Here's the picture of 'Green Helmet' that appeared with my version. My first thought was that if this was Green Helmet Guy then I'm Baghdad Bob.
You talk about a sanitized version, that article was absolutely barfable.
LOL!
The guy in Post 49 is a fox. What film was that photo plucked from?
His clothes must be made of the same stuff as that pacifier. The child's body is totally caked with dirt but that pacifier is practically pristine. No, they're not staging anything here.
It was taken from the Tulsa World's version of this AP article. I agree, if that's Green Helmet Guy, then I'm Bomb Magnet.
It's possible that this is some really sanitized version of his photo, designed to make it appear that he's really not the loathsome creature that's parading around all the dead children like trophies.
Kathy Gannon at AP has the byline for the article, at least on Newsday.com
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