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The former ‘Abu Ghraib’ style prison was being used as anti-Israel information center of the period when South Lebanon was occupied by the IDF and SLA forces.
● Israeli bombardment of a U.N. observation near Khiam
● Canadian Among Four UN Observers Killed
By Robert Fisk at Khiam Jail
from The Independent (United Kingdom)
25 May 2000
The torturers had just left but the horror remained. There was the whipping pole and the window grilles where prisoners were tied naked for days, freezing water thrown over them at night. Then there were the electric leads for the little dynamo — the machine mercifully taken off to Israel by the interrogators — which had the inmates shrieking with pain when the electrodes touched their fingers or penises. And there were the handcuffs which an ex-prisoner handed to me yesterday afternoon.
Engraved into the steel were the words: “The Peerless Handcuff Co. Springfield, Mass. Made in USA.” And I wondered, as I stood there in Israel’s most shameful prison, if the executives over in Springfield knew what they were doing when they sold these manacles.
…
Abdullah Attiyeh walked me to the prison guardpost on the walls and looked out at the land and mountains he was never allowed to see during his imprisonment. “This place,” he said, “should be kept forever as a witness to our history.”
[The IAF with four bombing runs, took care of that historical place of Israel’s war crimes in Lebanon – Oui]
Khiam prison was a detention and interrogation camp during the years of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. From 1985 until the Israeli defeat in May 2000, Lebanese and Palestinian detainees were held in Khiam without trial. Most of them were brutally tortured – some of them died.
Soon after the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, the guards of the notorious Khiam prison fled, leaving the prisoners free. Men, women and children had been held in appalling conditions.
Among the prisoners were Lebanese journalist Cosette Ibrahim, kidnapped while reporting in southern Lebanon. Some of the detainees were children, like 15-year-old Ali Tawbeh, who with his parents was dragged from his home by the Israeli occupation forces in 1997.
«« click on pic to enlarge
Photo: Arjan El Fassed
After the Israeli withdrawal, residents of Khiam village stormed the detention centre and released all remaining 144 detainees.
● Israel’s Forgotten Hostages: Lebanese Detainees
in Israel and Khiam Detention Centre
Wed Jul 26th, 2006 at 08:50:45 AM PST
Btw, this is the town where the Israeli sponsored SLA had their own version of Abu Ghraib during the civil war. It was bombed to smithereens the other day, obliterating all historical evidence of its infamous torture cells.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
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BEIRUT (ABC/AP) July 26 — Hezbollah had expected “the usual, limited response” from Israel after the two soldiers were seized by guerrillas … In the past, Israeli responses to Hezbollah actions included sending commandos into Lebanon, seizing Hezbollah officials and briefly targeting specific strongholds in southern Lebanon.
Komati said his group had anticipated negotiations to swap the Israeli soldiers for three Lebanese held in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it has in past prisoner exchanges.
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KABUL (Reuters) 50 minutes ago — All 16 people aboard a helicopter, including several foreigners, were killed in the crash in rugged mountain terrain in southeastern Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition forces said.
«« click on map for BBC storyThe cause of the crash was not known, but it took place in an area where insurgents are active. At least two coalition soldiers were killed, a forces spokesman said. Twelve bodies had so far been recovered.
Dutch troops elsewhere with NATO in AfghanistanThe two coalition casualties were Dutch nationals, the first soldiers killed on the ISAF/NATO mission in Afghanistan.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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SYDNEY (AFP) July 26 — Australia has withdrawn troops helping evacuate its citizens in southern Lebanon because the situation in the area is too dangerous, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said.
Nelson said 12 unarmed Australian Defence Force troops were being moved north to Beruit following an Israeli air strike on a UN post in the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon that killed four UN observers.
“Late yesterday we made a decision to bring our 12 ADF personnel back from southern Lebanon to Beirut,” Nelson told national radio.
“I am not prepared to say at the moment precisely where they are. We have made the decision to bring them back to Beirut and they are being transferred in an appropriate and timely manner.”
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U.N. observation post that was demolished after it was hit by Israeli air strikes, killing four U.N. observers, in the town of Khiam, on the Lebanese Israeli border. AP Photo/UNIFIL≈ Cross-posted from my diary — IDF: Rome Gives Us Legitimacy to Forge Ahead In Lebanon ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I was kind of wondering if Israel was going to wheel out this traitorous bunch of war criminals and let them back into Lebanon from their Northern Israeli refuge. Then seeing one ex-officer symaphetically interviewed over dinner on CNN – yes CNN now sits down and does dinner with war criminals- I realised this bunch of bitter fat old mass murderers were highly unlikely to ever set foot back in Lebanon again. That is good.