The US used chemical weapons in Iraq - and then lied about it (Guardian)

[Judi Lynn]

The US used chemical weapons in Iraq - and then lied about it

Now we know napalm and phosphorus bombs have been dropped on Iraqis, why have the hawks failed to speak out?

George Monbiot
Tuesday November 15, 2005
The Guardian


Did US troops use chemical weapons in Falluja? The answer is yes. The proof is not to be found in the documentary broadcast on Italian TV last week, which has generated gigabytes of hype on the internet. It's a turkey, whose evidence that white phosphorus was fired at Iraqi troops is flimsy and circumstantial. But the bloggers debating it found the smoking gun.

The first account they unearthed in a magazine published by the US army. 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: "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 . We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."

The second, in California's North County Times, was by a reporter embedded with the marines in the April 2004 siege of Falluja. "'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... buildings where insurgents have been spotted all week."

White phosphorus is not listed in the schedules of the Chemical Weapons Convention. It can be legally used as a flare to illuminate the battlefield, or to produce smoke to hide troop movements from the enemy. Like other unlisted substances, it may be deployed for "Military purposes... not dependent on the use of the toxic properties of chemicals as a method of warfare". But it becomes a chemical weapon as soon as it is used directly against people. A chemical weapon can be "any chemical which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm".
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1642989,00.html?gusrc=rss
(This story took FOREVER to load. Be prepared to wait 5 minutes,or more, broadband, at the moment.)

[MadisonProgressive]

1. And we don't torture either!

[leftchick]

2. "shake and bake"??

OMG! I can only hope they have seen the results of their mission. If they care. Burned babies and mothers and families. America's worst war crime.

:puke:

[bpilgrim]

13. from the same folks who brought us "SHOCK & AWE"

peace

[blackhorse]

23. The term "shake and bake"

... is actually fairly aged, it was used during World War II while fighting the Germans in 1944-45, and meant exactly the same mixture of munitions.

White phosporous is very nasty -- the stuff continues to burn even if submerged in water.

BH

[slay]

3. Spreading "democracy" through chemical weapons

God bless America. :sarcasm: Think I'm gonna be sick... :puke:

[Maestro]

4. Disgusting!

WP is horrific. And don't forget the depleted uranium used in certain ammunition rounds used to penetrate tank armor primarily.

[nankerphelge]

5. When is this going to come out here?

I haven't heard anything about it from the domestic press.

[geek tragedy]

6. As horrible as it sounds, it's legal to use WP to burn people alive.

It does so through flame and heat, not toxicity.

Monbiot has that part wrong.

[bpilgrim]

12. gotta link?

tia :toast:

peace

[geek tragedy]

16. The article says so.

Monbiot screws up where he says that the WP is being used for its toxic properties. It isn't--it's being used to burn people alive.

Horribly nasty stuff.

[bpilgrim]

18. the article does not say it is LEGAL to use WP to burn people alive

which seems to be the main issue.

peace

[mike_c]

17. he's right, although it's a narrow distinction....

The convention covering WP is the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons (Protocol III). Geneva, 10 October 1980. The US did not sign it, but even if it had the Protocol does not ban WP outright; it only prohibits its use against civilians.

http://www.ccwtreaty.com/protocol3.html

Nonetheless, it's arguably a much more horrible way to die than say, nerve agents, which at least cause rapid loss of consciousness. Cooking people until their fat runs is worse, IMO. Remember, the purpose in Falluja was to inspire people to run into HE to die. That's very bad mojo.

The broader issue is who did the military use WP against? It arbitrarily declared everyone remaining in Falluja an "insurgent"-- thus there were "no civilians" within miles of the houses targeted by mortars. This despite the closure of the city boundaries to keep anyone from leaving.

It's still a war crime IMO. The arbitrary nature of the "everyone in Falluja is a combatant" declaration alone makes it a war crime.

[bpilgrim]

19. Falluja == our Nanking

even the japanese didn't kill every male of fighting age in the city.

gross :puke:

peace

[EVDebs]

21. An article I read said that after the Blackwater guys were burned

the military decided to 'take off the gloves' in Fallujah. The message seems to be if you commit atrocities to instill fear on our troops, expect similar acts....

Reciprocity, a.k.a. turnabout is fair play, and lest we forget, 'war is hell'. That said, who was the MORON who turned the dogs of war loose in the first place ? That said, look what a rightwing website says about the incidents and Fallujah:

"...The Fallujah Marine operation is under the command of Guy's old commander, Maj. Gen. James Mattis, now the 1st Marine Division commander, who, Guy said, "is the best of the best." The Washington Times reported that his forces were "still were fighting insurgents that included Syrian mercenaries along a one-mile front." And General Mattis understands what works on Syrian mercenaries.

Writing from the Saudi Desert in 1990 on Thanksgiving Day, 3 months before his battalion moved across the border to drive out Saddam's army in Kuwait, Guy wrote, "I m really getting to dislike the Middle East. The Arabs are really an incredibly brutal people. There's talk about the 'friendly' Arabs turning against us if Israel is involved in this conflict. It's pretty hard to accept the idea of American giving their lives to protect an ally so untrustworthy that we have to seriously be concerned that they would turn on us. After this is over, I wonder if Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will return to the unethical practice of price fixing oil through OPEC. That would be ironic, after we save their countries they return the favor by gouging us with the price of oil."

And, of course, that's exactly what they did. Guy went on to say, "Just think of how many despots there are in this region. Saddam Hussein is not the only one who is the moral equivalent of Hitler. There's President Assad of Syria, Rafsanjani of Iran, Yasser Arafat of the PLO, Qaddafi of Libya."

Guy also told of a massacre of Syrian civilians by Assad, the father of the current Syrian despot. A reporter asked Assad if it was true that "6000-7000 civilians were killed by your government's troops." Assad quickly and proudly corrected the reporter by saying it was not a mere 6000-7000 who died but 38,000 who died for defying him. The point Guy made was that the culture of the Arab people admires power — and force, even when they are the ones getting killed."

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/mostert/040407

Was this all about 'playing to the media' ? Did Al Jezeera show pics of the Willie Peter and napalmed victims just as the media showed the charred Blackwater guys ?

This is all about, as Thomas Friedman said, "Hama rules" in his book From Beirut to Jerusalem
www.geocities.com/munichseptember1972/friedman_hama_rules.htm

Finally, was there an evacuation of Fallujah prior to the US 'going in ?' If so, would someone on DU do more research on it and why it failed or succeeded ? This incident was about POWER and MACHO, on both sides. Everyone lost.

All to impress Syrian mercenaries ? Is this an untold story OR WHAT ? Maybe that's why I read on DU on another post that Bush is threatening aerial attacks inside Syria...All to impress the Arab world ? While losing respect in the non-Arab world. I see.

The world isn't getting a full picture of this mess. The Middle East is truly Satan's playground.

[mike_c]

22. there was a partial evacuation....

The U.S. called for all civilians to leave, and then shortly afterward sealed the city perimeter, trapping many thousands of civilians inside.

[EVDebs]

27. Links ? When did it start and end ? Freepers believed Bush

when he said Saddam had links to 9-11 and now we're seeing that the Marines in Fallujah were fighting Syrian mercenaries, according to the rightwing weblink I found in my prior post.

Iraq is becoming a MAGNET for terrorists because Bush sent troops there ! This is NUTZ ! And Bin Laden is still running free in Afganistan/Pakistan/Kashmir wherever. I even heard that he was in Sierra Leone of all places !

Bush from day ONE wanted to go into Iraq. The lies piled upon lies aren't even enough to satisfy his base now, who are coming around to see where it is all leading their party. Total lack of credibility leads to being voted outta office !!!!!

[mike_c]

29. quick reply-- I'm on the phone...

...google "Fallujah sealed" or something similar for lots of info. Sorry-- I'm typing and talking....

[TheMadMonk]

32. IIRC, only women and children were given free passage,,,

out of the city. Able bodied men would be held behind razorwire until their status was decided.

Immediately there are a number of problems:

Women and children essentially evicted into "No Man's Land" essentially without resources.

Whatever we might think of the attitudes of some Muslims towards their womenfolk, it remains a fact that a man (of such stripe) who fails to "protect" his "property" is not a man.

And even a total innocent is going to think twice, before voluntarily offering himself up to incarceration by the same folks who brought them Abi Grahib.

The culture of Islam made it certain that significant numbers of women and children would remain in Faluja.

The prior actions of US military personel guaranteed that those numbers would be even more significant.

Then they bombed the shit out of the place knowing that all those women and kids were in there.

[daleo]

24. These distinctions seem ludicrous

How many devils can dance on the head of a bomb? It is ok to burn people alive (slowly) with phosphorous (which essentially can't be extinguished once on the skin) but it is a crime to use mustard gas.

[geek tragedy]

26. I agree--the key issue is civilians vs. combatants.

Getting burned alive versus being disemboweled by shrapnel--I dunno what's worse.

But using incendiaries where there are numerous civilians is a definite war crime.

This nonsense of "they were warned to get out" is complete bullshit. There's no "if you warn 'em, fuck 'em" exception to the law of war governing civilians.

[EVDebs]

28. I love this 'law of war' talk. When the Blackwater guys were cooked

The Arab press cheered and US media were dithering whether to show the pictures. Now what do you think our troops were thinking when they saw what could happen to them ? Do you really think they were going to hesistate using WP or Napalm if they had it and brought it with them ? Do you think they did a full fledged evacuation of the town or were they waiting to play by 'Hama Rules' ?

Refer to my prior posting about the possible presence of Syrian mercenaries in Fallujah. Impressing them and the Arab media seems to be the message the US military commanders were trying to send.

Right or wrong, did they make their point ? Civilians vs. combatants ... in a guerilla war ? How do you tell the difference ? Especially if you're a scared #*-less 19 yr old kid with images of Blackwater mercenaries swimming in your head.

[julianer]

30. Collective punishment is a war crime

It doesn't matter what the 'enemy' does to you - you cannot just punish a whole city.

You cannot use chemical weapons against civilians in the hope of 'impressing' the media, for god's sake.

Let us not forget that the only legal fighters in Iraq are the Iraqis who are fighting to get rid of the invaders. Every other action by the 'coalition' invaders is a crime.

[Delphinus]

31. Julianer, what you said here is really important:

Let us not forget that the only legal fighters in Iraq are the Iraqis who are fighting to get rid of the invaders. Every other action by the 'coalition' invaders is a crime.

Truth.

[EVDebs]

37. I realize that the lies to get the US into Iraq shred the veneer

and pierce the corporate veil of the Bush military activity in Iraq. That said, you still need to point out the Joint Resolution that enabled Bush to go into Iraq in the first place

Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021002-2.html

also papers over Bush's unending undeclared war on terror. Democrats, as Bush is now saying, went along for the ride and he's now pointing the finger at his enablers, as with his Veteran's Day speech.

Bush violated all kinds of moral and temporal laws to get us to where we are right now. While we can't bring back the dead, we can tell the truth about the neocon's plans for the Middle East, Iraq, Syria, Iran.

The R's will point, again, to the Joint Resolution and continue saying D's are 'traitors'. Talk about Fallujah/WP/napalm without mention of the Blackwater contractors provocation simply plays into Bush's hands. Two wrongs don't make a right.

What is needed now is for a declaration BY IRAQIS themselves to invite the US forces to leave the country. I think Ayatollah Sistani is working on that. Once the US troops are home and/or a sustained Iraq War Veterans for Peace movement coalesces, all this handwringing over WP/napalm...just plays into supporting Bush's 'base' in Red States.

Read this DU post carefully :

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5337185#5344498

[EuroObserver]

44. ...Long past time to set aside mere partisan differences

...in order to unite around doing what is right.

We must put a(n intelligent) stop to what is, simply, morally wrong, repugnant to all humanity...

and attempt to mitigate the long term potentially disastrous consecuences for our western cultures of what we have allowed, in our name or not, to be done.

[slay]

7. "The commander of Marine Air Group 11 admitted that "We napalmed

both those approaches". Embedded journalists reported that napalm was dropped at Safwan Hill on the border with Kuwait. In August 2003 the Pentagon confirmed that the marines had dropped "mark 77 firebombs". Though the substance these contained was not napalm, its function, the Pentagon's information sheet said, was "remarkably similar". While napalm is made from petrol and polystyrene, the gel in the mark 77 is made from kerosene and polystyrene. I doubt it makes much difference to the people it lands on."

:puke:

from same article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1642989,00.html?gusrc=rss

[Angry Girl]

8. The Bush administration won't be outdone by the Nazis or the Khmer Rouge!

The US also used napalm in the siege of Falluja as was reported in the UK Mirror. (“Falluja Napalmed,” 11/28/04) The Mirror said, “President George Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet-fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun the world…. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh…Since the American assault on Falluja there have been reports of ‘melted’ corpse, which appeared to have napalm injuries.”

<snip>

Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli, who was the head of the Iraqi Ministry of Health in Falluja, reported to Al Jazeera (and to the Washington Post, although it was never reported) that “research, prepared by his medical team, prove that the US forces used internationally prohibited substances, including mustard gas, nerve gas, and other burning chemicals in their attacks on the war-torn city.”

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June05/Whitney0627.htm

Also
What Is the US Trying to Hide in Fallujah?
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=4470

[Judi Lynn]

10. From your second reference:

Last month, one refugee who had just arrived at the hospital in the small city explained that he'd watched the military bring in water-tanker trucks to power-blast some of the streets in Fallujah.

"Why are they doing this?" asked Ahmed (name changed for his protection). "To beautify Fallujah? No! They are covering their tracks from the horrible weapons they used in my city."
(snip)

Appreciate the chance to have read this. Thanks.

[leftchick]

33. From your link... Americans hiding the war crimes...

<snip>

He explained that pieces of these bombs exploded into large fires that burned people's skin even when water was dumped on their bodies, which is the effect of phosphorous weapons, as well as napalm. "People suffered so much from these, both civilians and fighters alike," he said.

My friend Suthir was a member of one of the Iraqi Red Crescent relief convoys that was allowed into Fallujah at the end of November.

<snip>
"The Americans didn't let us in the places where everyone said there was napalm used," she added. "Julan and those places where the heaviest fighting was, nobody is allowed to go there."

[ckramer]

9. It's terrible to come down to this in this war

How could a normal young man be normal again when he is coming back from the incredibly inhumane battle field? Their psyche would be totally twisted by the cruel reality and the actions they took.

War is destroying the younth.

[catmother]

11. why didn't we learn our lesson in viet nam? i still remember

seeing children on fire running. Jesus H Christ -- what have we become?

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. This is a horror- but let's not overlook the one positive element in this:

The power of "ordinary people" to get the truth and show it to the world. One person CAN make a difference. Without internet-based truthseekers, this horror would have remained hidden, the lies unchallenged by documentation. The article states this explicitly:

The proof is not to be found in the documentary broadcast on Italian TV last week, which has generated gigabytes of hype on the internet. It's a turkey, whose evidence that white phosphorus was fired at Iraqi troops is flimsy and circumstantial. But the bloggers debating it found the smoking gun.

In spite of the tamed and tainted corporate press, in the face of all the Bush lies, as long as there is a free internet and people with a passion for the truth, there is this reason for hope: individual "bloggers" CAN find and expose the hidden truths. For those of us who are so tired of feeling overwhelmed by the power of the criminal cabal that has stolen our country, this is a lesson we must remember as the fight continues. It matters, even our small-seeming individual efforts matter.

Recommended.

[demobrit]

38. "Trusted sites"

Nowadays the Neocons counter the internet information highway by saying that those sites cannot be trusted and many people believe them unfortunetely.

[lumpy]

15. This is a chemical weapon

bump

[prescole]

20. Can a Toby Keith song be far behind? kick

[callady]

25. So what if they used napalm

-which they did. So what if they used DU- which they did. What difference does it make to the dead woman in Basra, in Falluja in everywhere mesopotamia and her screaming child what manner of incineration is approved by some big acronym challenged group. So fucking what.These are all war crimes and every last human responsible should be tried for these crimes. Falluja was obliterated cause it lays right on the pipeline route and there was stout resistance to the invading hordes there.

This whole argument about whether it was a legal weapon or not goes nowhere. The only thing that matters is stopping the atrocities and we are not doing it and our Reps aren't doing a damn thing. It's so damn disgusting.

All this isn't interesting at all. The problem with americans and journalists is, that they always get lost in the jungle of juristic nonsense. They believe in words and paragraphs, idealistic madness without real ideals. What matters is: the reality of war, the tranference of global production to China/Asia and how the working people react upon that, the oil production, the mercilessly unfolding global climate catastrophe etc., and not least: the cultural heritage which is able to survive all this nonsense. Who is lying how in this case? We'll never know for sure, and it doesn't matter at all. "Plamegate" or whatever they can come up with as distracting TV-novels won't save their asses, neocons or neoliberals or whatever the fascist idiots of today prefer to call themselves. They don't understand reality at all, and so now it's our problem. They're lost in the schizo-illusions of capital, obsessed with changing everything into money, and then more money, further more money and so on forever. But we can't eat money and we don't live from paragraphs or newspapers.

"Active servitude is total, passive resistance is invincible" (B. Gracian, 1653)

[Voltaire99]

46. Good post (nt)

[EuroObserver]

34. Great. Looks like Monbiot may read DU.

The second reference (California's North County Times) is in a couple of threads we've been working on (see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5337185#5344498 and whole thread ), and I know I saw the first (March 2005 edition of Field Artillery) here too.

Please observe that these White Phosphorus munitions are produced (exclusively) at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, AR. Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., under contract to Shaw Environmental, Inc., was last month (Oct 05) awarded an 18-month $10 million contract to support modernization of the White Phosphorus Plant at the Pine Bluff Arsenal. Teledyne Brown Engineering is a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies, Inc. Shaw Environmental is a subsidiary of the Shaw Group.

The Shaw Group recently received some flak over its no-bid post-Katrina contracts. It is under Securities & Exchange Commission investigation and is the subject of a class-action suit, amongst other legal action. There is talk that it is or has been very close to the Carlyle Group (with reference to the likes of LandBank and the IT Group - both now Shaw subsidiaries), and maybe other BFEE. Shaw seems also to have taken on considerable ex-Enron portfolio.

An embarrassing twist is the fact that Shaw Group's founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive J.M. Bernhard, Jr., was Chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party Executive Committee (2004-2008) until he resigned on September 16th 2005. See DU threads http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=155x2544 and http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=155x2883

Shaw Group's shares, after sinking during the months of July and August to a low of $16.19 on August 26th, immediately gained some 45% in value as a result of the Katrina devastation, rising to $23.55 by September 9th. The shares were valued at $27.46 on November 11th.

(This is for me a new line of research only just recently commenced. Any comments, leads, useful info, etc. would be much appreciated).

[Briar]

35. For real shamelessness

read the US Ambassador's letter to the Independent today, which "justifies" the use of white phosphorous bombs and claims that since 100 *embedded* journalists at the time failed to report civilian casualties, they didn't happen.

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. The new US Ambassador now looks very stupid, or a plain liar

US forces participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom continue to use appropriate lawful, conventional weapons against legitimate targets. US forces do not use napalm or white phosphorus as weapons.

Suggestions that US forces targeted civilians with white phosphorus in Operation Al Fajr are simply wrong. US forces use white phosphorus as obscurants or smoke screens and for target marking. White phosphorus is not banned by any convention when used in this manner.

Letter to The Independent, 15th Nov 2005

A Pentagon spokesman just confirmed, on 'PM' on Radio 4, that white phosphorus was used as an "incendiary weapon" against personnel in Falluja. He was most specific that US forces count it as an 'incendiary' weapon, and therefore not a 'chemical' weapon. He claimed it was used against 'enemy forces', but we know that the US military defines anyone it kills as 'enemy forces'.

[demobrit]

41. Just a technicality

White phosphorus has no flame , it is an agent that burns and when exposed to oxygen it continues to burn until the oxygen source is cut off .
To the layman this constitutes a chemical reaction , Hence this is a chemical weapon .

[sinkingfeeling]

36. Man, DU is good! We hashed out this story, complete with the 2

sources, last week!!

[demobrit]

39. So when will be the Bush Junta be indited for War crimes?

[angryxyouth]

42. Sadam was evil, he used chemical weapons against the Kurds.

But Bush is not Evil for using chemical weapons because?.........
WTF.
:shrug:

[jbnow]

43. Because we are Amerika

and God is on our side?

Because we are the good guys fighting evil-doers?

Because it is a reverse way to bring peace?
The grave's a fine and quiet place

[schrodingers_cat]

45. 'Pentagon Used White Phosphorous in Iraq' - Yahoo

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051116/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_white_phosphorous


By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
1 hour, 53 minutes ago

'WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November. But they denied an Italian television news report that the spontaneously flammable material was used against civilians.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that while white phosphorous is most frequently used to mark targets or obscure a position, it was used at times in Fallujah as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants.

"It was not used against civilians," Venable said.'



I get it....so they must have used their top-secret 99.9%accurate 'combatant detector' to differentiate between combatants and civilians....
:think:

:sarcasm: