U.S. Use of DU Weapons Causes Dangerous Rise in Radiation Level in Iraq

[TeeYiYi]

April 28, 2004

U.S. Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Causes Dangerous Rise in Radiation Level in Iraq

TEHRAN (MNA) – Canadian research centers have reported that during the war against Iraq the U.S. military used depleted uranium (DU) weapons which caused the radiation level to rise at least 300 times above normal, and the weapons caused similar effects in Afghanistan.

U.S. troops have recently begun removing contaminated topsoil in Iraq, taking it to an unknown location.

<snip>

The method of topsoil removal and replacement at U.S.-occupied bases, living facilities, and administrative buildings is mechanically resuspending tons of potentially contaminated particulate. The dust clouds are lofting above and spreading over the entire area -- 5,000,000 residents in Baghdad alone. It is also exposing thousands of U.S. military personnel and the many frequent foreign visitors including NGO staff, reconstruction crews, business and trade delegates, and diplomatic and foreign service employees.

It’s not just UMRC that has reported the high level of radiation in Iraq, many American journalists and researchers have also confirmed the reports.

<snip>

At a recent international conference on uranium contaminated weapons held in Hamburg, Germany, researchers and witnesses from the U.S., Britain, Canada, Italy, Japan, Greece, Spain, Iraq, and Afghanistan presented various types of undeniable evidence and documents to illustrate the connection between depleted uranium and Gulf War syndrome.

More: http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/28/2004&Cat=2&Num=016

To see the ramifications of DU, go here: http://www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html

TYY

[central scrutinizer]

1. we can only hope

"U.S. troops have recently begun removing contaminated topsoil in Iraq, taking it to an unknown location."

that this unknown location is the same unknown location where Unca Dick hides out.

[Just Me]

2. US military industrial complex says DU claims are BS.

Of course, US military industrial complex doesn't give a damn.

So, there. Watcha' gonna do about it?

Sue?

Too bad. The US military industrial complex has already exempted itself from being sued so long as it is the sole super power.

[TeeYiYi]

3. “Sixty-seven percent of babies born to the 400,000 vets . . .

. . . who suffer from Gulf War Syndrome have birth defects,” said Joyce Riley, a former nurse who flew in Iraq and the founder and spokesperson of the American Gulf War Veterans Association. “But the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs do not want America to know the number of sick, dead and deformed kids that vets are having. It’s another cover-up.”

<snip>

“A lot of the babies are being born with organs out of place—kidneys in the wrong place, hearts out of the body,” Riley told AFP. “The most is failure to thrive, where they could not keep weight on and just didn’t make it.”

<snip>

“One nurse who served over there—all three of her children were born autistic,” she said. “We’ve also seen a lot of what is known as ‘Goldenhar Syndrome,’ that is where there is a missing left eye and left ear. It’s very strange. A lot of people believe this has something to do with the radiological problem related to the use of depleted uranium.”

“Goldenhar Syndrome is a congenital birth defect which involves deformities of the face,” reports the National Craniofacial Association (NCA), a non-profit organization based in Tennessee that assists families of children born with facial deformities. “It usually affects one side of the face only. Characteristics include: a partially formed or totally absent ear; the chin may be closer to the affected ear; one corner of the mouth may be higher than the other; or a missing eye.”

More: http://www.americanfreepress.net/06_29_03/Birth_Defects_Tied/birth_defects_tied.html

_____

In an interesting twist of fate, our soldiers are now cleaning up DU dust that the 'US dominated Sanctions Committe' refused Iraqis to clean up after the Gulf War:

"In an act of stark cruelty, the US dominated Sanctions Committee refuses to permit Iraq to import the clean-up equipment that they desperately need to decontaminate their country of the Depleted Uranium ammunition that the US fired at them. Approximately 315 tons of DU dust was left by the use of this ammunition. The Sanctions Committee also refuses to allow the mass importation of anti-cancer treatments, which contain trace amounts of radio-isotopes, on the grounds that these constitute '...nuclear materials..' "

More: http://www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html

TYY

[CharlieBakerAble]

7. I don't see a definitive cause from your news source but there is this...

Some believe it is due to the vast number of highly toxic depleted uranium rounds fired into Iraq by U.S. forces. Others contend that it is due to the many vaccines given to troops working in the area. Still others argue that it is the result of the demolition of Iraq’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

Sounds like DU is one of many suspects. I don't think we can locate a smoking gun yet.

[ret5hd]

9. maybe it isn't a smoking gun, but i wonder...

(as i did earlier here:
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1480838&mesg_id=1480838 )

what we would think of this

[Aussie_Hillbilly]

22. <Shudder>

Depleted uranium is highly toxic (like lead or mercury, it is a heavy metal) but its radioactivity is so weak it's almost irrevlevant. IIRC uranyl ions cause some shocking genetic damage, 1000x more from chemical toxicity than from the radiation. Your government would certainly arrest anyone scattering it about.

What worries me is the reports of sharply raised radiation levels. It isn't due to the DU, which is only slightly more radioactive than a house brick. The http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/frequent_questions/grp13/question1420.html">4.5 billion years half-life means only a tiny fraction are breaking down and releasing radiation at any point. Could the US military have been mixing spent nuclear fuel with the DU? That would effective way to get rid of something that would otherwise have to be guarded for millions of years. Any reports of radiation would be blamed on the DU, and written off as hysteria.

Are they are that evil?

Does anyone have a link to the original research finding elevated radiation levels?

I can't find my original source article on Depleted Uranium (although I'm looking), but this link will do for now http://www.nrpb.org/faq/du/du8.htm

[TeeYiYi]

29. Good point . . .

re: "the radiation level to rise at least 300 times above normal"

If, according to you, the elevated radiation levels could NOT have come from depleted uranium . . . then WHAT did cause it?

Or, in summary: DU or no DU . . . what is causing the radiation spike?

TYY :thumbsup:

[Just Me]

10. Your HARD stats don't MAKE money like the soft stats of drug companies.

So, sorry. In this capitalistic/corporatist country,...you lose, along with all those who fail to "make money" for our country.

The drug companies can "show" stats that their drug slightly makes people FEEL better against a sugar pill,...you see,...whereas,...you stats are hard-ons AND WE DON'T ACCEPT THOSE,...without "Viagra", of course.

Geez,...doncha' get the "real world", yet.

<yeah,...I'm feeling really dirty,...yet, quite clean of all that bullshit *LOL*>

[Ilsa]

27. And the damage goes beyond the lifespan of

sperm and affects spermatogenesis. My brother said that PGWI vets were having kids with birth defects several years beyond their length of service there. Finally the govt sent a letter out telling him and others that they still had a 30-40% higher probability of having children with defects, and that was almost ten years after the war.

[NMDemDist2]

4. kick

:kick:

[leftchick]

5. one can only hope that bremer....

and the rest of aWol*s stooges are situated right on top of a DU Hotspot....

[CharlieBakerAble]

6. Topsoil in Iraq?

Sorry but if tehrantimes.com says the "topsoil" of Iraq is radioactive I'm going to believe exactly the opposite. If I want lies I'll read an Iran news report and if I want something more reliable I'll flip a coin.

[truthisfreedom]

8. read a few of these.

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=720

The Bush Administration knows about the health and the environmental consequences of using depleted uranium but it doesn't care.
By Mick Youther


When I first heard the term “depleted uranium”, I thought it must be uranium after the radioactivity was gone. I was wrong.

• “Depleted uranium (DU) is the highly toxic and radioactive byproduct of the uranium enrichment process.... Depleted uranium is roughly 60% as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium, and has a half life of 4.5 billion years. As a result of 50 years of enriching uranium for use in nuclear weapons and reactors, the U.S. has in excess of 1.1 billion pounds of DU waste material.”-- Dan Fahey, “Metal of Dishonor” (1997)

• “More ordinance was rained down on Iraq during the six weeks of the Gulf War than during the whole of the Second World War. Unknown to the public or the Allied troops at the time, much of it was coated with depleted uranium (DU)”-- Felicity Arbuthnot, New Internationalist, September 1999

• “The Pentagon and the United Nations estimate that the U.S. and Britain used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium during attacks on Iraq in March and April <2003>--far more than the 375 tons used in the 1991 Gulf War.”-- Seattle Post Intelligencer, 8/4/03

• “Since the U.S. military's widespread use of DU in the Gulf became known in 1991, the Pentagon has struggled to suppress mounting evidence that DU munitions are simply too toxic to use. It has cashiered or attempted to discredit its own experts, ignored their advice, impeded scientific research into DU's health effects and assembled a disinformation campaign to confuse the issue.”-- Environmental Magazine, May/Jun 2003

• “When I spoke out within the military about how bad was, my life ended, my career ended. I received threats, warnings, sent to the reserve from full active duty."-- Dr. Doug Rokke, former Army Major, who was in charge of the military's environmental clean-up following the first Gulf War, ABC News, 5/5/03 (Thirty members of Rokke’s cleanup team have already died, and he has 5,000 times the acceptable level of radiation in his body, resulting in damage to his lungs and kidneys, brain lesions, skin pustules, chronic fatigue, continual wheezing and painful fibromyalgia. After the Gulf War, Rokke was assigned to make a training video to teach soldiers how to handle depleted uranium. It was a never shown to the troops.)

<snip>

[hippywife]

11. Death by Slow Burn: How the U.S. is Nuking Its Own Troops

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Death_by_slow_burn_071403.htm


The U.S. military insists that DU on the battlefield is not a problem. Colonel James Naughton of the U.S. Army Material Command recently told the BBC that complaints about DU “had no medical basis.”21

The military's own documents belie this. A 1993 Pentagon document warned that “when soldiers inhale or ingest DU dust they incur a potential increase in cancer risk.”22

A U.S. Army training manual requires anyone who comes within 25 meters of DU-contaminated equipment to wear respiratory and skin protection.23 The U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute admitted: “If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences.”24 The Institute also stated that, if the troops were to realize what they had been exposed to, “the financial implications of long-term disability payments and healthcare costs would be excessive.”25

[Ediacara]

16. You know :-)

You could volunteer for the Peace Corps and bring a Geiger counter with you :-)

Personally though, I'd imagine that bullets full of Uranium aren't terribly good for soil.

Welcome to DU though :-) and sorry if I sound a little glib, I'm not trying to be.

[daleo]

19. Flip a coin to choose between CNN and Fox

That way you will get lies plus the pleasure of flipping a coin.

[greenleaf]

23. The Tehran Times is quoting

United Medical Research Centre - UMRC - an incorporated non-profit research organization (with registered charity in the US and Canada)

There site is here: http://www.umrc.net/

[tkmorris]

24. All sides produce propaganda

when the truth doesn't suit them. And all sides simply report the truth when the truth does support them. Just like when watching FauxNews, a grain of salt is recommended but the source itself does not make the report false. Sometimes the truth really is on the side of the Iranians, believe it or not.

I advise an open mind. And welcome to DU.
:beer:

[mom cat]

34. Would you bet your life on the flip of a coin?

I am not personally familiar with the tehrantimes, but there are other sources of information on the subject that give credence to the account. Until the Union of Concerned Scientists tells me that the stuff is safe, I'm not going to use it on my tomatoes.

[sniffa]

12. democratic underground weapons

[this_side_up]

13. does anyone have a good

weather site on the net that shows Iraq and
the surrounding countries?

One that shows which way the wind is blowing into
and out of Iraq.

And where does the wind go after Iraq?


Also, is DU heavy and does it fall out of
the wind/dust clouds and not travel very far?

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. Sorry not to have the link available

.
.
.

but I recently read where the US Military reported that troops 26 miles away from a firefight including DU munitions showed the specific uranium in their blood on diagnosis of symptoms.

The doctors claimed they were "puzzled", but at the same time they admitted it was the only source available for the troops to have become exposed.

And read my other post.

follow the link.

Very scary - -

[this_side_up]

17. thanks! I'm having

trouble keeping up with everything this week.

[TeeYiYi]

18. How far does DU travel? . . .

But as far back as 1979, Leonard Dietz, a physicist at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory upstate, discovered that DU-contaminated dust could travel for long distances.

Dietz, 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 DU 26 miles away. His discovery led to a shutdown of the plant.

"The contamination was so heavy that they had to remove the topsoil from 52 properties around the plant," Dietz said.

<snip>

Uranium oxide dust, which lodges in the lungs once inhaled and is not very soluble, can emit radiation to the body for years.

"Anybody, civilian or soldier, who breathes these particles has a permanent dose, and it's not going to decrease very much over time," said Dietz, who retired in 1983 after 33 years as nuclear physicist. "In the long run ... veterans exposed to ceramic uranium oxide have a major problem."

More: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.html

TYY

[this_side_up]

20. distance?

From the link, it said that the DU in Kosovo/Bosnia
made it to Hungary and Greece :( (I'm glad we bought
a world globe to check distance.)

How far the Iraq DU will travel - I'm guessing worldwide
and that some will drop out in moisture over the oceans
which is bad for fish and fish-eating humans.

I also expect that a lot of it will be airborne for
a long time. I'm thinking of the fires in Asia and
China duststorms that make it to the West Coast and
then travel east. The fires in Mexico and the
smoke made it to Ohio? Minnesota? Canada? not
so long ago.

This makes me wonder where all of Poppy's grandkids
are going to live and become parents.

[ConcernedCanuk]

14. Suggested reading for those in doubt that DU is harmful

.
.
.
U.S. NUCLEAR POLICY AND DEPLETED URANIUM

TESTIMONY AT THE JUNE 28, 2003, PUBLIC HEARING FOR

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR WAR CRIMES IN AFGHANISTAN

CHIBA, CHIBA PREFECTURE, JAPAN


"After working on the cleanup and disposal of high level nuclear waste, I became a whistleblower in 1991 at the the Lawrence Livermore Lab. After observing an entrenched pattern of science fraud, theft, graft, corruption, lack of concerns for safety and security, discrimination against women and minorities, and severe retaliation practices, I drove out the lab gate one day, dropped off my badge and my beeper and never went back.

I realized after only two years at the lab, that the culture of nuclear weapons was a culture of insanity. What species on earth kills its young generation after generation? What species on earth sacrifices its young for the false notion of “security”?

At the end of the millenium which gave birth to nuclear weapons, I visited the Peace Museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the 2000 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs as the guest of Gensuikin. That visit to Japan changed my life when I finally understood the horrific effects of nuclear weapons. In 1991, in the first Gulf War, the United States broke a 60 year taboo and introduced depleted uranium to the battleground, a radiological weapon which is truly a weapon of indiscriminate killing and mass destruction.

Now that we know both, we must ask a question - which is worse, the horrific effects of flash annihilation from an atomic bomb or slow mutilation forever from depleted uranium weapons? "


http://traprockpeace.org/TribTest062803.html

.

I am restricted by our copyright rules of posting more, but I suggest the "doubters" also read the section entitled: "AFGHANISTAN" regarding the effect ALREADY on the wildlife there.

Remember, this evidence is all under the Heading of an International Criminal Court Tribunal, not some blogger's musings

(mind you there ARE alot of bloggers out there worth paying attention to)

[TeeYiYi]

30. Excellent link! Thanks CC. ;-) ...n/t

TYY

[burrowowl]

21. Kick

Even if not 'very' radioactive, it is a heavy metal and toxic when ingested.
Anyone remember the photo of a Japanese woman holding her limp child like the Pieta. The child had mercury poising, uranium is denser than mercury.

[greenleaf]

25. The mercury poisoning was called 'Minamata Disease"

The Nippon Chisso Company in Minamata was using mercury compounds as reaction catalysts in the production of PVC and acetaldehyde.The production wastes were then discharged untreated into Minamata Bay.
It took twelve years for the cause of the disease to be officially recognised.

Some more info on Minamata Disease and the dynamics of denial of its causes here:

http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu35ie/uu35ie0c.htm

[burrowowl]

31. Welcome to DU!

Good link!

[greenleaf]

32. Cheers burrowowl

I'm glad if it helps.

[slaveplanet]

26. I wonder what would happen

If I were to dump a quart of used motor oil in the creek out back and the authorities traced it back to me....Under section 802 of the USA Patriot act ...that could be defined as terrorism.

Want to find the WMD and the terrorists that placed them?

look no further than Bosnia , Afganistan,
Iraq, Puerto Rico & anywhere else the military has left its footprints, breakout the trusty Geiger counter and go to town.

[anarchy1999]

28. This is a MUST READ FOR EVERYONE! Dr Doug Rokke, 4/21/03

Learn About Depleted Uranium From

The US Army's Expert on Depleted Uranium (DU)

Text of Dr. Doug Rokke Speaking in Los Altos, CA 21apr03
Good evening.



The purpose of war is real simple.

When you go to war, I don't care whether you're a medic like Dennis—I'm an old combat medic also—I don't care whether you're a cooking, a member of the band, your job is to kill and destroy. Period. When you go to war, you are going to come back changed—physiologically and psychologically forever. When we go to war because the purpose is to kill and destroy, the military will use any and every weapon at their disposal to kill and destroy. Period. There's nothing else about it. It's simply killing and destroying. And anyone that gets in your way it's killed. And any item that gets in your way gets destroyed.

During Gulf War I—now remember, when Gulf War I started in August of 1990, that weekend, I spent it with Paul Tibbetts. For those of you who know about American history and world history, Paul Tibbetts was the commander of the Enola Gay. He's the guy to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the war started I was with him and the remainder of his crew. And we talked about what happened and World War II and what was about to happen in Gulf War I. And it happened.

snip:
Then they decided to use uranium munitions. And we shot the heck out of everything. Uranium munitions are probably the most effective weapon your ever going to encounter. These things are the silver bullet. They kill and destroy anything in their path. They are EXTREMELY effective. And what you need to understand, and contrary to what he saw in the media, the DU ground is not coated and it's not tipped. The DU round is solid uranium 238. The M1 tank round is over 10 pounds of solid uranium 238, contaminated with plutonium, neptunium, and americium.*

snip to the end:
Ladies and gentlemen, helped me... help our veterans...helped the nation, and help the citizens of the world. If we continue to go to war, and we continue to contaminate God's environment, we will continue to make the citizens of the world sick. But more important, were going to continue to kill the children of the world. And, I don't know if you've ever been to war. But I can guarantee you, there ain't no atheists and a foxhole. And no matter what religion you are, or what culture you come from, there's a prophecy—"And a child shall lead them to peace." But he kill the children of the world, where's the child going to come from that leads us to peace?

Thank you.


http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Rokke-Depleted-Uranium-DU21apr03.htm

This is the text of a lecture he gave very similar to the one he gave in Dallas around the same time. He tells a very powerful and sad story. Straight from the military.

[mom cat]

33. The pictures in your link should be seen by everyone.

Thanks for the info on depleted uranium. I want every politician who is ambivalent on the the monstrous effects of this demonic weapon to have to look at those pictures. I will spend my May Day weekend circulating the pictures to every politician, news outlet, NGO etc that I can think of. And Bush thinks that pictures of coffins are too upsetting. What's a pro-lifer to do?