US embassy outing in Lebanon attacked by stones

A general view shows the Palestinian refugee
camp of Ain el-Helweh on the outskirts of Sidon
© AFP/File Joseph Eid

AFP

SIDON, Lebanon (AFP) - A group of angry Lebanese youths on Saturday threw stones and bottles at a group from the US embassy in Beirut visiting the southern port town of Sidon, a security official said.

A spokesman for the US mission confirmed there had been "an incident."

"The embassy can confirm that a group of employees went to Sidon today on a tourism trip. An incident occurred, and the group returned back to the embassy. No injuries," he said, without elaborating.

Local media had spoken of the presence in the group of the embassy's political charge d'affaires.
"A group of youths intercepted a US embassy delegation as they left a restaurant and insulted them before throwing stones and empty glass bottles at them," the security source said.


He said the youths accused the members of the group of being "criminals, Israelis... you have soiled the land of resistance and martyrs."

South Lebanon is the heartland of the country's Shiite Hezbollah militia, and saw heavy fighting in the short but sharp summer war of 2006 between the group and Israeli forces.

The 34-day conflict killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Lebanese security forces accompanying the US group intervened on Saturday, but stones continued to be thrown, breaking car windows. The army then arrived and arrested three of the attackers, the security official said.

Protesters later staged a sit-in in Sidon to demand the release of the three arrested in connection with the attack.

Osama Saad, head of the Nasserite Popular Movement, a Hezbollah ally, gave a speech describing the detained men as "heroes."

Saad called for their "immediate release because they were trying to protest against the positions of the United States, with Israel, against Lebanon and US interference in Lebanon's internal affairs."

A group of men blocked roads into the Sunni majority city with burning tyres for an hour before the army dispersed them.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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Veteran US reporter Thomas lashes Israel, again

© AFP/File Paul J. Richards

AFP

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Veteran US reporter Helen Thomas lashed out at Israel in an interview published Friday, standing by fiery comments which forced her to quit as doyenne of the White House press corps last year.

Speaking to Playboy, she denied she was anti-Semitic but railed against Jewish lobbies she said controlled power in America, from the White House and Congress to Hollywood and financial markets.

The combative 90-year-old also reiterated her view that Jews should stay in Europe and the United States rather than moving to Israel, which she said was stolen from the Palestinians.

"I’m not anti-Jewish; I’m anti-Zionist. I am anti-Israel taking what doesn’t belong to it. If you have a home and you’re kicked out of that home, you don’t come and kick someone else out."
Thomas was forced to quit last June after being recorded saying, when asked about Israel: "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," adding: "They can go home, Poland, Germany, and America and everywhere else."

Asked about those comments by Playboy, she said: "Well, that immediately evoked the concentration camps. What I meant was they should stay where they are because they’re not being persecuted -- not since World War II."

"If they were, we sure would hear about it. .. I want people to understand why the Palestinians are upset. They are incarcerated and living in an open prison," she added.

Jewish lobbies had power across the board in the US, she added. "Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood.

"Same thing with the financial markets. There’s total control ... It’s real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in terms of your political persuasion. Of course they have power," she added.

Thomas also wanted to set the record straight on her departure from the White House, announced as a retirement by Hearst Corp., where she worked as a newspaper columnist after decades at United Press International (UPI).

"I’m not retired! I was fired. In fact, I’ll die with my boots on," she said in the interview, which was conducted in Washington where she took Playboy contributing editor David Hochman to her favorite Palestinian restaurant, the magazine said.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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