US used white phosphorus in Iraq

[moghrabi]

US used white phosphorus in Iraq

The Pentagon has confirmed that US troops used white phosphorus during last year's offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Falluja.

"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 earlier denied it had been used in Falluja at all.

Col Venable denied that the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - constituted a banned chemical weapon.

White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon, not a chemical weapon
Col Barry Venable
Pentagon spokesman

Washington is not a signatory of an international treaty restricting the use of white phosphorus devices.

Col Venable said a statement by the US state department that white phosphorus had not been used was based on "poor information".

The BBC's defence correspondent Paul Wood says having to retract its denial has been a public relations disaster for the US military.

'Incendiary'

The US-led assault on Falluja - a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad - displaced most of the city's 300,000 population and left many of its buildings destroyed.

Col Venable told the BBC's PM radio programme that the US army used white phosphorus incendiary munitions "primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases".

"However it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants."


WHITE PHOSPHORUS
Spontaneously flammable chemical used for battlefield illumination
Contact with particles causes burning of skin and flesh
Use of incendiary weapons prohibited for attacking civilians (Protocol III of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons)
Protocol III not signed by US

And he said it had been used in Falluja, but it was "conventional munition", not a chemical weapon.

It is not "outlawed or illegal", Col Venable said.

"When you have enemy forces that are in covered positions that your high explosive artillery rounds are not having an impact on and you wish to get them out of those positions, one technique is to fire a white phosphorus round or rounds into the position because the combined effects of the fire and smoke - and in some case the terror brought about by the explosion on the ground - will drive them out of the holes so that you can kill them with high explosives," he said.

'Particularly nasty'

White phosphorus is highly flammable and ignites on contact with oxygen. If the substance hits someone's body, it will burn until deprived of oxygen.

Globalsecurity.org, a defence website, says: "Phosphorus burns on the skin are deep and painful... These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears... it could burn right down to the bone."

A spokesman at the UK Ministry of Defence said the use of white phosphorus was permitted in battle in cases where there were no civilians near the target area.

But Professor Paul Rodgers of the University of Bradford department of peace studies said white phosphorus could be considered a chemical weapon if deliberately aimed at civilians.

He told PM: "It is not counted under the chemical weapons convention in its normal use but, although it is a matter of legal niceties, it probably does fall into the category of chemical weapons if it is used for this kind of purpose directly against people."

When the Rai documentary revealing the use of white phosphorus in Iraq was broadcast on 8 November, it sparked fury among Italian anti-war protesters, who demonstrated outside the US embassy in Rome.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/4440664.stm

 

[no1important]

RE: US used white phospho

White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon, not a chemical weapon
Col Barry Venable
Pentagon spokesman

What a moron. It has the same diferance as mayo compared to miricle whip. Slightly diferent but basically the same.

 

[moghrabi]

RE: US used white phospho

We are talking about morons here. Bush and all his friends/defenders fit that title (Morons).

 

[Hard-Luck Henry]

In the March 2005 edition of Field Artillery, officers from the 2nd Infantry’s Fire Support Element boast about their role in the attack on Falluja in November last year. On page 26 is the following text. “White Phosphorous. WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. 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 [high explosives]. We fired “shake and bake” missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out.”

Captain James T. Cobb, First Lieutenant Christopher A. LaCour and Sergeant First Class William H. Hight, March 2005. TF 2-2 in FSE AAR: Indirect Fires in the Battle of Fallujah. Field Artillery, March-April 2005.

http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/Previous_Editions/05/mar-apr05/PAGE24-30.pdf

a report in California’s North County Times, by a staff reporter embedded with the Marines during the siege of Falluja in April 2004. “”Gun up!” Millikin yelled …, grabbing a white phosphorus round from a nearby ammo can and holding it over the tube. “Fire!” Bogert yelled, as Millikin dropped it. 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.”

Darrin Mortenson, 10th April 2004. Violence subsides for Marines in Fallujah. North County Times.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/04/11/military/iraq/19_30_504_10_04.txt

 

[moghrabi]

RE: US used white phospho

Shake 'n' Bake?

Monsters.

 

[Karlin]

Re: America the UGLY

First, this story shows us that the USA is "willing ready and able" to tell lies. Sure, they retracted it, but we saw the lie too .

Mostly, it shows the world that the USA is willing to use inhumane methods. They should expect the same in return, but much of the world has moved on from those barbarisms and would not consider using torture or chemical weapons like this.

The fact that the USA has no concern for human suffering tell us a lot about their imperialistic attitudes. They are not doing it for any benevolent reasons, as so often stated by Bush and Co. - "Spreading Democracy", or "Instilling Freedom", etc etc. - it is all bullshit , it is about the money and the Elites controlling the world. It is pure and plain evil, no doubt about it.

This evil has been a mainstay in nation building for too long, the world is ready to move on.

For ex-soldiers like Sen McCain, seeing that the USA govt is putting their own soldiers in greater risk of experiencing torture and chemical weapons themselves, in retaliation for the USA's use of them , and as a way to level the killing field, for Sen Mccain and other vets, these news must really hurt. Burn!!!

It is a little bit like being manipulated by media - how does that make you feel? [when you find out the truth was omitted and you supported the wrong side through that - don't you feel abused in some way? ]

Flesh does actually melt down to the bone with phosphorus weapons. Imagine. We now see how that would make people angry enough to do a suicide bombing, duh!!

America the UGLY is raising the bar for ugly.