DO THE LEBANESE REGRET ISRAELI DEATHS?...even if Siniora is afraid to say that Israel has been the victim of war crimes, is he afraid to say that the death of Israeli children is a terrible thing? Although I suspect that Siniora personally does feel regret, his inability to say it affirms in my eyes that Arab politics takes place in a moral universe where Israeli life is worth nothing...

So now we know that “Green Helmet” has a name. He is Salam Daher, alternately identified in news reports as “the civil defense chief for southern Lebanon,” “a civil defense official in the southern port city” of Tyre, the “Lebanese Civil Defence rescue coordinator,” “Salam Daher, 39, a civil defense employee in the southern port city of Tyre,” and my personal favorite – “a Red Cross volunteer in Qana.”

This enables us to trace his exploits in print, as well as on film. The photos, it turns out, are the least of Mr. Daher’s contributions to the propaganda war. I am sure that you and your readers will be shocked to learn that Mr. Daher is apparently responsible for the inflated death tolls broadcast around the world after the tragic bombing of a building in Qana. (Details below.) It’s also worth bearing in mind that he is not an obscure figure. He has been repeatedly interviewed by major news agencies, both at the scenes of bombings and in Tyre. When he appears in pictures, it is unlikely that photographers are unaware of his identity or his role. The omission of his name and position from photo captions is likely deliberate - after all, why would the head of civil defense personally ferry corpses to the ambulances?

Creating Qana: A Detailed Chronology

When a building collapsed following an Israeli airstrike in Qana on July 30, Salam Daher rushed to the scene. By 6:12 GMT he had given his first interview, citing 35 killed or wounded, a fairly accurate estimate. As the day wore on, however, the figures he gave to the media began to rise. More strikingly, the number of children reported killed rose far more rapidly than the overall number of victims. Cynically manipulating the death toll, Mr. Daher manufactured an international crisis. It was not enough for Mr. Daher that at least 28 lay dead – the tragedy had to be embellished, the numbers exaggerated, and above all, the toll of children slain had to grow to satisfy the world that innocents were being massacred. Each new upward revision gave the story fresh legs, sending bulletins racing toward a horrified world. It was a masterful performance.

Most media reports were elliptical in their attributions of casualty figures – Reuters, for example, cited “police in Lebanon” and a “Reuters witness.” The AP used slightly different tallies (peaking at 56 dead, 34 children) and attributed its tally to “security officials.” Agence France Presse, thankfully, was more transparent. And unless Reuters or the AP want to step forward and name their sources – and there is no apparent reason in this case to have granted anonymity – I think we may safely presume that they were all speaking to the same official: the head of Civil Defense in South Lebanon, the man in charge at the scene, Salam Daher. The results follow:

On July 30, during the raid to Qana, he came into his own. An AFP bulletin moved across the wire at 6:12AM GMT stating that: “Salam Daher, head of civil defense rescue teams in the southern region of Tyre, told AFP that at least 35 people were killed or wounded in the morning raids.” By the time the full story moved at 6:29AM GMT the toll was rising: “At least 32 residents, including children, were killed in the blistering strikes on Qana, civil defence official Salam Daher said.” An update at 6:42AM was more precise: “At least 32 people, including 14 children, were killed in Israeli raids on the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, the civil defense chief in the region told AFP. Fourteen children, nine women and nine men were retrieved from under the rubble of dozens of buildings which collapsed after the bombardment, Salam Daher said.” At 7:17AM, there was a new bulletin: “At least 51 people, including 22 children, were killed in Israeli raids on the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, the civil defense chief in the region told AFP. "At least 51 people were killed. They include 22 children," Salam Daher said.” The details grew more graphic. A 10:47AM wrap-up included this: “The bodies of 25 children were among those recovered from under the rubble of dozens of buildings which collapsed after the bombardment, said Salam Daher, the civil defense chief in the region.” An 11:29AM update used the 7:17AM quote again, instead of the figure of 25 children.

By the next day, the tally had again shifted. AFP moved a story at 11:11AM on July 31 that began as follows: “The silence of the dead lay over the Lebanese village of Qana on Monday after at least 52 sleeping residents were killed in an Israeli air strike, as rescue teams prepared to find corpses that are still under the rubble. Personal possessions, bags, and clothes of the dead, who included 30 children, were piled up outside the dust and rubble that is all that remains of a shelter levelled by Israeli forces in nighttime raids early on Sunday. "We will continue on Monday with clearing up the ruins in the hope of taking out more corpses, as families have told us that there are more missing people," Salam Daher, the head of the civil defence on the ground told AFP. And on July 31, at 8:51GMT, there’s this from China Daily, apparently cribbed from AFP: “The bodies of 37 children were among those recovered from under the rubble of dozens of buildings which collapsed after the bombardment, said Salam Daher, the civil defence chief in the region.”

To recap:

• 6:12AM: 35 killed or wounded


• 6:29AM: 14 children, 9 men and 9 women (32 people)


• 7:17AM: 22 children, 51 people


• 11:29AM: 25 children


• July 31: 30 children, 52 people


• July 31: 37 children, 54 people

On August 2, Human Rights Watch released its own report into the incident. By then, after four full days of recovery efforts, the bodies of 28 victims had been recovered, including those of 16 children. It also reported that: “The initial estimate of 54 persons killed was based on a register of 63 persons who had sought shelter in the basement of the building that wasstruck, and rescue teams having located nine survivors. It now appears that at least 22 people escaped the basement, and 28 are confirmed dead, according to records from the Lebanese Red Cross and the government hospital in Tyre.”