Page 236 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

226 Chapter 9

that bothered to give the stories significant coverage. The Observer of London
commented on "the shocking extent of live mines and unexploded cluster
bombs" around Baghdad, Um Qatar, and Basra dropped by American and Brit-
ish planes, which litter[ed] Iraq 8 weeks after the c~nflict.'*~ The Guardian of
London reported that coalition forces also used thousands of tons of depleted
uranium (DU), a waste product from enriched uranium, inside shells, bullets,
and bombs against Iraqi troops. DU was declared illegal by the United Nations
in 1994, due in large part to the fact that DU particles spread out over a wide
area, as large as a few city blocks, and may be a hazard if they are inhaled, in-
gested, swallowed. The Guardian warned that, "when the dust settles: depleted
uranium may be far more dangerous than previously thought7-further com-
menting that "we could be dealing with the fallout [in possible cancer develop-
ments] for many generations to ~ome.'~' Such caution was of little surprise to
many who followed the use of DU over the last ten years, as tens of thousands
of Desert Storm veterans had been exposed to it in the first Gulf War, many of
whom developed mystery illness thought to be related to the use of this radioac-
tive ammuniti~n.~~
Perhaps most shocking of all the weapons of mass destruction stories that
were downplayed in the American mainstream was the U.S. use of Mark 77
(firebombs) in Iraq. Mark 77 is known for its effects, which are startlingly simi-
lar to that of napalm. The Sydney Morning Herald, and the Independent and the
Daily Mirror of London originally broke the story, reporting that the U.S. had
used firebombs against Iraqi troops during "Operation Iraqi reedo om."^ Ac-
cording to the Independent, "American officials lied to British ministers over the
use of 'internationally reviled' napalm-type firebombs," not only during the
2003 invasion, but also in the assault against Falluja in November 2004.~~
A
mixture of polystyrene and jet fuel, napalm was outlawed by the United Nations
in 1980 due to its devastating effects that turn people into "human fireballs" and
"melted corpses.'A5
The American mass media expressed little interest in the story, as the use of
Mark 77 merited not a single mention in the headlines of the New York Times
and the Washington Post between June 17 and July 10, 2005-when the story
was reported by the Independent-according to a comprehensive search of the
Lexis Nexis database. The omission of the United State's use of weapons of
mass destmction was not limited to napalm. A search of Lexis Nexis found that
the words "depleted uranium" were not mentioned in any headlines of reports
coming from the New York Times or the Washington Post during March and
April of 2003, when U.S. forces had used them. A search of headlines using the
words "cluster bombs" also turns up few news reports, as Lexis Nexis revealed
that these bombs were addressed only once by the New York Times-and not
even in reference to the U.S. use, but in a story implicating Saddam Hussein's
regime with still possessing cluster bombs.46 On the other hand, the U.S. use of
cluster bombs was referenced in the British press, as Lexis Nexis reveals that the
Guardian ran ten stories about cluster bombs and six stories on DU in the same
time period, while the Independent printed eight stories on cluster bombs and
five stories on the use of DU.