Pentagon denies report on napalm (Australian Press LIES)

The Age ^ | March 24, 2003

[Timesink]

Pentagon denies report on napalm

March 24 2003

The Pentagon has a denied a report in The Age on Saturday that napalm was used in an attack by US Navy planes on an Iraqi position at Safwan Hill in southern Iraq.

A navy official in Washington, Lieutenant-Commander Danny Hernandez, said: "We don't even have that in our arsenal." The US military says it last used napalm in 1993 and destroyed its last batch of the weapon in 2001.

The report was filed by Age correspondent Lindsay Murdoch, who is attached to units of the First US Marine Division.

Murdoch's report was based on information from two marine officers, who said napalm was used in the air strike on the hill. One of the officers repeated that napalm was used when Murdoch was asked by The Age foreign editor to confirm the story on Friday.

[Timesink]

In addition, a number of people posted an article from the Sydney Morning Herald a few days ago entitled 'Dead bodies are everywhere' - Herald Correspondent Lindsay Murdoch, travelling with a Marines artillery unit, reports on one of the war's first battles on the Iraq-Kuwait border. It too falsely alleged napalm use. Well, they had to tack a retraction onto the bottom of their story after it was published. I posted the following at the bottom of all those threads:

The Sydney Morning Herald has been caught lying so many times - including the intentional alteration of wire service articles to change their meaning - that it should NEVER be trusted on anything.

The following was subsquented tacked onto the end of this story:

The Pentagon subsequently issued a statement to the Herald:

Your story ('Dead bodies everywhere', by Lindsay Murdoch, March 22, 2003) claiming US forces are using napalm in Iraq, is patently false. The US took napalm out of service in the early 1970s. We completed destruction of our last batch of napalm on April 4, 2001, and no longer maintain any stocks of napalm. - Jeff A. Davis, Lieutenant Commander, US Navy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.

The SMH lies. ALWAYS.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Too bad we don't use napalm. These scum need
to burn a little befor they go to hell.

[VMI70]

Just wexactly what is wrong with napalm. I can say from first hand obsrvation that it is very effective.
Good stuff--sticks to kids!

[binreadin]

Roger that. Napalm would be perfect about now.

[ToTheStars]

We completed destruction of our last batch of napalm on April 4, 2001, and no longer maintain any stocks of napalm.

I'm sure they still have the recipe. Might be just the thing for the Republican Guard.

[Timesink]

Just wexactly what is wrong with napalm. I can say from first hand obsrvation that it is very effective. Good stuff--sticks to kids

The best joke Norm MacDonald ever told on SNL's Weekend Update:

In other news, Woody Allen is dating again...!

(Needless to say, the joke never made it to air.)

[Amerigomag]

While the article in question did use the word "napalm" the reference was to fuel-air ordinance which the US does use.

Fuel-air weapons are or are not legal/ethical depending on your point of view and the Aussey article lumped them into the same ethical catagory (non discriminant, area wide weapons) as the earlier, outlawed variant.

[VMI70]

LOL

[LiteKeeper]

bump

[norcalvet]

More info here on napalm or "firebombs":
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/mk77.htm

[Victor K]

Where there will be gnashing of teeth and their thirst will never be quenched. Whoa to these evil men who leave this world with the blood of innocents they’ve tortured and those they’ve killed without remorse.

[AmericanVictory]

It was very effective on Okinawa against caves and bunkers and would make short work of those firing from buildings.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Yeah, napalm might be worthwhile in some circumstances, but I doubt the US military will use it as a weapon again.

There was a story on one of the newsmagazine shows a couple years back about that evacuation scene in the photo you posted. Wasn't about napalm, I don't think. These people were running for a spot on one of the last planes out of the area after our side handed it over to the communist regime. The girl in the center of the photo was identified. She was brought to America (Canada, anyway) and adopted, and she is doing well.

Dave in Eugene