Wretchard at the Belmont Club blog - Who Can You Trust?.

In the last few days I completely missed this classic photographic analysis of a news story by Zombietime. It describes possible fraud in depicting an ambulance allegedly struck during the Israeli-Lebanon conflict. Michelle Malkin is on target when she says, "If there were Pulitzers for Internet posts, this one would win hands down." (Hat tip: Tim Blair)



"The Israeli missiles had pierced the very centre of the red cross painted on the roof of each vehicle. Did the pious use the cross as their aiming point?" -- Robert Fisk

One poster at Samizdata had some thoughts on the ambulance picture which bear thinking about.

(1) There is no air-to-ground missile small enough that it could strike an unarmored vehicle and not destroy it through shear mass alone. If the missile detonated it would have destroyed the vehicle utterly. If it did not, remains of the missile should be easily visible inside the vehicle. Heat from the missile's rocket should have set the vehicle ablaze. An actual missile did not strike this vehicle.

(2) The supposed entry hole for the missile is normal i.e. at a 90% angle to the roof. The missile would have had to strike straight down. Only armor piercing anti-rockets fly such trajectories. We know that can't be the type of missile used because (a) they're to big and (b) they do not carry a fragmentation warhead.

(3) The large hole in the roof has an obvious flange around it. It is clearly a manufactured hole and not the result of a missile strike. Only the smaller rusted holes could have come from a fragmentation warhead.

(4) The windshield glass bends inward indicating that any blast occurred outside the vehicle. However, the front of the vehicle shows no holes or scratches. Likewise, if a fragmentation warhead detonated within the vehicle we should see a spherical hole pattern with exit holes in the sides and bottom of the vehicle. There should be visible scorching everywhere inside.

(5) The only possible scenario is that a fragmentation round detonated directly above the vehicle and at some height. In that case, there should large numbers of through-and-through holes traveling from the roof, through the seats and out through the bottom. The tires should be flat. The side door should be intact etc. The witness testimony directly contradicts this scenario.

I think someone ripped off the ventilation unit or siren from the top of the ambulance. Then stood on the roof and shot holes in it. Then they went inside and pulled down the other materials.