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Lost
in the media circus about the Iraq war, supposedly being fought to prevent a
tyrant from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, is the salient fact that
the United States and Britain are actively waging chemical and nuclear
warfare in Iraq - using depleted uranium munitions.
The
corporate-controlled press has failed to inform the public that, in spite of
years of UN inspections and numerous international treaties, tons of banned
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - used and unused - remain in Iraq. Indeed,
both chemical and radioactive WMD have been - and continue to be used against
U.S. and coalition soldiers.
The
media silence surrounding these banned WMD, and the horrendous consequences
of their use, is due to the simple fact that they are being used by the
U.S.-led coalition. They are the new "Silver Bullet" in the U.S.
arsenal. They are depleted uranium weapons.
Depleted
uranium (DU) weapons were first used during the first Gulf War against Iraq
in 1991. The Pentagon estimated that between 315 and 350 tons of DU were
fired during the first Gulf War. During the 2003 invasion and current occupation
of Iraq, U.S. and British troops have reportedly used more than five times as
many DU bombs and shells as the total number used during the 1991 war.
While
the use of DU weapons and their effect on human health and the environment
are subjects of extreme importance the Pentagon is noticeably reluctant to
discuss these weapons. Despite numerous calls to specific individuals
identified as being the appointed spokesmen on the subject, not one would
answer their phone during normal business hours for the purpose of this
article.
Dr.
Doug Rokke, on the other hand, former director of the U.S. Armyís Depleted
Uranium Project, is very willing to talk about the effects of DU. Rokke was
involved in the "clean up" of 34 Abrams tanks and Bradley armored
vehicles hit by friendly fire during the 1991 Gulf War. Today he suffers from
the ill effects of DU in his body.
Rokke
told American Free Press that the Pentagon uses DU weapons because they are
the most effective at killing and destroying everything they hit. The highest
level of the U.S. and British governments have "totally disregarded the
consequences" of the use of DU weapons, Rokke said.
The
first Gulf War was the largest friendly fire incident in the history of
American warfare, Rokke says. "The majority of the casualties were the
result of friendly fire," he told AFP.
DU is
used in many forms of ammunition as an armor penetrator because of its
extreme weight and density. The uranium used in these missiles and bombs is a
by-product of the nuclear enrichment process. Experts say the Department of
Energy has 100 million tons of DU and using it in weapons saves the
government money on the cost of its disposal.
Rather
than disposing of the radioactive waste, it is shaped into penetrator rods used
in the billions of rounds being fired in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
radioactive waste from the U.S. nuclear weapons industry has, in effect, been
forcibly exported and spread in the environments of Iraq, Afghanistan, the
former Yugoslavia, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.
THE
REAL "DIRTY BOMBS"
"A
flying rod of solid uranium 18-inches long and three-quarters of an inch in
diameter," is what becomes of a DU tank round after it is fired, Rokke
said. Because Uranium-238 is pyrophoric, meaning it burns on contact with
air, DU rounds are burning as they fly.
When
the DU penetrator hits an object it breaks up and causes secondary
explosions, Rokke said. "It's way beyond a dirty bomb," Rokke said,
referring to the terror weapon that uses conventional explosives to spread
radioactive material.
Some
of the uranium used with DU weapons vaporizes into extremely small particles,
which are dispersed into the atmosphere where they remain until they fall to
the ground with the rain. As a gas, the chemically toxic and radioactive
uranium can easily enter the body through the skin or the lungs and be
carried around the world until it falls to earth with the rain.
AFP
asked Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for
more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore lab, if he thought that DU weapons
operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. "That's exactly what they
are," Falk said. "They fit the description of a dirty bomb in every
way."
According
to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks
is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a meter) in
size or smaller on impact.
"The
larger the bang" the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the
atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100 percent
of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the "micron
size" (virus size -ed) or smaller, he said.
While
the Pentagon officially denies the dangers of DU weapons, since at least 1943
the military has been aware of the extreme toxicity of uranium dispersed as a
gas (or dust particles -ed).
A
declassified memo written by James B. Conant and two other physicists working
on the U.S. nuclear project during the Second World War, and sent to Brig. Gen.
L.R. Groves on October 30, 1943, provides the evidence:
"As
a gas warfare instrument the [radioactive] material would be ground into
particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a
ground-fired projectile, land vehicles, or aerial bombs," the 1943 memo
reads.
"In
this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause
death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been
estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulation in a personís body would
be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty."
The
use of radioactive materials "as a terrain contaminant" to
"deny terrain to either side except at the expense of exposing personnel
to harmful radiations" is also discussed in the Groves memo of 1943.
"Anybody,
civilian or soldier, who breathes these particles has a permanent dose, and
itís not going to decrease very much over time," Leonard Dietz, a
retired nuclear physicist with 33 years experience told the New York Daily
News. "In the long run - veterans exposed to ceramic uranium oxide have
a major problem."
"Inhaled
particles of radioactive uranium oxide dust will either lodge in the lungs or
travel through the body, depending on their size. The smallest particles can
be carried through cell walls and "affect the master code - the
_expression of the DNA," Falk told AFP.
Inhaled
DU can "fool around with the keys" and do damage to
"practically anything," Falk said. "It affects the body in so
many ways and there are so many different symptoms that they want to give it
different names," Falk said about the wide variety of ailments
afflicting Gulf War veterans.
Today,
more than one out of every three veterans from the first Gulf War are
permanently disabled. Terry Jemison of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs said
that of the 592,561 discharged veterans from the 1991 war in Iraq, 179,310
are receiving disability compensation and another 24,763 cases are pending.
The
"epigenetic damage" done by DU has resulted in many grossly
deformed children born in areas such as southern Iraq where tons of DU have
contaminated the environment and local population. An untold number of
Americans have also been born with severe birth defects as a result of DU
contamination.
The
New York Daily News conducted a study on nine recently returned soldiers from
the New York National Guard. Four of the nine were found to have "almost
certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded DU shells.
Laboratory
tests revealed two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the
9 soldiers. The four soldiers are the first confirmed cases of inhaled DU
from the current Iraq war.
"These
are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were military police not
exposed to the heat of battle," said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who examined
the soldiers and performed the testing. "Other American soldiers who
were in combat must have more DU exposure," Duracovic said. Duracovic is
a colonel in the Army reserves and served in the 1991 Gulf War.
The
test results showing that four of nine New York guardsmen test positive for
DU "suggest the potential for more extensive radiation exposure among
coalition troops and Iraqi civilians," the Daily News reported.
"A
large number of American soldiers [in Iraq] may have had significant exposure
to uranium oxide dust," Dr. Thomas Fasey, a pathologist at Mount Sinai
Medical Center and an expert on depleted uranium said, "And the health
impact is worrisome for the future."
HOTTER
THAN HELL
"I'm
hotter than hell," Rokke told AFP. The Dept. of Energy tested Rokke in
1994 and found that he was excreting more than 5,000 times the permissible
level of depleted uranium. Rokke, however, was not informed of the results
until 1996.
As
director of the Depleted Uranium Project in 1994-95, Rokke said his task was
three fold: determine how to provide medical care for DU victims, how to
clean it up, and how to educate and train personnel using DU weapons.
Today,
Rokke says that DU cannot be cleaned up and there is no medical care.
"Once you're zapped - you're zapped," Rokke said. Among the health
problems Rokke is suffering as a result of DU contamination is brittle teeth.
He said that he just paid out $400 for an operation for teeth that have
broken off. "The uranium replaces the calcium in your teeth and
bones," Rokke said.
"You
fight for medical care every day of your life," he said.
"There
are over 30,000 casualties from this Iraq war," Rokke said.
The
three tasks set out for the Depleted Uranium Project have all failed, Rokke
said. He wants to know why medical care is not being provided for all the
victims of DU and why the environment is not being cleaned up.
"They
have to be held accountable," Rokke said, naming President George W.
Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and British prime minister Tony
Blair. They chose to use DU weapons and "totally disregarded the
consequences."
Christopher
Bollyn
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