Deadly Legacy - Depleted Uranium (4 articles)

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Deadly Legacy - Depleted Uranium (4 articles)

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 15:30:05 +0100

 

 

 

 

 

Deadly Legacy,

 

IN THE APRIL 4 ISSUE OF AFP, we reported on charges aired recently in

a psychiatric newsletter that Anthony Principi, the head of the

Veterans Affairs, quietly stepped down over the growing scandal

involving the highly toxic weapons component known as depleted uranium

(DU).

 

According to Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for

Constitutional Law, " This malady (from uranium munitions), that

thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally

been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the

guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.

 

Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of

them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on

permanent medical disability. This astounding number of `disabled

vets' means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who

served have some form of permanent medical problems. "

 

As we have editorialized before, the continued use of DU is a war

crime because the substance kills indiscriminately on and around

battlefields. The fact is, the U.S. military has been well aware that

DU is highly toxic when it is vaporized on the battlefield but has

sought to hide this major fact. Study after study has shown a link

between an assortment of strange illnesses and grotesque birth defects

and the military's use of DU.

 

No one knows for sure just how many tons of DU our government has

deposited around the world on helpless civilians and on

soldiers—including our own—during George Bush's wanton war games.

 

Some say the figure is 200 tons, others claim tens of thousands. The

exact number is not important; what is important is the criminal

deceit that the military, under orders of the White House, has practiced.

 

Anywhere DU has been employed—including firing ranges across the

United States and war zones around the world—the ground and water will

be contaminated for centuries. Not exactly a pretty legacy for

American " democracy " to leave for posterity.

 

It is time for Congress or responsible parties in the administration

to ban the use of DU for they are as complicit in this crime as is our

boy president.

 

 

WantToKnow.info

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 5:59 AM

Depleted Uranium - Suppressed Reports and Veterans' Suffering

Given Little Coverage

 

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This message is available on the Internet at

http://www.WantToKnow.info/050405depleteduranium

 

 

Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium

project -- a former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville

University and onetime US army colonel who was tasked by the US

department of defence with the post-first Gulf war depleted uranium

desert clean-up -- said use of DU was a 'war crime'.

-- Sunday Herald (Australia's leading newspaper), 3/30/03

April 5, 2005

Dear friends,

 

 

Depleted uranium is a major issue which has received little media

coverage in spite of its extensive use in the Gulf War and the two

recent wars. The military and other government officials claim it is

not harmful except at very close range, while other experts testify

that depleted uranium is responsible for a wide range of problems,

including the ravaging Gulf War Syndrome experienced by so many Gulf

War veterans.

 

Scientific studies on the subject have been repressed. Key witness

testimony by hundreds of victims has been ignored or inadequately

explained away. Below are excerpts from several articles dealing with

depleted uranium on the websites of top media outlets with links to

the original articles. Why are the facts on this important matter

being suppressed? Why are our governments not addressing the cause of

suffering of these many recent war veterans?

 

To understand the reasoning for the suppression, I highly recommend

our summary of highly decorated US General Smedley Butler's book War

is a Racket at http://www.WantToKnow.info/warisaracket. General Butler

gives an insiders perspective on how powerful economic forces promote

war for reasons of profit while ignoring the very serious consequences

to the many military and civilian lives affected. Let us all do what

we can to call for the prominent publication of the scientific studies

on depleted uranium which have been suppressed. Please help to spread

the word on this important topic by forwarding this information to

your friends and colleagues. Together, we can make a difference.

 

With best wishes,

Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info Team

 

 

US forces' use of depleted uranium weapons is 'illegal'

Sunday Herald (Australia's leading newspaper) March 30, 2003

http://www.sundayherald.com/32522

 

BRITISH and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU)

shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United

Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons

of mass destruction. DU contaminates land, causes ill-health and

cancers among the soldiers using the weapons, the armies they target

and civilians, leading to birth defects in children.

 

Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium

project -- a former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville

University and onetime US army colonel who was tasked by the US

department of defence with the post-first Gulf war depleted uranium

desert clean-up -- said use of DU was a 'war crime'. A study of Gulf

war veterans showed that 67% had children with severe illnesses,

missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory problems and fused fingers.

 

Silver Bullet: Depleted Uranium

CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - Canada's ABC)

http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/

 

A year after war's end, [Gulf War Vet Jerry] Wheat got startling

evidence from his father -- a technician at the famous Los Alamos

Nuclear Research Centre, who just out of curiosity tested the shrapnel

that came from his son's body and gear. The shrapnel was radioactive.

Today, eight years after the Gulf War, that shrapnel still lights up a

Geiger counter. He also keeps other pieces.

 

Jerry's great fear is that whatever he brought back with him from the

Gulf is now afflicting his family. His older son Joe was hospitalized

with breathing problems the day after Wheat dragged his contaminated

gear into the house. Derrick, his youngest son, who was born after the

war, suffers strange blisters on his hands. His wife suffered a

miscarriage. Jerry himself recently had a tumour removed from his

shoulder. He now worries continually about cancer. Jerry says the

military has never shown any interest in his shrapnel. The military

said Jerry's health problems are due to post traumatic stress.

 

WHO `suppressed' scientific study into

depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq

Sunday Herald, Feb. 22, 2004

http://www.sundayherald.com/40096

 

An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq's civilian

population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium (DU)

weapons has been kept secret. The study by three leading radiation

scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer

after breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and

chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World

Health Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith

Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was

deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.

 

Baverstock also believes that if the study had been published when it

was completed in 2001, there would have been more pressure on the US

and UK to limit their use of DU weapons in last year's war, and to

clean up afterwards. Hundreds of thousands of DU shells were fired by

coalition tanks and planes during the conflict, and there has been no

comprehensive decontamination. Experts from the United Nations

Environment Programme (UNEP) have so far not been allowed into Iraq to

assess the pollution.

 

For more information, The Christian Science Monitor has a compilation

of 16 articles exposing the dangers of depleted uranium at

http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/specials/uranium/

 

BBC also has a webpage listing 10 of their articles both pro and con

regarding depleted uranium at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/europe/2001/depleted_uranium/default.stm

 

 

See our archive of deep insider emails at

http://www.WantToKnow.info/coveruparchive

 

 

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