Israel admits using phosphorus bombs during war in Lebanon
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1 January: A wounded Palestinian child screams as she arrives to the al-Shifa hospital after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City
Photograph: Fadi Adwan /Getty Images
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Group accuses Israel of firing white phosphorus into Gaza
January 12, 2009 — Updated 0034 GMT (0834 HKT)
- STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Researchers in Israel saw bursts of white phosphorus over Gaza, group says
- White phosphorus can burn people, set structures on fire
- Protocol allows use when “not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons”
- Group: Use in densely populated Gaza would violate international humanitarian law
- Next Article in World »
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BACKGROUNDBy Ben Wedeman
CNN
CNN
JERUSALEM (CNN) — The international group Human Rights Watch is accusing Israel of firing weapons containing white phosphorus into Gaza. The group demands that the alleged practice cease.
Israel is declining to say whether bursts like this over Gaza involve white phosphorus.
The group’s researchers in Israel “observed multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over what appeared to be the Gaza City/Jabaliya area” on Friday and Saturday, the organization said on its Web site.
“Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus as an ‘obscurant’ [a chemical used to hide military operations], a permissible use in principle” under the laws of war, the HRW posting said.
“However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire,” the posting said. “The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza’s high population density, among the highest in the world.”
HRW said the use of white phosphorus in Gazawould violate “the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life.”
Last week, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CNN: “I can tell you with certainty that white phosphorus is absolutely not being used.”
Now, however, Israeli officials have a different response to questions about the possible use of phosphorus: “Any munitions that Israel is using are in accordance with international law. Israel does not specify the types of munitions or the types of operations it is conducting.”
Still, a doctor familiar with the material said it is not possible to tell, based on pictures of burns, whether white phosphorus was responsible.
“Dead tissue pretty much looks the same,” said Dr. Peter Grossman, president of the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks, California.
The chemical “can burn down houses and cause horrific burns when it touches the skin,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch.
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Since January 3, when Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, news reports have circulated about the possible use of white phosphorus by the IDF.
HRW’s assertion was supported by munitions experts and some Palestinian doctors, including Nafiz Abu Sha’aban, who said the burns it caused were unlike anything he has seen in 27 years of practice. Watch footage of burn patients in Gaza
Though most severely burned patients have been sent to Egypt, the ongoing fighting has made it impossible to evacuate all of them, including one man with deep burns over 47 percent of his body, the doctor said.
White phosphorus is known to burn flesh down to the bone.
It’s intended to provide illumination or to create a smokescreen in battle. Under an international protocol ratified by Israel in 1995, the use of such incendiary weapons is allowed when “not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons.”
There is no prohibition per se against white phosphorus in conflict. But the timing and location of its use are restricted.
For example, it is illegal under the protocol to use white phosphorus against any personnel, civilian or military. It can be directed only against military targets. International law says incendiary weapons cannot be used where civilians are concentrated.
A house north of Gaza City was hit Sunday by something that observers contend may have been white phosphorus.
“It’s been burning since one o’clock in the morning,” Munir Hammada told CNN 11 hours later. “If you move it with your feet, it reignites. You can’t put it out with water, only sand.”
Those characteristics match the properties of white phosphorus, which ignites on contact with air.
The youngest casualties of the conflict in Gaza (13 pictures)
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31 December: Hosam Hamdan in in Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital intensive care unit after he was wounded and his two sisters killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip. At least 25% of Palestinians killed during Israel’s massive offensive in the Gaza Strip have been civilians, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said
Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
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‘s burn victims add to pressure on army over phosphorus
From
January 12, 2009
Muhammad Nabih Ahmed, 17, who sustained severe burns from white phosphorus in Gaza
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White Phosphorous: Israel Uses Chemical Weapons
By Emily
The US used this very same chemical weapon in the attack on Falluja in 2004. White phosphorous. The marines called their concoction ‘shake and bake’ as they used the chemical mixed with explosives against Iraqis in Falluja. Italian documentary filmmakers Sigfrido Ranucci and Maurizio Torrealtareported that the US used white phosphorous against civilians in Falluja, and showed images of incinerated bodies; the US denied the allegation. (Click here for a report comparing the injuries seen in Lebanon in 2006 with those seen in Gaza or for further evidence at Information Clearing House.)
White phosphorous is a chemical weapon as soon as it is used directly against humans, a chemical weapon made illegal in 1980 by the Geneva Conventions. It was widely used in the Vietnam war by the US, as pictured here used in a grenade.
White phosphorous melts flesh to the bone, causing fatal burns.
It ignites on contact with oxygen. Particles on a person can be temporarily extinguished with water, but as soon as they are dry they will recombust. Longer-term exposure causes poisoning, which leads to wounds of the mouth and eventual destruction of the whole jawbone.
Exposure to white phosphorus smoke in the air can also cause liver, kidney, heart, lung or bone damage and even death.
A former US soldier who served in Iraq says breathing in smoke close to a shell caused the throat and lungs to blister until the victim suffocated, with the phosphorus continuing to burn them from the inside.
White phosphorous is the chemical shown clearly in the many images of Gaza. It is easily recognizable by any veteran, thanks to our country’s long history of war crimes. White phosphorous was used against Lebanese civilians in 2006 in Israel’s war on Lebanon. The Israeli government maintains that it is only using white phosphorous as a smoke screen, but they refuse to release what is actually in the shells they are dropping on Gaza.
When there was a white phosphorous cloud simply hovering somewhere along a highway after an accident at a British plant, it was treated as a risk to public health and families were told to stay inside with windows and doors closed. Clearly, the lungs of Palestinian babies are not as worth protecting as the lungs of British ones.
This stuff is an illegal, incendiary poison. It’s being used right in front of our eyes in the most densely populated place on earth where greater than 50% are children. We probably manufactured it, and at the very least, we paid for it. This picture shows a white phosphorous shell exploding on the ground in Gaza.
The ADC has called for an investigation into the use of white phosphorous in Gaza by the Israeli army. According to this former Major in the British army,
If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin.
The body of a child killed in Lebanon in 2006, when Israel dropped white phosphorous bombs.
WARNING: Not for the faint of heart. Then again, we should not be allowed to remain ignorant of the damage this chemical weapon causes while it is being used in Gaza.
Israel using white phosphorus
| Israel ‘using white phosphorus’ | ||||||||
Human Rights Watch has called on Israel to stop using white phosphorus which it says has been used in military operations in the densely populated Gaza Strip. The US-based group said that its researchers observed the use of the chemical, which can burn away human flesh to the bone, over Gaza City and Jabaliya on Friday and Saturday. “We went by Israeli artillery units that had white phosphorus rounds with the fuses in them,” Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. “Clearly it is [white phosphorus], we can tell by the explosions and the tendrils that go down [and] the fires that were burning,” he said. “Today there were massive attacks in Jabaliya when we were there. We saw that there were numerous fires once the white phosphorus had gone in.” ‘Obscurant’ International law permits the use of white phopshorus as an “obscurant” to cover troop movements and prevent enemies from using certain guided weapons, but its use is controversial as it can injure people through painful chemical burns.
“Even if they are using it as an obscurant, they are using it in a very densely populated area,” Garlasco said. “The problem is it covers such a wide area that when the white phosphorus wafers come down, over 100 in each artillery shell, they burn everything they touch and they don’t stop burning until they are done. “You are talking about skin damage, potentially homes going on fire, damage to infrastructure.” Human Rights Watch said that it believed the use of the chemical in Gaza violated the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life. The Israeli military has previously denied using white phosphorus during the 15-day offensive in the Gaza Strip, but has said that any munitions that it does use comply with international law. Israel used white phophorus during its 34-day war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement in 2006, while the United States used it during the controversial siege of the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004. |
Greece-Style Riots Coming To U.S.
Troops and mercenaries will be used to detain Americans in prison camps, warns deadly accurate trends forecaster
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, December 15, 2008
Frighteningly accurate trends forecaster Gerald Celente says that America will see riots similar to those currently ongoing in Greece and that the cause will be a hyper-inflationary depression, leading to the inevitable use of troops and mercenaries to deal with the crisis as Americans are incarcerated in internment camps.
As we have highlighted before, Celente’s accuracy is stunning – he predicted the 1987 crash, the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the “panic of 2008,” and is routinely cited even by mainstream news networks as highly credible.
The cause of the riots would be a hyper-inflationary depression, Celente told interviewer Lew Rockwell, causing Americans to revolt in similar circumstances that we have witnessed recently in Iceland and Greece. The trouble would be sparked off by Obama declaring a “bank holiday” whereby people won’t be able to withdraw their money.
“What’s going on in Greece with these riots has nothing to do with a 15-year-old boy being killed, that was only the spark that ignited the pent up, really hatred and disdain, people have for the scandals and corrupt government and the same thing is going on in this country as well,” said Celente.
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Celente reiterated his prediction of a revolution and riots in America, and said that the first signs of it could even emerge before the end of the year.
Celente said that the troops now being brought back to America for “domestic security”would be used to suppress the riots.
“There’s talk of opening all these detention centers and hiring the goon squads, the Blackwaters to run them, so these are realities going on as we speak,” said Celente, adding that the Halliburton subsidiary KBR had been awarded a half a billion dollar contract to build “national emergency” internment camps in the name of detaining illegal immigrants but that they would be used to hold rioting Americans.
“We’re really in a period of ‘off with their heads’ and its going to be the people against the politicians,” said Celente.
Celente said that a breakup of the United States was possible and that the secessionist movement was strong.
“The government owns and runs the largest mortgage company, owns the largest insurance company, they’re going to be owning a piece of the oil industry, so it’s a fight against a totalitarian government…so there’s going to be rebellions and things will change for the better if we break up these criminal governments that are in place now,” said Celente.
The forecaster added that the government was killing people for a false reason in Iraq and robbing people blind with the bailouts at home.
Listen to the interview here.
Research related articles:
- Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012
- CIA Preparing To Install Military Government In Greece?
- From The “Panic” Of 2008 To The “Collapse” Of 2009
- IMF Chief Warns Of Riots In Response To Economic Crisis
- Iceland Riots Precursor To U.S. Civil Unrest?
- Violent Attacks Erupt In Greece
- Mortgage Giants’ Collapse Could Herald 1930’s Style Depression
- Greek riots: Banks and cars burned by Greek mob
- Are the Greek riots a taste of things to come?
- Fresh Riots Break Out In Athens
- Greece Violence Targets Police
- Could Greece’s Riots Spread to France?
The youngest casualties of the conflict in Gaza (13 pictures)
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29 December: A Palestinian man carries his wounded child to the treatment room of Kamal Adwan hospital following an Israeli missile strike in Beit Lahiya
Photograph: Ashraf Amra/AP
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From The “Panic” Of 2008 To The “Collapse” Of 2009
Top trends forecaster gives chilling prediction for next year
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The country’s top trends forecaster, who accurately predicted the “panic” of 2008 nearly a year before it unfolded, is now ominously suggesting that next year will come to be known as “the collapse of 2009″.
Gerald Celente, CEO of Trends Research Institute, sent out a letter to his subscribers announcing that he had purchased a domain name called “Collapseof09.com”.
Around this time last year, Celente sent the following message to his subscribers;
In 2008, Americans will wake up to the worst economic times that anyone alive has ever seen. And they won’t know what hit them. Just as they were in a state of shock on 9/11, they’ll be frozen in fear when the Economic 9/11 strikes at the heart of Wall Street.
Dismiss this trend forecast at your own peril. If you believe everything will be all right, and that the ship of state is sailing along just fine, toss this out and go about your business.
Having correctly forecast the “Economic 9/11″, Celente is warning that people should prepare for something much worse in 2009.
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As we reported last month, Celente recently told Fox News that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
Celente’s accuracy is widely heralded since he correctly predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar.
In 2007, Celente forewarned that “giants (would) tumble to their deaths,” which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others.
Celente has stated that the current financial downturn will ultimately lead to nothing less than revolution.
“There will be a revolution in this country,” he said. “It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen.”
Research related articles:
- Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012
- Greece-Style Riots Coming To U.S.
- Obama warns against fear and panic as stocks tumble
- Alex Jones Was Right About Economic Collapse
- Peter Schiff Compares US economic crisis to the collapse of Russia
- Roubini Says `Panic’ May Force Market Shutdown, Fund Failures
- Analyst: One Third Of Banks Could Collapse In 2009
- AIG’s Collapse Would Have Impact Around the Globe
- Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power
- Newly Uncovered WTC 7 Video Betrays More Foreknowledge Of Collapse
- Clarifying the Collapse Time of WTC 7
- Bush calls for calm amid global stock market panic