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Caught In The Act

The Israelis appear to finally have a video confirming what they've long accused the Red Cross of--sheltering terrorists in ambulances. Confronted with the evidence, they apparently admitted that there were terrorists in the ambulance, but claimed that it had been hijacked. But as Fox pointed out, the driver never complained. Not, that is, until the video was released.

How much longer are we going to grant moral authority to the increasingly-obviously-corrupt UN, and the ICRC?

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 14, 2004 12:27 PM

Comments

linkey?

Posted by at June 14, 2004 12:58 PM

No link. I just saw it on Fox News. They may put up a story later, but their web site tends to lag the broadcast by several hours.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 14, 2004 01:01 PM

Is this the video you saw?
http://e.tln0.com/ame/archives/reuters_UN_amblulances_11_may_04.wmv

Posted by Dave at June 14, 2004 02:09 PM

This is the same ICRC that's ragging on the US about Saddam's POW status--

Red Cross ultimatum to US on Saddam -- Release him, charge him or break international law, Bush told.

Moral midgets.

Posted by Raoul Ortega at June 14, 2004 03:04 PM

How much longer are we going to grant moral authority to the increasingly-obviously-corrupt UN, and the ICRC?

What's this we, Kemo Sabe? I haven't granted any "moral authority" to these collections of useless wankers in years. Posted by Barbara Skolaut at June 14, 2004 03:50 PM

Raoul, if you check LGF you'll see the ICRC is backing down on the free Saddam thing.

Posted by Rick C at June 14, 2004 06:51 PM

Reuters shot the video a couple of weeks ago. It was linked to by Access|Middle East here. The story is in the lower left hand corner of the page. Click on "View Document".

Posted by Carey Gage at June 15, 2004 06:50 AM

Isn't this a problem with the local Red Cross in Israel and the occupied territories, rather than with the ICRC? Presumably the ICRC has to take the word of their local reps, and if the local organization has been subverted in whole or in part, then it's hard for the ICRC to be sure what's going on.

The test is in how the ICRC responds to hard evidence.

Posted by Andrew Case at June 15, 2004 12:37 PM

It may be a local problem, but there have been plenty of reports of this in the past, and I've never seen any evidence of the ICRC doing anything about it, or trying to get an independent assessment. As you say, we'll see what they do when actually confronted with the evidence. I don't expect a shakeup with the local chapter, but maybe they'll surprise me.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 15, 2004 12:42 PM

I did a little digging and found an earlier incident in which there was incontrovertible evidence of terrorist use of an ambulance (a suicide belt concealed in an ambulance for transport), where ICRC representatives were brought to the scene to witness for themselves the violation. In that case the ICRC representatives came right out and condemned the incident and spoke of getting to work on fixing the problem.

The ICRC is in a bit of a sticky spot in that they need to deal with this without drawing too much attention to themselves, since they have lots of people working in muslim countries. Taken in sum they may perceive the danger to their workers in those places to be so high that it warrants failing to speak out loudly against the corruption which has seized the Palestinian Red Crescent.

I also checked out Magen David Adom (the Israeli society which is affiliated with ICRC but not a formal part of it). Their take on the abuse of ambulances was to wholeheartedly endorse the good work done by the PRC, but also directly condemn the abuses. I suspect that MDA is in a little bit of a tight spot itself since they need their symbol to be recognized by the Palestinian Authority in order to be able to do their work, so they too have to be a little diplomatic.

The upshot is that the aid organizations all have to tread a bit of a delicate line, which has to be understood in terms of preserving their effectiveness, and which reduces the ability to directly confront the abuse of ambulances by the terrorists. The ideal outcome from this most recent incident would be for the ICRC to place the PRC on some sort of probation, and to do so in a way that has widespread endorsement within the Islamic world. If the abuses do not stop the only recourse has to be a severing of ties with the PRC, but I don't see how the ICRC could do that without getting their people killed in one or other of the hundreds of other festering pits where they are providing aid. It's truly a nasty problem.

Posted by Andrew Case at June 15, 2004 05:16 PM

The ideal outcome from this most recent incident would be for the ICRC to place the PRC on some sort of probation, and to do so in a way that has widespread endorsement within the Islamic world.

Unfortunately, if that kind of outcome were possible right now, we probably wouldn't be having a "War on Terrorism."

At some point, the ICRC may have to decide to end its affiliations in the Islamic world, until the latter comes to its senses.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 15, 2004 05:39 PM

I can't believe this is true... I have a lot of respect for Red Cross, however, I should admit that criminals can be everywhere. And it's not enough reason to accuse the organization.

Posted by Ambulance Nurse at July 7, 2005 02:52 AM


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