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January 31, 2010
Goldstone Ignores His Own Evidence about Flour Mill
In an open letter, CAMERA challenged Judge Richard Goldstone on his findings that Israel deliberately targeted the Al Bader flour mill in a Jan. 9, 2009 air strike in order to deprive the civilian population of a food source. Goldstone declined to address the contradictions of his conclusion, and Elder of Ziyon blogger now observes that the judge even ignored contradictory evidence that he himself commissioned. Elder writes:
It turns out that Goldstone had photographic proof that the flour mill was not hit by airstrikes as well - and purposefully ignored it.
The Goldstone commission asked UNITAR, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, to examine and analyze publicly available satellite images of various locations in Gaza to determine the dates and extent of damage. One of the sites was the infamous flour mill. . . .
UNITAR, based on a time sequence of satellite images, finds that all the damage seems to have occurred a full week after Goldstone's "credible witnesses" said it was strafed by multiple air attacks - while the IDF was on the ground, fighting. And damage on the upper floors done by Apache helicopters would presumably be visible on satellite images.
Furthermore, the IDF has released its follow up report on Operation Cast Lead, which likewise concludes that the flour mill was hit by IDF tank fire during the course of combat in the area.
Posted by TS at January 31, 2010 04:31 AM
Comments
"UNITAR, based on a time sequence of satellite images, finds that all the damage seems to have occurred a full week after Goldstone's "credible witnesses" said it was strafed by multiple air attacks"
Incorrect!
That's what the mission is telling. Mr. Hamada their main witness actually claimed in the public hearing that the mill was shelled by IDF tanks closing in. The written report not only contradicts the UNITAR report it also contradicts their presumably main witness.
See my post on the flour mill case:
http://harris-adhoc.blogspot.com/2009/10/goldstone-report-forgery.html
Posted by: harris at January 31, 2010 08:40 AM
Based on what Harris uncovered and the UNITAR report, it appears certain that there was no airstrike at all, as opposed to what Goldstone wrote, but the IDF report does admit that it hit an upper floor of the mill with tank fire on the 9th, which would not have been seen by satellite imagery. The IDF strike was against fire aimed at the IDF from that direction.
UNITAR does claim that most of the damage occurred between the 16th and 18th, however, something the IDF does not corroborate.
Interestingly, every person killed in the Al Sudanniyeh area after December 27th was identified by PCHR to be a "militant," so there was clearly a lot of ground fighting in that neighborhood, again something that Goldstone doesn't mention.
Posted by: Elder of Ziyon at January 31, 2010 09:07 AM
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