[indymediapr] VIDEO: Confirmando el uso de armas químicas contra iraquíes civiles

[alejandro guerrero]

Artículo:(En inglés)
http://wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/chem-n11_prn.shtml

Video:
http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/video.asp

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Film documents American use of chemical weapons in Iraq
By Rick Kelly
11 November 2005

The Italian state television network, RAI, has broadcast a documentary that 
contains footage and testimony proving that the American military has used 
chemical weapons in Iraq, including in civilian areas. The film, titled 
Fallujah: the hidden massacre, specifically examined the use of white 
phosphorous, an incendiary and corrosive chemical agent, during the US 
assault on Fallujah in November 2004. Former US soldiers, Iraqi doctors and 
international journalists were interviewed, and graphic images were shown of 
Iraqi civilians killed by chemical weapons.

The filmmakers spoke with former army specialist Jeff Englehart, who 
participated in the Fallujah offensive. He was asked if US forces had used 
chemical weapons. “From the US military, yeah, absolutely,” Englehart 
replied. “White phosphorus, possibly napalm may or may not have been used, I 
don’t know. I do know that white phosphorus was used, which is definitely, 
without a shadow of a doubt, a chemical weapon.”

The former soldier, who is now strongly opposed to the war, described how he 
saw the corpses of those killed by phosphorous. “Burned. Burned bodies. I 
mean, it burned children, and it burned women. White phosphorus kills 
indiscriminately. It’s a cloud that will within, in most cases, 150 metres 
of impact will disperse, and it will burn every human being or animal....

“The gasses from the warhead of the white phosphorous disperse in a cloud. 
And when it makes contact with skin, then it’s absolutely irreversible 
damage—burning of flesh to the bone.... 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.”

The documentary contained footage shot by a team of Iraqi doctors who 
entered Fallujah after the offensive to assist with the burial of the dead. 
The film’s narrator described the horrific images: “The bodies of civilian 
casualties, of women still clutching the masbaha, the Islamic rosary, their 
bodies showing strange injuries, some burnt to the bone, others with skin 
hanging from their flesh. There is no sign of bullet wounds. The faces have 
literally melted away, just like other parts of the body. The clothes are 
strangely intact... Some animals are also dead without any apparent injury.”

The documentary also broadcast a number of still images collected by Mohamad 
Tareq al-Deraji, the director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights in 
Iraq. The photographs showed men and women burned beyond recognition, their 
skin either caramelised or completely dissolved. In some cases little more 
than the victims’ skulls and teeth remain. None of the clothes on the bodies 
are burnt, indicating that conventional weapons could not have been 
responsible.

After independent journalists first reported the accusations of Fallujah 
residents that chemical weapons were used against them, the US military 
issued a formal denial in December 2004. “US forces have used [phosphorous 
shells] very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes,” the 
statement declared. “They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy 
positions at night, not at enemy fighters.” The Italian documentary proves 
this to be a lie—the chemical shells killed both resistance fighters and 
civilians.

The offensive use of white phosphorous is a clear breach of international 
law and represents yet another war crime committed by US forces in Iraq. The 
1980 UN Convention on Certain Convention Weapons outlaws the use of 
incendiary and chemical weaponry in civilian areas.

Speaking on the “Democracy Now!” radio program, Lieutenant Colonel Steve 
Boylan, US military spokesman in Iraq, attempted to deny this. “[The 
filmmakers are] calling white phosphorous an illegal weapon,” he said. “And 
that is an error. It’s a perfectly legal weapon to use by all conventions of 
land warfare.” He also insisted that the dead civilians shown in the 
documentary could have been killed by conventional explosives. Boylan could 
not explain, however, how the clothes of the dead could have remained 
intact.

The military’s use of chemical weapons in Fallujah was part of its 
collective punishment of the city’s entire population. Fallujah became one 
the main centres of the resistance after April 2003, when US forces shot 
into crowds of unarmed protestors on two occasions, killing 16 people. In 
April 2004, US commanders were humiliated when resistance fighters repulsed 
a ground offensive that was aimed at regaining the occupation forces’ 
control over the area.

The subsequent massacre in November was intended to serve notice to the 
entire Iraqi people, warning them against supporting the resistance. Once 
the assault on Fallujah began, no males aged between 15 and 55 were 
permitted to leave the city. Despite earlier US demands for a mass 
evacuation, an estimated 100,000 civilians were either unable or unwilling 
to leave. Insurgents armed with little more than AK-47s and rocket-propelled 
grenades were pounded by massive artillery fire from ground and air. US 
forces shelled and bombed the entire city, reducing much of it to rubble.

The US army subsequently claimed to have killed 1,200 insurgents, but 
refused to issue any estimate of civilian casualties. Those killed were 
quickly buried, many in mass graves, and to this day no one knows exactly 
how many died. Shortly after US forces recaptured the city, Iraqi Red 
Crescent spokesman Muhammad al-Nuri estimated that at least 6,000 people had 
been killed.

Jeff Englehart described the rules of engagement he was issued before the 
November attack. “I was personally involved with escorting a commander to 
Fallujah for Operation Phantom Fury,” he told RAI. “We were told [before] 
going into Fallujah, into the combat area, that every single person that was 
walking, talking, breathing was an enemy combatant. As such, every single 
person that was walking down the street or in a house was a target.”

When asked what he would tell his child about the operation, the former 
soldier replied, “It seemed like just a massive killing of Arabs. It looked 
like just a massive killing.”

Englehart also confirmed that the assault was timed so it would not 
interfere with President George Bush’s re-election campaign. “That was 
definitely the case,” he declared. “Even in the ranks, in the military 
ranks, we knew it was going on. They told us that we were going to wait 
[until] after the election, the American election, before going into 
Fallujah. And we had already set up the whole operation, like it was ready 
to go. And we were waiting for two or three days for this election to be 
over with.... When Kerry conceded, though, it was like within a matter of a 
day, it was going, it was happening. That was definitely the case.... We 
were told directly from the Pentagon to wait until after the election before 
going into Fallujah, and that’s exactly what we did.”

The Italian-produced documentary also examined the use of MK-77 by US 
forces, an incendiary explosive, which, in composition and effect, is almost 
identical to napalm. The Pentagon has admitted employing the weapon during 
the 2003 invasion, though it maintains that the chemical was used only 
against Iraqi military targets.

The use of chemical weaponry by the US-led forces in Iraq is indicative of 
the criminal character of the entire war. Chemical weapons are indelibly 
associated with many of the most barbarous episodes of the twentieth 
century—from the use of mustard gas in the trenches of World War I to the 
indiscriminate unleashing of napalm and Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. 
History will soon come to remember the Bush administration’s crimes in Iraq 
alongside these atrocities.


* * *

Fallujah: the hidden massacre, produced by Sigfrido Ranucci and Maurizio 
Torrealta, is available in English translation, and can be downloaded here: 
http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/video.asp






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 1998-2005
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Amor: busca tu ½ naranja http://latino.msn.com/autos/