Marine Jimmy Massey: it's like in Vietnam, we are using forbidden weapons against the population.
Patricia Lombroso

"Our superiors at the Pentagon keep declaring that is "inhumane" to use chemical weapons and mass destruction weapons in Iraq, because civilians get killed. We have used and we keep using white phosphorus and depleted uranium. We are responsible for the continuous massacre of Iraqi civilians." Marine Jimmy Massey starts his interview with "Il Manifesto" with this declaration. He has just returned from Iraq, he is a disabled person and author of "Cowboys from hell". He has realized the interview during a tour in 27 states and 40 towns held by the organization "Iraq veterans against the war" that yesterday took part to Washington rally.

Q
You have said you've been eye witness of the use of white phosphorus during American bombing in Iraq.
A
Yes, we use it in the missile ogives launched by helicopters and in the bullets shot by the artillery.

Q
White phosphorus is a chemical agent used during the war in Vietnam in napalm bombs. Is it the same substance - banned in 1980 - that has been used in Iraq?
A
Yes. It is the substance we use in missile ogives.

Q
What is the effect after the impact with the target?
A
This extermination weapon can turn into ashes a whole military vehicle

Q
Have you seen the effects of these white phosphorus bombs?
A
Yes, I have. I have seen many innocent civilians dying burned alive: horrific scenes that i will remember for my whole life. In Iraq I have been eye witness of the consequences of the use of napalm weapons, right like the ones used in Vietnam.

Q
The Pentagon has declared that those are not napalm bombs but of a "similar version that does not pollute the environment."
A
I have seen many civilians turned into ashes.

Q
These weapons were used against specific targets or in an indiscriminate manner?
A
White phosphorus bombs have been used during the day and during the night, continuously. I have seen dying many innocent civilians, burned alive, women and children included: those immages are impossible to describe.

Q
Were you informed by your superiors that during the invasion these extermination weapons would have been used?
A
No, we weren't. Nobody informed us. Then I started to ask questions to my superiors and the answer was that I was kicked out from the Marines.

Q
Weren't these bombs said to be precise and highly technological in hitting the target?
A
Yes, this is the way they are called, but I have seen white phosphorus and depleted uranium missiles hitting many vehicles and buses bursting with civilians. I have seen many civilians incinirated, carbonized because of white phosphorus. Those bombs contain 44 pounds of polysterene-like gel and 63 gallons of propellent.

Q
Experts from Global Security Organization equal white phosphorus bombs to napalm bombs, which in Vietnam were used to destroy the jungle. In Iraq where have they been used?
A
In Iraq, on the ground, it is used by the artillery: very young survivors have declared that that white phosphorus has been used in Fallujah massacre, in april 2004.

Q
Weren't mass destruction weapons the motive because of which Bush waged a war against Iraq?
A
Right, and then we, Americans, have used mass destruction weapons against Iraqi people. We are responsible of a genocide in Iraq.

Q
Let's talk about depleted uranium. Has it been used also during the second American invasion of Iraq?
A
Of course. The quantity of depleted uranium used in Iraq and Afghanistan has doubled compared to the first Gulf war.

Q
Did you American soldiers know that in Iraq the use of extermination weapons is against not only international law but also against the protocol rules of the war criminal code in the USA?
A
I knew that all we are doing concerning the use of violence and extermination weapons against Iraqi people is a violation of the Geneva Convention, but our superiors responded directly to the president and his lawyers (Alberto Gonzales, current Attorney General). In Irq we were told that since we were fighting against terrorista, Geneva Convention did not apply.