"Use of Chemical in Iraq Ignites Debate" ...DEBATE???

[G_j]

It is truly sickening that there would even be a debate about this!
"U.S. asserts white phosphorus was only used on insurgents."
It doesn't matter WHO you are using it on you f%@#ing criminals!


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1128-05.htm

Published on Monday, November 28, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times

Use of Chemical in Iraq Ignites Debate

Critics say civilians died in incendiary attacks. U.S. asserts white phosphorus was only used on insurgents.

by John Daniszewski and Mark Mazzetti

BAGHDAD — Omar Ibrahim Abdullah went for a walk to get away from the heavy fighting in Fallouja a little over a year ago and, by his account, came across such a grotesque sight that he's been unable to banish it from his memory.

The United States had mounted a full-scale offensive to pacify the rebel-controlled Iraqi city, and Abdullah said he was eager to escape the Askari district, where he lived. He walked south toward the Euphrates River and stumbled on dozens of burned bodies that he said were colored black and red.

"They must have been affected by chemicals," he said, "because I had never seen anything like that before."

The corpses, he said, had suffered burns from the U.S. military's use of an incendiary chemical known as white phosphorus.

..more..
-------------------------------

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/5185


IRAQ: ARMY SAID USE OF WHITE PHOSPHOROUS WEAPONS VIOLATED LAW OF WAR

BY: Judd Legum, Nico Pitney, Payson Schwin, Faiz Shakir and Amanda Terkel.

SOURCE: APAF's 11-21-05 column, "Progress Report."


Reversing numerous prior denials, Pentagon officials admitted last
week that the deadly incendiary white phosphorous was, in fact, "used
as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah
last November." <1> <2> But the Bush administration defended its use,
claiming that phosphorus is "not outlawed or illegal." <3>

Yet new reports show that the Instruction Manual used by the U.S. Army
Command and General Staff School (CGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,
"teaches senior officers it is against the 'laws of war' to fire the
incendiary
weapon at human targets." <4> According to the UK Independent, the Army
manual "makes clear that white phosphorus can be used to produce a smoke
screen. But it adds: 'It is against the law of land warfare to employ WP
against personnel targets.'" <5>

However, the U.S. military repeatedly fired white phosphorous weapons against
human targets inside the city of Fallujah during its siege in November of
2004.
When white phosphorous particles come in contact with human skin, they will
burn through the flesh down to the bone.

ENDNOTES

<1> ATSDR's article, "ToxFAQs For White Phosphorous":
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts103.html

<2> Judd Legum, et al., APAF's11-17-05 Progress Report,
"Iraq: The Truth About White Phosphorous":
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=914257&ct=1611327#4

<3> David Charter, Michael Evans and Richard Beeston's 11-17-05 Times
Online article, "Phosphorous Was Used For Fallujah Bombs, Admits US":
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1875728,00.html

<4> Andrew Buncombe's 11-19-05 Independent article, "US Army Rules Say:
'Don't Use WP Against People'":
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas327926.ece

<5> Ibid.
_______________________________________________________________
FINALLY, PLEASE READ 4 ESSAYS FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THIS ISSUE:

George Monbiot's 11-15-05 CD/GU essay, "The U.S. Used Chemical Weapons
In Iraq - And Then Lied About It" :
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1115-29.htm

Dave Lindorff's 11-17-05 CP essay, "In Post-Saddam Iraq There Are
No Civilians: How The Pentagon Justifies Phosphorous Bombs On Fallujah":
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff11172005.html

Reuters' 11-17-05 CNN editorial, "Torture And Phosphorous Disclosures
Hurt US-Iraqi Image" torture and chemical weapons on his own people. However, the US military
has used torture, white phosphorous and napalm weapons against the Iraqis.]:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/17/iraq.analysis.reut/index.html

Anonymous Author's 11-17-05 A2K essay, "Iraq: US Used White Phosphorous
As An Offensive Weapon" :
http://www.able2know.com/forums/about63652.html

[G_j]

1. "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre,"

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/08/1516227

U.S. Broadcast Exclusive - "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre" on the U.S. Use of Napalm-Like White Phosphorus Bombs


Democracy Now! airs an exclusive excerpt of "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre," featuring interviews with U.S. soldiers, Iraqi doctors and international journalists on the U.S. attack on Fallujah. Produced by Italian state broadcaster RAI TV, the documentary charges U.S. warplanes illegally dropped white phosphorus incendiary bombs on civilian populations, burning the skin off Iraqi victims. One U.S. soldier charges this amounts to the U.S. using chemical weapons against the Iraqi people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the U.S. assault on the Sunni city of Fallujah when U.S. and Iraqi military forced out the town's residents, bombed hospitals and buildings, attacked whole neighborhoods, and denied entry to relief workers. In a North American broadcast exclusive, we bring you an excerpt from a new film that accuses the U.S. of using white phosphorus as a weapon in the Fallujah attack.
10,000 buildings were destroyed, with thousands more seriously damaged. At least 100,000 residents were permanently displaced, over 70 U.S. soldiers were killed, and the Iraqi death toll is unknown. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail was a one of the few un-embedded, independent reporters in Iraq at the time. On our program, he first reported U.S. troops were using chemical weapons in Iraq.


Dahr Jamail, speaking on Democracy Now!, November 2004:
"I have interviewed many refugees over the last week coming out of Fallujah at different times from different locations within the city. The consistent stories that I have been getting have been refugees describing phosphorus weapons, horribly burned bodies, fires that burn on people when they touch these weapons, and they are unable to extinguish the fires even after dumping large amounts of water on the people. Many people are reporting cluster bombs, as well. And these are coming from the camps that I have been to, different people who have emerged from Fallujah anywhere from one week ago up to on through up toward near the very beginning of the siege."
Almost one year after these allegations came to light, a new documentary claims to provide fresh evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Fallujah. In the film, eyewitnesses and ex-US soldiers say white phosphorus bombs were used in Fallujah. Rai says this amounts to the illegal use of chemical weapons and says they were used indiscriminately against civilian populations.
In a North American broadcast exclusive, we bring you an excerpt from the film.


"Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre," a documentary by Sigfrido Ranucci and Maurizio Torrealta. Broadcast today on the Italian state television network RAI.
- Download the full documentary: "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre"
- Rai 24 News website
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/08/1516227

[G_j]

2. ---

[Marr]

3. 'Bush Admin. says world is flat, opponents say it's spherical...

... the truth must be somewhere in between'.

That's about how our media works these days.

[EFerrari]

4. G-j: I now have a protocol for these threads.

The ones that post reports of egregious criminality being DEBATED -- willie pete, torture, unburied dead. I scan the OP and bookmark for when my stomach stops twisting.

:(

[G_j]

5. debating torture

next they'll be debating rape.

seems like a race to the bottom

[Karenina]

6. Demonization

of the "other" allows this worldwide holocaust to continue...

[G_j]

7. absolutely

the same alienation that has always fed brutality and genocide

[EFerrari]

8. If I weren't living it, I wouldn't believe it. n/t