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Israel has reprimanded two senior army officers who were responsible for firing white phosphorus artillery shells at a UN compound during last year’s offensive in Gaza. In the first admission of any wrongdoing the Israeli military found that Brigadier-General Eyal Eisenberg and Colonel Ilan Malka were guilty “of exceeding their authority in a manner that jeopardised the lives of others”. The Israeli report was in response to a damning UN investigation into the Gaza war, which concluded that both Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group, had committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity and which called on both sides...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2005 – White phosphorous is a legitimate military tool, but U.S. forces have been highly judicious about using it to avoid harming civilians, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters Nov. 29. Pace defended use of the substance, which U.S. forces use primarily as a smokescreen, to mark targets or to flush enemy combatants out of protected positions. "It is well within the law of war to use those weapons as they are being used for marking and screening," he said. U.S. troops used limited white phosphorous munitions against legitimate...

Paper tiger donkeys By: RICK REISS - For The Californian Earlier this month, two decorated Camp Pendleton Marines were memorialized. The Marines, both Apache helicopter pilots, were killed in Iraq when their aircraft was downed during combat operations. At the same time, anti-war leftists promoted an Italian documentary claiming that Marines used chemical weapons in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004. This ginned-up documentary alleges that U.S. troops engaged in war crimes by using white phosphorous munitions during military operations in Fallujah. For sure, Michael Moore rates this video two thumbs up. Now here are some facts: -- Our...

E-mail Author Send to a Friend Version November 29, 2005, 8:32 a.m. White (Phosphorous) Lies Antiwar accusations aren’t as hot as critics think. By Michael Fumento Time again to try to cripple the U.S. military effort in Iraq. It's not enough that it sometimes seems like whenever we bomb a terrorist safe house we're accused of killing 40 civilians and no terrorists. (Why is it always 40?) Nor that we're told we must turn the prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay into genteel facilities fit for Martha Stewart. Now the defeat-niks are screaming about our use of white...

Our view: Italian criticism of tactics misplaced, as is foolish Pentagon dissembling International critics are wrong to brand U.S. Marines as war criminals because troops have used incendiary weapons in combat. Almost as wrong are the Pentagon spokespeople who undermine our Marines by denying or otherwise trying to hide this fact of warfare. As reported Sunday by North County Times reporter Darrin Mortenson, there is an Internet campaign that accuses U.S. forces of using chemical weapons in Iraq in violation of international law. The accusations are bunk, but their profile was raised two weeks ago by a documentary aired on...

<p>You people are jerks. Not likeable jerks either, but the kind folks would like to smack in the back of the head with a shovel. Think Judge Snells from Caddyshack or Neidermier from Animal House.</p> <p>I know this probably comes as a shock to you, but if you do some serious soul searching, you'll realize that I am right.</p>

Did US troops use chemical weapons in Falluja? The answer is yes. The proof is not to be found in the documentary broadcast on Italian TV last week, which has generated gigabytes of hype on the internet. It's a turkey, whose evidence that white phosphorus was fired at Iraqi troops is flimsy and circumstantial. But the bloggers debating it found the smoking gun. The first account they unearthed in a magazine published by the US army. In the March 2005 edition of Field Artillery, officers from the 2nd Infantry's fire support element boast about their role in the attack on...

Pentagon Used White Phosphorous in Iraq By ROBERT BURNS The Associated Press Tuesday, November 15, 2005; 6:02 PM WASHINGTON -- Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November. But they denied an Italian television news report that the spontaneously flammable material was used against civilians. Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that while white phosphorous is most frequently used to mark targets or obscure a position, it was used at times in Fallujah as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants. "It was not...

Ablution Exclusive: Weapons Expert Challenges White Phosphorus Claims Predictably, the "US used chemical weapons at Fallujah" story is spreading like phosphorus fire, and the Independent reprises its coverage today. Interestingly, a careful reading of the latest Indy article (though not in the print edition, where the crucial section has been omitted, apparently due to a production error), especially when combined with a viewing of the RAI video that was the catalyst for the story (and a bit of research), casts grave doubt on the contention that the horrible injuries pictured were in fact the result of phosphorus bombs. Writing for...