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Edited on Thu Nov-10-05 01:22 PM by bushmeat
If you watched the weapons shot from helicopters in the video (WATCH THEM) it is pretty clear that these are incindary chemical weapons being shot close to the ground, that they disperse before impact and hit the target quickly, these were not used to illuminate targets. If you are unsure about the pain experienced by those who died by the WP chemical attacks in Falluja try scraping the head of a (phosphorus-containing) strike-anywhere wooden match under your fingernail and crush it. Try using water to sooth the pain. Now imagine that covering 100,000 fold more surface area of your skin. No time to read? Then watch these videos: 1) http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10907.htm2) http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/body.asphttp://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/9/164137/436Now is is easy to understand how 100,000 people died in Fallujah. The facts of the matter appear to be that Fallujah was a town of 310,000 people of whom less than an hundred thousand can currently be accounted for. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article325560.ece http://crookedtimber.org/2005/04/20/lancet-interview/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_survey_of_mortality_before_and_after_the_2003_invasion_of_Iraq"A Palestinian runs for cover as tanks fire phosphorous during clashes in Nablus on Sunday, Jan, 9 2000." http://rawstory.com/news/2005/U.S._Army_publication_confirms_United_States_1109.htmlThe March edition of Field Artillery magazine, a U.S. Army publication, reveals that the U.S. military did in fact use the incendiary weapon white phosphorous in Fallujah, Iraq, a Daily Kos diarist has found. Here is a link to that publication (pdf) http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/Previous_Editions/05/mar-apr05/PAGE24-30.pdf"WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition," the article's author wrote. "We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."
A second publication, Infantry Magazine, also alleges that white phosphorous was used near the Iraqi city of Irbil. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IAV/is_3_93/ai_n6366546 Newsroom sources tell RAW STORY that the New York Times held a story they were scheduled to run on the weapon's use Thursday.
A terrifying video about the U.S. use of the weapon in Fallujah is available at Information Clearinghouse. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10907.htm
ANOTHER VIDEO - http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/body.asp
The U.S. has said any use of the weapon was for "lighting" purposes.
According to the Toxic Disease registry, "White phosphorus is a waxy solid which burns easily and is used in chemical manufacturing and smoke munitions. Exposure to white phosphorus may cause burns and irritation, liver, kidney, heart, lung, or bone damage, and death."
Wikipedia adds, "Detonating a WP shell in a confined area (like firing into a building) will indeed cause an effect comparable to the use of lung agent poison gases for those inside who do not or can not flee, with the additional consequence of setting the room(s) alight. Death will occur from lung edema, phosphoric acid poisoning or the resulting shock, or burns."
Use of white phosphorus is not banned by name in any international treaty. However, the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (Protocol III) prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilian populations or in areas that have high civilian populations. The United States is among several nations that are not signatories to the convention.
The PDF of the article is here. http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/Previous_Editions/05/mar-apr05/PAGE24-30.pdf
DEVELOPING....
Another article: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m17639&date=10-nov-2005_03:32_ECT
In other words the claim by the US Government that White Phosphorus was used only for illumination at Fallujah had been pre-emptively debunked by the Army. Indeed, the article goes on to make clear that soldiers would have liked to have saved more WP rounds to use for "lethal missions."
However, as Mark Kraft, an emailer to Eric Alterman's blog, Altercation, points out today, the Field Artillery Magazine article fails to inform its audience that
. . . there is no way you can use white phosphorus like that without forming a deadly chemical cloud that kills everything within a tenth of a mile in all directions from where it hits. Obviously, the effect of such deadly clouds weren't just psychological in nature.
What I saw in Iraq with regards to White Phosphorus The Liberal US Marine, Daily Kos http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m17637&date=10-nov-2005_03:17_ECT
November 9, 2005
I was with a Marine Corps unit on the outskirts of An Nasiriyah, Iraq in March 2003. We were set up in the city dump (the nastiest place I have EVER slept at. The flies were horrible), right on the river (I cant remember if it was the Tigiris or the Euphrates). Anyway, the huge fight of the war was An Nasiriyah. The Marine Corps scheme of manuever counted on having An Nasiriyah secured so the remainder of the division could push northward. An Nasiriyah was proving very difficult to secure, so that city became the intregal objective for the Marine Corps.
More below the Jump.
Anyway, I recall vividly a incident that took place at our position. A Marine Artillery battery was within 500 meters of our position and they were providing indirect fire support in support of ground operations occuring in and around An Nasiriyah. I recall them shooting at a target in a tree line, across the river, maybe 700-1000 meters to the east of our position. When the rounds were shot out, they seemed to explode over the target area. A dense white cloud rained down on the tree line and you could see some enemy vehicles attempt to flee the area. I knew from watching similar explosions in training exercises that the cloud raining down on the target area was a white phosphorus round. They shot about 5 of them from my recollection.
I recall thinking, "Man, that is some evil stuff there." Knowing what I know about Willy Pete, it would be a terrible way to die. White Phosphorus is supposed to be used to mark targets for aviation flying high over an objective area. And I know for a fact that no fixed-winged aviation was dropping ordnance in that area, it was too close to friendlies. I know this for a FACT. To see what I saw, not 1000 meters from where I was, in retrospect, is really frightening. I remember feeling like the more of them we killed, the quicker we could go home. And I am positive that is how every servicemember in a combat zone feels.
This is what I saw. No lies, no embellishing, just true facts. We did use Willy Pete on enemies (and due to urban operations, most likely on civilians too).
Weapons of Mass Destruction Employed by US to Imolate Falluja: White Phosphorus is a Chemical Weapon
(GRAPHIC) http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m10211&l=i&size=1&hd=0
March 7, 2005
The use of white phosphorus "violates the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. Incendiary agents such as napalm and phosphorus are not considered to be CW agents since they achieve their effect mainly through thermal energy. http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/legal/cw/cwindex.html >
However, a report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry concludes that White Phosphorus achieves its effects mainly through non-thermal energy. It must be concluded that White Phosphorus is considered a CW agent, and would violate the Geneva Protocol since its use causes indiscriminate and extreme injuries especially when deployed in an Urban area such as Falluja, Iraq.
Pictures of the dead of Falluja have been published by reporter Dahr Jamal of the Electronic Iraq project, and several commentators have suggested that their injuries are consistent with the use of White Phosphorus by US forces in Falluja.
http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic918.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_incendiary
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