March 7, 2005

The use of white phosphorus "violates the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. Incendiary agents such as napalm and phosphorus are not considered to be CW agents since they achieve their effect mainly through thermal energy. [Ref. http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/legal/cw/cwindex.html ]

However, a report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry concludes that White Phosphorus achieves its effects mainly through non-thermal energy. It must be concluded that White Phosphorus is considered a CW [chemical weapon] agent, and would violate the Geneva Protocol since its use causes indiscriminate and extreme injuries especially when deployed in an Urban area such as Falluja, Iraq.

Pictures of the dead of Falluja have been published by reporter Dahr Jamal of the Electronic Iraq project, and several commentators have suggested that their injuries are consistent with the use of White Phosphorus by US forces in Falluja.





[Ref http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumNa
me=album32 ]

[Ref http://electroniciraq.net/news/ ]

"Few studies have investigated the degree of tissue destruction associated with white phosphorus injuries. In the experimental animal model, most tissue destruction appears to be secondary to the heat generated by oxidation. "

[Ref. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1997. Toxicological Profile for white phosphorus. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp103.html ]







[Ref http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumNa
me=album32 ] San Francisco Chronicle (Nov 10, 2004)

Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns.

Kamal Hadeethi, a physician at a regional hospital, said, "The corpses of the mujahedeen which we received were burned, and some corpses were melted."

[ REF: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/
10/MNG6P9P3ER1.DTL ]








9/9/2004 - Iraqis show the body of baby boy after it was recovered from under rubble of a house destroyed by a US air strike overnight in Fallujah. Twelve Iraqis were killed and at least nine wounded in an overnight US air raid on Fallujah, medical sources said. Among the dead were several women and children. (Fares Dlimi/AFP/Getty Images)

http://airamericaradio.com/shows/randirhodes/fallujah/crisis
/criinfal/2005/01/fal1.htm





Your guess is as good as mine...

[Ref http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumNa
me=album32 ]




Article:

U.S. drives into heart of Fallujah

Army, Marines face rockets and bombs in battle to take insurgents' stronghold ADVANCING: 70% of city reported under American control Fallujah, Iraq -- U.S. Marines said American forces had taken control today of 70 percent of Fallujah in the third day of a major offensive to retake the insurgent stronghold. Maj. Francis Piccoli of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said enemy fighters were bottled up in a strip of the city flanking the major east-west highway that splits Fallujah. Army and Marine units had pushed south to the highway overnight, Piccoli said. They encountered roadside bombs, rockets and gunfire along the way. "There's going to be a movement today in those areas. The heart of the city is what's in focus now," he said.

The American military said that by Tuesday evening, at least 10 American service members and two Iraqi soldiers had been killed in the assault on Fallujah. In the 24-hour period ending at 2 a.m. this morning, 31 American and Iraqi troops had been wounded and more than 100 insurgents killed, military officials said. No further information was immediately available.

Soldiers with the Army's 1st Infantry Division made their way to the southeastern part of the city, a neighborhood of factories and warehouses where they expected to find guerrillas waiting for them. Instead, the district was relatively quiet, though the units reported being fired on by women and children armed with assault rifles.

"There were multiple groups running around shooting at us," said Air Force Senior Airman Michael Smyre, 26, of Hickory, N.C., an air strike spotter attached to the 1st Infantry who was wounded when a rocket hit his armored vehicle. "You could see a lot of rubble, trash everywhere. It was real nasty- looking." Marines fighting to the west of the Army units advanced to the main east- west highway that divides Fallujah and reported persistent resistance from insurgents firing from mosques.

In the first major political backlash over the assault on Fallujah, the country's most prominent Sunni political organization, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said Tuesday that it was withdrawing from the interim Iraqi government, while the leading group of Sunni clerics called for Iraqis to boycott the nationwide elections scheduled for early next year.

"The clerics call on honorable Iraqis to boycott the upcoming election that is to be held over the bodies of the dead and the blood of the wounded in cities like Fallujah," said Harith Dhari, director of the Muslim Scholars Association, a group of Sunni clerics that says it represents 3,000 mosques.

The moves seemed to promise that popular protest against the U.S.-led attack on the city, which is predominantly Sunni, is likely to grow in coming days. A widespread Sunni boycott of the January elections would threaten the legitimacy of the outcome. It would also undermine the main rationale for the attack on Fallujah: to drive insurgents out of the city so that residents could freely take part in the elections.

Insurgents elsewhere in Iraq, meanwhile, continued a strategy of mounting attacks. In Baquba, a restive city northeast of Baghdad, armed bands attacked two police stations. Police officials and the U.S. military said the attacks had been beaten back. A car bomb at an Iraqi national guard camp outside the northern city of Kirkuk killed three people and wounded two. And two U.S. service members were killed in a mortar attack on a base in Mosul, also in the north.

In Baghdad, where insurgents detonated a car bomb Monday night outside a hospital treating victims of two car bombs outside churches, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi imposed a curfew from 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. U.S. fighter jets made low passes over the capital, a show of strength rarely seen since the 2003 invasion.

At a news conference in Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the commander of foreign military operations in Iraq, said the assault on Fallujah had so far "achieved our objectives on or ahead of schedule." He added, "I think we're looking at several more days of tough urban fighting."

The general said the battle plan as a whole was on course. "We felt like the enemy would form an outer crust in defense of Fallujah," Metz said. "We broke through that pretty quickly and easily." Witnesses said that by Tuesday night, U.S. and Iraqi forces controlled the Jolan, Mualimeen and Askali neighborhoods in the north of Fallujah. They also held the Rawdha Muhammediya mosque, headquarters of the insurgent fighters and the mujahedeen shura, the city's self-appointed government.

The assault pushed insurgents into Shuhada and other neighborhoods in the southernmost part of the city, where they are fighting and hiding behind buildings and houses, witnesses said. Metz said that because U.S. forces formed a "very tight" cordon around the city Sunday night, the enemy "doesn't have an escape route" and eventually would be cornered. But Sheikh Abdul-Sattar Edatha, the spokesman for the shura council, said most foreign fighters had already left the city. The U.S. military had estimated that there were 2,000 to 3,000 foreign fighters in the city, many of them part of a network linked to Jordanian-born guerrilla leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi.

"Militarily speaking, the city falls under the U.S. forces' control," Edatha said. "The foreign fighters won't stay here and die. They lost the battle. They spread in other places." On Tuesday night, Fallujah's eerily empty streets were littered with shattered concrete and dead bodies, said a resident shaken by a missile strike on the second story of his family home. Insurgents cloaked in checkered head scarves carried wounded fellow fighters to mosques.

Civilians caught in the cross fire were gathered in a hospital donated by the United Arab Emirates and flying a blue and white UNICEF banner. There, medical workers low on bandages and antiseptic bound wounds in ripped sheets and cleaned torn skin with hot water. The Jolan and Askali neighborhoods seemed particularly hard hit, with more than half of the houses destroyed. Dead bodies were scattered on the streets and narrow alleys of Jolan, one of Fallujah's oldest neighborhoods. Blood and flesh were splattered on the walls of some of the houses, witnesses said, and the streets were full of holes.

Some of the heaviest damage apparently was incurred Monday night by air and artillery attacks that coincided with the entry of ground troops into the city. U.S. warplanes dropped eight 2,000-pound bombs on the city overnight, and artillery boomed throughout the night and into the morning. "Usually we keep the gloves on," said Army Capt. Erik Krivda, of Gaithersburg, Md., the senior officer in charge of the 1st Infantry Division's Task Force 2-2 tactical operations command center. "For this operation, we took the gloves off."

Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns.

Kamal Hadeethi, a physician at a regional hospital, said, "The corpses of the mujahedeen which we received were burned, and some corpses were melted." Iraq's new army, formed after occupation authorities dismantled the armed forces that had served during the rule of Saddam Hussein, is taking part in the fight against insurgents in Fallujah, primarily as a rear element to help clear areas once U.S. forces have moved through.

Iraqi Brig. Gen. Abdul-Qadir Muhammed Jasim said that resistance had been lighter than expected and that the Iraqi soldiers were in good spirits and eager to finish the operation. "The operation is going very precise and with a very small number of casualties," he said. "In every place, we finish an operation, our forces start to distribute aid, food, clothes, blankets and even money. ... We are very sure that we are moving in the right way and will do the tasks we are asked to do very precisely."




Medical Analysis

[ Ref http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts103.html ]

Exposure to white phosphorus may cause burns and irritation, liver, kidney, heart, lung, or bone damage, and death. Breathing white phosphorus for short periods may cause coughing and irritation of the throat and lungs. Breathing white phosphorus for long periods may cause a condition known as "phossy jaw" which involves poor wound healing of the mouth and breakdown of the jaw bone. Eating or drinking small amounts of white phosphorus may cause liver, heart, or kidney damage, vomiting, stomach cramps, drowsiness, or death. We do not know what the effects are from eating or drinking very small amounts of white phosphorus-containing substances over long periods of time. Skin contact with burning white phosphorus may burn skin or cause liver, heart, and kidney damage.

We do not know whether or not white phosphorus can affect the ability to have children or cause birth defects in people. There is no medical test that shows if you have been exposed to white phosphorus [hence a convenient weapons since it is undetectable in victims - although I'd doubt that is so for the Falluja victims judging by the extent of their burns]

[Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1997. Toxicological Profile for white phosphorus. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp103.html ]

[Note: this chemical was used in an urban area although its effects on health are well known. US troops reported to have removed several square miles of topsoil: REF

[ Ref. What Is the US Trying to Hide in Fallujah? "At least two kilometers [1.2 mi.] of soil were removed," he explained. "Exactly as they did at Baghdad Airport after the heavy battles there during the invasion and the Americans used their special weapons." http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=4470 ]




More on the US Weapon: White Phosphorus

A side benefit of white phosphorus is that white phosphorus smoke is toxic and readily penetrates protective mask filters. Phosphorus smokes are generated by a variety of munitions. Some of these munitions such as the MA25 (155-mm round) may, on explosion, distribute particles of incompletely oxidized white phosphorus.

These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears. If service members are hit by pieces of white phosphorus, it could burn right down to the bone. Remove quickly all clothing affected by phosphorus to prevent phosphorus burning through to skin. If this is impossible, plunge skin or clothing affected by phosphorus in cold water or moisten strongly to extinguish or prevent fire. Then immediately remove affected clothing and rinse affected skin areas with cold sodium bicarbonate solution or with cold water. Moisten skin and remove visible phosphorus (preferably under water) with squared object (knife-back etc.) or tweezers. Do not touch phosphorus with fingers! Throw removed phosphorus or clothing affected by phosphorus into water or allow to bum in suitable location.

Cover phosphorus burns with moist dressing and keep moist to prevent renewed inflammation. It is neccessary to dress white phosphorus-injured patients with saline-soaked dressings to prevent reignition of the phosphorus by contact with the air. Systemic toxicity may occur if therapy is not administered. Therapy consists of topical use of a bicarbonate solution to neutralize phosphoric acids and mechanical removal and debridement of particles.

A Wood’s lamp in a darkened room may help to identify remaining luminescent particles. The early signs of systemic intoxication by phosphorus are abdominal pain, jaundice, and a garlic odor of the breath; prolonged intake may cause anemia, as well as cachexia and necrosis of bone, involving typically the maxilla and mandible (phossy jaw).

The presenting complaints of overexposed workers may be toothache and excessive salivation. There may be a dull red appearance of the oral mucosa. One or more teeth may loosen, with subsequent pain and swelling of the jaw; healing may be delayed following dental procedures such as extractions; with necrosis of bone, a sequestrum may develop with sinus tract formation. In a series of 10 cases, the shortest period of exposure to phosphorus fume (concentrations not measured) that led to bone necrosis was 10 months (two cases), and the longest period of exposure was 18 years.

White phosphorus fume causes severe eye irritation with blepharospasm, photophobia, and lacrimation; the solid in the eye produces severe injury. Phosphorus burns on the skin are deep and painful; a firm eschar is produced and is surrounded by vesiculation. Signs and symptoms include irritation of the eyes and the respiratory tract; abdominal pain, nausea, and jaundice; anemia, cachexia, pain, and loosening of teeth, excessive salivation, and pain and swelling of the jaw; skin and eye burns. Phossy jaw must be differentiated from other forms of osteomyelitis. With phossy jaw, a sequestrum forms in the bone and is released from weeks to months later; the sequestra are light in weight, yellow to brown, osteoporotic, and decalcified, whereas sequestra from acute staphylococcal osteomyelitis are sharp, white spicules of bone, dense and well calcified. In acute staphylococcal osteomyelitis, the radiographic picture changes rapidly and closely follows the clinical course, but with phossy jaw the diagnosis sometimes is clinically obvious before radiological changes are discernible. It is good dental practice to take routine X-ray films of jaws, but experience indicates that necrosis can occur in the absence of any pathology that is visible on the roentgenogram.

[ Ref. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/wp.
htm ]






White Phosphorus (WP)

White phosphorus results in painful chemical burn injuries. The resultant burn typically appears as a necrotic area with a yellowish color and characteristic garliclike odor. White phosphorus is highly lipid soluble and as such, is believed to have rapid dermal penetration once particles are embedded under the skin. Because of its enhanced lipid solubility, many have believed that these injuries result in delayed wound healing. This has not been well studied; therefore, all that can be stated is that white phosphorus burns represent a small subsegment of chemical burns, all of which typically result in delayed wound healing. [The chemical is absorbed quickly through the skin, particles containing phosphorus become stuck under the skin - presumably helped along by the blast]

Few studies have investigated the degree of tissue destruction associated with white phosphorus injuries. In the experimental animal model, most tissue destruction appears to be secondary to the heat generated by oxidation. [Most damage to tissue is not due to the heat generated by the burning of the phosphorus, presumably most damaged is caused by other chemical reactions and biological toxicity]

Systemic toxicity has been described extensively in the animal model. Pathologic changes have been documented in the liver and kidney. These changes result in the development of progressive anuria, decreased creatinine clearance, and increased blood phosphorus levels. Depression of serum calcium with an elevation in the serum phosphorus level (reversed calcium-phosphorus ratio) with electrocardiographic changes including prolongation of the QT segment, ST segment depression, T wave changes, and bradycardia also have been observed. Oral ingestion of white phosphorus in humans has been demonstrated to result in pathologic changes to the liver and kidneys. The accepted lethal dose is 1 mg/kg, although the ingestion of as little as 15 mg has resulted in death. Individuals with a history of oral ingestion have been noted to pass phosphorus-laden stool ("smoking stool syndrome"). [Simplified: exposure results in disease of the kidney, liver and heart] Mortality/Morbidity: Morbidity and mortality are related directly to trauma and burns sustained from exposure.

Burns usually are limited to areas of exposed skin (upper extremities, face). Burns frequently are second and third degree because of the rapid ignition and highly lipophilic properties of white phosphorus. [lipophilic - literally "fat loving", which means it will be absorbed through the skin] [This tallies with the pictures published of the victims of the US bombing of Falluja on the web site of the reporter Dahr Jamal, note face and upper body burns]

Trauma usually is a combination of blunt and penetrating. Blunt trauma results from the percussion and force of the blast, and penetrating trauma results from projectiles produced from the explosion. [Physical wounds to the body {ie. holes, lost limb, pieces of flesh missing} result from the blast and shrapnel]

[ Ref. http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic918.htm ]




Abstract atrocity or reality of suffering?

But such melting of human flesh is an abstraction in U.S. media, as it is apt to be for holy warriors. On NBC’s "Today" show Nov. 9, a network correspondent in Baghdad mentioned phosphorous shells just long enough to say that they are "meant to burn through metal bunkers." Presumably a description of effects on human beings would not have gone well with viewers breakfasts.

A live report from a CNN correspondent in Fallujah, on Nov. 8, was similarly circumspect: "Tanks have been blasting away inside the city, and shells filled with phosphorous -- shells to hide the movement of the Marines inside the city -- have been exploding overhead."

[Ref. http://www.apostropher.com/blog/archives/002061.html ]




Comment

If you are unsure about the pain experienced by those who died by the WP chemical attacks in Falluja try scraping the head of a (phosphorus-containing) match under your fingernail and crush it. Try using water to sooth the pain. Now imagine that covering 100,000 fold more surface area of your skin.




Recent Developments

US used banned weapons in Fallujah [03.03.05]

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_fu
ll_story.asp?service_id=7216

"Meanwhile, a reconstruction conference in the devastated city of Falluja has called for an international committee to investigate the use of illegal weapons by US forces in their offensive against the town last November. Falluja residents have alleged that US forces used chemical weapons during the offensive - a charge the Americans deny. Delegates to the conference also called for the freeing of detainees and an end to the hunting of individuals and families. They added that the US should fully compensate Falluja residents who suffered material loss during the attack and increase previous estimates of their losses."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BE2BF74E-B57C-4025-86
B3-BCA5A8E68CE1.htm

Iraqi "Ministry of Health" Accuses America of Banned Weapons Use in Fallujah

Mar 02, 2005 By Muhammad Abu Nasr, Free Arab Voice. Edited For Publication By JUS

Dr Khalid ash-Shaykhli, a representative of the so-called "Iraqi ministry of health" who was authorized to assess the health conditions in Fallujah after the end of the major battles there, announced that the surveys and studies that a medical team did in Fallujah and then reported to the "ministry" confirm that US forces used substances that are internationally prohibited, including mustard gas, nerve gas, and other burning chemicals in the course of its attacks on the city. Ash-Shaykhli held a press conference in the health ministry building in Baghdad’s Bab al-Mu'azzam section on Tuesday. He began by reporting on the final results of the fact-finding mission’s survey of the situation in which the people of Fallujah now find themselves. He said that the city is still experiencing the effects of chemical and other types of weapons used by the Americans, which will be causing serious diseases over the long term.

The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam asked ash-Shaykhli what the facts were regarding the use of limited nuclear weapons by the occupation forces. Dr. ash-Shaykhli said, "what I saw during our research in Fallujah leads me to me believe everything that has been said about that battle. I absolutely do not exclude their use of nuclear and chemical substances, since all forms of nature were wiped out in that city. I can even say the we found dozens, if not hundreds, of stray dogs, cats, and birds that had perished as a result of those gasses."

During the press conference, which was attended by more than 20 Iraqi and Arab journalists, Ash-Shaykhli promised that he would be sending the study and the results that the committee produced to responsible bodies, both Iraqi and international.

The press conference was attended by correspondents of the Iraqi ash-Sharqiyah television network, the Iraqi "government"-run al-'Iraqiyah satellite TV network, and the as-Sumariyah network, in addition to foreign media, such as the American Washington Post and the Knight-Ridder service and the Iraqi as-Sabah newspaper, in addition to the correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam.

The findings disclosed at Tuesday’s press conference must be seen as the most serious statements to be made since the end of nearly four months of military operations in Fallujah, Mafkarat al-Islam noted. Mafkarat al-Islam was the first to report on the American occupation forces’ use of gasses and burning and chemical substances during the first days after the outbreak of fighting in the city, as JUS reported at the time.

http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=10
1819&list=/home.php



Also see:

Iraqi Health Ministry confirms use by American occupation forces of internationally prohibited weapons in its attacks on al-Fallujah

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m10078&l=i&size=1&hd=0




Comments on Elections

Today is the 3rd March, over a month since the Iraqi elections. The media doesn't seem all that bothered that although the Allawi party won just 13% of the vote, Allawi is still installed as de facto dictator, under protection of the US occupation even though the UIA (United Iraqi Allaince) won 48% of the vote, and the Kurds garnered 25% of the vote. Perhaps in a month or two, the media will begin to mention the absence of the formation of a government – I certainly believe that the elections were not free since many millions could not vote, and I've never heard of an election being called "free" that took place under occupation.

Its as if Nazi occupied France could have elected any but a collabatorial government? Still, there's no argument since no government has been formed, leaving the Interim Government appointment by the US government firmly in place. Let's see if al-Sistani's gamble pays off. Perhaps cynically, I have no confidence that the US will ever withdraw completely from Iraq: look at their ally the UK – 60 years following the end of the second world war the US has negotiated sovereignty over significant portions of the United Kingdom's territory, and continues to base nuclear weapons near urban centres.




Massive chemical weapons stockpiles still kept in US – presumably for use in war



US Chemical Munitions

• M60 105mm: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m60_105.htm

• M360 105mm: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m360.htm

• M104 155mm: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m104.htm

• M110A1/A2 155mm: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m110.htm

• M121/A1 155mm: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m121_155.htm

• M122 155mm: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m122.htm

• M687 155mm: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m687.htm

• M426 8-inch: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m426_8.htm

• M23 landmine: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m23.htm

• M55 rocket: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m55.htm

[ Ref. http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/cbw/cw.htm ]

US Hypocrisy and statement of the opposite of truth – a commentary

Utah Daily Herald article "Keep mustard gas out of Utah" complains at movement of chemical weapons shipments in Utah state, mentioning its possible use in Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war, but fails to mention its use in the last 12 months against the people of Fallujah who were already under occupation. This beggars belief: not only has the mainstream media failed to question the very unusual collective punishment by aerial bombardment of Iraq, it continually attempts to reinforce notions that the vicious and brutal war on Iraq has ended, using language such as "during the Iraq war" in an attempt to make its readership reference the war in the past tense – even as air strikes continue to this day [ March 2005 ]

[ Ref http://www.newutah.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file
=article&sid=47582&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 ... ]