"PJM Paris: Many have accused the photo of young Mohammed Al Dura’s father shielding him from Israeli bullets of being a fake, but the original videotape from which this photo was drawn has been hidden from view by France 2. Yesterday a French judge finally ordered the channel to produce it. PJM’s Nidra Poller was one of the only journalists to witness this stunning turning point."
Important Al-Dura Update by Nidra Poller for Pajamas Media:
Maître Bénédicte Amblard, representing Charles Enderlin and France 2 in their libel suit against Philippe Karsenty (Media Ratings) dropped her pencil and lost her composure when presiding judge Laurence Trébucq, overriding the opinion of the Avocat Général, firmly demanded handover of the 27-minute unedited film shot by Talal Abu Rahmeh at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000. The Maginot Line of France 2 collapsed then and there. From here on in, anything is possible.Karsenty is appealing his October 2006 conviction for defamation in a case brought by state-owned TV channel France 2 and the station’s Mideast correspondent, Charles Enderlin. In the incriminated Media-Ratings press release, Karsenty had called for the immediate dismissal of Enderlin and then news director Arlette Chabot for their respective roles in broadcasting and upholding a hoax—the famous news report of the “death” of 12 year-old Mohammed al Dura, “target of gunfire from the Israeli position.”
While the court of first resort had granted Karsenty’s right to question the authenticity of the news report, it followed the plaintiff’s arguments and found him guilty of bad faith and publication of unsubstantiated accusations based on a single source (Metula News Agency). Karsenty appealed.
Things looked grim for Karsenty as the hearing began. There was a technical problem with the large screen he had been authorized to bring into the courtroom (which is normally equipped with a tiny outmoded TV). And the judge sternly rejected his proposed projection of a didactic montage of the disputed al Dura images.
After a brief recess during which the technical problem was solved, the hearing began with a brief interrogation on Karsenty’s professional and financial situation, followed by a rather awkward résumé—by the second judge, designated as the “advisor”— of the initial case and conviction Karsenty’s counsel, Maître Marc Lévy, interjects a request for an expertise on the 27-minutes of unedited footage, which had been viewed by three journalists—Jeambar, Leconte, and Rosenzweig—who testified that they consisted of 24 minutes of staged scenes, with no images of the al Dura boy and his father and no trace of the boy’s “death throes” that Enderlin claimed had been edited out because it was “unbearable.”
Readers should know that “discovery,” as understood in the U.S., does not exist in the French system This is how France 2 could accuse Karsenty of making unfounded accusations without facing the obligation to produce the raw footage that might substantiate them.The judge immediately grasps the importance of the raw footage and asks “Do we have the film?” Maître Amblard replies, supremely self-confident: “Of course not.” She seems to assume that the Court will bow to the higher authority of France 2. Maître Lévy argues with subdued indignation that it is unacceptable to refuse to produce the outtakes, which are composed for 90% of staged scenes and 10% of “al Dura.”
The Avocat Général concludes, on the basis of jurisprudence, that the Appelate court does not need to examine the raw footage because the court of first resort had ruled on the case without seeing it. Maître Amblard seizes this favorable wind to embark on a typical Enderlin argument—just because 90% of the film is composed of staged scenes, it doesn’t mean that the remaining 10% is also staged. How could it be? It is the death of a child!
The judge calls a brief recess to deliberate on the request; the judges decide to examine further evidence and leave the request for expertise in abeyance. A setback for France 2, an opportunity for Karsenty.
The first exhibit is set in motion—the infamous news report of the death of the Palestinian child. The judge rejects Karsenty’s request to be allowed to interrupt the projection and explain, frame by frame, why the images do not correspond with the voice-over commentary. Things get prickly. Karsenty’s counsel fades into the background, the judge insists that she and her associates can see for themselves without Karsenty’s comments, he overrides the judge, the mood is tense but slightly comical.
Will she cut the projection and throw him out of court? Is he upsetting his apple cart? For anyone who has worked on the al Dura affair, it’s agonizing to hear Karsenty go through the tedious details while the judge, like any innocent observer, makes the same objections we’ve heard a thousand times. The shooting angle, the Israeli position, no blood, the wall intact after 45 minutes of alleged gunfire, the Reuters cameraman right next to them …The judge objects, obstructs, interrupts, but keeps watching, keeps listening, follows intelligently, assimilates large doses of information as Karsenty projects news reports from the days following the incident. Charles Enderlin and Talal Abu Rahmeh stick to their story, embellish it with details that have withstood examination for seven years but may soon be turned against them.
The projection continues with a news broadcast in which Enderlin, in all his glory as “objective reporter,” trashes the army investigation led by General Yom-Tov Samia… and ends by quoting from Haaretz: “The Israeli army shot itself in the foot.”
The Judge turns to Maître Amblard: “Are there any staged scenes in any of these news reports we’ve just viewed?”
Maître Amblard falters. She tries to refocus attention on the al-Dura report. But the judge insists. “Are there any staged scenes in the 27 minutes of raw footage that might have appeared in the news reports we’ve just watched?”
Maitre Amblard fumbles. Backs up a step as if she had been pushed. And whispers a most unconvincing “No.”
The court recesses. (Even though an informed source has already whispered the result in my ear, I am gripped with suspense.) The judges return and report their decision on the question in suspense. The expertise. The raw footage. They want it. They will not go forward until they have seen it. Maître Amblard drops her pencil. She is sincerely stunned.
Finally she mutters, “If the court orders my client to produce the footage…of course…but I don’t know where it is.”
Maître Lévy leaps forward and places a letter in the judge’s hands. It’s Charles Enderlin’s response to the Israeli army request for handover of the raw footage. Enderlin explains that it is in Paris, in the hands of the France 2 legal service.One more brief recess as Maître Amblard attempts—in vain— to reach a France 2 official who can confirm the availability of the material.
If the footage is not turned over voluntarily by the 3rd of October, the court will issue a formal request. The next hearing is scheduled for November 14th … to view the said footage. A relay hearing is scheduled for January 16, and the case will be heard in full on the 27th of February.
Philippe Karsenty has scored a significant victory. The al Dura report has been questioned ever since it was first broadcast seven years ago. The 27-minutes of raw footage have served as a protective shield for Charles Enderlin and France 2—the “proof” that was never presented. Even after reputable journalists had viewed the footage and testified to its nature, it retained its magical quality and was used to discredit anyone who questioned the veracity of the al Dura report.
Today, a French Appelate Court destroyed that magic. The raw footage is forced to enter the sphere of reality, where it will be judged by rational standards.
The outcome remains uncertain.
Will France 2 discover a way to slip out of this injunction? Will the court temper its demand? Will the footage be produced, viewed, and dismissed as irrelevant?
Will President Sarkozy exert his authority and imperatively request state-owned France 2 to come forward, produce the evidence and, eventually, dismiss collaborators who have participated in this hoax…as requested in the incriminated Media Ratings release?
And, finally, when will the French media tear off their false faces and admit what they know about the al Dura affair?
Despite an AP release and extensive international coverage over the past few weeks, no mainstream media reporters attended today’s hearing. They missed an early warning that the rules of the game may well be changing.
"Maitre Amblard fumbles. Backs up a step as if she had been pushed. And whispers a most unconvincing “No.”"
It's interesting how people literally physically regress (step back) as they psychologically regress when faced with unpleasant reality-with a shock. I'm surprised she did not cry (like a baby). She is admitting the truth of the staged nature of the report footage by stepping back. If she was telling the truth she would have moved forward or at least stood her ground. (I'm not a psychologist, but I notice this with people).
We live in an age of propaganda. Anyone can edit film to suit their purposes. For example, one could film the Psychotic in Iran (e.g.) and only show him eating, going to the bathroom, executing non-believers, raving, beating his wives, etc. Michael Moore and others are good at that kind of thing. That is what was done here with the IDF.
I have a hunch that there are some embedded propaganda workers (not just with Islam) in the wire services. Look at how the Reuters tape was edited during the Israeli action in Lebanon. Who is paying these people?
...of course the accusers don't want the "evidence" presented....the truth would vindicate the Israelies and would prove to the world that there just may be ongoing conspiracies to make Israel appear to be on a witch hunt to kill Muslims....
....and in those cases where Muslims cry out to the world that Americans and others are wantonly killing children, it has been shown that many such claims have been false or staged....sure they produce childrens bodies, but just who killed them remains in doubt and many of the photos submitted by "creditable?" news sources such as Reuters, CNN, and BBc have been debunked and proven to be staged in a horrid attempt to make the coalition forces appear to have total disregard to "civilians".
....The Muslims continue to attempt to manipulate the press and to influence public opinion, unfortunately many blindly believe what Muslims claim...Muslims are master mind manipulaters and deceivers....but the truth about Islam is getting out and the Muslims hate it.....
....When Muslims cry "foul", something truthful is probably getting out......
...slow down the Jihad, begin by Banning Muslim Immigration....
After enduring the proud French press's contumely, and the law's delay, Karsenty and all those on the side of revealing the full truth should be thrilled, and all those in favor of hiding things to protect the guilty be dismayed. It's wonderful news, and the mere fact that so much of that 27-minute tape consists, apparently, of obviously staged events, may mean as much or even more than the Al-Dura farce -- because it offers a glimpse into the "reportage" by so many Western reporters, and their Arab cameramen, and not merely that by the deplorable Enderlin.
But for owlishly Fowlerish sticklers, the occasion would have been even more wonderful had one word in the telling been different.
To wit:
For "PJM’s Nidra Poller was one of the only journalists" read "PJM's Nidra Poller was one of the few journalists..."
exsgtbrown-
The propaganda is well organized and the organization needs to be exposed. My hunch is that there is an organization embedded in the wire services and general media. A lot of propaganda is freelance, but much of it is as organized as if it emanated from Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. Even organizations such as CAIR appear well versed in Goebbels style propaganda methods-practice what Hitler called "spiritual terror" as they unleash a barrage of lies, slander, misinformation, accusations, etc. against critics, while posing as "victim" (as Goebbels recommended) in the propaganda process.
I think Rosemary Woods has the tape... Oops! Her dog ate it.
What a shame. Too bad.
Does this mean they're going to take back all the Al-Dura postage stamps and posters and propaganda, and erase all the outrage and hatred they stirred up with this obvious pack of lies?
What's been France 2's contribution to the intifada's killing and terrorism? Very large, I'd say. No charges for that? Unbelievable.
Let's give Sarko some credit. He has changed the political atmosphere in France for the better
Take a look at these two. This is what France avoided when it voted Sarko--
http://pajamasmedia.com/upload/2007/04/cohnbenditroyal.jpg
A few questions.
Is the boy in question dead? Why not exhume his body?
I've seen the footage and I understand the fakery charge. But if he is dead why not do an autopsy? That would surely prove that he was or was not killed in the way the film shows. Bullet angles and all that.
Or is autopsy illegal?
Of course it would be easier to just produce the original film footage.
I am going to guess that CAIR's suit against aint-CAIR was instigated by CAIR operatives who knew nothing about America trial procedures. They probably had experience with the European type rules. I would have loved to have seen the look on the faces of the CAIR creatures when their lawyer handed them anit-CAIR's discovery request, and told them, "You must truthfully answer these questions" or something to that effect. I wonder if anyone wet their long tailed shirts.
There must be a name for that gown that Muslim men wear.
Oh, I forgot. I have read about cases where American judges have issued contempt citations when plaintiffs refuse or otherwise cannot produce documents requested through discovery. I was working for an engineering company that was a defendant in multi-mulion dollar contact dispute. Every piece of paper paper in my, and everyone else's, project files were copied and turned over to the plaintiff. Two copiers were rented and three temps were hired to comply with discovery.
I believe that most if not all suits brought by jihad front groups in the US will be eventually dropped or settled favorable to the defendant.
The American legal system is the foundation for what has been 200+ years of American success.
I believe it is called a thobe.
Dennisw, this is the message when I try to follow you Pajamas link:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /upload/2007/04/cohnbenditroyal.jpg on this server.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apache/2.0.46 (Red Hat) Server at pajamasmedia.com Port 80
Borg:
muslims don't allow autopsies.
I doubt it will work, but maybe they could establish a pattern manipulation of the news by arabs and complicity by the media.
maybe they can get the footage of the guy that happened to "show up" in all the Lebanon photos of death and destruction, after the Israeli attacks. The famous photos of dead or dying children, that magically are cured of their injuries, when photographed later. Or where there was a real casualty, the staged photo's showing the same person being rescued in an emergency fashion, from different sites for different news crews.
The staged photos including the enhanced smoke shots of damage from Israeli attack on Lebanon. Once found out, the removal of that stringer's photos from various news service archives.
Practically any coverage of death and destruction in Palestine, and the subsequent manipulations.
If they could introduce such evidence, it would remove any argument by the TV reporters, that they were duped and it was just a one time situation. It would show that they would have had good reason to question what was happening, and not take it at face value given the efforts by interested parties in manipulating the events that are passed off as news.
CGW, I don't know about autopsies, but I read an opinion (fatwa) that said that it is OK to use non-Muslim cadavers in medical school, it was forbidden to use Muslim bodies for such work. This is Muslim superiority at it's worst.
it is OK to use non-Muslim cadavers in medical school, it was forbidden to use Muslim bodies for such work. This is Muslim superiority at it's worst.
Posted by: Pelayo
So all those advances in medicine that Muslims made, must have been done on virtual reality 128 bit machines.
Each passing day I'm amazed at the level of technical sophistication that was reached in 7th century Arabia.
Hi Folks,,
This is a excellent site, that has video of the shooting. Also covers Pallywood lies.
You can actually see the child move, after he was "killed"
http://www.seconddraft.org/movies.php
Namaste
)0(
solsticewitch13
Pelayo - "I believe that most if not all suits brought by jihad front groups in the US will be eventually dropped or settled favorable to the defendant."
Allow me to quote L. Ron Hubbard's son in an interview about Scientology. Hubbard: My father drilled into all of us: Don't go to court thinking to win a lawsuit. You go to court to harass, to delay, to exhaust the enemy financially, physically, mentally. You file every motion you can think of and you just lock them up in court. The courts, for my father, were never used to seek justice or redress, put to destroy the people he thought were enemies, to prevent negative stories from appearing. He just wanted complete control of the press --and got it.
This is what they're doing, they don't care if they win, if they tie you up for 15 months every time you say something negative about them most people would rather shut up than deal with another SLAP lawsuit. (full interview here
Altho' I try to stay updated on these issues, I was unaware of this particular controversy. I've now watched the tapes and have some notion of the matter. That said, I can certainly understand the Muslims' behavior - these are people, after all, who would take video footage of Sept. 11 and shamelessly portray it as two American skyscrapers viciously attacking several planeloads of innocent Muslims who were just trying to foil Bush's plot to discredit Islam. What is incomprehensible is France 2's position. Are they that rabidly anti-Israel/anti-America that they would willingly engage in lies and propaganda which, even after it is discredited, will continue to reverberate in increased Muslim hatred of and violence against the West? Or is this just the Gaelic propensity for collaboration with their enemies (and, increasingly, their occupiers, at least in the banlieux)? Is it Saudi or Iranian money which buys this kind of media collusion (I mean, we know the French were making money off of "Oil for Food" while piously pleading for the observance of "International law")? All I can say is thank God for Sarkozy - I cannot imagine that a French court would have done anything to compel the revelation of the truth while any of his predecessors was in power. Unfortunately, even when the lie is ultimately made public, we will still live with its legacy - and, to my mind, that makes this, not a defamation case, but a case of treason.
Does the original tape even exist anymore?
Has Nixon taught us nothing?
! ! ! BRAVO ! ! !
Finally, a chance for the truth. France 2 is far, far worse than my native Soviet Union's propagandists I once despised. The evil Western media sociopaths do in this world, horrible.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
This is no different than with Arafat's death!
There was a big news conference in Paris and the French doctors played dumb saying, "We don't know the actual underlying problem that led to Arafat's death". They listed of a bunch of his symptoms and submitted this huge written report to Fatah; even Fatah remained mute on releasing any further details!
The Palestinians kept playing up the angle that the Israelis poisoned him and guess what...surprise--surprise, Arafat died from AIDS! This is the exact same story; just substitute French journalists for French doctors that are suppressing the truth!
Jews have continually died because of the French who know the truth but remain dumb and deaf; while giving Arabs and anti-Semites time to spin lies regarding Jewish guilt! And as a result, both Arabs and anti-Semites have killed Jews due to these conspiracy theories!
France's history is built on blood libels against the Jewish people (i.e. Alfred Dreyfus); it's time to boycott France! They even refused to sell Israel replacement parts for its French Mirage jets after the 1967 war! This is ultimate proof of France's true hidden agenda; they want the state of Israel to be destroyed! As a result of France's actions, Israel began buying its military airplanes from the Americans!
BOYCOTT FRANCE NOW!!!
"After enduring the proud French press's contumely, and the law's delay,..."
What happened to the pangs of despis'd love? (Or despised?)
echoes of "jenin! jenin!" (incidents that either never happened, turned out to be opposite of what really happened, or simply a deliberate setup, all by the accusers who orchestrated fraud).
palestinian propaganda at its finest.
*yawn*
When this Al-Dura affair burst on the scene the first to commiserate were some Israelis no doubt thinking of their own children. The European press knew that the Arab street was incendiary, yet they went right ahead and poured oil on the fire with as it turns out a doctored tape. These vile journalists truly have blood on their hands.
The ones called "independent embedded" reporters are even worse...as some are actually in collusion with those animals, yet get a free pass...and some end up being called some sort of "expert" on something they know less than zero about...and start their screed in the MSM. Seen it first hand for the first time decades ago...it still goes on today.
This is good news. It is a relief to see that the concept of "seeking the truth" has supporters even in France. However, I will not consider this a victory for truth until the news organization actually does release the footage.
If, as we suspect, they have been involved in a vicious anti-Israeli cover-up, and this footage will make that absolutely clear, there is no way they can agree to release the footage. Doing so would brand them a pariah among all fair-minded news organizations.
Time will tell. I look forward with burning desire to my ability to view the entire footage for myself!
As soon as I saw the poster I knew the al-Dura video was a fake.
http://www.ptgustan.com/sep07/al_Durrah_irb.jpg