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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hezbollah flies drone over Israel
2005-04-13
Hezbollah flew a spy drone over northern Israel yesterday, the militant group said in a broadcast on its TV channel. The Israeli military confirmed the overflight, saying an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the Hezbollah organisation was identified crossing into Israeli territory. Two Israeli military aircraft flew over southern Lebanon shortly after the drone's flight, Lebanese officials said. Earlier yesterday, an Israeli reconnaissance plane flew over southern and eastern Lebanon. Hezbollah's Al Manar television said the "Mirsad" drone flew over towns in northern Israel and returned safely to Lebanese territory. It was the second time in recent months that the Shiite group has sent a drone over Israel.
Posted by:Fred

#19  From Le Château Beaufort (Qalaat El Chekif) you can see a good part of northern Israel (I have been there in 72)
If you'd launch a R/C model from there you could follow it for miles without GPS or other gadgets.

As for rat poison, I think a good dose of vitamin K could fix it.

I'm just as optimistic as .com.
Posted by: SwissTex   2005-04-13 11:33:00 PM  

#18  Thanks,TW.
Posted by: raptor   2005-04-13 3:44:46 PM  

#17  Only Messerschmidts and zeppelins, Frank. The kind with the big ol' swastikas on 'em...
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-04-13 1:22:07 PM  

#16  Headline: Hizbollah discovers fun in Radio Controlled Hobbies, sez spokesman: " sure Beats the hell out of jigsaw puzzles with grandma"

No word on the hizbollah interest in 1/72 scale model airplanes.
Posted by: Frank Martin   2005-04-13 1:15:47 PM  

#15  And so Mrs. D brings the whole thing down to hard reality, beautifully summed up.

Raptor, the rat poison is an anti-clotting agent, which means that even small wounds caused by explosion-propelled nails and ball bearings continue bleeding, even with medical treatment. Not at all nice. The Palestinians have been adding it to their bomb packets for years.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-04-13 12:21:36 PM  

#14  .com,

I will semi agree with you. Pariah, peerhaps not. Toast, yes. While the world might not immediately condemn Hezbullallah for using nbc as they would the US or Israel, they would also not kick up too much of a fuss when Israel used conventional weapons to clean out Hez. Somehow it's going to be hard for even the French to condemn Israel for being sensitive about death by aerosal chemicals. And I suspect in any case, Israels reaction will be who gives a rat's .
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-04-13 11:32:06 AM  

#13  
If anyone uses a nuke or bio / chem agent - it's instant pariah and soon-to-be toast. No matter who. No matter where.
.com, I have to disagree with you there.

As long as that attack is against Israel, the U.S., or Jews anywhere, a lot of the world and almost all of the UN diplomutts (and Hollywood) will not only not condemn it, they'll applaud it as deserved.

And Phrogistan will be right up front.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-04-13 10:54:20 AM  

#12  Now they have got their own TV station, cell phones, and unmanned drones. Tricky ejits fancy themselves sophisticated. Give them about 50 more years and maybe they might even start to get a clue as to why a prosperous and vibrant civil society can't be built by weapons, propaganda, and skewed religious/political belief systems.
Posted by: Tkat   2005-04-13 9:59:41 AM  

#11  No evidence, though, so the "drone" is probably an off-the-shelf R/C kit of some kind.

Yeah, my sentiments also. It shouldn't be too difficult for the IDF to plink the next one and examine the wreckage.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-04-13 9:48:21 AM  

#10  With no information available from either side on what the capabilities of the drone were/are, I would hazard a guess that it's notthing more than an R/C model, with a longer-range control set.

If Hezbollah had any 'nads, and this was an actual spy drone, they would release a photo that it took. Such photos can be re-pixelated to hide their actual resolution.

No evidence, though, so the "drone" is probably an off-the-shelf R/C kit of some kind.

Should we be worried that they have someone who has the savvy of a 12-year-old American boy?

I think not.
Posted by: Rivrdog   2005-04-13 9:06:00 AM  

#9  I have to agree with Trailing Wife. If they used chemical or bio weapons the UN and world would simply sigh and let it pass. The MSMprobably wouldn't even cover it except on page F9.

Our own LLL would give excuses and some wierd twisted logic to make it all sound reasonable and acceptable --- just like the Ward Chuchills of the world explain away and try to make 9/11 sound reasonable and acceptable.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2005-04-13 9:04:01 AM  

#8  I don't recall ever hearing about the use of rat posion.IG no.
Posted by: raptor   2005-04-13 8:47:09 AM  

#7  "They have human-guided bombs on two legs or in a car." Or maybe remote controlled from the air, depending on the size of the drone. Would it still be kamikaze if there aren't human pilots?
Posted by: IG-88   2005-04-13 8:12:38 AM  

#6  .com, I think you are overly optimistic about a world response to anything the Arab Freedom Fighters might do. I rather think that even proven use by such would result, in general, in heavy diplomatic sighs and a, "Well, given who they are fighting against, can you really blame them?" attitude. Phil B pegged it about the rat poison -- that's one of the factors that makes the damned suiciders as effective as they are and, having accepted such attacks against Jewish civilians, nobody cares that Palestinians are taking it the extra step.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-04-13 7:07:38 AM  

#5  I might agree with your assesment if they used bioweapons. Chemical weapons I am not so sure. The paleos have used rat poison extensively with their suicide bombers and the MSM just ignores or glosses over it.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-04-13 5:00:11 AM  

#4  Well, I may back off the assessment of Hezbollah being too smart to do this... In 6 months, or so, when it becomes clear that they are not really welcome in Leb without the Iranian / Syrian axis shoving it down the Lebanon's throat and they face either disarmament, destruction, or exile to Syria / Iran (neither of which would likely want them), they just might be desperate enough. Nazrallah sees the writing on the wall, methinks. So I dunno, they might do it as a last-ditch gesture of defiance.
Posted by: .com   2005-04-13 4:56:34 AM  

#3  mojo - Well, you have a point. But there are 2 considerations:
1) Req'd Capability
2) The Act

1) We can agree it would take a package of capabilities, from solid flight control to GPS or real-time video, real-time triggering, effective dispersal, distance and weight capability. Effective dispersal capability varies by agent and isn't all that easy to achieve - as the anthrax guy discovered. Many many more people were exposed than actually contracted it.

Sadly, all or most of the equipment can be bought, of course, from our erstwhile Old European ex-"allies".

2) Then comes the real rub: use. The world views explosives and projectiles very differently from chem, bio, and nuke.

If anyone uses a nuke or bio / chem agent - it's instant pariah and soon-to-be toast. No matter who. No matter where. Only in retaliation would any other state find it possibly acceptable - and even then, it would still be almost universally condemned. No sane state would be stupid enough to defend such a first use - for that makes the case for using same against them.

The only folks I see who're insane enough, at a state level, and have both the money to buy the means and the will to follow through are the Iranian MM's. They have earned their reputation for stupid, self-defeating, sabre-rattling, brinksmanship rhetoric. They paint it on their fucking missiles, lol! Hezbollah might do something stupid, since they are Iranian proxies, but you can bet they understand the equation: use = death. Period. Full stop. I'd say that, in this regard, Hezbollah is more intelligent / sophisticated than their masters.
Posted by: .com   2005-04-13 4:49:18 AM  

#2  A drone would make a real nice dispersal method for any number of nasty things.
Posted by: mojo   2005-04-13 2:34:09 AM  

#1  *snicker*

And they'll follow-up with what?

No AF. No accurate missiles or artillery or MLRS.

Nothing. They are from the Stone Age trying to play "war" in the 21st century. They have human-guided bombs on two legs or in a car. They prolly can't even manage an ultralight. They are good for marching around in tight circles dressed in their idea of Nazi uniforms, swarming cars and wheelchairs waxed by a real 21st century power, seething, mobbing coffins, burning symbols, looting the funds provided by the world's morons and Jooo-haters, stabbing each other in the back, killing and maiming innocents, blaming everyone else for the pigsties and bleak / non-existent future they've created for themselves, propagating the hate and misery of their own through incessant self-destructive dogma and propaganda, and staging inane photo ops for MSM dupes, symps, and collaborators. There is nothing less impressive and nothing more absurd than The Paleo Hate Machine stewing in its own juices, bubbling, concentrating, reducing down to the lowest human denominator.

They don't get it. But, in a very different sense, someday they certainly will...
Posted by: .com   2005-04-13 2:02:12 AM  

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