Affirmative Action

OK, so I'm ready to talk about what Affirmative Action really does. I'm tired of calls of 'reverse discrimination' or 'reverse racism'. And, I am certainly tried of arguements that race shouldn't be a factor in admissions. Here we go...

The following is the origional text calling for Affirmative Action, part of executive order 10925. I put the call in bold. Note, there are no calls for quotas nor 'reverse discrimination'. (http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/35th/thelaw/eo-10925.html)

PART III-OBLIGATIONS OF GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS AND SUBCONTRACTORS
SUBPART A-CONTRACTORS' AGREEMENTS
SECTION 301. Except in contracts exempted in accordance with section 303 of this order, all government contracting agencies shall include in every government contract hereafter entered into the following provisions:

"In connection with the performance of work under this contract, the contractor agrees as follows:

"(1) The contractor will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin. The contractor will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin. Such action shall include, but not be limited to, the following: employment, upgrading, demotion or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and selection for training, including apprenticeship. The contractor agrees to post in conspicuous places, available to employees and applicants for employment, notices to be provided by the contracting officer setting forth the provisions of this nondiscrimination clause.

------

Following this order, Johnson discussed the reason for the order in a speech at Howard University:

"You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: 'now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.' You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe you have been completely fair . . . This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity—not just legal equity but human ability—not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result."

And, finally the program was enforced through Exectutive Order 11246: http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/35th/thelaw/eo-11246.html Note that there is no change to the origional call.

While, not calling for quotas, the Bakke case in 1978 made the practice of using quota's illegal.

Again, in 1995, Clinton reaffirmed the illegality of quotas stating a call for the elimination of any program that: "(a) creates a quota; (b) creates preferences for unqualified individuals; (c) creates reverse discrimination; or (d) continues even after its equal opportunity purposes have been achieved."

So, as we can see, the claims made my many are directly false. Now, the issue is whether or not race should be a factor in admissions.

It seems quite clear to me that the experience of folks of color has the potential to make them stronger people, harder workers, and more well rounded than whites. It seems to me that when you grow up faced with racism, discrimination - both blatant and systemic - you would develop strength of character and aquire additional skills.

Studying racism has shown many of the "disadvantages" racism gives to whites: http://lipmagazine.org/articles/featbrasel_145.shtml (text below) How can we argue these shouldn't be considered in applications/hiring processes?

That is my peice for the day.

Here is Wise's text, there is more in the article:

On a basic level, one might consider the harms that come from racial privilege if, by virtue of that privilege, one remains isolated from others. So, to live in an almost all white neighborhood, thanks to past and present housing bias, as about 85% of whites do, means huge advantages in terms of wealth and assets, but also means that we're cut off from the experiences, cultures and contributions of people of color—to our own detriment in terms of being functionally literate and interculturally competent for a country that is increasingly non-white, and a world that never was white to begin with. And while that isolation and ignorance might not have mattered in an earlier era, now it does.


Even more though, I think a system of privilege often has the effect of setting up those who receive certain advantages for a fall. What I mean is that dominant group members quite logically come to expect certain things, and to have a sense of entitlement as a result of their relatively privileged status. And that can leave a person unprepared to deal with setbacks: personal, professional, or whatever else. The coping skills that oppressed groups have to develop to survive, are not as "needed" for dominant groups, and the result is sometimes tragic.


I started thinking about this in the wake of the multiple white suburban school shootings, and also data I was coming across that indicated disproportionate pathological and dysfunctional behavior among whites in various categories.


I mean, general crime rates are disproportionate in communities of color and poor communities, due to socioeconomic conditions that are correlated with crime. Yet specific crimes, like serial killing, mass murder, child sexual abuse, or drug use, and other dysfunctions, like suicide, eating disorders, or alcoholism are mostly found in the white middle class. And whereas everyone, right or left, would seek to explain "why" in the case of dark and poor folks—the left saying economics and structural causes, the right saying genes or cultural flaws—when it comes to white and middle class dysfunction, the question, "why," isn't asked.

Or if it is, the "causes" are inevitably located externally—the video games, the music, the movies—and never viewed as possibly intrinsic to the group in question or the environment in which that group finds itself. But I wonder, "why the disconnect?" Why are some crimes or dysfunctions disproportionately dark and poor, and others disproportionately white and middle class or above?


I would suggest that part of the answer is that in this culture, whites are dominant, and tend to develop a sense of control, entitlement and expectation as a result, unlike non-dominant groups, who through experience know that obstacles and barriers are part of their everyday experience. And since dominant group members have not had to deal with major obstacles to our advance, or in terms of our being accepted and valued in society, we really haven't had to develop those coping skills. So when the going gets tough, so to speak, we, more so than others, are more likely to react in a manner that seems so bizarre that it literally defies logic.


So if you look at the various pathologies that are disproportionately found in the white community, what are they? Almost all pathologies about "control" and rage—serial killing, mass murder, sexual sadism on the one hand; and then internally directed control pathologies on the other hand, like suicide, eating disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. The pathologies that are disproportionately in communities of color are not about control in the same way—they are largely what could be called "survival" pathologies, and pathologies related to deprivation or perceived deprivation.

So what I am trying to ask is whether there may be dysfunctional aspects to white, middle class culture—and the advantages that come from being white, male and middle class—in terms of building up expectations, generating a sense of entitlement, and causing a sense of invincibility that leads folks to let down their guards to serious problems or pathologies?


In other words, is the system of racial privilege that benefits whites so much ultimately planting the seeds of those same white folks' self-destruction and social entropy?

Urgent Action Needed

I realize that not all of the people who are reading this go to AU (but maybe you can write a letter as a concerned citizen). We just really need your help here. Any questions/comments/concerns contact me kh4989a@american.edu.
peace, krissy

Hello All,

I’m writing to you with a plea for action.

Aramark is considering changing the shifts for most of the custodial staff to be overnight. While this may not seem like a big deal to us, it is a huge problem for people with families.

One of my friends is a single mom with 4 kids. Her kids are young and in school, they need her at home at night.

Another one of my friends has a sick child, she needs to be there to care for him in the evenings, and to be there if he needs her at night.

This move will destroy families and lives. Not only do we fail to pay our custodial staff fairly, give them poor (and expensive) health care, and prevent them from having access to classes (like the rest of the staff), but this adds another layer of oppression.

I am urging you to write a letter to the Aramark staff, the president, the Board of Trustees, and the workers’ union representative demanding this move be rejected. Here is the contact information:

Aramark Staff:
Audre Terry (Director of Housekeeping) - aterry@american.edu

Interim President:
Cornelius Kerwin president@american.edu

Board of Regents Representatives:
Graduate students – Peter Brusoe - peter.brusoe@american.edu
Student Government – Kyle Taylor - kt8585a@american.edu

Union Representative:
Maria Diaz: diazm@seiu82.org

Thanks for your time,
krissy haltinner

Bono's Speech

Here is a space where you can watch the video - it is SO worth it: http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2006/02/02/bono.speaks.cnn&wm=10
Here is a transcript copy: http://www.data.org/archives/000774.php

Here is what I find to be the most powerful part... you really should watch it:

Because you’re good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can’t afford it.
But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn’t accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature”. In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.

It’s annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, “Equal?” A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, “Yeah, ‘equal,’ that’s what it says here in this book. We’re all made in the image of God.”

And eventually the Pharaoh says, “OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews—but not the blacks.”

“Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man.”

So on we go with our journey of equality.

On we go in the pursuit of justice.

We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than two million Americans… left and right together… united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.

We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King—mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.

Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market… that’s a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents… That’s a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents… that’s a justice issue.
And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.

That’s why I say there’s the law of the land… and then there is a higher standard. There’s the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it’s OK to protect our agriculture but it’s not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?

As the laws of man are written, that’s what they say.

God will not accept that.

Mine won’t, at least. Will yours?

Funding Says it All

This morning I was at the gym, reading the Post Express as usual. On page 5 I noted the blurb at the top stating "1%: The Proportion of the federal budget...Bono has challenged the U.S. government to give to the world's poor...would equal about $26 billion".

The headline just below reads:
"Bush Asks $120B for Wars"

With my excellent math skills that calculates to 4.6% of the U.S. budget.

Apparently that means that Bush, and his god-loving self, feel that War is worth nearly 5 times as much as fighting poverty.

Wonder what his "Moral Majority" would say about that. But, I guess that since it isn't hurting the 'sanctity of marriage', isn't 'harming the economy', isn't a 'threat to the nation' and isn't hurting our 'freedom' it doesn't matter.

Maybe I should talk to him about how poverty is economically instable and impermanent as we are producing it globally. Perhaps he would listen if I told him that poverty is a threat to security. I wonder if he would even care to note that his own neo-fascist laws limit freedom.

I wont even start on his religion.

I think he knows. I think he and his pals just don't care.

Kianda

This is my friend/coworker who died/was killed. We don't know why - as you can see, there are a lot of mysteries here. It horrifies me that, because he is a black man in the U.S., we may never find out. (meaning, if he was a white woman, the media would be all over this --- need evidence: runaway bride, Natallee Holloway (missing in Aruba)...). If you have any ideas to help continue to get this investigation to progress and be in the news, I would love to hear it.

I love and appreciate you.
krissy

Man's Electrocution Baffles Acquaintances
Doctoral Candidate Dies Atop D.C. Transformer

By Paul Schwartzman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 16, 2005; B05

D.C. police yesterday identified a popular American University graduate student as the man who was electrocuted after touching high-voltage machinery at a downtown Pepco substation.

Detectives are seeking to determine what drove Kianda Bell, 31, to end up atop a 10-foot-tall transformer early Wednesday, apparently after scaling two security fences. Signs at the site warn of the electrical hazards.

Rachel Lerebours, 27, Bell's fiancee, said she knew of no reason for him to have gone to the substation, in the 1600 block of L Street NW. After last seeing him Tuesday morning, Lerebours said she knew that Bell planned to go out with friends that night. She said she became worried when he failed to turn up at their Rockville apartment by midnight.

"I didn't know where he was, and I tried to call his cell phone many times, but he never answered," she said. She learned of his fate, she said, when a police officer answered the cell phone.

Bell worked Tuesday at his research job at the Defense Manpower Data Center, a part of the Defense Department, where he had been employed since June, according to a supervisor who spoke on the condition of anonymity because agency policy bars officials from talking to the news media without permission.

The supervisor described Bell as "pleasant, very happy and very well-mannered. He was extremely professional and friendly, and we thought the world of him.

"We are totally at a loss to explain this. It was bizarre and totally unexpected," the supervisor said.

Firefighters found Bell after they received a call about 2:15 a.m. reporting a fire on the side of the office building, adjoining a construction pit, in which the substation is located. Bell was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials said he was subjected to 19,600 volts.

Associates described Bell, an Oakland, Calif., native, as tall, handsome and scholarly, with a talent for tennis, skiing and basketball. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Davis before entering American University.

Lerebours, a Georgetown University graduate student, said she and Bell had become engaged after having started dating a year ago. He had been working on his doctoral thesis in sociology at American University, where he served as an adjunct professor teaching introductory sociology.

"Everything was great, as far as I'm concerned," she said.

Russell Stone, chairman of the university's sociology department, described Bell as a "wonderful student and an outstanding teacher" and said students are "shocked and heartbroken by the news."

"We are completely baffled by the circumstances," he said.

Bette Dickerson, a sociology professor who was Bell's adviser, said his dissertation focused on victims of gun violence in poor urban areas who suffer spinal chord injuries.

In particular, Dickerson said, Bell was studying the experiences of women who care for such victims. She met with him last week, she said, "and he was as he always has been: on task."

"Undergraduate students loved him," she said. "This is why it's all left people speechless."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Here is Channel 9's coverage: http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?ref=Vodcast&storyid=%20%20%20%20%2045183

Suspension for Speaking Spanish

This is so wrong! I can't believe that a child would be suspended for speaking Spanish in the hall way at school! (I bet if he wasn't a native spanish speaker he would be encouraged - but that is beside the point). This is insane - absolutely in sane. Now they can control what languages you speak and where? The Minutemen and their cronies are winning - we have to stop them... look below for HOW YOU CAN!

peace, krissy

Endeavor Alternative School
2540 Junction Road
Kansas City, KS 66106

Phone: 913-288-3690
Fax: 913-288-3691

Principal: Jennifer Watts / Secretary: Cheryl Waters

The principal's email address: wattsj@turnerusd202.org
The Superintendent's email address: Mr. Bobby Allen allenb@turnerusd202.org or phone number: 913-288-4161

OK - you have all the tools -- now WRITE! and write to your local papers!

Here is the article:

Spanish At School Translates to Suspension

By T.R. Reid
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 9, 2005; A03



KANSAS CITY, Kan., Dec. 8 -- Most of the time, 16-year-old Zach Rubio converses in clear, unaccented American teen-speak, a form of English in which the three most common words are "like," "whatever" and "totally." But Zach is also fluent in his dad's native language, Spanish -- and that's what got him suspended from school.

"It was, like, totally not in the classroom," the high school junior said, recalling the infraction. "We were in the, like, hall or whatever, on restroom break. This kid I know, he's like, 'Me prestas un dolar?' ['Will you lend me a dollar?'] Well, he asked in Spanish; it just seemed natural to answer that way. So I'm like, 'No problema.' "

But that conversation turned out to be a big problem for the staff at the Endeavor Alternative School, a small public high school in an ethnically mixed blue-collar neighborhood. A teacher who overheard the two boys sent Zach to the office, where Principal Jennifer Watts ordered him to call his father and leave the school.

Watts, whom students describe as a disciplinarian, said she can't discuss the case. But in a written "discipline referral" explaining her decision to suspend Zach for 1 1/2 days, she noted: "This is not the first time we have [asked] Zach and others to not speak Spanish at school."

Since then, the suspension of Zach Rubio has become the talk of the town in both English and Spanish newspapers and radio shows. The school district has officially rescinded his punishment and said that speaking a foreign language is not grounds for suspension. Meanwhile, the Rubio family has retained a lawyer, who says a civil rights lawsuit may be in the offing.

The tension here surrounding that brief exchange in a high school hall reflects a broader national debate over the language Americans should speak amid a wave of Hispanic immigration.

The National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, says that 20 percent of the U.S. school-age population is Latino. For half of those Latino students, the native language is Spanish.

Conflicts are bursting out nationwide over bilingual education, "English-only" laws, Spanish-language publications and advertising, and other linguistic collisions. Language concerns have been a key aspect of the growing political movement to reduce immigration.

"There's a lot of backlash against the increasing Hispanic population," said D.C. school board member Victor A. Reinoso. "We've seen some of it in the D.C. schools. You see it in some cities, where people complain that their tax money shouldn't be used to print public notices in Spanish. And there have been cases where schools want to ban foreign languages."

Some advocates of an English-only policy in U.S. schools say that it is particularly important for students from immigrant families to use the nation's dominant language.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) made that point this summer when he vetoed a bill authorizing various academic subjects to be tested in Spanish in the state's public schools. "As an immigrant," the Austrian-born governor said, "I know the importance of mastering English as quickly and as comprehensively as possible."

Hispanic groups generally agree with that, but they emphasize the value of a multilingual citizenry. "A fully bilingual young man like Zach Rubio should be considered an asset to the community," said Janet Murguia, national president of La Raza.

The influx of immigrants has reached every corner of the country -- even here in Kansas City, which is about as far as a U.S. town can be from a border. Along Southwest Boulevard, a main street through some of the older neighborhoods, there are blocks where almost every shop and restaurant has signs written in Spanish.

"Most people, they don't care where you're from," said Zach's father, Lorenzo Rubio, a native of Veracruz, Mexico, who has lived in Kansas City for a quarter-century. "But sometimes, when they hear my accent, I get this, sort of, 'Why don't you go back home?' "

Rubio, a U.S. citizen, credits U.S. immigration law for his decision to fight his son's suspension.

"You can't just walk in and become a citizen," he said. "They make you take this government test. I studied for that test, and I learned that in America, they can't punish you unless you violate a written policy."

Rubio said he remembered that lesson on Nov. 28, when he received a call from Endeavor Alternative saying his son had been suspended.

"So I went to the principal and said, 'My son, he's not suspended for fighting, right? He's not suspended for disrespecting anyone. He's suspended for speaking Spanish in the hall?' So I asked her to show me the written policy about that. But they didn't have" one.

Rubio then called the superintendent of the Turner Unified School District, which operates the school. The district immediately rescinded Zach's suspension, local media reported. The superintendent did not respond to several requests to comment for this article.

Since then, the issue of speaking Spanish in the hall has not been raised at the school, Zach said. "I know it would be, like, disruptive if I answered in Spanish in the classroom. I totally don't do that. But outside of class now, the teachers are like, 'Whatever.' "

For Zach's father, and for the Hispanic organizations that have expressed concern, the suspension is not a closed case. "Obviously they've violated his civil rights," said Chuck Chionuma, a lawyer in Kansas City, Mo., who is representing the Rubio family. "We're studying what form of legal redress will correct the situation."

Said Rubio: "I'm mainly doing this for other Mexican families, where the legal status is kind of shaky and they are afraid to speak up. Punished for speaking Spanish? Somebody has to stand up and say: This is wrong."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

By Our Government, in Our Name

This is what is being done in our name, by our government:

First watch the video here: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110805Z.shtml

White Phosphorous defined: 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

Then read these two news articles:

US used white phosphorus in Iraq
US troops used white phosphorus as a weapon in last year's offensive in the Iraqi city of Falluja, the US has said.

"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC - though not against civilians, he said.

The US had earlier said the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - had been used only for illumination.

BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood says having to retract its denial is a public relations disaster for the US.

Col Venable denied that white phosphorous constituted a banned chemical weapon.

Washington is not a signatory to an international treaty restricting the use of the substance against civilians.

The US state department had earlier said white phosphorus had been used in Falluja very sparingly, for illumination purposes.

Col Venable said that statement was based on "poor information".

'Incendiary'

The US-led assault on Falluja - a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad - displaced most of the city's 300,000 population and left many of its buildings destroyed.

Col Venable told the BBC's PM radio programme that the US army used white phosphorus incendiary munitions "primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases.

"However it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants."


And he said it had been used in Falluja, but it was a "conventional munition", not a chemical weapon.
It is not "outlawed or illegal", Col Venable said.

He said US forces could use white phosphorus rounds to flush enemy troops out of covered positions.

"The combined effects of the fire and smoke - and in some case the terror brought about by the explosion on the ground - will drive them out of the holes so that you can kill them with high explosives," he said.

San Diego journalist Darrin Mortenson, who was embedded with US marines during the assault on Falluja, told the BBC's Today radio programme he had seen white phosphorous used "as an incendiary weapon" against insurgents.

However, he "never saw anybody intentionally use any weapon against civilians", he said.

'Particularly nasty'

White phosphorus is highly flammable and ignites on contact with oxygen. If the substance hits someone's body, it will burn until deprived of oxygen.

Globalsecurity.org, a defence website, says: "Phosphorus burns on the skin are deep and painful... These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears... it could burn right down to the bone."

A spokesman at the UK Ministry of Defence said the use of white phosphorus was permitted in battle in cases where there were no civilians near the target area.

But Professor Paul Rodgers, of the University of Bradford's department of peace studies, said white phosphorus could be considered a chemical weapon if deliberately aimed at civilians.

He told PM: "It is not counted under the chemical weapons convention in its normal use but, although it is a matter of legal niceties, it probably does fall into the category of chemical weapons if it is used for this kind of purpose directly against people."

When an Italian TV documentary revealing the use of white phosphorus in Iraq was broadcast on 8 November it sparked fury among Italian anti-war protesters, who demonstrated outside the US embassy in Rome.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm

Published: 2005/11/16 11:25:36 GMT

and the other article:

U.S. admits using white phosphorous as weapon

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Falluja last November.

At the same time, they denied an Italian television news report that the spontaneously flammable material had been used against civilians.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that while white phosphorous is used most frequently to mark targets or obscure positions, it was used at times in Falluja as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants.

"It was not used against civilians," Venable said.

The spokesman referred reporters to an article in the March-April 2005 edition of the Army's Field Artillery magazine, an official publication, in which veterans of the Falluja fight spelled out their use of white phosphorous and other weapons. The authors used the shorthand "WP" in referring to white phosphorous.

"WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition," the authors wrote. "We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE (high explosive)" munitions.

"We fired `shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."

The authors added, in citing lessons for future urban battles, that fire-support teams should have used another type of smoke bomb for screening missions in Falluja "and saved our WP for lethal missions."

The battle for Falluja was the most intense and deadly fight of the war, after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. The city, about 35 miles west of Baghdad on the Euphrates River, was a critical insurgent stronghold. The authors of the "after action" report said they encountered few civilians in their area of operations.

Italian communists held a sit-in Monday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Rome to protest the reported use by American troops of white phosphorous. Italy's state-run RAI24 news television aired a documentary last week that alleged the United States used white phosphorous shells in a "massive and indiscriminate way" against civilians during the Falluja offensive.

The State Department initially denied that U.S. troops had used white phosphorous against enemy forces. "They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters," a department Web site said.

The department later said the statement had been incorrect.

"There is a great deal of misinformation feeding on itself about U.S. forces allegedly using `outlawed' weapons in Falluja," the department said. "The facts are that U.S. forces are not using any illegal weapons in Falluja or anywhere else in Iraq."

Venable said white phosphorous shells are a standard weapon used by field artillery units and are not banned by any international weapons convention to which the United States is a signatory.

White phosphorous is a colorless-to-yellow translucent wax-like substance with a pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military ignites once it is exposed to oxygen, producing such heat that it bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. It can cause painful burn injuries to exposed human flesh.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.