Shake 'N' Bake

[Muhammad]

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.

 

Col Venable denied that white phosphorous constituted a banned chemical weapon.

 

Washington is not a signatory to an international treaty restricting the use of the substance against civilians.

 

The US state department had earlier said white phosphorus had been used in Falluja very sparingly, for illumination purposes.

 

Col Venable said that statement was based on "poor information".

'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."

 

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

 

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

 

He said US forces could use white phosphorus rounds to flush enemy troops out of covered positions.

 

"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.

 

San Diego journalist Darrin Mortenson, who was embedded with US marines during the assault on Falluja, told the BBC's Today radio programme he had seen white phosphorous used "as an incendiary weapon" against insurgents.

 

However, he "never saw anybody intentionally use any weapon against civilians", 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's 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 an Italian TV 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. BBC

[Muhammad]

U.S. official admits phosphorus used as weapon in Iraq

Last Updated Wed, 16 Nov 2005 05:31:27 EST

CBC News

 

A spokesman for the U.S. military has admitted that soldiers used white phosphorus as an "incendiary weapon" while trying to flush out insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Fallujah last year.

 

 

"White phosphorus is a conventional munition. It is not a chemical weapon. They are not outlawed or illegal," Lieut.-Col. Barry Venable told the British Broadcasting Corporation.

 

He added that though used mostly to provide smokescreens and flashes of light, in the Fallujah battle, "it was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants."

 

High-ranking American officials had earlier insisted that the substance, which can burn to the bone when it comes into contact with skin, was used only to help illuminate battle scenes.

"U.S. forces do not use napalm or white phosphorus as weapons," the American ambassador to London, Robert Tuttle, wrote in a letter to the Independent newspaper.

 

* FROM NOV. 8, 2005: 'We will be successful,' Rumsfeld warns Fallujah insurgents

An unknown number of Iraqi women and children died of phosphorus burns during the hostilities, Italian documentary makers covering the battle for Fallujah have claimed.

Other reporters on the scene have said U.S. forces used a combination of white phosphorus and explosives known as "shake 'n' bake."

 

Venable's comments could expose the United States to allegations that it has been using chemical weapons in Iraq.

 

The suspicion that former president Saddam Hussein was developing chemical weapons, as well as biological and nuclear ones, was one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the 2003 invasion of the Persian Gulf country.

[Castro]

Watch part of the documentary and weep. The "insurgents" didn't really lose as Rumsfeld claimed but the US did manage to kill so many women and children the stink of Fallujah's war car crimes is still in the air. Sooner, rather than later, the US will withdraw with its tail between its legs. There will be no 'Oil for Blood' program for decades to come. Not gonna happen. The Americans just don't know it yet.

[Castro]

The "we're gonna smoke 'em out" mantra has been put to the test in Fallujah. The US finally "admits" using white Phosphorous in the city last year. As if we didn't know.

 

Read about.

[Muhammad]

Fallujah is the new Ma'arat an Nu'man in bush's crusade.

 

the truth about bush's legecy is clear, but will those hypnotized thru fox 'alerts' finaly see the light? i doubt it.

[Viking]

It used to be napalm and now it's phosphorous :mad: These criminals will face worse in the hereafter.

[Faarax-Brawn]

White phos is not considered as a chemical weapon & its not illegal. I have heard people say suicide qarxis is not illegal & unconventional.Tit for Tat~

 

The innitial denial and the later acceptance,is not uncommon in this admin. Yall need to chill out.

 

Lets move on

[Castro]

^ Brown, you're right. There's little anyone can do about this over here. What's even more true and sad is the fact that Americans (the people) in general are just as appalled and helpless as we are. We tend to often forget that fact. Americans are clearly not represented by their administration. Though the latter always claims to be doing this in their name. That's one of the ways I reconcile living here with having the views that I do. Otherwise, I'd have gone nuts a while ago.

[Faarax-Brawn]

Originally posted by Castro:

^ Brown, you're right. There's little anyone can do about this over here. What's even more true and sad is the fact that Americans (the people) in general are just as appalled and helpless as we are. We tend to often forget that fact. Americans are clearly not represented by their administration. Though the latter always claims to be doing this in their name. That's one of the ways I reconcile living here with having the views that I do. Otherwise, I'd have gone nuts a while ago.

I feel you cuz, aint none u can do abt it. Live and raise your kids.Pay your bills,and when votiing day comes,do some

 

You ever see one of those bumper stickers on old rickety chevy caprices that reead : "Dont blame me,i didnt vote for him"?. Well thats the approach.