There are WMDs in Iraq. They're just not Saddam's, they're ours.
It seems that white phosphorus is the new Agent Orange or napalm.
From The Independent (UK):
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The Iraqi government is to investigate the United States military's use of white phosphorus shells during the battle of Fallujah - an inquiry that could reveal whether American forces breached a fundamental international weapons treaty.
Iraq's acting Human Rights minister, Narmin Othman, said last night that a team would be dispatched to Fallujah to try to ascertain conclusively whether civilians had been killed or injured by the incendiary weapon. The use of white phosphorus (WP) and other incendiary weapons such as napalm against civilians is prohibited.
The announcement came as John Reid, the Secretary of State for Defence, faced mounting calls for an inquiry into the use of WP by British forces as well as what Britain knew about its deployment by American troops. Mr Reid said that he would look into the matter.
The move by the Iraqi government and the growing concern at Westminster follows the Pentagon's confirmation to The Independent earlier this week that WP had been used during the battle of Fallujah last November and the presentation of persuasive evidence that civilians had been among the victims.
The fresh controversy over Fallujah, which has raged for a full 12 months, was initially sparked last week by a documentary by the Italian state broadcaster, RAI, which claimed there were numerous civilian casualties. A Pentagon spokesman said yesterday he would "not be surprised" if WP had been used by US forces elsewhere in Iraq.
Lt-Col Barry Venable said the incendiary shells were a regular part of the troops' munitions. "I would not rule out the possibility that it has been used in other locations." The Pentagon's admission of WP's use - it can burn a person down to the bone - has proved to be a huge embarrassment to some elements of the US government.
In a letter to this newspaper, the American ambassador to London, Robert Tuttle, claimed that US forces "do not use napalm or WP as weapons".
Confronted with the Pentagon's admission, an embassy spokesperson said Mr Tuttle would not be commenting further and "all questions on WP" should be referred to the Pentagon. The US embassy in Rome had issued a similar denial.
The size or scale of the inquiry to be undertaken by the Iraqi government is unclear, and it is not known when its investigators will arrive in Fallujah. An official with the human rights ministry said that while it was also not known how long the inquiry would take, "the people of Fallujah will be fully consulted". The Pentagon says the use of incendiary weapons against military targets is not prohibited.
But the article two, protocol III of the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Weapons bans their use against civilians.
Perhaps of crucial importance to the Iraqi investigators, the treaty also restricts their use against military targets "inside a concentration of civilians except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians".
Mr Reid confirmed yesterday that British troops had used WP in Iraq, though he said the shells had only been used to make smoke to obscure troops movements, which experts say is their primary function.
"Neither it nor any other munitions are used against civilians. It is not a chemical weapon," he said. Speaking at a Nato training exercise in Germany, where he was visiting British troops bound for Afghanistan, Mr Reid said the US's use of WP was a "matter for the US".
However, last week Mr Reid indicated that he would raise the issues contained within the RAI documentary if presented with evidence.
But last night MPs were openly dismissive of Mr Reid's comments and called for an inquiry, saying they had previously been misled about the US's use of napalm in Iraq. The US had drawn a distinction between conventional napalm and updated Mk 77 firebombs, which experts say are virtually identical.
Mike Gapes, the Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: "I think there is an issue here about whether the chemical weapons convention should be strengthened to include this particular substance because it is defined as an incendiary not a chemical weapon, therefore it is excluded from certain definitions."
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "The use of this weapon may technically have been legal, but its effects are such that it will hand a propaganda victory to the insurgency. The denial of use followed by the admission will simply convince the doubters that there was something to hide." So far, the fall-out in the US over the revelation has been minimal. But the former president Bill Clinton yesterday told students at the American University of Dubai that he did not agree with invasion of Iraq.
The battle of Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold, took place over two weeks last November. It led to the displacement of 300,000 people. Reports from refugee camps and from an Iraqi doctor who stayed in the city during the fighting suggest numerous civilians suffered burns and "melting skin". Photographs show rows of bodies charred almost beyond recognition.
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