Israel thread #2
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conestogo_flood
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Greek Cruise Ship Expected To Evacuate Americans
Warship to escort U.S. evacuees from Lebanon
European nations also acting to get citizens out of country
Monday, July 17, 2006; Posted: 2:29 p.m. EDT (18:29 GMT)
State Department in Washington:
1-202-501-4444
1-888-407-4747 (Call this number toll-free from inside the U.S.)
Americans in Lebanon and family members outside the country can obtain information at http://www.travel.state.gov
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- A commercial ship escorted by a U.S. destroyer will start evacuating Americans from war-torn Lebanon on Tuesday and more military helicopters will be used to fly others direct to the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a U.S. official said.
Israel, on the sixth day of its major offensive in Lebanon, appeared to be allowing evacuation ships through its blockade of the country as France and Italy moved hundreds of nationals and other Europeans out Monday. Other governments were organizing pull-outs by land to Syria.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said Monday that the commercial ship, the Orient Queen, which can carry up to 750 people at a time, will take evacuees to Cyprus. A U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Gonzalez, will escort it and the USS Iwo Jima may do so as well, he said.
CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters took 21 Americans from the U.S. Embassy compound to a British military base in Cyprus and more flights were taking place Monday, he said. He did not provide details on the latest flights.
Three CH-53s are currently involved and more will be made available on Tuesday, he said.
More than 100 Marines were in Cyprus from a North Carolina-based unit, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The 24th MEU is based aboard amphibious landing ships, including the Iwo Jima.
There are some 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, and the U.S. Embassy has already advised those who wish to leave that they should prepare their bags -- one each person, weighing no more than 15 kilograms (30 pounds) -- and be ready for announcements on how to leave.
Hundreds of French citizens and other Europeans were evacuating on a Greek cruise liner chartered by the French government to ferry them to Cyprus. The "Ierapetra" pulled all the way into Beirut port, where busloads of evacuees pulled in and began to board. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who earlier met his Lebanese counterpart, was on hand to see them off.
The ship's presence showed Israel was allowing evacuation vessels through the blockade its warship have been enforcing on Lebanon's ports, part of their retaliation after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers last week. They have forbidden traffic in or out, imposing a cordon three miles out. But they were allowing evacuees to be moved out by sea. Lebanon's only international airport has been shut down since Thursday by Israeli strikes.
An Italian ship left earlier with some 350 people, including 187 Italians.
Some Americans have privately driven to Syria in recent days and from there flown elsewhere, although the U.S. government has advised Americans not to leave through Syria, saying the trip was too dangerous.
A U.S. Embassy statement issued Monday instructed American citizens to be ready to leave. Further instructions, it said, would be publicized both in local media and on the Embassy's Web site.
The State and Defense departments were coordinating to ensure that the evacuation is "safe and carried out in an orderly fashion," the Embassy statement said.
Meanwhile, in Cyprus, the government there made preparations to help with the evacuation of the thousands expected to be brought out of Lebanon by the United States and European countries.
"At this stage we don't have an exact number of people. ... We'll surely have four or five ships this week alone," said Foreign Ministry official Omiros Mavromatis.
Greece also was sending a navy frigate to a Lebanese port to pick up 100 people and has three additional warships on standby.
France has more than 20,000 citizens in Lebanon. Most of the hundreds heading for the ship Monday were of Lebanese origin or partners in mixed marriages.
"Who knows when this will end," said Habib al-Saad, who was seeing his three sons off. "If any of our Arab leaders had a brain this would have been resolved a long time ago. But they don't," said al-Saad as his sons -- Marwan, 20, Thomas, 17, and Pierre, 10 -- looking bewildered and anxious -- listened to their father in silence.
"I am not worried about them," al-Saad said. "They will look after themselves."
Overall in Lebanon, hundreds of thousands were on the move, leaving areas considered dangerous for the relative safety of the hills east of Beirut, the eastern Bekaa valley and northern Lebanon.
Wisam Musalam, a statistics student in Lyons, France, was standing in line outside the French Culture Center, waiting to register his name for evacuation. He is not a French national, but has a residence permit in France.
"Slowly, slowly we will become like the Palestinians," he said. "A nation of refugees."
Among other developments:
# About 850 Swedes among about 5,000 in Lebanon have been evacuated, largely to the city of Aleppo in northern Syria. Sweden also chartered three ships to bring Swedes from Beirut to Cyprus, but is awaiting security guarantees from the warring parties.
# Norway, which has evacuated 250 citizens to Syria, was also waiting for guarantees to send a car transporter ship to Lebanon.
# Two British military helicopters landed on a strip on the coast near Beirut. About three dozen men, women and children were spotted running toward the aircraft and boarding it. The aircraft took off 10 minutes later and flew westward over the Mediterranean.
# A British aircraft carrier and another warship -- both already in the Mediterranean -- set off Sunday on a three-day trip to the Middle East in preparation for the possible evacuation of Britons. A British Foreign Office spokesman said the first wave of Britons -- children, elderly and ill people -- left Sunday aboard the helicopter that also transported European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
# Denmark began evacuating some 2,300 people by bus to Damascus, Syria. So far, some 700 have returned home, the Danish government said.
# Germany's Foreign Ministry said some 200 Germans have left Lebanon by land.
# Bulgaria said it plans to evacuate at least 300 of its citizens, probably by sea from Beirut to Cyprus.
# Ukraine said its embassy in Lebanon rented 14 buses to begin the evacuation of 520 Ukrainians from Beirut. They were to be taken to the airport in the Syrian city of Latakia, where three flights were scheduled to pick them up and take them home.
# Russia's Foreign Ministry said there were more than 1,400 Russian citizens in Lebanon and more than 1,000 were ready to leave.
# Spanish citizens also left by land to Syria.
Warship to escort U.S. evacuees from Lebanon
European nations also acting to get citizens out of country
Monday, July 17, 2006; Posted: 2:29 p.m. EDT (18:29 GMT)
State Department in Washington:
1-202-501-4444
1-888-407-4747 (Call this number toll-free from inside the U.S.)
Americans in Lebanon and family members outside the country can obtain information at http://www.travel.state.gov
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- A commercial ship escorted by a U.S. destroyer will start evacuating Americans from war-torn Lebanon on Tuesday and more military helicopters will be used to fly others direct to the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a U.S. official said.
Israel, on the sixth day of its major offensive in Lebanon, appeared to be allowing evacuation ships through its blockade of the country as France and Italy moved hundreds of nationals and other Europeans out Monday. Other governments were organizing pull-outs by land to Syria.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said Monday that the commercial ship, the Orient Queen, which can carry up to 750 people at a time, will take evacuees to Cyprus. A U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Gonzalez, will escort it and the USS Iwo Jima may do so as well, he said.
CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters took 21 Americans from the U.S. Embassy compound to a British military base in Cyprus and more flights were taking place Monday, he said. He did not provide details on the latest flights.
Three CH-53s are currently involved and more will be made available on Tuesday, he said.
More than 100 Marines were in Cyprus from a North Carolina-based unit, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The 24th MEU is based aboard amphibious landing ships, including the Iwo Jima.
There are some 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, and the U.S. Embassy has already advised those who wish to leave that they should prepare their bags -- one each person, weighing no more than 15 kilograms (30 pounds) -- and be ready for announcements on how to leave.
Hundreds of French citizens and other Europeans were evacuating on a Greek cruise liner chartered by the French government to ferry them to Cyprus. The "Ierapetra" pulled all the way into Beirut port, where busloads of evacuees pulled in and began to board. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who earlier met his Lebanese counterpart, was on hand to see them off.
The ship's presence showed Israel was allowing evacuation vessels through the blockade its warship have been enforcing on Lebanon's ports, part of their retaliation after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers last week. They have forbidden traffic in or out, imposing a cordon three miles out. But they were allowing evacuees to be moved out by sea. Lebanon's only international airport has been shut down since Thursday by Israeli strikes.
An Italian ship left earlier with some 350 people, including 187 Italians.
Some Americans have privately driven to Syria in recent days and from there flown elsewhere, although the U.S. government has advised Americans not to leave through Syria, saying the trip was too dangerous.
A U.S. Embassy statement issued Monday instructed American citizens to be ready to leave. Further instructions, it said, would be publicized both in local media and on the Embassy's Web site.
The State and Defense departments were coordinating to ensure that the evacuation is "safe and carried out in an orderly fashion," the Embassy statement said.
Meanwhile, in Cyprus, the government there made preparations to help with the evacuation of the thousands expected to be brought out of Lebanon by the United States and European countries.
"At this stage we don't have an exact number of people. ... We'll surely have four or five ships this week alone," said Foreign Ministry official Omiros Mavromatis.
Greece also was sending a navy frigate to a Lebanese port to pick up 100 people and has three additional warships on standby.
France has more than 20,000 citizens in Lebanon. Most of the hundreds heading for the ship Monday were of Lebanese origin or partners in mixed marriages.
"Who knows when this will end," said Habib al-Saad, who was seeing his three sons off. "If any of our Arab leaders had a brain this would have been resolved a long time ago. But they don't," said al-Saad as his sons -- Marwan, 20, Thomas, 17, and Pierre, 10 -- looking bewildered and anxious -- listened to their father in silence.
"I am not worried about them," al-Saad said. "They will look after themselves."
Overall in Lebanon, hundreds of thousands were on the move, leaving areas considered dangerous for the relative safety of the hills east of Beirut, the eastern Bekaa valley and northern Lebanon.
Wisam Musalam, a statistics student in Lyons, France, was standing in line outside the French Culture Center, waiting to register his name for evacuation. He is not a French national, but has a residence permit in France.
"Slowly, slowly we will become like the Palestinians," he said. "A nation of refugees."
Among other developments:
# About 850 Swedes among about 5,000 in Lebanon have been evacuated, largely to the city of Aleppo in northern Syria. Sweden also chartered three ships to bring Swedes from Beirut to Cyprus, but is awaiting security guarantees from the warring parties.
# Norway, which has evacuated 250 citizens to Syria, was also waiting for guarantees to send a car transporter ship to Lebanon.
# Two British military helicopters landed on a strip on the coast near Beirut. About three dozen men, women and children were spotted running toward the aircraft and boarding it. The aircraft took off 10 minutes later and flew westward over the Mediterranean.
# A British aircraft carrier and another warship -- both already in the Mediterranean -- set off Sunday on a three-day trip to the Middle East in preparation for the possible evacuation of Britons. A British Foreign Office spokesman said the first wave of Britons -- children, elderly and ill people -- left Sunday aboard the helicopter that also transported European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
# Denmark began evacuating some 2,300 people by bus to Damascus, Syria. So far, some 700 have returned home, the Danish government said.
# Germany's Foreign Ministry said some 200 Germans have left Lebanon by land.
# Bulgaria said it plans to evacuate at least 300 of its citizens, probably by sea from Beirut to Cyprus.
# Ukraine said its embassy in Lebanon rented 14 buses to begin the evacuation of 520 Ukrainians from Beirut. They were to be taken to the airport in the Syrian city of Latakia, where three flights were scheduled to pick them up and take them home.
# Russia's Foreign Ministry said there were more than 1,400 Russian citizens in Lebanon and more than 1,000 were ready to leave.
# Spanish citizens also left by land to Syria.
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wx247
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So who do you watch for your source concerning this crisis in the Middle East?
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Personal Forecast Disclaimer:
The posts in this forum are NOT official forecast and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or storm2k.org. For official information, please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
The posts in this forum are NOT official forecast and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or storm2k.org. For official information, please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
wx247 wrote:So who do you watch for your source concerning this crisis in the Middle East?
On TV: MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, PBS, CBS
On the net: msnbc.com, cnn.com, bbc.co.uk, sky.com
For an insight into what the Arab world is thinking: english.aljazeera.net
Also, more websites that I don't feel like listing.
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Skywatch_NC
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nholley
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Janice wrote:CNN just reported that an Israeli plane went down. I am waiting for the link from CNN.
Lebanese TV Reports Israeli Warplane Shot Down Near Beirut
Turns out to not be a War plane...more worryingly a long range Iranian ZelZal missile capable of reaching TalAviv:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull
Just to clear up another thing the helicopters seen earlier were British not UK.
As for the best news sources it all depends on what view you want on it.
The fastest source for breaking news is either Sky news in the UK or Reuteurs. CNN and Fox are usually the slowest of the main stream news networks in my experience and not always the most accurate. Generally to find the correct Information the BBC is hard to beat.
Links below for anyone interested:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://today.reuters.com/news/home.aspx
http://www.sky.com/skynews/home
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nholley wrote:Janice wrote:CNN just reported that an Israeli plane went down. I am waiting for the link from CNN.
Lebanese TV Reports Israeli Warplane Shot Down Near Beirut
Turns out to not be a War plane...more worryingly a long range Iranian ZelZal missile capable of reaching TalAviv:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull
Just to clear up another thing the helicopters seen earlier were British not UK.
As for the best news sources it all depends on what view you want on it.
The fastest source for breaking news is either Sky news in the UK or Reuteurs. CNN and Fox are usually the slowest of the main stream news networks in my experience and not always the most accurate. Generally to find the correct Information the BBC is hard to beat.
Links below for anyone interested:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://today.reuters.com/news/home.aspx
http://www.sky.com/skynews/home
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kevin
conestogo_flood wrote:In my opinion, if this dies out... it will only be temporary. I can definately see long term effects from this, because it is so obvious. It's only a matter of time until this grows into something larger.
You make it sound like this is the beginning of something. It isn't, not at all. Its simply a resurgence of activity. Israel and the Arabs have been at war for at least 58 years.
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I find this scary....
Syria offers safe haven to US nationals fleeing Lebanon
Jul 17 3:26 PM US/Eastern
The Syrian embassy said it was offering "safe haven" to Americans and other citizens wishing to flee Lebanon, where nearly 200 civilians have been killed during a massive Israeli military bombardment.
"Now, while thousands of United States citizens are stranded in Lebanon attempting to flee the ongoing massacre there, Syria has opened its borders to US citizens as well as citizens of other nationalities," the embassy said in a statement.
Story
Syria offers safe haven to US nationals fleeing Lebanon
Jul 17 3:26 PM US/Eastern
The Syrian embassy said it was offering "safe haven" to Americans and other citizens wishing to flee Lebanon, where nearly 200 civilians have been killed during a massive Israeli military bombardment.
"Now, while thousands of United States citizens are stranded in Lebanon attempting to flee the ongoing massacre there, Syria has opened its borders to US citizens as well as citizens of other nationalities," the embassy said in a statement.
Story
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Rainband
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