When Will We Reach the Bottom?

In the recent past I've pondered the question of "where's the bottom of the stock market." Now I ponder "When will we reach the bottom?"

A lot is made of the increasing rate of mortgage foreclosures, more this month than last month, and so on. Eventually, there will be a month with fewer than the previous month, the monthly rate of foreclosures will decrease, and we will have passed the peak... of foreclosures. Lets assume that the bottom of the stock market will be around the same time (could be longer, could be a little sooner).

The rate of foreclosures is strongly influenced by the schedule of when adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) readjust from low teaser interest rates to high rates, which are often unaffordable and lead to foreclosure. The peak in the number of subprime ARM interest rate resets per month came at about the end of 2007, tapering off to a low right about now in late 2008 (about month 22 in the graph below, where January 2007 corresponds with month 1).


However, another wave of ARM rate resets is coming and will peak about two years from now. It has been pointed out that the holders of these mortgages, which are of better quality than subprime, might be able to refinance to a fixed rate and afford the transition. True, but this is potentially offset by the fact that many of the associated property values will be worth less than when they were purchased. Statistics say some will fail so that we'll have another wave of foreclosure problems growing to a peak over the next two years.

That's the story on residential mortgages. What about commercial mortgages? According to the Associated Press,

the same events poisoning the housing market are now at work on commercial properties, and the bad news is trickling in. Malls from Michigan to Georgia are entering foreclosure. Hotels in Tucson, Ariz., and Hilton Head, S.C., also are about to default on their mortgages.

That pace is expected to quicken. The number of late payments and defaults will double, if not triple, by the end of next year, according to analysts from Fitch Ratings Ltd., which evaluates companies' credit.

"We're probably in the first inning of the commercial mortgage problem," said Scott Tross, a real estate lawyer with Herrick Feinstein in New Jersey.

And there are compounding factors.

Unlike home mortgages, businesses don't pay their loans over 30 years. Commercial mortgages are usually written for five, seven or 10 years with big payments due at the end.

There's also a chain-reaction effect. As the economy turns down, retailers who are renting space in malls will close some of their stores and stop paying rent. The mall owners will loose their ability to pay their mortgages, and more commercial foreclosures will ensue, placing greater burden on the financial sector, which will be reflected in the stock market.

So when do we reach the bottom? Here's another hint.

About $20 billion [in commercial mortgage payments] will be due next year, covering everything from office and condo complexes to hotels and malls. When those $20 billion in mortgages come due next year — 2010 and 2011 totals are projected to be even higher — many property owners won't have the money.

With both residential and commercial real estate foreclosures possibly peaking out two years from now, it doesn't look like the bottom will be here too soon. This malaise will likely be with us for a while. We seem to have caught what Japan had, for over a decade, starting in the late 1980s.

Psssst... Do Something

• Contact the Broadcast Media
  
• Contact the Newspapers
  
• Contact the US Senate
  
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Fed Bends Rules for Monopolistic Insiders

The bigger they are, the more monopolistic they are, and the more protection they get from the Federal Reserve. What's wrong with this picture in a competitive "free market" economy?

An August 24 CNNMoney.com article, "Fed bends rules to help two big banks" reports:

August 20 letters from the Fed to Citigroup and Bank of America state that the Fed... has agreed to exempt both banks from rules that effectively limit the amount of lending that their federally-insured banks can do with their brokerage affiliates.

The Glass-Steagall Act, following the 1929 stock market crash, separated investment and commercial banking. It's claimed that Glass-Steagall worked for many years, but then became "anachronistic" as the financial sector modernized. "Commercial banks watched their market share of U.S. financial assets erode from nearly 50% to less than 32%." "Mutual fund assets grew 24% a year while [commercial bank] deposit growth has averaged just 3.4%." These comparisons in a March 1998 article by Nicole Olmstead Coulter are true, but one has to ask if the "modernization" was all healthy in the first place.

Experience suggests that the so-called "modernization" of laws is actually the rigging of arcane rules with the intent of making profits for the sector funding the lobbyists making the "modernization" pitch, and campaign donations, to the US Congress.

Coulter continues, "Through securitization, investment banks have taken away some of banks' traditional markets." "Increasingly, consumers demanded higher yields on their investments." Which could be followed by, "regardless of any underlying fundamentals." Who doesn't want more return? But should we do so if it is predicted to create boom/bust cycles? One can argue that, while in some ways securitization is beneficial, the greed-driven market is designed to drive "securitization" to the brink, as we are now witnessing the effects of runaway morgtage securitization. Cow manure has legitimate value as fertilizer and soil enhancement. Imagine warehouses of bullshit bundled and used as collateral for bonds (it probably exists).

The larger point is, however, that huge commercial banks can become huger if allowed to enter the brokerage business. In 1987, banking laws (Section 20) were changed to allow commercial banks to have subsidiaries that could offer investment services. By 1997, banks had successfully lobbied Congress, and Clinton, to allow banks to underwrite up to 25% of the subsidiaries' revenues. This "essentially wip[ed] out barriers toward bank acquisition of investment banks and securities firms," according to Coulter.

The merger and acquistion flood gates opened. The consolidation reduced diversity in the market place. The big banks accumulated more influence over the market, until ... they began influence the market, and that by text book definition is monopolistic. To help mitigate this, a limit on funding is still supposed to exist between commercial and brokerage operations. But, today's fiscal crisis is so bad, the Fed just bent the rules, proving my point. They can't let the big ones fail, because they too strongly influence the market.

The little ones? Too bad; the market isn't rigged to help the little guys. It isn't really a free market, and we all know it. A growing question is, given that the market is rigged, why don't we rig it to generate broader benefits rather than to enrich a few?

Sources:

CNNMoney.com article, "Fed bends rules to help two big banks", August 24, 2007.

Registered Rep, "Bank/Brokerage Marriages," Nicole Olmstead Coulter, March 1, 1998,

Why is Mainstream American Journalism Failing?

"The problem with the MSM is that they don't want to educate they want to sell." That suscinctly sums up the mainstream media, which is why I call it the corporate media.

With the help of commentary by journalism professor, Bob Jensen, lets exlpore the question, "Why is the American corporate media failing to provide independent and critical journalism?"

1) Commercial, for profit, enterprises have a structure that constrains their capacity to operate.

2) Journalistic practices have evolved to foster the notion that they must rely on official sources.

3) American journalists are socialized to believe that the United States acts with benevolence in domestic and world affairs. This is based on the mythology that the US, as an early democracy, is a break with history and thus unique in its benevolence.

Another question is the paradox of so-called "liberal journalism." How is it that statistics can show individual members of the media trend toward describing themselves as moderate or liberal while the media is so conservative? First, the definition of moderate has shifted significantly to the right since the 1980s, so what might seem moderate today was less so in years past.

Second, those who are "liberal" towards gay rights and other liberal social norms aren't necessarily economic liberals.

Third, liberal reporters answer to editors who in turn answer to management who in turn answer to owners and advertisers; the commercial pressure in a concentrating market imposes a conservatism toward questioning the status quo along the chain of command down to the reports. At the apex of the chain are now huge transnational corporations. The primary US media has consolidated from about 50 outlets in the mid-1980s to about six today:

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (FOX, HarperCollins, New York Post, Weekly Standard, TV Guide, DirecTV and 35 TV stations),

General Electric (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, Bravo, Universal Pictures and 28 TV stations),

Time Warner (AOL, CNN, Warner Bros., Time and its 130-plus magazines),

Disney (ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, 10 TV and 72 radio stations),

Viacom (CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Simon & Schuster and 183 U.S. radio stations), and

Bertelsmann (Random House and its more than 120 imprints worldwide, and Gruner + Jahr and its more than 110 magazines in 10 countries).

These giant corporations, almost by definition, are conservative institutions that answer to investors and commercial culture.

That status quo is one of corporate globalization, and deregulation that includes the telecommunications industry. The result includes concentrated wealth among the executives and many media figures who, as celebrities, are part of the wealthy elite. If they want to maintain their status, they cannot rock the boat. Even the lowly media research assistant faces job security pressures that lead to risk averse (conservative) behavior; getting a job in main stream media is competative to begin with. Then, you have to toe the corporate line to move up the chain. And if you're lucky enough to advance, you become an insider who doesn't want to blow it by challenging the dominant corporate structure. There simply aren't a bunch of liberals at the top questioning why they're getting disproportionate benefits from recent tax cuts, why the US has an imperialistic foreign policy, why bankruptcy laws were written to favor large financial institutions rather than common people, why campaign finance laws are failing our democracy while funneling huge profits to television outlets in the form of campaign advertizing revenue.

So, these huge multinational media corporations are conservative, not liberal. But what of the first three points? We've dealt with the first one; corporate rule is not liberal and it dominates mainstream media.

The second point is actually a symptom of the first point, and we've alluded to it in reference to celebrity media figures. The Scooter Libby trial pulled back the curtain on this to some degree. Mainstream journalists are not pressured by their editors to get controversial stories about US fostering death squads in Iraq; they didn't cover it in Central America in the 1980s, and it's not being covered now. The editor isn't pushing for investigative reporting, in part because the budgets have been cut as part of the media consolidation process (news isn't a huge revenue generator and investigative journalism costs money). It's easier to report what the government officials say at their press conferences or (wow) private conversations!! It's also safer to one's career; you can't make mistakes by simply reporting what you're told by "government officials". And, to maintain this comfort zone, it's important for reporters to maintain good relations with their sources. As a consequence, there is pressure to avoid being too critical of government official sources that reporters have invested time cultivating. The bottom line is that the vast majority of mainstream reporters and producers don't want to rock the boat... this how the media works, and it is a conservative mode of operation, not liberal.

The third point, about the Amarican mythology that "we're the good guys," also points to conservatism. The mainstream media didn't spend much time describing the cozy US relationship with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s when reporting on his recent hanging (little mention that the US allowed sales of pesticide base ingredients the were ultimately used on Kurdish villages). In fact, you rarely ever hear about the pattern of such relationships: The US creation of Osama bin Laden during the Afghan war, nor the fact that the US helped engineer that war (the "Bear Trap" designed to create a Vietnam for the USSR according to Zbigniew Brzezinski), Manuel Noriega in Panama, Diem in South Vietnam and support of dictators like Marcos in the Phillipines and the Shah of Iran, not to mention the current monarchy of Saudi Arabia and dictatorship in Pakistan.

The contradition of the US supporting these bad guys isn't questioned by the mainstream media. The US government routinely supports brutal dictators who in turn allow US corporations to exploit their resources (oil, minerals, agricultural plantation products, cheap labor); the dictators and corporations get rich, and the US government officials are treated well by the corporate elite, often rotatng through jobs in the private sector, while the peasants of these countries and US middle class are squeezed. The mainstream media doesn't report on this to any appreciable degree, why? In part because it doesn't fit the American mythology, "We're the good guys."

Sources:

1. Media Matters, with Bob McChesney, Interview with Bob Jensen, Professor of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, February 25, 2007.

2. Why Media Ownership Matters, April 3, 2005 by the Seattle Times by Amy Goodman and David Goodman.
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Lebanon Damage Report 2006

Updated August 28, 2008

Expanded Reports: To minimize clutter on this page I've expanded several subject areas, listed and linked immediately below.

Damage to Villages by District (a work-in-progress)

Damage to Roads and Bridges

Impacts of Cluster Munitions (Includes a link to US Prohibitions on Israeli use of cluster munitions).

See Location Map of Lebanon below

The Number of Attacks:

Citing a variety of sources, the Amnesty International reports Israel’s air force carried out more than 7,000 air attacks, while the navy had fired 2,500 shells (known to be very inaccurate). (This does not count artillary, mortars, tank shells, grenades, and other munitions). [57]

Killed:

At least 1,191 Lebanese were killed, most are civilians, about a third were children according to the Lebanese government. More continue to die due to encounters with unexploded munitions. [57][39][66 10-27-06 Report] See "Special Concerns" and footnote [6] for specific cases.

Wounded:

4,409 civilians wounded, according to the Lebanese government. More continue to die due to encounters with unexploded munitions. [57][39][66 10-27-06 Report]

Displaced:

About 970,000 Lebanese fled their homes in the fighting, about one-quarter of the population.[57] About 200,000 remained displaced as of October 27, 2006[66].

Special Concerns:

Seige of an Entire Country: By cutting off all modes of transport into Lebanon, and thus life-supporting supplies, Israel is establishing a seige, which is a form of collective punishment. [45] The blockade continues after the cessation of major hostilities.

Phosphorus Weapons: On Saturday July 15, in their attack on villages in the Arqoub area in the South, Israel made use of phosphorus weapons. [9][15] (July 18, 24)

Cluster Bombs: Between the August 12 cease fire, and Sept. 9 the United Nations (UNICEF) reports that 14 civilians have been killed by unexploded ordinance (UXO), and 66 have been injured.[66] As of Sept. 9, 2006 the UN Mine Action Coordination Center had identified 450 cluster bomb sites. Nearly 15,000 unexploded bomblets had been destroyed. Some villages report being 90% inaccessible due to contamination with UXO. [66] As of December 29, 2006 the UN had received reports of at least 200 UXO incidents. [66] SEE Expanded Report

Update, August, 2008: Since the war ended, twenty-seven civilians and thirteen bomb disposal experts have been killed. Over 200 civilians have also been injured by the unexploded ordnance.

New Land Mines Laid by Israel:
The United Nations has reported that four deminers, two British and a Bosnian were seriously wounded, and a Lebanese expert slightly hurt, at the weekend when they stepped on mines. The incidents near the village of Deir Mimas were the "first evidence we have that the Israeli forces laid new mines in south Lebanon in 2006."

Attacks on relief and medical operations: “The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) yesterday reiterated its 13 July appeal to both parties involved in the conflict in Lebanon to “respect humanitarian volunteers and workers and the Red Cross and Red Crescent symbols. This call follows an attack on Tuesday by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on a convoy of ambulances and trucks, sent by the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent (UAERC), on the road between Damascus and Beirut.” [10]

Attacks on Fleeing Refugees: Israel urges civilians to leave an area, but maintained a conflicting policy of attacking all moving vehicles. See: "Civilian Vehicles and Convoys" below. Also see notes [6]

UN Observer Post Attack July 26: The observer post has been manned by the UN for many years and is well marked. Israel shelled the post for several hours and is reported to have finally used targeted munitions. Israel commanders received direct communications from the observer post at least 10 times over several hours urging the shelling to stop. The UN Secretary General is on record indicating his belief that the attack was deliberate.

Qana Apartment Attack, July 30: 1am sustained attack killed up to 54 civilians, Lebanese officials say. Human Rights Watch says it has confirmed 28 dead in that attack and 13 people missing. [36]

Qaa Orchard Attack, August 4: Israeli air strike hit a farm near Qaa, close to the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley where orchard workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, were taking lunch. 33 people were killed and 20 wounded. 23 of the killed were Syrian including 6 women. [36] ([42] updated after some died of their wounds).

Civilian Infrastructure:

“The top U.N. humanitarian official, touring Beirut, said billions of dollars will be needed to repair damage” [5] (July 23)

Homes & Residential Buildings:More than 130,000 private homes damaged or destroyed according to the Lebanese government. [64]

Roads & Bridges: Road & bridge bombings are very common, followed by repairs and re-bombings, making it difficult to inventory. A summary with a link to a more detailed assessment (See Also "Civilian Vehicles and Convoys").

More than 94 roads as of August 11 [48]. 38 main roads cut off within first week of the conflict.[2]
71 bridges have been destroyed [27][36][48][56]
72 overpasses [27]

SEE More Detailed Report & Images

Airports:
Beirut International Airport, runways, fuel depot (at least 4 separate strikes), radars, parking lot, access tunnel, two access bridges [2][12][8][28]
Qaleiat Airport in North Lebanon, runways [2][27]

“In an unusual deal that the United States helped broker, a runway at the Beirut airport was repaired long enough to enable six planes -- one carrying former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Nakati -- to take off. Israeli forces soon after bombed the runway again.” [12] (July 15)

Ports:
The three main sea ports of Beirut, Tripoli and Jamil Gemayel, severly damaged [2] (July 18)

Utilities:
Widespread electricity outages across Southern Lebanon have disabled water pumps resulting in significant health risks.
Water-processing plant in Yurin
Fuel storage tank at the Jiyeh power plant, Beirut [11] (July 14)
Jiyeh power plant itself, Beirut [13] (July 16)
Zahrani power plant south of Beirut [12] (July 15)
Electricity generator in Sibline has been damaged [28] (July 21)
11 Reservoir dams were destroyed and 20 damaged [27][66 Sept. 12 report]
Sewage plant, Dair al-Zahrani [27]
6,800 water storage tanks destroyed in 40 villages in Majayoun and Bent Jbail districts affecting 45,000 people. [66 10-27-06 report]

August 11, Electricity was out in Tyre and Sidon, after Israeli warplanes struck transformers at power plants in both coastal cities. An official said it could be 10 days before power was restored [50]

Food Storage Facilities and Supermarkets:
Grain silo in Beirut Port [9] July 18
Detergent and foodstuffs warehouse for Procter & Gamble, Choueifat [28] (July 21)
Supermarkets in many villages were targeted, suggesting Israel's intent to drive civilians out of villages by destroying their food source [65]

Communications:
Antenna in Tripoli port belonging to the maritime operations room [2] (July 18)
Antenna owned by MTC mobile phone company in Dahr al-Baidar. [2] (July 18)
Lighthouse in Beirut near American University hit at least twice. [16][46] (7/15, 8/9)
Television transmitters at Terbol, north of Beirut, for Lebanese Broadcasting Company, and Future TV. [25] (July 22)
Cell Phone transmitters at Terbol, north of Beirut. [26] (July 26)

Commercial:
Textile factory in the border town of al-Manara [5] July 23
Factory producing prefabricated houses near the highway to Damascus [5] July 23
The country's largest dairy farm, Liban Lait [8] July 19
Paper mill [8] (July 19)
Packaging firm and [8] (July 19)
Pharmaceutical plant almost completely destroyed [8] (July 19)
Plastics factory in Tyre almost completely destroyed [8] (July 19)
Two plastics factories in the South and one in the Bekaa extensive damage [8] (July 19)
Tissue paper factory in Sidon almost completely destroyed [8][28] (July 19)
Tissue paper factory in Bekka [27]
Bottle factory in Bekka [17]
Medical supply company in Beirut's southern suburbs (might be same as Pharmaceutical plant)
Warehouse $10 million in consumer merchandise, Rafik Hariri International Airport [8] (July 19)
Warplanes struck a large construction materials factory south of Baalbek. [38]
About 150 businesses reported by the BBC [27]
See Gas Stations

Public Buildings:
Of 400 health facilities surveyed by the World Health Organization, 12 were totally damaged, 38 severly damaged with the most damage in Bent Jbail, followed by Marjayoun, Nabatiye, and the southern suburbs of Beirut. [66] Sept. 6

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the conflict destroyed 50 to 90 percent of the government and public buildings in 39 villages in the Bent Jbail district. [66] Aug. 23, Report 26

Hospital destroyed, Mayss al-Jabal [2][28] (July 18)
Hospital hit, Nabatiyeh [28]
Hospital hit, southern suburbs of Beirut [28]
Air strikes destroyed the three-storey Dar al-Hikmah hospital in Baalbek [59][60] (Aug 2)
Several schools in Kounin destroyed [2] (July 18)
School for the deaf "leveled" [43] (Likely the Al-Hadi Institution for the blind and deaf in Ghobeiry, Beirut).

"Up to 50 schools in south Lebanon were completely destroyed as a result of the conflict. In addition there are as many as 300 other schools which suffered major damage," Simon Ingram, spokesman for UNICEF. [61]

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the conflict destroyed 50 to 90 percent of the government and public buildings in 39 villages in the Bent Jbail district. (See August 23 United States Government Situation Report ref [66]).

Civilian Vehicles & Convoys:

There have been numerous reports. A few examples follow.

Israel hit a convoy of refugees, Associated Press reports on July 23. [14]
An Israeli missile also hit two [clearly marked] Red Cross ambulances late Sunday in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, killing one person and seriously wounding two others, a Red Cross official said. [15] (July 24)

Israeli missiles hit a convoy near the town of. Three trucks, clearly marked as a relief operation, containing supplies of medicines, vegetable oil, sugar and rice were damaged or destroyed, as well as four passenger vehicles. [28]

Two trucks with water drilling equipment destroyed in Ashrafiyeh, Beirut. [28]

The bodies of nine Lebanese civilians, including three children and their parents in a car hit by a missle, were found along Maarub-Dardghia road near Tyre July 28. [29]

Religious Buildings:
Church in Rmeish severely damaged [2] (July 18)
Mosque in Tiri severely damaged [2] (July 18)
Mosque in Sidon destroyed (photo: Dahr Jamail)[51]

Gas Stations & Fuel Centers:
Fuel containers in Jiyye destroyed [2] (July 18)
Fuel depot at Beruit International Airport [8] (July 22)
Gas storage tank in the northern neighborhood of Dawra [19] (July 17)
12 service stations destroyed as of July 18 [4]
17 fuel stores reported as of July 21 [28]
4 gas stores reported as of July 21 [28]
Two petrol stations in Baalebeck were targeted and set on fire [34] Aug 1

Environmental:

An oil slick caused by Israeli bombing of the Jiyyeh power station now covers 80km (50 miles) of coast. [33]See: United Nations Environmental Program (photo: Dahr Jamail)

Lebanese Military: (Not of Hizbullah)
Lebanese Army posts struck in Jounieh, Amsheet, Sidon, Batroun and Abdeh.
A Lebanese soldier was killed in another strike on an army post south of Beirut [41]
Military vehicles struck in Haret Hreik.
Israeli jets struck several radar targets in Lebanon over the weekend. [18] (July 17)
Eight Lebanese soldiers were killed when Israeli aircraft attacked a small fishing port at Abdeh in northern Lebanon near a highway leading to Syria. [19] (July 17)
Rayak military airport runways disabled
Radars at the Rayak airport
An air raid on a Lebanese army barracks in the Jamhour area east of Beirut killed 11 Lebanese soldiers, including four officers, and wounded 30. (July 18) [52]
Israel struck a military base at Kfarchima in southern Beirut. At least 11 soldiers were killed in an engineering unit and 35 were wounded. [21] (July 19)

Other:

Headquarters for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLO) in eastern Lebanon, which isn't responsible for Hizbullah [12] (July 15)

Economic Damage: Billions of dollars lost due to lost tourism, stock market closed, businesses loosing orders, capital flight from banks.

Detailed Daily Accounts:
Lebanon Updates
SAMIDOUN: See Day by Day

Images You Won't See in Western Corporate Media:
Indymedia Images


Israeli Bombs:
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Israeli Target... what's left of a woman
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Oil Spill Reaches Syria, August 8, 2006


Sources:

[1] Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, quoted in SF Chronicle
“ Civilian Toll Raises Questions: Israel, criticized for killing hundreds of Lebanese, says Hezbollah stores missiles in residences” by Anna Badkhen

[2] Internal Security Forces' directorate general, reported by the Daily Star of Lebanon
Web Link

[3] Same source as [2]
More than 100 homes and residential buildings destroyed in the areas of Tyre, Aita al-Shaab, Rmeish, Houla, Sarifa, Braachit, Shahour, Borayqeh, Shehabieh, Doueir, Aaba, Majadel, Dabaal, Jbeil, Ain Mezreb, Ghandourieh, Haret Hreik, Baalbek, Khiam, Dibbine, Marjayoun, Kfar Shuba, Bint Jbeil, Aitaroun, Tibnin, Maaroub, Kounin, Blida, Kfar Hammam, Meis al-Jabal, Jabal al-Batm, and Abbassieh.

[4]Same source as [2]
12 service stations in Bir Abed, Khiam, Ain Ibl, Moseileh, Rmeileh, Houla, Hesbe, Tyre, Kfar Kila, and Douris.

[5] Associated Press July 23, 2006, KATHY GANNON
Web Link

[6] Specific cases of injured and killed:
A member of the U.N. observer team in south Lebanon, Italian Capt. Roberto Punzo was wounded by guerrilla fire (the second observer injured). [5] July 23

Fleeing refugees, including women and children, were cut down on a road adjacent to the Lebanese-Israeli border in an airstrike as they left the village of Marwaheen. The bodies of several children, one headless, were sprawled on the ground. Police said 15 were killed in the afternoon attack and an Associated Press photographer counted 12 bodies in the two cars. [16] (July 15)

At least three civilians were killed when another Israeli airstrike hit a bridge near the Syrian border, cutting the last land link on the main road to Syria and its capital, Damascus. [16] (July 15)

Eight Canadians of Lebanese origin, all members of the same family, were killed by an Israeli strike on their village in the south where they'd come for a summer visit. [17] (July 16)

In the southern port of Tyre, an Israeli missile tore of the top of a 12-story building, killing at least nine. [17] (July 16)

A missile hit a minibus, killing 12 civilians as they were driving through the seaside town of Rmeileh, south of Beirut. [18] (July 17)

Nine members of the same family were killed when a bomb hit their house in the village of Aitaroun. [21] (July 19)

21 civilians were killed and 30 wounded in an air strike against the southern village of Srifa, 20 miles north of port of Tyre, when 10 houses were bombed. [22] (July 19)

A Lebanese photographer the magazine Al-Jaras, Layal Nejim, 23, became the first journalist to die in the fighting when an Israeli missile hit near her taxi in southern Lebanon. [5] (July 23)

An Israeli airstrike hit a United Nations post in southern Lebanon late Tuesday, killing at least two (make that 4) of the agency's observers. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply distressed" by the "apparently deliberate" strike. [20] (July 25)

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 56 people, including at least 34 children, in a southern Lebanese village Sunday, the Lebanese Red Cross said. It was the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting. Lebanese security officials put the toll at 57 dead. Security officials said the toll rose dramatically after 18 people from two families were found in a single room of the building, where dozens of people had been taking refuge from the fighting. [30]

Warplanes returned to the capital midday and sent missiles into Chiah, a south Beirut neighborhood where at least 41 people were killed in a strike Monday (Aug 7). [44]

Israeli missiles slammed into the southern Lebanon village of Rachaf, about 10 miles from the Israeli border, killing at least 15 civilians, security officials said. [47]

The death toll continued to rise after the August 7 cease fire when, on August 16, rescue workers pulled 32 bodies from the rubble in the southern town of Srifa, target of some of Israel's heaviest bombardment in the 34-day conflict. [53]

[7] Associated Press, July 22, 2006. Among the civilian deaths are 8 Canadians, 2 Kuwaiti nationals, 1 Iraqi, 1 Sri Lankan, 1 Jordanian. Web Link

[8] Daily Star of Lebanon, July 19, 2006
Web Link

[9] Daily Star of Lebanon, July 18, 2006
Web Link

[10] IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit.

[11] BBC, July 14, 2006
Web Link

[12] CNN, July 15, 2006
Web Link

[13] CNN, July 16, 2006
Web Link

[14] Associated Press, LEE KEATH July 24, 1006
Web Link

[15] CNN, July 25, 2006
Web Link

[16] Associated Press, July 15, 2006 SAM F. GHATTAS
Web Link

[17] Associated Press, July 16, 2006 Hamza Hendawi And Lee Keath Web Link

[18] New York Times, July 17, 2006 STEVEN ERLANGER and JAD MOUAWAD
Web Link

[19] ABC News (AP See Also [17]), July 17, 2006
Web Link

[20] CNN July 25, 2006
Web Link

[21] Associated Press, RAVI NESSMAN, via New York Sun, July 19, 2006
Web Link

[22] New York Times, July 19, 2006 JAD MOUAWAD and STEVEN ERLANGER
Web Link

[23] CNN July 27, 2006
Web Link

[24] Reuters, Nadim Ladki, July 27, 2006
Web Link

[25] ABC "World News Saturday," July 22.

[26] Associated Press, SAM F. GHATTAS, July 26.
Web Link

[27] BBC, "Lebanon Damage Report"
Web Link

[28] Guardian Unlimited, damage inventory, Brian Whitaker July 21, 2006
Web Link

[29] CNN, July 29, 2006
Web Link

[30] Associated Press, KATHY GANNON, July 30, 2006
Web Link

[31] Associated Press, KATHY GANNON, July 30, 2006
Web Link

[32] Reuters, Alaa Shahine, July 31, 2006
Web Link

[33] BBC, Richard Black, July 21, 2006
Web Link

[34] BBC, August 2, 2006
Web Link

[35] CNN, August 1, 2006
Web Link

[36] Reuters, Lin Noueihed, August 4, 2006
Web LINK

[37] Interview on DemocracyNow with Amy Goodman July 31, 2006. "Just a few days ago we documented an attack on the village of Blida, in which the Israelis used cluster munitions." Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch in Beirut.
Web LINK

[38] Associated Press, SAM F. GHATTAS, August 7, 2006
Web LINK

[39] Wikipedia Casualties of 2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict, which sources BBC, ITAR-TASS.
Web LINK

[40] Reuters, August 3, 2006.
Web LINK

[41] Reuters, August 4, 2006.
Web LINK

[42] Reuters, August 6, 2006.
Web LINK

[43] Flashpoints, WPFW, Dennis Burnstein interview of Bilal El-Amine, Aug 8.
Web LINK

[44] Associated Press, CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, August 11, 2006
Web LINK

[45] CNN, August 4, 2006
Web LINK

[46] Flashpoints, WPFW, Dennis Burnstein interview of Bilal El-Amine, Aug 9.
Web LINK

[47] Associated Press, LAUREN FRAYER and SAM F. GHATTAS, August 12, 2006.
Web LINK

[48] Lebanese Government via map made available from www.lebanonmaps.org.

[49] Associated Press, Zeina Karam, August 14, 2006
Web LINK

[50] Associated Press, August 12, 2006
Web LINK

[51] Dahr Jamail, indpendent journalist.
Photo Gallery

[52] Reuters, July 18, 2006
Web LINK

[53] Associated Press, SAM F. GHATTAS, July 17, 2006. Web LINK

[54] Associated Press, Seven R. Hurst, August 15, 2006. Web LINK

[55] Reuters, August 18, 2006. Web LINK

[56] Associated Press, SAM F. GHATTAS, August 20, 2006. Web LINK

[57] New York Times, John Kifner, "Human Rights Group Accuses Israel of War Crimes," August 24, 2006.Web LINK

[58] DemocracyNow!, Ana Nogueira, August 23, 2006. web LINK

[60] Associated Press, August 2, 2006. Web LINK

[61] AFP, August 25, 2006. Web LINK

[62] DemocracyNow!, August 30, 2006. web LINK

[63] DemocracyNow!, August 25, 2006. Web LINK

[64] DemocracyNow!, September 1, 2006. Web LINK

[65] DemocracyNow!, Amnesty International interview, August 23, 2006. Web LINK

[66] United States Government Situation Report, Lebanon Humanitarian Emergency, USAID citing various source, Index of reports by date.
Web LINK to Index of All Situation Reports

[67] Reuters, "UN says Israel laid anti-personnel mines in Lebanon" November 28, 2006 Web LINK

[68] DemocracyNow! Headlines, "Shortage of Funding Halts Mine Sweeping in Lebanon"
August, 25, 2008.