Putting the Lie to the Pentagon's Defense of "Fire-Bomb"

In a well-written article that tackles the assertions in the recent Defense Department's acknowledgement and defense of using white phosphorus in Fallujah, Mark Kraft burrows into the misinformation dissmeintaed by the PR team at the Pentagon.

Especially significant are the following paragraphs:

"What the [Army] article does not say, however, is that there is no way you can use white phosphorus like that without forming a deadly chemical cloud that kills everything within a tenth of a mile in all directions from where it hits. Obviously, the effect of such deadly clouds weren't just psychological in nature.

This claim of "shake and bake" is further confirmed in a news article by an embedded journalist at the time. (See... [article])

"Bogert is a mortar team leader who directed his men to fire round after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the city Friday and Saturday, never knowing what the targets were or what damage the resulting explosions caused. . . they ran through the drill again and again, sending a mixture of burning white phosphorus and high explosives they call "shake 'n' bake" into a cluster of buildings where insurgents have been spotted all week."

With some of the mainstream press finally reporting this story (CNN ran a flawed segment), many are relying on the official military communiques, which contain slanted and skewed information at best.

Also see the _The Independent_ article that rebuts much of the disinformation being into play by the defense Department.