U.S. Used Chemical Weapons In Iraq War

The Italian television station RAI came out today with the worst accusations against the abuses of the US in Irak since the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo scandals.

In a report titled "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre" , the US is blamed for using chemical weapons in its attack on Fallujah in November 2004. The chemical weapons in question are MK77 (a type of Napalm) and another weapon called "white phosphorus". This last weapon is generally used for lighting purposes for operations out in the field as it can light up to a kilometer. The side effect is where it gets the "weapon" as it can burn bodies & bones in the 150m radius that surrounds the initial "flare". It is also the weapon that is mainly blamed for deaths of civilians during the Fallujah offensive. Read the full report here (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/314804.html

Various reports, including one from deceased Giuliana Sgrena (you might remember her as the Italian anti war reporter who was kidnapped, released, and then killed at a US checkpoint as her convoy was going to the aiport), pick up on interviews from sunni civilians in Fallujah, reports from US marines that claimed to see burnt bodies in Fallujah, and official US Military reports.

These official US Military reports accept that "white phosphorus" was used but they claim it was used only as a light source and not as a weapon against civilians.

Yet, I am hard pressed to believe that it was used so innocently in Fallujah. After all, it is an open field light source and apparently has no place in city guerilla war and the US didn't report any civilian deaths in Fallujah. And it wouldn't be the first time the US lies on what it did in Iraq.

Read what others have to say:
- TalkLeft opens discussion on the Italian Documentary Claims U.S. Used Chemicals as Weapon in Iraq.
- Bare Knuckle Politics shows the video feed from RAI News.
- The Cultural Canaries think that it has been Enough already.
- This action is in breach of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980.
- Another in depth report on white phosphorus & how the US 'uses incendiary arms' in Iraq.
- Iraqi Explode details the documentary on the U.S. used chemical weapons in Fallujah.
- America's Chemical Burns. A US citizen sighs and remembers when the rumors of chemical weapons use started.

Tags: Current events, International, In the News, News and Politics, Iraq, USA