• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Israel Attacks Lebanon With Poison Gas

webfusion

Philosopher
webfusion
Joined
Nov 16, 2004
Messages
9,757
OK, I kid you not:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/818324.html
Lebanon's official news agency claimed that South Lebanon was under attack from "poisoned balloons" dispersed by IDF aircraft.
The Lebanese media reported that some civilians were hospitalized after inhaling the gas in the balloons.


The truth?

Photographs published on the Web site of Hezbollah's TV station Al-Manar show green helium-filled balloons from a promotional campaign for Ha'ir newspaper. The harmless balloons had inadvertently drifted over the border, after being released in Israel during an advertising event.
 
jeez, is that the best cover story you could come up with there webfusion? Like somebody would just let a bunch of helium filled balloons loose as part of promotional event. right.
 
Apparently the song "99 Luftballoons" wasn't that far from reality.

Thankfully idiots like the Lebanese don't have the means to launch a counterstrike.
 
Possibly a few Lebanese children started huffing some of the helium.

That high squeaky voice is definitely a sign of iminent death. Or maybe just a bit of giggling.
 
WildCat said:
Apparently the song "99 Luftballoons" wasn't that far from reality.

Thankfully idiots like the Lebanese don't have the means to launch a counterstrike.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you went a little far there WildCat? Characterizing the people from an entire country as idiots based on the reporting of a single story from a single news agency seems unjustified.
 
davefoc said:
Perhaps you went a little far there WildCat? Characterizing the people from an entire country as idiots based on the reporting of a single story from a single news agency seems unjustified.
Click to expand...
Not when that "single news agency" is the official gov't news and as such reflects the official opinion of the Lebanese gov't.
 
This could have been the trigger for WWIII! Don't forget, it was only when they translated it into English that the Nena song became "red balloons" - before that, they could just as easily have been green.
 
And only after it was translated into English that it deposed "Relax" by "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" from the UK number 1 slot. Good old Blighty. Never mind that the words were something banal like "You and I in a little toy shop / Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got / . . . / And here is / A Red baloon / I think of you / And let it go"

/"When you wanna come . . . "
 
Updated from Lebanon's National News Agency:

NNA said contacts have been made between the Lebanese army command and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, which has instructed an Italian peacekeeping unit to take samples from the balloons for examination. The agency said the results are likely to come out on Sunday.

NNA had earlier said that the Lebanese army's engineering unit headed to the area and destroyed the balloons by explosives.

I happen to believe that the Lebanese are quite relieved to have this ridiculous story on their front pages, to distract from their real problems.
 
Can anybody translate the words on the balloons in the story? Is it the name of the newspaper using the ballloons as part of a promotion?

Is it possible to provide an idea about the prevailing winds at the time of the promotion and whether that supports the idea that this is where the balloons were released from?

I believe that eight poisoning cases are now being blamed on the balloons including one Lebanese reporter. Does anybody have any theories about the viability of a gas attack implemented by releasing balloons. From a practical standpoint it would seem that most of the gas would need to be helium to allow the balloon to float, then what kind of gas would be strong enough to cause even discomfort after it was first diluted by the helium and then massively diluted when the balloon pops. And then there is the little issue about filling and transporting the balloons safely filled with poison gas.

The theory being put forth is that balloons were dropped by the Israeli Air Force. If this was actually the scenario then the balloons could just be filled with poison gas in the airplane and then dropped, but it does seem somewhat difficult to do safely. I don't think I'd want to be the guy throwing balloons filled with poison gas out the airplane window.
 
davefoc said:
I believe that eight poisoning cases are now being blamed on the balloons including one Lebanese reporter. Does anybody have any theories about the viability of a gas attack implemented by releasing balloons.
Click to expand...

It's completely unviable.

I think this is a good time to point to a previous example of an accusation of poison gas attacks by Israel. Israeli troops use tear gas against Palestinians with moderate frequency, in order to try to contain violence without having to kill people. At some point, they had switched the tear gas and the canisters used. As soon as that happened, there were accusations that these new canisters actually contained nerve gas. The report got spread widely, and there was even a poster on this board (you know who you are) who repeated the claim credulously. It only took a few minutes of google searching to find out the truth, of course. But it did leave me with the unanswered question of whether the Palestinians making the original accusation were just being cynically opportunist (throw as much dirt as you can and hope something sticks) or whether they were paranoid and clueless enough to actually believe that they were being attacked with nerve gas. Same thing here: from the outside, I just can't tell. Neither answer (cynicism or paranoia) is very comforting, though.
 
Perhaps NNA should get Peter Arnett to present the story. He has great experience in promoting fictitious stories about poisoned gas attacks.
 
I think the Israelis are getting soft. Time once was they would sow panic in Lebanon by sending helicopter gunships over the border, shooting up a Hezbollah enclave, and blowing up a few bridges.

Now they send balloons over.

I think Hezbollah should reply in kind. It could turn out to be the cutest war in history.
  • Israel drops balloons on Lebanon.
  • Lebanon retaliates with a massive confetti barrage.
  • Israeli launches counterstrike, targets car containing three top Hezbollah officials. Car disabled by chocolate cake blocking air intakes.
  • UN blue helmets arrive with noisemakers and party hats.
Whee!
 
Beeps, you soooooo win this thread!



davefoc -- This is the perfect example of Occam's Razor.
They are helium ballons from an advertising promotion of Ha'ir newspaper (just as we can see written there on them). They floated over the border.
Nobody in Lebanon was 'poisoned'.

Of course, you are welcome to wait for the official results of the Italian laboratory tests, if you wish. I'm fine without that bit of supporting evidence, to know that this is a simple case of "much ado about nothing."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom