* * Cancer in nearly half of returned soldiers in one unit from Iraq * *

[Guest guest]

Depleted Uranium Blamed for Cancer Clusters

Among Iraq War Vets

by Christopher Bollyn August 15, 2004

 

_http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/08/15_bollyn_depleted-uranium-blamed

-cancer.htm_

(http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/08/15_bollyn_depleted-uranium-blamed-c\

ancer.htm)

 

A discovery by American Free Press that nearly half of the recently returned

soldiers in one unit from Iraq have " malignant growths " is " critical

evidence, " according to experts, that depleted uranium weapons are responsible

for

the huge number of disabled Gulf War vets - and damage to their DNA.

A growing number of U.S. military personnel who are serving, or have served,

in the Persian Gulf, Iraq , and Afghanistan have become sick and disabled

from a variety of symptoms commonly known as Gulf War Syndrome. Depleted

uranium (DU) weapons have been blamed for causing many of the symptoms.

" Gulf War vets are coming down with these symptoms at twice the rate of vets

from previous conflicts, " said Barbara A. Goodno from the Dept. of Defense's

Deployment Health Support Directorate.

A recent discovery by American Free Press that nearly half the soldiers in

one returned unit have malignant growths has provided the scientific community

with " critical evidence, " experts say, to help understand exactly how

depleted uranium affects humans - and their DNA.

One of the first published researchers of Gulf War Syndrome, Dr. András

Korényi-Both told AFP that 27-28 percent of Gulf War veterans have suffered

chronic health problems, more than 5 times the rate of Viet Nam vets, and 4

times

the rate of Korean War vets.

Korényi-Both said his son had recently returned from Iraq , where he had

been part of the initial assault from Kuwait to Baghdad . From his unit of 20

men, 8 now have " malignant growths, " Korényi-Both said.

Dr. Korényi-Both is not an expert on DU, but has written extensively about

how the fine desert sand blowing around Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula

provides a ideal vehicle for toxins, increasing the range and effect of

biological

and chemical agents, such as DU, that attach themselves to the particles of

sand.

Korényi-Both described how, during the 1991 Gulf War, he and others had

inhaled large quantities of sand dust that could have been laden with chemical

or

biological agents. The sand " destroyed our immune systems, " he said.

MORE DISABLED VETS

" More than ever before, " Brad Flohr of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs said

about the total number of disabled vets. Asked if there are more disabled vets

now than even after World War II, Flohr said he believed so.

Terry Jemison of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs told AFP that current

statistics indicate that more than half a million veterans of the 14-year-old

" Gulf

War era " are now receiving disability compensation. During this period, some

7,035 soldiers are reported having been wounded in Iraq .

With 518,739 disabled " Gulf-era veterans " currently receiving disability

compensation, according to Jemison, the number of veterans disabled after the

war is more than 73 times the total number of wounded, in and out of combat,

from the entire 14-year conflict with Iraq.

DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONS

Last December, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a nuclear medicine expert who has

conducted extensive research on depleted uranium, examined nine soldiers from

the

442nd Military Police Company of New York and found that four of the men had

absorbed or inhaled depleted uranium (U-238).

Several of the men had traces of another uranium isotope, U-236, which is

only produced in a nuclear reaction process. U-236 is a man-made isotope of

uranium.

" These men were almost certainly exposed to radioactive weapons on the

battlefield, " Durakovic said.

" Due to the current proliferation of DU weaponry, the battlefields of the

future will be unlike any battlefields in history, " Durakovic, then Chief of

Nuclear Medicine for the Veterans Administration said after the first Gulf War,

in which he served.

Since 1991, the U.S. military has used DU in munitions as penetrating rods,

which destroy enemy tanks and their occupants, and as armor on U.S. tanks.

When DU penetrating rods strike a hard target some of the radioactive and

chemically toxic DU is vaporized into ultra-fine particles that are easily

inhaled

or absorbed through the skin.

According to a survey of 10,051 Gulf War veterans, conducted between 1991

and 1995 by Vic Sylvester and the Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm

Association, 82 percent of veterans reported having entered captured Iraqi

vehicles.

" This would suggest that 123,000 soldiers have been directly exposed to DU, "

Durakovic said.

" Since the effects of contamination by uranium cannot be directed or

contained, uranium's chemical and radiological toxicity will create

environments

that are hostile not only to the health of enemy forces but of one's own forces

as well, " Durakovic said.

" Because of the chemical and radiological toxicity of DU, the small number

of particles trapped in the lungs, kidneys, and bone greatly increase the risk

of cancer and all other illnesses over time, " Durakovic, an expert of

internal contamination of radio-isotopes, said.

According to Durakovic, other symptoms associated with DU poisoning are:

emotional and mental deterioration, fatigue, loss of bowel and bladder control,

and numerous forms of cancer. Such symptoms are increasing showing up in Iraq

's children and among Gulf War veterans and their offspring, he said.

" Although I personally served in Operation Desert Shield as Unit Commander, "

Durakovic said, " my expertise of internal contamination was never used

because we were never informed of the intended use of DU prior to or during the

war. "

" The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get worse, "

Robert C. Koehler of the Chicago-based Tribune Media Services wrote in his

March 25 article on DU weapons, " Silent Genocide. "

" DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who

breathe it or touch it; the substance also alters one's genetic code, " Koehler

wrote. " The Pentagon's response to such charges is denial, denial, denial. And

the American media is its moral co-conspirator. "

As AFP reported last week, the smallest particles of DU, when inhaled, are

capable of moving throughout the human body, passing through cell walls and

affecting the person's Master Code, according to Fulk, and the " _expression of

the DNA. "

Four years after the Gulf War of 1991, Life magazine published a photo-essay

entitled " The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm, " which focused on the numerous

cases of severe birth defects that had occurred in families of veterans from

that war.

Pictures at _http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.html_

(http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.html)

_http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf02.html_

(http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf02.html)

_http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf03.html_

(http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf03.html)

Life reported, " Of the 400 sick vets who had already answered [Don Riegle's

Senate Banking] committee inquiries, a startling 65 percent reported birth

defects or immune-system problems in children conceived after the war. "

AFP asked the Dept. of Veterans Affairs if they kept records of the birth

defects occurring among the families of veterans, and was told they do not.

FULK'S THEORY

Marion Fulk, a former nuclear chemical physicist at Lawrence Livermore lab,

is investigating how DU affects the human body. Fulk said that 8 malignancies

out of 20, in 16 months, " is spectacular - and of serious concern. "

continued at :

_http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/08/15_bollyn_depleted-uranium-blamed

-cancer.htm_

(http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/08/15_bollyn_depleted-uranium-blamed-c\

ancer.htm)

 

 

 

 

 

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