[lit-ideas] Re: Willie Pete, well, okay, a little bit

  • From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 12:45:45 -0800

(1) White phosphorus is not primarily a chemical weapon,' but see the claim below about the effects of a WP 'plume.'

(2) The use of white phosphorus is not banned by any treaty. Its use in certain ways and against certain targets is. The references to certain weapons being banned for use against civilians are curious; all weapons are banned for use against civilians: there is no such thing as a 'civilian target.'

(3) Judy and I have posted references to these points earlier. (Judy posted a section from the relevant international treaty.)

Here's a piece from the Christian Science Monitor of 8 November. Note that it refers to events of a year ago.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1108/dailyUpdate.html?s=mesdu

Did the US military use chemical weapons in Iraq?

An Italian state-run TV documentary says yes, a charge the US calls 'disinformation.'

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

RAI, the all news state-run satellite channel in Italy, aired a documentary Tuesday that accused the United States of using chemical weapons against the civilian population during a November 2004 bombardment of Fallujah. AKI, the Italian news agency, reports that the documentary, entitled "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre" and aired on the first aniversary of the assault on insurgents in Fallujah, includes interviews with former US soldiers and with residents of Fallujah who say that during the assault on the city the US military used the chemical white phosphorus.

"I heard the order being issued to be careful because white phosphorus was being used on Fallujah. In military slang this is known as Willy Pete. Phosphorus burns bodies, melting the flesh right down to the bone," says one former US solider, interviewed by the documentary's director, Sigfrido Ranucci.

"I saw the burned bodies of women and children. The phosophorous explodes and forms a plume. Who ever is within a 150 metre radius has no hope," the former soldier adds.

RAI says the use of white phosphorus in built-up areas amounts to the illegal use of chemical weapons, although the BBC notes that such bombs are considered incendiary devices. The US military admits to using the weapon to illuminate battlefields in Iraq, and says it did so in Fallujah, but insists it did not use it in civilian areas. Washington is not a signatory of an international treaty restricting white phosphorus devices.

La Repubblica, the Italian newspaper which recently broke the story on the Italian government's involvement with the forged Niger-Iraq uranium documents, reports the documentary also broadcast what it claimed is proof of the use in Iraq of a new napalm formula called MK77. The use of the incendiary substance on civilians is forbidden by a 1980 UN treaty. The use of chemical weapons is forbidden by a treaty that the US signed in 1997.

The Independent reports that ever since the assault, "rumours have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city." But the US denied the charges last year, saying "The fighting in Fallujah, Iraq has led to a number of widespread myths including false charges that the United States is using chemical weapons such napalm and poison gas. None of these allegations are true."

The United States categorically denies the use of chemical weapons at any time in Iraq, which includes the ongoing Fallujah operation. Furthermore, the United States does not under any circumstance support or condone the development, production, acquisition, transfer or use of chemical weapons by any country. All chemical weapons currently possessed by the United States have been declared to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and are being destroyed in the United States in accordance with our obligations under the

Chemical Weapons Convention.

The US also denied charges by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, that US forces were using "poisonous gases" during a recent battle in the Iraqi city of Tall Afar, saying "those who wish to discredit the United States find it useful to invent the false charge that the United States is using such weapons. "

The Independent reports, however, that the documentary offers video and photographs it alleges proves that the white phosphorus was used "indiscriminately" on both insurgents and the civilian population.

Photographs on the website of RaiTG24, the broadcaster's 24-hours news channel, show exactly what the former [US] soldier means. Provided by the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah, dozens of high-quality, colour close-ups show bodies of Fallujah residents, some still in their beds, whose clothes remain largely intact but whose skin has been dissolved .... or turned the consistency of leather by the shells.
The BBC reports that the US denounced the documentary as "disinformation." It aired a day after Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, came to Italy for a five-day visit.

The documentary began with formerly classified footage of the Americans using napalm bombs during the Vietnam War. The film repeated accusations that Washington has systematically attempted to destroy filmed evidence of the alleged use of chemical weapons in the attack on Falluja last November.

Italian public opinion has been consistently against the war and the RAI documentary can only reinforce calls here for a pullout of Italian soldiers as soon as possible, our correspondent says.
Last March 3, an article in AlJazeera.com (a site different than the one for the more familiar Al Jazzera satellite TV channel) carried a report that alleged a Dr. Khalid ash Shaykhli, an Iraqi health ministry official, told a Baghdad press conference that the US military had used internationally banned chemical weapons, including nerve gas. The US information service wrote later that month that the story of Dr. Shaykhli was fabricated, and claimed the press conference never took place.
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Robert Paul
Reed College


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