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American military admit to using white phosphorus in Fallujah

Linker | 16.11.2005 01:58

American military admit to using white phosphorus in Fallujah as an 'incendiary weapon' on BBC Radio 4 'PM'

On 'PM' today an American military spokesman described the use of white phosporus in Fallujah as a weapon. The newsreader said that the issue had been brought up thanks to many emails on the issue. Keep it up!

Love and Peace

Linker

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

You can't have it both ways

16.11.2005 03:20

Hmmmm I thought the BBC were this great big eye in the sky, government propaganda tool. Well maybe not in this case eh?

Champaign Socialist


yeah, the BBC is really going to save you!

16.11.2005 04:36

Keep what up??? The truth is the truth, but what the hell does it gain us? Those of us that track events in Iraq knew what was happening in Fallujah one day after each event occured. You see, as amazing as it seems, those brown-skinned people are every bit as good as us white folks at seeing, hearing, thinking, and reporting!!!

Anyway, months later and the Mass Media reports a teeny bit of truth about the horrors of Fallujah. Even in Nazi Germany, the citizens occasionally got to hear true stories from the Eastern front in THEIR media. WHERE IS OUR VICTORY? NOWHERE!

Day by day, Blair becomes more powerful. It's coming up to Xmas, so we get the usual "Blair will fall" black propaganda crap that has been a regular seasonal event for the last 4 or 5 years at least. I guess it's true what they say about Xmas and depression (the propaganda is used to raise people's spirits for a key period).

My point? There is what you think, and there is what is actually true. You think that in a world of pain, an occasional Mass Media story describing Blair's atrocities hastens the day when his reign will end. What is true is that Blair has NEVER been more powerful. Only today I read about the plan to activate the unprecedented car tracking program that Blair has spent tens of billions installing all across the UK. Next year, people will go to prison in the UK for many years for possessing images of consenting adults engaging in consenting sex fetish acts.

Every year, every month, every week, every day, every hour, every minute, every second our fundamental human rights erode, and Blair's power grows. Blair, a monster who rules with absolute authority on 20% of the vote, is able to make our state every more violent, ever more vicious and ever more bloodthirsty without the fear of any effective opposition, within or without parliament.

The BBC is merely an extension of Blair's power, along with the rest of the Mass Media. Iraq is invaded, and the BBC will report the crowds of Iraqis screaming with joy when Saddam's statue is toppled. 911 sees the towers collapse, and BBC's horizon will inform people of how science "proves" just such an outcome when a plane collides with a previously crash-proof building. The citizens of Fallujah are melted alive by the US, and the BBC reassures its viewers that "white phosphorus" can NEVER be described as a chemical weapon., and anyway the BBC's own "embedded" reporter spoke to doctors in Fallujah who told him that stories of "civilian" deaths were all lies.

Look, the mass media works by having a hole for every peg. If you are really foolish enough to say "whoopee, PM is sticking it to Blair", all you have done is identify the hole that traps YOU. Once caught, all your energies can be nicely and harmlessly dissipated in "false hope".

To those of you that really care, I know messages such as mine seem like a "council of despair". The opposite is true. Blair's mechanisms cannot be turned against him while he maintains this level of power. Under these circumstances, seeming "small victories" can actually become major distractions, because Blair suffers too little when his past crimes gain some minor forced exposure. This might not matter if it were not for the fact that Blair has long since moved on, and is the "go" stage for his next round of atrocities, at a vastly greater planned level than those that happened in Fallujah.

Only by ruthlessly eliminating all avenues of "false hope" can our energies stand any chance of making a difference. When known hopeless action is never taken, human creativity should lead to the discovery of fruitful paths, if they exist (and we have no chance of survival if they do not). I don't hold out much hope though, when the sum total of effective anti-Blair action seems to be the combined energies of Brian Haw and Cindy Sheehan. Two good people go a long way, but they are not going to carry six billion.

I wish I knew what the answer was, but i KNOW it is not emailing the BBC or reading The Guardian!!!

twilight


BBC

16.11.2005 11:21

Twilight - I agree that the BBC is a pretty useless tool for discovering truths. Anyone would be a fool for relying on this as a totally reliable source of information and the censorship and selective reporting that goes on, is incredibly frustrating.
But yes, it does serve a purpose.
For example, some radio interviews they hold are very revealing, without any comment or opinion from the interviewer being needed. This morning for example, we heard an american journalist who had been embedded with troops near Falluja, explain first how all the bombardment was 'indirect' - as in someone on the ground sends co-ordinates to the gunners/bombers who then fire phosphorus/clusters/misiles according to the co-ordinates given. They themselves never actually saw what they were firing at, he stated. The journalist then said that no civilians were ever targeted with white phosphorus. The contradiction is clear.

p-soup


BBC News

16.11.2005 11:29

The White House may be "embarrassed" by the "controversy" surrounding the use of the chemical white phosphorus, which is not a chemical weapon but an incendiary device. It was used as a weapon, contrary to previous claims, but not on civilians, (although we have all seen the photos) but the US did not sign a chemical weapons treaty, so it's okay for them to burn the flesh from men, women and children, to the bone, with white phosphorus.

Reporter


Twilight, you're very confused

16.11.2005 14:26

Twilight writes -

"Blair, a monster who rules with absolute authority on 20% of the vote ....."

Absolute authority? If that were true there wouldn't have been a vote on imprisonment without charge for 90 days, and Blair wouildn't have lost it.

Blair is certainly a dangerous authoritarian, and arguably a monster, but to say he has absolute authority is total nonsense.

Irving Washington


" ! "

16.11.2005 14:46

"Once" "again" "the" "use" "of" "air" "quotes" "is" "turning" "my" "stomach".

"Memory" "Hole" "Catchers" "Mitt"


Response

18.11.2005 00:52

Response to first post

Mostly the BBC is a big propaganda tool, but when a story becomes big in another ‘western country’ (Italy) AND people email them about it, to ignore it would expose the fact that they are. And why do you assume I’m a socialist?

Response to second post

“Keep what up?”

Exposing the truth to as many people as possible. I posted about white phosphorus and Mark 77 (napalm rebranded) on this newswire immediately after it was used in Fallujah. And I told people that I’d met for the first time what had happened and they looked at me gone out because the majority of people only believe what they see and hear on the mainstream media.

“A hole for every peg?”

Although I broadly agree, in this case squarish peg – roundish hole (It’s not the Mirror abuse photos).

“If you are really foolish enough to say "whoopee, PM is sticking it to Blair". Once caught, all your energies can be nicely and harmlessly dissipated in "false hope".”

Did I say that? No, I implied that emailing the mainstream media might have a small effect on what they report. I suppose that you could argue that the white phosphorus issue is deflecting attention away from ID cards, the terrorism act, the freedom to protest, the loss of civil liberties and the destruction of the welfare state. But the exposure of a war crime by a ‘coalition’ partner (occupying force-how many US bases are there in the UK?) is significant compared to some of the ‘stories’ that I hear on the BBC (know thy enemy).

Didn’t the Pilger photo of the girl running away after the napalm attack have an effect during the Vietnam war?

“Once caught, all your energies can be nicely and harmlessly dissipated in "false hope".”

I was happy that this atrocity got into the mainstream media, rather than being shoved down the memory hole. Next time I meet someone prowar that hasn’t heard about America (our coalition partners) using chemical weapons in Iraq. I can show them the photos and say I heard it on the BBC. And then show them photos of the effects of Depleted Uranium.

“When known hopeless action is never taken, human creativity should lead to the discovery of fruitful paths, if they exist (and we have no chance of survival if they do not).”

How do you know what hopeless action is? How would you know that something was hopeless? Any suggestions of fruitful paths?

Linker


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