Fallujah

[Open Edit]

This new topic is awaiting edits. It was started by dutchdemocrat.

Hi All. This thread is for the documentation of the sacking of Fallujah by US military forces. Excessive force was used and violation of international law and the Geneva Convention was alleged to have occured.

dutchdem: I'd like to offer this. Abu Graib prison is about 20 kilometers from Fallujah. Families from that city waited outside of the prison desparate to hear something about their detained relatives for a year before Fallujah erupted. sfexpat2000

Please feel free to add... Edit... anyone... where appropriate. What you say is also repeated in one of the videos by an Arab journalist. I have a lot of unpublished video from Fallujah up on the net now - any comments on them would be interesting. DD

Thank you for doing this. sfexpat2000

This is awesome as far as the amount of research - kudos, but at the same time I can't help but saying prayers and crying. I have been working on another thread in the Research Forum called Sources of News that are Relevant to the Iraq War located here:

Sources of News that are Relevant to the Iraq War I dedicated a special link for this page under the topic of Insurgency / Counter-Insurgencylet me know what you think, and thanks again DD and pray for this planet. --stop the bleeding

Wow! Fantastic work you have done as well at sources. Let's pray in our own small way and continue to be the difference. Many people doing small things will make a big difference. DD

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Synopsis

Fallujah 1920: A history lesson - the city of Fallujah

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster...

T.E. Lawrence, (Lawrence of Arabia)
The Sunday Times, August 1920

Fallujah was one of the most peaceful areas of the country just after the fall of Saddam.... there wasn't much looting and pillaging and the new mayor of the city, selected by local tribal leaders - Taha Bidaywi Hamed - was more Pro-American than most in the country.

On 28 April, 2003, a couple of hundred people, fed up the imposition of a curfew, gathered outside a local school to protest the presence of foreign forces in the city.

Future historians may very well look back at this day in Fallujah at being the trigger of the Iraqi resistance to occupation. For it was this incident that led to the retaliatory and equally as despicable lynching of the four American contractors.

1 May 2003
TWO KILLED IN NEW IRAQ DEMO SHOOTING
From Chris Hughes In Al-Fallujah.
Pictures by Julian Andrews



It started when a young boy hurled a sandal at a US jeep - it ended with two Iraqis dead and 16 seriously injured.

I watched in horror as American troops opened fire on a crowd of 1,000 unarmed people here yesterday. Many, including children, were cut down by a 20-second burst of automatic gunfire during a demonstration against the killing of 13 protesters at the Al-Kaahd school on Monday. They had been whipped into a frenzy by religious leaders. The crowd were facing down a military compound of tanks and machine-gun posts.

The youngster had apparently lobbed his shoe at the jeep - with a M2 heavy machine gun post on the back - as it drove past in a convoy of other vehicles. A soldier operating the weapon suddenly ducked, raised it on its pivot then pressed his thumb on the trigger. Mirror photographer Julian Andrews and I were standing about six feet from the vehicle when the first shots rang out, without warning.

We dived for cover under the compound wall as troops within the crowd opened fire. The convoy accelerated away from the scene. Iraqis in the line of fire dived for cover, hugging the dust to escape being hit. We could hear the bullets screaming over our heads. Explosions of sand erupted from the ground - if the rounds failed to hit a demonstrator first. Seconds later the shooting stopped and the screaming and wailing began.

One of the dead, a young man, lay face up, half his head missing, first black blood, then red spilling into the dirt.

SNIP

The crowd waved their fists at the gunships angrily and shouted: "Go home America, go home America."

SNIP

Tribal leaders struggled to contain the mob which was reaching a frenzy.

SNIP

Some of the stones just reached the compound walls. Many threw sandals - a popular Iraqi insult.

SNIP

Then came the gunfire - and the death and the agony.

SNIP

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12908278&method=full&siteid=50143

There were no US casualties in the flare up.

On March 31, 2004 - four American contractors are murdered in the city and images of their dangling, mutilated bodies are broadcast around the world.

The next week, American troops launched Operation Vigilant Resolve. On 19 April, a ceasefire was called with many deaths on both sides.

On 7 November 2004 - Operation Phantom Fury began. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the buildings in Fallujah were destroyed during the US led Coalition Forces offensive on Fallujah with an estimated 30,000 houses damaged and more than 5,000 totally destroyed. In addition, around 8,500 shops, 60 mosques and 20 government offices required massive repairs. Hundreds of Iraqis, holed up in the city,

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Documentation
First Periodical Report of Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/survey111105.htm (link to full document)

MHRI – November 23, 2005 Baghdad

The Monitoring Network for Human Rights (MHRI), which consists of more than 20 Iraqi organizations for Human Rights, made this report about the crimes and continuous violations of human rights in Iraq.

1. Crimes of War and Crimes Against Humanity

- First crime:

Some of the ugliest crimes committed by the occupation forces and by Iraqi military units are the ones committed in the city of Fallujah in the battles of November 2004, and which we summarize in the following:

1. The plundering of health care centers and their destruction by bombing as has taken place in the "Taleb Al-Janabi" hospital and in the Central Clinic. Further the Central Hospital was occupied; the staff and everyone in the hospital at that time were arrested. Ambulances in the city have been bombed and the rescue teams were hindered from entering the city, among them the convoy of the Ministry of Health, despite of the fact that more than 50,000 civilians still remained in the city.

2. Internationally prohibited weapons were used in the bombing of the city, such as phosphoric weapons, Napalm, bombs containing unknown gases, causing the blood to explode out of bodies. 24 carbonized bodies have been found in the area of the military neighbourhood. Surviving civilian eyewitnesses stated that the soldiers of the occupation forces entered the area wearing gas masks. Furthermore, cases of deformed newly born increased as a consequence of the use of such weapons. In a press conference, which took place during the battle, Mr. Khaled Al-Sheikhali, official of the Ministry of Health, confirmed the use of such weapons.

3. More than 280 missing persons are reported from among the inhabitants of the city of Fallujah. Their fate is still unknown. These persons are officially registered by names and by photo at the local authorities in the city. It is further estimated that the total number of missing persons exceeds 500.

4. Rescue teams, who were allowed to free the city from corpses, to prevent diseases to spread among the soldiers, affirmed that there was a great number of civilian corpses lying in areas, indicating that they were neither armed nor resisting when they were attacked. Bodies were found in beds, kitchens or on chairs, bodies of children near those of their fathers. Further they found bodies of women, their dresses torn, their features disfigured. Many of the dead showed head wounds, which indicate that they were murdered from short distance and in the manner of executions.

5. The existence of a mass grave with approximately 400 bodies in the "Sajar" area, an area protected by the US Forces, shooting anyone approaching it. The US Officials responsible for burying the dead in the city, admitted to one rescue team, that they had buried 380 bodies in this area after the end of the battle, and that these bodies had previously been stored in a refrigerator originally used for the storage of potatoes.

6. The dogs in Fallujah are infected with different diseases as a result of their eating corpses, and are now endangering the health of the citizens.

7. Arrested civilians were forced to participate in cleaning the city from the remains of the battle and what has been used in it. In one of the disposal sites of these remains, bodies of fighters and civilians, among them women and children were found. The entrance to these areas is prohibited.

8. Information on the whereabouts of some of prisoners, who were transferred to the "Buka" prison in Basra, is lost although they had been seen by other prisoners who were released later. One case is that of Sheikh Shaker Hamdan Abdullah Fayyad Al-Kabeesi, who was arrested on the 11th October 2004 in Fallujah, carrying "Buka" prisoner's number 165251, and who was supposed to be released on the 22nd of December 2004 but still remains missing.

9. Many civilians trying to escape the hell of shell firing were victims of snipers, who were following US orders to shoot at anyone who moves, even at children. Many civilian eyewitnesses affirmed that the streets of their neighborhoods were full of dead civilians, killed on their way to take refuge in the nearest mosques, following US appeals to do so. M.A. states that his father was wounded by a bullet that penetrated his nick and his mother was killed by snipers as they were on their way to the mosque. He states that he dragged his wounded father to the "Al-Hadra Al- Mohammadiya" mosque, were they were arrested but released a few days later. He does not know what has become of his mother's body.

10. Survivors of the battle assure that US Forces killed the wounded resistance fighters in the sport field of "Sumud" Club. This explains the refusal of the US Forces to see or transport the bodies of the mass graves in "Sajar" and those bodies left in the heaps of rubble.

11. Eyewitnesses confirm that 4 persons of the civilians seeking refuge at the "Al-Hadra Al-Mohammadiya" mosque, were led to a near wall, with their hands tied and their eyes covered, and were then executed there by US and Iraqi Forces, on the grounds of suspecting them to be fighters.

12. Despite the fact that more than 30,000 houses and buildings were destroyed in the battle, the US Forces continued to destroy empty houses before their inhabitants could return. US Forces destroyed in one day 20 houses in the "Shurta" neighborhood. These houses connected 2 schools, which were taken as military bases. The inhabitants of these houses confirm that they had seen their houses in good conditions only a few days before. The reason for the demolition was to secure clear vision on the surrounding areas.

13. The crimes committed against humanity in the city of Fallujah are still ongoing. The city has been turned into a big prison; its 350,000 citizens are not allowed to neither leave nor enter without undergoing abusive and despotic procedures, standing in contrast to the basic rules of Human Rights. Living conditions are extremely hard in many aspects of public life, in addition to transgressions by US soldiers, thereby increasing the suffering of the citizens of Fallujah.

14. The brutality of the crimes is most obvious in the case of the killing of injured and unarmed civilians in a mosque on the hands of a US soldier. Although there were many witnesses to this incident, the military court in which this case was later handled declared that the accused did not violate the security procedures, and was therefore found not guilty of any charge.

http://www.brusselstribunal.org/survey111105.htm

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Links
* Chris Floyd's page of video, audio and links connected to both operations against the city of Fallujah
*US Army Admits USE of white
phosphorus as weapon. Taken down by military censors but[br />here are the backups]
*Blog from US soldiers who participated in Fallujah operations
*Thinkprogress.com shreds Pentagon's WP is 'no chemical weapon' angle. Finds exclusive classified Pentagon document describing Hussein using white phosphorus chemical weapons - against the Kurds.
* Dissident Voice Articles on Fallujah
* Willie Pete and the Theo-logicians of Empire by Lila Rajiva, November 20, 2005
* Incinerating Iraqis: The Napalm Cover-Up by Mike Whitney, June 27, 2005
* Fallujah: Dresden in Iraq by Ken Sanders, April 14, 2005
* "No Great Way To Die" - But the Generals Love Napalm by Media Lens, March 30, 2005
* "Unusual Weapons Used in Fallujah by Dahr Jamail, November 29, 2005
* Pentagon Reverses Position and Admits U.S. Troops Used White Phosphorous Against Iraqis in Fallujah, by Democracy Now!, November 17, 2005
* War Without Rules by George Monbiot, The Guardian, November 15, 2005
* US criticized for use of phosphorous in Fallujah raids, The Independent, Nov. 9, 2005
* Debate: Did the U.S. Military Attack Iraqi Civilians With White Phosphorous Bombs in Violation of the Geneva Conventions? We speak with a former U.S. soldier who witnessed orders being given to drop white phosphorous bombs over Fallujah; a Pentagon spokesperson in Baghdad who admits such bombs were used but denied they were used as a chemical weapon; and the news director of RAI TV, the Italian TV network that produced "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre." Democracy Now!, November 8, 2005
* US Forces Used Chemical Weapons During Assault on City of Fallujah, The Independent, November 8, 2005
* US Lied to Britain Over Use of Napalm in Iraq War, The Independent (UK), June 17, 2005
* Journalists Tell of US Falluja Killings, Aljazeera, March 20, 2005
* U.S. used banned weapons in Fallujah -- Health ministry, Aljazeera.com, March 3, 2005
* U.S. drives into heart of Fallujah Army, Marines face rockets and bombs in battle to take insurgents' stronghold, San Francisco Chronicle, November 10, 2004
* US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq, The Independent (UK), August 10, 2003
* Officials confirm dropping firebombs on Iraqi troops, San Diego Union-Tribune, August 5. 2003

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Quotes

I’m sorry it’s so long, but please, please read and forward widely. The truth of what’s happening in Falluja has to get out.
Fallujah
Siege by Jo Wilding - April 14 2004>

"It's no great way to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect."
-- Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11, who admitted US forces used napalm against Iraqi forces in March-April 2003. The Independent (UK), August 10, 2003

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Images
WARNING! Many are unpleasant to view!
Fallujah Image Gallery #1
Fallujah Image Gallery #2

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Video
WARNING! Some are unpleasant to view!
* Link to the Italian Documentary produced by RAI television on the use of phosphorus weapons and allegations of war crimes in Fallujah
* Rare footage of a a British nurse/doctor entering a hospital in Fallujah after first passing through an insurgent checkpoint. The head doctor is highly disturbed with the slaughter that has taken place and is followed by an interview with an Iraqi women who talks about the snipers picking off everyone on the streets. After, is some footage that the BBC picked up from a freelancer which was certainly not shown in America. It shows the Fallujans burying their dead en masse... men, women and children after the sacking of their city.There is a long BREAK in the middle of this video... please be patient as it streams into the second half.
* This video is a montage of the IRAQ war and shows many scenes from the Fallujah operations - including raids in residential apartments, abuse of civilians and indiscriminate bombing in civilian areas.
* After Fallujah and Iraq were 'safer' according to the US military Brass. Not according to this documentary which shows footage of some of the thousands of refugees in makeshift camps - living in tents outside the city. Residents told the interviews that food aide had stopped and the were freezing and just wanted to go home. But go home to what? When Fallujans returned home it difficult to try and even find out where they used to live. Seventy percent of the city was destroyed or severely damaged. Houses with dead bodies were marked by US Marines with a cross and a groups of Fallujan citizens were herded to collect the dead and bury them. "We found the bodies right behind the front doors," said one resident. "It looked like they had opened their doors and were immediatly shot dead... these were mostly men who stayed behind to protect their own homes. It was Ramadam." The film also shows the dead bodies of people who apparently asleep in their beds.
* What happened in the Fallujah mosque? This video documents the killing of an injured Iraqi by NBC correspondent Kevin Sites, who was allegedly banned from the embedded press after the media hoopla. The Marine corporal filmed shooting a wounded and unarmed man in a mosque above - in Fallujah last November - was not be charged in connection with the incident by the U.S. Marine Corps investigative body. In a statement, Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski said that an investigation including a review of the videotape of the shooting had determined that the Marine's action "was consistent with the established rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict."
* Wounded, an Iraqi writhes on the ground... The marines kill him. Then cheer. Watch.
*