Today’s Positivity post (”Bystanders Saved Boy from Drowning”) about an unnamed 3 year-old being saved from drowning by Anthony Graham and others is a great story with a happy ending — for the 3 year-old.

But the story does have a paragraph that, on a less crazy day, would have caused me to consider another post for Positivity (because I try to post only completely good-news stories with no ambiguities), or would have caused me to look further into why the following occurred:

He (Graham) carried the boy to the lifeguard stand but witnesses said on-duty lifeguards refused to give the boy CPR without a mouthpiece to protect themselves.

In a comment that I won’t post because I’m mentioning it now, Amy Ridenour has quite properly asked, in stronger words, whether the lifeguards are being investigated, prosecuted, or worse.

The answer, after twice viewing the video at the page where the story is (click on “Questions Raised after Near Drowning”), is “I don’t know.” It appears that everyone’s stories are so conflicting that it’s going to take a while to sort it all out. My instincts tell me that a lot of people are in cover-up mode, and that those doing the backing and filling are not the ones who did the real rescuing. But I’m unfortunately not there to sort it all out.

I’m happy, as of course we all are, that the 3 year-old is alive. I’m outraged that something as apparently easly as figuring out the truth about a “simple” rescue incident is proving so elusive, and that the 3 year-old would, according to the original version of the story, likely have died if non-lifeguards with the required skills hadn’t been there to save him.

If anyone has news, either today, a week, a month, or a year from now about how the investigation of this incident turns out, e-mail me.

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UPDATE: It’s hard to believe we’ll ever know what really happened after wading through blather at this story, and at this one.

Headline:

Bush seeks political gains from foiled plot

Excerpt:

CRAWFORD, United States (AFP) - US President George W. Bush seized on a foiled London airline bomb plot to hammer unnamed critics he accused of having all but forgotten the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Weighed down by the unpopular war in Iraq, Bush and his aides have tried to shift the national political debate from that conflict to the broader and more popular global war on terrorism ahead of November 7 congressional elections.

The London conspiracy is “a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation,” the president said on a day trip to Wisconsin.

“It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America,” he said. “We’ve taken a lot of measures to protect the American people. But obviously we still aren’t completely safe.”

His remarks came a day after the White House orchestrated an exceptionally aggressive campaign to tar opposition Democrats as weak on terrorism, knowing what Democrats didn’t: News of the plot could soon break.

AFP to fever swamp: It’s all a conspiracy.

BizzyBlog to AFP and the rest of the WORMs (Worn-Out Reactionary Media, known to most as the formerly Mainstream Media) — Who in the White House besides a very few of President Bush’s closest advisers could possibly have known that the arrests in London COULD (operative word) come? And what evidence do you have that they did anything political with the info? I know — like the fever swamp, you don’t need any stinking evidence. You and the rest of the WORMs just make it up, along with the “manipulated but not doctored” (last item at link) fauxtography, the “Green Helmet Guy” staging, sympathetic interviews with madmen, and all the rest. Bleep you — and your little stringers too.

That’s my opinion, but since a trusted tipster most assuredly feels otherwise (he has “offensive” as Number 1, and doesn’t believe it deserves obscurity), let’s show you what I’m talking about.

(more…)

Quick Take: Reuters’ initial reaction to the UK airliner bomb plot arrests was to tie it to Tony Blair and Israel’s actions in Lebanon. A later story, perhaps in response to blog criticism of the original, added the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as “reasons.” Nowhere is the idea that Islamic Jihadism, independent of day-to-day events in the Middle East, is involved. More important, and worse — Articles containing speculation gone wild are allowed to go out disguised as “objective” news pieces.
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Here, from The Washington Post at 2:13 AM (backup is here at my host, for fair use and discussion purposes only, to guard against the “memory-hole effect”) are three paragraphs from a Reuters story on the UK airliner bomb plot arrests (paras 9, 10, and 11):

Following the arrests, security at all British airports was increased and additional security measures put in place for all flights.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has come under strong criticism at home and abroad for following the U.S. lead and refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

The security alert comes 13 months after four Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London’s transport network on July 7 last year.

Note that writer Adrian Croft was trying to tell us that the very recent decision by Blair to support the US in refusing to call for an Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire is THE “reason” for a thwarted plot that has been months in the making. Either that, or Mr. Croft was just throwing in a Blair-bashing paragraph in a supposedly “objective” story for the heck of it (uh-huh).

Now, from Yahoo News at 7:59 AM (also saved) are THESE paragraphs from an expanded Reuters report co-authored by Croft and Michael Holden. Note the relevant changes bolded by me (paras 20 through 23):

“We heard about it on the TV this morning. We left a little early and said a prayer,” she said at Heathrow.

CRITICISM

Britain has been criticized by Islamist militants for its military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has also come under fire at home and abroad for following the U.S. lead and refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

In a speech on Wednesday, Interior Minister John Reid said Britain was in the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of World War Two.

Oh, so now there are THREE “reasons” why the plot was being hatched: The Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, and (”also”) the refusal to call for an immediate Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire. Or, again, perhaps Mr. Croft and Mr. Holden just threw in TWO Blair-bashing paras for the heck of it (yeah, right). At least Iraq and Afghanistan are longer-term “reasons.”

What the initial story betrays, in my opinion, is an institutional reaction on the part of Reuters (”institutional” because Mr. Croft DOES have have editors [doesn’t he?]) that ANY terrorist plot occurs only because of the Blair-Bush-Israel alliance.

What the later story may reveal is that Reuters was reading the blogs last night and discovered that its terror plot-no ceasefire linkage in a supposedly “objective” article was being roundly criticized in the blogs. Or it could be that Mr. Holden (instead of an editor) looked at what Mr. Croft was working with and told him to get a grip (nevertheless, they just couldn’t let go of that beloved ceasefire “justification,” and it remained).

Memo to Mr. Croft, Mr. Holden, and their supposed editors — Isn’t it at least as likely that the plots occurred because Islamic Jihadists want to cripple western commerce and politics, independent of day-to-day, or even year-to-year, events in the Middle East? Better yet, if you don’t yet know (and you don’t) what motivated the terrorists in this particular instance, how about this idea — Don’t say anything, stop speculating about motives, and just give us the facts. What a concept.

Cross-posted at Newsbusters.org.

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UPDATE: Allah at Hot Air links over (thanks!), with new info from AP that those caught were going to do a dry run very soon, and attempt attacks “within days.” Also, 24 have been arrested, and “as many as” 10 planes were targeted.

Yes, this IS a business story. It’s about how an entire business sector is allowing its reputation and credibility to suffer severe damage as it gets manipulated by terrorist groups and sympathizers.

It’s conclusive proof that at least some images sent around the world from Qana were based on staging.

Little Green Footballs has posted a less-than-2-minute YouTube video (originally from the German publication Zapp), tracking how the now-infamous “Green Helmet Guy” has manipulated casualty scenes as a “cynical movie director” for 10 years, up to and including Qana, posing as a relief agency worker or some equivalent.

The body of the film short shows a dead child at Qana being moved around solely for the purpose of achieving better quality and more dramatic footage, while “Green Helmet Guy” gives the cameraman and others instructions.

Zapp says, “A dead child is being abused to put on a show for photographers,” which is true enough, but it’s much more than that. World opinion is being abused by an international media machine that at a minimum has allowed itself to be scammed for years, and perhaps in some cases has been a willing scam participant.

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UPDATE: As you might expect, blogs are all over this — just a few include Jim Lindgren at Volokh, Flopping Aces, Jawa Report, Riehl World View (with a justified mini-gloat) and A Blog for All.

UPDATE 2: Confederate Yankee posts a letter to one of his readers from Andreas Tampe of the German newsmagazine Stern about Green Helmet Guy’s legitimacy that I’m sure Tampe would like to have back.

UPDATE 3, August 12: The AP spins furiously (HT LGF) on behalf of GHG, whose identity is Salem Daher. Dan Riehl cleans Mr. Daher’s clock for inflating death counts. Ace kicks GHG and AP, and the media in general to the curb for body count inflation, ignoring the Zapp video referred to above, and trusting any casualty figures out of Lebanon before fact checking, respectively. All should be considered in light of LGF’s expose (commented on here by me) on how news from the Mideast is really shaped.

UPDATE 4, August 14: EU Referendum shreds the AP’s Green Helmet Guy report and other aspects of Middle East Fauxtography in what appears will be a post for the ages.

The 88 year-old CBS correspondent came out of retirement to interview Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran. What a bootlicking ignoramus (Wallace, that is; HT Rodger Hedgecock, who mentioned this in his guest-hosting role today on Rush):

Of Ahmadinejad, Wallace said, “He’s an impressive fellow, this guy. He really is. He’s obviously smart as hell.”

Wallace said he was surprised to find that the Iranian president was still a college professor who taught a graduate-level course.

“You’ll find him an interesting man,” he said. “I expected more of a firebrand. I don’t think he has the slightest doubt about how he feels … about the American administration and the Zionist state. He comes across as more rational than I had expected.”

….. He said the Iranian president told him it was important to keep doing interesting things.

Put this in the file with “Hitler loved animals,” “Mao was good for Chinese women,” and “Al Capone ran soup kitchens.”

And wonder in amazement at how the WORMs (Worn-Out Reactionary Media, known to most as the formerly Mainstream Media) continue to commit business suicide in the name of their painfully obvious anti-free world agenda.

NOTE: This was originally posted at about 1:45 AM. This section contains 11 AM updates. The original post is below.

USA Today’s coverage this morning includes these details:

• The arrests have averted “an attempt to commit ‘mass murder on an unimaginable scale’”
• The number of arrests is up to 21; total number of people said to be involved could be up to 50.
• The plan involved hiding masked explosives in carry-on luggage. Air travel restrictions include a ban on all carry-on liquids.
• USAT also has a blog post extending the coverage. The comments section is rife with the unhinged.

Although reluctance to use the T-word seems to have vanished, no evidence of the M-word (Muslim) is evident in any of the coverage I’ve seen.

Three good roundups are at Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, and Pajamas Media. The 10:55 a.m. version of Memeorandum has dozens of links; go to their home page for the absolute latest. A point noted elsewhere last night is referred to again, this time by Captain Ed, that the plot has a strong resemblance to the planned but never carried out Operation Bojinka in early 1995. The Counterterrorism Blog thinks there’s a liquid explosives “factory” that needs to be found, and wonders if security insiders are feeding jihadists information on tactics that might work.

11:45 AM: US DHS Head Chertoff said that “the restrictions reflected the belief of investigators that the plotters planned to bring liquids on board, ‘each one of which would be benign, but mixed together could be used to create a bomb.’”
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(original 1:45 AM post)

Toronto. Miami. Marietta, OH (yesterday; don’t miss Debbie Schlussel’s chilling post on this one).

Now, London:

‘Plot to blow up planes’ foiled

A major terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.

It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage, with flights from the UK to the US being targeted.

During the night, police arrested a number of people in London after a counter-terrorist operation they said had lasted several months.

Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are expected.

It must be serious: The Beeb used the “T word.”

Either law enforcement is on a roll, or the level of terrorist activity has ramped up. I hope it’s the former, but fear it’s the latter.

Other blogs will surely have more on this over the next couple of days.

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UPDATE: In fact, LGF is all over it already. A Sky News excerpt has new details –

Sky News has been told the plan was to blow up around a dozen planes over UK and US cities. Police are said to have arrested 20 people in London - the culmination of a major covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months.

….. Sky News’ Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said he understood the threat was imminent and those arrested were mainly young, British-born Asian men.

He said the alleged plan involved people boarding flights and detonating explosives on planes over UK and US cities.

Immediate reax — British-born men from what part of “Asia”? UPDATE 1A: The answer is Pakistan, per Flopping Aces who says he saw it on Fox News. This jives with an ABC blog story the Flopster saw earlier. The Flopster also explored the fever swamps of the Democratic Underground, and documented the reax you’d expect.

UPDATE 2: Ace, who is in priceless mega-rant mode — “You realize how close this came to actually happening?”

UPDATE 3: (will add more links here to cut down on number of updates) More at Protein Wisdom, Hot Air, Right Winged, Pamela at Atlas Shrugs, Dread Pundit Bluto, High Country Conservative, Brea Canyon Monument, Irish Trojan, and Riehl World View.

UPDATE 4: Al-Reuters wastes no time in trying to draw a link between the arrests and the Israel-Hezbo situation –

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has come under strong criticism at home and abroad for following the U.S. lead and refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

So Al-Reuters links a policy decision made in the past few days to a plot that has been in the works for months. What complete jerks.

UPDATE 4A (thanks to Kevin for noticing this in comment 10 below): Al-Reuters has changed the language at the identical link (i.e., what was up at 2AM is gone), putting in a preceding paragraph about generic tie-in to British-US policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and adding the word “also” as a new seventh word in the paragraph I excerpted early this morning (”….. Tony Blair has also come under….”). As I said in Comment 9, the overall tie-in is at least plausible, though jihadists don’t really need a stated reason to kill infidels other than that we exist. And I still say the attempted tie-in of a months-long plot to decisions made in just the past week or so is, as noted by TigerHawk (who didn’t see it until it was revised as described here), gratuitious.

UPDATE 4B: I was able to find the original 2AM version of the Reuters article and compared it the one Kevin saw, which went out at 8AM. My post on those articles, and the inherent bias and speculation contained in them (”Al-Reuters Explains It All”) is here.

UPDATE 5: Ms. Underestimated — It could have been “bigger than 9/11.” Uh, yeah — 20 six to 10 planes full of 400 or so passengers could have had more people on board than died on 9/11, even before considering lives that could have been lost on the ground. Ms. E also wants to know where the other 8 Egyptians still at large from the 11 who disappeared from JFK are. Good question.

UPDATE 6: Blogs of War has a good rundown of media reports and blog links.

UPDATE 7: A CNN report from Britain describes severe restrictions on carry-on item on British flights, and US Dept. of Homeland Security reaction and restrictions:

Across the Atlantic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised its alert threat to the highest level of “severe,” or red, for commercial flights originating in the United Kingdom and bound for America.

Meanwhile, the threat level has been raised to “high,” or orange for all commercial flights operating in or coming to the United States, a DHS statement said.

“Due to the nature of the threat revealed by this investigation, we are prohibiting any liquids, including beverages, hair gels, and lotions from being carried on the airplane,” the statement said.

I thought this was the case, but Sky News confirms how restrictive the British carry-on policy will be: “That means no electrical or battery powered items will be allowed in the cabin, including laptops, mobile phones and iPods.” Also, a separate Sky News report chronicles the immediate massive travel disruptions: “Flights scheduled into Heathrow were cancelled - apart from those already in the air. Flights to Britain from some continental cities were also cancelled.” UPDATE 7A: In an AP report carried in USA Today, a woman actually was quoted thusly — “Hannah Pillinger, 24, seemed less concerned by the announcement. ‘Eight hours without an iPod, that’s the most inconvenient thing,’ she said, waiting at the Manchester airport.”

UPDATE 8: A similar plot came within two weeks of coming to fruition in early 1995, according to CooperativeResearch.org (HT Junkyard Blog).

Free Links:

• Big Evil Obscene Unconscionable Oil is spending money like mad searching for new oil (HT Powerline via Porkopolis) — according to a study by accounting firm Ernst & Young
  

  ….. the top companies — including Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, among others — took in a mind-numbing $5 trillion in revenue from sales of oil and related products between 1995 and 2005. After subtracting the cost of equipment, leases, labor and other operating expenses, the companies posted whopping profits of $336 billion.

  Over the same time span, however, the companies spent even more than they earned — $550 billion — on oil exploration and development. Some of them went deeply into debt to finance new ventures, especially during times of lean profits.

• Here is one tip of a very large iceberg — Illegal immigrant identity theft. Note the gang connections, the violent criminal history, and the already-deported-once status of the person arrested at the first link.

• Over-reach of the Day (HT Techdirt) — Major League Baseball (MLB) and the players’ association tried to claim that MLB owns the statistics of its players. A federal judge cried foul and quashed the claim, allowing a fantasy league to use the stats. Good thing — it would be a little ridiculous to look for the box scores in the paper and find a notice that says “visit MLB.com” instead. Or maybe the box scores would have to be printed on paper that self-destructs in 24 hours.

• More Jobs News They Say You Can’t Use — “Bank of America Corp. will add 1,300 jobs in New England by the end of 2006.”

• Under-reported Worker Confidence Story — from Ft. Lauderale-based Spherion Corp.’s monthly nationwide survey, some “surprising” results, considering the constant gloom-and-doom over gas prices, inflation, and you-name-it:
  

  ….. its most recent survey shows 23 percent of workers believe the economy is strengthening, up four points since June.

  Of those surveyed, 57 percent are confident in their ability to find a new job, up one percentage point from a month prior.

  ….. In addition, 79 percent of workers surveyed said that they were confident their jobs would not be eliminated in the next year, the highest level recorded so far this year.

  So people are confident about their situation, but, despite a slight change for the better, thanks to the WORMs (Worn-Out Reactionary Media, known to most as the formerly Mainstream Media), most (the 77% not in the 23% stat above) still think the economy is not getting better. Amazing.

• More e-voting escapades — It’s already pretty well-established that the machines can be hacked, and fairly easily. Which makes the following about a lawsuit filed in San Diego (CA) County a real head-shaker:
  

  However, the really interesting part is that the lawsuit specifically calls out the practice of allowing “sleepovers.” It turns out the county registrar of voters actually released the e-voting machines to poll supervisors days to a week ahead of time, and allowed them to store them however they saw fit between that time and the election. This is fairly common throughout the country, but isn’t often discussed. While it’s still a big leap to go from that fact to proving that the election was tampered with — it does continue to raise questions about why we’re trusting these machines when the opportunities for abuse are so great.

  Questions? How about bright, burning red flags?

A Milton, MA 3 year-old is alive (see this follow-up post relating to the lifeguard situation noted in the story):

Bystanders Save Boy, 3, From Pond Drowning

One little boy woke up alive and well Monday after a near death experience at a local pond. The 3-year-old was very lucky thanks to some quick-thinking heroes.

NewsCenter 5’s Gail Huff reported that the child was saved from drowning at Houghton Pond in Milton about 4 p.m. Sunday.

Anthony Graham was swimming with his daughter about 20 feet in the water when he noticed another child floating in the water near a group of other children.

“There were like five other kids surround that kid but I thought they were playing, to see who could stay underneath the water the longest,” Graham said.

He waded over and then realized something was wrong.

“He was just hunched back and just sitting there for awhile and I’m like, ‘Something is wrong,’ and I grabbed him and he was lifeless and I brought him out,” Graham said.

He carried the boy to the lifeguard stand but witnesses said on-duty lifeguards refused to give the boy CPR without a mouthpiece to protect themselves.

That’s when several beachgoers who were CPR-certified stepped forward.

“I didn’t think, I just did. And thank God I did,” Lanee Johnson said. She did chest compressions while Valerie Vaughn administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

“I was shaking. I was so scared. I was so scared, because, you know, you never think you’re going to have to save someone’s life,” Johnson said.

“It was just scary. I just wish someone would do it for my son if it was ever the case,” Vaughn said.

The boy was doing well at Children’s Hospital Monday morning.