Note: This diary has been updated to summarize media coverage and lack thereof.

As if it is not bad enough to see the Bush administration furiously attempting to stall legislation gaining steam in Congress that would ban the use of torture on captured terrorist suspects, Italian State Television has now broadcast a documentary accusing the United States military of illegal use of incendiary bombs in Iraq.
BBC summarises the RAI documentary:

US ‘uses incendiary arms’ in Iraq

Italian state TV, Rai, has broadcast a documentary accusing the US military of using white phosphorus bombs against civilians in the Iraqi city of Falluja.

Rai says this amounts to the illegal use of chemical arms, though the bombs are considered incendiary devices.

Eyewitnesses and ex-US soldiers say the weapon was used in built-up areas in the insurgent-held city.

The US military denies this, but admits using white phosphorus bombs in Iraq to illuminate battlefields.

Washington is not a signatory of an international treaty restricting the use of white phosphorus devices.

Transmission of the documentary… coincides with the first anniversary of the US-led assault on Falluja, which displaced most of the city’s 300,000 population and left many of its buildings destroyed.

The documentary was shown on Rai’s rolling news channel, with a warning that the some of the footage was disturbing.

‘Destroyed evidence’

The documentary begins with formerly classified footage of the Americans using napalm bombs during the Vietnam war.

It then shows a series of photographs from Falluja of corpses with the flesh burnt off but clothes still intact – which it says is consistent with the effects of white phosphorus on humans.

Jeff Englehart, described as a former US soldier who served in Falluja, tells of how he heard orders for white phosphorus to be deployed over military radio – and saw the results.

“Burned bodies, burned women, burned children; white phosphorus kills indiscriminately… When it makes contact with skin, then it’s absolutely irreversible damage, burning flesh to the bone,” he says.
Last December, the US state department issued a denial of what it called “widespread myths” about the use of illegal weapons in Falluja.

“Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. US forces have used them very sparingly in Falluja, for illumination purposes. They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters,” the US statement said.

However, the Rai film also alleges that Washington has systematically attempted to destroy filmed evidence of the alleged use of white phosphorus on civilians in Falluja.

Italian public opinion has been consistently against the war and the Rai documentary can only reinforce calls for a pullout of Italian soldiers as soon as possible, our correspondent says…

The BBC article also includes a box on the effects of White Phosphorus and rules governing its legal use during war time:

WHITE PHOSPHORUS

Spontaneously flammable chemical used for battlefield illumination

Contact with particles causes burning of skin and flesh

Use of incendiary weapons prohibited for attacking civilians (Protocol III of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons)

Protocol III not signed by US.

Update:

RAI’s documentary is making headlines around the globe, but the U.S. mainstream media is strangely silent on the subject. The Christian Science Monitor is giving it major treatment in a piece by Tom Regan that summarizes the RAI claims and also links to other articles in the world press. The only other original reporting in the U.S. MSM, according to a Google News search is a short UPI piece that plays down the story and misidentifies the source of the allegations in its headline: “Iraq calls U.S. flares chemical weapons.” UPI is owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, an ally of the Bush administration and a major cog in the right-wing media spin machine. The only other U.S. mainstream media outlet that seems to be covering the story is ABC News which has a Reuters piece.

Amy Goodman’s Democracy now, on the other hand, is giving this story prominent play, including a link to the RAI documentary (parental guidance strongly advised. This is gruesome stuff), and a replay of the original piece they carried at the time (there were claims in the immediate aftermath of the “battle of Fallujah” that the U.S. had used White Phosphorus, but then as now, most of the U.S. media ignored the story. Democracy Now was a notable exception.

Finally, uroknet has extensive coverage, including some very disturbing photographs. Again, be forewarned. These photographs are not for the faint of heart.