posted on July 17, 2003 02:32:34 PM new
I have said this before that the DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONS used by U.S. forces will result in U.S. troops getting sick and now it's stating to show, plus the U.S. government is trying to stop this info from the American public
Folks, if you got kids heading over there, chances are they will not come back alive and if they do they will be coming back as the living dead before the DEPELTED URANIUM the ingested kills them, not to mention the burden on the medical system.
Please folks spresd the word, write your congress person and senator and ask these questions, start a community IMPEACHMENT CAMPAIGN in your area, and ask how many of the present US administration have their children over in Iraq, but if you don't care about your kids, then send them over to Iraq.
Mysterious Diseases Haunt U.S. Troops In Iraq
NATO experts attribute the mysterious symptoms suffered by U.S. soldiers to the use of depleted uranium
BAGHDAD, July 17 – Several mysterious diseases were reported among a number of American troops within the vicinity of Baghdad airport, a military source closely close to NATO unveiled.
U.S. soldiers deployed around Baghdad airport started showing symptoms of mysterious fever, itching, scars and dark brown spots on the skin, the source, who refused to be named, said in statements published Thursday, July 17, by the Saudi Al-Watan newspaper.
He asserted that three soldiers who suffered these symptoms did not respond to medical treatment in Iraqi hospitals and were flown to Washington for medication.
The military source reported a media blackout by U.S. officials to hide such information from the public.
The Americans claim the symptoms and the mysterious diseases were resulting from exposure to the scourging sun, which the U.S. troops are not used to, he added.
U.S. officials did not come up with an explanation for the symptoms, which NATO experts tend to believe result from direct exposure to powerful nuclear radiations of the sophisticated B-2 bombs used in the war on Iraq, particularly in striking Iraqi Republican Guards forces who deployed to defend the vicinity of Baghdad airport.
The military source stressed that the shrouds of secrecy imposed by American officials on the issue were prompted by fears of creating waves of panic and anger among the troops, particularly after announcements that American troops would remain in Iraq indefinitely.
He asserted that NATO experts measured levels of radioactive pollution in Iraq and confirmed there were levels of radioactive pollution with destructive impacts on man and environment that may lead to risks suffered by generations to come.
On April 25, the British Observer quoted military sources as affirming that depleted uranium shells and bombs used by U.S. and British troops during Iraq invasion were five times more than the number used during 1991 Gulf war.
The Pentagon had admitted shelling Iraq with about 350 tons of depleted uranium in 1991, aggravating cancerous tumors cases among Iraqis.
posted on July 17, 2003 03:52:27 PM new
You obviously missed the large thread about Depleted munitions a while back. The major threat from these shells is inhaling the vaporized material inside the tank that is hit. Not significant considering you're usually dead.
There were extensive links to scientific studies testing these weapons, not "somebody reports that......".
I notice most of backup to your statements comes from the cutting and pasting from wacko commentators that left wingers send back and forth to each other like chain letters.
I hope you're doing your civic duty and forwarding everything you're uncovering to your Congressman. LOL
posted on July 17, 2003 06:03:27 PM new
it is a well documented fact which i can provide but would takes pages, that DEPLETED URANIUM HAS BEEN KILLING locals since the first gulf war,not to mention the huge birth defects by women there and here in the U.S. Also this stuff has been killing Gulf war vets, go to local vet websites and you will see the horrendous deaths caused by these weapons, it's in the sand everywhere over there and when you get sandstorms even worst.
As for your so called studies let's see some back up on your arguement which you conveintly did not supply. Also for your so called speech on " wacko commentators that left wingers send back and forth to each other like chain letters " that is an idiot response on your part, because it's obvious you have not been talking to vets who have been affected with Gulf War syndrome, and i suggest for you to buy a plane ticket and spend some time over there and let me know what happens, before you attack something you yourself lack in the dept of proof,
So please back up your statements, or i too can get real personal like you, and lash out. So let's see proof!!!! I'm waiting.
posted on July 17, 2003 06:53:30 PM new
OK smart guy... I was there from February to September 1991.... no health problems here... how many months were you there?
posted on July 17, 2003 11:12:12 PM new
Like I said, the previous thread contained lots of links. This problem you've "discovered" has been studied for a decade.
You are the one making the wacky claims (AGAIN) so please feel free to post all of your "sources".
ie: Ramsey Clark says they're real baaaaaaad.
A personal interview conducted by a British scandal sheet with a solder who transported the ammo and now feels "simply awful".
The World Socialist Website says they are just icky-poo.
Then we can all post the extensive studies on these munitions conducted by the US, UN, etc ALL OVER AGAIN. The British Royal Society paper, The Red Cross study, The Fetter and Von Hippel study.
I suggest you read a little general Physics concentrating on the various types of particles and radiation, their relative strengths and penetrating power. Next look up what compose D.U.Ms, then get back to us.
[ edited by desquirrel on Jul 17, 2003 11:36 PM ]
posted on July 18, 2003 10:49:24 AM new
12-pole said
OK smart guy... I was there from February to September 1991.... no health problems here... how many months were you there?
______________________________________________
Have you noted the low intelligence level of your posts? It is obvious you have been affected. (You know that was tooooo easy, so it had to be said )
As for D. U. M., there is more than the government is putting out. Remember, they also denied the effects of Agent Orange for DECADES, PCB's are still considered mostly "safe" by the government and the food supply is completely safe no matter how many people have gotten sick or died from bad meat......
[ edited by mlecher on Jul 18, 2003 10:50 AM ]
posted on July 18, 2003 11:10:19 AM new
mlecher, I think we need to have a face to face talk to discuss our differences... as it is plain the only way you want to talk to me is in an insulting manor.
And I too can continue to insult you... but that will never solve anything except to point out we both know how to type.
I do notice that stauch anti-insult proponent profe51 is absent when you spout your inane banter.
So I will add a hotmail account to my profile and we can meet and have this out once and for all. Talk over a beer can be a wonderful thing.
AIN'T LIFE GRAND...
[ edited by Twelvepole on Jul 18, 2003 11:22 AM ]
posted on July 18, 2003 11:55:40 AM new
There is insufficient data on which to draw the conclusion that depleted uranium is causing Gulf
war illness. In an area where so many disease causing agents exist along with depleted uranium,
it's difficult to determine with any degree of accuracy exactly what is causing illness or genetic
abnormality.
Of course, this lack of information does not, as some have suggested, indicate that exposure to depleted
uranium is safe.
posted on July 18, 2003 12:48:02 PM new
The ignorance about these weapons is compounded by the stupidity of some people who hear the word "radioactive". You know the type of person that freaks out about a nuclear power plant, but happily lives downwind from a coal burning plant.
The world around us is radioactive. The level of radioactivity in the munitions is extremely low. A mason working with granite is exposed to more radiation.
So perhaps skylite's energies might be better expended protecting the masons of the world.
The danger in these munitions is INGESTING the vaporized radioactive isotope. In other words, you have to be IN an armored vehicle hit by one of these rounds and THEN ingest a lot of the particulates that actually are the radioactive isotope.
So the real danger is not to American troops, but to say, Iraqi kids who might play in the wrecks, or unaware scavengers.
The British study pointed out it is VERY difficult to ingest enough of the bad dust to be harmful. In a worst case scenario they estimated a 1/400000 chance in getting lung cancer. (smoking gives you a 1/250) The body is very resistant to the particles of this radiation and it has very little penetrating power (which is what causes tissue damage). The major cause of concern was the damage to the kidneys from accumulated Uranium particles. Again they calculated that a person surviving a hit by one of these rounds would not receive a damaging number of micrograms of Uranium isotope.
posted on July 18, 2003 01:05:32 PM new
ok now you got me going, as for the facts that have being given by the critics of me i still say you have not given any solid evidence to back your claims, but i shall slowing start to offer those of you some solid evedence, and TWELVE do me a favour and please stop pretending you are a vet, before i puke, if you were there prove it
An International Appeal to Ban the Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons
Drafted by Ramsey Clark
Depleted-uranium weapons are an unacceptable threat to life, a violation of international law and an assault on human dignity. To safeguard the future of humanity, we call for an unconditional international ban forbidding research, manufacture, testing, transportation, possession and use of DU for military purposes. In addition, we call for the immediate isolation and containment of all DU weapons and waste, the reclassification of DU as a radioactive and hazardous substance, the cleanup of existing DU-contaminated areas, comprehensive efforts to prevent human exposure and medical care for those who have been exposed.
During the Gulf War, munitions and armor made with depleted uranium were used for the first time in a military action. Iraq and northern Kuwait were a virtual testing range for depleted-uranium weapons. Over 940,000 30-millimeter uranium tipped bullets and "more than 14,000 large caliber DU rounds were consumed during Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield." (U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute)
These weapons were used throughout Iraq with no concern for the health and environmental consequences of their use. Between 300 and 800 tons of DU particles and dust have been scattered over the ground and the water in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people, both civilians and soldiers, have suffered the effects of exposure to these radioactive weapons.
Of the 697,000 U.S. troops who served in the Gulf, over 90,000 have reported medical problems. Symptoms include respiratory, liver and kidney dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, low blood pressure. There are birth defects among their newborn children. DU is a leading suspect for a portion of these ailments. The effects on the population living in Iraq are far greater. Under pressure, the Pentagon has been forced to acknowledge Gulf War Syndrome, but they are still stonewalling any connection to DU.
Communities near DU weapons plants, testing facilities, bases and arsenals have also been exposed to this radioactive material which has a half-life of 4.4 billion years. DU-weapons are deployed with U.S. troops in Bosnia. The spreading toxicity of depleted uranium threatens life everywhere.
DU weapons are not conventional weapons. They are highly toxic, radioactive weapons. All international law on warfare has attempted to limit violence to combatants and to prevent the use of cruel and unfocused weapons. International agreements and conventions have tried to protect civilians and non-combatants from the scourge of war and to outlaw the destruction of the environment and the food supply in order to safeguard life on earth.
Consequently, DU weapons violate international law because of their inherent cruelty and unconfined death-dealing effect. They threaten civilian populations now and for generations to come. These are precisely the weapons and uses prohibited by international law for more than a century including the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols Additional of 1977.
posted on July 18, 2003 01:10:15 PM new
FROM: METAL OF DISHONOR the book, a great read, highly recommend this book for the doubters
We Need an Independent Inquiry, Not a Government Whitewash
Gulf War Syndrome and Radioactive Weapons: Is there a connection?
What Government Documents Admit
"If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological."
"Personnel inside or near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal exposures."
From the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI), Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium Use in the U.S. Army, June 1995
"Short-term effects of high doses can result in death, while long-term effects of low doses have been implicated in cancer."
"Aerosol DU exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant with potential radiological and toxicological effects."
From the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) report, included as Appendix D of AMMCOM's Kinetic Energy Penetrator Long Term Strategy Study, Danesi, July 1990.
This report was completed six months before Desert Storm.
"Inhaled insoluble oxides stay in the lungs longer and pose a potential cancer risk due to radiation. Ingested DU dust can also pose both a radioactive and a toxicity risk."
Operation Desert Storm: Army Not Adequately Prepared to Deal With Depleted Uranium Contamination, United States General Accounting Office (GAO/NSIAD-93-90), January 1993, pp. 17-18.
What the Government Is Telling Us
"The Committee concludes that it is unlikely that health effects reports by Gulf War Veterans today are the result of exposure to depleted uranium during the Gulf war."
From the Final Report: Presidential Advisory Committee of Gulf War Veterans Illnesses, December 1996.
posted on July 18, 2003 01:15:06 PM new
about the book
Metal of Dishonor grew out of the work of the Depleted Uranium Education Project and the other organizations that contributed to building a meeting at the United Nations Church Center in New York on September 12, 1996. Hundreds of individuals have made Metal of Dishonor and the entire Depleted Uranium Education Project possible. Their contributions document the hazardous, radioactive nature of depleted uranium weapons.
Scientific papers, scholarly briefs, and forceful arguments—some based on talks given at the September 12 meeting—make up the articles in this book. Scientists, medical and legal experts, political analysts and community activists wrote them.
This heterogeneous collection of articles, most published here for the first time, makes a strong case that depleted-uranium weapons are not only lethal to their intended targets, they are dangerous for the humans who handle them and for the present and future environment of the planet. They also show there is potential for building a movement to end this danger.
On February 27, 1997, the Pentagon admitted that eight days of logs documenting chemical exposure have "disappeared." These logs were stored on disc and hard copy in different places. This monumental slip raises these questions: How much other information has also disappeared or been suppressed? Is an even larger coverup taking place? Is something vital about DU also being covered up?
We have not yet found data that enumerate how many women, poor people, how many African American, Latino and other people of color suffer from Gulf War Syndrome. But we know that youth in Black, Latino and other communities that face racism are disproportionately pushed into the military by lack of economic opportunity in U.S. society. Almost half the troops in the Gulf were Black and Latino. The largest number of women in military history served in the Gulf War. It is routine for both the military and the government to ignore these sectors of society regarding benefits and care. It is also that part of the population most likely to need government benefits to get any health care.
We have gathered material to explain the impact of uranium mining and waste on Native American lands, the impact on peoples of the South Pacific and U.S. veterans exposed to nuclear blast sites, the impact on peoples living near nuclear reactors and the impact on peoples in the Middle East. Further research in all of these areas is
needed along with research on the health and environmental consequences in areas surrounding military test sites and production facilities.
Although some of the articles in Metal of Dishonor cover more than one subject, we've grouped them all in specific sections based on a major subject covered. For the convenience of the reader, we've published the more important quotes from government sources in Appendix I. And we have included a section on organizations and resources in Appendix VII that should make it easy for anyone motivated by reading this book to connect with the groups that are carrying out the struggle against DU.
Some questions of style. We've presented the writers' references all as notes at the end of each article. For articles that require careful calculation or comparison of numbers, we have expressed these numbers with numerals, which is a different style from the rest of the book.
We hope Metal of Dishonor will serve as an organizing tool that will contribute to the fight for an independent inquiry into the causes of Gulf War Syndrome and an eventual ban on the use of depleted-uranium weapons
We need a commission of those with real interest in finding the cause of Gulf War Syndrome: suffering U.S. vets, independent scientists, Iraqis, and past victims—atomic veterans and their families, veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and Native miners and community organizations.
Sara Flounders
Today in discussing the possible causes of the Gulf War Syndrome that affects over 90,000 U.S. veterans, there is an elephant in the room. The entire debate is taking place with everyone pretending the elephant doesn't exist.
This book is about the elephant—radioactive conventional weapons.
A new generation of weapons is in place around the world. These weapons contain a dense material—depleted uranium. DU weapons make all others so much scrap metal, giving the U.S. military machine and military contractors a huge advantage.
It matters little to the Pentagon in its race for unrestrained military dominance in every type of warfare that this new weapon not only kills those it targets, it poisons soldiers who handle it, civilians for hundreds of miles surrounding the battlefields who breathe the air and drink the water, and unborn generations.
DU is a delayed response weapon. It will take decades and generations before we know the true casualties as more veterans and their children cope with rare and unknown conditions, cancers, deformities and congenital diseases.
In the U.S. racism impacts on every social issue. Black, Latino and other Third World troops have been disproportionately at risk on the front lines. During the Vietnam War this meant more deaths, injuries and long term delayed combat stress syndrome. According to Department of Defense personnel data (September 30, 1992), during the Gulf War almost half the troops stationed in the Gulf region were Black or Latino, although they make up only twenty percent of the population. This means that Gulf War Syndrome had the greatest impact in communities already oppressed and impoverished.
Gulf War Syndrome's symptoms—chronic fatigue, chronic headache and joint pain, gastrointestinal distress, insomnia and memory loss—make holding a job, stabilizing a family and obtaining medical help much more difficult. Many thousands of seriously ill and demoralized, disoriented or homeless veterans are not part of the count of those suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. That one third of the homeless in the U.S. today are veterans speaks to the hidden costs of the Gulf and Vietnam wars.
Is DU the sole cause of Gulf War Syndrome? Or does DU's low-level radiation suppress people's immune system and make them more susceptible to disease? To answer either question deserves more than the passing mention and out-of-hand dismissal the Presidential Commission and the Department of Defense's public statements on Gulf War Syndrome give DU. However, even the Defense Department's own internal studies show how well it knows the dangers. We quote these studies extensively here to prove the government has too much at stake to judge DU objectively.
Those who really want to know what has happened to the health of tens of thousands of young women and men who just a few years ago were in the prime of health must raise their voices and organize to demand a genuinely independent commission to investigate this issue.
I first became aware of the dangerous radioactive impact of depleted-uranium weapons in 1991 when I was researching for Ramsey Clark's book on the Gulf War, The Fire This Time. His book predicted that "the people of the Gulf region will have to face the effects of radiation poisoning for years to come."
What raised our concern was a secret report by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) prepared in April 1991, a month after the end of the war. Leaked to the London Independent and published that November, this early report described the potential problems of radioactive dust spreading over the battlefields and getting into the food chain and the water. At that time it warned that forty tons of radioactive debris left from DU weapons could cause over five hundred thousand deaths. Now we find the amount of radioactive debris left behind is over three hundred tons.
Iraqi Children with Cancers
In 1994 I traveled to Iraq to see the consequences of the Gulf War and the continuing sanctions. I saw infants with obvious genetic deformities who wouldn't live long and wards of children wasting away from cancers such as leukemia, lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease. Because of the sanctions, Iraqi doctors lacked even basic medicines and were helpless to intervene. They could only note the escalating numbers.
And the Iraqis are not the only ones who need to know the truth about DU and want to see that truth published. Gulf War veterans and their families are desperate to understand what has happened to their health since they returned from the Gulf.
This book attempts to explain the uses of depleted uranium in weapons and to present what is already known about exposure to low-level radiation and its threat to the environment and to all of humanity. Most important, this collection of articles is a resource for those ready to challenge the long history of government coverups and denials regarding military toxics and poisons.
For two generations the Pentagon and the entire scientific community have studied the dangers of radiation while Congress allocated a trillion dollars to build the world's largest nuclear arsenal.
Thousands of studies and hundreds of books explain the dangers of radioactivity. Millions of people worldwide have marched and organized to oppose the danger nuclear weapons pose to the future of the planet.
Billions of dollars have been put into federal funds to clean up nuclear waste sites. Now we learn that the Environmental Restoration Branch of the Department of Energy has used these funds to ship nuclear waste to countries all over the world to be recycled into weapons production.
The U.S. Department of Defense has more than a billion pounds of nuclear waste in storage from fifty years of nuclear weapons production. Part of its clean-up program is to give the depleted uranium away free to munitions manufacturers. Knowing the dangers, the military-industrial complex has moved straight ahead designing, testing and manufacturing a new generation of weapons using radioactive waste material.
Metal of Dishonor Exposes the Deception
As the contributors to Metal of Dishonor expose the dangers of low-level radiation, they demonstrate that even "depleted" uranium weapons are radioactive and highly toxic. They trace a history of government lies and coverups regarding the dangers of radioactivity, with policies that have denied compensation to veterans and to Native populations hurt most by these dangers. They show the Pentagon's motives for using DU weapons, the military industry's drive to manufacture them, and the passion of both to cover up the truth.
The chapters by Helen Caldicott, Michio Kaku, Leonard A. Dietz, Rosalie Bertell and Jay M. Gould scientifically delineate the perils of low-level radiation and meticulously document the extensive knowledge the military possessed about DU's long-term consequences long before the Gulf War.
Dietz explains with mathematical detail how uranium metal burns rapidly on impact and forms tiny airborne particles that can travel tens of miles to be inhaled or ingested into the body where they lodge in vital organs. Caldicott makes the necessary but daring leap to correctly characterize the Gulf War as a nuclear war.
Kaku writes, "Our troops were used as human guinea pigs for the Pentagon. Thousands must have walked through almost invisible clouds of uranium dioxide mist, not realizing that micro-sized particles were entering into their lungs."
Gould links increases in cancers and auto-immune diseases to the impact of low-level radiation on the population surrounding nuclear weapons complexes, test sites and nuclear reactors. Bertell lists the major scientific studies that have defined the danger for many years.
A look at the experiences of earlier victims of U.S. war preparations helps expose how cover-ups, stonewalling, and fraudulent promises of compensation for unfortunate mistakes are standard operating procedures.
Pat Broudy's husband was one of the approximately eight hundred thousand GIs purposely exposed to nuclear radiation during atomic tests in the Southwest or in the Pacific. Her article exposes the Defense Department's criminal coverup.
Anna Rondon, a Navajo activist from the South West Indigenous Uranium Forum, and Manuel Pino, from the Acoma Pueblo, explain the bitter experiences of the Native nations with uranium mining and testing.
Despite Congressional hearings, media coverage and special legislation, only 455 Atomic Veterans and fifty Native miners' widows received compensation. And only seventeen families have been compensated of the twenty-three thousand Americans, mainly prisoners, poor people or disabled people, who were directly injected without their knowledge or consent with highly radioactive materials since 1945.
To these we can add the thousands of Marshall Islanders consciously used as human guinea pigs, moved back to the "most contaminated places in the world," the islands hit by fallout from sixty-seven atomic and hydrogen bombs. Glenn Alcalay describes this catastrophe in his article.
Every piece of information in this whole criminal history had to be leaked or pried out by independent efforts. The government has never willingly provided any relevant information. It is hidden under "top secret" classifications.
How can we expect anything different from government studies of Gulf War Syndrome or DU?
Dolores Lymburner exposes a leaked Army Environmental Policy Institute report that acknowledges "if DU enters the body it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological." The Army first denied this report's existence.
With thorough documentation, Dan Fahey explains how the density, speed and impact of DU weapons greatly increased the kill range of U.S. tanks. He also shows just how well the military planners understood DU's dangers.
Former Army Nurse Carol Picou, who volunteered for front-line duty, describes her horror at passing the thousands of burning Iraqi vehicles—many destroyed by DU projectiles—on the "highway of death." Then she describes the devastating deterioration and ruin of her own health and of the others in her unit from contact with the toxins in the region, as well as the government's stonewalling and denial of responsibility.
In the Gulf War, Iraqi casualties were enormous. Over one hundred thousand troops were killed and eighty-five thousand captured. In January 1992 a Greenpeace investigation estimated that ninety thousand of the three hundred thousand injured Iraqi troops had died.
In contrast, the U.S. military suffered 147 combat deaths, more than half due to friendly fire. The low casualties were the selling point of these new, high-tech weapons. U.S. troops had become seemingly invincible. That is the lie. The ninety thousand chronically ill U.S. soldiers make up the real casualty figures. Tens of thousands of British, French, Saudi, Egyptian, Australian, Canadian and other soldiers who served in the Gulf in early 1991 are also sick.
As John Catalinotto explains, 147 combat deaths is a very important figure to the military planners and to the major corporations who profit from military production. Lower casualty figures may mean less domestic resistance to future conflicts. If the real casualty figures become a topic of debate, if long-term illness, genetic deformities to future generations and environmental damage become issues, opposition to new military adventures will surely grow.
All the government hearings, commissions and reports outdo each other talking about concern for the health of all the military personnel, protecting our soldiers, finding the cause, etc. The real casualty figures expose what the generals and military corporations think of the rank-and-file GI—an expendable item. DU's victims need to organize themselves independently of those who have the biggest stake in arranging a cover-up.
No easy task. Lenore Foerstel examines the corporate connections between the media and the military industries. The Pentagon orchestrates the news through press pools and staged events. Even after the war, the media has continued to cover up the dangers from DU and its role in Gulf War Syndrome.
High-intensity Conflict
The forty-three-day war against Iraq in 1991 was the highest intensity conflict in military history, fought for control of the richest mineral reserves in the world. The U.S.-led coalition poured unprecedented volumes of firepower, money and technology—including seven billion tons of military materiel—into the Gulf area. They fought the war with an electronic battlefield of stealth bombers, satellites and cruise missiles.
Despite all the propaganda attacking so-called Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, most analysts agree that Iraq has not one weapon in its entire arsenal that is capable of destroying a U.S. bomber, aircraft carrier or even a U.S. tank. Ramsey Clark, Eric Hoskins, Siegwart-Horst Guenther, Barbara Nimri Aziz and Suzy T. Kane discuss the impact of a war that was actually an attack on a country that was defenseless against the new weapons of mass destruction. We also publish a report on the impact of allied radioactive weapons that the Iraqi UN Mission presented to the United Nations Center for Human Rights in Geneva.
The Gulf War showed that those countries that already held nuclear monopolies also dominated in so-called conventional warfare. Furthermore, it showed that nuclear weapons have become obsolete as a distinct category. Now weapons composed of radioactive material are classified as conventional weapons and are deployed around the world by U.S. and NATO forces in Bosnia, Somalia and Haiti. These weapons are flooding the world arms market. U.S. industry provides seventy-five percent of all weapons sold worldwide. Desert Storm was a great advertisement for the DU weapons it sells.
A Field of Wheat
Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz describes the war's impact on a field of wheat, a flock of chickens, on the children. The sanctions keep information on the scope of the catastrophe from reaching the world. Dr. Siegwart Guenther boldly brought a spent DU bullet from Iraq to Germany, where he was arrested for transporting radioactive material. But what about the tons of NATO weapons containing DU that are stored, tested and transported throughout Europe? Or the radioactive NATO shells and land mines exploded in Bosnia?
The Pentagon has issued a fumbling series of denials, cover-ups and finally partial admissions that Gulf War Syndrome exists. Yet it has omitted any mention of radioactive weapons. This omission is no accident. The Pentagon has never come forward to admit the human consequences of its actions, unless a mighty struggle forced out the truth.
Some scientists have proposed alternatives to depleted uranium weapons, claiming that fast, hard missiles could be made at greater expense by using other, perhaps less toxic heavy metals, such as tungsten or a tungsten alloy. Has this not occurred to military contractors? Is this just an oversight, a mistake in the heat of battle?
The military industry is built on super profits. How can they resist, no matter how dangerous, a raw material that is available free of charge? The Department of Defense and the major military contractors control most of the supply. The largest corporations in the U.S. today are corporations whose very existence depends on military contracts, an issue that goes to the very heart of the U.S. economy.
The Pentagon and the military corporations clearly consider contamination of their own soldiers, of the environment and of millions of civilians as an acceptable cost. As we learn from the experience of past veterans, this has always been true.
Lockheed Martin, Boeing (now merged with McDonnell Douglas), General Electric, Raytheon and AT&T have been involved for decades in the production of weapons that threaten the health of millions. How can these corporations resist a super weapon, made out of cheap material, that creates a demand for a whole new round of weapons?
Military contracts are a source of growing demand on the federal budget. The billions of dollars that they consume come at the cost of cutbacks in every social program from jobs programs to education, health care, infant immunization programs, subsidized housing, rebuilding infrastructure or environmental cleanup. People's needs are never part of the calculation.
Weapons are U.S. industry's most profitable export items. These military industries are truly merchants of death.
The U.S. military machine is larger than all of its potential competitors put together—and it is not shrinking. President Clinton has pledged a forty-percent increase in funds for new weapons development. Congress has voted to extend the Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars. Nuclear weapons testing has been banned in the air, under sea and under ground, but it persists in the Pentagon's sophisticated laboratories.
The military acts like it has license to threaten the health and livelihood of millions globally and then hide it under national security. Can we challenge the military's behavior?
Today, the Pentagon fears no military weapon. The Pentagon fears only one thing: people in motion—informed, mobilized and angry. Mass protest stopped nuclear testing, stopped the use of Agent Orange, helped end the Vietnam War.
It has become impossible for generals, in the interests of corporate profit, to send tens of thousands of youth directly into machine gun fire as they did in earlier wars. But it is essential to expose that DU is a delayed response bullet that shoots both ways.
Part of changing what happens is to change the way millions of people perceive an issue. Do they have information? Do they see a way to intervene? With bold ideas, a few individuals and small groups can lay the groundwork and push the struggle forward.
We hope this book will provide the evidence and demonstrate the urgent need for an independent inquiry.
Demand an Independent Inquiry
Because of their involvement in the development of these poisonous weapons, the Department of Defense and the major military contractors cannot be trusted to give an honest review of the possible causes of Gulf War Syndrome.
The Presidential Advisory Commission whitewashes the truth, Tod Ensign shows, when it concludes: "It is unlikely that health effects reported by Gulf War veterans today are the result of exposure to depleted uranium during the Gulf War." The commission was supposedly an independent blue-ribbon panel of scientists and others who are above self-interest in their conclusion. Hardly the case.
An honest, aboveboard and exhaustive inquiry is urgently needed. The commission must be made up of those with a real interest in finding the cause of Gulf War Syndrome. And the inquiry must prominently include veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. They have the most compelling incentive in truly finding the cause.
An independent commission should also include the veterans of past wars and nuclear testing who have suffered mysterious illnesses and government coverups. Atomic veterans and their families, veterans suffering from Agent Orange poisoning would help get to the bottom of what is going on. Organizations of Native peoples whose land has been poisoned should be part of the inquiry. Community organizations surrounding uranium mines, weapons-production sites, and proving and testing grounds could lend their expertise.
Since African American and Latino troops make up such a large proportion of those in the field of combat—and thus suffer disproportionately from Gulf War Syndrome—groups from these communities must also be represented in the commission.
Scientists who are independent of the nuclear industry and the military should be called on to testify, along with medical doctors, epidemiologists and geneticists, and trade unionists who work in atomic and especially DU weapons production.
To understand the full dimensions of Gulf War Syndrome, it is essential to bring into the light of day what was done to Iraq's population. Medical teams must be able to visit Iraq, and Iraqi doctors should be able to testify on the medical catastrophe they face.
Such an inquiry could give enormous impetus to an international campaign to ban DU.
Grassroots campaigns can have enormous creative dynamism if the local organizers have information. No matter how dangerous DU weapons are shown to be, the military will not of its own accord stop their production. In the past, every step in preventing use of deadly materials came about because an aroused, organized population made it unfeasible for the military to use the weapon.
An International Ban on DU
The many groups worldwide that understand the enormous dangers of radiation must begin to organize and demand a ban on the use of depleted uranium, its containment and a cleanup of all radioactive waste. We have included a proposed ban that former U.S. Attorney General and well known human rights activist Ramsey Clark drafted. This ban proposal can be used in many ways. It can be utilized in international forums and tested in international law. With the articles by Victor Sidel, Philippa Winkler and Alyn Ware, we have also included experiences of other groups that have opposed the threat from nuclear weapons or shown how to use international law to combat specific weapons.
Most developments in technology sneak up on us. Change spreads rapidly, making earlier methods obsolete overnight. The implications can reshape our lives before we are even aware of them. But the same is true of ideas.
Former slave and great abolitionist organizer Frederick Douglass explained, "Power concedes nothing without a struggle." Every step forward in human rights seemed in the beginning like an impossible task. Whether the struggle was against slavery, for civil rights, for the right of workers to unionize, for women's suffrage, for the eight-hour day, to oppose bigotry against lesbian and gay people, or the movement against nuclear war and testing—in the beginning it always seems that all law, culture and tradition defend life the way it was at that very moment. But in the face of new ideas and a bold challenge, even entrenched power can lose its undisputed position.
Information is power. When mobilized it can undergo a transformation and become outrage. Then it has explosive potential. It has the potential to force great sweeping changes. That is our secret weapon against the Pentagon.
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: [email protected]
posted on July 18, 2003 01:30:09 PM new
i am starting to see that the U.S. government is using the true honest soldier as cannon folder, after their purpose is done for the corperate fat cats, then they are murdered, in otherwords, use it, and throw it away. That people is what they the government and corperate fat cats are doing to your kids.Do you really want to send your children off to be murdered like that ???
Fight for your country, yes, protect your children from oppersion, yes, but to waste our soldiers like that is a crime.
A New Kind of Nuclear War
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that the United States would be detonating nuclear shells to poison its own soldiers and the surrounding civilian populations with radioactive isotopes.
Dr. Helen Caldicott
The United States has conducted two nuclear wars. The first against Japan in 1945, the second in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991.
The first nuclear war fissioned a plutonium bomb and one made of uranium. The second nuclear war utilized depleted-uranium weapons, but nuclear fission was not involved.
For many years the United States has been using depleted uranium, a by-product from the production of enriched fuel for nuclear reactors and weapons, to manufacture shells, bullets and protective armour of tanks. This excess uranium, composed mainly of the uranium isotope U-238 is called "depleted" because it has a lower than normal content of the isotope U-235, the fissionable material. But it has one very "excellent" property—it is extremely dense and capable of penetrating heavily armored vehicles. This capability was ably demonstrated in the Gulf massacre of 1991. "Massacre" describes what happened better than "war."
But another physical property, which is not so desirable, is that depleted uranium spontaneously burns on impact, creating tiny aerosolized particles less than five microns in diameter, small enough to be inhaled. At least seventy percent of the uranium in these weapons is released in this form on impact, and these tiny particles travel long distances when airborne.
posted on July 18, 2003 02:08:00 PM new
"You continue, in spite of having no definitive evidence
to state that there is relatively no adverse health effect"
So the opinions of various government, civilian and foreign scienific bodies are all part of the "big conspiracy" while uninformed whack jobs like Ramsey Clark, et al, preach an annointed gospel?
posted on July 18, 2003 03:35:03 PM new
According to the World Health Organization website they state that it is difficult to draw conclusions to the potential health effects of exposure to depleted uranium as they haven't had enough studies.
It can effect the kidneys though and I think it matters a lot about the exposure the person has and how good their immune system is. Children ingest lots of things, including dirt so they may be at greater risk.
Twelvepole said:
mlecher, I think we need to have a face to face talk to discuss our differences... as it is plain the only way you want to talk to me is in an insulting manor.
Insulting manor? Is that a special structure to insult others from?
posted on July 18, 2003 05:00:54 PM new
Yes of course everyone has an "opinion". But my point is that the "opinion" of the Royal Society or the International Red Cross is a little better than the "opinion" of a semi-senile twit like Ramsey Clark.
And in ANY case there is nothing to warrant the hysteria levels of Skylite's posts.
posted on July 18, 2003 06:31:21 PM new
desquirrel, Is your personal income ($) dependant in any way on weapons or military expenditure?
I ask, because this is the case for many Americans; and I would expect many or most of these people to ‘defend’ the position that there is no or little harm.
posted on July 18, 2003 09:04:29 PM new
No, it's just hard to "debate" things that can be calculated, things that can be measured... you get it. I have a master's in Chemistry and find many people's "opinions" about Uranium amusing.
BTW, what do you do? I find it hard to figure out why you are such an American wannabee when there should be so much else you could be championing, like the rights of Aborigines or the encroachment on Kaola habitats.
[ edited by desquirrel on Jul 18, 2003 09:28 PM ]
posted on July 18, 2003 09:24:57 PM new
Dr. KILPATRICK: Good afternoon. It's certainly my pleasure to be able to be here this afternoon and talk with you about the medical health effects of depleted uranium.
I want to first start by talking a little bit about natural uranium, because I think we need to put it into that perspective. Natural uranium is in the soil around our world. It certainly is something that we eat and drink and breathe in every day, because it is in our environment. We all secrete natural uranium in our urine to a certain level. We know that in some areas of the world there's less and some areas there's more -- particularly say in Florida there's a lot of natural uranium in the soil. You get into Colorado, you'll find the same sort of thing. You get into other areas of the world there are variations. And yet we do not see natural uranium causing any recognized medical complication or health problem in people. We have had a lot of studies in uranium miners. We know an awful lot about what uranium does as a heavy metal in people, and we certainly have a lot of studies on depleted uranium in the environment, and I'll talk a little bit later about from the Gulf War some individuals who were involved in friendly fire.
Next slide, please. Our major concern, as I said, is the chemical nature, because uranium, depleted uranium are both heavy metals -- like lead and tungsten and nickel. The kidney, when the depleted uranium is internalized, becomes a target organ, and there are collecting tubules that essentially concentrate the urine that are most severely affected, the first to be affected if there is a dose of natural uranium or depleted uranium above a threshold in the body.
We looked at some 90 Gulf War veterans who were in or on an armored vehicle when it was struck by depleted uranium in friendly fire. And those individuals have been followed on an annual basis now we are talking 12 years post-incident. And we do not see any kidney damage in those individuals -- and this is using very sophisticated medical evaluation of kidneys. They were also followed for other medical problems, and they have had no -- and I'll talk about this a little bit later, but while I'm here, they've had no other medical consequences of that depleted uranium exposure. Now, some of these individuals had amputations, were burned, had deep wounds, so that these individuals, some of them of course do have medical problems. But as far as a consequence of the depleted uranium exposure, we are not seeing anything related to that either from a chemical or radiological effect.
Next slide, please. We've looked at them for cancers. There has been no cancer of bone or lungs, where you would expect them -- to see that. We have seen no leukemias. As I said, there's been about 90 individuals we've followed up, and about 20 of these individuals still have small fragments of depleted uranium in their body. To try to remove that totally from their body would mean amputation or removal of muscles. And our belief is it's better to follow them than to go through any further traumatic type of surgery for the individuals. And, as I've said, we have not seen any untoward medical consequence in these individuals.
When we take a look at transuranics, and that's been brought up -- you may have heard about that -- these are trace elements of like Americium, plutonium, neptunium that has been found in depleted uranium in the process of making it. It goes through the same processing plant where nuclear fuel is reprocessed after it is spent. And there trace amounts of transuranics in the depleted uranium. It has been looked at, measured by several different countries sand scientists outside of DOD. The amount of radiation that contributes is less than one percent, and that is believed not to have any medical significance as far as adding to the radiation.
Depleted uranium is 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium around us. And so when it's outside the body it's just not an issue. It's only when it's internalized -- either by inhaling the dust, the oxide, as Colonel Naughton said when there is penetration of armor, it does self-sharpen and it does create an oxide dust. And there are people who were in or on the vehicles that were struck in friendly fire, who did inhale that oxide, and we have not seen any medical consequence from that. They certainly had the highest dose exposure of anybody in the Gulf War.
Next slide, please. We talked about not seeing any cancers in the kidney or certainly in the lungs or the bone in these individuals. Leukemia became an issue a couple of years ago when the Italians were concerned about peacekeepers in the Kosovo area coming back and having leukemia. We took at what are the causes of leukemia. The rates in the United States are usually about two per 100,000 people per year. The cause of leukemia is often unknown. We took a look at data, medical data, from the exposures of atomic bomb blasts in Japan in World War II, people getting chemotherapy. We see an increased rate in leukemia in these individuals, some two to four six years after that exposure. And we certainly know people exposed to toxic solvents like benzene can have an increased rate of leukemia. But the Italians did the epidemiological study and found basically the rate of leukemia in their military personnel was no greater than their civilian population. And so what was triggered as a cause-effect relationship being in Kosovo where depleted uranium in was fired was not a causal relationship. It was just the natural rate of leukemia in the people who had been peacekeepers in that area.
Next slide, please. There have been over 40 tests done on what happens to depleted uranium from an environmental standpoint, both with shooting munitions through armor, looking at burning of depleted uranium. We had some fires in tanks. We had some fires in depleted uranium -- storage capacities. And we have recently done a capstone study where we again have shot depleted uranium through uranium armored tanks to look at what is the amount of oxide created, how long does it stay suspended, what is the particle size. That study has just been completed, but it is not yet written to be published. When it is written it will be published. All of the environmental information about depleted uranium is in our Department of Defense environmental exposure report, and I'll have a website that will show you that at the end of the talk.
We continue to do testing in animals. Some people ask why do you continue to test if you say it's not an issue. I think if there are questions we need to continue to bore down on the science and make sure that those continued experimental evidence from animals validate what we know in people. And I think that it's extremely important to say that we are doing all the tests that need to be done to understand the physiology of exposure to depleted uranium.
Next slide. Recent environmental assessments done outside the Department of Defense. The United Nations Environmental Programme has put out this book, called "Depleted Uranium in Kosovo," where they went and did soil samples. They went and looked for the penetrators. Again, these are the A-10 airplanes shooting. They found some seven penetrators or the sable, what you saw coming off the round on the ground. These had either hit rocks, cement, and ricocheted. Normally when an A-10 fires if it hits ground it buries anywhere from one to ten meters deep. But they found seven on the ground, some 13 tons of depleted uranium had been shot from the airplane in the Kosovo area. And they have not been able to find any environmental effect of depleted uranium -- not residual other than finding those penetrators lying on the ground. They've checked water. There have been other countries -- the Belgians came in and looked at food, water, milk, fruits, vegetables, meat, and essentially were not able to find any evidence of any increased uranium or depleted uranium in any of those samples.
The World Health Organization has done a similar study in the Balkans. The European Commission, the European Parliament and the United Kingdom Society for World Society has also published a report on looking at all that data. So we have outside of DOD, outside the United States, organizations taking a look at what are the environmental effects, and they are consistent in their finding that there is no environmental effect in an area where depleted uranium has been shot.
Next slide, please. These again are a couple more meetings where they got experts from around the world -- and the last one, depleted uranium in Kosovo, and that has been published at a meeting in Germany. Again the scientists are in concurrence that it does not pose an environmental hazard.
Next slide. When DU does strike armor and that oxide is created, it falls to the ground very quickly -- usually within about a 50-meter range. As Colonel Naughton said, it's heavy. It's 1.7 times as heavy as lead. So even if it's a small dust particle, it's still very heavy. And it stays on the ground. They've looked on the battlefield in multiple locations. We looked in Kuwait where we knew that there were tank battles. We looked in the boneyard in Kuwait where all of the Iraqi armored vehicle that was hit with depleted uranium was dragged, and we were not able to find anything on the ground around those vehicles that's above background in radiation.
If you look at hole where the depleted uranium round went in and out, there is an increased radiation where that metal was essentially welded onto the armor. But that's not going to go anywhere. It's not going to fall off. It's welded onto that armor. And the boneyard is out in the desert were eventually the sand will cover it over. And, again, it does not pose an environmental hazard.
I think the Kosovo report focuses on picking up lose particles that are on the ground. They need to be appropriately disposed of and that would be buried at a documented site.
They recommended continuing to look at groundwater. They don't believe that there's a likelihood that that would be the case. Our studies in the United States over 15 years have not shown depleted uranium going from the soil into groundwater. It just does not move from the round that is in the soil. And the bottom line is there is going to be no impact on the health of the people in the environment, or people who were there at the time it was shot.
Next round. We have a lot of information and history medically on uranium which applies directly to depleted uranium. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry says there has been no documented case of any cancer of any type related to exposure to uranium or depleted uranium.
Looking at those individuals whom we know were most highly exposed to depleted uranium in the Gulf War are some 90 individuals who are being in the medical follow-up program. They have shown no adverse effect from their exposure to depleted uranium. And, again, the multiple other organizations reviewing this data are consistent with our understanding of depleted uranium. It is a superior weapon, superior armor. It is a munition that we will continue to use, if the need is there to attack armor.
---- From a briefing by Dr. Michael Kilpatrick in March 2003.
The following article illustrates the difficulty involved in diagnosing and tracking Gulf War illness. For years after the Gulf war, the military believed that veterans health complaints, including debilitating neurological problems and chronic fatigue were not related to service in the region.
Exerpt....
Across the USA, troops fresh from the Iraq war are learning another meaning for the U.S. doctrine of pre-emption. They're checking into medical facilities to follow new Pentagon orders: Give a blood sample and answer a long questionnaire on your health and Iraq service. The information is designed to speed the diagnosis and treatment of any new outbreaks of the mysterious symptoms still afflicting tens of thousands of Persian Gulf War veterans.
But the success of such pre-emptive actions, ordered by Congress, depends on aggressive Pentagon implementation. Already it has missed the chance to collect the best possible before-and-after health snapshots of troops by failing to carefully screen Iraq-bound soldiers.
The oversight — coupled with new evidence that the Pentagon continues to downplay exposure to dangerous chemicals in the first Iraq war — casts doubts on the military's promisesto learn from past blunders and make troops' health a top priority.
One of the most damaging legacies of the 1991 war was the Defense Department's cavalier dismissal of veterans' health complaints. Although nearly one-third of the Gulf War's 697,000 U.S. troops reported symptoms, from chronic fatigue to debilitating neurological problems, the military for years responded skeptically to suggestions that the conditions were related to service in the region. Only intense pressure from veterans, Congress and the media helped win some recognition and benefits.
With more than 250,000 troops returning from the second Iraq war, avoiding a repeat of those mistakes calls for a three-pronged approach. First, returning troops should receive careful and open medical monitoring. Next, the Pentagon needs to provide more forthright disclosure of what happened to Gulf War troops. Finally, Iraq war veterans deserve the comprehensive health and deployment records that can help them file successful claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The military insists its current screening program, called Force Health Protection, does a better job of safeguarding troops' health. But to date, its actions fall short:
•Poor screening. A mandate from Congress in 1997 called for gathering troops' health information before and after deployment, along with detailed monitoring of battlefield conditions. Yet troops only filled out a cursory pre-war questionnaire. The Pentagon has yet to release the details of the battlefield conditions it monitored — from the quality of the air to troops' exposure to hazardous materials such as chemicals and depleted uranium. And it began the comprehensive screening of troops returning from Iraq only after veterans' groups complained.
•Playing down dangers. The Pentagon says about 100,000 U.S. troops were exposed to a cloud from the destruction of sarin nerve agents in Khamisiyah, Iraq, in March 1991. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, now says that the actual number may be as high as 350,000. It blames the lower figure on the Pentagon's failure to account for weather patterns and concentrations of sarin. The low estimate is part of a troubling pattern. Officials denied the destruction of any nerve agents until a veterans' group unearthed the information in 1995.
•Creating obstacles for benefits. Some 220 federal research projects, costing $224 million, have studied Gulf War illnesses over seven years, many with the Pentagon's participation. The government acknowledges that Gulf War veterans get sick at two to three times the rate of those who didn't deploy and that they have baffling symptoms.
But veterans still must furnish proof that their illnesses are connected to their service when they apply for compensation. The Pentagon has not been able to supply them with detailed records.
posted on July 19, 2003 02:04:15 AM new
desquirrel [i]“No, it's just hard to "debate" things that can be calculated, things that can be measured... you get it. I have a master's in Chemistry and find many people's "opinions" about Uranium amusing.
BTW, what do you do? I find it hard to figure out why you are such an American wannabee when there should be so much else you could be championing, like the rights of Aborigines or the “[/i]
desquirrel,
I don’t wanabee an American, in fact I would like more people in Australia to realise that ’US’ doesn’t mean us.
Your leadership has it’s own ‘agenda’ and that is clearly not always in the wider ‘American’ interest, let alone Australian.
Scientific Evidence??
I believe that Bush’s leadership recently made statements on the ‘significance’ of the ‘green house effect’.
On evidence compiled by American Fossil Fuel industry.
You ask what I do:
Well I’m a professional second hand dealer, and as such take great pride in the accuracy of information I give out.
I am given to understand, that Uranium Dioxide was used up to 100years ago in the manufacture of ‘Vaseline glass’.
These glass workers were know to suffer some poor health, including symptoms seen in ‘mad as a hatter’, and a shortened life expectancy.
Screw koalas, I’m more concerned about humans.
desquirrel, You said “So the real danger is not to American troops, but to say, Iraqi kids who might play in the wrecks, or unaware scavengers.”
posted on July 23, 2003 12:38:11 PM new
there's hope for you yet Twevlvepeople, it's called slow death, that's if you were there, but i doubt that, unless you were sucking some officer's a## behind the front lines
Warning of toxic aftermath from uranium munitions
23.07.2003 [10:34]
07/22/03 (Buffalo News) The American use of depleted uranium munitions in both Persian Gulf wars has unleashed a toxic disaster that will eclipse the Agent Orange tragedy of the Vietnam War, a former top Army official said Monday evening.
Former Maj. Douglas Rokke, who was director of the Army's depleted uranium project, spoke to 125 people at the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society. The Champaign, Ill., science professor was brought here by the Western New York Peace Center.
"I am a warrior," the 54-year-old Vietnam War veteran began. "The sole purpose of war is to kill and destroy. There are no winners."
Dressed in sneakers, blue jeans and a red polo shirt, Rokke fit the image of an animated science professor, hair tousled, adjusting his glasses and eager to impart his findings to the next generation.
If what he says is true, students will soon have yet another chapter of heartbreaking history to study in the schools. If he is wrong, it will take years to disprove.
Called to active duty in 1990, Rokke said, he was assigned to develop procedures for cleaning up uranium contamination after "they decided to use depleted uranium munitions" in the war to expel Iraq from Kuwait.
"They didn't tell anybody what they were doing. Why would they? Depleted uranium munitions are the ultimate weapon. Each round fired by an Abrams tank (represents) 10 pounds of solid uranium-238. The purpose of war is to kill and destroy."
Rokke said his team in the gulf blew up vehicles and structures with these munitions and then tested the wreckage for radioactive contamination. He said they found that uranium dust is so fine that it acts like a gas, seeping through the tiny pores of protective masks.
The United States blew up Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in Kuwait and on the Saudi Arabian border in the first gulf war, Rokke said. As a precaution, American personnel were inoculated before entering the field, but "we were told not to record it, and it's not in the soldiers' medical records."
Uranium munitions were also used during the recent war in Iraq, he added.
"It's like playing darts," he said, "except you're playing with 10 pounds of solid uranium and it catches fire immediately. You lose nearly 40 percent of the round in uranium dust. It contaminates air, water and soil for all eternity."
Rokke said an "infamous memo" from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on March 1, 1991, warned of the "impact on the environment" of depleted uranium rounds and suggested that they "may become politically unacceptable." Today he interprets the memo as "a direct order to lie."
The memo from Los Alamos - where the first atomic bombs were developed and tested during World War II - prevented the military from acknowledging the danger of these munitions, Rokke said.
"The United States used 375 tons in Gulf War I," Rokke said. "My orders were to take care of U.S. casualties and vehicles" that had been hit by "friendly fire.'
"Myself and my team members started to get sick almost immediately. It started with respiratory problems, then rashes."
But the procedures developed by his team were never implemented, Rokke said, despite a military order of June 1991 to treat these personnel. Recalling a wounded friend who suffered tumors where uranium shrapnel had been left in his body, he said the authorities found "no compelling evidence" of a connection and refused to authorize removal of the shrapnel or special treatment.
In his own case, Rokke added, his body has six times the amount of uranium that usually requires medical care but has received no help or advice from the government.
"The technology of war is out of control," Rokke concluded. "We don't have the ability to clean it up (or) treat it. I'm a warrior, but my conclusion is that war is obsolete. A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report says over 221,000 of our sons and daughters are on permanent disability and over 10,000 dead - one-third of our Gulf War I force. And they're coming back sick right now."
posted on July 23, 2003 01:07:06 PM new
here is a site for those who would like more info on DEPLETED URANIUM. IMPEACH THIS PRESIDENT AND HIS PARTY NOW.
posted on July 23, 2003 04:21:11 PM new
skylite your insults are getting tiresome and all you prove is that you can type very little and cut and past alot...
I have an email in my profile... drop me a line and lets meet face to face over a beer and discuss this more in depth...
I can keep typing too... but then again there is the offer on the table...
posted on July 23, 2003 05:14:58 PM new
twelve, the insults started with you so i thought 2 can play that game, so next time you don't agree with something, try being a bit more civil in your responses, or else we can go back to slinging mud.
It doesn't feel good to degrade people, saw too much of that in my life, under many circumstances.........
)
