Human Rights Watch on Syria

Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch sent me this regarding my posts on HRW and cluster bombs in Syria (I cite with his permission):  "On the documentation of cluster use in Syria. We are not “just” relying on youtube videos. We spoke to a number of residents who described the attacks in two towns and are in touch with many of those who filmed the videos. In addition, we have had weapons experts check that the weapons appearing in the video were truly air dropped (ie, visible damages were consistent with the weapons being air dropped) and that those were weapons known to be in the arsenal of Syrian air force. Unlike a generic vide of a beating, videos of cluster bombs cannot be faked easily (they are tricky weapons to handle, very heavy canisters, there is no way you can fake a bomb that is half buried in the ground etc)."   So HRW relied on experts who testified that cluster bombs in VIDEOS ON THE INTERNET are actually cluster bombs?  I told Nadim: HRW would NEVER in a million year accepts internet videos of cluster bombs as basis for Israeli use of them.  Once again: I say this without knowing whether the Syrian regime used them or not, and the Syrian regime is capable of perpetrating all sorts of brutal methods and techniques.