CNN lies?

CAMERA dissects CNN's coverage of the apparent deaths of two 'Palestinian youths' in Beitunia last week.

During the remainder of the segment, CNN reporter Ivan Watson speaks with Siam Nouwaran, the father of one of the young men who died. During the course of the interview, Watson describes the contents of a backpack he was wearing at the time of his death. “Inside, the backpack, a blood-stained textbook and a bullet, not a rubber-coated projectile.”

The father holds a plastic bag that contains a bullet.

“You think that this is the bullet that killed your son?” Watson asks. “Yeah, of course,” the father answers. “Inside the bag. I found it inside the bag.”

The image of a father holding the bullet that caused his son's death makes for a compelling story, especially on television.

But is it true?

One Israeli ballistics expert doesn't think so. Appearing today on Israel's Channel Two, Yosef Yekutiel stated that if the bullet actually went through the victim's body the way Palestinian doctors say it did, it would look entirely differently from the one displayed by the boy's father.

This bullet, if it did what the doctor claims, passed through the chest, came out through the body hit the backpack and passed through several books – this bullet didn't do that. 

Everyone who understands bullets, knows that the moment it passes through the chest, the torso and hits some sort of bone, it ends up with a distortion. The moment it enters and hits the papers of the books it is expected to be crushed in the front section in a very prominent manner.

Clearly, CNN has some more reporting to do.

Oh and don't hold your breaths waiting for an autopsy. As was the case with Mohamed al-Dura 14 years ago, there isn't going to be one, and even if there was one, you couldn't rely on it. Hmmm.