Hezbollah Takes Journalists On A Tour of A Destroyed South Beirut Neighborhood

[Leigh Meyers <leighcmeyers@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hezbollah Offers Journalists Tour of Beirut Neighborhood
By Challiss McDonough
Beirut
20 July 2006

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-07-20-voa18.cfm

Listen to McDonough report audio clip (She sounds tired...)
http://www.voanews.com/english/figleaf/ramfilegenerate.cfm?filepath=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Evoanews%2Ecom%2Fmediaassets%2Fenglish%2F2006%5F07%2FAudio%2Frm%2FMcDonough1%2Erm


VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has been reporting from Beirut
since last week, but has only rarely been able to venture into the
southern suburbs, which have been heavily bombed.  Hezbollah's offices
are there, its radio and television stations are there, and the home of
its leader Hassan Nasrallah is there, and all of them have been
repeatedly struck.  Thursday Challiss and other journalists went on a
bizarre guided tour of the devastation led by the Hezbollah spokesman.

Challiss recorded this report from the scene.

"This is Challiss McDonough. I'm in a neighborhood in south Beirut.
We're being taken on a tour by the spokesman for Hezbollah.  He's been
showing us, a large number of journalists, the damage from recent
bombing raids.  I'm now standing next to a building that was apparently
hit quite recently. There's still smoke coming out of the pile of rubble
that the building used to be.

The Hezbollah spokesman, Hussein Nabolsi, has been defending his
organization against allegations that they, by their actions, have
brought this upon the people of Lebanon and brought this upon this
neighborhood, that Hezbollah located its headquarters in civilian
neighborhoods, thus putting them at risk of this kind of retaliatory
attack by the Israelis.  The Hezbollah spokesman, very adamant, says
that Hezbollah is defending Lebanon.

I'm sorry, I'm trying to step over piles of rubble as I'm speaking.  The
street is just, it's obliterated.  It's just like there are pieces of
bricks and twisted metal strewn everywhere from building after building
after building that's been demolished.  We're seeing weird remnants of
things that have survived intact.  Theres a plastic chair in the middle
of the road, a child's teddy bear and a wicker basket.  There's a shoe.
There's a perfectly intact envelope from the Islamic Health Society
lying on the ground.  This neighborhood has been absolutely destroyed. "