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2009-05-11 Afghanistan
US attacked Afghanistan with white phosphorus?
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Posted by Fred 2009-05-11 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [336065 views ]  Top
 File under: al-Qaeda 

#1 Iranian propaganda organ doing it's thing. Course it's hard to tell it from US mainstream media.

I see they are still trying to declare "willie pete" a chemical agent.
Posted by tipover 2009-05-11 01:16||   2009-05-11 01:16|| Front Page Top

#2 Never mind the smoldering piles of scorched civilians, the real question is whether WP contributes to global warming.
Posted by SteveS 2009-05-11 01:28||   2009-05-11 01:28|| Front Page Top

#3 Serious question for those with a chemical background, "Is white Phosphorus and "Greek Fire" the same thing"?
Posted by Redneck Jim">Redneck Jim  2009-05-11 08:48||   2009-05-11 08:48|| Front Page Top

#4 















YAAAAAAAWN...
Posted by tu3031 2009-05-11 09:46||   2009-05-11 09:46|| Front Page Top

#5 Redneck: Last time I checked, no-one is quite sure what the composition of greek fire actually was, but it's usually assumed to be some sort of gel-based petrochemical incendiary. Ancient flamethrower, basically.

Phosphorus wasn't discovered until the seventeenth century, so it's highly unlikely that the Byzantines were using it in greek fire.
Posted by Mitch H.">Mitch H.  2009-05-11 10:13|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]">[http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]  2009-05-11 10:13|| Front Page Top

#6 Oh, and Iranian-based "human rights activists" can suck my left nut. There is NO FUCKING WAY ON EARTH that we'd be delivering WP via drone, let alone on a house full of civilians.

My guess is that if there was any incendiaries involved, it was a PR trap, and the Talibs rigged a house & provoked an air strike for a press exploit.
Posted by Mitch H.">Mitch H.  2009-05-11 10:18|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]">[http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]  2009-05-11 10:18|| Front Page Top

#7 ty tu
Posted by rabid whitetail 2009-05-11 11:44||   2009-05-11 11:44|| Front Page Top

#8 bullets kill too are they gonna try and ban the US from using them? I don't consider putting a bomb in a dead animal fair play either but sure don't here anyone bitching about it
Posted by rabid whitetail 2009-05-11 11:45||   2009-05-11 11:45|| Front Page Top

#9 Latest in the war criminal's arsenal, the plastic
Very pistol, shooting white phosphorus
and undetectable, as having practically no metal...

Hosted by imgur.com

A 12 gauge gutshot sure beat waterboading, eh! Nancy!
Posted by Ming the Merciless">Ming the Merciless  2009-05-11 12:11|| www.darthprophet.com]">[www.darthprophet.com]  2009-05-11 12:11|| Front Page Top

#10 "Greek Fire" is usually assumed to be burning pitch or tar. We know the Greeks had discovered surface deposits of oil. Oil sludge or tar could have been the principal ingredient.
Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot  2009-05-11 12:48|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]  2009-05-11 12:48|| Front Page Top

#11 Whooops...Nevermind.

US military: 44 Afghan cases of white phosphorus

KABUL – The U.S. military accused militants in Afghanistan on Monday of using white phosphorus munitions in attacks on American forces and in civilian areas, saying it has documented at least 44 incidents of insurgents using or storing the weapons. A spokeswoman labeled the attacks "reprehensible."

White phosphorus is a spontaneously flammable material that leaves severe chemical burns on flesh. Using white phosphorus to illuminate a target or create smoke is considered legitimate under international law, but rights groups say its use over populated areas can indiscriminately burn civilians and constitutes a war crime.

The U.S. military, in documents supplied to The Associated Press, said there had been at least seven instances of militants using white phosphorus in improvised explosive attacks since spring 2007, including attacks in civilian areas.

The military documents showed 12 attacks where militants used white phosphorus in mortar or rocket attacks, the majority of which came the last two years.

The American military itself uses white phosphorus in Afghanistan to light up the night sky and for smoke screens.

The most recent militant attack using white phosphorus came last Thursday, when a NATO outpost in Logar was hit with two rounds of indirect white phosphorus fire, the documents said. Most troops in Logar, which lies south of Kabul, are American.

Afghan authorities have also said Taliban fighters may have used a burning agent — possibly white phosphorus — in a major battle on May 4, after doctors discovered unusual burns among the dead and wounded. President Hamid Karzai has said up to 130 civilians died in that battle. The U.S. blamed militants for deliberately putting civilians in harm's way.

Col. Greg Julian, the top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said the U.S. did not use white phosphorus at all in last week's battle in Farah province. A U.S. spokeswoman, Maj. Jenny Willis, said the militants' use of white phosphorus as a weapon could cause "unnecessary suffering" as defined in the laws of warfare. "This pattern of irresponsible and indiscriminate use of white phosphorus by insurgents is reprehensible and should be noted by the international human rights community," she said.

Willis said the U.S. military and NATO have been able to document 44 cases of white phosphorus use by insurgents — either attacks or in weapons caches — but that there may be more. Thirty-eight of those cases occurred in eastern Afghanistan, the region where the majority of American troops are stationed. Six cases came from other parts of the country.

Willis said the military doesn't necessarily know that militants are using white phosphorus deliberately, but that its use is still "indiscriminate."

Militants find white phosphorus rounds in old weapons stores left over from decades of war, she said, but also get newer rounds from "neighbors," a reference to militant networks across the border in Pakistan.

A Taliban spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The U.S. allegations come after Human Rights Watch last week called on the military to release information into a March 14 battle in Kapisa — one province northeast of Kabul — in which an 8-year-old Afghan girl named Razia was burned by white phosphorus munitions. Willis said the U.S. can't be certain who fired the round that wounded Razia, who has been receiving medical care at the U.S. base at Bagram, where she has had 10 skin grafts. "There's no way to be sure that it was an enemy round that impacted Razia's house, but based on the plotting of ISAF's rounds and the time of the reported impact, we can't establish that ISAF was responsible either," Willis said, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force. "Either scenario is possible, and equally regrettable. One thing is certain: Razia will have the best care that we can give her."

White phosphorus is used to mark targets, create smoke screens or as a weapon, and can be delivered by shells, flares or hand grenades. Human rights groups denounce its use as a weapon for the severe burns it causes, though it is not banned by any treaty to which the United States is a signatory.

Afghan officials on Sunday said they were investigating the possibility that white phosphorus was used in a U.S.-Taliban battle in Farah province last week that President Hamid Karzai said killed up to 130 civilians.

Nader Nadery, an official with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said Monday that doctors are treating 16 patients with severe burns suffered in the May 4 battle. The commission is investigating the possible use of white phosphorus or another incendiary chemical against villagers during the battle.

Nadery said Farah's governor told the group's researchers that many of those killed in the battle also had severe burns. The governor confirmed that Taliban fighters may attacked the villagers with a flammable material, though not necessarily white phosphorus, Nadery said.
Posted by tu3031 2009-05-11 13:38||   2009-05-11 13:38|| Front Page Top

#12 ok i'm tipsy so you can all take this like you want too. Who cares what kills them as long as it does the job? Do you think they would go through the Geneva Covention handbook before they killed your kids?
Posted by rabid whitetail 2009-05-11 20:51||   2009-05-11 20:51|| Front Page Top

#13 STARS-N-STRIPES > US WILL NOT/NEVER STOP EMPLOYING AIRSTRIKES, agz MilTerrs in Pakistan.
Posted by JosephMendiola 2009-05-11 21:14||   2009-05-11 21:14|| Front Page Top

#14 When an adversary send retarded children to blow
themselves in passenger buses, it goes beyond
comprehension that some have all
that sympathy for the muslim monsters.

Hosted by imgur.com

Perhaps after they nuke half a dozen metropolis
maybe we'll start hanging them along with their
leftist supporters...
Posted by Ming the Merciless">Ming the Merciless  2009-05-11 22:16|| www.darthprophet.com]">[www.darthprophet.com]  2009-05-11 22:16|| Front Page Top

#15 ION IRANIAN.WS > MULLAH'S COMMANDER [Basiij]: ENEMY SEEKS "VELVET REVOLUTION" IN IRAN [read, detabilz + breakup of sectors of Iran]???; + MULLAHS GET [US]OCTOBER DEADLINE WARNING FOR END OF TALKS [first round of Nukulaar Talks must end NLT 10/09]???
Posted by JosephMendiola 2009-05-11 23:52||   2009-05-11 23:52|| Front Page Top

23:52 JosephMendiola
23:43 crosspatch
23:38 crosspatch
23:37 mom
23:18 Kofi Claitle6576
23:14 Barbara Skolaut
22:24 Ming the Merciless
22:16 Ming the Merciless
22:12 Anonymoose
21:43 trailing wife
21:36 JosephMendiola
21:26 JosephMendiola
21:23 Skunky Glins 5***
21:21 JosephMendiola
21:18 Pappy
21:17 JosephMendiola
21:14 Kofi Claitle6576
21:14 JosephMendiola
21:14 Pappy
21:12 JosephMendiola
21:09 Pappy
21:03 Skunky Glins 5***
21:00 rabid whitetail
20:57 rabid whitetail









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