U.S. Forces Battle Into Heart of Fallujah

(Further evidence, an article from the Washington Post dated--Wednesday, November 10, 2004--verifying the use of White Phosphorous Munitions by US troops on the Residents of Fallujah).

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 fighters to Mosques.

Civilians caught in the crossfire 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 from Air and Artillery attacks that coincided with the entry of ground troops into the City. US Warplanes dropped eight 2,000-pond 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, 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 Mujaheddin which we received were burned, and some Corpses were Melted."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35979-2004Nov9_2.html


The following is an entry from 'Hunter's Diary: http://hunter.dailykos.com
The United States does not have a policy of Melting the Skin off of Children. It also, apparently, does not have a policy sufficiently precluding it, as the repeated insistence on asserting legality of Child Melting has clearly shown.

(Ha ha ha, the righty bloggers shout! "Water" is a Chemical too, therefore them kids ain't dead!). I think the preferred defenses in this discussion tell us everything we need to know about the priorities of the various parties, and I feel quite comfortable with mine.

Yesterday, the main point of contention on the right was the United States would never do such a thing as to use WP as an Antipersonnel Weapon, or use it in a City, despite it's apparent harmlessness. Now it's quite clear we do and did, and so everybody's dropping that point and merely talking about how harmless the substance is, other than (according to right-wing sites) being able to burn through steel, causing severe "chemical burns"--protein wisdom's quote, not mine--on both clothes and flesh, and persistently reigniting upon exposure to Oxygen. Yeah, except for that, it's peachy. And we don't fire it at targets, except for the documented cases we do.

We on both sides of the Iraq debate have every right to be mad about this stuff. It's a powerful and charged situation. And we can argue about the Justifications for Civilian deaths, and at what point they are "worth it," and how many dead Children equal "freedom."

But we DON'T get to pretend it's not happening, we DON'T get to pick our noses and pretend that these Civilians just happened to die of natural causes at the exact moment they were hit with Munitions, and the right frankly DOESN'T get to be incensed when people bring it up as a valid and powerful measure of the costs,implications, and possible outcomes of this war. You think talking about Civilian Casualties sucks?
Well, yeah, that's sort of the point. How do we think the people in Fallujah feel right now, you think they need any of us to tell them?

I wrote a post which I felt every human being on the planet could agree with--that these Civilian deaths are morally repugnant, were entirely predictable given the nature of the conflict, and that it is a fiasco beyond words that we're putting our troops in the situation where such Urban Conflict is forced upon them.

Apparently we can't even get that far, these days, because through word games and blanket condemnations of those that raise any evidence of the issue, we're not even willing to engage the most basic point: that we're fighting in Civilian neighborhoods, and that significant numbers of those Civilians are well and truly dead.

Bodies Found After U.S./ Iraqi Offensive
Sat Nov 12, 2005

Ramadi, Iraq (Reuters)- an Iraqi Red Crescent doctor said on Saturday more than 50 bodies had been found in the rubble of a town near the Syrian border which US-led troops swept through this week in an anti-Insurgent offensive.

Around 2,500 US troops and 1,000 Iraqi soldiers launched Operation Steel Curtain a week ago around the Western Town of Qusayba. They conducted house-to-house searches to root out Insurgents and destroyed a number of houses in airstrikes.

The US military says it has detained around 180 Insurgents and killed at least 36 more in the Operation, which was continuing in the nearby Town of Karabila on Friday.

It said around 900 Civilians who fled the Town were given temporary housing nearby during the Operation.

As residents started to trickle back to Qusayba in recent days, doctor Saif Al-Ani, who works for the Red Crescent in the Qaim area, told Reuters they had unearthed at least 54 bodies in the rubble, Including some Women and Children.

There was no immediate response from the US military about the Casualties.

The military has said it made every effort to avoid Civilian Casualties. It reported an incident earlier this week in which it said five Civilians were killed in a house after being taken hostage by Insurgents who occupied the building.

The US military has in the past accused doctors in Western Iraq of misrepresenting Civilian Casualties after US attacks.

Operation Steel Curtain was the lates in a series of offensives aimed at securing Western Iraq against Sunni Arab Insurgents and foreign fighters before a December 15 election.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051112/ts_nm/iraq_offensive_bodies_dc

Quote Of The Day:
From the 'Don' of the Pentagon (Rumsfeld quoting Al Capone)-
"you can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone!"

Purported CIA Operatives Sought In Italy

By-Allessandra Rizzo,
Associated Press Writer.
Friday, November 11, 2005

Italian Prosecutors have requested the extradition of 22 purported CIA operatives in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian Cleric in 2003, Prosecutors said Friday.

The request was sent to Italy's Justice Ministry in Rome, which will decide whether to pass it on to the United States.

Justice Minister Roberto Castelli Returned Friday from Washington, where he held talks with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on "cross-border investigations and extradition cases of mutual interest for the two countries," a Ministry statement said.

It did not specify whether they took up the CIA case, which has strained relations between the two allies.

A US Justice Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the United States had not received a formal extradition request, but that the subject had come up during the meeting between Castelli and Gonzales.

The purported CIA operatives were allegedly involved in the Kidnapping of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, a Cleric who was believed to belong to an islamic terror group. He was allegedly abducted on a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003, before being flown to Egypt, where he was reportedly tortured.

Prosecutors claimed Nasr's Abduction was a Violation of Italian Sovereignty and hindered Italian terrorism investigation.

The Justice Ministry is not obligated to pursue a Prosecutor's extradition request.

"The Justice Ministry has been informed of this situation and will now evaluate if the documents are sufficient, if anything else is needed," Donatella Grieco, Deputy General Prosecutor in Milan, told the Associatd Press.

The Justice Ministry and the US Embassy declined to comment.

Separately, a Judge in Milan has issued an arrest warrant for Nasr-a step that could lead to Italy's requesting his extradition from authorities in Egypt, Italian news agencies reported late Friday.

Nasr's current whereabouts are unclear.

The extradition request threatens a new Jolt to relations between Italy and the United States, which were also strained by the March Killing of an Italian Intelligence agent by US troops in Baghdad.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government, a strong US ally in the war on terror, denied months ago it had prior knowledge of the alleged Kidnapping.

It summoned the US Ambassador to explain the operation, which was purportedly part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program in which terrorism suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible ill-treatment.

Earlier this year, Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro issued arrest warrants for 22 in connection with the alleged Kidnapping.

They are all listed as US Citizens, although Prosecutors believe some of the names may be aliases.

(Associated Press writer Victor L. Simpson in Rome contributed to this report)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/11/international/i143334S15.DTL&hw=italy+issues+warrants+for+cia+agents&sn=001&sc=1000

Y. Professor Thinks Bombs, Not Planes, Toppled WTC

By-Elaine Jarvik
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Deseret Morning News.

The physics of 9/11- Including how fast and Symmetrically one of the World Trade Center buildings fell-prove that official explanations of the collapses are wrong, says a Brigham Young University Physics Professor.

In fact, its likely that there were "Pre-Positioned Explosives" in all three buildings at Ground Zero, says Steven E. Jones.

In a paper posted online Tuesday and accepted for Peer-Reviewed Publication next year, Jones adds his voice to those of previous skeptics, Including the authors of the web site http://www.wtc7.net, whose research Jones quotes.
Jones' article can be found at http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html

Jones, who conducts research in Fusion and Solar Energy at BYU, is calling for an Independent, International Scientific Investigation "guided not by politicized notions and constraints but rather by observations and calculations.

"It is quite plausible that explosives were Pre-Planted in all three buildings and set off after the two plane crashes-which were actually a diversion tactic," he writes.

"Muslims are (probably) not to blame for bringing down the WTC buildings after all," Jones writes.

As for speculation about who might have planted the explosives, Jones said, "I don't usually go there. There's no point in doing that until we do the Scientific Investigation."

Previous Investigations, Including those of FEMA, the 9/11 Commission and NIST (the National Institutes of Standards and Technology), Ignore the Physics and Chemistry of what happened on Sep. 11, 2001, to the Twin Towers and the 47-story building known as WTC 7, he says.

The official explanation, that fires caused structural damage that caused the buildings to collapse-can't be backed up by either testing or history.

Jones acknowledges that there have been "Junk Science" conspiracy theories about what happened on 9/11, but "the Explosive Demolition Hypothesis better Satisfies Tests of Repeatability and Parsimony and therefore is not "Junk Science."

In a 9,ooo-word article that Jones says will be Published in the book "the Hidden History of 9/11," by Elsevier, Jones offers the arguments:

• the three buildings collapsed nearly Symmetrically, falling down into their footprints, a phenomenon associated with 'Controlled Demolition'-and even then its very difficult, he says. "Why would terrorists undertake straight-down collapses of WTC-7 and the Towers when 'toppling over' falls would require much less work and would do much more damage in downtown Manhattan?" "and where would they obtain the necessary skills and access to the buildings for a Symmetrical Implosion anyway?" The 'symmetry data' emphasized here, a long with other data, provide strong evidence for an 'Inside' Job."
• no steel-frame building, before or after the WTC buildings, have ever collapsed due to fire. But explosives can effectively sever steel columns, he says.
• WTC 7, which was not hit by hijacked planes, collapsed in 6.6 seconds. "Where is the delay that must be expected due to Conservation of Momentum, one of the Fundamental Laws of Physics?" he asks. "That is, as upper-falling floors strike lower floors-and Intact steel support columns-the fall must be significantly Impeded by the Impacted Mass...How do upper floors fall so quickly, then, and still Conserve Momentum in the collapsing buildings?" The Paradox, he says, "is easily resolved by the explosive demolition hypothesis, and allow near free-fall-speed collapses." These observations were not analyzed by FEMA, NIST nor the 9/11 Commission, he says.
• with non-explosive-caused collapse there would typically be a piling up of shattering concrete. But most of the material in the Towers was converted to flour-like powder WHILE the buildings were falling, he says. "How can we understand this strange behavior, without explosives? Remarkable, Amazing-and Demanding Scrutiny since the US Government-Funded Reports failed to analyze this phenomenon."
• horizontal puffs of smoke, known as squibs, were observed proceeding up the side of the building, a phenomenon common when Pre-Positioned Explosives are used to demolish buildings, he says.
• steel supports were "partly evaporated," but it would require temperatures near 5,000 degrees fahrenheit to evaporate steel-and neither office materials nor diesel fuel can generate temperatures that hot. Fires caused by Jet fuel from the hijacked planes lasted at most a few minutes, and office material fires would burn out within about 20 minutes in any given location, he says.
• molten metal found in the debris of the World Trade Center may have been the result of a high-temperature reaction of a commonly used explosive such as Thermite, he says. Buildings not felled by explosives "have Insufficient directed energy to result in melting of large quantities of metal," Jones says.
• multiple loud explosions in rapid sequence were reported by numerous observers in and near the Towers, and these explosions occurred far below the region where the planes struck, he says.

Following several months of study, he presented his findings at a talk at BYU in September. Jones says he would like the government to release 6,899 photographs and 6,977 segments of video footage for "Independent Scrutiny." He would also like to analyze a small sample of the molten metal found at Ground Zero.

Courtesy of:http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635160132,00.html

Swedish PM Slams French Government Over Riots
9th November 2005

Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson has criticised the way the French government has handled the unrest in the country.

"They have chosen a confrontational route and it is hard to see how it will become a dialogue," he said.

Persson reserved his strongest criticism for France's Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, who described the rioters as racaille, or 'rabble.'

"I'm surprised by the choice of words, at the start and as things went on. There is an implacability in the attitude towards the situation and I don't think it will lead to a dialogue," said Persson.

"There is Justifiable criticism of French society and you don't confront this with the sort of expression Sarkozy used," he continued to a group of Journalists in Stockholm on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister said that he was not willing to review the French government's method of handling the unrest, but at the same time criticised the decision to send in a powerful police presence and to introduce a state of emergency.

"It's clear that if you resort to emergency legislation then it's naturally very dramatic, the like of which I haven't seen in Europe in the last 30-40 years. It feels like a very hard and confrontational approach."

Persson said he sees what is happening in France as a warning to the rest of Europe of the tensions that are built up as a consequence of poor integration policies and lingering unemployment since the slump of the 1990s.

"It does not mean that the rest of us should think we don't have a problem, that would be far too arrogant," he said.

"But obviously a simple thing like the fact that young people in France do not have the option of a study loan means that a great many are shut out from what, today, is necessary for moving on in society, namely further education."

However, he said that the liberal party's warning that the same thing could also happen in Sweden was "unnecessary."

"Rather than being in any way self-righteous, we should be vigilant, so such warnings are not needed. The vast majority recognise that this is a serious situation," he said.

Persson also rejected the idea of more local police as a "first step" in Sweden.

"It could be a method that works, but I don't believe that's the way we would choose in Sweden. For us it is about working on the opportunities for education. To start sending out signals about strengthening the police is to break with the political line we have chosen to follow," he said.

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2459&date=20051109&PHPSESSID=5e55c5cb0b70f88dafb28b613419725

U.S. Army Publication Confirms United States Used Incendiary Weapons In Fallujah

The March edition of Field Artillery Magazine, a US Army Publication, reveals that the US Military did in fact use the Incendiary Weapon White Phosphorus in Fallujah, Iraq.

A second Publication, Infantry Magazine, also alleges that White Phosphorus was used near the Iraqi City of Irbil Newsroom sources tell 'Raw Story' that the New York Times held a story they were scheduled to run on the Weapon's use Thursday.

"WP [i,e., White Phosphorus Rounds] proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent Psychological Weapon against the Insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with He. We fired "shake 'n' bake" missions at the Insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."

dailyKOS states: "there is no way you can use White Phosphorus like that without forming a deadly chemical cloud that kills everything within a tenth of a mile in all directions." Obviously, the effect of such deadly clouds weren't just psychological in nature.


According to the Toxic Disease Registry, "White Phosphorous is a Waxy Solid which burns easily and is used in Chemical Manufacturing and Smoke Munitions. Exposure to White Phosphorous may cause burns and irritation, liver, kidney, heart, lung, or bone damage, and death."

Wikipedia adds, "detonating a WP shell in a confined area (like firing into a building) will indeed cause an effect comparable to the use of lung agent poison gases for those inside who do not or can not flee, with the additional consequence of setting the room(s) alight. Death will occur from lung edema, phosphoric acid poisoning or the resulting shock, or burns"

Use of White Phosphorus is not banned by name in any International Treaty. However, the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (Protocol III) prohibits the use of Incendiary Weapons against civilian populations or in areas that have high civilian populations. The United States is among several nations that are not signatories to the Convention.
Courtesy of:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/U.S._Army_publication_confirms_United_States_1109.html

Fighting From A Distance:
"After pounding parts of the City for days, many marines say the recent combat escalated into more than they had planned for, but not more than they could handle.

"It's a war," said cpl. Nicholas Bogert, 22, of Morris, N.Y.

Bogert is a mortar team leader who directed his men to fire round after round of High Explosives and White Phosphorus Charges into the City Friday and Saturday, never knowing what the targets were or what damage the resulting explosions caused.

"We had all this SASO (security and stabilization operations) training back home," he said. "and then this turns into a real goddamned war."

Just as his team started to eat a breakfast of packaged rations Saturday, Bogert got a fire mission over the radio.

"Stand by!" he yelled, sending lance cpls. Jonathan Alexander and Jonathan Millikin scrambling to their feet.

"shake 'n' bake:"
Joking and rousting each other like boys just seconds before, the men were instantly all business. With fellow marines between them and their targets, a lot was at stake.

Bogert received coordinates of the target, plotted them on a map and called out the settings for the gun they call "sarah lee."

Millikin, 21, from Reno, Nev., and Alexander, 23, from Wetumpka, Ala, quickly made the adjustments. They are good at what they do.

"Gun up!" Millikin yelled when they finished a few seconds later, grabbing a White Phosphorus round from a nearby ammo can and holding it over the tube.

"Fire!" Bogert yelled, as Millikin dropped it.

The boom kicked dust around the pit as they ran through the drill again and again, sending a mixture of burning White Phosphrus and High Explosives they call "shake 'n' bake" into a cluster of buildings where Insurgents have been spotted all week.

They say they have never seen what they've hit, nor did they talk about it as they dusted off their breakfast and continued their hilarious routine of personal insults and name-calling.

Courtesy of:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/9/164137/436

To download the Field Artillery article in pdf format, kindly click on the link below:
http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/Previous_Editions/05/mar-apr05/PAGE24-30.pdf

'The Silent War'

Statement by- Mari Marcel Thekaekara,
Tamil Nadu State, India.

who decides that a hue and a cry,
must be made about one kind of atrocity,
while another gets away unpublicised?

who sets the agenda which sees,
imprisonment and torture as human rights violations,
while torture and death by starvation are not?

and what gives some countries the right,
to become international arbiters,
ignoring the blood on their hands?

It's time for the people who care about,
human rights to adopt a new cause:
the third world person's right to exist!

our people are under fire,
from global terrorism of a terminal new order.
many have already been,
wiped off the face of the earth...

The Enemies Of Public Liberty

"Of all the enemies of public liberty,
war is perhaps the most to be dreaded,
because it comprises and develops
the germ of every other war.
war is the parent of armies!
from these proceed debts and taxes.
and armies, debts and taxes are the known Instruments
for bringing the many under the dominion of the few.
no nation could preserve its freedom
in the midst of continual warfare."


(James Madison, the principal architect of the U.S. Constitution 1795)

Bush's Trip Does Little To Advance Agenda,
Improve US Image.

By William Douglas
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Mon, Nov. 07, 2005

Panama City, Panama-President Bush wrapped up a Latin American Tour Monday, failing to revive a Hemispheric Free-Trade Plan and facing thousands of protesters in a Rregion where he had hoped to Improve America's Image.

Bush returned to Washington Monday evening from Panama City, where he listened to Panamanian President Martin Torrijos complain that US efforts to remove buried unexploded US ordnance from his land were Insufficient. The Chemical Weapons and Bombs, which may contain deadly Mustard Gas, date back to World War II, when Panamanian soil was used as a top-secret US military testing ground.

Panamanian officials maintain that the United States is responsible for removing the ordnance under a 1993 International Chemical-Weapons Convention that both Countries signed.

"We had obligations under the Treaty, and we felt like we met those obligations," Bush said during a news conference with Torrijos. "There is a difference of opinion. and so we have a disagreement that we will continue to discuss."

Bush's session with Torrijos was like all of his stops along his five-day, three-Country Tour of the region. He had a cordial but brutally frank talks with leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Panama that produced little in terms of concrete policy or advancing his agenda.

In the end, Bush couldn't get the Summit of the Americas to endorse a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a Trade Zone that would stretch from Alaska to Chile. The Summit ended with the 34 Member Nations unable to agree on whether to continue talks on the proposal.

"President Bush did not do well," said Bruce Bagley, an International Studies Professor at the University of Miami. "He received an underwhelming reception both on US Security and Trade Issues. His leadership has clearly been weakened."

Administration officials disagree with that assessment. Though Bush didn't advance FTAA or persuade Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to drop his Country's resistance to the plan, he did build an informal consensus toward keeping Trade-Zone talks alive.

"Very quietly, Bush got an endorsement of 29 of the 34 Summit of the Americas Countries," said Eduardo Gamarra, the Director of Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center. "He met with Presidents from Central America Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic Countries and reaffirmed the US commitment to CAFTA-so I'm a little hesitant to say this was all a defeat for Bush.

Bagley said he disagrees with the general view in the Latin American Press that Bush's FTAA setback was a big victory for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the anti-Bush leftist populist who said he attended the Summit to kill and bury the FTAA and Washington's Economic Policies.

"If the administration is capable of putting a better deal on the FTAA, particularly on Agricultural Issues, they can get greater Latin American support for US leadership on Free Trade," Bagley said.

Bush also made little evident headway toward a key second-term goal: Improving his and America's Image in Latin America.

Polls in the Region conducted prior to the weekend Summit showed Bush is wildly unpopular, largely because of the US Invasion of Iraq. Thousands of protesters greeted him during the Summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and a small number of demonstrators shadowed his stop in Brasilia.

"The deck is completely stacked against him," Gamarra said, citing discontent with Bush's Policies on Iraq and Cuba. "It will take more than visiting Lula and attending a Summit to fix that. I don't think he's going to be able to do it."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13106249.htm

Law Common Of Life

The tree that never had to fight
for sun and sky and air and light
but stood out in the open plain
and always got its share of rain
never became a forest king
but lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
to gain and farm his patch of soil
who never had to win his share
of sun and sky and light and air
never became a manly man
but lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease
the strongest wind, the stronger trees
the further sky, the greater length
the more the storm, the more the strength
by sun and cold, by rain and snow
in trees and men good timber grows.

Where thickest lies the forest growth
we find the patriarchs of both
and they hold counsel with the stars
whose broken branches show the scars
of many winds and strife
this is the common law of life.


(By Douglas Mallock)