Legal Activists of Color: Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza

here is an incomplete list of resources for those of you who are curious to learn more about weapons and

in particular, what types of weapons

burn and tear the victims body. ...The used of depleted uranium in Iraq is I assume, well known...

-- thanks to Michael for bringing this to our attention, Alejandro

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US used white phosphorus in Iraq

Falluja suffered great damage during the offensive

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.

White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon, not a chemical weapon

Col Barry Venable
Pentagon spokesman

US military interview

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."

WHITE PHOSPHORUS

Spontaneously flammable chemical used for battlefield illumination

Contact with particles causes burning of skin and flesh

Use of incendiary weapons prohibited for attacking civilians (Protocol III of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons)

Protocol III not signed by US

Rai interview

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 Rogers, 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.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article327543.ece

Incendiary weapons: The big white lie

US finally admits using white phosphorus in Fallujah - and beyond. Iraqis investigate if civilians were targeted with deadly chemical ...

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new weapons

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001944.html

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Newhouse.com
November 1, 2005

'Fiddy-Cal' Becomes Weapon Of Choice In Iraq

By David Wood, Newhouse News Service

WASHINGTON -- U.S. troops in Iraq are firing .50-caliber machine guns
at such a high rate, the Army is scrambling to resupply them with
ammunition -- in some cases dusting off crates of World War II
machine gun rounds and shipping them off to combat units.

In the dangerous and unanticipated conflict that has intensified in
Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, the gun that grunts call
the "fiddy-cal" or "Ma Deuce," after its official designation, M-2,
has become a ubiquitous sight mounted on armored Humvees and other
heavy vehicles.

Above the staccato crackle and squeak of small arms fire, the fiddy-
cal's distinctive "THUMP THUMP THUMP" indicates that its 1.6-ounce
bullets, exactly the weight of eight quarters, are going downrange at
2,000 mph. The bullets are said to be able to stop an onrushing car
packed with deadly explosives dead in its tracks from a mile away.
A .50-cal round can travel four miles, generally not with great
accuracy.

At closer ranges, it is so powerful that a round will obliterate a
person, penetrate a concrete wall behind him and several houses
beyond that, gunners in Iraq have said.

"You can stop a car, definitely penetrate the vehicle to take out the
engine -- and the driver," said Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack
Jr., who recently retired after commanding the 82nd Airborne Division
in Iraq.

Merely "the noise of it is huge. Intimidating," Swannack said. But
it's so powerful, he added, "I would not use it in an area where
there's lots of noncombatants."

In the 1990s, fiddy-cals and crates of .50-cal ammunition gathered
dust as the Army struggled to shed its heavy image and become
lighter, quicker and more high-tech. Fiddy-cals are early Industrial
Age artifacts, invented by John Moses Browning during World War I.
Browning's 1919 drawings specified machined steel plates and rivets;
today's manufacturers haven't monkeyed with his basic design. The gun
alone weighs a bone-crushing 84 pounds, not including its 40-pound
tripod and heavy brass-jacketed ammunition.

Outmoded or not, when Iraq erupted, the Army and Marines reached back
for the .50-cal and its heavy killing power.

Swivel-mounted in the turret of a Humvee, the gun can lay down a
heavy steel blizzard, 40 rounds a minute, on grouped insurgents or
vehicles, and is often used in convoys or at checkpoints as a last
resort to stop suicide car bombers.

Small wonder, then, that the steady increase in .50-cal use began to
rapidly drain ammo stockpiles. At the Blue Grass Army Depot in
Richmond, Ky., ammunition left over from Desert Storm, Vietnam, Korea
and even World War II had been stored in massive concrete bunkers,
including some 12 million rounds of .50-cal. They began shipping it
off to Iraq.

By the time the war stretched into its second year, the Blue Grass
stockpile of .50 cal had shrunk to 4 million rounds.

The Army surged production of new .50-cal ammunition, taking on more
than a thousand new workers at its Lake City ammunition plant in
Independence, Mo.

"Fifty-cal is crazy," said Bryce Hallowell, spokesman for Alliant
Techsystems Inc., the contractor that runs the plant. Four years ago,
Lake City was manufacturing about 10 million rounds a year; currently

it is producing at an annual rate of 50 million rounds and rising.

Even that five-fold increase hasn't been enough.

At Blue Grass, Darryl Brewer, a combat medic in Vietnam, is chief of
logistics for the ammunition depot. Recently, he started pulling
out .50 cal. crates marked 1945. He opened some up and peered inside.

"Pristine," Brewer reported. "It's in lead-sealed cans, like
sardines. Just like it was made yesterday."

The 1945 ammunition was opened and test rounds fired to check for
reliability and accuracy, standard testing done for all aging
ammunition. "They find anything wrong, they'll do a suspension,"
Brewer said, adding with some pride, "Very seldom you see that in a
fiddy-cal."

Fifty-cal rounds are linked into belts that are fed from steel ammo
boxes into the side of the weapon. At Blue Grass, technicians have to
replace the World War II links, using a "delinker-linker" machine so
old they had to make parts for it before it would work. The relinked
rounds are sealed back in ammo boxes, like sardines, and shipped.

Once grunts open up the boxes in Iraq, "then you start to have
deterioration," Brewer said. "Stuff goes pretty fast."

Like other workers at Blue Grass, Brewer, 58, has a personal stake in
the war, and the ammo. His son, 1st Lt. William Bryan Brewer, deploys
to Iraq in December as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot. Conceivably,
suppressive ground fire from .50-cals will force insurgents to keep
their heads down as his aircraft passes.

"We got a couple guys with sons over there," Brewer said. "That's why
we're kinda particular to make sure this stuff is right when it goes
out.

"It could save their lives one day, you never know."

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a brief internet search reveals - (the Democracy Now piece is good, I don't remember or haven't looked at the rest)

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US used white phosphorus in Iraq

The Pentagon confirms US troops used white phosphorus bombs against enemy fighters in the Iraqi city of Falluja.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm [Found on Google, MSN Search, Yahoo! Search]

2.

insomnia: US Marine comes forward, says military used white ...

More confirmation of non-illumination use of white phosphorus during the Battle of Fallujah, this time from the Army itself, via the article "The Fight for ...

insomnia.livejournal.com/630212.html [Found on Google, MSN Search, Yahoo! Search]

3.

The Fog of War: White Phosphorus, Fallujah and Some Burning Questions

The Fog of War: White Phosphorus, Fallujah and Some Burning Questions. by Andrew Buncombe and Solomon Hughes. The controversy has raged for 12 months. ...

www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1115-03.htm [Found on Google, MSN Search, Yahoo! Search]

4.

Independent Online Edition > Americas

The fog of war: white phosphorus, Fallujah and some burning questions. By Andrew Buncombe and Solomon Hughes in Washington. Published: 15 November 2005 ...

news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article32709... [Found on Google, MSN Search, Ask.com]

5.

White Phosphorus (WP)

Broadcast Exclusive - "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre" on the U.S. Use of Napalm-Like White Phosphorus Bombs Democracy Now! Tuesday, November 8th, 2005 A Debate:

www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/... [Found on MSN Search, Yahoo! Search, Ask.com]

6.

MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "www.dogpile.com" claiming to be Did the US military use chemical weapons in Iraq? | csmonitor.com

"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. ...

www.csmonitor.com/2005/1108/dailyUpdate.html [Found on Google, Yahoo! Search]

7.

Democracy Now! | US Broadcast Exclusive - "Fallujah: The Hidden ...

In a North American broadcast exclusive, we bring you an excerpt from a new film that accuses the US of using white phosphorus as a weapon in the Fallujah ...

www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/08/15162... [Found on Google, Ask.com]

8.

Use of chemical weapons by the US military in Iraq. Veteran admits ...

I received the order use caution because we had used white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military slag it is called 'Willy Pete'. Phosphorus burns the human body on contact--it even melts it ....

www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10901.htm [Found on MSN Search, Yahoo! Search]

11.

news-fallujah3

The documentary includes an interview with one soldier, Jeff Englehart, who says he served in Fallujah and knows that white phosphorus was used there. Englehart describes white phosphorus a...

www.crimesofwar.org/onnews/news-fallujah3.html [Found on MSN Search, Yahoo! Search]

15.

White phosphorus in Fallujah? | World War 4 Report

... White phosphorus in Fallujah? Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Tue, 11/15/2005 - 00:44 ... they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as ...

www.ww4report.com/node/1284 [Found on Yahoo! Search]

Daily Kos: US Army Admits Use of White Phosphorus as Weapon

In other words the claim by the US Government that White Phosphorus was used only for illumination at Fallujah had been pre-emptively debunked by the Army. ...

www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/9/164137/436 [Found on Google]

-----Original Message-----
From: mashahin@gmail.com
To: nlg-middleeastcom@yahoogroups.com; nlginternational@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 6:42 AM
Subject: [tupocc] Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza

Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza
Report, Ma'an, 11 July 2006

Palestinians carry the body of Khaled Abdel Kareem, one and a half years, during his funeral in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah July 11, 2006. Khaled was badly wounded in an Israeli air strike three weeks ago and was sent to Israel for treatment where he died of his wounds (MaanImages/Hatem Omar)

The Palestinian ministry of health revealed on Monday that the Israeli army has used a new type of explosive in its offensive on the Gaza Strip. These explosives contain toxics and radioactive materials which burn and tear the victim's body from the inside and leave long term deformations.

The ministry called upon the international community and the humanitarian organizations to send an international medical community to examine the victims and confirm the truth about these banned weapons that Israel appears to be using.

The ministry showed that most of the injuries which the hospitals receive result from huge explosions which cause burning and severing of limbs, including the inner parts of the body. This causes long term deformations.

It is added that doctors in Gaza have been forced to amputate limbs of at least 12 injured Palestinians as a result of injuries sustained in the current Israeli offensive on the Strip.