September (Web-only) 2003

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Lebanon acquits Canadian missionary
Citing a "lack of evidence," a Lebanese military tribunal on Monday cleared Canadian missionary Bruce Balfour, who went to the country to replant its biblical cedars, of charges that he was a spy for Israel.

However, the court convicted him of "inciting sectarian sentiments [through] activities that stirred confessional dissension," and barred him from returning to the country for five years. He was deported this morning. The court also sentenced him to a year's imprisonment on the religious charge, but said the seven weeks he'd served in jail were punishment enough. He was also ordered to pay a #100,000-fine (about $66, or CA$92).

"This sentence does not fall under the privileges of the military court," one of Balfour's lawyers, Ibrahim al-Hariri, told Reuters. "This is a foreigner who is not subject to that court."

One of Balfour's coworkers, tried in absentia, received the same verdicts and sentences.

Murderer will be executed today—and prolife organizations don't support him
Perhaps if prolife organizations were more proactive in their denunciations of psychopaths like Paul Hill rather than waiting for reporters to call, media outlets wouldn't be quite so prone to portray antiabortionists as supportive of his actions. Or at least reporters would be less able to portray the movement as divided.

But probably not. So long as there's a kook out there who says violence against abortionists is justified, he'll get quoted and given equal weight with organizations that have actual constituencies.

For the record, here's what some of those organizations are saying about Hill, who will be executed this evening for his 1994 murder of a doctor and an abortion clinic volunteer in Pensacola, Florida:

"We ...