Vital Truths: DU

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INTRO. Sunday, September 03, 2006 at 7:20 PM PDT September 3, 2006 Hi, I am Douglas Westerman, free-lance Libertarian Journalist. Thus far I am covering two main topics; DEPLETED URANIUM (DU) and a different view of the so called "WAR ON TERROR" You are welcome to post comments, or e-mail me at aspendougy I also have a book you can buy on how cancer and AIDS patients who are doing fine with natural therapiesBest Regards, Douglas Westerman View Post (0)

Comments DEPLETED URANIUM REPORT FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Sunday, September 03, 2006 at 7:15 PM PDT September 3, 2006 Dear High School Students of America: School starts soon, and recruiters from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the Air Force, and the U.S. Marines will be visiting your classrooms throughout the coming year. The following information will enable you to make an informed decision as regards joining up. In compiling

information about the dangers of Depleted Uranium (DU), I have used the testimony of victims and also that of scientific experts who have done actual field work. I would encourage you to read this report slowly and attentively; please help all your friends by sharing it with as many of them as possible. Every high school student in the nation needs this information. Sincerely, Douglas Westerman aspendougyy vitaltruths.blogsource.com VITAL INFORMATION ON DEPLETED URANIUM FOR U.S. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO ARE THINKING OF JOINING THE U.S MILITARY AFTER GRADUATION What do these men have in common? · Dr. Asaf Durakovic, (former U.S Army Colonel, former head of Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School); · Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (British trained head oncologist of the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq); · Dr. Amhad Hardan (World Health Organization expert on DU) · Dr. Doug Rokke (Supervisor of the DU Clean-Up Project for Gulf

War I) · A Japanese Tribunal made up of concerned citizens and scientific experts All have used the words âWAR CRIMESâ in connection with President Bushâs decision to unleash Deppleted Uranium (DU) weapons upon the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan. âIn Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what Depleted Uranium (DU) does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying.â --- Dr. Ahmad Hardan â W.H.O.

Dustin Brim, aged 22, was really healthy prior his deployment in Iraq.Mechanically inclined, Dustin became an Army mechanic, an E-4 specialist serving in the 1st Maintenance Company under the 541st Maintenance Battalion from Fort Riley, Kan., and was deployed to Iraq in August 2003. Dustinâs duties in Iraq involved working on disabled Army vehicles, including tanks, which his unit repaired and retrieved, or if damaged beyond repair, destroyed with explosives on the spot. Most of these vehicles, having been in the battlefield, would have been heavily laden with DU and other toxins. By March of 2004, he was terminally ill. Doctors in Iraq discovered that Dustin had a huge cancerous tumor on his esophagus, which

severely restricted his breathing. He also had a collapsed lung, had lost function in one kidney, had numerous blood clots, and a progressive tumor in his liver. He died at Walter Reed Hospital on Sept. 22, 2004. âAnd cancer is topping the deaths that we continue to have. We canât get them to do a Social Security match for the deaths of the Gulf War veterans for Gulf War I. But, you know, having been a service person, you hesitate to come forward. If they have compensation, they are fearful theyâll lose it, no matter what little bit theyâve gotten. Theyâre scared to speak up. And then when we talk about the new soldiers, itâs the same way. They saw their buddies killed. I found a few of them when I went to the NGWRC meeting. We had a handful of them come in. And

thereâs the obviously undiagnosed illnesses that are going on and the strange illnesses. One guy had already had his parathyroid gland removed. I mean, thatâs not normal, not at an early age. But his driver was killed. Itâs hard to get them to stand up and start talking about these thingsâ¦â¦â¦â¦.I also lost a brother-in-law, and now my brother. I will be headed back to Dallas shortly. I lost my brother-in-law in June and in November my brother got diagnosed and is dying of cancer. Heâs back in the hospital and things arenât looking good, so Iâm trying to get my act together, my mind and emotional being together enough to face thatâ¦

--Major Denise Nichols (retired), is a Gulf War veteran and retired U.S. Air Force Reserve Major, Vice Chairman of the National Vietnam Veteran and Gulf War Veterans Coalition. âAfter we shoot something with depleted uranium ordinance, we're not supposed to go around it, due to the fact that it could cause cancer," says a sergeant in Baghdad from New York, assigned to a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, who asked not to be further identified. âWe don't know the effects of what it could do. If one of our vehicles burnt with a DU round inside, or an ammo truck, we wouldn't go near it, even if it had important documents inside. We play it safe." -----------Bradley Fighting Vehicle Driver â (wishes to remain

unidentified) PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon got too close. (Names and numbers have been changed) After returning from Iraq he, was diagnosed with cancer a few months later. He got in touch with the other 12 members of the Platoon, and found that seven others also have cancer. Thatâs 40% of the men in just one unit. One would expect the Iraqi people to be doing even worse. They are. Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan: âTwo strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of

the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancerâ. âChildren in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system, which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely

been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.â How often do you hear of nine members of the same family getting cancer simultaneously? Dr. Al-Ali goes on to say: âCurrently, more than 50 percent of Iraqi cancer patients are children under the age of 5, up from 13 percent. Children are especially vulnerable because they tend to play in areas that are heavily polluted by depleted uranium.â Dr. Ali, educated in England, has suffered from political persecution as a result of his efforts. âWe were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the

war. When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we were accused of being Saddam supporters.â At this point, you are probably wondering why this information is not appearing in the Main Stream Media. John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but as he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA

TODAY. Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organizationâs chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report â on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust â was also deliberately suppressed. The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military. In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, âThe [uS government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body.â Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the âBaghdad Diariesâ wrote: âEveryone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia.ââThe depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak

havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.â Although her estimate is probably statistically inaccurate, it was made in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, itâs 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry. Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq. In political circles, the White House has dismissed DU issues. On March 18, 2003 it issued "Apparatus of Lies," a report which, among other things, attacked claims that DU fallout from Operation Desert Storm has

caused higher disease rates among Iraqi citizens. Those claims were part of "Saddam's disinformation and propaganda" campaign, the White House said. In other words, anyone claiming that DU causes cancer and other illness is a liar and supporter of Saddam. In 1979, Leonard Dietz, a physicist who pioneered the technology to isolate uranium isotopes, accidentally discovered that air filters with which he was experimenting had collected radioactive dust from a National Lead Industries Plant that was producing depleted uranium ordinance 26 miles away. His discovery led to a shutdown of the factory. "The contamination was so heavy that they had to remove the topsoil from 52 properties around the plant," Dietz said. The cleanup cost $100 million. Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire vastly larger

quantities of the material. Pockets of it are quietly scattered all over the country. Hospitals in many States begin to report large numbers of horrendous birth defects. Babies without eyes, without limbs, and some even with out heads are born. Cancer clusters are reported in some places, with as many as nine members of one family having malignancies. Sounds worse than 9/11? This is exactly what the U.S Armed Forces have done to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Depleted Uranium (DU) is the waste residue made from the uranium enrichment process. This radioactive and toxic substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, is used by the U.S. Dept. of Defense to make shells that penetrate steel armor. Their first widespread use occurred in Iraq and Kuwait during Gulf War I, and they proved phenomenally

successful in penetrating enemy tanks. In one instance, a single DU projectile sliced through the armor of one Iraqi tank and penetrated another. In another engagement, a DU missile penetrated a shelter housing approximately 60 women and children, killing them instantly. The U.S. military was elated with the success of these weapons, and continued using them during the 2003 war. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. aircraft launched 940,000 depleted uranium munitions, and in the land offensive, its tanks fired a further 4,000 larger caliber DU shells. The Bush Administration and the Pentagon have claimed that there is minimal danger to American troops or Iraqi civilians from breathing the uranium oxide dust produced in depleted uranium weapons explosions. Many experts disagree. Prof. Dr.

Siegwart-Horst Guenther, an expert on radiological diseases from Germany stated: âMy efforts to have one of these hitherto unknown projectiles examined brought me into serious trouble in Germany: the material was highly toxic and radioactive. The projectile was confiscated by a large police detachment, carried away under enormous safety precautions and stored in a specially shielded deposit. During the last five years I have been able to carry out extensive studies in Iraq. Their results produced ample evidence to show that contact with DU ammunition has the following consequences, especially for children: ⢠A considerable increase in infectious diseases caused by most severe immunodeficiencies in a great part of the population; ⢠Frequent occurrence of massive herpes and zoster afflictions, also in children; ⢠AIDS-like syndromes; ⢠A hitherto unknown syndrome caused by renal and hepatic dysfunctions; ⢠Leukemia, aplastic anemia and malignant neoplasms; ⢠Congenital deformities caused by genetic defects, which are also to be found in animals. The German authorities consider even one projectile radioactive and hazardous enough to warrant such treatment. Thanks to the U.S. Military, tens of thousands of children in Iraq and Afghanistan have been playing with them for several years now. In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases. In some veterans' families now, the only normal or healthy members of the family are the children born before the war. In another group of eight U.S. led Coalition soldiers whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. (The incidence of this particular condition in the general population is limited to around 1 for each 50,000,000 births) After National Guardsman Gerard Matthew returned home from his Iraq tour

a year and a half ago, he learned that members of another unit, who accepted an offer by the New York Daily News, had tested positive for depleted uranium (DU) contamination. Since he had spent much of his time lugging around DU-damaged equipment, Matthew also decided to get tested, and it turned out he was the most contaminated of them all. Matthew next urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their unborn baby. They discovered that the fetus had a condition common to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only two digits. Now Matthew is angry at a government that never warned him about DUâs dangers. By far the most far reaching and devastating effect is on the unborn children of Iraq and Afghanistan. One would expect a much greater incidence among the local populations, as compared to

veterans, who are in the Mid-East only temporarily, and who live in more protected locations. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses â scarcely human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific. Doctors in Iraq report that women no longer ask, âDoctor, is it a boy or a girl?â, but âDoctor, is it normal?â In one hospital in Basra, there were reports of two such births per day, just in one hospital.

How many severe birth defects, miscarriages, stillborns, etc. are taking place nationwide? Weâll probably never know. Some experts acting as spokesmen for the the D.O.D. claim that the defects are due to malnutrition from the U. N. Sanctions (specifically folate deficiency), but such a dramatic and widespread incidence of birth defects has not occurred elsewhere in the world, even in areas where malnutrition is more pronounced. Also, this would not explain the huge increase among U.S. servicemen and their families. Among the children of Tora Bora and Shah-e-Kot in Afghanistan, many are reported to be suffering from leukemia and esophageal cancer. A large number of spontaneous abortions are occurring among women and animals in those areas. As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002. He also states; âAmerican forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion. I donât know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years To document that.â The right to conceive normal and healthy children is far more fundamental than the external trappings of democracy touted by the Bush Administration. This will be in jeopardy for many years to come. âDepleted Uranium has a half life of 4.7 million years â that Means

thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer For tens of thousands of years to come. This is what I call Terrorism.â Says Dr Hardan. He also states: âI arranged for a delegation from Japanâs Hiroshima Hospital to Come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the

Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq.â Not only is the Bush Administration guilty of poisoning thousands, and perhaps millions of people, but they are preventing experts from other countries from helping out. Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated: "Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA." To view photos of catastrophic birth defects due to DU go to: http://www.firethistime.org/extremedeformities.htm ---- Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states:, "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. "When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," he said. After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most othersâincluding Rokke himselfâdeveloped serious health problems. Rokke

now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension. Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is ânot sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases.â Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases? Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. âThat's exactly what they are. They fit the description of a dirty

bomb in every way.â 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. âThe larger the bangâ 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 âmicron sizeâ or smaller, he said. When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat â sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are

smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and quite efficiently respirable. Thus it is far more potent than the coarse natural uranium to which we are exposed every day, which is generally excreted from the body. (Please go to IDUST.NET for an explanation by Dr. Dan Bishop, Ph.D Chemist, who explains why DU is far more toxic than natural uranium, despite having about the same level of radioactivity) This is very important, as the U.S. Dept. Of Defense has information scattered all over the Web, saying that DU is just like natural uranium. Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects due to DU, only a fraction of the cases are being reported. This powerful new evidence is blowing holes in the cover-up perpetrated by the Pentagon and three presidential administrations ever since DU was first used in 1991 in the Persian Gulf War. Fourteen years after the introduction of DU on the battlefield in 1991, the long-term effects have revealed that DU is an eventual death sentence for thousands. Scientists studying the biological effects of uranium in the 1960s reported that it targets the DNA. Marion Falk, a nuclear physical chemist retired from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab and formerly involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in soldiers from the 2003 war as "spectacular" and a matter of concern." This evidence shows that of the three effects which DU has on biological systems - radiation, chemical and particulate - the particulate effect from nano-size particles is the most dominant one immediately after exposure and

targets the Master Code in the DNA. This is bad news, but it explains why DU causes a myriad of diseases which are difficult to define. In simple words, DU "trashes the body." When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people." Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure. Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000

are dead, and by 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 now have medical problems. Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the

"tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted. Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. "I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My

health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach." A nuclear medicine expert who examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers. If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's

members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month. "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 G.I.s and performed the testing. "Other American soldiers who were in combat must have more depleted uranium exposure," said Duracovic, a colonel in the Army Reserves who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. While working at a military hospital in Delaware, he was one of the first doctors to discover unusual radiation levels in Gulf War veterans. He has since become a leading critic of the use of depleted uranium in warfare. Dr. Durakovic, director of the

private, non-profit Uranium Medical Research Centre in Canada and the United States, and center research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine medical journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview. The Japanese began studying DU effects in the

southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and painful death?The U.S. government has known for at least 20 years that DU weapons produce clouds of poison gas on impact. These clouds of aerosolized DU are laden with billions of toxic sub-micron sized particles. A 1984 Department of Energy conference on nuclear airborne waste reported that tests of DU anti-tank missiles showed that at least 31 percent of the mass of a DU penetrator is converted to nano-particles on impact. In larger bombs the percentage of aerosolized DU increases to nearly 100 percent, Falk told

AFP. "Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C. Dr. Durakovicâs research team conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation. "This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The Japan Times.

"They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between depleted uranium and the illness," Durakovic said. "They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law.â (NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers, even a former Army Colonel who was head of nuclear medicine at Goergetown University!) It is this difference in particle size as well as the dustâs crystalline structure that make the

presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading. Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the

lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours. The military is aware of DUâs harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DUâs effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DUâs chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its

size. For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours. âExposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion,â writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher. âNano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood. âWhen inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain,â she wrote. âMany

Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain. Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is somewhat possible to extrapolate backwards and approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams. Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses floating around Iraq and

Afghanistan. How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that âthis could cause â500,000 potential deathsâ. This was âa theoretical figureâ, it stressed, that indicated âa significant problemâ. The AEAâs calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as âvery far from realisticâ by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. âSince the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local

population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide,â he said. These remarks were made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraqâs total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be

low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq. CASE STUDY â THE LATE CAPTAIN TERRY RIORDAN â CANADIAN ARMED FORCES What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk. He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones,

diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians? Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers.

Because the UMRC is located in Canada, and also because the issue is not suppressed in the main stream media as it is in the U.S., DU poisoning is more widely discussed and understood. This is the main reason that Canada refused to send troops to Iraq the second time around. Too may soldiers came back sick the first time. The Department of Defense released a study last October that found that "the health risks from inhaling airborne particles of depleted uranium are very low." A five-year study by an independent research institute paid for by the DOD reported that even "in extreme cases, exposure to 'aerosolized' depleted uranium did not pose a health risk." (The studies were done mostly with uranium miners.) Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, and numerous others dispute these conclusions, saying the studies do not simulate

actual field conditions, and did not involve studying the effect of actual ingestion and inhalation of DU dust. She served for six months at a supply base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the National Guard's Combat Equipment Company A was to clean out tanks and other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them for storage. She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill. In, 2003, the

Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldnât keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority? Would we put our children in a situation where they could play on top of something that seasoned troops are told to stay away from? The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they

are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes. Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion. In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq. FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some

time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England. UMRCâs Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination,

including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation. Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring

Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before. Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained

mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months. In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. âWe took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest

imagination.â In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads: "The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium." In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of âbunker busterâ bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys. âA significant portion of the civilian populationâ? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children. The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing. --- According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers". There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time.

The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher. The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi

civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed âstudies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless.â The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers). Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be

desperate in some five to 10 years." The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizenâs Tribunal that âconvictedâ President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizenâs court with no binding legal authority) 1. Their use has indiscriminate effects; 2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives; 3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner; 4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. Two years

ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals. CONCLUSIONS: If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then

the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something worse in his place. What we fear most is that terrorists will unleash âdirty bombsâ against the U.S. It is ironic that in doing so, we have sent many of Americaâs best and most self-sacrificing young people over to the Middle East to do just that. They too are unwitting victims. e-mail me at: aspendougy to receive e-copy of report Douglas Westerman is a

free-lance journalist, living in Los Angeles, CA. He is the author of: TERMINAL CANCER AND AIDS PATIENTS, HOW THEY ARE GETTING WELL WITH ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES; VITAL CONSUMER INFORMATION HANDBOOK View Post (0) Comments UPDATED - HISTORY OF ISRAELI TERROR Saturday, September 02, 2006 at 2:16 PM PDT This posting includes the recent stats on the Lebanon War:? Israel's IDF killed 1088 civilians

(final total?will be much higher) and only confirmed 93 Hezbollah fighters killed.? Also,? according to an official U.N. Report, the IDF lost one soldier in the Palestinian territories, from June 26th to August 26th, 2006, and killed over 200 people, including 44 small children.? A BRIEF HISTORY OF ISRAELI TERRORIST OPERATIONS Sept. 2, 2006 Douglas Westerman Vitaltruths.blogsource.com aspendougy Ever since Israel was founded, the distinction between the “terrorists” and the “terrorized” has always been a bit murky. Uri Mileshtin, an official historian for the Israeli Defense Forces states that back in 1948, when IDF forces first moved into Palestine, they dumped typhus and dysentery bacilli into the local village wells.

?Also in 1948, a group of prominent Jewish Americans, including Albert Einstein,? signed letter to the NEW YORK TIMES condemning Israeli terrorism. ?In this letter, there is mention of a genocidal attack on the Arab village of Keir Yassin: “A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants — 240 men, women, and children — and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King

Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin. The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party. The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a “Leader State” is the goal. In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top

leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin’s efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin. The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism. In 1948, American Jews were not nearly as intimidated by the Israeli Lobby as they are now. ?The same Menachem Begin who was head of the Freedom Party, and was called a fascist by prominent American Jews, was later elected Prime Minister of Israel. In 1954, Israeli agents working in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including a United States diplomatic facility, and left evidence behind implicating Arabs. The ploy would have worked, had not

one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to capture and identify one of the bombers, which in turn led to the round up of an Israeli espionage ring. Some of the spies were from Israel, while others were recruited from the local Jewish population. Israel first claimed that there was no spy ring, that it was all a hoax perpetrated by "anti-Semites". But as the public trial progressed, it became obvious that Israel had indeed been behind the bombing. Eventually, Israeli's Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon was brought down by the scandal, although it appears that he was himself the victim of a frame-up by the real authors of the bombing project, code named "Operation Susannah." According to Victor Ostrovsky, a MOSSAD defector living in Canada, Ronald Reagan was tricked into bombing Libya by means of a radio transmitter smuggled into Tripoli by the MOSSAD, which broadcast messages designed to

fool the United States into thinking Libya was about to launch a massive terror attack on the west. On the basis of this bogus evidence, the US bombed Libya, killing Khadaffi's daughter A Report of the German Intelligence Service (BND) says Israel's MOSSAD helped the "Arab terrorists" allegedly responsible for the 9/11 attacks, insuring that the operation succeeded. Germany has not denied that this report is authentic and no one has been able to refute it. ? "These investigations disclosed in late May of 2001 that an attack was to be made against certain specified targets in the American cities of Washington and New York. But it was apparent that the MOSSAD was fully aware of these attacks well in advance, and,? though their own agents inside these Arab groups, assisted in the planning and the eventual execution of the attacks. During the 9/11 attacks, multiple witnesses observed a group of men with what appeared to be radio-controlled detonators videoing and celebrating the 9/11 Attacks.? These men were apprehended and held for several months, then released.? They were Israelis, not Muslims. Some of these men later appeared on Israeli talk shows, denying that they celebrated but admitting that "they were sent over to document the Event."?? These men were caught with some suspicious paraphernalia, cash, etc. When questioned they told the police, "We are your friends, we are not your problem, the Palestinians are your problem." Many Muslims have been held for a lot longer at Guantanamo on much flimsier evidence than this.? Moreover, the propaganda campaign has been effective in making Americans suspicious of Muslims, although there is almost no evidence of

Muslim terrorist cells operating inside the U.S.? It is also interesting that Osama Bin Laden never mentioned An additional witness who was the lone American employee of URBAN MOVING SYSYTEMS, a moving company in adjacent New Jersey (All the rest were Israelis) reported that they were also celebrating the 9/11 Attacks. After 9/11 they left the country so quickly, that other moving companies had to come in and finish their deliveries ?The F.B.I. lists Bin Laden on its wanted poster for the 1996 Attacks only, not the 9/11 Attacks, because they say they have insufficient evidence linking him to 9/11.? They do admit that there is evidence connecting Israelis with the 9/11 Attacks, but say that the information is "classified." The F.B.I also found that a group of MOSSAD Agents was shadowing the 9/11

hijackers in Miami; they rented the apartment next door. Also, seven? supposed hijackers are still alive, having been victims of identity theft. ?Right during and after the 9/11 Attacks, the? NYC 911 emergency dispatcher received an anonymous phone call saying that "a group of Palestinians in a White Van" were observed.? The caller stressed that they "were dressed like Arabs" and used the word Palestinians. Evidently MOSSAD tried to create a link. After the 9/11 Attacks, a group of IDF (Israeli) soldiers over in Palestine baited a group of Palestinians with sweets and jokes, and got them laughing.? Then they videoed this behavior, sent it to the U.S. News Media, and stated that the Palestinians were "celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers."? The fraudulent nature of this footage was not revealed in the main stream

media. Osama Bin Laden denied any knowledge of the 9/11 Attacks, and many foreign intelligence experts and also some domestic ones, feel that the later tapes and videos in which he confessed are fake. There is ample evidence for this (he is left handed, the "confessor” is right handed, he is rather morose, the “confessor” is haughty and jubilant,? their faces are shaped differently) At any crime scene, there are four things to look at; motive, means, opportunity, and presence at the scene of the crime.?? Israel alone fulfills all four conditions. ? That the Israeli government was fully aware of these attack is absolutely certain and proven. Diplomatic traffic between the Israeli Embassy in the Federal Republic and the Israeli Foreign Office made it very clear that Minister President Sharon was fully aware of this pending

attack and urgently wished that no attempt was made to prevent the attacks." ? On August 6,2001, the German ambassador Ischinger informed George W. Bush of the exact time and place of the attack. Bush thanked the ambassador and said he was aware of it. Later the US Government demanded that Germany keep this warning secret. This report has been around since 2002 but I was just made aware of it. (http://www.physics911.net/germanintel.htm) In Oct. 2001, two men were caught with C-4 explosives, hand grenades and a high powered gun, trying to enter the Mexican Parliament Building.? The story was headline news in Mexico, and the incident also appeared on the official site of the Mexican Justice Dept.? CNN briefly mentioned a "breaking story" about a "foiled terrorist attack in Mexico” promising further news, but never mentioned the story again. One of the

terrorists was a MOSSAD agent, the other a Mexican Jewish person.? Israel put very heavy pressure on Mexico to secure their release.? The men had fake Passports on them from Pakistan. Evidently, the idea was to blow up the Mexican Parliament Building, then leave passports there from a Muslim country to implicate Muslims and turn Mexico against the Arab world. ?It is astonishing how this story was kept out of the main stream media. In both the attacks in Canada, and the recent spate of arrests in London, a group of naïve young Muslims were said to be responsible for planning a series of terrorist attacks.? Some intelligence sources think it is more likely that they were baited and set up by much more sophisticated operatives, for the purpose of keeping the U.S and the other Western Democracies stirred up against an exaggerated Muslim terrorist threat. ? The Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) launched 5,000 missiles, 5-ton bunker-buster bombs and cluster bombs as well as anti-personnel phosphorus bombs each day into Lebanon for 27 days – totaling over 135,000 missiles, bombs and artillery shells. During the last 7 days of the war Israel launched 6,000 bombs and shells per day – over 42,000, for a grand total of 177,000 over a heavily populated territory the size of the smallest state in the US. In contrast, the Lebanese national resistance launched 4,000 rockets during the entire 34-day period, an average of 118 per day. The ratio was 44 to 1 – without mentioning the size differentials, the long-term killing effects of the thousands of un-exploded cluster bombs (nearly 50 killed or maimed since the end of hostilities) and Israel’s scorched earth military incursion. The Jewish Lobbyists publish the number of Israel’s civilian dead as 41, forgetting to mention that only 23 were Jews,

the remaining 18 were members of Israel’s Arab Muslim and Christian minority who constitute around 20% of the population. The disproportionate number of Israeli Arabs killed was a result of the Israeli government policy of providing shelters and siren warning systems to Jews and ignoring the security needs of its Arab citizens. The proportion of civilian deaths to soldiers was 41 to 116 or 26% of the total Israeli dead (but if we only consider Jewish Israelis and IDF members the proportion 23 to 116 or 16% of the Jewish dead were civilian.) Clearly the Lebanese resistance was aiming most of its fire at the invading IDF. In contrast, in Lebanon, of the 1,181 so far known to have been killed, 1088 were civilians and only 93 were fighters. In other words 92% of the Lebanese dead were civilians –over three times the rate of civilians killed by the Lebanese resistance and almost 6 times the rate of Jewish civilians killed (the only ones who count in the Lobby’s propaganda

machine). To put it more bluntly: over 47 Lebanese civilians were slaughtered for each Jewish Israeli civilian death. The Jewish Lobby’s claims of Israeli moral and military superiority in the Middle East – which is paradoxically combined with warnings that Israel’s survival is at stake – has been shredded to tatters as a result of their failure to annihilate Hezbollah. ?According to a United Nation Report, from June 26 to August 26, 2006, Israel killed 202 Palestinians, 44 of whom were small children, while losing 1 soldier; while in Lebanon, Israel lost 116 soldiers to 93 Lebanese fighters in 34 days (almost half the time). In other words, 157 times more Israeli’s were killed as a result of the Lebanese invasion in one month – than died in Palestine in 2 months (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, August 26, 2006). The Jewish Lobby’s propaganda campaign in the US Congress, throughout the mass media and even in

our small communities in defense of Israel’s “Summer Rain” (raining bombs on civilians) against the Palestinians has been thoroughly exposed as a murderous scorched earth policy by the United Nations Report and summarized in the Israeli daily Haaretz (August 27, 2006). According to Haaretz: “The (campaign)…is still taking a severe toll on 1.4 million Palestinians…thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes following continuing IDF incursions into the Strip (Gaza) and heavy shelling…the Israeli Air Force has conducted 247 aerial assaults in Gaza…more than a million people have been left with no regular supply of water and electricity.” The Lobby, like skilled totalitarians, reverses the roles calling the Palestinian victims (all 202 of them) terrorists and the executioners (the Israeli Defense Force) victims (1 dead soldier who was most likely killed by ‘friendly fire’). In surveying the Daily Alert, the propaganda sheet prepared by the

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (a semi-official propaganda arm of the Israeli regime) for the Conference of Presidents of Major America Jewish Organizations (CPMAJO), there is not a single mention of the fact that the Jewish state was killing almost 10 Lebanese civilians for each fighter, while the Hezbollah resistance was killing four times as many Israeli soldiers as Israeli civilians (Jews and Gentiles). Not a single opinion article, editorial or commentary reproduced by the Daily Alert, from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The National Telegraph, the New York Sun, USA Today, Boston Globe, New York Times, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post or The Times (UK) mentions the fact that Israel’s much ballyhooed ‘precision’ bombing succeeded in targeting civilians, while the Lebanese defenders’ far less sophisticated weaponry mainly hit IDF invaders. These omissions by the Jewish Lobby and its members and supporters in the Anglo-American-Israeli respectable and

yellow press and electronic media were absolutely necessary to perpetuate the myth the Israel was waging a ‘defensive’, ‘existential’ (sic) war for ‘survival’ against Islamic ‘terrorists’ embodied in Hezbollah and the Lebanese National Resistance. Was Israel’s destruction of 15,000 homes up to Beirut and beyond to Northern Lebanon defensive actions as the CPMAJO claims? Do these very smart, very wealthy, highly educated Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Hopkins and Chicago-educated Jewish apologists for the Israeli invasion really believe that bombing hospitals, supermarkets, water treatments plants, churches and mosques in Southern Lebanon, oil refineries and milk, food and pharmaceutical factories in Beirut, transport, highways and bridges in Northern Lebanon were ‘existential’ acts essential for the survival of the ‘Jewish State’? Can’t they understand the simple math presented above? The math of genocide? Do the investment bankers, professors, dentists and armies of

rabbis of all Talmudic readings believe that Israel is the innocent victim of aggression – justifying the slaughter of over 90% Lebanese civilians among those it killed? Such well-educated professionals must know that from January 1996 to August 2006, there were weekly incidents all along the Israeli-Lebanese border, involving Israeli raids, killings and kidnapping of Lebanese civilians, as well as rocket firing in both directions. Didn’t the Hollywood moguls who gave so generously to the Israeli war machine know that Elliott Abrams, President Bush’s chief adviser on the Middle East (stern defender of Jewish purity and intimate collaborator with the Israeli high command) gave full support in early summer to an Israeli plan to destroy Hezbollah, at least one month before the border incident (see S. Hersh, New Yorker, August 21, 2006)? Of course the educated elites know all about the Israeli lust for power and dominance…Unlike the good Germans in the 1940’s, who

claimed they didn’t see the smoking chimneys or the grim trains, today images of devastated apartments and slaughtered children were visible, easily accessible and followed by well-publicized reports by all the human rights groups on Israel’s crimes against humanity. They knew and supported Israel’s crimes before and after the ceasefire – and they proudly chose to endorse the war, the policies and the state as true accomplices after the fact. Yet the Jewish Lobby tells us that Hezbollah’s kidnapping of two soldiers across the Israeli border was the detonator for a full-scale invasion. Numerous sources around the world even dispute the Israeli account of a Hezbollah cross-border attack. According to the big business US magazine Forbes (July 12, 2006), the French news service AFP (July 12, 2006), the respectable Asia Times (July 15, 2006) and the Lebanese police, the Israeli soldiers were captured within Lebanon in the area of Ai’tu Al-Chaarb, a Lebanese village a

few kilometers from the Israeli border. While the Jewish lobby raises funds exclusively for Israeli-Jewish soldiers and civilians, Hezbollah is engaged in a non-sectarian reconstruction program that embraces all Lebanese communities and households, regardless of religious or ethnic preferences. The reason is found in the fact that the Lebanese resistance was a national movement. Contrary to the Lobby’s propaganda, the Lebanese resistance was not exclusively Shia or even Muslim in make-up. Israel’s invasion managed to united Lebanon’s factions in defense of their homeland. Of the 93 Lebanese fighters killed, 20% were from organizations other than Hezbollah, a point ignored by the Lobby’s ideologues, who pursue Israel’s policy of pushing the US to attack Iran, Syria and other Middle East states known to be hostile to Israel’s hegemonic ambitions. Consequences of Israeli War In both Israel and throughout the pro-Israel Jewish networks, the Israeli military’s

failure to achieve its goal of defeating and eliminating the Lebanese resistance, particularly Hezbollah, has had a major impact. In Israel, the major criticism of the Olmert-Perez regime and General Haluz from both soldiers and civilians is that the government was too weak – there was insufficient bombing, lack of sufficient ground troops and too much concern for Lebanese civilians. The cease-fire, they complained, was premature; the territory occupied was too limited. Likud and other parties in the Knesset called for the bombing of Syria and Iran. While many US and Israeli progressives cited the ‘turmoil’, ‘dissent’ and harsh polemics in the aftermath of the war as typical of the ‘rough and tumble’ of Israel’s democracy, they ignored the savage militarist substance and ultra-rightwing direction of Israeli public opinion. The ‘who lost the war’ polemics in Israel is basically anchored in preparations for a new, more violent attack on Lebanon and other adversaries

of Israel. This militaristic rage is manifested in the brutal daily assaults on the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank where Israeli warplanes bomb homes and ground forces assassinate and injure dozens of civilians – ‘existential’ murders against stone-throwing schoolboys. Israel’s rage has affected Jewish religious notables. The Rabbinical Council of America called for the Israeli military to re-evaluate its military rules of war in light of Hezbollah’s “unconscionable use of civilians, hospitals, ambulances, mosques and the like as human shields”, according to the Jerusalem Post August 21, 2006. The RCA and the modern Orthodox women’s organization, Eminah, represent over one million US Jews. Their call to maximize civilian deaths in order to lessen the ‘risk’ to ‘our’ (Israeli Jewish) soldiers is in the finest spirit of Nazi chaplains egging on the Wehrmacht’s scorched earth policy during World War Two. Their Israeli counterparts, Rabbis Eliyahu and Drori,

echoed the RCA’s ‘delicate criticisms’ in more colorful and uninhibited terms: “Our corrupt military, which tells us that our soldiers must endanger their lives to protect enemy civilians, is the reason we lost the war”, according to the gentle Rabbi Eliyahu, who sees all non-Jewish civilians opposing Israeli policy as enemies worthy of incineration. Not to be outdone, the good Rabbi Drori accused the rest of Western humanity as ‘anti-Semites’ for being horrified at Israel’s savage destruction. “Anti-Semites demand that we use Christian morality while our enemies act like barbarians,” (Jerusalem Post, August 21, 2006). Apparently the killing and maiming of over a thousand Lebanese civilians, mostly women and children, does not satisfy this raging bull Rabbi. Lest one think that these US and Israeli Rabbis are simply loose cannons or isolated psychopaths, three weeks earlier, one Rabbi Dov Lior, in the name of the Yesh Council of Rabbis (with hundreds of thousands

of Israeli followers), announced that “when our enemies hold a baby in one hand and shoot us with the other, or when missiles are purposely aimed at civilian populations in the Land of Israel in blatant disregard for moral criteria, we are obligated to act according to Jewish morality, which dictates that ‘he who gets up to kill you, get up yourself and kill him first,” (Jerusalem Post August 25, 2006). The Holy men of the Holy Land are providing a post-factum religious blessing for the more than three hundred Lebanese children killed and urging the future killing of even more children. All this we are told is according to ‘Jewish morality’. Surely many US Jews, especially liberals and even conservatives, object to rabbinical fiats for the slaughter of children, but we are deafened by their polite silence. The Lobby conveniently ignores the Jewish morality spiel, even as it defends the ‘moderate’ secular line of Israeli civilian deaths resulting from Hezbollah using

Lebanese babies and old grannies as shields to commit their crimes. So we have a raging debate among the US and Israeli rabbis, and secular and religious apologists over whether killing Lebanese civilians and children is based on tactical military or religious-ethical considerations. The Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee, David A. Harris, puts to the lie the nasty bit of propaganda by the US ‘Left’ Zionists downplaying the role of the Jewish Lobby in securing whole-hearted US White House and Congressional support for Israel’s destruction of Lebanon. In discussing US subservience to Israel, Harris stated, “No other nation has been prepared to define such an intimate relationship with Israel in all bilateral spheres – from arms sales, foreign aid and intelligence-sharing to a free-trade zone, scientific co-operation and diplomatic support. No other nation has the capacity, by dint of its size and stature, to help ensure Israel’s quest for a secure

and lasting peace (sic)…In the recent conflict with Hezbollah, once again the United States demonstrated its willingness to stand by Israel, provide vital support and withstand the pressure of many US allies who would have wished for an earlier end to the fighting even if it meant keeping Hezbollah largely intact and in place…Whatever the primary factor, there can be no doubt that American Jewry is an essential element of the equation (yoking the US to Israel). This is all the more reason why American Jewry need to work day in and day out to ensure that the mutually beneficial link (sic) goes from strength to strength,” (Jerusalem Post August 25, 2006). In plain English, the Jewish networks and lobbies were able to secure 98% support from Congress for a resolution supporting Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, even as 54 percent Democrats and 39% Republicans favor a policy of neutrality as opposed to alignment with Israel (Times-Bloomberg Poll July25-August 1, 2006,

published in the Jewish Telegraph Agency – August 15, 2006). The Lobby convinced, pressured and threatened the White House to prolong the Israeli terror bombing as Harris so proudly announced. The Jewish Lobby does work ‘day in and day out’ to make sure that Israel can ethnically cleanse Palestine, drop 5-ton bombs on Lebanese apartment buildings, bulldoze villages and isolate the US from even its closest allies at the expense of the US taxpayers, our democratic ideals and our sovereignty. And the American Jewish Committee has the chutzpah (arrogance) to say that it is ‘our mutually beneficial link’. Now that is a bit of political dishonesty! For ?additional material implicating Israeli MOSSAD agents in the 9/11 attacks, please visit vitaltruths.blogsource.com and read the article entitled.? WE ARE SPYING ON THE WRONG PEOPLE. Sincerely Douglas Westerman aspendougy vitaltruths.blogsource.com Mr. Westerman is a free lance writer and journalist living in Los Angeles, CA View Post (0) Comments REPORT FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ON DEPLETED URANIUM Saturday, August 26, 2006 at 2:50 PM PDT August 26, 2006 Dear High School Students of America: School starts soon, and recruiters from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the Air Force, and the U.S. Marines will be visiting your classrooms throughout the year. The following information will enable you to make an informed decision as regards joining up. In compiling information about the dangers of Depleted Uranium (DU), I have used the testimony of victims and also that of scientific experts who have done actual field work. I would encourage you to read this report slowly and attentively; please help all your friends by sharing it with as many of them as possible. Every high school student in the nation needs this information. Sincerely, Douglas Westerman aspendougyy vitaltruths.blogsource.com VITAL INFORMATION ON DEPLETED URANIUM FOR U.S. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO ARE THINKING OF JOINING THE U.S MILITARY AFTER GRADUATION What do these men have in common? · Dr. Asaf Durakovic, (former U.S Army Colonel, former head of Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School); ·

Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (British trained head oncologist of the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq); · Dr. Amhad Hardan (World Health Organization expert on DU) · Dr. Doug Rokke (Supervisor of the DU Clean-Up Project for Gulf War I) · A Japanese Tribunal made up of concerned citizens and scientific experts All have used the words “WAR CRIMES” in connection with President Bush’s decision to unleash DU weapons upon the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan. “In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what Depleted Uranium (DU) does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying.” --- Dr. Ahmad Hardan – W.H.O. Dustin Brim, aged 22, was really healthy prior his deployment in Iraq.Mechanically inclined, Dustin became an Army mechanic, an E-4 specialist serving in the 1st Maintenance Company under the 541st Maintenance Battalion from Fort Riley, Kan., and was deployed to Iraq in August 2003. Dustin’s duties in Iraq involved working on disabled Army vehicles, including tanks,

which his unit repaired and retrieved, or if damaged beyond repair, destroyed with explosives on the spot. Most of these vehicles, having been in the battlefield, would have been heavily laden with DU and other toxins. By March of 2004, he was terminally ill. Doctors in Iraq discovered that Dustin had a huge cancerous tumor on his esophagus, which severely restricted his breathing. He also had a collapsed lung, had lost function in one kidney, had numerous blood clots, and a progressive tumor in his liver. He died at Walter Reed Hospital on Sept. 22, 2004. “And cancer is topping the deaths that we continue to have. We can’t get them to do a Social Security match for the deaths of the Gulf War veterans for Gulf War I. But, you know, having been a service person, you hesitate to come forward. If they have compensation, they are fearful they’ll lose

it, no matter what little bit they’ve gotten. They’re scared to speak up. And then when we talk about the new soldiers, it’s the same way. They saw their buddies killed. I found a few of them when I went to the NGWRC meeting. We had a handful of them come in. And there’s the obviously undiagnosed illnesses that are going on and the strange illnesses. One guy had already had his parathyroid gland removed. I mean, that’s not normal, not at an early age. But his driver was killed. It’s hard to get them to stand up and start talking about these things………….I also lost a brother-in-law, and now my brother. I will be headed back to Dallas shortly. I lost my brother-in-law in June and in November my brother got diagnosed and is dying of cancer. He’s back in the hospital and things aren’t looking good, so I’m trying to get my act together, my mind

and emotional being together enough to face that… --Major Denise Nichols (retired), is a Gulf War veteran and retired U.S. Air Force Reserve Major, Vice Chairman of the National Vietnam Veteran and Gulf War Veterans Coalition. “After we shoot something with depleted uranium ordinance, we're not supposed to go around it, due to the fact that it could cause cancer," says a sergeant in Baghdad from New York, assigned to a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, who asked not to be further identified. “We don't know the effects of what it could do. If one of our vehicles burnt with a DU round inside, or an ammo truck, we wouldn't go near it, even if it had important documents inside. We play it safe."

-----------Bradley Fighting Vehicle Driver – (wishes to remain unidentified) PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon got too close. (Names and numbers have been changed) After returning from Iraq he, was diagnosed with cancer a few months later. He got in touch with the other 12 members of the Platoon, and found that seven others also have cancer. That’s 40% of the men in just one unit. One would expect the Iraqi people to be doing even worse. They are. Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan: “Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers

in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer”. “Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system, which can develop

anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.” How often do you hear of nine members of the same family getting cancer simultaneously? Dr. Al-Ali goes on to say: “Currently, more than 50 percent of Iraqi cancer patients are children under the age of 5, up from 13 percent. Children are especially vulnerable because they tend to play in areas that are heavily polluted by depleted uranium.” Dr. Ali, educated in England, has suffered from political persecution as a result of his efforts. “We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the war.

When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we were accused of being Saddam supporters.” Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the “Baghdad Diaries” wrote: “Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia.””The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of

the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.” Although her estimate is probably statistically inaccurate, it was made in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, it’s 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry. Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq. In political circles, the White House has dismissed DU issues. On March 18, 2003 it issued "Apparatus of Lies," a report which, among other things, attacked claims that DU fallout from Operation

Desert Storm has caused higher disease rates among Iraqi citizens. Those claims were part of "Saddam's disinformation and propaganda" campaign, the White House said. In other words, anyone claiming that DU causes cancer and other illness is a liar and supporter of Saddam. In 1979, Leonard Dietz, a physicist who pioneered the technology to isolate uranium isotopes, accidentally discovered that air filters with which he was experimenting had collected radioactive dust from a National Lead Industries Plant that was producing depleted uranium ordinance 26 miles away. His discovery led to a shutdown of the factory. "The contamination was so heavy that they had to remove the topsoil from 52 properties around the plant," Dietz said. The cleanup cost $100 million. Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire

vastly larger quantities of the material. Pockets of it are quietly scattered all over the country. Hospitals in many States begin to report large numbers of horrendous birth defects. Babies without eyes, without limbs, and some even with out heads are born. Cancer clusters are reported in some places, with as many as nine members of one family having malignancies. Sounds worse than 9/11? This is exactly what the U.S Armed Forces have done to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Depleted Uranium (DU) is the waste residue made from the uranium enrichment process. This radioactive and toxic substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, is used by the U.S. Dept. of Defense to make shells that penetrate steel armor. Their first widespread use occurred in Iraq and Kuwait during Gulf War I, and they proved

phenomenally successful in penetrating enemy tanks. In one instance, a single DU projectile sliced through the armor of one Iraqi tank and penetrated another. In another engagement, a DU missile penetrated a shelter housing approximately 60 women and children, killing them instantly. The U.S. military was elated with the success of these weapons, and continued using them during the 2003 war. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. aircraft launched 940,000 depleted uranium munitions, and in the land offensive, its tanks fired a further 4,000 larger caliber DU shells. The Bush Administration and the Pentagon have claimed that there is minimal danger to American troops or Iraqi civilians from breathing the uranium oxide dust produced in depleted uranium weapons explosions. Many experts disagree. Prof.

Dr. Siegwart-Horst Guenther, an expert on radiological diseases from Germany stated: “My efforts to have one of these hitherto unknown projectiles examined brought me into serious trouble in Germany: the material was highly toxic and radioactive. The projectile was confiscated by a large police detachment, carried away under enormous safety precautions and stored in a specially shielded deposit. During the last five years I have been able to carry out extensive studies in Iraq. Their results produced ample evidence to show that contact with DU ammunition has the following consequences, especially for children: • A considerable increase in infectious diseases caused by most severe immunodeficiencies in a great part of the population; • Frequent occurrence of massive herpes and zoster afflictions, also in children; • AIDS-like syndromes; • A hitherto unknown syndrome caused by renal and hepatic dysfunctions; • Leukemia, aplastic anemia and malignant neoplasms; • Congenital deformities caused by genetic defects, which are also to be found in animals. The German authorities consider even one projectile radioactive and hazardous enough to warrant such treatment. Thanks to the U.S. Military, tens of thousands of children in Iraq and Afghanistan have been playing with them for several years now. In a group of 251 soldiers from a study

group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases. In some veterans' families now, the only normal or healthy members of the family are the children born before the war. In another group of eight U.S. led Coalition soldiers whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. (The incidence of this particular condition in the general population is limited to around 1 for each 50,000,000 births) After National Guardsman Gerard Matthew returned home from his Iraq tour a year and a half ago, he learned that members of another unit, who accepted an offer by

the New York Daily News, had tested positive for depleted uranium (DU) contamination. Since he had spent much of his time lugging around DU-damaged equipment, Matthew also decided to get tested, and it turned out he was the most contaminated of them all. Matthew next urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their unborn baby. They discovered that the fetus had a condition common to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only two digits. Now Matthew is angry at a government that never warned him about DU’s dangers. By far the most far reaching and devastating effect is on the unborn children of Iraq and Afghanistan. One would expect a much greater incidence among the local populations, as compared to veterans, who are in the Mid-East only temporarily, and who live in more protected

locations. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses – scarcely human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific. Doctors in Iraq report that women no longer ask, “Doctor, is it a boy or a girl?”, but “Doctor, is it normal?” In one hospital in Basra, there were reports of two such births per day, just in one hospital. How many severe birth defects, miscarriages, stillborns, etc. are taking place nationwide? We’ll probably never

know. Some experts acting as spokesmen for the the D.O.D. claim that the defects are due to malnutrition from the U. N. Sanctions (specifically folate deficiency), but such a dramatic and widespread incidence of birth defects has not occurred elsewhere in the world, even in areas where malnutrition is more pronounced. Also, this would not explain the huge increase among U.S. servicemen and their families. Among the children of Tora Bora and Shah-e-Kot in Afghanistan, many are reported to be suffering from leukemia and esophageal cancer. A large number of spontaneous abortions are occurring among women and animals in those areas. As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has

documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002. He also states; “American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion. I don’t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years To document that.” The right to conceive normal and healthy children is far more fundamental than the external trappings of democracy touted by the Bush Administration. This will be in jeopardy for many years to come. “Depleted Uranium has a half life of 4.7 million years – that Means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer For tens of thousands of years to come.

This is what I call Terrorism.” Says Dr Hardan. He also states: “I arranged for a delegation from Japan’s Hiroshima Hospital to Come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter

Iraq.” Not only is the Bush Administration guilty of poisoning thousands, and perhaps millions of people, but they are preventing experts from other countries from helping out. Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated: "Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA." To view photos of catastrophic birth defects due to DU go to: http://www.firethistime.org/extremedeformities.htm ---- In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, “The [uS government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body.” Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states:, "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. "When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," he said. After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly

without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others—including Rokke himself—developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension. Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is “not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases.” Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases? Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. “That's exactly what they are. 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” or smaller, he said. When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat — sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily

dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and quite efficiently respirable. Thus it is far more potent than the coarse natural uranium to which we are exposed every day, which is generally excreted from the body. (Please go to IDUST.NET for an explanation by Dr. Dan Bishop, Ph.D Chemist, who explains why DU is far more toxic than natural uranium, despite having about the same level of radioactivity) This is very important, as the U.S. Dept. Of Defense has information scattered all over the Web, saying that DU is just like natural uranium. Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects due to DU, only a fraction of

the cases are being reported. This powerful new evidence is blowing holes in the cover-up perpetrated by the Pentagon and three presidential administrations ever since DU was first used in 1991 in the Persian Gulf War. Fourteen years after the introduction of DU on the battlefield in 1991, the long-term effects have revealed that DU is an eventual death sentence for thousands. Scientists studying the biological effects of uranium in the 1960s reported that it targets the DNA. Marion Falk, a nuclear physical chemist retired from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab and formerly involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in soldiers from the 2003 war as "spectacular" and a matter of concern." This evidence shows that of the three effects which DU has on biological systems - radiation, chemical and particulate - the particulate effect from

nano-size particles is the most dominant one immediately after exposure and targets the Master Code in the DNA. This is bad news, but it explains why DU causes a myriad of diseases which are difficult to define. In simple words, DU "trashes the body." When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people." Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure. Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian

Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 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 now have medical problems. Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty

"for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the "tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted. Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. "I got sick

instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach." A nuclear medicine expert who examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers. If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in

Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month. "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 G.I.s and performed the testing. "Other American soldiers who were in combat must have more depleted uranium exposure," said Duracovic, a colonel in the Army Reserves who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. While working at a military hospital in Delaware, he was one of the first doctors to discover unusual radiation levels in Gulf War veterans. He has since become a leading critic of the use of depleted uranium in warfare. Dr. Durakovic, director of the private, non-profit Uranium Medical Research Centre in Canada and the United States, and center research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine medical journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview. The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and painful death?The U.S. government has known for at least 20 years that DU weapons produce clouds of poison gas on impact. These clouds of aerosolized DU are laden with billions of toxic sub-micron sized particles. A 1984 Department of Energy conference on nuclear airborne waste reported that tests of DU anti-tank missiles showed that at least 31 percent of the mass of a DU penetrator is converted to nano-particles on impact. In larger bombs

the percentage of aerosolized DU increases to nearly 100 percent, Falk told AFP. "Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C. Dr. Durakovic’s research team conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation. "This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than

in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The Japan Times. "They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between depleted uranium and the illness," Durakovic said. "They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law.” (NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers, even a former Army Colonel who was head of nuclear medicine at Goergetown University!) It is this difference in particle size as well as the

dust’s crystalline structure that make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading. Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of

ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours. The military is aware of DU’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size. For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours. “Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion,” writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher. “Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood. “When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain,” she wrote. “Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors,

brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain. Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is somewhat possible to extrapolate backwards and approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams. Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses floating around Iraq and Afghanistan. How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that “this could cause “500,000 potential deaths”. This was “a theoretical figure”, it stressed, that indicated “a significant problem”. The AEA’s calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as “very far from realistic” by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. “Since the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide,” he said. These remarks were made prior to the more recent invasions

of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq’s total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq. CASE STUDY – THE LATE CAPTAIN TERRY RIORDAN – CANADIAN ARMED FORCES What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk. He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military

bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians? Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers. Because the UMRC is located in Canada, and also because the issue is not suppressed in the main stream media as it is in the U.S., DU poisoning is more widely discussed and

understood. This is the main reason that Canada refused to send troops to Iraq the second time around. Too may soldiers came back sick the first time. The Department of Defense released a study last October that found that "the health risks from inhaling airborne particles of depleted uranium are very low." A five-year study by an independent research institute paid for by the DOD reported that even "in extreme cases, exposure to 'aerosolized' depleted uranium did not pose a health risk." (The studies were done mostly with uranium miners.) Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, and numerous others dispute these conclusions, saying the studies do not simulate actual field conditions, and did not involve studying the effect of actual ingestion and inhalation of DU dust. She served for six months at a supply base in Kuwait during the

winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the National Guard's Combat Equipment Company A was to clean out tanks and other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them for storage. She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill. In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable

stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn’t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority? Would we put our children in a situation where they could play on top of something that seasoned troops are told to stay away from? The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes. Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion. In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq. FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center)

sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England. UMRC’s Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal

passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation. Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and

soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before. Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of

these symptoms last for days or months. In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. “We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination.” In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30%

of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads: "The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium." In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for

a new generation of “bunker buster” bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys. “A significant portion of the civilian population”? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children. The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing. --- According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico

Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers". There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will

be higher. The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed “studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless.” The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is

stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers). Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years." The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen’s Tribunal that “convicted” President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen’s court with no binding

legal authority) 1. Their use has indiscriminate effects; 2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives; 3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner; 4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American

nationals. CONCLUSIONS: If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something worse in his place. What we

fear most is that terrorists will unleash “dirty bombs” against the U.S. It is ironic that in doing so, we have sent many of America’s best and most self-sacrificing young people over to the Middle East to do just that. They too are unwitting victims. e-mail me at: aspendougy to receive e-copy of report Douglas Westerman is a free-lance journalist, living in Los Angeles, CA. He is the author of: TERMINAL CANCER AND AIDS PATIENTS, HOW THEY ARE GETTING WELL WITH ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES; VITAL CONSUMER INFORMATION HANDBOOK ----------------------- I have recently received large numbers of photographs of horrendous birth deformities that are being experienced in Iraq. I have not, ever seen

anything like them. One can find a number of experts who will claim that DU is not the sole cause of such birth defects, and that the evidence connecting them with DU is not conclusive. However, there is no place else that has seen such a sudden and dramatic rise in the incidence of such conditions, outside those areas where DU weapons were used on a large scale. One other explanation being put forward is that the U.N. sanctions caused widespread malnutrition in Iraq, particularly folate deficiencies. However, if the same birth defects are appearing in large numbers of U.S. Veterans who were also exposed to DU, the folate deficiency theory can be discounted. Child with almost total deformity of the face; no recognisable features at all, and what appears to be one eye situated in the middle of the forehead. Child with

hydrocephalus. Extreme hydrocephalus; deformity of face, body and ear. The line running down the right hand side of the head would appear to show that potentially two heads were forming. Deformity of ear; possible deformation of lower body. Born without eyes. The fish-like translucent quality of the skin is possibly a result of flash photography at close range otherwise this syndrome is called Collodian Membrane Ichthyosis. Huge hole in child's back, which is, I believe, an extreme form of Spina Bifida. Possibly taken shortly after birth, this picture appears to show ambiguous genitalia, sometimes referred to as 'Non-Viable Children'. This child is completely covered in a white susbstance. Obvious deformation of face and eyes. Flash photography at close range obscures detail.info:http://www.scalyskin.org Two children with similar deformities of the face. Dr. Gunther refers to this condition as 'Zyklopie.' Child with white substance covering almost the whole

body: "the Harlequin Infant" or called "congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma". info:View Post (0) Comments IRAQ ASSESSMENT - INFO CLEARING HOUSE - June 23, 2006 Friday, June 23, 2006 at 9:11 AM PDT 06/23/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- National Public Radio foreign correspondent Loren Jenkins, serving in NPR's Baghdad bureau, met earlier this month with a senior Shiite cleric, a man who was described in the NPR report as "a moderate" and as a person trying to lead his Shiite followers into practicing peace and reconciliation. He had been jailed by Saddam Hussein and forced into exile. Jenkins asked him: "What would you think if you had to go back to Saddam Hussein?" The cleric replied that he'd "rather see Iraq under Saddam Hussein than the way it is now."[1] When one considers what the people of Iraq have experienced as a result of the American bombings, invasion, regime change, and occupation since 2003, should this attitude be surprising, even from such an individual? I was moved to compile a list of the many kinds of misfortune which have fallen upon the heads of the Iraqi people as a result of the

American liberation of their homeland. It's depressing reading, and you may not want to read it all, but I think it's important to have it summarized in one place. Loss of a functioning educational system. A 2005 UN study revealed that 84% of the higher education establishments have been "destroyed, damaged and robbed". The intellectual stock has been further depleted as many thousands of academics and other professionals have fled abroad or have been mysteriously kidnapped or assassinated in Iraq; hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million, other Iraqis, most of them from the vital, educated middle class, have left for Jordan, Syria or Egypt, many after receiving death threats. "Now I am isolated," said a middle-class Sunni Arab, who decided to leave. "I have no government. I have no protection from the government. Anyone can come to my house, take me, kill me and throw me in the trash."[2] Loss of a functioning health care system. And

loss of the public's health. Deadly infections including typhoid and tuberculosis are rampaging through the country. Iraq's network of hospitals and health centers, once admired throughout the Middle East, has been severely damaged by the war and looting. The UN's World Food Program reported that 400,000 Iraqi children were suffering from "dangerous deficiencies of protein". Deaths from malnutrition and preventable diseases, particularly amongst children, already a problem because of the 12 years of US-imposed sanctions, have increased as poverty and disorder have made access to a proper diet and medicines ever more difficult. Thousands of Iraqis have lost an arm or a leg, frequently from unexploded US cluster bombs, which became land mines; cluster bombs are a class of weapons denounced by human rights groups as a cruelly random scourge on civilians, particularly children. Depleted uranium particles, from exploded US ordnance, float

in the Iraqi air, to be breathed into human bodies and to radiate forever, and infect the water, the soil, the blood, the genes, producing malformed babies. During the few weeks of war in spring 2003, A10 "tankbuster" planes, which use munitions containing depleted uranium, fired 300,000 rounds. And the use of napalm as well. And white phosphorous. The American military has attacked hospitals to prevent them from giving out casualty figures of US attacks that contradicted official US figures, which the hospitals had been in the habit of doing. Numerous homes have been broken into by US forces, the men taken away, the women humiliated, the children traumatized; on many occasions, the family has said that the American soldiers helped themselves to some of the family's money. Iraq has had to submit to a degrading national strip search. Destruction and looting of the country's ancient heritage, perhaps the world's greatest

archive of the human past, left unprotected by the US military, busy protecting oil facilities. A nearly lawless society: Iraq's legal system, outside of the political sphere, was once one of the most impressive and secular in the Middle East; it is now a shambles; religious law more and more prevails. Women's rights previously enjoyed are now in great and growing danger under harsh Islamic law, to one extent or another in various areas. There is today a Shiite religious ruling class in Iraq, which tolerates physical attacks on women for showing a bare arm or for picnicking with a male friend. Men can be harassed for wearing shorts in public, as can children playing outside in shorts. Sex trafficking, virtually nonexistent previously, has become a serious issue. Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims have lost much of the security they had enjoyed in Saddam's secular society; many have emigrated. A gulag of

prisons run by the US and the new Iraqi government feature a wide variety of torture and abuse -- physical, psychological, emotional; painful, degrading, humiliating; leading to mental breakdown, death, suicide; a human-rights disaster area. Over 50,000 Iraqis have been imprisoned by US forces since the invasion, but only a very tiny portion of them have been convicted of any crime. US authorities have recruited members of Saddam Hussein's feared security service to expand intelligence gathering and root out the resistance. Unemployment is estimated to be around fifty percent. Massive layoffs of hundreds of thousands of Baathist government workers and soldiers by the American occupation authority set the process in motion early on. Later, many, desperate for work, took positions tainted by a connection to the occupation, placing themselves in grave danger of being kidnapped or murdered. The cost of living has skyrocketed.

Income levels have plummeted. The Kurds of Northern Iraq evict Arabs from their homes. Arabs evict Kurds in other parts of the country. Many people were evicted from their homes because they were Baathist. US troops took part in some of the evictions. They have also demolished homes in fits of rage over the killing of one of their buddies. When US troops don't find who they're looking for, they take who's there; wives have been held until the husband turns himself in, a practice which Hollywood films stamped in the American mind as being a particular evil of the Nazis; it's also collective punishment of civilians and is forbidden under the Geneva Convention. Continual bombing assaults on neighborhoods has left an uncountable number of destroyed homes, workplaces, mosques, bridges, roads, and everything else that goes into the making of modern civilized life. Hafitha, Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi ... names that will live in infamy for the

wanton destruction, murder, and assaults upon human beings and human rights carried out in those places by US forces. The supply of safe drinking water, effective sewage disposal, and reliable electricity have all generally been below pre-invasion levels, producing constant hardship for the public, in temperatures reaching 115 degrees. To add to the misery, people wait all day in the heat to purchase gasoline, due in part to oil production, the country's chief source of revenue, being less than half its previous level. The water and sewage system and other elements of the infrastructure had been purposely (sic) destroyed by US bombing in the first Gulf War of 1991. By 2003, the Iraqis had made great strides in repairing the most essential parts of it. Then came Washington's renewed bombing. Civil war, death squads, kidnaping, car bombs, rape, each and every day ... Iraq has become the most dangerous place on earth. American soldiers

and private security companies regularly kill people and leave the bodies lying in the street; US-trained Iraqi military and police forces kill even more, as does the insurgency. An entire new generation is growing up on violence and sectarian ethics; this will poison the Iraqi psyche for many years to come. US intelligence and military police officers often free dangerous criminals in return for a promise to spy on insurgents. Protesters of various kinds have been shot by US forces on several occasions At various times, the US has killed, wounded and jailed reporters from Al Jazeera television, closed the station's office, and banned it from certain areas because occupation officials didn't like the news the station was reporting. Newspapers have been closed for what they have printed. The Pentagon has planted paid-for news articles in the Iraqi press to serve propaganda purposes. But freedom has indeed reigned -- for

the great multinationals to extract everything they can from Iraq's resources and labor without the hindrance of public interest laws, environmental regulations or worker protections. The orders of the day have been privatization, deregulation, and laissez faire for Halliburton and other Western corporations. Iraqi businesses have been almost entirely shut out though they are not without abilities, as reflected in the infrastructure rebuilding effort following the US bombing of 1991. Yet, despite the fact that it would be difficult to name a single area of Iraqi life which has improved as a result of the American actions, when the subject is Iraq and the person I'm having a discussion with has no other argument left to defend US policy there, at least at the moment, I may be asked: "Just tell me one thing, are you glad that Saddam Hussein is out of power?" And I say: "No". And the person says: "No?" And I

say: "No. Tell me, if you went into surgery to correct a knee problem and the surgeon mistakenly amputated your entire leg, what would you think if someone then asked you: Are you glad that you no longer have a knee problem? The people of Iraq no longer have a Saddam problem." And many Iraqis actually supported him. View Post (0) Comments DEPLETED URANIUM - GENOCIDE IN SLOW MOTION Tuesday, June 06, 2006 at 8:21 PM PDT DEPLETED

URANIUM - GENOCIDE IN SLOW MOTION by Douglas Westerman, June 6, 2006 "The desert dust carries death," Says Dr.Jawad Al-Ali, an oncologist and member of England's Royal Society of Physicians, in reference to the vast quantities of depleted uranium (DU) dust surrounding Basra, and now, other areas in Iraq, including highly populated areas in and around Bhagdad. All of it was deposited there by the U.S. Military. "Our studies indicate that more than forty percent of the population around Basra will get cancer.” Dr. Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003)

conference in Japan: “Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer”. “Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is

being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.”, Nine family members with cancer? 40%? Besides the multiple cancer victims, another problem is surfacing as the result of DU. Iraqi physicians call it "the white death"-leukemia. Since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent. "We have proof of traces of DU in samples taken for analysis and that is really bad for those who assert that cancer cases have grown for other reasons," says Dr. Umid Mubarak, Iraq's health

minister. Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the “Baghdad Diaries” wrote: “Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia.””The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.” This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major

population centers). So, it’s 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry. Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq. Terrell E. Arnold, former Chairman of the Department of International Studies at the National War College, in comparing the 1st & 2nd Gulf Wars stated: "Gulf War II is and has been a far more hairy experience,". "Fighting has been heavier and much more prolonged. Many tons more of depleted uranium weapons have been used, along with other toxic devices. Thus, a long term casualty rate for American forces of 40 to 50 percent appears realistic." In 2004, The American

Free Press discovered that 40 percent of the soldiers in one unit were found to have various forms of cancer when they returned from a tour of a year and a few months in Iraq. Dr. Korényi-Both said the unit, which his son belonged to, had recently returned from Iraq, where it had taken part in the initial assault on Baghdad. John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but as he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY. Dr. Keith Baverstock, The

World Health Organization’s chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report — on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust — was also deliberately suppressed. The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military. In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, “The [uS government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human

body.” At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states:, "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He stated: “When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others—including Rokke himself—developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension. Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is “not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases.” Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. “That's exactly what they are. 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” or smaller, he said. When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots

of people." When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat — sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and therefore respirable. Dr. Ahmad Hardan, W.H.O expert, who has studied the effects of DU for years stated: “I arranged for a delegation from Japan’s Hiroshima Hospital

to Come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq.” Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn’t want the rest of the world to find out what we have done. Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the "tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted. Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. "I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach." Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests

revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers. If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month. "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 G.I.s and performed

the testing. In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of the children conceived after the war had birth defects. Dr. Durakovic’s UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation. "This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The Japan Times. "They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said "They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law.” Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU

among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview. The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation.

600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and painful death? The difference in particle size as well as its crystalline structure make the presence of DU dust in the environment an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading. The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners. Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they

become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours. The military is aware of DU’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic

damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. How many additional deaths are likely? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that “this could cause “500,000 potential deaths”. This was “a theoretical figure”, it stressed, that indicated “a significant problem”. The AEA’s calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as “very far from realistic” by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. “Since the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable

oxide,” he said. These remarks were made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq’s total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the

concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq. What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk. He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper

diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians? Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers. The use of DU weapons in Iraq has led to a much higher death rate among U.S. military personnel than the Pentagon admits. The tragedy of Dustin Brim is the story of one such casualty. Mechanically inclined,

Dustin became an army mechanic, an E-4 Specialist serving in the 1st Maintenance Company under the 541st Maintenance Battalion from Fort Riley, Kansas, and was deployed to Iraq in August 2003. Dustin's work in Iraq involved working on disabled army vehicles, including tanks, which his unit repaired and retrieved, or if damaged beyond repair, destroyed with explosives on the spot. Most of these vehicles, having been in the battlefield, would have been heavily laden with DU and other toxins. In March 2004, Dustin began to complain of abdominal pains. He went to the doctors on his base 11 times during the month complaining of severe pain and constipation that lasted for weeks. During the last two weeks of March, he wrote to his mother telling her that he could not keep anything down, continuing to complain of persistent and severe pain. On March 31st

he passed out from pain and breathlessness. The next day, April 1st, was Dustin's 22nd birthday. After being assessed and heavily drugged with morphine, the doctors allowed him to call home to tell his mother that was very ill with cancer. In Baghdad, the doctors found that Dustin had a huge cancerous tumor on his esophagus, which severely restricted his breathing, a collapsed lung, the loss of a kidney, numerous blood clots and a tumor in his liver. They could not believe that Dustin had been turned away so many times for medical help and still manage to endure as long as he did in his magnitude of pain while carrying an 80-pound pack on his back, his mother said. Dustin was flown to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and then on to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. From April through September, Dustin underwent 6 different types of chemo-therapy. Each therapy seemed to work only for a few days after

which the cancer returned with a vengeance. On September 24, 2004, Dustin succumbed to the cancer that had affected every organ in his body except for his heart and brain as the autopsy later revealed. The Walter Reed doctors were silent as regards DU, nurses, however, told Dustin’s mother, Lori, to keep researching it. "Dustin is not the first and he won't be the last," one nurse told her confidentially. In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background

radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn’t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority? The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes. Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion. In Kosovo, similar spikes in

cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq. FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to

radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England. UMRC’s Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation. Two

additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before. Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months. In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400

times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. “We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination.” In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads: "The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium." In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of “bunker buster” bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys. “A significant portion of the civilian population”? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children.

The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing. --- According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium".

Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers". There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher. The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific

staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed “studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless.” The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers). Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant

professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years." The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen’s Tribunal that “convicted” President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen’s court with no binding legal authority) 1. Their use has indiscriminate effects; 2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives; 3.

Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner; 4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals. CONCLUSIONS: If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a

crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place. Vitaltruths.blogsource.com: e-mail me at: aspendougy View Post (0) Comments THE SLOW MASSACRE IN IRAQ - DU Saturday, June 03, 2006 at 3:59 PM PDT DEPLETED URANIUM – THE SLOW

MASSACRE by Douglas Westerman, June 3, 2006 "The desert dust carries death," Says Dr.Jawad Al-Ali, an oncologist and member of England's Royal Society of Physicians, in reference to the vast quantities of depleted uranium (DU) dust surrounding Basra, and now, other areas in Iraq, including highly populated areas in and around Bhagdad. All of it was deposited there by the U.S. Military. "Our studies indicate that more than forty percent of the population around Basra will get cancer.” Dr. Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in

Japan: “Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer”. “Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to

build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.”, Nine family members with cancer? Besides the multiple cancer victims, another problem is surfacing as the result of DU. Iraqi physicians call it "the white death"-leukemia. Since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent. "We have proof of traces of DU in samples taken for analysis and that is really bad for those who assert that cancer cases have grown for other reasons," says Dr. Umid Mubarak, Iraq's health minister. Prior to her

death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the “Baghdad Diaries” wrote: “Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia.””The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.” This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, it’s 5-6

times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry. Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq. Terrell E. Arnold, former Chairman of the Department of International Studies at the National War College, in comparing the 1st & 2nd Gulf Wars stated: "Gulf War II is and has been a far more hairy experience,". "Fighting has been heavier and much more prolonged. Many tons more of depleted uranium weapons have been used, along with other toxic devices. Thus, a long term casualty rate for American forces of 40 to 50 percent appears realistic." In 2004, The American Free Press discovered that 40 percent of the soldiers in

one unit were found to have various forms of cancer when they returned from a tour of a year and a few months in Iraq. Dr. Korényi-Both said the unit, which his son belonged to, had recently returned from Iraq, where it had taken part in the initial assault on Baghdad. John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but as he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY. Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization’s chief expert on radiation and

health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report — on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust — was also deliberately suppressed. The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military. In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, “The [uS government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body.” At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states:, "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He stated: “When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," After performing clean-up

operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others—including Rokke himself—developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension. Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is “not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases.” Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. “That's exactly what they are. 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” or smaller, he said. When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of

people." When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat — sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and therefore respirable. Dr. Ahmad Hardan, W.H.O expert, who has studied the effects of DU for years stated: “I arranged for a delegation from Japan’s Hiroshima Hospital to

Come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq.” Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn’t want the rest of the world to find out what we have done. Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International

Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the "tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted. Troops involved in actual combat are not the only

servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. "I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach." Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers. If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month. "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 G.I.s and performed the testing. In a

group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of the children conceived after the war had birth defects. Dr. Durakovic’s UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation. "This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the

Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The Japan Times. "They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said "They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law.” Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily

distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview. The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and painful

death? The difference in particle size as well as its crystalline structure make the presence of DU dust in the environment an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading. The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners. Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning

DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours. The military is aware of DU’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. How many additional deaths are likely? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that “this could cause “500,000 potential deaths”. This was “a theoretical figure”, it stressed, that indicated “a significant problem”. The AEA’s calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as “very far from realistic” by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. “Since the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide,” he said. These remarks were

made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq’s total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq. What can

an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk. He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the

UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians? Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers. The use of DU weapons in Iraq has led to a much higher death rate among U.S. military personnel than the Pentagon admits. The tragedy of Dustin Brim is the story of one such casualty. Mechanically inclined, Dustin became an army mechanic, an E-4 Specialist serving in the 1st Maintenance Company under the 541st

Maintenance Battalion from Fort Riley, Kansas, and was deployed to Iraq in August 2003. Dustin's work in Iraq involved working on disabled army vehicles, including tanks, which his unit repaired and retrieved, or if damaged beyond repair, destroyed with explosives on the spot. Most of these vehicles, having been in the battlefield, would have been heavily laden with DU and other toxins. In March 2004, Dustin began to complain of abdominal pains. He went to the doctors on his base 11 times during the month complaining of severe pain and constipation that lasted for weeks. During the last two weeks of March, he wrote to his mother telling her that he could not keep anything down, continuing to complain of persistent and severe pain. On March 31st he passed out from pain and breathlessness. The next day, April 1st, was Dustin's 22nd birthday. After

being assessed and heavily drugged with morphine, the doctors allowed him to call home to tell his mother that was very ill with cancer. In Baghdad, the doctors found that Dustin had a huge cancerous tumor on his esophagus, which severely restricted his breathing, a collapsed lung, the loss of a kidney, numerous blood clots and a tumor in his liver. They could not believe that Dustin had been turned away so many times for medical help and still manage to endure as long as he did in his magnitude of pain while carrying an 80-pound pack on his back, his mother said. Dustin was flown to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and then on to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. From April through September, Dustin underwent 6 different types of chemo-therapy. Each therapy seemed to work only for a few days after which the cancer returned with a vengeance. On September 24, 2004, Dustin succumbed to the cancer that had

affected every organ in his body except for his heart and brain as the autopsy later revealed. The Walter Reed doctors were silent as regards DU, nurses, however, told Dustin’s mother, Lori, to keep researching it. "Dustin is not the first and he won't be the last," one nurse told her confidentially. In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn’t keeping children away

from such dangers be the top priority? The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes. Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion. In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used

was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq. FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent

research lab in England. UMRC’s Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation. Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad

region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before. Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent

with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months. In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. “We took both soil and

biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination.” In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads: "The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated,

people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium." In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of “bunker buster” bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys. “A significant portion of the civilian population”? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children. The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most

cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing. --- According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers".

There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher. The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following

Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed “studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless.” The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers). Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are

many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years." The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen’s Tribunal that “convicted” President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen’s court with no binding legal authority) 1. Their use has indiscriminate effects; 2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives; 3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner; 4. Their use causes

superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals. CONCLUSIONS: If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the

physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place. Vitaltruths.blogsource.com: e-mail me at: aspendougy View Post (0) Comments DESERT DUST CARRIES DEATH Friday, June 02, 2006 at 8:47 PM PDT DESERT DUST CARRIES DEATH By Douglas Westerman THE DESERT DUST CARRIES DEATH Written by Douglas Westerman, June 1, 2006 "The desert dust carries death," said Dr.Jawad Al-Ali, an oncologist and member of England's Royal Society of Physicians, in reference to the vast quantities of depleted uranium (DU) dust surrounding Basra, and now, other areas in Iraq. "Our studies indicate that more than forty percent of the population around Basra will get cancer." Dr. Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan: "Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had

three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer". "Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.", Nine family members with cancer simultaneously? Besides the multiple

cancer victims, another problem is surfacing as the result of DU. Iraqi physicians call it "the white death"-leukemia. Since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent. "We have proof of traces of DU in samples taken for analysis and that is really bad for those who assert that cancer cases have grown for other reasons," says Dr. Umid Mubarak, Iraq's health minister. Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the "Baghdad Diaries" wrote: "Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia.""The depleted

uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas." This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, it’s 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry!! Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq. Terrell E. Arnold, former Chairman of the Department of International Studies at the National War College, in comparing the 1st & 2nd Gulf Wars

stated: "Gulf War II is and has been a far more hairy experience,". "Fighting has been heavier and much more prolonged. Many tons more of depleted uranium weapons have been used, along with other toxic devices. Thus, a long term casualty rate for American forces of 40 to 50 percent appears realistic." Indeed, as the American Free Press discovered in 2004, 40 percent of the soldiers in one unit were found to have malignant cancerous growths when they returned from a tour of a year and a few months in Iraq. Dr. Korényi-Both said the unit, which his son belonged to, had recently returned from Iraq, where it had taken part in the initial assault on Baghdad. In the unit of 20 soldiers, 8 men were found to have "malignant growths" when they returned to the U.S., he said. John Hanchette, a journalism

professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but as he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY. Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization’s chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report — on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust — was also deliberately suppressed. The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military. In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium

died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, "The [uS government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body." At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada. PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have malignancies. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first

Gulf War states:, "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He stated:"When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others—including Rokke himself—developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is "not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases." Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases? Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. "That's exactly what they are. 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" or smaller, he

said. When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people." When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat — sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and therefore respirable. Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects due to DU, only

a small fraction of the cases are being reported. Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU. Weapons. Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no longer asking, "Doctor, is it a boy or girl?" but rather, "Doctor, is it normal?" The photos are horrendous (they can be viewed on the following website:)www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/extremedeformities.html - 22k Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated: "Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA." As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002. "American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion. I don’t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me

years To document that. "In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying." By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses – scarcely human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific.

Dr. Hardan also states: "I arranged for a delegation from Japan’s Hiroshima Hospital to Come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq." Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn’t want the rest of the world to find out what we have done. Such relatively swift development of cancers has

been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure. Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 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 in the first Gulf War now have medical problems. Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the "tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that

international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted. Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. "I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach." Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted

uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers. If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month. "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 G.I.s and performed the

testing.In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of the children conceived after the war had birth defects. Dr. Durakovic’s UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation. "This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told

The Japan Times. "They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said "They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law." (NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!) Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf

War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview. The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit, a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and

suffer and early and painful death? "Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C. It is this difference in particle size as well as the dust’s crystalline structure that make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading. The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners. Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours.The military is aware of DU’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times

more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size. For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours. "Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion," writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher. "Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the

most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood. "When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain," she wrote. "Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain. Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is possible to approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams. Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to determine that the total radiation

(alpha, beta and gamma) occurring from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses floating around Iraq and Afghanistan. How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that "this could cause "500,000 potential deaths". This was "a theoretical figure", it stressed, that indicated "a significant problem". The AEA’s calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as "very far from realistic" by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. "Since the rounds were

fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide," he said. These remarks were made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq’s total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is

considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq. What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk. He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get

proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians? Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers. Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, served for six months at a supply base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the National Guard's Combat Equipment Company "A" was to clean out tanks and other armored vehicles that

had been used during the war, preparing them for storage. She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill. In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank.

It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn’t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority? The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes. Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion. In Kosovo, similar spikes

in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq. FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine

specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England. UMRC’s Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation. Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002,

concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before. Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination,

consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months. In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. "We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in

urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination." In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads: "The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms

consistent with internal contamination by uranium." In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of "bunker buster" bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys. "A significant portion of the civilian population"? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children. The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing. --- According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers". There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The

number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher. The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that

comes up on Internet searches are these supposed "studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless." The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers). Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years." The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen’s Tribunal that "convicted" President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen’s court with no binding legal authority) Their use has indiscriminate effects; Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives; Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner; Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House

actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals. CONCLUSIONS: If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we

left something much worse in his place. Vitaltruths.blogsource.com e-mail me at: aspendougy When a loved one is diagnosed with cancer, it can dramatically alter the entire fabric of family life. The emotional impact can be huge. Imagine having nine members of your family with malignancies at the same time. Welcome to Basra, Iraq. Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, educated in England, is head oncologist at the Saddam teaching hospital in Basra. There are nine people with cancer in his wife’s

family. They are not alone. At a conference in Japan in 2004 he stated: “Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer”. “Children in particular are susceptible to

depleted uranium( DU) poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system, which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.” Dr. Ali has suffered political persecution as a result of his efforts to alert the outside world to the dangers of DU. “We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the war. When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait -

we were accused of being Saddam supporters.” Due to the complete breakdown of law and order in Iraq, these 58 families with multiple cancer victims may represent a small sample of a far larger group of victims. The families mentioned by Dr. Ali are among the more affluent in Basra, having access to what is left of their health care system in that area. What of the numerous victims who are not even being diagnosed, let alone gaining access to treatment? On March 18, 2003 The White House issued "Apparatus of Lies," a report which, among other things, attacked claims that DU fallout from Operation Desert Storm has caused higher disease rates among Iraqi citizens. Those claims were part of "Saddam's disinformation and propaganda" campaign, the White House said. In other words, anyone claiming that DU causes cancer and other illness is

a liar and supporter of Saddam. (Please go to: http://www.idust.net/Tutorial/DBish001.htm for an explanation by Ph.D Chemist Dan Bishop, explaining why DU is so much more dangerous than natural uranium) Many medical doctors and scientists disagree, saying theU.S Dept. of Defense is the one who is lying. John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He states that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon

asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY. Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization’s chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report — on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust — was deliberately suppressed. In 1979, depleted uranium (DU) particles escaped from the National Lead Industries factory near Albany, N.Y.,which was manufacturing DU weapons for the U.S military. The particles traveled 26 miles and were discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a nuclear physicist. This discovery led to a shut down of the factory in 1980, for releasing morethan 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the atmosphere every month.

Although the total amount of DU dust released was quite small, the subsequent cleanup of contaminated properties cost over 100 million dollars. Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire a million pounds of the deadly dust and scatter it in populated areas throughout the U.S. Hundreds of children report symptoms. Many acquire cancer and leukemia, suffering an early and painful death. Huge spikes in severe birth defects are reported. Oncologists are indunated. Soccer fields, sand lots and parks, traditional play areas are no longer safe. People lose their most basic freedom, the ability to go outside and safely breathe. Sounds worse than 9/11? Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The study by three leading radiation scientists warned that children and adults could contract cancer after inhaling particles of the extremely heavy, armor-piercing projectiles made of uranium-238. Inside the body the radioactive and chemically toxic metal, known commonly as “ depleted uranium” (DU), could trigger the growth of malignant tumors, the report warned. Experts have calculated that between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of DU were used by the U.S. and UK in the bombardment of Iraq . Dr. Baverstock suspects that the WHO was strong-armed by the powerful pro-nuclear International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “I believe our study was censored and suppressed by the WHO because they didn’t like its conclusions. Previous experience suggests that WHO officials were bowing to pressure from the IAEA,

whose [purpose] is to promote nuclear power,” Baverstock said. In 1997 Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University said, "The [u.S.] Veteran’s Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body ...uranium does cause cancer, uranium does cause mutation, and uranium does kill. If we continue with the irresponsible contamination of the biosphere, the denial of the fact that human life is endangered by the deadly uranium isotope, then we are doing disservice to ourselves, disservice to the truth, disservice to God and to all the generations who follow." His research was blocked and his position at Georgetown was eliminated. “In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what Depleted Uranium (DU) does, but we now know

what to look for and the results are terrifying.It has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tonnes more in Baghdad alone this April. I don't know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that."” --- Dr. Ahmad Hardan – W.H.O. Statistics were also recorded in hospitals & medical centers in Mosul city from August 1989 to March 1990, and repeated in the same places during August 1997 to March 1998. The frequency of incidence of cancer diseases ... [such as] lung, leukemia, breast, skin, lymphoma and liver cancers elevated 5-fold after the war. Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the

“Baghdad Diaries” wrote: “Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia.””The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.” A retired Air Force Major, Denise Nichols states: “And cancer is topping the deaths that we continue to have. We can’t get them to do a Social Security match for the deaths of the Gulf War veterans for Gulf War I. But, you know, having been a service person, you hesitate to come forward. If they have compensation, they are fearful they’ll lose it, no matter what little bit they’ve gotten. They’re scared to speak up. And then when we talk about the new soldiers, it’s the same way. They saw their buddies killed. I found a few of them when I went to the NGWRC meeting. We had a handful of them come in. And there’s the obviously undiagnosed illnesses that are going on and the strange illnesses. One guy had already had his parathyroid gland removed. I mean, that’s not normal, not at an early age. But his driver was killed. It’s hard to get

them to stand up and start talking about these things………….I also lost a brother-in-law, and now my brother. I will be headed back to Dallas shortly. I lost my brother-in-law in June and in November my brother got diagnosed and is dying of cancer. He’s back in the hospital and things aren’t looking good, so I’m trying to get my act together, my mind and emotional being together enough to face that…….. Although publicly, there is denial, some of the troops at least are being warned. A Bradley fighting vehicle driver, a sergeant who asked to remain unidentified, said: “After we shoot something with depleted uranium ordinance, we're not supposed to go around it, due to the fact that it could cause cancer,". “We don't know the effects of what it could do. If one of our vehicles burnt with a DU round inside, or an ammo truck, we

wouldn't go near it, even if it had important documents inside. We play it safe. PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon got too close. (Names and numbers have been changed) After returning from Iraq he, was diagnosed with cancer a few months later. He got in touch with the other 12 members of the Platoon, and found that seven others also have cancer. That’s 40% of the men in just one unit. Dustin Brim, aged 22, was really healthy prior his deployment in Iraq. Mechanically inclined, Dustin became an Army mechanic, an E-4 specialist serving in the 1st Maintenance Company under the 541st Maintenance Battalion from Fort Riley, Kan., and was deployed to Iraq in August 2003. Dustin’s duties in Iraq involved working on disabled

Army vehicles, including tanks, which his unit repaired and retrieved, or if damaged beyond repair, destroyed with explosives on the spot. Most of these vehicles, having been in the battlefield, would have been heavily laden with DU and other toxins. By March of 2004, he was terminally ill. Doctors in Iraq discovered that Dustin had a huge cancerous tumor on his esophagus, which severely restricted his breathing. He also had a collapsed lung, had lost function in one kidney, had numerous blood clots, and a progressive tumor in his liver. He died at Walter Reed Hospital on Sept. 22, 2004. Depending upon the amount of DU inhaled, one can die even faster. On July 16, the News-Leader site operating out of Springfield, Missouri published a pneumonia. Josh Neusche, a 20-year-old, fit and healthy Missouri National Guardsman, collapsed in Baghdad on July 2. He was evacuated to Landstuhl, Germany. His family was

informed he was suffering from pneumonia caused by fluid in his lungs. According to his mother, his liver, kidneys and muscles then began to break down. He was placed on dialysis, but fell into a coma and died on July 12.For anyone familiar with the research into the medical effects of exposure to depleted uranium, the details of Josh Neusche’s death would have to ring alarm bells. The 2001 World Health Organization report into the issue notes: “Brief accidental exposure to high concentrations of uranium hexafluoride has caused acute respiratory illness, which may be fatal.” There are two reasons why the U. S. Dept. of Defense is unwilling to admit that DU is harmful: · They don’t want to assume responsibility for the astronomical healthcare

costs of so many poisoned veterans. · They don’t want the rest of the world to know that they have essentially poisoned two entire nations. Two members of the Canadian-based Uranium Medical Research Center’s (UMRC) field investigation team are contaminated with uranium, the center reports. The researchers toured Iraq for 13 days in October 2003, five months after the end of aerial bombing. UMRC’s partner laboratory in Germany measured DU in both team members’ urine samples. The contamination of UMRC’s team members occurring over a two-week period, many months after the bombardment, represents a risk to civilians, non-governmental organizations’ staff, occupying armed forces and foreign contractors and diplomatic staff, the UMRC said.

The UMRC surveyed U.S.- and British-controlled combat areas and bombsites in southern Iraq. Readings taken from destroyed Iraqi tanks in Basra reveal radiation levels 2,500 times above normal. Tedd Weymann, of UMRC said, “At one point the readings were so high that an alarm on one of my instruments went off telling me to get back. Yet despite these alarmingly high levels of radiation children play on the tanks or close by.” If researchers who were in Iraq only 13 days got contaminated, what of all the children in Iraq who are playing amidst DU dust everyday? In 1979, Leonard Dietz, a physicist who pioneered the technology to isolate uranium isotopes, accidentally discovered that air filters with which he was experimenting had collected radioactive dust from a

National Lead Industries Plant that was producing depleted uranium ordinance 26 miles away. His discovery led to a shutdown of the factory. "The contamination was so heavy that they had to remove the topsoil from 52 properties around the plant," Dietz said. The cleanup cost $100 million. Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire vastly larger quantities of the material. Pockets of it are quietly scattered all over the country. Hospitals in many States begin to report large numbers of horrendous birth defects. Babies without eyes, without limbs, and some even with out heads are born. Cancer clusters are reported in some places, with as many as nine members of one family having malignancies. Sounds worse than 9/11? This is exactly what the U.S Armed Forces have done to the people

of Iraq and Afghanistan. Depleted Uranium (DU) is the waste residue made from the uranium enrichment process. This radioactive and toxic substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, is used by the U.S. Dept. of Defense to make shells that penetrate steel armor. Their first widespread use occurred in Iraq and Kuwait during Gulf War I, and they proved phenomenally successful in penetrating enemy tanks. In one instance, a single DU projectile sliced through the armor of one Iraqi tank and penetrated another. In another engagement, a DU missile penetrated a shelter housing approximately 60 women and children, killing them instantly. The U.S. military was elated with the success of these weapons, and continued using them during the 2003 war. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. aircraft launched 940,000 depleted

uranium munitions, and in the land offensive, its tanks fired a further 4,000 larger caliber DU shells. The Bush Administration and the Pentagon have claimed that there is minimal danger to American troops or Iraqi civilians from breathing the uranium oxide dust produced in depleted uranium weapons explosions. Many experts disagree. Prof. Dr. Siegwart-Horst Guenther, an expert on radiological diseases from Germany stated: “My efforts to have one of these hitherto unknown projectiles examined brought me into serious trouble in Germany: the material was highly toxic and radioactive. The projectile was confiscated by a large police detachment, carried away under enormous safety precautions and stored in a specially shielded deposit. During the last five years I have been able to carry out extensive

studies in Iraq. Their results produced ample evidence to show that contact with DU ammunition has the following consequences, especially for children: • A considerable increase in infectious diseases caused by most severe immunodeficiencies in a great part of the population; • Frequent occurrence of massive herpes and zoster afflictions, also in children; • AIDS-like syndromes; • A hitherto unknown syndrome caused by renal and hepatic dysfunctions; • Leukemia, aplastic anemia and malignant neoplasms; • Congenital deformities caused by genetic defects, which are also to be found in animals. The German authorities consider

even one projectile radioactive and hazardous enough to warrant such treatment. Thanks to the U.S. Military, tens of thousands of children in Iraq and Afghanistan have been playing with them for several years now. Dr. Guenther has been researching the effects of DU for years. Some of the information he has shared: · Bedouins from Kuwait battlefield areas, which US troops used as training grounds, reported hundreds of camels, sheep and birds lying in the desert. Examinations made by American veterinary specialists showed that the animals had died neither from bullets or diseases. Some carcasses were covered with insects, but the insects were also dead. · Symptoms have occurred in Kuwait and are spreading out. It is believed that as many as 250,000 Iraqis have been affected, with high death rates. · An American study in 1993 is said to have shown that approx. 50,000 Iraqi children died during the eight months after the war from the detrimental effects of DU projectiles · In November 1996 it was reported that in the former Yugoslavia approx. 1000 children were suffering from an unknown disease: headaches, aching muscles, abdominal pain, dizziness, respiratory problems and others, symptoms highly

similar to ‘Gulf War Syndrome.’ 600 of these children were receiving hospital treatment. In December 1997 and January 1998 the Balkan media reported a dramatic increase of leukaemia and cancer development within the population of Srpska, as well as an increase in malformation of new born children. The cows in this region showed reduced and bloody milk production, while milk production in other animals stopped completely. In Bosnia unusual vegetations are growing and fruits show unusual forms. Investigations by the Nuclear Research Institute in Vinca revealed a dangerous increase of radiation levels after NATO used DU ammunition during bombardments. The President of the US Gulf War Veterans Association is engaged in research into the so-called ‘Gulf War Syndrome.’ Symptoms include defects and damage to internal organs, chronic fatigue, loss of endurance,

frequent infections, sore throat, coughing, skin rashes, night sweats, nausea, vomiting, diahorrea, dizziness, headaches, memory loss, confusion, vision problems, muscle spasms and cramps, joint pains, loss of mobility, aching muscles, swollen glands, dental problems, and malformation of new born children. He estimates 50,000 to 80,000 veterans are affected. 39,000 have been dismissed from active service; 2400 to 5000 have died to date. DU contamination engenders cancer risks, and several soldiers reported that upon their return through commercial airports, the Geiger counters had ‘…become crazy…’. In Britain approximately 4000 soldiers are affected; about 160 have already died, as well as a number of Australians, Canadians and French. In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born

with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases. In some veterans' families now, the only normal or healthy members of the family are the children born before the war. In another group of eight U.S. led Coalition soldiers whose View Post (0) Comments THE NSA SPYING ON THE WRONG PEOPLE Friday, May 19, 2006 at 8:13 PM PDT View Post (0) Comments OTHER TERRORISTS Friday, May 12, 2006 at 7:50 PM PDT THE HIDDEN SIDE OF THE WAR ON TERROR Written by Douglas Westerman -May 8, 2006

aspendougy vitaltruths.blogsource.com From 1969 to 1994, Andreas von Bulow served on a commission which oversees the German secret services. He later wrote a book titled Im Namen des Staates (In the Name of the State) on the criminal activities of various secret services, which included the CIA.Von Bulow believes that the Israeli intelligence service, MOSSAD, played a major part in the September 11 terror attacks. These attacks, he said, were carried out to turn public opinion against Muslims. "You don't get the higher echelons," von Bulow said, referring to the "architectural structure" which plans such

operations. At this level, he said, the organization doing the planning, such as MOSSAD, is primarily interested in affecting public opinion. The terrorists who actually carry out the attacks are what von Bulow calls "the working level," such as the 19 Arabs who allegedly hijacked the planes on September 11. "The working level is part of the deception," he said. "Ninety-five percent of the work of the intelligence agencies around the world is deception and disinformation," von Bulow said, which is widely propagated in the mainstream media creating an accepted version of events. "Journalists don't even raise the simplest questions," he said adding, "those who differ are labeled as crazy." There is powerful circumstantial evidence to support his claim, that if the hijackers were not actually MOSSAD people, they were essentially "patsies", that they were set-up, then the buildings were brought

down with internally placed explosives. Leaving a copy of THE KORAN inside an abandoned van is a very simple but effective way to point people in a certain direction. A MOSSAD ) surveillance team set up cameras by the Hudson River and trained them on the twin towers, just prior to 9/11. Police received several calls from angry New Jersey residents claiming “middle-eastern” men with a white van were videotaping the disaster with shouts of joy and mockery. "They were like happy, you know … They didn't look shocked to me" said a witness. They were seen by New Jersey residents on Sept. 11 making fun of the World Trade Center. Witnesses observing their behavior in Liberty State Park after the initial impact interpreted it as being celebratory. Later on, other witnesses saw them continuing to celebrate on a roof in Weehawken, and still more

witnesses later saw them celebrating with high fives in a Jersey City parking lot. "It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park” ----remarked one witness. One anonymous phone call to the authorities actually led them to close down all of New York's bridges and tunnels. The mystery caller told the 9-1-1 dispatcher that a group of Palestinians were mixing a bomb inside of a white van headed for the Holland Tunnel. Here’s the transcript from NBC News: Dispatcher: Jersey City police. Caller: Yes, we have a white van, 2 or 3 guys in there, they look like

Palestinians and going around a building. Caller: There's a minivan heading toward the Holland tunnel, I see the guy by Newark Airport mixing some junk and he has those sheikh uniform. Dispatcher: He has what? Caller: He's dressed like an Arab. Why would this mystery caller specifically say that these “Arabs” were Palestinians? How would he know that? Palestinians usually dress in western style clothes, not “sheikh uniforms”. Who was trying to implicate Palestinians in the 9/11 attacks and why? Based on that phone call, police then issued a “Be-on-the-Lookout” alert for a white mini-van

heading for the city’s bridges and tunnels from New Jersey. When a van fitting that exact description was stopped just before crossing into New York, the suspicious “middle-easterners” were apprehended. Imagine the surprise of the police officers when these terror suspects turned out to be Israelis! According to ABC’s 20/20, when the van belonging to the cheering Israelis was stopped by the police, the driver of the van, Sivan Kurzberg, told the officers: "We are Israelis. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are your problem." Why did he feel that Palestinians were a problem for the NYPD? No Palestinian suicide attacks have taken place in New York City, and none of the supposed 9/11 hijackers were traced to Palestine! The police and FBI field agents became suspicious when they found maps of the city with certain places highlighted, box cutters (the same items that the hijackers supposedly used), $4700 cash stuffed in a sock, and foreign passports. Police also told the Bergen Record that bomb sniffing dogs were brought to the van and that they reacted as if they had smelled explosives. The Jerusalem Post later reported that a white van with a bomb was stopped as it approached the George Washington Bridge, but the ethnicity of the suspects was not revealed. Here’s what the Jerusalem Post reported on September 12, 2001: ”American security services overnight stopped a car bomb on the George Washington Bridge. The van, packed with explosives, was stopped on an approach ramp to the bridge. Authorities suspect the terrorists intended to blow up the main crossing between New Jersey and New York, Army Radio

reported. TCM Breaking News reported that the van was laden down with tons of explosives.” What's really intriguing is that ABC's 20/20, the New York Post and the New Jersey Bergen Record all clearly and unambiguously reported that a white van with Israelis was intercepted on a ramp near Route 3, which leads directly to the Lincoln Tunnel. But the Jerusalem Post, Israeli National News (Arutz Sheva) and Yediot America, all reported, just as clearly and unambiguously, that a white van with Israelis was stopped on a ramp leading to the George Washington Bridge, which is several miles north of the Lincoln Tunnel. There may have been two white vans involved, one stopped on each crossing. This would not only explain the conflicting reports as to the actual location of the arrests, but would also explain how so many credible

eye-witnesses all saw celebrating "middle-easterners" in a white van in so many different locations. It also explains why the New York Post and Steve Gordon (lawyer for the 5 Israelis) originally described how three Israelis were arrested but later increased the total to five. Also, it is possible that the story was changed in the Israeli newspaper to discredit the original. Perhaps one van was meant to drop off a bomb while the other was meant to pick up the first set of drivers while re-crossing back into New Jersey? If a van was to be used as a parked time-bomb on the GW Bridge, then certainly the drivers would need to have a "get-away van" to pick them up and escape. And notice how the van (or vans) stayed away from the third major crossing -the Holland Tunnel- which was where the police had originally been directed to by that anti-Palestinian 9-1-1 "mystery caller". A classic misdirection

play. From there, the story gets becomes even more suspicious. The Israelis worked for a Weehawken moving company known as Urban Moving Systems. An American employee of Urban Moving Systems told the The Record of New Jersey that a majority of his co-workers were Israelis and they were joking about the attacks. The employee, who declined to give his name said: "I was in tears. These guys were joking and that bothered me." These guys were like, "Now America knows what we go through." A few days after the attacks, Urban Moving System's Israeli owner, Dominick Suter, dropped his business and fled the country for Israel. He and his Israeli co-workers were in such a hurry to flee America that some of Urban Moving System's customers were left with their furniture stranded in storage facilities. It was later confirmed that the five detained Israelis

were in fact Mossad agents. They were held in custody for 71 days before being quietly released. Some of the movers had been kept in solitary confinement for 40 days. Several of the detainees discussed their experience in America on an Israeli talk show after their return home. Said one of the men, denying that they were laughing or happy on the morning of Sept. 11, "The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event." How did they know there would be an event to document on 9/11? Moreover, how did they know it would involve the collapse of the Twin Towers? If, as a growing number of experts claim, the Twin Towers were actually brought down by internally placed explosives,

it would have taken a sophisticated intelligence organization, with access to the buildings, months to prepare. There is no evidence that any El Quaeda members did so, but it is known that scores of MOSSAD personnel were in NYC and New Jersey before, during, and after the 9/11 attacks. Here is a possible scenario: 1. The Israeli “movers” cheered the 9-11 attacks to celebrate the successful accomplishment of the greatest “false flag” spy operation ever pulled off in history. 2. One of them, or an accomplice, then calls a 9-1-1 police dispatcher to report Palestinian bomb-makers in a white van headed for the Holland Tunnel. 3. Having thus pre-framed the Palestinians with this phone call, the Israeli bombers then head for the George

Washington Bridge, instead, where they will drop off their time-bomb van and escape with Urban Moving accomplices. 4. But the police react very wisely and proactively by closing off ALL bridges and tunnels instead of just the Holland Tunnel. This move inadvertently foils the Israelis’ misdirection play and leads to their own capture. 5. Helping to muddle things, the U.S. Justice Department rounds up over 1000 Arabs for minor immigration violations and places them in New York area jails. The Israelis therefore become less conspicuous as the government and media can now claim that the Israelis were just immigration violators caught in the same dragnet as many other Arabs. 6. After several months, FBI and Justice Department “higher-ups” are able to gradually push aside the local FBI

agents and free the Israelis quietly. According to a 61-page report, drafted after an investigation by the DEA and the US immigration service, the Israelis were organized into cells of four to six people. The significance of what the Israelis were doing didn’t emerge until after September 11, 2001, when a report by a French intelligence agency noted "according to the FBI, Arab terrorists and suspected terror cells lived in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as in Miami and Hollywood, Florida, from December 2000 to April 2001 in direct proximity to the Israeli spy cells". The report contended that Mossad agents were spying on Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehi, two of leaders of the 9/11 hijack teams. ... A French intelligence report says the leader of the Mossad cell in Florida rented apartments "right near the apartment of Atta and

al-Shehi". Osama bin Laden was immediately blamed for the 9/11 attacks even though he had no previous record of doing anything on this scale. Immediately after the Flight 11 hit World Trade Center , CIA Director George Tenet said "You know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it." The compliant mainstream media completely ignored the Israeli connection. Immediately following the 9-11 attacks, the media was filled with stories linking the attacks to bin Laden. TV talking-heads, “experts”, and scribblers of every stripe spoon-fed a gullible American public a steady diet of “Arab Terrorist” propaganda. But bin Laden strongly denied any role in the attacks and suggested that Zionists orchestrated the 9-11 attacks. The BBC published bin Laden's statement

of denial in which he said: "I was not involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States nor did I have knowledge of the attacks. There exists a government within a government within the United States. The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself; to the people who want to make the present century a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity. That secret government must be asked as to who carried out the attacks. ... A number of intelligence officials have raised questions about Osama bin Laden's capabilities. "This guy sits in a cave in Afghanistan and he's running this operation?" one C.I.A. official asked. "It's so huge. He couldn't have done it alone." A senior military officer stated that because of the visas and other documentation needed to infiltrate team members into the United States a major

foreign intelligence service might also have been involved. To date, the most damning evidence against Bin Laden is barely audible fuzzy amateur video that the Pentagon just happened to find "lying around" in Afghanistan. The real Bin Laden has a thin face, is left-handed and does not wear gold rings on his finger (Forbidden by Islam). The Bin Laden in the video who “confessed” to being behind the 9/11 attacks had a fat face, is right handed, and is wearing gold jewelry, which is why a number of foreign intelligence experts say the video is a fake. Gen. Hameed Gul, head of Inter Services Intelligence, the equivalent of a CIA-cum-FBI combination of Pakistan, during the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, was interviewed shortly after the 9/11 attacks, and repeated the accusation that Mossad agents were involved in the

operation. Asked to consider the possibility that bin Laden -- or OBL as he is referred to in Pakistani conversations -- was lying to him and is indeed guilty as charged by the United States, Gul said, "If Taliban are given irrefutable evidence of his guilt, I am in favor of a fair trial. In America one is entitled to a jury of peers. But he has no American peers. The Taliban would not object, in the event of a prima face case, to an international Islamic court meeting in The Hague. They would extradite Osama to the Netherlands." Gul said that his friend bin Laden had sworn to him on the Koran that he was not involved. "From a cave inside a mountain or a peasant's hovel," Gul asked, how could bin Laden mount such a sophisticated operation? "Let's be serious," he said with a smile. "Mossad and its American associates are

the obvious culprits," he added by asking, "Who benefits from the crime?" Asked why Israel would benefit, Gul replied, "Israel knows it has a short shelf-life before it is overwhelmed by demographics (and it) has now handed the (Bush administration) the opportunity it has been waiting for to consolidate America's imperial grip on the Gulf and acquire control of the Caspian basin by extending its military presence in Central Asia." Asked if the United States was now his enemy, Gul replied, "Is the U.S. national interest in contradiction with the Muslim world? The U.S. needs oil, as do its European allies. You have between 6 and 8 million American Muslims and their ranks are growing. About the same number in Europe. Israel aside, we are America's natural allies. Professor Sam Huntington in his (book) 'Clash of Civilizations' puts Confucius

and Judeo-Christians in one corner, and us in the other. His prescription is wrong but is being adopted by Bush 43 who has now put 60 countries on his hit list. This is the diabolical school that wants to launch an anti-Muslim 'crusade.' Muslims understood what Bush meant when he used that word. We need a meeting, not a clash, of civilizations." Horst Ehmke, who coordinated the German secret services directly under German prime minister Willi Brandt in the 70s, predicted a similar terrorist attack in his novel, Torches of Heaven, published last year, in which Turkish terrorists crash hijacked planes into Berlin. Although Ehmke had long expected "fundamentalist attacks," when he saw the televised images from September 11, he said it looked like a "Hollywood production." "Terrorists could not have carried out such an operation with 4 hijacked planes without the support of a secret service," Ehmke said, although he did not want to point to any particular agency. "The most important thing in the struggle against terrorists, who are abusing religion, is the battle for the soul of the people and the nations," Ehmke said. "If this isn't

resolved successfully, the 21st Century could be bloodier than the last." A former Stasi agent who had warned the German secret service of terror attacks in America between September 10-20 told AFP that a high ranking Stasi chief named Jurgen Rogalla, who is "an airplane terror specialist," was probably involved in the attacks of September 11 along with Abu Nidal. Both Nidal and Rogalla work with the Mossad, the former agent told AFP. Nidal, was said to be in Baghdad, and is a "leading officer for some Mossad agents." The agent said that Nidal was "involved directly" in the events of September 11. On October 10, 2001, CNN made a briefly mentioned a foiled terrorist bomb plot on the Parliament building in Mexico. They promised to bring any further developments of this story to their viewers, but the incident was never heard of again in the mainstream U.S. media outlets. But the story appeared in

bold headlines on the front page of major Mexican newspapers and was also posted on the official website of the Mexican Justice Department. Two terror suspects were captured in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. They had in their possession a high powered gun, nine hand grenades, and C-4 plastic explosives (great stuff for demolishing buildings!) Within days, this blockbuster story not only disappeared from the Mexican press, but the suspects were quietly released. The two terrorists were Salvador Gerson Sunke and Sar ben Zui Sunke. Gerson is a Mexican of Jewish origin, and Zui is a colonel with the Israeli Intelligence Services. (MOSSAD). The story in El Diario de Mexico went on to reveal that the terrorists possessed forged Pakistani passports. Israel worked diligently to secure the release of

these two suspects, who were then quietly deported. Many Mexicans expressed outrage at their prompt release, but to no avail. The probable motive of this unsuccessful terrorist operation was to involve oil rich Mexico in the "War on Terrorism".Mexico is no military power, but the psychological trauma of an "Arab" attack on Mexico would have encouraged Mexico to provide more cheap oil to her American "protector", as well as aligning her more closely with Israeli against the “War on Terror.” Had the operation against Mexico succeeded, it is probable that the fake passports from an Arab country would have been discovered (in this case Pakistan), along with the usual copy of the Koran, or other references to “Muslim Jihad.” Most likely there would have been “connections” with Osama Bin Laden and “El Qaeda.” The

following is a synopsis of the material which appeared in the Mexican Press: Two Israelis were arrested inside the Palacio Legislativo de San Lázaro (Mexican Congress) in Mexico City. Both were armed with 9 mm automatics and one was carrying a military hand grenade, electrical wiring and other bomb related materials. The Israeli Embassy at Sierra Madre 2155, colonia Lomas de Chapultepec has close its doors to the Mexican Press and are refusing to talk. The incident has been independently verified through Mexican diplomatic, press and other sources in Mexico City. The Chief of Legislative Security, Salvador Alarcón, has also confirmed the arrest of the two Israeli terrorists. One of them Saur Ben Zvi is a confirmed citizen of Israel and the other, Salvador Guersson, recently immigrated to Mexico from Israel. It is has been determined by the Procuraduría General de la

República (Mexican Department of Justice) that Guersson is a retired Colonel of the Israeli Defense Forces and that he may now be operating as a MOSSAD agent. It is not known how they were able to penetrate the extensive security system of the Mexican Legislative Palace. The two Israelis had entered through the highly secured front entrance of the Palacio Legislativo de San Lázaro. the two terrorists had taken advantage of a situation that occurred around 1700 hours of Wednesday October 10 when a large contingent of Sugar Industry Unionists were entering through the metal detectors. The two Israelis followed about 50 of the unionists to the office of the President of the Mexican Congress Beatriz Paredes. The two Israelis were first pretending to be press photographers but called the attention of the sugar unionists because of their nervous and out of the ordinary behavior. About ten of the unionists confronted them and

observed that they were carrying guns and and what looked to them to be explosives. They held the two Israelis until Official Congressional Security personnel took them into custody. The head of Congressional Security Salvador Alarcón verified that the Israelis had in their possession nine hand grenades, sticks of dynamite, detonators, wiring and two 9mm "Glock" automatics. The PGR has released the retired Israeli I.D.F. colonel with the official explanation that he had a legal permit to carry a gun. They also released the illegal Israeli immigrant on about $4000 bail and the case turned over to the Mexican immigration authorities. Mexican Congressional Press Secretary Lic. Adriana Lopez was surprised to hear from La Voz de Aztlan of the release of the two Israelis. The Israeli Embassy used heavy handed measures to have the two Israelis released. Very high level

emergency meetings took place between Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Jorge Gutman, General Macedo de la Concha and a top Ariel Sharon envoy who flew to Mexico City specially for that purpose. Elías Luf of the Israeli Embassy worked night and day and their official spokeswoman Hila Engelhart went into high gear after may hours of complete silence. What went one during those high levels meetings no ones knows, but many in Mexico are in disbelief at their release. Guns and any kind of explosive is highly illegal for Mexican citizens and the fact that these two Israelis had them inside the Mexican Congress makes their release highly suspect. What is really going on? Jorge Gutman, the Mexican Foreign Secretary, has very strong Zionist connections and himself is of Jewish descent. Mexican Army General Macedo de la Concha has strong connections to the U.S. Military Industrial-Complex and through this to the Israeli

Defense Forces. Have any of these connections influenced the decision to release the two Zionist terrorists? The initial arrests of the two Israelis inside the Palacio Legislativo de San Lázaro made top news on Mexico City television and radio on the evening of October 10. TV Azteca had extensive coverage on the first night and on the following day. La Cronica de Hoy Newspaper and El Universal Newspaper both covered the incident the following two days but now it seems that there is a lack of reports. The PGR has a Press Bulletin on their official website at <http://www.pgr.gob.mx/cmsocial/bol01/oct/b69701.html> but they have made no updates. No U.S. media has made any mention, that we know, except one by USAJewish.com this Sunday at: <http://www.usajewish.com/scripts/usaj/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=1307> What were the Israelis up

to? The Vicente Fox government has been very careful of involving Mexico in a war against Islam. The Mexican population as well as the two major opposition political parties, the PRI and the PRD will not allow it. President Bush and the U.S. Israeli Lobby want Mexico fully involved in the war principally because if things get tough in the middle east and the oil rich Arabs leave the coalition, the U.S. military machine is going to need alternative sources of oil and PEMEX is just across the border. the two Israeli terrorists were going to blow up the Mexican Congress. The second phase was to mobilize both the Mexican and US press to blame Osama bin Laden. Most likely then Mexico would declare war on Afghanistan as well, commit troops and all the oil it could spare to combat Islamic terrorism. Another incident involving

Israeli citizens began late afternoon on May 8, 2004 when Sheriff Kent Harris noticed a rental truck traveling at a high speed along former U.S. Highway 23, a lightly-traveled highway near the North Carolina state line. "I was really concerned because the driver would not stop after I flashed my headlights for nearly three miles," Harris said. "He was weaving back and forth and I was wondering what a large (rental truck) was doing on the two-lane highway late Saturday afternoon instead of the faster I-26 Interstate." Harris said he saw the men throw something from the truck while they were being pursued. Officers scouring the area later found a vial containing an unknown substance along the roadway, he said. Once the men were apprehended, officers also found a "Learn to

Fly" brochure in the truck, leading Harris and others to express concern about security at the Nuclear Fuel Services plant in nearby Erwin. "I got a sick feeling when I saw it," Harris said. After being detained, it was discovered that they were citizens of Israel. Yet another incident involving Israelis took place in the Midwestern U.S. Here is an excerpt from THE TIMES of London, dated 11/02/01: “WASHINGTON - With America on top security alert, the FBI was hunting yesterday for six men of Middle Eastern appearance carrying plans of a nuclear power plant and the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline who were picked up by police in the Midwest over the weekend but then released. The incident is thought to be connected with the latest FBI alert and senior intelligence officials are furious that the men were set free before they could be fully questioned. The men were traveling in two groups of three in white saloon cars when they were pulled over by police officers in the Midwest, according to the Knight Ridder News Service. Security officials have refused to disclose further details. The men were searched and questioned and the state officers discovered detailed plans and photographs of a nuclear power plant in Florida, along with box cutters-the weapons used in the September 11 attacks- and other equipment. The men, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin and held Israeli passports, were then interviewed by immigration officials. When their passports and visas were found to be in order, the officers, who were not

aware of the country's imminent security alert, let the men go without first calling in the FBI to question them more thoroughly. It is not clear why the men were pulled over in the first place nor why intelligence officers were not given a chance to interview them. Agents suspect that the men will by now have switched cars and tried to flee the country, possibly to Canada. Intelligence officials were especially concerned about the nuclear plant details. America's nuclear facilities received special attention in the latest FBI alert. The men were also carrying plans of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska pipeline, which delivers 17 per cent of America's oil. At a time when police have unprecedented powers to arrest and detain people who are merely suspected of having links to terrorist activities, the release of these six men has infuriated the FBI.” -------------------- These three incidents present two very disturbing features: · Whether in Mexico or the U.S.A, Israel is able to secure the release their citizens suspected of terrorist activity easily, as opposed to Arab Countries, whose citizens can be held indefinitely, based upon evidence which in many cases, is much weaker. Equal protection under the law? Not even close!! · The Mainstream U.S. Media conspicuously ignores incidents in which Israelis are involved in suspected terrorism, although there are numerous references on various Internet News Sites. The attempted attack on the Mexican Parliament was major headline news for

several days in Mexico. It was equivalent to a planned terrorist attack on Congress in the U.S!! Wouldn’t that be major news? Why did CNN drop the story so quickly? At this point, it is helpful to mention also that the FBI reported that at least 7 of the supposed 9/11 hijackers are still alive, having been victims of identity theft. It is possible that Bin Laden orchestrated these identity thefts from a hide-away in Afghanistan, but many intelligence experts say that is unlikely. There is little evidence, to link the Al Qaeda "terrorist network" to these acts of terror, but there is more evidence, both hard and circumstantial, which suggests that non-Arab, non-Muslim groups have been very busy framing Arabs for terror plots against America. After

the 9/11 attacks, Israeli troops succeeded in baiting a group of Palestinians with candy, drinks, and some good jokes. After they began laughing and carrying on, they were videoed by the Israelis. The footage was then sent to CNN, supposedly showing the Palestinians “celebrating the 9/11 attacks!” The fraudulent nature of this footage was not revealed in the U.S. mainstream media. We were all led to believe that a group of Palestinians was celebrating the deaths of nearly 3,000 innocent victims, when, in fact the only people caught celebrating the 9/11 attacks were Israelis!! Another suspicious fact: At 09:40 on 9/11 it was reported that the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Twin Towers. This claim was immediately denied by the DFLP leader Qais abu Leila who

said it had always opposed "terror attacks on civilian targets, especially outside the occupied territories." CNN streamed a Real Video item mentioning a Palestinian claim of responsibility Why would a Palestinian organization comprising of less than 500 people make the suicidal move of immediately claiming responsibility for the attacks? Who was behind this bogus claim? "Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." ---US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring. A few months prior to the 9/11 attacks, Israel warned of an impending terrorist attack against the U.S. saying that Bin Laden, and possibly Saddam Hussein were

involved. Why the spin? Bin Laden and Saddam are enemies, and there is no evidence at all suggesting that they plan terrorist attacks together. More disturbing evidence: At least two Israel-based employees of ODIGO (a message service based in Israel) received warnings of an imminent attack in New York City two hours before the first plane hit the WTC. ODIGO had offices two blocks from the WTC. The ODIGO employees, however, did not pass the warning on to the authorities in New York, a move that could have saved many lives. Two weeks after 9-11, Alex Diamandis, Odigo’s vice president, reportedly said, "It was possible that the attack warning was broadcast to other Odigo members, but the company has not received reports of other recipients of the message." The Internet address of the sender was given to the FBI, and two months later it was reported that the FBI was still investigating the matter.

There have been no media reports since. ODIGO, like many Israeli software companies, is based in Herzliya, Israel, the suburb of Tel Aviv where Mossad headquarters are located. Shortly after 9-11, ODIGO was taken over by Comverse Technology, another Israeli company Immediately after the attacks, Israels most widely read newspaper, THE JERUSALUM POST, stated that as many as 4,000 Israelis may have died in the attacks. Then President Bush publicly stated that only 130 had perished. A later NY TIMES article clarified that in fact only three Israelis perished in the attacks, and two of them were on the planes. There should have been hundreds of Israelis inside the WTC on 9/11. Did they all receive a warning to stay away, due to the impending attacks? An October 17, 2001 article in

THE MERCURY, a Philadelphia area newspaper reported the detaining of two men with a video of the Sears Tower in Chicago. In October of 2001, three more Israeli "movers" were stopped in Plymouth, PA because of their suspicious behavior., A "Middle Eastern" man later identified as Moshe Elmakias fled the scene. The manager made note of the truck's sign which read "Moving Systems Incorporated" and called the police. When the police spotted the truck, two other Israelis - Ayelet Reisler and Ron Katar began acting suspiciously. The Plymouth police searched the truck and found a video. The Israelis were taken into custody and the video tape was played at the police station. The video revealed footage of Chicago with zoomed in shots of the Sears Tower. The police quickly alerted the FBI and it was also discovered that the Israelis had falsified travel logs and phony paperwork on them. They were also unable to provide a name and

telephone number for the customer that they claimed to have been working for. The U.S Army’s War College gave the following assessment of Mossad: "Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target US forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act." - . Even the US army acknowledges that Israel can and does engineer "false flag" attacks. On May 25, 2004, St. Mary’s GA: Two Israeli men working for a moving-and-storage company who attempted to enter Kings Bay Submarine Base Friday were detained, then held for subsequent deportation. The two entered the Franklin gate about 10:30 a.m. to pick up some items in base housing, base spokesman Ed Buczek said. Neither

was able to present valid work permits to security personnel, and one had an expired passport. Base personnel and bomb-sniffing dogs inspected the van, prompting a lockdown of the base. St. Marys police closed access to an area one-half mile surrounding the base and called in a bomb squad, Buczek said. "The military dogs were alerted to a scent in the cab of the truck," Buczek said. "Guards closed access to the base and notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service." Nothing was found in the van, but both men, Tamir D. Sason, 24 and Daniel Levy, 23, both of Metar, Israel, were turned over to federal immigration officers as undocumented aliens.. In February of 2000, Indian intelligence officials detained 11 members of what they thought was an Al Qaeda hijacking conspiracy. It was then discovered that these 11

"Muslim preachers" were all Israeli nationals! India’s leading weekly magazine, The Week, reported: ”On January 12 Indian intelligence officials in Calcutta detained 11 foreign nationals for interrogation before they were to board a Dhaka-bound Bangladesh Biman flight. They were detained on the suspicion of being hijackers. "But we realized that they were tabliqis (Islamic preachers), so we let them go", said an Intelligence official. The eleven had Israeli passports but were believed to be Afghan nationals who had spent a while in Iran. Indian intelligence officials, too, were surprised by the nationality profile of the eleven. "They say that they have been on tabligh (preaching Islam) in India for two months. But they are Israeli nationals from the West Bank," said a Central Intelligence official. He claimed that Tel Aviv "exerted considerable pressure" on Delhi to secure their release. "It appeared that they could be working for a sensitive

organization in Israel and were on a mission to Bangladesh," the official said. What were these 11 Israelis doing? Trying to impersonate Al Qaeda men? Infiltrating?...perhaps. Framing?...more likely. But the important precedent to understand is this: Israeli agents were once caught red handed impersonating Muslims. This is not the first act of terror by Israel against our nation. James M. Ennes Jr, in his book Assault on the Liberty, reports the following: “Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey about his role. According to this senior Israeli lead pilot, he recognized the Liberty as American immediately, so informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do so and returned to base,

where he was arrested. Later, a dual-citizen Israeli major told survivors that he was in an Israeli war room where he heard that pilot's radio report. The attacking pilots and everyone in the Israeli war room knew that they were attacking an American ship, the major said. He recanted the statement only after he received threatening phone calls from Israel.” And lastly, two North Tower basement workers, Jose Sanchez and William Rodriguez reported explosions in the North Tower lower levels. Declared a hero for saving numerous lives at Ground Zero, Rodriguez was the janitor on duty the morning of 9/11 who heard and felt explosions rock the basement sub-levels of the north tower just seconds before the jetliner struck. He not only claims he felt explosions coming from below

the first sub-level while working in the basement, he says the walls were cracking around him and he pulled a man to safety by the name of Felipe David, who was severely burned from the basement explosions. All these events occurred only seconds before and during the jetliner strike above. And through it all, he now asks a simple question everybody should be asking? How could a jetliner hit 90 floors above and burn a man’s arms and face to a crisp in the basement below within seconds of impact? Rodriguez claims this was impossible and clearly demonstrates a controlled demolition brought down the WTC, saying "Let’s see them (the government) try to wiggle out of this one." NBC news knew about his story several years ago, even spending a full day at his house taping his comments. But when push came to shove, his story was

never aired. Why? His eyewitness account, backed up by at least 14 people at the scene with him, isn’t speculation or conjecture. It isn’t a story that takes a network out on a journalistic limb. It’s a story that can be backed up, a story that can be verified with hospital records and testimony from many others. t’s a story about 14 people who felt and heard the same explosion and even saw Rodriguez, moments after the airplane hit, take David to safety, after he was burnt so bad from the basement explosion flesh was hanging from his face and both arms Since 9/11, Rodriguez has stuck to his guns, never wavering from what he said from day one. Left homeless at times, warned to keep quiet and subtly harassed, he nevertheless has continued trying to tell get his message out in the face of a country not willing to listen. Here is his story: It’s a miracle Rodriguez, 44, who worked at the WTC for 20 years, is even alive. Usually arriving to work at 8:00am, the morning of 9/11 he reported 30 minutes late. If he’d arrived on time, it would have put him at the top floors just about the same time the jetliner hit the north tower. "It was a miracle. If I arrived on time, like always, I’d probably be dead. I would have been up at the top floors like every morning," said Rodriguez about the quirk of fate that saved his life. But since he was late, Rodriguez found himself checking into work in an office on sub-level 1 when the north tower was hit, seemingly out of harms way. However, the sound and concussion of a massive explosion in the sub-levels right below his feet changed that. "When I heard the

sound of the explosion, the floor beneath my feet vibrated, the walls started cracking and it everything started shaking," said Rodriguez, who was huddled together with at least 14 other people in the office. Rodriguez said Anthony Saltamachia, supervisor for the American Maintenance Co., was one of the people in the room who stands ready to verify his story. "Seconds after the first massive explosion below in the basement still rattled the floor, I hear another explosion from way above," said Rodriguez. "Although I was unaware at the time, this was the airplane hitting the tower, it occurred moments after the first explosion." But before Rodriguez had time to think, co-worker Felipe David stormed into the basement office with severe burns on his face and arms, screaming for help and yelling "explosion! explosion!

explosion!" David had been in front of a nearby freight elevator on sub-level 1 about 400 feet from the office when fire burst out of the elevator shaft, causing his injuries. "He was burned terribly," said Rodriguez. "The skin was hanging off his hands and arms. His injuries couldn’t have come from the airplane above, but only from a massive explosion below. I don’t care what the government says, what scientists say. I saw a man burned terribly from a fire that was caused from an explosion below. "I know there were explosives placed below the trade center. I helped a man to safety who is living proof, living proof the government story is a lie and a cover-up. "I have tried to tell my story to everybody, but nobody wants to listen. It is very strange what is going on here in supposedly the

most democratic country in the world. In my home country of Puerto Rico and all the other Latin American countries, I have been allowed to tell my story uncensored. But here, I can’t even say a word." After Rodriguez escorted David to safety outside the WTC, he returned to lead the others in the basement to safety as well. While there, he also helped two other men trapped and drowning in the basement elevator shaft, another result he says of the explosives placed below the tower. In fact, after leading these men to safety, he even made another trip back into the north tower, against police orders, in order to rescue people from the top floors. "I never could make it to the top, but I got up to the 33rd floor after getting some of my equipment and a face mask out of the janitor’s closet," said Rodriguez, adding he heard a series of small

explosions going off between the 20th and 30th floors, unrelated to the airplane strike, while making his way through the stairwell to the top floors. "Also, when I was on the 33rd floor, I heard strange sounds coming form the 34th floor, loud noises like someone moving and thumping heavy equipment and furniture. I knew this floor was empty and stripped due to construction work so I avoided it and continued to make my way up the stairs." Rodriguez said he finally reached the 39th floor before being turned back by fire fighters and then, reluctantly, started his descent back down and his own flight to safety while, at the same time, hearing explosions coming from the South Tower. There is no question, Rodriguez is a "silent hero" for saving so many lives and for having the courage to continue telling his story against tremendous

odds. In an effort to open a fair and honest investigation as to why the WTC collapsed, Rodriguez has been ignored by government officials, the 9/11 Commission and the National Institute of Safety and Technology (NIST). Rodriguez recently made his final plea to have his story heard while testifying at the final public hearing held in New York. " I disagree 100%with the government story," said Rodriguez. "I met with the 9/11 Commission behind closed doors and they essentially discounted everything I said regarding the use of explosives to bring down the north tower. "And I contacted NIST previously four times without a response. Finally, this week I asked them before they came up with their conclusion that jet fuel brought down the towers, if they ever considered my statements or the statements of any of the

other survivors who heard the explosions. They just stared at me with blank faces and didn’t have any answers. "Also, The FBI never followed up on my claims or on the other part of my story when I told them before 9/11, I encountered one of the hijackers casing the north tower." Besides the explosions, Rodriguez also has provided testimony to the 9/11 Commission that he stumbled across one of the supposed 19 Arab hijackers inside the WTC several months before 9/11 "I had just finished cleaning the bathroom and this guy asks me, 'Excuse me, how many public bathrooms are in this area?'" Rodriguez told the 9/11 Commission. "Coming from the school of the 1993 [Trade Center] bombing, I found it very strange. I didn't forget about it" Rodriguez, claims he saw United Airlines

Flight 175 hijacker Mohand Alshehri in June 2001, telling an FBI agent about the incident a month after the attacks. Never hearing back from the bureau, he later learned agents never followed up on the story. "I'm very certain, I'll give it 90%" that Alshehri was casing the towers before the attacks," said Rodriguez. Regarding the media’s apathetic approach to his story, Rodriguez said immediately after 9/11 some newspapers picked it up but his words were never taken seriously and quickly forgotten. "During the 9/11 hearings, NBC brought a crew out to my house and spent a day taping my story but they never did air a word of it," said Rodriguez. "Since then, some reporters and commentators have subtly warned me to keep quiet, told me my life could be in jeopardy and warned me that I really didn’t understand who I was

dealing with. "I have been receiving this type of subtle harassment for years, but I keep telling everybody I can’t be intimidated because I am on a mission. Whenever someone asks why I keep talking or warns me that I could be killed, I just tell them I have nothing to lose. "I tell them I lost 200 friends and I am their voice now. I tell them I will do everything in my power to find out the truth since I am living on borrowed time since I probably should be dead anyway." Besides trying to tell his explosive story, Rodriguez has been active raising money for 9/11victims, being involved with charity groups that have raised more than $122 million. He says he has used over $60,000 of his own money, originally earmarked to buy a new house, in order to get at the truth behind 9/11. Morgan

Reynolds, a professor emeritus at Texas A & M University and former Bush team member, said: "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings. --------------------- Then there is the mystery of the Israeli “Art Students”: For almost two years, hundreds of young Israelis falsely claiming to be art students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. In January 2001, the security branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency began to receive

a number of peculiar reports from DEA field offices across the country. According to the reports, young Israelis claiming to be art students and offering artwork for sale had been attempting to penetrate DEA offices for over a year. The Israelis had also attempted to penetrate the offices of other law enforcement and Department of Defense agencies. The "students" also visited the homes of numerous DEA officers and other senior federal officials. As a pattern slowly emerged, the DEA seems to have been targeted in for an "organized intelligence gathering activity." Reports of the mysterious Israelis came in from more than 40 U.S. cities and continued throughout the first six months of 2001. Agents of the DEA, ATF, Air Force, Secret Service, FBI, and U.S. Marshals Service documented about 130 separate incidents of "art student" encounters. Some of the Israelis were observed diagramming the inside of federal buildings. Some

were found carrying photographs they had taken of federal agents. One was discovered with a computer printout in his luggage that referred to "DEA groups." In some cases, the Israelis visited locations not known to the public -- areas without street addresses, for example, or DEA offices not identified as such -- leading authorities to suspect that information had been gathered from prior surveillance or perhaps electronically, from credit cards and other sources. One Israeli was discovered holding banking receipts for substantial sums of money, close to $180,000 in withdrawals and deposits over a two-month period. A number of the Israelis resided for a period of time in Hollywood, Fla. -- the small city where Mohammed Atta and three terrorist comrades lived for a time before Sept. 11. It is interesting that our main enemy is supposed to be “El Qaeda” although no

“sleeper cells” have been uncovered, while the actual evidence of plotting and terror activity is much greater with the Israelis. This material is compiled from German and American sources: During the term of President George HW Bush, the government of Israel made an official, but very secret, request to the American president. This request was to permit agents of the Mossad, Israeli Foreign Intelligence, to enter the United States and conduct surveillance operations against various Arab groups residing in that country. <p class="MsoN View Post (0)

Comments DEPLETED URANIUM - FAR WORSE THAN 9/11 Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 6:16 PM PDT DEPLETED URANIUM DUST –PUBLIC HEALTH DISASTER FOR THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN Written by Douglas Westerman, May 1, 2006 In 1979, depleted uranium (DU) particles escaped from the National Lead Industries factory near Albany, N.Y.,which was manufacturing DU weapons for the U.S military. The particles traveled 26 miles and were discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a nuclear

physicist. This discovery led to a shut down of the factory in 1980, for releasing morethan 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the atmosphere every month, and involved a cleanup of contaminated properties costing over 100 million dollars. Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire a million pounds of the deadly dust and scatter it in populated areas throughout the U.S. Hundreds of children report symptoms. Many acquire cancer and leukemia, suffering an early and painful death. Huge increases in severe birth defects are reported. Oncologists are overwhelmed. Soccer fields, sand lots and parks, traditional play areas for kids, are no longer safe. People lose their most basic freedom, the ability to go outside and safely breathe.

Sounds worse than 9/11? Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan: “Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen,

another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer”. “Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.”, “We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the war. When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for their own agendas. The

Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we were accused of being Saddam supporters.” John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY. Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization’s chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report — on the cancer risk to

civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust — was also deliberately suppressed. The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military. In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, “The [uS government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body.” At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army.

He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada. PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have malignancies. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states:, "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He

stated: “When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others—including Rokke himself—developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension. Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is “not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases.” Then

why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases? Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. “That's exactly what they are. 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” or smaller, he said. When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people." When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat — sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and therefore

respirable. Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects due to DU, only a small fraction of the cases are being reported. Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU. Weapons. Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no longer asking, “Doctor, is it a boy or girl?” but rather, “Doctor, is it

normal?” The photos are horrendous (they can be viewed on the following website:)www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/extremedeformities.html - 22k Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated: "Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA." Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the “Baghdad Diaries” wrote: “Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and

there are lots of kids with leukemia.””The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.” This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, it’s 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry!! Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq. As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002. “American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and

used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion. I don’t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years To document that. “In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying.” By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses – scarcely human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific. Dr. Hardan also states: “I arranged for a delegation from Japan’s Hiroshima Hospital

to Come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq.” Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn’t want the rest of the world to find out what we have done. Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by doctors in

hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure. Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 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 in the first Gulf War now have medical problems. Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the "tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted. Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. "I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach." Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium.

Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers. If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month. "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 G.I.s and performed the testing. In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of the children conceived after the war had birth defects. Dr. Durakovic’s UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation. "This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The Japan Times. "They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said "They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law.” (NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S.

D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!) Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a

massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview. The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and painful death?"Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C. It is this difference in particle size as well as the dust’s crystalline structure that make

the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading. The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners. Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the

course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours. The military is aware of DU’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition.

British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size. For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours. “Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion,” writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher. “Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood. “When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood

brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain,” she wrote. “Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain. Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is possible to approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams. Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses floating around Iraq and

Afghanistan. How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that “this could cause “500,000 potential deaths”. This was “a theoretical figure”, it stressed, that indicated “a significant problem”. The AEA’s calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as “very far from realistic” by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. “Since the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide,” he said. These remarks were

made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq’s total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq. What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk. He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath

his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians? Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers. Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, served for six months at a supply base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the National Guard's Combat Equipment Company “A” was to clean out tanks and other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them for

storage. She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill. In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he

pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn’t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority? The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes. Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242%

rise. That was before the recent invasion. In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq. FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are

considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England. UMRC’s Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle

weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation. Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for

normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before. Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months. In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium

contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. “We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination.” In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. How

widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads: "The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium." In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of “bunker buster” bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys. “A significant portion of the civilian population”? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have

poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children. The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing. --- According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is

that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers". There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher. The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC,

and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed “studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless.” The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE,

etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers). Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years." The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen’s Tribunal that “convicted” President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen’s court with no binding legal authority) 1. Their use has indiscriminate effects; 2.

Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives; 3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner; 4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals. CONCLUSIONS: If terrorists succeeded in spreading

something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place. e-mail me at: aspendougy View Post (5) Comments LIST OF DEPLETED URANIUM SOURCES Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 6:08 PM PDT NOTE; SOME REFERENCES IN RESPONSE TO AMERICAN CHRONICLE ARTICLE BURNING 'DEPLETED' URANIUM: AN ENDLESS MEDICAL DISASTER Issues on the Use and Effects of Depleted Uranium Weapons (This page is reproduced from: http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/ud_main.html CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES OF EXTREME DEFORMITIES DUE TO (DU) MORE PICTURES OF (DU) EFFECTS LITERATURE Dept. Of Defence Briefing on Depleted Uranium 15 March 2003 Depleted Uranium and Natural Uranium in Afghanistan Wed, 05 Mar 2003 Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD, Freelance Academic Comments on the ECONEWS articleFri, 28 Feb 2003 (WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM?)Robert James Parsons INVADING HIROSHIMA: Depleted Uranium Shock and Stun in IraqFri, 14 Feb 2003by William Thomas DR. ASAF DURAKOVIC GIVES AN INTERVIEW ABOUT DEPLETED URANIUM IN IRAQ 30-jan-2003 Democracy NOW! real audio Avoidable Tragedy Post Chernobyl Rosalie Bertell's December

2002 Critical AnalysisAbout the 1959 Deal Between WHO and IAEA UMRC - Uranium exposure and contamiation, self assessment questionnaire For individuals who suspect themselves to be contaminated (pdf file) Hazards of suspected Uranium weapons in the proposed war on Iraq Dai Williams, Occupational Psychologist and DU researcher 24 Sept. 2002 (PDF versie) Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium 12 Nov 2002BYLARRY JOHNSONSEATTLEPOST-INTELLIGENCER FOREIGN DESK EDITOR From Boston to Babylon Chris Busby interviewed by Al Ahram Febr 2002 Contribution au débat sur l'uranium appauvri Anne Gut et Bruno Vitale un projet d'information par la Fédération Genevoise de

Coopération Iraqi cancers offer clues to Gulf War Syndrome Uranium residue a prime suspect Miami Herald Expected US Casualties from Gulf War 1991 A commentary by Doug Rokke Small Study Finds Uranium in Gulf War Vets Tue Sep 10 2002 By Merritt McKinney The quantitative analysis of depleted uranium isotopes in British, Canadian, and U.S. Gulf War veterans. Horan P, Dietz L, Durakovic A. Israel threatens to nuke Iraq ISRAEL THREATENS TO TOTALLY DESTROY IRAQ www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 8/15/2002 Pat Horan: Another Casualty of Depleted Uranium She is prevented measuring DUjune 2002 Atlantic Universities Radiogenic Isotope Facility The lab of Patrica Horan for measuring (depleted) uranium and other elements Department of the USA Army Interim Soil Report 22 soil samples from Kuwait total uranium and isotope U238/U235 US Army measurement Epidemiologist Dr Alice Steward died 23 June 2002 UNRWA said that they found in Jenin camp DU bullets of 5 mm caliber used by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinians. European Parliament

SITTING OF TUESDAY 9 APRIL 2002 DU in AFGHANISTAN New York, Pentagon and Pennsylvania may be radioactive after 9-11 International Atomic Energy Agency surprised by detecting DU particles Wed, 27 Mar 2002 Radioactive Bombs

Rain Down on Asia Piotr Bein. Thu, 21 Mar 2002 Are thermobaric bombs really new or just DU? Dai Williams, Occupational Psychologist and DU researcher 14 Mar 2002 America's big dirty secret March 3 2002 ROBERT JAMES PARSONS Le Monde Diplomatique Mystery Metal Nightmare in Afghanistan? Jan 2002 Collected Studies and Public Domain Sources Compiled by Dai Williams Depleted uranium: Devastation at Home and Abroad Leuren Moret San Francisco Bay View, 7 November 2001 Depleted Uranium as a Weapon of War dr Rosalie Bertell 1999 Estimate of radiation dose from a depleted uranium oxide particle dr. Len A. Dietz 10 January 1991 Industrial Uses of Depleted Uranium Paul Loewenstein PDF format American Society for Metals 1992 Federal Aviation Administration Circular 1984 about burning DU balance weights in air-accidents Nuclear Reactors in the World DU is Nuclear Waste after Enrichment of Uranium for these Reactors Clear and present danger: Central Asia concerns grows that US Has Used Depleted Uranium Ali Ahmed Rind Baltimore Chronicle Weapons of mass destruction — going nuclear in Iraq Ramzi Kysia The Jordan Times Thu, 27 Dec 2001 RESEARCH THAT MAY PROVE LINK BETWEEN CANCERS AND DEPLETED URANIUM Nic FlemingTue, 25 Dec 2001 War without End The Nation 2 December 2001 A.C. Thompson DU genocide could by itself be a sufficient reason to respond with terrorismdr.Piotr Bein 11 Dec 2001 Not such conventional weapons CHRISTINE ABDELKRIM -DELANNE June 1999 LeMondeDiplomatique Bombing Afghanistan water supplies Dai Williams,

Occupational Psychologist and DU researcher New Scientist 17 Nov Mystery metal bombs may cause Afghan war syndrome Dai Williams, UK MEDIA BRIEFING: 17 November 2001 Depleted Uranium in the Afghan War, Tue, 6 Nov 2001 report from: Dai Williams Depleted

Uranium Toxicity in Afghanistan by Richard S. Ehrlich from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 5, No 44, October 29, 2001 Taliban Claims Chemical/Radiotoxic Weapons Used by US martin meissonnier Mon, 29 Oct 2001 VETERANS ALERT ON URANIUM SHELLS in Afghanistan By Macer Hall> (Filed: 23/09/2001) DUTCH HEALTH COUNCIL IGNORES THE FACTS ABOUT DU-HEALTH RISKS 16/05/2001 UNEP study of DU targets: need for further research Dai Williams 24/02/2001 Discounted Casualties book about Depleted Uranium Akira Tashiro Gulf War vet's widow stuns politicians with tales of neglect Final report DU in Kosovo UNEP 5 - 19 November 2000 Depleted Uranium Comic attracts Heat

MoD knew shells were cancer risk Special report: depleted uranium Depleted Uranium: a slow silent killer Brig (Rtd) M Abdul hafiz The Dayly Star Wed. March 28, 2001 Article on DU from the February 2001 Le Monde Diplomatique Robert James Parsons (French)

Article on DU from the February 2001 Le Monde Diplomatique Robert James Parsons (English) WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM? Uranium shells held 'cocktail of nuclear waste' Sun, 21 Jan 2001 Advice to Nato medical researchers BALKANS SYNDROME FALLOUT Allies 'told in 1991 of uranium cancer risks' Sunday Herald (Scotland) 7 January 2001 Bid to Bury Plutonium Factor Dismays NATO Sat, 20 Jan 2001 Plutonium after the EL-AL crash in Amsterdam uranium-236 found in filter EL-AL CRASH IN AMSTERDAM correspondence with dr. Len Dietz (What is DU?) The Tenerife Airplane Crash involving 3000 kilograms of Depleted Uranium 27 March 1977 Ban depleted uranium immediately Interview with the well-known German radio-biologist Wolfgang Koehnlein Uranium weapons fallout part of our making [du-list] Caldicott, Pilger, Fraser on DU,

Iraq sanctions.. The truth about depleted uranium Robert Fisk 8-01-2001 Died of Depleted Uranium Robert Fisk 13-01-2001 How can your body be decontaminated from DU? It is the priority to get rid of the uranium ions. DU: THE BLACKLIST 1 and 2 Blacklist of companies manufacturing Depleted Uranium weapons a.o. LETTERS, OPINIONS, THE MEDIA, NEWS Depleted uranium: The next generation BBC Radio 4

18/01/01 Kosovo / Yugoslavia / Netherlands / UK. May 1999 Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray Lockerbie fears over missing uranium The other crash ( Observer, 1 juni 1990, Robert McNeil) Too Hot to Handle The story of Doug Rokke in the New Scientist Concerns about DUMalignant Bullets: The A-10 Warthog fighter plane fires rounds made of toxic depleted uranium. By Jim Rendon Extreme deformities in Iraqi children 1and 2 How to stop the use of 'Depleted' Uranium by Damacio Lopez More information on DU DU Global Spread THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1999 Christian Science Monitor Part of UN report about the environmental consequences of the war against Yugoslavia. The effects of using depleted uranium by the allied forces on men and the biosphere in selected regions of the southern area of Iraq ( mirror site : Damacio Lopez ) Mikhail Gorbachev : Poison in

the air: The environmental costs of the Kosovo conflict must be exposed Proposed independent study about 'depleted' uranium contamination DU and other environmental impacts of the Balkans War- BBC Radio 4, Thursday 6 May 1999 RAND Report and DU-----Bone accumulation---Lung

damage Misleading 'scientific' study Molecular Basis for Effects of Carcinogenic Metals on Inducible Gene Expression Scientific study Uranium poisoning investigated by Asaf Durakovic The Sunday Times 3 Sept. 2000 Italian government investigates the danger of DU contamination in

KOSOVO Oktober 23 2000 Acquittal witout investigation Zoran Zusa Republic of Serbia 1 August 2001 Brussels March 27 2001 Cancer in Serbia Symposium on 'DEPLETED' URANIUM in Brussels 26-10-2000 Gulf uranium warning failed to reach troops Bruno Vitale: New crimes against humanity: the military use of depleted Uranium weapons 29 Nov 2000 Fines Particules d'Uranium Appauvri. Décès « naturel » ou décès suite à accident de travail ? KOSOVO - DU - Testing SOLDIERS LEUKEMIA OUTBREAK AMONG TROOPS CAUSES TURMOIL IN NATO DR. ASAF DURAKOVIC GIVES A RARE INTERVIEW ABOUT DEPLETED URANIUM IN IRAQ: HE WAS THE FIRST MILITARY DOCTOR TO TEST

GULF WAR VETERANS FOR RADIATION EXPOSURE AND WAS TERMINATED FOR HIS WORK The VISIE Foundation Links : Dutch: depleted uranium in Amsterdam The Major Cause of

Cancer Depleted Uranium Watch A Cancerous Web of Deception Gulf War Veterans Resource Links - DU LINK DU: Cancer as a Weapon Campaign Against Depleted Uranium CADU Wings of Death + second event theory - Chris Busby 1,3 billion victims by the nuclear nightmare Rosalie Bertell http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/index.html#DU ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE & HEALTH HAZARDS OF THE NATO BOMBINGS: AN ANNOTATED URL REFERENCED LIST OF INTERNET ARTICLES, NEWS, PRESS RELEASES. [ PART 5 ] [Compiled by Dr. Janet M. Eaton, June 13, 1999 ] go to top View Post (0) Comments NINE CANCER VICTIMS IN ONE FAMILY? Sunday, April 16, 2006 at 4:26 PM PDT NINE CANCER VICTIMS IN ONE FAMILY?? By Douglas Westerman – April 16, 2006 When a loved one is diagnosed with cancer, it can dramatically alter the entire fabric of family life. The emotional & financial impact can be huge. Imagine having nine members of your family with malignancies at the same

time. Welcome to Basra, Iraq. Carcinogenic weapons of mass destruction are all over Iraq. Iraqi children are playing among them every day. According to Iraqi doctors, many are developing cancer as a result. The WMD in question is depleted uranium (DU). Left over after natural uranium has been processed, DU is 1.7 times denser than lead - effective in penetrating armored vehicles such as tanks. After a DU shell strikes, it penetrates before exploding into a burning vapor that turns to dust. Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, educated in England, is head oncologist at the Saddam teaching hospital in Basra. There are nine people with cancer in his wife’s family. They are not alone. At a conference in Japan in 2004 he stated: “Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never

seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer”. “Children in particular are susceptible to depleted uranium( DU) poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the

lymph system, which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.” "Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.7 billion years – that means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come. This is what I call terrorism," says Dr Ahmad Hardan. As a special scientific adviser to the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr Hardan is the man who documented the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq between 1991 and 2002. U.S. forces admit to using at least 300 tons of D.U. ordinance in Gulf War I, with up to six times that amount in Operation Iraqi Freedom. At one point after the war, a Basra hospital reported treating upwards of 600 children per day with symptoms of radiation

sickness. 600 children per day? The widespread use of DU weapons was not limited to Iraq. The Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC), founded by Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a former U.S. Army Colonel, did extensive field studies in Afghanistan just after the invasion. Excerpts from their field reports read: “We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination.”……."The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal

contamination by uranium." In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was evidently used as a testing ground for a new generation of “bunker buster” bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys Dr. Durakovic stated: , "The [u.S.] Veteran’s Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body ...uranium does cause cancer, uranium does cause mutation, and uranium does kill. If we continue with the irresponsible contamination of the biosphere, the denial of the fact that human life is endangered by the deadly uranium isotope, then we are doing disservice to ourselves, disservice to the truth, disservice to God and to all the generations who

follow." Living in Iraq under Saddam Hussein was pretty bad much of the time, and being ruled by the Taliban in Afghanistan was no picnic either, but DU is worse. It’s not safe even to breathe. That’s the ultimate tyranny. NOTE: Mr. Westerman blogs at: vitaltruths.blogsource.com. , which contains a much longer and more comprehensive report on the horrors of Depleted Uranium. aspendougy View Post (0) Comments

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