A CALL FOR RETRACTION OF MEDIA'S ISRAEL URANIUM LIBEL

Fisk: Time for a Retraction (HonestReporting)

In October 2006, notoriously anti-Israel journalist Robert Fisk was given the front page of the UK's Independent to spread the libel that Israel had used uranium-based weapons in southern Lebanon during last summer's war.

This was challenged at the time by HonestReporting UK, following a UN investigation clearing Israel of the allegations only a short time later. HR UK castigated the Independent for its shoddy journalism and its failure to issue a retraction. (Read the full communique here.)

Still, Independent readers are under the false impression that Israel employed "secret uranium bombs". This, despite a second acquittal by the Lebanese themselves in the past fortnight, as described by Lebanon's Daily Star:

A panel of experts from the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international agencies announced a unanimous determination Monday that no depleted-uranium weapons had been used in the summer 2006 war in Lebanon. "To date, there is no evidence of depleted-uranium-ammunitions use during the 2006 conflict in Lebanon," Didier Louvat, IAEA head of radioactive waste issues, told a news conference hosted by the National Council for Scientific Research in Bir Hassan.

Should anyone think that any "pro-Israeli' interests were able to influence these findings:

Conference attendees included representatives of the Engineering Regiment of the Lebanese Army; the head of the National Council for Scientific Research George Tohmeh; the Arab Atomic Agency; the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP); the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission (LAEC); the IAEA and the World Health Organization.

Unsurprisingly, the Independent failed to cover this story, preferring to pass up this second chance to correct its original and libelous story. While Fisk and the Independent may have conveniently forgotten, we haven't. Please write to the Independent - mailto:letters@independent.co.uk?bcc=letters@honestreporting.com - drawing attention to this latest acquittal of Israel and asking why the newspaper has yet to issue a retraction.

The media's failure to acknowledge previous mistakes has perpetuated many falsehoods against Israel, such as the Jenin "massacre". We urge our subscribers to take action to correct this latest untruth.

SEE: U.N. CLEARS ISRAEL OF LEBANON URANIUM LIBEL

U.N. CLEARS ISRAEL OF LEBANON URANIUM LIBEL

Panel Finds "No Evidence" Israel Used Depleted Uranium in 2006 Lebanon War - Nour Samaha (Daily Star-Lebanon)
A panel of experts from the UN, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and other international agencies announced a unanimous determination Monday that no depleted-uranium weapons had been used by Israel in the summer 2006 war in Lebanon.

Senior UN Environmental Program scientist Mario Burger conducted intensive research on 90 soil samples from 71 distinct sites in South Lebanon at the Spiez government laboratory in Switzerland, and concluded, "No use of weapons containing depleted uranium" was found.

An above-normal level of concentration of uranium found in Khiam was consistent with levels naturally occurring in soil in the area, Burger said. "The uranium present at the site was never technically processed and can therefore not be tied to a missile or bomb," he said, contradicting claims made in December by Chris Busby, secretary for the European Committee on Radiation Risk.