Times set to question story of U.S. using phosphorous in Iraq

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Times_...y_of_1120.html

11/20/2005

The New York Times has slotted a story for Monday editions regarding an Italian documentary broadcast earlier this month which alleged the U.S. military had used white phosphorous in Iraq, killing numerous civilians, RAW STORY has learned.

The story will question the documentary's claims and probe the Pentagon's response to the allegations. Editors have decided not to run the story on the front page.

White phosphorous is an incendiary weapon sometimes used for battlefield lighting which causes severe external and internal burns on human targets. The U.S. has since admitted using the substance, which it says is employed for illumination; the British say they used it to create smokescreens.

The Times article is likely to kindle debate among the online liberal community which has trumpeted the reports. It comes just on the heels of a report in the UK Telegraph which revealed that a British colonel had trained his troops in using the grenade to "smoke out" insurgents.

"The star of the show was the new grenade which had only been on issue since the previous summer," Col. Tim Collins wrote in his autobiography. "It absolutely trashed the inside of the room it was put into."

"I directed the men to use them where possible with white phosphorus, as the noxious smoke and heat had the effect of drawing out any enemy from cover, while the fragmentation grenade would shred them," he added.

The paper says Collins' book "contradicts claims by the Ministry of Defence that the chemical was only ever used to create a smokescreen."

The Times identifies that white phosphorous is not a chemical weapon, an inaccuracy in the film. Deployed from a grenade, white phosphorous burns for about a minute at a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, casting a cloud of heavy smoke.

The Italian documentary showed Iraqi civilians with gruesome burns and made comparisons to America's use of napalm during the Vietnam war.

"The half-hour film was riddled with errors and exaggerations, according to U.S. officials and some independent military experts," the Times is to report.

But the State Department and Pentagon have so bungled their response "that the charges have produced dozens of stories in foreign media and on the Web suggesting that the Americans used banned weapons and tried to cover it up."