November 20, 2004
La Haine
A video file from Radio Côte d'Ivoire Internationale purports to show French troops firing on civilians. The link arrives via Solomonia, one of whose reader's writes:
The file is ten minutes long, includes graphic imagery of wounds inflicted and is extremely disturbing. These are not the on-again-off-again "civilians" of jihadist Fallujah but apparently unarmed demonstrators at least one of whom is injured in the back. At one point a spontaneous chant of what sounds like "USA! USA!" springs up and at the very end once French troops have left the scene a United Nations vehicle is set alight. This video is important not only in itself but as yet another example of what our media chooses not to show us. We are being lied to.
Update: Worse yet, the link I have provided is only to the second half of the complete video. Here is the first half (via lgf).
Update: Stygius offers commentary and expresses reservations about the editing of the film clips.
More links follow in the extended entry...
AP Wire reports incitement of mob violence on Ivorian radio and television. There is a broader context to the violence represented in these video clips. The fact remains the sum total interest and outrage among the usual suspects in the West is zero.
Update: The blogosphere is on the job as Freewillblog reportedly offers a compressed version of the video file (via Instapundit, whose linkage may be giving Freewillblog's server heartburn).
Posted by Nicholas Packwood at November 20, 2004 09:02 PM | TrackBackI have emailed our local Global station to see if they pick up on it.
Posted by: MikeP at November 20, 2004 10:42 PMOops, put it in the wrong post on the first try.
Posted by: MikeP at November 20, 2004 10:43 PMNo problem. And sending it along to Global was an excellent idea. Let's see what they do.
Posted by: Flea at November 20, 2004 10:49 PMIts on LGF already Flea, so there should be some noise about it now. I emailed Drudge and Fox News also.
Isn't this internet wonderful?? Blogdom may force the MSM to look at this story now which otherwise they probably wouldn't touch.
Add to this video the comments made by Kofi Annan on Friday in reference to UN Staff (French and Tunisian named so far) acting as a peacekeeping force while (seckually) abusing women and children in the Congo.
The International Herald Tribune (New York Times international arm) didn't even mention this first UN official acknowledgement in their Saturday edition...(which, incidentally, distributes to Eastern Europe from Paris France)...
PS: I had to spell a certain word above phonetically because your word filter wouldn't let it through...???
Gosh, the French shooting people and the MSM not reporting it....must have been some sort of fluke. I mean mistakes happen, eh?
I'm sure the CBC, at least, will get right on it. Maybe they could send Naomi and Avi to do a quick documentary.
By the way, the chant could not have been USA, USA....that is impossible. Perhaps, "Go Away, GoAway" or "Shoot again, make us pay". Much more plausible.
Posted by: Jay Currie at November 21, 2004 02:59 AMSend Alexandre Trudeau! He's our man!
Posted by: Mike at November 21, 2004 07:35 AMTheir website doesn't seem to be able to handle the traffic for these mpegs to download properly. If you go to their parent directory (http://radioci.embaci.com/englishdownload/), you'll see they have a thing for huge, unmanageable files.
Somebody send them an editor.
Posted by: Stygius at November 21, 2004 04:23 PMThe editing in the video is extremely suspect.
The first video is facing the peaceful crowd then cuts. In the next shot the camera is pointed squarely at the French soldiers who are firing.
Anything could have happened in that period. What makes that all the more interesting is that the final shot on the second video is a burned out UN car, but neither tape has the sound of an explosion.
Now, let's suppose somebody in the crowd had lobbed a molotov at the UN vehicle and exploded, wouldn't you expect the soldiers to put down suppressive fire?
Wouldn't you expect some people on the corwd to be injured or potentially killed by the shrapnel?
Would you trust the Taliban to show honest footage of American action in Fallujah?
Posted by: Axel at November 22, 2004 08:15 PM