> Next up, use white phosphorus on civilian populations. Will the
> nincom-poop finally have something to say? Tune in for the next
> embarrassing adventure of Ian MacLure, "The Perfect Waste of Space".
Ian MacLure's response
"Horseshit." (The man is a natural How does he think these
things up?)
Billy's response
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm
US used white phosphorus in Iraq
US troops heading towards centre of Iraqi town of Falluja
Falluja suffered great damage during the offensive
US troops used white phosphorus as a weapon in last year's offensive in
the Iraqi city of Falluja, the US has said.
"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants,"
spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC - though not against
civilians, he said.
The US had earlier said the substance - which can cause burning of the
flesh - had been used only for illumination.
BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood says having to retract its denial is
a public relations disaster for the US.
http://www.documentary-film.net/search/video-listings.php?e=8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_use_in_Iraq
Use by Saddam Hussein
There are several cases in which white phosphorus (WP) has been used as
an anti-personnel weapon in Iraq by Saddam Hussein and the United
States. Although initially denied, its use was later confirmed by a
United States general serving in Iraq. General Pace, then Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff denied allegations that the weapon was used
against civilians, maintaining that it only targeted insurgents.[1]
According to an undated ANSA article quoted by an RAI documentary,
White phosphorus was used by Saddam Hussein during the Halabja poison
gas attack: (transl.) "On the morning of March 16, 1988, the Iraqi
aerial forces bombed several times the city with a chemical cocktail of
nerve agents: yperite, tabun, VX, napalm and white phosphorus." WP use
had not been previously mentioned in other reports on Halabja.[2]
First major assault on Fallujah
In April 2004, during the first major U.S. assault on Fallujah after the
fall of Saddam Hussein's government, Darrin Mortenson of the North
County Times in California reported that white phosphorus was used as an
incendiary weapon. Embedded with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment,
Mortenson described one marine, Cpl. Bogert, and his mortar team in
action
Bogert is a mortar team leader who directed his men to fire round
after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the
city Friday and Saturday... The boom kicked dust around the pit as they
ran through the drill again and again, sending a mixture of burning
white phosphorus and high explosives they call "shake 'n' bake" into a
cluster of buildings where insurgents have been spotted all week.[3]
Second major assault on Fallujah
In November 2004, during Operation Phantom Fury (the second major
assault on Fallujah), Washington Post reporters embedded with Task Force
2-2, Regimental Combat Team 7, wrote on November 9, 2004 that "Some
artillery guns fired white phosphorus (WP) rounds that create a screen
of fire that cannot be extinguished with water." [4] A Material Safety
Data Sheet on white phosphorus [5] states that white(yellow) phosphorus
fires are to be fought with "Water spray, wet sand."
This claim was also confirmed by members of the US military itself in
the March-April 2005 issue of Field Artillery, a journal published by
the US Department of Defense. The article, titled "TF 2-2 in FSE AAR:
Indirect Fires in the Battle for Fallujah":
And of course it only hit the "Resistance" and none of the civilians.
Or were these civilians who didn't want to be occupied by a foreign army.
Thank you for getting rid of the dictator, you can leave now.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1115-03.htm
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/11/8/u_s_broadcast_exclusive_fallujah_th
e
Dahr Jamail, speaking on Democracy Now!, November 2004:
