Last night Michael Ross, former Mossad agent and author of the book The Volunteer, sent me an interesting article via Twitter:
We figured they’d cheat; they were Hezbollah, after all. But none of us—a team of four Western journalists—thought we’d be dodging military-grade flash bangs when we initiated this “friendly” paintball match.
…
With me out of the game, another teammate eliminated, and a third being held hostage, that leaves only one remaining member of Team Sahafi (Arabic for “journalists”): Andrew Exum, a former Army Ranger captain who retired after three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and has since become a noted counterinsurgency expert. … Tonight, however, as two Hezbollah fighters drag and push his comrade-turned-hostage toward him, Ranger Exum makes little effort to separate good guy from bad and shoots all three of them repeatedly. This delights our opponents, who appear to appreciate the lack of emotion shown by the American warrior. Finally, they relent—no one can doubt they have been “killed”—and forfeit the game.
…
They used military flash bang grenades and human shields during this “friendly” game of paintball. The owners of the paint ball place in Beirut were “reluctant” to point out that these tactics are not usual in paintball games.
It’s a long article but well worth reading. I thought it would be a bit of a ra-ra piece for Hezbollah but it’s not and it appears that the journalist who organised this got exactly what he wanted: some up close time with the real Hezbollah terrorists who their press office usually denies access to.
Which leads me to ask, what’s next? Mixed doubles tennis with Hamas?
