Report Concludes That Hezbollah Uses Human Shields In Military Operations
I think the reaction to that headline from most of us is, “Gee, you don’t say?” But be that as it may, I found this opening line of the Associated Press article about the report to be interesting:
JERUSALEM – An Israeli think tank with strong links to the military released videos and testimony Tuesday it said proved Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as human shields during last summer’s war in Lebanon.
There’s nothing inappropriate about pointing out this think tank’s ties to Israel’s military. That’s quite appropriate, in fact, for the sake of transparency and full disclosure. But it does make me wonder why the AP doesn’t disclose the biases and connections of the stringers it uses in the middle east to collect stories and photographs? There is certainly a lot of controversy right now over an AP stringer who cannot be identified by the news service, and in the past there’s been controversy over an AP photographer who had such close ties with terrorists (as evidenced by his photos) that U.S. forces actually detained him.
So, then, why does the AP find it necessary to divulge to us the potential biases of an Israeli think tank but not the potential biases of the jihadi-sympathizers they use as stringers and photographers?
