Reply #9: You mention the Iraqi Health Ministry official - have you seen

[evermind]

the reports of the press conference he held, where he accused the US directly of use of toxic weapons? He had been sent by the Iraqi government to investigate health conditions in Fallujah, and concluded that the US had used banned weapons.

This was a very surprising story at the time, to me anyway, since I assumed the public statements of Iraqi ministry spokespeople were more or less under US control...

Though Dr Khalid ash-Shaykhli's press conference (apparently of early April this year) was attended by international press, including Knight-Ridder and Washington Post, I don't believe there was any US reporting of it outside fringe sources at the time.

The story was covered by the Moscow Times ( http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/03/18/120.html )

Excerpt:

Dr. ash-Shaykhli was sent by the pro-American Baghdad government to assess health conditions in Fallujah, a city of 300,000 that was razed to the ground by a U.S. assault on a few hundred insurgents, most of whom slipped away long before the attack. The ruin of the city was complete: Every single house was either destroyed (from 75 to 80 percent of the total) or heavily damaged. The city's entire infrastructure - water, electricity, food, transport, medicine - was obliterated. Indeed, the city's hospitals were among the first targets, in order to prevent medical workers from spreading "propaganda" about civilian casualties, U.S. officials said at the time.

Eyewitness accounts from the few survivors of the onslaught, which killed an estimated 1,200 noncombatants, have consistently reported the use of "burning chemicals" by American forces: horrible concoctions that roasted people alive with an unquenchable jellied fire, InterPress reported. They also tell of whole quadrants of the city in which nothing was left alive, not even dogs or goats - quadrants that were sealed off by the victorious Americans for mysterious scouring operations after the battle. Others told of widespread use of cluster bombs in civilian areas - a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions, but a standard practice throughout the war.

The few fragments of this information that made it through the ever-
vigilant filter were instantly dismissed as anti-American propaganda, although they often came from civilians who had opposed the heavy-handed insurgent presence in the town. Rejected as well were the innumerable horror stories of those who had seen their whole
families - including women, children, the sick and the elderly - slaughtered in the "liberal rules of engagement" established by Bush's top brass. Most of the city was declared "weapons-free": military jargon meaning that soldiers could shoot "whatever they see - it's all considered hostile," The New York Times reported, in a story buried deep inside the paper.

Yet the ash-Shaykhli team - again, appointed by the Bush-backed government - confirmed the use of "mustard gas, nerve gas and other burning chemicals" by U.S. forces during the battle. Dr. ash-Shaykhli said that survivors - still living in refugee camps, along with some 200,000 former Fallujah residents who fled before the assault - are now showing the medical effects of attack by chemical agents and the use of depleted uranium shells. (American officials have admitted raining more than 250,000 pounds of toxin-tipped DU ammunition on Iraqis since the war began.)

The Moscow Times story comes packed with links to other information, which you might like to check out.

Googling on Dr ash-Shaykhli's name will turn up other coverage.

The Fallujah story is also covered in some depth at uruknet: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=12676 (WARNING: GRUESOME PICTURES)