Helping Terrorists Escape Is All In A Day's Work For The UN

The United Nations has a well-established record of collaboration with Hezbollah in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier
David Kopel, The Volokh Conspiracy

Of course, the United Nations doesn't always help in the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers--sometimes they just help terrorists escape:

Norwegian troops helped two Lebanese arrested by the Israel Defense Forces to escape from Israeli jail, a Norwegian journalist claims in a new book.

The author, Odd Karsten Tveit, covered the Middle East for many years and served in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, whose members – according to the book "Goodbye Lebanon – Israel's First Defeat", helped the prisoners escape from the al-Khaim Prison in southern Lebanon.


The incident took place in 1992. According to the book, the Norwegian forces feared that two prisoners who managed to escape from the detention facility would be tortured or executed in Israel if caught by the IDF or South Lebanon Army, and decided to help them out.

Tveit says that the soldiers dressed the detainees in UNIFIL uniform and included them in a UN convoy which left southern Lebanon through roadblocks set up by the Israeli forces.

In interview to Norwegian media, Tveit noted that the incident was kept a secret for more than 18 years and that he was given permission to reveal its details only recently by Hagrup Haukland, the former commander of UNIFIL's Norwegian battalion, who made the decision to help the two prisoners.

According to Tveit, the UNIFIL headquarters and senior Norwegian army officials were not informed of the decision.

I suppose we're just supposed to rely on Tveit's word on that.

According to the original Norwegian article:

Odd Karsten Tveit has interviewed everyone who was involved in "human smuggling" by the Israeli checkpoints, and have found the former Lebanese prisoners. One of them, Daoud Faraj, has been a psychologist and help people today who are struggling with the trauma of abuse in captivity.

No indication of what Faraj did to get himself and his friend arrested or--for that matter--who that other person is and what he has been up to.

It is all very well for those involved to pat themselves on the back--at least that time the UN did not directly contribute to the murder of Israelis, unlike in 2006 when the UN contributed to the kidnapping, and therefore the death, of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev by Hezbollah.

David Kopel noted at the time:

According an Indian solider in UNIFIL who witnessed the kidnapping, "By this stage, there was a big commotion and dozens of UN soldiers from the Indian brigade came around." The witness stated that the brigade knew that the kidnappers in UN uniform were Hezbollah. One soldiers said that the brigade should arrest the Hezbollah, but the brigade did nothing.

According to the Indian soldier, the UNFIL brigade in the area "could have prevented the kidnapping."

"I’m very sorry about what happened, because we saw what happened," he said. Hezbollah "were wearing our uniforms and it was too bad we didn’t stop them."

It appears that at least four of the UNIFIL "peacekeepers," all from India, has received bribes from Hezbollah in order to assist the kidnapping by helping them get to the kidnapping spot and find the Israeli soldiers. Some of the bribery involved alcohol and Lebanese women.

The Indian brigade later had a bitter internal argument, as some members complained that the brigade had betrayed its peacekeeping mandate. An Indian government investigation sternly criticized the brigade's conduct.

There is evidence of far greater payments by Hezbollah to the UNIFIL Indian brigade, including hundreds of thousands of dollars for assistance in the kidnapping and cover-up.

More on that cover-up on the part of the UN, here.

The UN at work.

Technorati Tag: Daoud Faraj and UN and Odd Karsten Tveit.