Halabja massacre: Difference between revisions

|caption=Dead in a street of Halabja after the attack <br /><small>A photo by Iranian photographer Sayeed Janbozorgi ([http://www.chilick.com/index.php?page=photographer/search/show_detail_pgrapher.php&id=526&p=&num=2&lang_id=en&flag_la=1&char=j three more]). Janbozorgi died in 2003 due to chemical injuries from the war.</small>

The [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]], in the immediate aftermath of the incident, took the official position that Iran was partly to blame.<ref name="mind">{{cite web|last=Hiltermann |first=Joost R. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/opinion/17iht-edjoost_ed3_.html |title=Halabja – America didn't seem to mind poison gas |publisher=NYTimes.com |date=2003-01-17 |accessdate=2013-08-28}}</ref> A preliminary [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA) study at the time reported that Iran was responsible for the attack, an assessment which was used subsequently by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) for much of the early 1990s. The CIA's senior political analyst for the Iran-Iraq war, Stephen C. Pelletiere, co-authored an unclassified analysis of the war<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/ |title=FMFRP 3-203 – Lessons Learned: Iran-Iraq War |publisher=Fas.org |date= |accessdate=2013-08-28}}</ref> which contained a brief summary of the DIA study's key points. The CIA altered its position radically in the late 1990s and cited Halabja frequently in its evidence of weapons of mass destruction before the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]]{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}. Pelletiere claimed that a fact that has not been successfully challenged is that Iraq was not known to have possessed the [[cyanide]]-based blood agents determined to have been responsible for the condition of the bodies that were examined,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3441#02 |title=Iraq'S Chemical Warfare |publisher=Nybooks.com |date= |accessdate=2013-08-28}}</ref> and that blue discolorations around the mouths of the victims and in their extremities,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/iran/iran-chemical-1998.html#03 |title=Iran Chemical Weapon Update – 1998 |publisher=Wisconsinproject.org |date= |accessdate=2013-08-28}}</ref> pointed to Iranian-used gas as the culprit. Leo Casey writing in ''[[Dissent (American magazine)|Dissent Magazine]]'' argued that "none of the authors of these documents […] had any expertise in medical and forensic sciences, and their speculation doesn't stand up to minimal scrutiny."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=487 |title=Questioning Halabja |last=Casey |first=Leo |date=Summer 2003 |work=Dissent Magazine |accessdate=15 November 2011 |dead-url=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118203516/http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=487 |archivedate=November 18, 2011 }}</ref>