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11/08/2005:
"November 21: White Phosphorus Update"
11/20/05 "The Herald" -- -- Soldiers call them bogey weapons nasty pieces of military hardware which kill or maim as efficiently as any other type of armament but in so doing push the victim into a vortex of agony and suffering. White phosphorus, or Whiskey Pete, comes into that category. On one level it's a legal military weapon. Provided that it is used against enemy soldiers as a smokescreen or battlefield illuminator, it is a useful addition to an arsenal one reason why it is available to British and US forces in Iraq. On another level, deployed as an offensive weapon and usually in secret, it causes severe blistering of the skin and mucous membranes, and if inhaled can do dreadful damage to internal organs. When US forces fired WP shells in the battle to break into the Iraqi city of Fallujah last November they knew exactly what they were doing. Combat outside daylight hours always causes problems for the attacking side. Darkness brings the kind of confusion which favours the defenders. Fired as an artillery shell, WP explodes in the air creating a bright artificial light and providing a useful smokescreen for the attacking infantry soldiers. After the battle for Fallujah the Bush administration admitted that WP had been used sparingly and had only been fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions, not at enemy fighters .Like so much that has happened in this long, drawn-out and increasingly dirty counter-insurgency war, the use of WP was not what it seemed. Last week an Italian television documentary, Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre sounded the first blast on the whistle when it claimed that WP had been used in a massive and indiscriminate way not only against the insurgents but also against civilians. Some Iraqi doctors claimed that the victims had melted skin or that white phosphorus had burned through body tissue to leave bones exposed.
Jeff Englehart, an experienced US marine interviewed in the documentary gave a chilling account of what happens when WP is unleashed It doesn't necessarily burn clothes, but it will burn the skin underneath clothes. And this is why protective masks do not help, because it will burn right through the mask . It will manage to get inside your face. If you breathe it, it will blister your throat and your lungs until you suffocate, and then it will burn you from the inside. It basically reacts to skin, oxygen and water. The only way to stop the burning is with wet mud. But at that point, it's just impossible to stop.
Fallujah:Shake and Bake
US Army rules say: 'Don't use WP against people'
Iraqi Woman's blog:Conventional Terror...
Did the US military target Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Iraq?
Incendiary weapons: The big white lie
US admits it used white phosphorus in Iraq
November 16:'I treated people who had their skin melted'
November 16: The US used chemical weapons in Iraq - and then lied about it
i...Bodies melted away before us...
VIDEO: Fallujah - The Hidden Massacre
VIDEO: Fallujah: The Day After
UK Independent: Physicians for Social Responsibility Demands Inquiry
The Crimes of Fallujah Revisited
The Response
Boston Globe: US fired phosphorus in Iraq, TV reports
Christian Science Monitor: Did the US military use chemical weapons in Iraq?
US 'uses incendiary arms' in Iraq
gulfnews.com: US rejects white phosphorus report
UK Guardian: A day that will live in infamy: The destruction of Falluja was an act of barbarism that ranks alongside My Lai, Guernica and Halabja
