Cubelogic Improv

The Rai24News documentary about white phosphor does contain proofs. The displayed victims have melted flesh but misteriously have intact clothing. The victims seen in the documentary are NOT random people. There are identification numbers on some of them and those correspond to the numbers written in the burial registers. These registers were compiled by the US and are publicly accessible as PDFs

In the same page there’s also a link to a gallery of those (very graphic) photos. Then verify the numbers. As you can see the registers report detailed information about when the body was found, when it was buried, where it was buried, who found it. (Although the text is oddly rotated by 90 degrees.)

How can this be a put on? Sounds like pretty good proofs to me.

Many people online don’t think white phosphor is a weapon. “They are just your regular phosphorous rounds”…. So anyway: (1) WP can be used to illuminate targets; (2) it is apparently allowed to use WP rounds; (3) It IS demonstrated that it also burns flesh; (4) If you fire it to illuminate targets, it MAY BE it also accidentally burns whoever is in there, since it is spread like a freaking cloud; (5) it is damn hard to put out. As a consequence, it is just obvious that the boundaries of use and misuse of such a thing is thin – at least. Therefore, it may become a weapon (even a WMD). Just connecting the dots… are right-wingers even able to do that?

A recent (9 Nov. 2005) documentary by Rai24NEWS (viewable in Italian and English) exposed American use of chemical weapons (white phosphorus) in Iraq, in particular during the battle of Fallujah.

The information seems to be as old as November 2004:
indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/11/301929.html

Naturally, the US denies.

And then, watching these pictures I truly feel like killing myself.

Today, after hearing the news on CNN, I sent them this letter:

Dear CNN,

today, at 12:50 Pacific time, I was watching your news report on the CNN Headlines News channel. One of the titles was about the liberation of the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Iraq, and the death of Nicola Calipari (Sgrena’s bodyguard). They were both shot by US gunfire.

The news just didn’t sound right: more or less it was, “Sgrena was liberated and injured by US gunfire after she failed to stop at a check point”. With a headline like that, everything sounds “ok”, everythang’s cool, simple, normal, in a logical sequence of events: simply put, it sounds acceptable. But the thing is, forgive my language, this event is NOT fucking acceptable! That’s the “key” point here. And as journalists you have to communicate this “no acceptance” thing, this unacceptable tragedy.

Therefore, dear CNN, I feel like I have a few things to ask you to do in the future (and I’m gonna break it down for you guys):

1. when you have to report the death of an innocent Italian man by means of “friendly” US gunfire in Iraq, please don’t fail to highlight that an innocent Italian man was actually killed by his supposed allies.
2. also, please don’t make every tragedy sound like it’s acceptable, when it’s not. I believe American people are incredibly resourceful people, and they can handle the blow and the sadness.
3. generally speaking, when you make headlines please don’t forget to include the “key points”. For instance, the death of Calipari is definitely a key point (although unsettling, see (1) and (2)). If you fail to report it in the titles, you are not doing a good job.

That’s it. I rely on you guys for some decent news. I don’t want to put you in the same league of the ghouls at Fox News.

Ettore Pasquini

A very detailed article about the Abu Ghraib tortures on Iraqi people perpetrated by US soldiers, last April. (The article is by Seymour M. Hersh, for the New Yorker.)

There’s an article on the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” about a U.S. marine shooting hostages captured during the bloody Falluja strikes. Appearently, last friday (Nov. 12, 2004) a marine squad had captured 5 rebels in the northern part of Falluja, and kept them in a mosque, unarmed. They were in good health. Saturday, Kevin Sites, NBC reporter, heard some shooting noises coming from inside the mosque, and once inside, he saw a soldier talking with his lieutenant, who was asking if he shot the prisoners. The soldier chuckled. 3 prisoners were heavily wounded, and one was dead. The article says the marine responsible for the killing of the helpless iraqi man is now suspended.
www.repubblica.it/2004/k/sezioni/esteri/iraq37/marineinqui/marineinqui.html