Depleted Uranium - The Real Dirty Bombs

[Guest guest]

> " GeorgiaAnn " <nyknak

> Fri, 27 Aug 2004 15:58:33 -0700

> [theoneswithoutnames] Depleted Uranium -

> The Real Dirty Bombs

>

>

> Depleted Uranium - The Real Dirty Bombs

> By Christopher Bollyn

> 8-27-4

>

 

>

> Lost in the media circus about the Iraq war,

> supposedly being fought to prevent a tyrant from

> obtaining weapons of mass destruction, is the

> salient fact that the United States and Britain are

> actively waging chemical and nuclear warfare in Iraq

> - using depleted uranium munitions.

>

> The corporate-controlled press has failed to inform

> the public that, in spite of years of UN inspections

> and numerous international treaties, tons of banned

> weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - used and unused

> - remain in Iraq. Indeed, both chemical and

> radioactive WMD have been - and continue to be used

> against U.S. and coalition soldiers.

>

> The media silence surrounding these banned WMD, and

> the horrendous consequences of their use, is due to

> the simple fact that they are being used by the

> U.S.-led coalition. They are the new " Silver Bullet "

> in the U.S. arsenal. They are depleted uranium

> weapons.

>

> Depleted uranium (DU) weapons were first used during

> the first Gulf War against Iraq in 1991. The

> Pentagon estimated that between 315 and 350 tons of

> DU were fired during the first Gulf War. During the

> 2003 invasion and current occupation of Iraq, U.S.

> and British troops have reportedly used more than

> five times as many DU bombs and shells as the total

> number used during the 1991 war.

>

> While the use of DU weapons and their effect on

> human health and the environment are subjects of

> extreme importance the Pentagon is noticeably

> reluctant to discuss these weapons. Despite numerous

> calls to specific individuals identified as being

> the appointed spokesmen on the subject, not one

> would answer their phone during normal business

> hours for the purpose of this article.

>

> Dr. Doug Rokke, on the other hand, former director

> of the U.S. Armyís Depleted Uranium Project, is very

> willing to talk about the effects of DU. Rokke was

> involved in the " clean up " of 34 Abrams tanks and

> Bradley armored vehicles hit by friendly fire during

> the 1991 Gulf War. Today he suffers from the ill

> effects of DU in his body.

>

> Rokke told American Free Press that the Pentagon

> uses DU weapons because they are the most effective

> at killing and destroying everything they hit. The

> highest level of the U.S. and British governments

> have " totally disregarded the consequences " of the

> use of DU weapons, Rokke said.

>

> The first Gulf War was the largest friendly fire

> incident in the history of American warfare, Rokke

> says. " The majority of the casualties were the

> result of friendly fire, " he told AFP.

>

> DU is used in many forms of ammunition as an armor

> penetrator because of its extreme weight and

> density. The uranium used in these missiles and

> bombs is a by-product of the nuclear enrichment

> process. Experts say the Department of Energy has

> 100 million tons of DU and using it in weapons saves

> the government money on the cost of its disposal.

>

> Rather than disposing of the radioactive waste, it

> is shaped into penetrator rods used in the billions

> of rounds being fired in Iraq and Afghanistan. The

> radioactive waste from the U.S. nuclear weapons

> industry has, in effect, been forcibly exported and

> spread in the environments of Iraq, Afghanistan, the

> former Yugoslavia, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.

>

> THE REAL " DIRTY BOMBS "

>

> " A flying rod of solid uranium 18-inches long and

> three-quarters of an inch in diameter, " is what

> becomes of a DU tank round after it is fired, Rokke

> said. Because Uranium-238 is pyrophoric, meaning it

> burns on contact with air, DU rounds are burning as

> they fly.

>

> When the DU penetrator hits an object it breaks up

> and causes secondary explosions, Rokke said. " It's

> way beyond a dirty bomb, " Rokke said, referring to

> the terror weapon that uses conventional explosives

> to spread radioactive material.

>

> Some of the uranium used with DU weapons vaporizes

> into extremely small particles, which are dispersed

> into the atmosphere where they remain until they

> fall to the ground with the rain. As a gas, the

> chemically toxic and radioactive uranium can easily

> enter the body through the skin or the lungs and be

> carried around the world until it falls to earth

> with the rain.

>

> AFP asked Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist

> who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at

> Lawrence Livermore lab, if he thought that DU

> weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb.

> " That's exactly what they are, " Falk said. " They fit

> the description of a dirty bomb in every way. "

>

> According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU

> fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks is reduced to

> particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a

> meter) in size or smaller on impact.

>

> " The larger the bang " the greater the amount of DU

> that is dispersed into the atmosphere, Falk said.

> With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100

> percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust

> particles of the " micron size " (virus size -ed) or

> smaller, he said.

>

> While the Pentagon officially denies the dangers of

> DU weapons, since at least 1943 the military has

> been aware of the extreme toxicity of uranium

> dispersed as a gas (or dust particles -ed).

>

> A declassified memo written by James B. Conant and

> two other physicists working on the U.S. nuclear

> project during the Second World War, and sent to

> Brig. Gen. L.R. Groves on October 30, 1943, provides

> the evidence:

>

> " As a gas warfare instrument the [radioactive]

> material would be ground into particles of

> microscopic size to form dust and smoke and

> distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land

> vehicles, or aerial bombs, " the 1943 memo reads.

>

> " In this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The

> amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling

> the material is extremely small. It has been

> estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulation

> in a personís body would be fatal. There are no

> known methods of treatment for such a casualty. "

>

> The use of radioactive materials " as a terrain

> contaminant " to " deny terrain to either side except

> at the expense of exposing personnel to harmful

> radiations " is also discussed in the Groves memo of

> 1943.

>

> " Anybody, civilian or soldier, who breathes these

> particles has a permanent dose, and itís not going

> to decrease very much over time, " Leonard Dietz, a

> retired nuclear physicist with 33 years experience

> told the New York Daily News. " In the long run -

> veterans exposed to ceramic uranium oxide have a

> major problem. "

>

> " Inhaled particles of radioactive uranium oxide dust

> will either lodge in the lungs or travel through the

> body, depending on their size. The smallest

> particles can be carried through cell walls and

> " affect the master code - the _expression of the

> DNA, " Falk told AFP.

>

> Inhaled DU can " fool around with the keys " and do

> damage to " practically anything, " Falk said. " It

> affects the body in so many ways and there are so

> many different symptoms that they want to give it

> different names, " Falk said about the wide variety

> of ailments afflicting Gulf War veterans.

>

> Today, more than one out of every three veterans

> from the first Gulf War are permanently disabled.

> Terry Jemison of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs said

> that of the 592,561 discharged veterans from the

> 1991 war in Iraq, 179,310 are receiving disability

> compensation and another 24,763 cases are pending.

>

> The " epigenetic damage " done by DU has resulted in

> many grossly deformed children born in areas such as

> southern Iraq where tons of DU have contaminated the

> environment and local population. An untold number

> of Americans have also been born with severe birth

> defects as a result of DU contamination.

>

> The New York Daily News conducted a study on nine

> recently returned soldiers from the New York

> National Guard. Four of the nine were found to have

> " almost certainly " inhaled radioactive dust from

> exploded DU shells.

>

> Laboratory tests revealed two manmade forms of

> uranium in urine samples from four of the 9

> soldiers. The four soldiers are the first confirmed

> cases of inhaled DU from the current Iraq war.

>

> " These are amazing results, especially since these

> soldiers were military police not exposed to the

> heat of battle, " said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who

> examined the soldiers and performed the testing.

> " Other American soldiers who were in combat must

> have more DU exposure, " Duracovic said. Duracovic is

> a colonel in the Army reserves and served in the

> 1991 Gulf War.

>

> The test results showing that four of nine New York

> guardsmen test positive for DU " suggest the

> potential for more extensive radiation exposure

> among coalition troops and Iraqi civilians, " the

> Daily News reported.

>

> " A large number of American soldiers [in Iraq] may

> have had significant exposure to uranium oxide

> dust, " Dr. Thomas Fasey, a pathologist at Mount

> Sinai Medical Center and an expert on depleted

> uranium said, " And the health impact is worrisome

> for the future. "

>

> HOTTER THAN HELL

>

> " I'm hotter than hell, " Rokke told AFP. The Dept. of

> Energy tested Rokke in 1994 and found that he was

> excreting more than 5,000 times the permissible

> level of depleted uranium. Rokke, however, was not

> informed of the results until 1996.

>

> As director of the Depleted Uranium Project in

> 1994-95, Rokke said his task was three fold:

> determine how to provide medical care for DU

> victims, how to clean it up, and how to educate and

> train personnel using DU weapons.

>

> Today, Rokke says that DU cannot be cleaned up and

> there is no medical care. " Once you're zapped -

> you're zapped, " Rokke said. Among the health

> problems Rokke is suffering as a result of DU

> contamination is brittle teeth. He said that he just

> paid out $400 for an operation for teeth that have

> broken off. " The uranium replaces the calcium in

> your teeth and bones, " Rokke said.

>

> " You fight for medical care every day of your life, "

> he said.

>

> " There are over 30,000 casualties from this Iraq

> war, " Rokke said.

>

> The three tasks set out for the Depleted Uranium

> Project have all failed, Rokke said. He wants to

> know why medical care is not being provided for all

> the victims of DU and why the environment is not

> being cleaned up.

>

> " They have to be held accountable, " Rokke said,

> naming President George W. Bush, Secretary of

> Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and British prime minister

> Tony Blair. They chose to use DU weapons and

> " totally disregarded the consequences. "