by Peter Eyre

Middle East Consultant

July-August 2009

from PalTelegraph Website

Part 1
29 July 2009

USA, July 29, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)

Our planet is truly a wonderful place but under the umbrella, that we call our atmosphere, lies a cocktail of uranium aerosols waiting to claim its next victim. Many countries donate to this contamination such as the US, UK, Israel, NATO member states, China and Russia etc

Why would the:

• UN (The United Nations)

• WHO (World Health Organization)

• US (United States)

• UK (United Kingdom)

• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

• IDF (Israel Defense Forces),

...allow this to happen and why do they continue manufacturing and using weapons containing uranium?

The answer came from the Belgium Foreign Minister when he was asked if it was possible to prohibit DU, he replied,

"We can't do it, because NATO and the UN aren't encouraging it".

The Belgian Parliament overturned the reluctance of the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Defense by voting unanimously to prohibit DU ammunition from the 20th of June 2009. One would never have imagined that Belgium, the heart of NATO, would have made such a bold move.

A conference took place in Sweden:

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF WAR

The examples of Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium - Stockholm - 23-24 April 2004 in which various experts gave speeches, two of those being Doug Rokke and Tedd Weyman.

Dr Douglas L. Rokke, Ph.D. Former Head of U.S. Army Radiological Laboratory and Former Director U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project, U.S. Army major (retired), and former Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Jacksonville State University, Florida, USA.

During an interview with John Pilger, Doug gave a summary of his work experience:

"Prior to the Gulf War, I was responsibility for the training and educating of all the medical professionals and combat soldiers on the effects of nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. More importantly what type of medical care and treatment was required and what decontamination is needed for those that may be injured or wounded during the war".

After the ground war he was tasked as a health physicist responsible for cleaning up the depleted uranium or uranium 238 contamination. Doug once stated that in regard to the uranium 238 contamination the only warning we had was a single letter that came from the Surgeon General's office in the United States army.

And that said,

"Think about DU, and this uranium contamination".

He went on to say,

"As we found out after the ground war - not only didn't we know anything about it, how to handle it, how to dispose of it, how to clean it up, what medical care to be given - nobody did - they just didn't tell anybody. Whether it be British, Canadian, German or US forces. They just didn't tell anybody"

John Pilger asked him the following question during that interview: What do you estimate the effect on people living in that part of the world, living in southern Iraq?

Doug's response:

"The effect depends on whether a person inhaled it, got some of it eating it or drinking it, or if they got the uranium contamination into an open wound. If they did then - dependent upon the amount that they had - what we're seeing now are respiratory problems, breathing problems, kidney problems, and cancers.

 

We have individuals of our team that were actually known exposed and they have died of cancer. We have other individuals right now that have cancer. We have rashes, neurological problems.

 

A lot of people - and again this is out of the whole complex toxic battlefield where DU contributes - lost fine motor function, individuals have neural psychology problems, short term memory losses. The uranium is a heavy metal poison and also a radiological poison, so we have to look at a conglomeration of potential health effects that then mix with other causes to create serious problems".

John then asked the inevitable question:

"Tell me what you think the effect on the civilian population of Iraq will be. You see, when I was in Iraq there appeared to be an epidemic of cancer but they don't have any scientific studies to measure what their estimates are. Could you just comment generally on that?"

Doug's final response revealed a rather grim outlook when he said:

"Numerous times, at various meetings and conferences, the Iraqis have asked for the medical treatment protocols. They've asked for the environmental clean-up protocols which the US Department of Defense and the British Ministry of Defense have refused to do repeatedly.

 

With the extent of the contamination in Basra and all over Iraq where the DU was fired by the tanks and by the aircraft - over 300 tons - there's no doubt in my mind that, because that lasts forever unless it's been physically removed, that any woman or child, any soldier, any non-combatant, anybody that comes in the area that it gets into their body is going to have medical problems.

 

The overall effects are the fact that we used a weapon that's indiscriminate for eternity and therefore unless the environmental clean up is totally completed and the medical care is provided, the effects are permanent and lasting forever and ever and ever. That's wrong"

Tedd Weyman, Deputy Director - Research Scientist at Uranium Medical Research Centre in Toronto, Canada and Field Team Leader for Afghanistan and Iraq. Tedd led teams into Afghanistan and Iraq to collect biological and environmental samples for laboratory study, to survey radioactivity levels and measure the scope of uranium weapons' contamination.

He interviews civilians to document health and conflict histories and cross reference with the laboratory studies of samples taken from bombsites, battlefields and wider-area environments of affected communities. Tedd's fieldwork has resulted in himself becoming contaminated by Depleted Uranium during his last field trip in Iraq.

On the 10th of August 2004, Tedd published a report Titled: The US and UK deploy new uranium weapons contaminating Iraq's environment, civilians and the Coalition's own troops.

As we have already found out from Doug Rokke his findings were equally as disturbing:

The recent Iraqi field samples collected by UMRC were analyzed by plasma mass spectrometer by Dr Axel Gerdes, Institute of Petrology and Geochemistry, JW Goethe University, Frankfurt. The human and environmental samples have been found to contain Depleted Uranium and abnormally high levels of the artificial transuranic isotope, 236U.

The isotope composition of Depleted Uranium found in civilians as well as in surface soils and water courses shows the weapons used in Iraq were manufactured from two and perhaps three different metallurgical sources (stockpiles of uranium metals). The soil and water samples indicate DU was deployed in both mechanized battlefields and urban neighborhoods where aerial bombing took place.

The purity and quantities (abundances) of the Depleted Uranium found in the samples of soils taken from US- and UK-led battlefields are some of the highest levels published since UMRC and others began independent investigations into the use of radioactive dispersion weapons in 1991 following Operation Desert Storm.

The abundances of uranium in water samples taken from a fresh water supply tank and from a run-off catch basin in Al Basra are much higher than published results for DU levels in water samples attributed to the by-products of uranium weapons in either the Balkans or Iraq.

Biological samples taken from Iraqi civilians present during the Shock and Awe bombing campaign against downtown Baghdad and its government and telecommunications facilities are positive for Depleted Uranium.

It is not possible to know the source of inner-city civilian contamination as virtually the entire city is contaminated. Unlike biological and environmental samples collected in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom, the team did not find deposits of Non Depleted Uranium.

A biological sample taken from one Al Basra citizen, who was exposed to the urban bombing campaign in that city, has an unusual composition of isotopes showing an enriched, as opposed to a depleted or natural, ratio of 235U/238U. The enriched uranium was found in a person exposed to and living adjacent to the same battlefield led by the British Desert Rats, south of Al Basra.

According to the DUOB (Depleted Uranium Oversight Board) of the UK Ministry of Defense, urine samples taken from members of the UK 1st Armoured Division that fought the approach to Al Basra and occupied the city are excreting non-depleted uranium several hundreds of times the British biological norm. Smaller total uranium levels positive for DU have also been identified by the MOD in the UK forces that served in the Az Zubair - Basra - Shat Al Arabi area.

The next question is what has all this got to do with Lebanon and Gaza? The answer is simple... both locations have succumbed to the same fate.

We have significant proof from the battle fields of the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan on the use of weapons containing uranium. In all cases test on victims and on recovered samples have confirmed either depleted uranium or traces of enriched uranium.

With this knowledge on hand samples have since been taken and received from Lebanon (2006) and Gaza 2008/9.

The samples have both been tested at the famous British Harwell Laboratory revealing not only DU but also traces of enriched Uranium, indicating the possible use of fourth generation weaponry. It is interesting to note that similar findings have been made in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

As we have seen the health impact on military forces and innocent civilians remains the same in all of the above theatres of war and in that context we can expect the same trend in Lebanon and Gaza. Based on the fact that DU aerosols do not respect international border one can also assume this problem has extended across the borders to Syria, Israel, West Bank, Jordan, Egypt, the entire Middle East and beyond.

In order to better understand the seriousness of using uranium based weapons we must first appreciate the fact that its usage has been alarmingly excessive.

We have to learn to identify the appearance and structure of such explosions compared to conventional weapon, how these toxic aerosols move around the globe, how they have the ability to travel long distances (sometimes return to their point of origin before moving on) and finally the health hazards associated with these terrible weapons. Because of the complexity of all the above factors I intend to print these articles in parts (this being Part 1).

First we must look at some photographic evidence of past and current weapons that contain uranium. These photographs have been analyzed by an expert to confirm their authenticity.

I have given three examples one in Lebanon and two in Gaza, the latter in actual fact was a multiple weapons attack.

This attack was carried out in Beirut which is densely populated.

If one can imagine that with a sea breeze it spreads over a large area of the city and beyond. Once it gets into the upper atmosphere it diverts off in all directions, sometimes as very high speed. Extensive bombing also took place at Khiam very close to the Israeli border and the contamination from these explosions extended over the entire Northern Israel region within one hour.

This was followed by rain which caused the DU aerosol to return to earth and contaminate the land, crops and water supply.

This particular cluster of 4 bombs shows two bombs exploding on initial impact and two more in transit. If you look to the right of the picture you can see the distant devastation.

On analyzing the sea conditions the sea breeze was strong and the fact that the photographer was standing on the Israeli border would mean that the contamination from these series of bombs would cross the border into Israel within minutes.

This would then contaminate Central & Southern Israel.

I have also included this night time photograph of a DU explosion in Gaza which shows the typical sparkling effect.

DU is pyrophoric and ignites spontaneously.

To conclude this first part I thought it would be relevant to publish some information from European experts. The use of Depleted Uranium (DU) was condemned in 2000 by experts from Germany namely Prof. Dr. Albrecht Schott and Prof. Dr Siegwart Horst Gunther.

In their submission to prohibit DU they stated - Given the known chemical and radiological toxicity of depleted uranium and its compounds causes damage to humans, animals and the ecological cycle, of which there is conclusive evidence we demand that the military and civilian use of depleted uranium (DU) be banned.

"The preservation of creation and the dignity of humankind forbid the use of DU. The Invasion of DU, and the compounds produced by its self-ignition due to heat, into the soil and water cycle of living communities, and the environment we live in, make them uninhabitable for thousands of years (the half-life of uranium is 4.5 billion years; uranium forms long-term radiologically dangerous decay products)".

Legal references were made in this submission as follows:

• The military use of DU violates current international humanitarian law, including the principle that there is no unlimited right to choose the means and methods of warfare - Art. 22 Hague Convention VI (HCIV)

• Art. 35 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Convention (GP1)

• The ban on causing unnecessary suffering and superfluous injury (Art. 23 §le HCIV; Art. 35 §2 GP1), indiscriminate warfare (Art. 51 §4c and 5b GPI) as well as the use of poison or poisoned weapons)

The deployment and use of DU violate the principles of international environmental and human rights protection. They contradict the right to life established by the Resolution 1996/16 of the UN Subcommittee on Human Rights.

We demand the following individual points:

1. A ban an the use, development, production, transport, storage and possession of DU weapons and DU armour-plating, as well as all other military uses of DU.

2. Medical treatment of all victims of DU, in particular children.

3. Destruction of all DU weapons and means of its deployment and secure storage of the uranium in a stable chemical compound.

4. A ban an the civilian use of DU because of accidental future, past or present exposure to uranium or its compounds.

5. Decontamination of all military and civilian equipment contaminated by DU.

6. Decontamination of all territory contaminated by DU. This not only means theatres of war but also military practice ranges and other areas where DU has been deployed.

7. Conversion of the global stocks of DU in the form of Uranium Hexafluoride, approx. 2-3 million tons, from its presently insufficiently stable form into a stable Uranium Oxide and safe deposition.

8. Punishment of the military use of DU as a war crime (in accordance with Art. 85 §3b GP1; Art. 6b IMT Statute; Art. 2c, 3a and b ICTY Statute; Art. 8 §2b Statute of Rome).

9. Eradication of consequential damage caused by DU use according to customary liability principles in international (humanitarian) law.

10. Creation of a centre for the worldwide documentation of all DU contaminated regions, in particular theatres of war, military practice ranges, scenes of accidents, etc., and to study the DU problem.

US Expert Leuren Moret in her article:

DEPLETED URANIUM

THE TROJAN HORSE OF NUCLEAR WAR (8 July 2004) gives a full account of all the issues relating to DU. Lauren's contribution in the fight against DU is exemplary and I urge you all to read the above article in full as well as many other articles she has produced. In the above article she makes reference to the following:

ILLEGAL UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
Four reasons why using depleted uranium weapons violates the UN Convention on Human Rights:

LEGALITY TEST FOR WEAPONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

• TEMPORAL TEST - Weapons must not continue to act after the battle is over.

• ENVIRONMENTAL TEST - Weapons must not be unduly harmful to the environment.

• TERRITORIAL TEST - Weapons must not act off of the battlefield.

• HUMANENESS TEST - Weapons must not kill or wound inhumanly.

In 2002 British expert Dr Chris Busy PhD produced a report: Review of the Home Office statement on the health consequences of exposure to depleted uranium in Kosovo.

Dr Busby was critical of the Home Office in regard to their comments:

• The studies undertaken on DU in Kosovo have not detected any significant levels of DU.

• Studies have not shown any significant risk to the health of the population of the province from the presence of DU.

In his response he stated:

I will demonstrate that both of these statements are incorrect and that the DoD document and its conclusions are unsafe. I will argue that this is because of bias, over interpretation of research and omission of relevant evidence. I will direct attention to evidence which shows that there is a significant health risk associated with living in areas contaminated by DU including recent evidence not available to the authors of the DoD report or the HO memorandum.

Many experts throughout the world agree with Dr Busy and believe that the current model used by the nuclear industry and the military is outdated and is not suitable for testing victims that have been exposed to low level radiation (LLR) such as DU.

The ICRP90 model draws comparison on the effects of high level doses of radiation on victims from the A bomb attacks in Japan during WW2.

Many experts have challenged this method by saying that this model averaged out radiation of the whole body or organ. These survivors had been irradiated with an acute, large, external dose in which the effects were uniform over the whole body. It is evident that LLR (such as DU) that has been absorbed, ingested and more importantly inhaled has become a major threat to human health and therefore the above model is unacceptable

Dr Busby reported:

The view that this approach was wrong was developed independently by scientists from different countries, and is now located, among other places, in the model of the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR). Dr Busby was also the founder member of this Committee on Radiation Risk from Internal Emitters (CERRIE) which is an independent expert deliberative committee jointly funded by the UK's Department of Health and DEFRA.

Dr Busby reflected on his own experience in his report:

I have personally visited two countries where DU has been used, Iraq and Kosovo with scientific measuring equipment and I collected samples for analysis. I found elevated levels of radioactivity in both countries without great difficulty and also took samples which were subsequently analyzed in the UK by two independent laboratories. Both found DU in the samples from Kosovo so I find it hard to believe that all these groups found no evidence of DU, or at minimum, only DU near the target.

His report also revealed some interesting observations:

The most significant problem is that DU is an alpha and beta emitter, the latter because of its radioactive decay product isotopes, Thorium-234 and Protoactinium-234, which are not mentioned in the DoD report.

 

The range in air of alpha particles is a few centimeters, and they are easily stopped by a film of water. Beta particles have a range of up to a meter but will not penetrate a Geiger counter window.

 

This means that a normal Geiger Counter will not register the radioactivity from DU.

It was further on in his report that he made the following conclusion:

There is evidence of widespread contamination by DU in the form of particles. I have some of these particles in dust samples from Gjakove, Kosovo collected more than a year after the shells were fired. They are in my laboratory, so for me, there is no argument on this matter. I can show you them.

The dust had collected on a road beneath where a snowdrift had collected and melted, and the isotopic ratio of daughter Thorium-234 to parent Uranium-238 showed that the Uranium was being re-suspended in the air. Children were playing nearby: there were no wrecked tanks or bullet holes in the road.

 

Beta radiation levels were about 11 times background, and the concentration of Uranium in the dust about 4000Bq/kg 200 times the background level of about 20Bq/kg.

Was this material ending up inside the people who live nearby?

To make this question more immediate, I could bring my radioactive DU particle to where you sit reading this report and blow it at you. Would you take the position of the DoD and the other learned bodies that there was no danger, or would you dive for cover, holding your breath? When I visited Iraq and Kosovo, I wore full respiratory protection and so did the TV camera crews who accompanied me.

On the issues of respiratory protection it was interesting to read a letter sent from Leuren Moret to Congressman Mc Dermott on the 21st of February 2003 which touched on the subject of current respiratory masks. It revealed that aerosol particles in the 0 .1 micron range would pass through the filter. Leuren letter also contained some other interesting information

It must be clearly understand that back in 1943 nuclear experts were discussing the advantages of using fine dust as a weapon.

One such document was issued on the 30th of October 1943 which quoted:

"It is recommended that a decision be obtained from competent authority authorizing additional work pertaining to the use of radioactive materials in order that this country may be ready to use such materials or be ready to defend itself against the use of such materials".

This same document contained information as follows:

As a gas warfare instrument the 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. 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 accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty.

 

Two factors appear to increase the effectiveness of radioactive dust or smoke as a weapon.

 

These are:

1. It cannot be detected by the senses

2. It can be distributed in a dust or smoke form so finely powdered that it will permeate a standard gas mask filter in quantities large enough to be extremely damaging.

This document gave the background to today's weapons that are not only highly effective in there ability to penetration deep into the target but also the pyrophoric qualities of this product allows it to ignite spontaneously and create a huge cloud of fine DU dust that becomes a lethal airborne aerosol.

Part of an attachment in Leuren Moret's letter to Congressman Mc Dermott
 

For almost 40 years we have all been let down a path of total deception by the:

• US Government

• US Department of Defense

• US Military

• the Nuclear Industry

This deception later extended to the US Institute of Medicine, UN (especially the UNEP), WHO, NATO and their respective Governments and many other institutions that all failed in their duty of care for our planet and its inhabitants.

An example of the type of control/pressure that was applied to such people as Dr Doug Rokke is revealed in the contents of a letter, referred to as the famous Los Alamos memorandum, its wording are very clear,

"Thou shalt write you're after-action report such that they do not reveal the health and environmental consequence of uranium munitions because they will become politically unacceptable."

[That's] a direct order.

It was also interesting at this time that Doug received another order from the Defense Nuclear Agency*, written by Col. Gregory Lyle.

And Greg Lyle said,

"is not only DU a health risk," he said, "it's a serious health concern."

Col. Lyle, at that time, worked for Col. Yasaf Durokovic.

Now, you people who hear about Yasaf Durokovich, a doctor, uranium medical research program. But they failed to tell you that he was the U.S. Army's top doctor in this stuff until he blew the whistle. You have to understand, he was the army's expert-a physician, a Ph.D. M.D. physician-until he blew the whistle.

We must all understand that although the issue of DU only surfaced as a result of the accident in Camp Doha, Kuwait on the 11th July 1991, its usage was tested in the Gulf during the War in Kuwait which started on the 2nd August 1990 and finished on the 28th February 1991.

The preparation and stockpiling of these weapons were already underway in readiness for a planned attack on Iraq. As we know by now this was delayed as the US could not justify or find an excuse to attack Iraq at the time. The final answer came with 9/11 and the concoction of the WMD stories etc.

The War in the Balkans involved US, UK and other NATO forces and resulted in the extensive use of DU weaponry during the period 22nd March 1999 and 10th June 1999.

The contamination of the Middle East started back in 1973. It was during the conflict between Israel and Egypt that DU was first put to the test. Israel was provided with DU weaponry by the US, who assisted them throughout the campaign (as this technology was unknown to them). This "gift" by the US to the Middle East has been in continuous use by the IDF since that time and was used in both Lebanon and Gaza.

My next report will cover and analyze the likely area of direct contamination as a result of using DU in Lebanon and Gaza. It will map out the extent and range of the contamination by using the US NOAA HYSPLIT Model.

I will also create my own purpose built map of Europe and the Middle East showing how the DU aerosols from Lebanon and Gaza enter the atmosphere at various levels and follow them on their journey around the globe.





Part 2
01 August 2009
 

USA, August 1, 2009 (Pal Telepgraph)

• Can we force our governments to hold a full and transparent enquiry on the true effects of Low Level Radiation and Depleted Uranium aerosols on the human body?

• Can we force our governments to acknowledge that the respective so called war syndromes and the alarming rise in cancer, diabetes, infertility and birth defects are directly related to the exposure of uranium based weapons in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Pakistan and the entire world?

• Do we have the wisdom and strength to stand firm and tell our governments that uranium based weapons must be prohibited?

To most people WMD means Weapons of Mass Destruction but there is another meaning which is Weapons of Mass Deception that has been employed to cover up the horrors created by uranium based weapons.

Many organizations must be held responsible for allowing this deception to continue for decades namely,

• The United Nations (UN)

• United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)

• World Health Organization (WHO)

• The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

• Governments

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• Departments of Defense

• Military

• The Nuclear Industry

• The Pharmaceutical Industry, etc...,

...all of whom have covered up and caused the suffering of thousands of military personnel and millions of innocent civilian populations around the world.

The truth behind this mass slow genocide has never been covered by the media thus allowing it to expand and continue out of control. It is obvious that this deception is part of a bigger picture involving the highest level of economic greed and to seize control of the world's natural resources.

It is imperative that we fully understand the implications relating to the unchecked usage of uranium products in its many forms. Do we really fully understand the extreme danger to human health if uranium is continued to be used in the manner the scientists and inventors want it to be used.

A study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health Organization (WHO), who employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.

Albert Einstein once quoted:

"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe".
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it".
"Real progress of humanity depends on not so much creativity as much as on conscience."

It was interesting to note that the UNEP/81 report (16/01/01) confirmed that Uranium 236 had been found in DU Penetrators.

The WHO also gave reference to this problem in their Report of the World Health Organization Depleted Uranium Mission to Kosovo (22nd - 31st January 2001) when they reported that in addition to U235, U234 and U238, the mission was confronted with questions on the presence of plutonium or other radioactive chemicals in the munitions.

KFOR informed the mission that it did not exclude the possibility that traces of plutonium could be present in depleted uranium. Other laboratories have also revealed similar finds giving reference to enriched uranium possibly indicating a new type of 4th Generation Weapon.

It is quite obvious that Depleted Uranium is only the tip of the iceberg and much more sinister weapons are in the making, hence the term "Dirty Missiles, Dirty Bombs, Dirty Shells and Dirty Bullets".

What was so ironic was the fact that in this WHO report it stated,

"Penetrators that hit armored vehicles or hard rocks would be crushed on impact and residual fragments and dust would be deposited on the ground"

 

"It is reported that most of the depleted uranium dust will be deposited within a distance of 100m from the target (US Army Corps of Engineers 1997). People, most likely soldiers, close to an impact could therefore be exposed to dust by inhalation. It gave no reference to the fact that DU Dust aerosols can travel beyond the target area, cross international borders and around the world."

This same scenario has been repeated in other research laboratories, indicating that such weapons also contain Recycled Uranium

Let's now look at the many uses of Uranium based materials in the military sense and also in its application or possible application in the commercial world. We must also be cautious and understand that Enriched, Depleted and Recycled Uranium play a major role in all sectors. This mass deception makes us believe that such products are essential in our everyday lives when in actual fact the only application that is acceptable (if I dare say) is in the field of medicine.

The entire lists of products are not available but the variety and usage demonstrates what can be achieved by recycling nuclear waste.

One such company called Manufacturing Sciences Corporation (MSC) based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee show the following photograph on their webpage highlighting the broad range of so called Depleted Uranium items.

The complete range and its usage are beyond imagination when one considers that this is a very toxic waste product from the Nuclear Industry that can now enter our environment in so many forms.

MSC explain that they have converted approximately 6 million pounds of depleted uranium (DU) into more than 70,000 useful products. They say they have the unique capability to take the customers unwanted DU, and by utilizing our DU experience and specialized facilities, can recycle the DU into useful products. One could ask the question what constitutes a useful product.

Kinetic energy penetrators (as used in many weapons) are made of DU because of its high density, fabricability, pyrophoricity, availability and low cost (Toxic nuclear waste) compared to other heavy metals.

Shape Charge Liners and Explosively Formed Penetrators Lenses: Depleted uranium SCLs and EFP lenses are under investigation as a material for warhead applications in missiles, ammunition and sub munitions. The U.S. Army has revealed that depleted uranium is used as amour protection in the Abrams main battle tank. This is also used by other nations with the same application.

We know that DU penetrators have and are still part of the arms arsenal and there is even a suggestion that enriched penetrators have been used. This now brings us to the use of Shape Charge Liners that are made from DU. Shaped charges increase the power by focusing explosives in one direction e.g. by containing them with a conical liner. A wide variety of guided weapons use "shaped charge" technology.

These range from Maverick and Hellfire missiles to torpedoes, sub-munitions in cluster bombs and the first stage of BROACH-MWS (British Royal Augmentation Charge - Multiple Warhead System) warheads. Hellfire missiles have been used extensively in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and now Pakistan.

Tungsten is not only expensive; it also has a very high melting point (3422° C).

DU liners are inexpensive compared to Tungsten as the Nuclear Industry almost gives it away. It melting point is perfectly suitable for the task required (170° C) The quantity of DU involved may range from a few kilograms up to 250 kg in larger warheads as was the case in the Broach MWS warhead.

In the medical fields, depleted uranium has been used for biomedical isotope shields, calorimeters and radiographic cameras.

MSC go on to say another application for depleted uranium is as a counterweight. Currently, depleted uranium is used as a counterweight in both commercial and military aircraft. Because of its density, 18.95 gm/cc, depleted uranium can supply a significant mass in a small area. Counterweights can be moved to compensate for fuel consumption or shifting cargo loads.

Depleted uranium is currently being investigated as a replacement for lead in elevator counterweights, fork truck counterbalances, and crane counterweights. Because of the density of depleted uranium, the appropriate mass takes up significantly less space allowing for either a more compact design or room for additional components.

Can one imagine how this nuclear waste, that is almost given away by the nuclear industry and respective /governments, is spread around us all in such a haphazard way. Does anyone evaluate the fact that all these products are radioactive and that no safe dose exists?

If one looks at the Hazard Brief for Cameco - Port Hope, Ontario, Canada (Facilities for Reconversion to Uranium Metal), the instructions for dealing with uranium metals in stated very clearly:

Uranium is pyrophoric and starts to burn in the air at between 150c-170c. It ignites in oxygen at 170c. The brief goes on to say that dust inhalation can result in radiation dose to lungs. Kidney damage can occur due to chemical toxicity. Skin contact can result in Low Lever Radiation (LLR) dose from continued exposure. Ingestion can result in radiation dose and kidney damage can occur due to chemical toxicity.

The UNEP, WHO and others say that LLR is safe!

It would now be appropriate to analyze "Weapons of Mass Deception" in order to see what lies behind this major cover up.

At we have seen time and time again many authorities such as,

• UNEP

• WHO

• ICRP

• IAEA

• Government Health Specialists

• Radiological Specialist

• all those associated with the analysis of internal exposure to DU/LLR,

...continue to use the outdated ICRP Model.

This single mistake has played a major role in the wrong assessment of the many thousands of victims.

We have seen the denial by Governments and their respective military units on their use of DU weapons. We have seen how those in senior positions have attempted to manipulate the outcome of a particular test or enquiry. We have seen vital evidence withheld or hidden from public viewing and finally we have seen the cruelty handed out to those experts and whistleblower that exposed the truth, some of whom have paid the ultimate price.

Finally I can reveal the outcome of a very important conference that took place in Greece on the 6th of May 2009: the European Committee on Radiation Risk Conference held in Molyvos, Lesvos, Greece. The report is not only very critical but also shows that existing methods are clearly outdated.

Paragraph I. is of particular interest when it states,

"Whereas, there is an immediate, urgent and continuing requirement for appropriate regulation of existing situations involving radioactivity, to protect the human population and the biosphere"

The report is signed by 16 world experts and is a clear warning to us all.

ECRR - CERI
European Committee on Radiation Risk
Comité Européenne sur le Risque de l'Irradiation

The Lesvos Declaration
6th May 2009

1. Whereas, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has promulgated certain risk coefficients for ionizing radiation exposure,
    

2. Whereas, the ICRP radiation risk coefficients are used worldwide by federal and state governmental bodies to promulgate radiation protection laws and standards for exposure to workers and the general public from waste disposal, nuclear weapons, management of contaminated land and materials, naturally occurring and technologically enhanced radioactive materials (NORM and TENORM), nuclear power plant and all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, compensation and rehabilitation schemes, etc,
    

3. Whereas, the Chernobyl accident has provided the most important and indispensable opportunity to discover the yields of serious ill health following exposure to fission products and has demonstrated the inadequacy of the current ICRP risk model, especially as applied to foetal and early childhood exposures to radiation,
    

4. Whereas, by common consent the ICRP risk model cannot validly be applied to post-accident exposures, nor to incorporated radioactive material resulting in internal exposure,
    

5. Whereas, the ICRP risk model was developed before the discovery of the DNA structure and the discovery that certain radionuclides have chemical affinities for DNA, so that the concept of absorbed dose as used by ICRP cannot account for the effects of exposure to these radionuclides,
    

6. Whereas, the ICRP has not taken into consideration new discoveries of non-targeted effects such as genomic instability and bystander or secondary effects with regard to understanding radiation risk and particularly the spectrum of consequent illnesses,
    

7. Whereas, the non-cancer effects of radiation exposure may make it impossible to accurately determine the levels of cancer consequent upon exposure, because of confounding causes of death,
    

8. Whereas, the ICRP considers the status of its reports to be purely advisory,
    

9. Whereas, there is an immediate, urgent and continuing requirement for appropriate regulation of existing situations involving radioactivity, to protect the human population and the biosphere.

We the undersigned, in our individual capacities

1. assert that the ICRP risk coefficients are out of date and that use of these coefficients leads to radiation risks being significantly underestimated,

2. assert that employing the ICRP risk model to predict the health effects of radiation leads to errors which are at minimum 10 fold while we are aware of studies relating to certain types of exposure that suggest that the error is even greater,

3. assert that the yield of non-cancer illnesses from radiation exposure, in particular damage to the cardio-vascular, immune, central nervous and reproductive systems, is significant but as yet unquantified,

4. urge the responsible authorities, as well as all of those responsible for causing radiation exposures, to rely no longer upon the existing ICRP model in determining radiation protection standards and managing risks,

5. urge the responsible authorities and all those responsible for causing exposures, to adopt a generally precautionary approach, and in the absence of another workable and sufficiently precautionary risk model, to apply without undue delay the provisional ECRR 2003 risk model, which more accurately bounds the risks reflected by current observations,

6. demand immediate research into the health effects of incorporated radionuclides, particularly by revisiting the many historical epidemiological studies of exposed populations, including re-examination of the data from Japanese A-bomb survivors, Chernobyl and other affected territories and independent monitoring of incorporated radioactive substances in exposed populations,

7. consider it to be a human right for individuals to know the level of radiation to which they are exposed, and also to be correctly informed as to the potential consequences of that exposure,

8. are concerned by the escalating use of radiation for medical investigation and other general applications,

9. urge significant publicly funded research into medical techniques which do not involve radiation exposures to patients.

Statements contained herein reflect the opinions of the undersigned and are not meant to reflect the positions of any institution to which we are affiliated.

 

Prof Yuri Bandazhevski (Belarus) Prof Carmel Mothershill (Canada) Dr Christos Matsoukas (Greece) Prof Chris Busby (UK) Prof Rosa Goncharova (Belarus) Prof Alexey Yablokov (Russia)

Prof Mikhail Malko (Belarus) Prof Shoji Sawada (Japan) Prof Daniil Gluzman (Ukraine) Prof Angelina Nyagu (Ukraine) Dr Hagen Scherb (Germany) Prof Alexy Nesterenko (Belarus)

Prof Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake (Germany) Dr Sebastian Pflugbeil (Germany) Prof Michel Fernex (France) Dr Alfred Koerblein (Germany) Dr Marvin Resnikoff (United States)

In closing Part 2 'Uranium Weapons - Does anyone care about our planet?', I would like to make the following statement:

Millions of military personnel and innocent civilians in all the theatres of war have been affected by the use of weapons containing uranium. Many of them have been deceived, intimidated and neglected with no recourse and that is a grave injustice. I hope and pray that you will all have your day in court and receive your respective compensations that you so respectfully deserve.

Bless you all.



 

Part 3
09 August 2009

London, August 9, 2009, (Pal Telegraph)

In previous reports I have explained the dangers associated with weapons containing uranium. This can be used in many ways, as a penetrator rod, a Shaped Charged Liner or as a counterweight etc. Whatever the application we know that DU will ignite at 170°C.

On behalf of the U.S. Army, Major Doug Rokke led a 434 man depleted uranium clean up team in the first Gulf War. In 1994, he was appointed as depleted uranium project director for the U.S. Army. Despite his warnings of the dangers of DU exposure, both the U.S. army and coalition forces continue to use DU munitions with catastrophic effects on their own troops.

Before going into how the DU contamination spreads around the globe lets again look at what exactly happens when a DU weapon makes contact with its target.

Doug Rokke explains:

"Uranium munitions are probably the most effective weapon you're 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."

When that 10 pound uranium dart strikes wood, metal, steel, iron, or anything - this thing is already on fire in flight.

The uranium is pyrophoric and very soft. Uranium is not hard. It's soft. But the density is unbelievable. Extremely heavy per unit volume. So, you got this uranium dart, that basically three-quarters of an inch in diameter, 18 inches long, moving at better than 3000 feet per second. And when strikes, you have what we call, spalling is formed.

About 40 to 50 percent of the dart breaks off and forms spalling [a shotgun effect]. The spalling is uranium fragments. Some of the stuff catches fire. And some of the stuff is just solid uranium. And what you see inside is if I took a handful of BB's and through it across this room, extremely high velocity, everything is on fire and fragments. You have secondary detonations due to concussion and ignition beyond comprehension.

And the whole thing is a catastrophic explosion (approximately 50 to 70% of the penetrator is burned and forms particles 0.1 micron or smaller).

Leuren Moret is a geoscientist who worked almost around the clock educating citizens, the media, members of parliaments and Congress and other officials on radiation issues. She became a whistleblower in 1991 at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab after witnessing fraud on the Yucca Mountain Project.

Leuren explained how these minute particles (nano-particles) form and disperse into the world's atmosphere.

Leuren explains that uranium is a pyroforic metal, which means it burns and ignites at around 170°C. When a uranium based weapon strikes its target it ignites into to fireball of around 5,000°C.

"The bullets and big calibre shells are actually on fire when they come out of the gun barrel because they are ignited by the friction in the gun barrel.

 

Seventy percent of the DU metal becomes a metal vapor. It's actually a radioactive gas weapon and a terrain contaminant".

During this process large volumes of DU dust aerosols are formed.

Leuren went on to say,

"After forming microscopic and sub microscopic insoluble Uranium oxide particles on the battlefield, they remain suspended in air and travel around the earth as a radioactive component of atmospheric dust, contaminating the environment, indiscriminately killing, maiming and causing disease in all living things where rain, snow and moisture remove it from the atmosphere.

 

Global radioactive contamination from atmospheric testing was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs, and still contaminates the atmosphere and lower orbital space today. The amount of low level radioactive pollution from depleted uranium released since 1991, is many times more (deposited internally in the body), than was released from atmospheric testing fallout."

In her summary she stated:

"The fact is that the United States and its military partners have staged four nuclear wars, 'slipping nukes under the wire' by using dirty bombs and dirty weapons in countries the US needs to control. Depleted uranium aerosols will permanently contaminate vast regions and slowly destroy the genetic future of populations living in those regions, where there are resources which the US must control, in order to establish and maintain American primacy".

Her conclusion was as follows:

"Described as the Trojan Horse of nuclear war, depleted uranium is the weapon that keeps killing. The half-life of Uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, the age of the earth. And, as Uranium-238 decays into daughter radioactive products, in four steps before turning into lead, it continues to release more radiation at each step. There is no way to turn it off, and there is no way to clean it up. It meets the US Government's own definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction."

Before we go into the consequences of uranium based weapons (as used by US, NATO and IDF forces) lets look at the total disregard that Israel shows towards regional health and the environment of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Their tunnel vision does not take into account "what goes around comes around" and the pollution it creates comes back to haunt them including DU contamination, oil and sewerage pollution...

This oil spill occurred in July 2006 as a result of an IAF (Israel Air Forces) missile attacks on fuel tanks at the Jiyeh power station 30 kilometers South of Beirut, causing the leakage of 12,000 to 15,000 tons of fuel oil into the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel must understand that they are also part of this same eco-system and such toxins enter the food chain of the entire Eastern Mediterranean. This thoughtless act hit populations of dolphins and turtles etc.

It is also interesting to note that as a direct result of the continued occupation and blockade of Gaza the city can no longer treat its own sewerage. We now have a similar environmental disaster looming whereby raw thick sewerage is now entering the sea adjacent to Gaza.

If one can imagine the outflow from 1.5 million people we can better understand that this is an extremely serious situation.

Seawater samples collected were polluted with fecal bacteria, specifically coli forms and streptococcus causing intestinal & infectious diseases, severe and potentially life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis, meningitis & a risk of cholera. The other issue that Israel would not wish to talk about is the fact that some uranium is passed in urine and further adds to the problem.

Again we see an identical situation developing where this outflow will make its way up the beaches of Israel and extend over its entire coastline. The Southern extremity of Israel will receive the highest concentrations especially the popular surfing beach at Ashkelon and Ashdod. The contamination will also extend up to Tel Aviv and Haifa in a more diluted form.

In the remainder of this article we will look at the fallout that occurred as a direct result of the attack on Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008/9 and how quickly these very fine particles spread in the immediate vicinity, cross border and beyond.

We must also keep in mind that a significant amount of an aerosol ascends to many thousands of feet, after the initial explosion, riding on extremely hot convection current from the intense inferno at the target area.

Before


After

On the anniversary of the IDF bombing of the UN observation post at Khiam, Southern Lebanon I decided to map out a typical airflow pattern covering the Middle East and Europe.

Using Lebanon and Gaza as the target area I mapped out the main airflow tracks at three levels (low, mid and high levels winds). This information was obtained from standard sources as one would normally use when a pilot works out his flight plan.

The wind directions shown are only the main flow but obviously at all levels the particles will divert in all directions as they meet local vortices and pressure systems.

It must also be noted that the wind speed changes significantly at different levels with sometime strong winds at low level caused through coastal effects and convection currents and extremely strong upper level winds such as jet streams etc.

Basically the nano-particles divert almost everywhere and at all speeds around the globe.

Extent of local initial fallout area

This map shows a typical flow that I made up on the 25th of July 2009

on the anniversary of Khiam which was on the 25th of July 2006 (exactly three years)
 

We hear time and time again both during and after conflicts that the military forces concerned deny any usage of depleted or enriched uranium components in their weaponry.

We find each and every time proof that their spin was incorrect when slowly but surely the evidence is found and the medical effects of these weapons starts to show up in the armed forces (Gulf War Syndrome) and in the innocent civilian populations.

Some so called expert or scientific correspondent will come out of their murky corner to denounce that weapons used in a particular conflict did not contain uranium components! Doesn't it always appear so strange that weapons manufacturers or component manufacturers sometime shoot themselves in the foot by printing the fact that a particular shell contains DU or a missile?

Let's look at two examples that I discover. I can assure you there are many more:

MSC quote the following on their web "This now brings us to the use of Shape Charge Liners that are made from DU".

Shaped charges increase the power by focusing explosives in one direction e.g. by containing them with a conical liner.

A wide variety of guided weapons use "shaped charge" technology. These range from Maverick and Hellfire missiles to torpedoes, sub-munitions in cluster bombs and the first stage of BROACH MWS.

The list of suspect US weapons is huge and given the fact that Israel has its own nuclear facilities one can only imagine what is going on behind closed doors!!

ATK boldly show the following on their web:

120mm M829A1 APFSDS-T

The same applies to the 120mm M829A3 APFSDS-T

Before I close Part 3 of this story I decided to speak with Leuren Moret and ask her a few questions on this very important issue to try and put everything into perspective in preparation for Part 4 which will cover all the many medical issues related to Depleted and Enriched Uranium.

Whatever the spin we get from governments and the military we must all fully understand that the use of Dirty Missiles, Dirty Bombs, Dirty Shells and Dirty Bullets is high on the agenda and continue to be used as we speak. What is happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan right now is a re run of the Balkans and Iraq Wars....God knows how many will suffer under this terrible act against humankind.

I again repeat that Israel must never be allowed to attack Iran. This is what the US wants and in doing so Israel will become the pawn for America with such catastrophic results.

If one can imagine the radioactive fallout alone is beyond comprehension. Let's now finish with Leurens response to some questions.

I asked Leuren the following questions and her replies are shown as per below:

PE - As these nano-particles move around the globe can you explain how they return to earth and how a human can become a victim and by what means?

LM - Once Uranium burns, it is a poison gas. Just like smoke rings that disappear in a room within minutes, these invisible dust particles of DU are bumped by air molecules which keep them suspended indefinitely and they begin dispersing locally in air. As the DU nano-particles, which are atmospheric dust size particles of DU, are mobilized from the point source or bomb impact sites etc., they become part of weather systems and air masses in the Troposphere, and move very quickly in all directions from the conflict zone as the maps show.

 

They quickly rise up to higher altitudes to become part of atmospheric dust clouds that travel long distances around the world and are completely mixed in the global atmosphere within one year. When moisture is present in the air masses, the DU particles become nucleating agents for water, and when they are heavy enough they drop from the sky as raindrops or fog or even attached to snowflakes - this is known as "rainout".

Because the DU is mostly confined to the Troposphere, the most dynamic part of the atmosphere, nearly all the DU particles are rained out in 2 months - causing a horrific global nuclear war in fact.

 

As the rainout of these particles contaminates our biosphere, all living things are affected - the oceans, plants, animals, and especially humans who are more sensitive to radiation exposure than many animals. As the particles fall to the ground in rain, or are remobilized in dust storms in arid regions, they contaminate the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.

 

There is no longer anywhere on this planet where we can hide from the global nuclear genocide.


PE - When the particles enter the lower levels and enter our entire eco-system what happens to that contamination?

LM - The particles have surfaces that are wet and they stick to whatever they land on - rocks, sand, dirt, buildings, bodies of water, plants and leaves, skin - and they are nearly impossible to remove even with heavy scrubbing.

 

As we breathe them, which is the most dangerous pathway into our bodies, they go directly into the blood from the lungs. The good thing about rainout is that they are removed from the atmosphere so they are no longer being inhaled. However they get into the groundwater and drinking water, and even at extremely low doses, environmental uranium causes infertility and reproductive cancers.

 

As the environmental uranium moves through the biosphere, it degrades all living things, and the damage is cumulative and permanent.
 

PE - I have heard some terrible consequences in the animal kingdom can you explain?

LM - We know from studies in the coastal waters of the UK, Ireland, and Southern California offshore from two nuclear power plants, that fish populations exposed to Uranium and other radionuclide's have an expanding population of females and shrinking male populations.

 

This is because the Uranium is an estrogen and hormone disruptor, and fish born as males soon turn into females. Scientists around the world are extremely concerned and are saying "It's all bad for the sperm".

 

Male sperm in humans around the world has been reported to have 85% with damaged DNA, and only 15% with normal DNA. Sperm DNA damage and increasing infertility has been reported in Denmark in studies on young Danish males since 1991, before they enter the military. Female polar bears in the Arctic are now reported to have both male and female sexual organs, a result of the hormone and estrogen disruption.

 

Of course this is all happening to humans as well since we share similar estrogen and the same hormones. That's why animal studies are so important; they tell us what we can expect as well from exposure to toxic substances. Otters in the Columbia River, downstream from the nuclear facility at Hanford, Washington, no longer know how to mate from the hormone disruption. Increasingly, people around the world now have to go to hospitals in order to have babies.

 

"Wild reproduction" in humans is on the decline due to rapidly increasing global infertility - one of the so called "miracles" of the Nuclear Age. Now I understand why the two nuclear weapons labs where I worked in the US had huge posters on the walls with images of thousands of damaged and malformed sperm.

 

It's a depopulation agenda through nuclear pollution.

Leuren will conclude Part 3 after I have given you some news I picked up:

Israeli sperm bank posts diminishing returns

(AFP) - May 11, 2009

JERUSALEM (AFP)

Wall Street giants are not the only banks hit by diminishing assets. New research for an Israeli sperm bank shows that depositors are 40 per cent less fertile than a decade ago, the Haaretz daily reported. Scientists at Hadassa hospital compared sperm taken from Israeli men between 2004 and 2008 with samples taken in the late 1990s, and were alarmed by their findings.

 

The more recent samples contained 40 per cent fewer sperm cells than those taken 10 years before.

"It seems that the cause of the change is an increased concentration of estrogen in the water supply," said Ronit Haimov-Kochman, who led the research.

 

"The soil is saturated with estrogen and fruit or vegetables grown in it are also contaminated," Haaretz quoted her as saying.

Biologists found two years ago that male fish in an Israeli stream developed female characteristics after being exposed to estrogen, but so far there is no sign of Israeli men suffering the same fate.

 

What goes around comes around. When will the Israelis understand that when you use depleted or enriched uranium (dirty weapons) you must fully understand that they are totally indiscriminate and therefore the aerosols drift back over the border to the place they call home!! (There's no place like home).

Leuren closes off this article with her view on the bigger picture:

"The big picture is that as the Weapons of Mass Destruction, developed for the international financiers and bankers, become more globally destructive, we are destroying the web of life that supports all living things.

 

As the web of life is destroyed, a future for humanity disappears. The destruction of global DNA, the product of 4.5 billion years of earth history, has been carried out in the past 55 plus years - since Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

 

"A Geology Professor told me when I expressed my concern years ago as a student,

'Well, don't worry, after humans exterminate themselves, Mother Earth will heal itself'."

Part 4
14 August 2009
 

USA, August 14, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)

We have seen governments and military refuse to accept that uranium based weapons have been used in all the theatres of war. Only when independent tests and conclusive evidence is provided do these authorities back down.

We have seen this in the Balkans, Kuwait, and Iraq. We now have good evidence from Afghanistan, with further news of a leaked German document. Now we only have three more to go, Lebanon, Gaza and Pakistan. We already know what the final outcome will be but it takes time for such authorities to admit to their cover-ups and lies.

Once the cat is out of the bag we see a rush of activity by those governments to apply pressure to the UNEP and WHO to go out into the field to check the levels of contamination (as if they don't know already). The respective teams return to their headquarter and in conjunction with the governments, ICRP and IAEA prepare a well worded document declaring that there were no significant findings and that the levels found met with normal background radiation.

They then repeat that the traces of depleted uranium or enriched uranium found were insignificant and all fall within permitted levels and do not pose any risk to troops or the civilian population. What they don't tell you is that the figures are all unrealistic and that their methodology of using the ICRP model is totally flawed and outdated when dealing with DU or Low Level Radiation (LLR), especially when it has been inhaled.

Leuren Moret raised awareness in one of her reports regarding the ICRP Model.

Based on 550 epidemiological studies of exposed populations, an independent low-level ionizing radiation report for the European Parliament, the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) report has stated that chronic exposure to low-level ionizing radiation is:

"...up to 1000 times more biologically damaging than the International Committee on Radiation Protection (ICRP) standards and risk model predict".

The ICRP standards and risk model are based on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb studies, which were deceptively conducted by the U.S. Government, in order to protect the future development of a nuclear weapons program.

Since the commencement of the current series, I have copied all these press release to the following:

Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations Dr Riyad Mansour

Ambassador and Permanent Observer Dr Hussein Abdel-Razzak Al Gezairy

WHO Regional Director East Med and Respective Country Representatives.

It was my intention to communicate only with those directly responsible for the Middle East region.

I had hoped in doing so that this would generate some form of response, as they work and live in the areas where Depleted and Enriched weapons have been used. One would also assume that they would pass these reports up to their higher authority in the UN and WHO headquarters.

All of my emails have also been copied to the respective country representatives for The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Red Crescent, Norwegian Refugee Council and the Middle East Media.

I have since emailed the Islamic Human Rights Commission with copies of the series, as it is the Islamic Nations that have taken the full brunt of this onslaught.

To date I have not heard from any of those who control the region or the media despite the fact that each and every day weapons with uranium components are being used.

Each and every day people are dying from their usage and the medical statistics in each of their respective regions are showing sharp rises in many forms of cancers, diabetes, infertility and genetic mutations resulting in gross birth defects.

I concluded my email to the above as follows:

"All my emails to you will be kept on record as evidence that you all have been notified along with your respective lack of responses... maybe one day you will be called to give evidence in an International Court... then what will you say?"

I believe the use of depleted and enriched uranium must now be labeled as the greatest genocide ever to exist and will be ongoing. With a half life of 4.5 billion years the future is rather bleak to say the least.

There is a direct link between the inhalation, ingestion and absorption of depleted and enriched uranium contamination in the entire Middle Eastern region and the corresponding medical statistics that are showing up since these weapons were used. The contamination as we have learnt does not respect international borders and therefore the problem has now become a global issue.

I spoke with Leuren Moret about these frightening statistics and her response gave me a full account of the medical implications.

She gave particular reference to the inhalation of Low Level Radiation Nano-particles:

"Uranium and phosphate structures have a strong chemical affinity for each other. The DNA and the mitochondria are phosphate rich and therefore there is a strong attraction between uranium, the DNA and the mitochondria. Once the uranium has attached to the DNA and or the mitochondria it does damage from the chemical heavy metal effect, the radioactivity released and the particulate effect."

But the greatest damage to the DNA and mitochondria by uranium is the photo-electron effect.

Uranium not only releases its own energy in the form of alpha particles and gamma rays, but it absorbs other energy released in the cell and releases that absorbed energy as a shower of photo-electrons that annihilate whatever the uranium is attached to.

This was first described by Dr Chris Busby, a Low Level Radiation (LLR) expert for the British Government and the European Parliament.

US Army scanning electron microscope image of tiny DU particles produced from firing DU munitions. 35% of those produced by firing artillery are in the nano-particle range.

 

The Army classified this report 20 years after it was out in the public sector, after they found out I had copies of it and was spreading it all over the world.

As a result the very dangerous health effects of uranium exposure it has been reported that large increases in diabetes since 1945 is linked to radiation and specifically uranium exposure.

 

Pregnant women with diabetes, that is untreated, produce very weak babies that develop cancer, heart defects and other birth defects and illnesses. Uranium exposure causes a web of diseases such as neuro-muscular disease, diseases of the brain, gastro intestinal illnesses, heavy metal poisoning, skin rashes and dermal contact with the skin causes high increases in melanoma and other skin cancers.

The greatest damage from radiation exposure is to the unborn fetus and this genetic damage to the fetus is passed on to all future generations. Basically uranium exposure is a slow painful death from long lingering illnesses.

 

Surprisingly with depleted uranium (DU) exposure cancers and diabetes have been reported to develop as early as two months after exposure. That is a new feature associated with depleted uranium (DU) as well as multiple cancers in patients that are genetically unrelated. In other words individual cancers form from the effects of individual particles in the victims tissues. This is due to the particulate effect from the very tiny nano-particles of depleted uranium.

Burning uranium from dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets produce a radioactive gas composed of very tiny particles of uranium oxide that are produced when the shells leave the gun barrel and throughout its trajectory to the impact sites. From this impact site large volumes of radioactive gas are produced that escape into the atmosphere where they are carried locally, across border, and around the world in a few weeks.

 

They remain suspended in the atmosphere until they are rained out into the earth's environment, usually within two months. The depleted uranium (DU) particle contaminates the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.

The tissues in our bodies filter out the depleted uranium particles from the blood and cause a web of diseases called "Gulf War Syndrome". Radiation is different. It respects no borders, no socio economic class, and no religion. There is no way to turn it off and no way to clean it up. It's the weapon that keeps giving and keeps killing. The half life of depleted uranium is 4.5 billion years.

 

It is the "Trojan Horse" of nuclear war.

All of the above information has been provided by Leuren Moret and Dr Chris Busby for whom I have great respect.

Breast cancer mortality: 2/3 of all breast cancer deaths in the US

occurred in the areas shown on the black & white map showing counties effected 1985-89

(Source: Center for Disease Control).

Colour Map shows of US nuclear power plants. Leuren Moret

Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, a scientist at the Ryukyus University, Okinawa, Japan.

In his article - Depleted Uranium Shells - The Radioactive Weapons - Perpetuation of War Damage by Radiation - wrote:

Internal Exposure

When uranium burns into particles, it will enter human bodies ingested with drinking water and food, or inhaled with air. In this case, the whole radiation and chemical toxicity will be released in the body. Effects of chemical toxicity differ according to the state of uranium, whether it is water-soluble or not, but there is no difference in its harmfulness as radiation.

 

A depleted uranium particle of ten micrometers in diameter would release one alpha particle in every 2 hours, totaling more than 4,000 in a year. Alpha rays continue to injure human cells, giving no time for the injured cells to heal.

 

Further, Uranium-238 decays into a daughter nucleus thorium-234, whose half-life is 24.1 day, and Th-234 decays into a granddaughter nucleus protactinium-234, whose half-life is 1.17 days. Pa-234 then becomes another element (U-234; 0.24 million years of half-life), forming a radioactive chain. Th and Pa release electrons to decay (beta decay).

 

Six months later, Th and Pa will have reached "radioactive equilibrium," having the same radiation dose as U-238. At this stage, the penetrated DU particles now emit alpha particles, beta particles twice as much as alpha, and gamma rays accompanied with each decay.

As alpha particles do not travel farther than 40 micrometers, the whole damage will be given to the flesh 40 micrometers in radius. The annual radiation dose received by the exposed area of the flesh 40 micrometers in radius would amount to 10 sievert (as described later) only by alpha ray emitted from a depleted uranium particle of ten micrometers in diameter, ten thousand times higher than the dose limit.

One alpha particle passes hundred thousand atoms before it stops, blowing out hundred thousand electrons constituting a molecule. The destruction (ionization) of molecules will damage DNA, or will induce mutation in the cellular structure itself. There will be a great possibility of only one depleted uranium particle causing cancers and organ disorder.

 

With the half-life of DU being 4.5 billion years, there will be almost no change in the rate of alpha emission 10,000 or 100,000 years later. This means once DU is inside the body, one will remain exposed to radiation as long as he/she lives unless it is discharged, while the
environment continues to be polluted forever.

 

Regrettably, investigations carried out by the World Health Organization and other institutions do not go deep into the realities of internal exposure.

 

For example, the U.S. Department of Defense states that it does not find relationship between DU and the cancer incidence in Iraq (from a scientific report made by the Research and Development Corporation on cancers and DU on the Pentagon budget).

The investigations conducted by the WHO and European Community made the same conclusion. These researches determine that the radiation level found in Balkan and Iraq is not harmful to health. Yet in reality in both places there are many cases of babies born with birth defects and the high incidence of cancers.

 

What is the purpose of those researches?

 

It is fair to say that their role is to cover up the facts about the damage caused by DU and the responsibility for the use of atrocious weapons. Meanwhile, a non-governmental organization called Uranium Medical Research Center conducted a urine test instead of the environmental research, and found the presence of high levels of uranium in Afghan citizens.

Looking into DU munitions in terms of radiation they produce, they have two characteristics.

1. First, the used amount of radioactive atoms of DU weapons dispersed into environment in the real wars was far beyond that of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is estimated that in the First Gulf War, 320 to 800 tons of DU were used, scattering indeed 14,000 to 36,000 times more radiation than in Hiroshima. In the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, at least 500 tons of DU shells were said to be dropped.
    

2. Second, while most of the radiation released by the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had very short half-life periods, DU has an extremely long half-life of 4.5 billion years. Dose amount of DU will last in the same level of as ever even after tens of thousands years. Residents in the DU-affected area will have to live forever, for generations to generations, under threat of radiation. Humankind has never experienced such horrible damage of war. Any radioactive weapons, as well as nuclear weapons, must never be allowed to use.

I would like to thank Prof Katsuma Yagasaki for his help and dedication in trying to prohibit uranium based weapons, especially DU.

Professor Malcolm Hooper, advisor to British Gulf war vets and Emeritus Professor of Medical Chemistry provided an overview of possible paths of toxic DU exposure to veterans. Most of these paths have been poorly studied if at all.

Hooper noted the significance of recent research demonstrating that alpha-radiation induced cell damage can be passed on by biological action to adjacent cells, multiplying the damage. He underlined the "don't look, don't find" problem with current medical research and the reality experienced by veterans.

Baghdad University Professor of Molecular Biology Huda Ammash reviewed studies undertaken since 1996 by Iraq to inventory soil, water, air, plant, and wild animal samples from 200+ sites for evaluation for DU. She showed tables describing increased cancer incidence statistics, and informed us that Basra province, where most DU munitions were fired, accounts for 2/3 of the recorded increases in Iraq's post-war cancer mortality.

UK Ministry of Defense quote on their webpage:

"Inhalation of insoluble material presents a third and predominantly radiological risk from material lodging in the lung and increasing the lifetime risk of cancer. There may also be cause for concern arising from the transport of DU from the lung to the lymph nodes".

 

"Inhaled DU particles, dependent on their size, may not rapidly disperse by natural processes and may remain lodged in the lungs. The consequences of this in humans are uncertain.

 

Animal studies have shown some evidence of radiation induced fibrosis of tracheo-bronchial lymph nodes after inhalation exposures to U. McDiarmid suggests that further studies of the potential neurocognitive effects of DU are warranted in the light of evidence that DU crosses the blood-brain barrier in rats",
Tedd Weyman, BSW, MEd (HROD), Deputy Director and Field Investigations

Team Lead - The Uranium Medical Research Centre - Toronto, Canada with field studies in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.

Tedd during his investigation in Afghanistan collected post-ballistic debris samples at a Taliban army depot bombed by Operation Enduring Freedom on the outskirts of Jalalabad.

The bombsite was confirmed by laboratory analysis to contain non depleted uranium at levels elevated 57 times normal.

Again we see evidence emerge that follows the same pattern time and time again. Tedd's samples revealed Non DU which corresponds with Dr Chris Busby's findings in both Lebanon and Gaza. It is remarkable that the governments responsible for these respective attacks still deny the use of uranium based weapons.

The victims in these areas of conflict are not only the innocent civilians but also the military forces taking part. Basically the military is killing its own men by contamination. It was interesting when Doug Rokke once made a statement regarding the troops, "If you go to war you will die".

When I spoke with Doug recently he told me that we are looking at a potential figure of around one million military men being disabled. Many of them will fall victim to the consequences of uranium based weapons. These men that risked their lives have been totally abandoned on the issue of Low Level Radiation inhalation.

Why would anyone want to join the armed forces under the current US weapons program? When will the respective governments accept their liability?

Tedd Weyman in his "Twelve Year Too Late " article pointed out that two governments reports from the US and Canada are an acknowledgement how these two governments failure to conduct reliable DU studies is a calamity for veterans. Both Defense Departments admit significant limitations in their laboratories' abilities to carryout radiological and bio-assay screening programs and glaring weaknesses in clinical, DU follow-up programs.

These papers and the U.S. DOD's Environmental Exposure Reports on DU in the Gulf and the Balkans reveal, by their own admissions, the use of inadequate testing equipment, a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of metabolized uranium and radiation dose effects, and sub-standard scientific procedures.

Later in his article he draws reference to NATO, CDC, NRC, IOM the UN's subsidiary agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA), and the U.S. Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments. He points out that veterans have to face a myriad of biased opinions and carefully constructed "facts". The supposed, responsible objectivity of these organizations is belied over and over again by their incessant efforts to write reports to substantiate pre-determined conclusions.

Chris Busby gave more convincing evidence when he reported new findings of Uranium in the air filter from the engine of an ambulance which was driven in the Lebanon in 2006 until it was shot up on day 16 of the conflict between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Force.

The report also contains further analysis of soil samples which confirm the presence of enriched uranium. Analysis of the filter contents by Harwell Scientifics unequivocally reveals the presence of enriched Uranium (EU), confirming findings of the same material in two bomb craters in the Lebanon.

As previously reported on his web site, the crater samples have been analyzed by two laboratories in England and Wales with very similar results.

The filter analyses suggest strongly that weapons deployed in the Lebanon

contained EU and that contamination of the country has been widespread and significant.
 

Chris Busby's report is impressive to say the least.

It clearly shows factual evidence as follows:

The image below reveals the presence of a hot particle, probably about 80 microns in diameter. Two such particles were found by exposing half of a single piece of CR39 plastic the size of a microscope slide to part of the air filter for 15 hours. (The other half of the CR39 was used as a control and was not in contact with the filter.)

 

In other words, two particles were found in about one square inch of the filter medium.

Most of the Uranium particles created by the impact of Uranium weapons are far smaller than 80 microns. Smaller particles will have passed through the filter fabric, especially those around 1 micron in diameter which are the greatest part of the particles arising from Uranium weapons.

 

We are therefore seeing only the merest indication of the material that is available for people and animals to inhale. In the interests of public health it is vital that methods of monitoring the entire region are deployed with urgency.

The cluster of impressions (upper right) is an alpha star etched in CR39 plastic by a hot particle of enriched Uranium.

Because of the complexity of the evidence and the broad area that it covers I will issue another article on the medical/health aspect of both DU and EU weapons (Part 5 below).

Afterward, I will dedicate one whole section to the very large group of War Vets from the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and of course we can now expect War Vets from Israel who will be adding their problems to the long list of other international military personnel. I also know that as a result of uranium based weapons being used more recently in Pakistan their members will soon be added to the list. It is also essential that we cover the huge civilian populations around the many areas of conflict which amount to millions.

To conclude: This war against government neglect and lack of credibility will only be won by the combined effort of the independent experts and those that bring such horrific stories into the open. People power can also play a significant role by lobbying your own governments and members of Congress/Parliament.

It is your duty of care as a global citizen to protect our planet and all those that live in its environs.






Part 5

20 August 2009

August 20, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)

We all fully understand how Low Level Radiation (LLR) Particles are formed and how they drift around the world. We also know that such particles can be rained out of the atmosphere and fall to earth to contaminate the land, crops and water.

So let's now look in more detail at the health implications associated with the inhalation of these aerosols (nano-particles). The many authorities will tell you that Depleted Uranium (DU) is harmless and is similar to normal natural background radiation.

However DU is not natural; it is the waste product of the nuclear industry and frequently contains traces of plutonium, other transuranics or trace amounts of various isotopes. As one can clearly see, DU cannot be compared to normal background radiation!
 

How can Low Level Radiation (LLR) enter your body and what are the implications?

As you can see from the diagram there are different ways DU/LLR can enter the body. On this diagram, you can see a DU fragment such as shrapnel wound (right shoulder). DU dust can also enter this wound, which add to the problem. The most complicated of all is the inhalation of nano-particle aerosols of DU/LLR.

Insoluble DU particles deposited in the respiratory bronchioles and alveoli will be cleared much more slowly, and, therefore, would be expected to deliver a higher radiation dose to the lung from alpha radiation. Once DU/LLR has entered the blood and irreversible cycle commences. The tissues in our bodies filter out the depleted uranium particles from the blood and cause a web of diseases called "Gulf War Syndrome". I will return to this syndrome in Part 6.

Unfortunately the UNEP, WHO, ICRP, IAEA, Governments, DOD's and many other authorities (not forgetting the pharmaceutical industry) have failed to understand the health implications when DU/LLR is inhaled into the body. They have together concocted a trail of deceit and failed in their duty of care to protect the world's populations.

We are looking at dramatic increases in many forms of cancer, diabetes, and infertility. Because DU/LLR directly attacks the genetics of our body via our DNA, we are now witnessing terrible birth defects in babies.

Leuren Moret covered this aspect in my previous article when she said:

"Uranium and phosphate structures have a strong chemical affinity for each other. The DNA and the mitochondria are phosphate rich and, therefore, there is a strong attraction between uranium, the DNA and the mitochondria. Once the uranium has attached to the DNA and or the mitochondria, it does damage from the chemical heavy metal effect, the radioactivity released and the particulate effect.

 

The greatest damage from radiation exposure is to the unborn fetus and this genetic damage is passed on to all future generations. Basically, uranium exposure is a slow painful death from long lingering illnesses".

Let's look at diabetes as an example.

The IMVA article, "DNA and Mitochondrial Time Bomb," covered this aspect extremely well.

The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta declares that,
33% of the babies born this year will be diabetic by the year 2050
Dr. Alan Cantwell

Diabetes, which is expanding almost exponentially in the world today, can in part be traced to the increasing radiation to which we are all being exposed. Every physician knows that radiation can lead to cancer, but making a connection between depleted uranium (DU) and diabetes seems ludicrous at first glance, but it is not.

 

Most medical doctors have never heard of this, but neither have they paid attention.

Unfortunately, exposure levels are increasing dramatically with each ton of vaporized depleted uranium. This, however, is not stopping the American and British governments from manufacturing, selling and using depleted uranium weaponry.

"Depleted (DU) uranium is highly toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and radiological as an alpha particle emitter, is very dangerous when taken internally," writes Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Canadian Epidemiologist.

A new study, conducted by biochemist Dr. Diane Stearns at Northern Arizona University confirms that, separate from any radiation risks, cells exposed to uranium will bond with the metal chemically.

 

Uranium and phosphate have a strong chemical affinity for each other and the DNA and Mitochondria are loaded with phosphate, so uranium is a DNA and Mitochondria deep penetration bomb.

In this same report, a very stern message was given to governments and authorities:

"As it is with the autism epidemic, the medical establishment and the government are stonewalling investigations and understanding of the runaway train that diabetes is fast becoming. We are officially recognizing the tragedy of skyrocketing diabetes rates in adults and children but the multiple causes are being ignored and so treatments are not appropriate and prevention efforts a joke.

 

What we have to see clearly is that diabetes is actually an extremely serious warning to civilization, it is an announcement that the rising tide of radiation, mercury, other deadly chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs are poisoning humanity".

As we have seen more recently (Lebanon 2006 and Gaza 2007/8), the US is still providing Israel with weapons containing uranium components that hide under their new title "Conventional Weapons."

I can assure you that these weapons are certainly not conventional and really fit into the category of "Dirty Weapons." Dr Chris Busby has received samples from both of above locations confirming the use of both depleted and enriched weapons by the IDF.

We now see a rise in diabetes and cancers, etc., in Northern Israel and soon that same story will be repeated in Central and Southern Israel. This basically means that "Israelis are killing Israelis," as well as the populations in adjacent countries and the world.

If one reads some of the work carried out by Dr Chris Busby you will see that he was the first person in the UK to spill the beans on the increased levels of radiation that had gathered over England as a direct result of the "Shock and Haw" attack on Baghdad. He has connected the everyday radiation exposure to modern ailments we see today.

He was quoted as saying:

"There have been tremendous increases in diseases resulting from the breakdown of the immune system in the last 20 years: diabetes, asthma, AIDS and others which may have an immune-system link, such as MS and ME. A whole spectrum of neurological conditions of unknown origin has developed."

Leuren Moret has been very critical of the ICRP Model, which in her opinion (and I might add many other experts) has grossly underestimated the effects of DU/LLR on the body by anything between 100 - 1000 times.

The following is an extract from a specialists report which included Keith Baverstock World Health Organization European Centre for Environment and Health.

"The risk to the lung of exposure to DU dusts cannot be inferred from the experience gained from uranium miners, or from survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, upon which the current ICRP radiological protection standards are based."

The report went on to say that it has been convincingly demonstrated that changes, similar to those caused directly by irradiation, can be wrought in cells growing close to a cell that has been irradiated.

The implication of the combined chemical and radiological transforming capability of uranium and the bystander effect, means that, in estimating its significance in causing cancer, the simple assumptions, based on committed effective dose would be an inadequate basis for predicting risks. That is, committed absorbed dose to the lung, modified by a radiation weighting factor for the fact that the radiation arises from alpha particles.

This has been adopted in recent reports by the Royal Society (RS 2001), the WHO (WHO 2001) and UNEP (UNEP 2001). Baverstock was a very experienced expert who worked for the WHO. Because of the sensitivity of Baverstock's report, the article was suppressed and withheld from public viewing.

The UN, WHO, ICRP, IAEA, Governments, DOD's and NATO etc. still fail to accept that DU/LLR is extremely dangerous (especially when inhaled). Perhaps they should be referred to the people who carried out the US Army training programs.

People like Major Doug Rokke whose credits covered a broad range of expertise, namely:

• U.S. Army Medical Command's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) teaching, medical response, and special operations team

• U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Assessment team during Gulf War 1 (Operation Desert Storm)

• U.S. Army's Depleted Uranium Project director from 1994 - 1995.

He developed the congressionally mandated education and training materials and wrote U.S. Army Regulation 700-48, the U.S. Army PAM 700-48, and the U.S. Army's common task for DU incidents.

Doug knows intimately how dangerous DU is when he himself became a victim to this terrible illness.

Let's look at another expert in the training area who had direct links with the DOD and US Army. How can the respective DOD's and Senior Military Officers play down the risk from DU when they themselves send in experts to carry out the training of combatants? U.S. Army Reserve Col. J. Wakayama.

Col Wakayam (Office of the Secretary of Defense - Director of Training - Combat Support) gave an official slide presentation at Fort Belvoir, Va. on the 20th of August 2002, in which he read out the dangers of exposure to DU.

Here are some of those dangers that he highlighted:

DU causes: Lung cancer, cell damage, targets the kidneys and bone, the cultured human stem bone cell with DU also transformed the cells to become carcinogenic, urine samples containing uranium are mutagenic, DU can be deposited in the bone causing DNA damage, long term respiratory effects such as lung fibrosis, immune deficiency, extra risk of leukemia and other cancers.

 

He put a great emphasis on the risks to children playing in the rubble/dust and also talked about the damage to the environment i.e. soil, water etc. Tell that to the children playing in the rubble of the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and now Pakistan!

In addition to the evidence provided so far, lets finally pay a visit to the US Governments own website and this extremely interesting PubMed Journal.

I have no doubt that our so called science correspondent (agents) that attack such press releases will again repeat those eternally boring quotes:

• "Provide Scientific Evidence"

• "If you want the truth look to the scientific literature"

• "Check peer-reviewed abstracts"

• "ignore peer-reviewed science" etc.

I am sure that all readers will agree that the evidence provided so far is extremely accurate and convincing. Character Assassination by such people as Helbig and Lamb is like water of a ducks back, both of whom show no compassion towards the many thousands war vets or innocent civilians that have fallen victim to uranium based weapons.

These badly informed "Imbeciles" have no place in this world and have truly lost their direction in life.

The title of this document is, "Teratogenicity of depleted uranium aerosols - A review from an epidemiological perspective."

It was written by,

• Rita Hindinm, Biostatistics and Epidemiology Concentration, University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst, MA, USA 01003

• Doug Brugge, Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA, USA 02111

• Bindu Panikkar, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts School of Engineering, 200 College Avenue, Anderson Hall, Medford, MA, USA 02155

They first introduce DU as follows:

"It has pyrophoric properties and may spontaneously ignite at room temperature in air, oxygen and water. These unique properties make it appealing for use in many civilian and military applications".

As we have already discussed, its use covers almost every weapon in some form or another namely Bullets, Penetrators, Missile nose cones, Bomb and Shell shaped charged liners (SCL's) or to act as a counterbalance. It must also be noted that DU also contains traces of Plutonium and other Isotopes.

If one wishes to further extend the abuse of the nuclear waste industry, we can add to that list Enriched Uranium (EU). Basically we are looking at dirty missiles, dirty bombs, dirty shells and dirty bullets that contain such components.

The report goes on to say that the quantity of aerosol production is relative to the hardness of the target and generally is around 10-35% and up to 70% when the DU catches fire (which in normally does). It also states that the initial fallout area is around 26 miles and, as we have already discussed, the aerosol has the capacity to travel vast distances. Once deposited on the ground the aerosols settle as partially oxidized DU dust. Potential contamination of ground water is another possibility- weathering could mobilize the metal into additional media.

On the health/medical side of DU the report states,

"Alpha radiation is only hazardous when internalized in the body, but once deposited in living tissue it releases energy in a concentrated area causing greater damage than beta or gamma radiation. Large quantities of DU and/or radioactive decay products and other radioactive impurities can lead to substantial external exposure".

Their evidence became even more compelling when it revealed that a DU tank found by the U.S. Army radiological team emitted 260 - 270 milli-rads of radiation per hour compared to the safety limit of 100 milli-rads per year. A pile of jet-black dust registered a count of 9839 emissions in one minute, a level more than 300 times the average background level.

At this point we should also make it very clear that persons attending such contaminated locations are not protected by the conventional protective clothing, especially gasmasks as they only screen out larger particles. With DU aerosols we are talking about something the size of 0.1 microns.

I think it was ironic that in many of the military briefs it quoted that in the event you did not have a gasmask one could use a tissue or other items of clothing to screen your inhalation of DU Dust!

The article warns,

"Trends toward increased use of DU by industry and, more recently, in warfare suggest that there are large and growing numbers of exposed people worldwide, both at production sites and in areas where DU weapons are deployed.

 

While there is no clear basis for estimating the number of people who have been breathing and ingesting food and water in areas contaminated with aerosolized DU particles, the ever-expanding exposure of humans and the environment to DU particles, several micrometer and smaller, mobile and inhalable, necessitates a sense of urgency to better understand this hazard".

They further point out that,

"inhalation is the main route of human exposure both in combat and non-combat situations. Once inhaled, DU particles <5 µm can lodge deep in the lung in alveoli and can be transported by macrophages to the lymph tissues. Thereupon, live tissue immediately adjacent to (or exposed to these) imbedded particles experience infrequent but high LET alpha irradiation along with the potential for chemical toxicity.

 

Because the micro-particles of DU are much larger than individual solubilized molecules, they can create "hot spots" of localized alpha radiation, while insoluble forms generally takes months to years to be absorbed. DU is organotropic and has long-term retention in its target organs, to wit the kidney and the skeletal tissue.

 

The biological retention capability of DU in bones enhances the particulate radiation to the target organs."

This report draws attention to,

"biodistribution studies detail DU accumulation in the bone, kidney, reproductive system, brain and lung with verified nephrotoxic, genotoxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic properties, as well as reproductive and teratogenic alterations".

For my part, we can clearly see that evidence just keep stacking up against those authorities that continue to evade the issue of DU and continue to state it is safe!

The same document drew attention to research carried out. Most of the past 15 years of published research on the topic comes from two groups, Domingo, and others working at the University of Barcelona in Spain and McClain, Benson, Miller, Pellmar and others affiliated with the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) in the United States.

With at least 6 published studies on the topic, Domingo et al., they have demonstrated that both oral and subcutaneous administration of UO2++ to female mice engender decreased fertility, embryonic and fetal toxicity including reduced growth and malformations (cleft palate and skeletal defects) and developmental ossification variations.

A Chinese study of reproductive toxicity of enriched uranium noted damage to genetic material, dominant lethality and skeletal abnormalities in fetal rats. Chromosome aberrations in spermatogonia, DNA alterations in spermatocytes and strand breakage in sperm were specifically notified.

In vitro experiments documented extensive DNA damage when UO2++ was added to DNA in the presence of an electron donor. Since DNA is particularly dense in sperm-forming cells, such cells may be especially susceptible to UO2++ - derived damage.

In sum, aerosolized DU is a vehicle for internal delivery of a DNA-tropic substance that is both a heavy metal and an alpha particle emitter.

Made and Manufactured in the USA

This report fits into the category as an internationally recognized journal and is substantiated in the fact that it is published on the US Government Webpage.

The report puts a strong emphasis on the experience drawn up in Iraq with particular reference to Basra who bore the brunt of DU weaponry. That must also be said for Baghdad who suffered the deluge of "Shock and Haw".

The birth defects in Iraq is beyond imagination and given the half shelf life of DU (4.5 billion years) this problem will not go away....it will be passed down from generation to generation and that is why the authorities will not admit to this gross crime against humankind.

The genetics of the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and Pakistan is at risk and obviously because these aerosols do not respect international borders the problem is fast become a global issue, as statistics are now showing. In the case of Lebanon and Gaza the term what goes around comes around resulted in cross border contamination of Israel (Israelis killing Israelis).

Finally to bring us up to the current time, the reports bring even more damaging news regarding DU's capability.:

• "Uranium travels nerves from nose to brain," (Environmental Health News dated 31st July 2009) Tournier, BB, S Frelon, E Tourlonias, L Agez, O Delissen, I Dublineau, F Paquet, and F Petitot. 2009

• "Role of the olfactory receptor neurons in the direct transport of inhaled uranium to the rat brain," Toxicology Letters doi: 10.1016/j.toxlet 2009.05.022.

Synopsis by Paul Eubig, DVM:

The report states radioactive uranium that is inhaled by soldiers on the battlefield and by workers in factories may bypass the brain's protective barrier by following nerves from the nose directly to the brain. Nerves can act as a unique conduit, carrying inhaled uranium from the nose directly to the brain, finds a study with rats. Once in the brain, the uranium may affect task and decision-related types of thinking.

This study provides yet another example of how some substances can use the olfactory system - bypassing the brain's protective blood barrier - to go directly to the brain. Titanium nano-particles and the metals manganese, nickel, and thallium have been shown to reach the brain using the same route.

 

Military personnel and people who work in uranium processing plants are exposed to the weak radioactive element via wounds or by breathing. Exposure may affect brain function; cognitive skills are lowered in soldiers who carry uranium-laced shrapnel.

The researchers - taking advantage of the fact that uranium can exist in different forms, or isotopes - used rats to compare how the element travels through the body if it is inhaled or injected into the blood. The animals breathed in one isotope at levels similar to those encountered on a battlefield where depleted uranium weapons are used.

 

They were also injected with a different isotope. Researchers compared the levels of the two isotopes in different regions of the brain. The inhaled isotope accumulated at 2 to 3 times higher levels than the injected isotope in the olfactory (smell) paths from the nose to the brain and in the frontal cortex and hypothalamus of the brain. This is concerning because the front part of the brain controls executive function, which is the broad ability to gather information, make decisions and initiate action.

 

The scientists then chemically damaged the olfactory nerves in the nose. The rats with the damaged nerves had three times less uranium in the olfactory system than the rats with intact olfactory nerves. These finding suggests that inhaled uranium can travel directly from the nose along the olfactory nerves to the front of the brain.

 

The olfactory pathway, then, plays an important role in inhaled uranium reaching the brain.

It is not known from this study if soldiers and civilian workers that breathe uranium could be at an even higher risk for cognitive effects or if inhaled uranium may affect brain function in similar ways as when it is carried through the blood. The scientists then chemically damaged the olfactory nerves in the nose.

 

The rats with the damaged nerves had three times less uranium in the olfactory system than the rats with intact olfactory nerves. These finding suggests that inhaled uranium can travel directly from the nose along the olfactory nerves to the front of the brain.

 

The olfactory pathway, then, plays an important role in inhaled uranium reaching the brain. It is not known from this study if soldiers and civilian workers that breathe uranium could be at an even higher risk for cognitive effects or if inhaled uranium may affect brain function in similar ways as when it is carried through the blood.

DU Explosion

What I find most disturbing is the fact that the US, UK, NATO and Israel are still using these weapons on a daily basis, not only in action but also in training exercises and on firing ranges around the globe. Israel currently has a stockpile of such weaponry ready to strike Iran.

Add to this another possible attack on Lebanon or Gaza and we can see the absolute end to the genetics of the entire regional populations.

The US and Israel have been contemplating an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities for some time but do they fully understand the implications? Do they fully understand that to use uranium based weapons on a nuclear facility will have catastrophic effects on the entire Middle East and the world? Do they worry? Of course not, after all they say that DU is safe like everyday background radiation!

Tell that to your grandchildren!

Tell that to the people of Iraq who have had their country contaminated and its population exposed to a catastrophic health risk.

That is the difference between a government's theoretical approach to DU and the practical experience of doctors and experts who have to deal with their deeply flawed methods out in the theatres of war.


 

Part 6

28 August 2009

UK, August 28, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)

This final article is dedicated to the millions of people that have become victims due to the US, UK, NATO and IDF continued use of weapons containing uranium. It is in support of all the war veterans and innocent civilians in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and, now, Pakistan.

It is also dedicated to those thousands that have suffered terrible pain and since died. Can we ever imagine the pain of a mother that has lost her baby at birth or born with terrible disfigurement? Each and every day they are reminded of the consequences of having DU dumped in their backyard.

Finally, we have the pain of all those who know DU caused their problem, but are afraid to speak out. If they do, then American Government will not support them or their families.

Americas burning desire to use DU/EU
This chapter is probably the most difficult to write as it explains in detail how a country has become contaminated and how individuals at all levels have had their lives turned upside down by the deplorable use of weapons containing uranium. Beyond this human factor, we also have to look at how such local conflicts become a global issue; and, how the instigators have no regard for their own military forces or the masses of innocent civilians.

I think it would be appropriate at this stage to again repeat those terrible words once uttered by Henry Kissinger (Past US Secretary of State), when he said the following:

"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy."

One could assume a similar understanding still exists when our respective governments use uranium based weapons knowing that their own troops are going to become victim of its aerosol contamination.

Doug Rokke put this into true perspective when he said that if you send your sons or daughters into a war zone "they will die".

What I find incredible is the massive recruitment drive currently underway in the UK, whereby the recruitment teams set up in the main shopping centers and are always surrounded by young guys. This is particularly relevant in the low income/high unemployment areas. They target these young guys, who before the age of 19 (or less), are out in the battle field with nerves of steel but with no experience.

Particularly saddening was a new soldier only 18 years of age who had arrived in Afghanistan and within one week went out on his first patrol and was killed (lambs to the slaughter).

So what lies ahead for these soldiers, both young and old?

They will be placed in an environment for which they have no control and no protection from the ravages of uranium based weapons. Why are they fighting in far away places? Is it really to protect America or could it be something more sinister like economic greed for a very lucrative TAPI pipeline?

Either way your country truly doesn't care for you or for what happens to you.

Dustin Brim died at 22 of very aggressive cancers.

• Just ask the many thousands of returned vets, some of whom have paid the ultimate sacrifice, ask them how they are being cared for?

• Will their government accept that "WAR SYNDROME "Is as a direct result of uranium aerosols that are used extensively in all the theatres of war?

Let's have a look at this in more detail and its symptoms.

Inhalated nano-particle aerosols of DU/LLR are extremely complex. Insoluble DU particles deposited in the respiratory bronchioles and alveoli are cleared much more slowly, and, therefore, would be expected to deliver a higher radiation dose to the lung from alpha radiation. Once DU/LLR has entered the blood and irreversible cycle commences.

The tissues in our bodies filter out the depleted uranium particles from the blood and cause a web of diseases called "Gulf War Syndrome". So what can a victim of such a syndrome expect?

Leuren Moret compiled a list from Interviews with Gulf War Vets and their families.

The results were extremely alarming to say the least.

GENERAL

Leuren was once asked the question:

Does exposure to depleted uranium affect their psychological background when they come home?

Her response was as follows:

Depleted uranium are particles that form at very high temperatures. They are uranium oxides that are insoluble. They are at least 100 times smaller than a white blood cell, so when the soldiers breathe, they inhale them. The particles go through the nose, go through the olfactory and into the brain, and it messes up their cognitive abilities, thought processes.

 

It damages their mood-control mechanism in the brain. Four soldiers at Fort Bragg came back from Afghanistan, and within two months, those four had murdered their wives. This is part of the damage to the brain from the radiation and the particles.

"The soldiers from Gulf War I in a group of 67 soldiers who came back, they had DU in their equipment, in their clothes, in their bodies, in their semen, and they had normal babies before they went over there to war. They came back and the VA did a study. Of 251 Gulf War Veterans in Mississippi, in 67 percent of them, their babies born after the war were deemed to have severe birth defects. They had brains missing, arms and legs missing, organs missing. They were born without eyes.

 

They had horrible blood diseases. It's horrific".

"If you want to look at something, Life magazine did a photo essay which is still on the Internet. It's called 'The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm.'

 

You should look at that - oh, my God, the post-Gulf War babies playing with their brothers and sisters who are normal. Basically, it's like smoking crack, only you're smoking radioactive crack. It goes straight into the blood stream. It's carried all throughout the body into the bones, the bone marrow, and the brain.

 

It goes into the fetus, it's a systemic poison and a radiological."

It is fact that no matter whoever turns up with evidence that uranium based weapons are a significant danger to our health they still keep manufacturing them and using them in every theatre of war.

Even hard line critics refuse to accept peer reviewed journals such as that by biochemist Diane Stern of the Northern Arizona University who stated that "recent studies should make the issue hard to ignore". Her results - published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at a recent Society of Toxicology conference - established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA, and the cells mutate.

She said,

"exposure during the Gulf wars may link to increased cancers and birth defects in soldiers and in civilian survivors of exposure in the Middle East".

I have no doubt that Diane, like many before her will be removed from office for revealing the truth (Stearns' research was published in the journals Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis).

We should now turn back the clock to the time of the First Gulf War when Depleted Uranium (DU) was used extensively. It became apparent to US senior military staff that DU had created a major problem. On one hand, military speaking, DU was extremely effective and on the other hand it had severe consequences on the environment and its health effects on military personnel and innocent civilians.

Lets again re visit the story as told by Doug Rokke in his own words:

"I was assigned to the DU assessment team as the team health physicist and medic by directive of Headquarters Department of the Army in Washington, D.C. via a message sent to the theater commander during March 1991.

 

What we found can be explained in three words: "OH MY GOD".

 

"According to official documents each uranium penetrator could loose up to 70% of its mass on impact creating fixed and loose contamination with the remainder passing through the equipment or structure to lie on the terrain. On-site impact investigations suggest that the mass loss is about 40% which forms fixed and loose contamination leaving about 60% of the initial mass of the penetrator in the solid or pencil form.

 

Equipment contamination included uranium oxides, other hazardous materials, unstable unexploded ordnance, and by-products of exploded ordinance. U.S. Army Materiel Command documents sent to us during ODS stated the oxide was 57% insoluble and 43% soluble with at least 50% was respirable.

 

In addition other radioactive materials were detected that could pose a risk through inhalation, ingestion, or wound contamination. In most cases except for penetrator fragments, contamination was inside destroyed equipment or structures, on the destroyed equipment, or within 25 meters of the equipment. After we returned to the United States myself and two others with assistance wrote the Theater Clean up plan which was reportedly passed up through U.S. Department of Defense officials to the U.S. Department of State and consequently to the Emirate of Kuwaiti.

 

Today, it is obvious that none of this information regarding clean up of extensive DU contamination ever was given to the Iraqi's. Consequently, although we knew there were and still are substantial hazards existing within Iraq they have been ignored by the United States and Great Britain for political and economic reasons".

"Iraqi, Albano-Kosovar, and Serbian representatives have asked numerous times for DU contamination management and medical care procedures but they have been continuously rebuffed by U.S officials.

 

Although residents of Vieques, who are U.S. citizens, have also asked for medical care and completion of environmental remediation DOD officials have not responded. Dr. Bernard Rostker, Assistant Secretary of the Army, recently said that he did not see any reason why the United States should tell anyone where DU was used in Kosovo.

 

Consequently military personnel and civilians have been exposed."

Doug's article went on to say:

The probable hazards were known before the use of depleted uranium munitions during the Gulf war as official documents substantiate.

 

A United States Defense Nuclear Agency memorandum written by LTC Lyle that was sent to our team in Saudi Arabia stated that:

As Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD), ground combat units, and civil populations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq come increasingly into contact with DU ordnance, we must prepare to deal with potential problems. Toxic war souvenirs, political furor, and post conflict clean up (host nation agreement) are only some of the issues that must be addressed.

 

Alpha particles (uranium oxide dust) from expended rounds is a health concern but, Beta particles from fragments and intact rounds is a serious health threat, with possible exposure rates of 200 millirads per hour on contact.

This memorandum, the reports that we prepared immediately after the Gulf War as a part of the depleted uranium assessment project to recover DU destroyed and contaminated U.S. equipment, the previous research, and other expressed concerns led to the publication of a United States Department of Defense directive signed by General Eric Shinseki to quote:

"Provide adequate training for personnel who may come in contact with depleted uranium equipment. Complete medical testing of personnel exposed to DU contamination during the Persian Gulf War. Develop a plan for DU contaminated equipment recovery during future operations."

It is thus indisputable that United States Department of Defense officials were and are still aware of the unique and unacceptable hazards associated with using depleted uranium munitions.

Consequently, I was recalled to active duty in the U.S. Army and assigned to the U.S. Army Chemical School located at Fort McClellan, Alabama as the DU Project Director and tasked with developing training and management procedures.

The project included a literature review; extensive curriculum development project involving representatives from all branches of the U.S. Department of Defense and representatives from England, Canada, Germany, and Australia; and basic research at the Nevada Test Site located northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, to validate management procedures.

The products of the DU project included three training curricula:

• Tier I: General Audience

• Tier II: Battle Damage and Recovery Operations

• Tier III: Chemical Officer / NCO

Three video tapes:

Depleted Uranium Hazard Awareness Contaminated and Damaged Equipment Management Operation of the AN/PDR 77 Radiac Set and The draft DU and LLRM contamination management procedures including a United States Army Regulation: Management of Equipment Contaminated with Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities and an United States Army Pamphlet Handling Procedures for Equipment Contaminated with Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities.

Although, these products with approval of all participants were all completed and ready for distribution by January 1996, U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Defense, British, German, Canadian, and Australian officials disregarded repeated directives and did not implement or only have implemented portions of the training or management procedures. Unfortunately, only a few U.S. personnel have been trained.

The training and management plan have not been given to all individuals and representatives of governments whose populations and environment have affected by DU contamination.

These failures have been verified by U.S. General Accounting Office investigators and the report was published during March 2000.

Doug and his team were put under tremendous pressure by the careful wording of a memo that placed an emphasis on how important DU weaponry was to the US military and that their final report should not jeopardize DU usage by revealing such sensitive issues.

A second memo around the same time was written by Gregory K. Lyle of the Defense Nuclear Agency, part of which said:

"Alpha particles (uranium oxide dust) from expended rounds is a health concern but, Beta particles from fragments and intact rounds is a serious health threat, with a possible exposure rate of 200 milli-rems per hour on contact."

The memo warns that,

"specific DoD guidance concerning the disposition of DU material in the post combat period/restoration phase is currently lacking." The writer hoped that "expression of our concerns over the side effects of DU use will help ensure protection for our troops and allies".

We see time and time again the serious attempts, by the powers that be, to cover up, not only the extreme dangers of DU but also in the creation of their own chosen experts that tell the world that DU is safe.

They are totally responsible for this false façade of carefully concocted stories. It is they themselves that manipulate the UNEP, WHO and DOD's and leave us with their own hidden agenda of WMD. However, the world is now waking up to their evil intentions by saying enough is enough!

Educated people around the world now see that WMD has a different meaning:

"Weapons of Mass Deception and Weapons of Mass Dependency".

Doug clearly pointed out that not only was his team of experts totally unprepared and unprotected for such a task but so was every military man in the field of battle.

The masks provided do not filter out DU aerosol particles! and thus expose everyone to its inhaled contamination. Doug and his team have all become victims of DU, many of whom have since died.

Let's now turn our attention to the war vets themselves that have returned to their respective countries from the many theatres of war. It is a well know fact that those soldiers that had children prior to going to war have fathered perfectly normal children. However since their return this has not been the case thus resulting in a higher that normal incidence of still births or giving birth to babies with terrible disfigurements.

This strengthens the link between the inhalation of DU aerosols and its ability to alter our DNA. The fact is that US, UK, NATO and the IDF are subjecting their own military personnel to high levels of contamination from the very weapons they are using whilst at the same time having no regard for the civilian populations living nearby.

We fully understand that these aerosols do not identify international borders and are creating thousands of indirect casualties elsewhere.

This became more obvious after the IDF attacked Lebanon and contaminated their own people in Northern Israel resulting in sharp rises in many forms of cancers, diabetes and infertility problems etc.

It would be appropriate to share the experience of Bud Deraps, an 82 year old WW2 Navy veteran when he said:

"Please let me share with you what I learned when I visited Iraq in 2001 with the Veterans for Peace Iraq Water Project. A major purpose of our trip was to visit sewer polluted water plants in the Basra area which were being rebuilt in part with VFP funds.

 

We also spent time looking at other public institutions, in particular hospitals, where I saw for myself the misery and devastation our weapons and sanctions had caused. For example, we visited the Basra Children's Hospital where we saw rooms and hallways overflowing with children seriously ill from drinking polluted water. Many more were dying from leukemia and other cancers.

 

The doctors said they would all surely die there because they could not obtain the many medicines needed due to the sanctions. We stood in the midst of this disaster feeling stunned, ashamed, and entirely helpless".

He went on to say:

"Prior to the current war, the Birth Defect Research for Children based in Florida produced a study showing 31 specific birth defects that radiation and other Gulf War exposures could cause in birth defects. They found that the Gulf veterans parented on average 2 to 4 times more defected babies than those who had not served there"

 

"The Medical Journal of the Basra hospital reported that from 1991 to 2001, there was an increase of 426% in general malignancies, 366% in leukemia's and 600% in birth defects. With respect to birth defects, the doctors explained that when a person becomes DU contaminated, his or her DNA can be altered, thus, the person is potentially subject to parenting a child with minor to extreme birth anomalies"

Bud highlighted the fact that in the initial short war a relatively low number of troops had been killed in action (148) but that since that event around 13,000 had died as a result of DU related illnesses.

During 2003-2004 massive amounts of DU weaponry were used and contaminated a vast area.

Millions of troops and civilians had entered this contaminated zone and one can only imagine the fallout from aerosol contamination to all those concerned. Other factors would enhance the situation by way of secondary contamination such as from on going dust storms and helicopter down wash etc...

Bud lost his grandson in Iraq at the tender age of only 19.

The consequences in the use of Depleted Uranium

on innocent civilians is not only a crime, it is also slow genocide
 

American, British and NATO soldiers are returning from the battlefield with numerous health problems that have been highlighted in Leuren Moret's previous statement.

As we have seen they include:

• cancers

• lung and skin problems

• cerebral lesions

• badly deformed new-born babies

We have seen the extremely high genetically induced problems in Iraqi.

Prof Selma Al Taha, Director of a genetic laboratory said

"since the war we have significant increase in congenital deformities: hydrocephalus [an abnormal increase in the amount of cerebrospinal fluid within the cranial cavity, which is accompanied by enlargement of the skull, forehead and atrophy of the brain], encephalitis, spinal bifida [incomplete closure of the bones of the spinal column, depriving the spinal marrow of protection], but also monstrous deformities of the limbs, and infants born without a head or a heart."

His colleague, Al Askri, a specialist in nuclear medicine, emphasized "a large increase in thyroid problems and cancers".

Extensive use of DU by NATO forces in the Balkans has dramatically changed the health statistics. Before the war many locations had typically normal statistics in their respective regions. Since the war however things have changed significantly.

Kosovo for instance had a 3 x increase in cancers and Bosnia-Herzegovina a 5 x increase resulting in hundreds of people dying from cancer related illnesses. It is also a known fact that many NATO peacekeepers had also contracted cancer and since died.

Doctor Slavko Zdrale has treated several cancer patients over the past years.

During an interview he said:

"a few years ago we started noticing that there was as many as five times the number of people dying of different kinds of cancer as compared to the number of people who had been sick before the war."

"We worked out that 90% of them came from areas NATO had bombed and from areas where ammunition with uranium was used. Nobody in the international community took much notice until Italian soldiers who were stationed in those areas started dying from cancer-related illnesses."

Simo Tusevljak, the coordinator of the Research and documentation of war crimes, stated that,

"we believe that this was a deliberate attempt by NATO forces to kill as many people as possible. It was also a chance for the West to test new weapons."

It is interesting to note that we have seen these same tactic used in Lebanon and Gaza where these same so called dirty weapons were tested. I also might add that despite the resounding comments from all the powers that be (UNEP, WHO, ICRP, IAEA, Governments, DOD's and NATO etc) the conclusive evidence is not in their theoretical evidence but rather in the practical real time evidence in the growing statistics in illness and deaths from various forms of cancer etc.

Time and time again we see a dramatic increase in cancers immediately following the use of weaponry containing uranium components. It is obvious that this entire deception by the above authorities has now gone beyond the realms of gross neglect.

One can only relate to this as being one of the greatest crimes against humanity ever to have existed and has the potential to exceed the Holocaust many times. It is extremely sad that the terrible fate that befell Jewish communities years ago will again be relived in many parts of the world.

It is ironic that those that suffered are now creating another Holocaust not only on their neighbors but also on themselves (Israelis killing Israelis) as the contaminated aerosols do not identify international borders and drift over from Lebanon into Northern Israel and likewise in Gaza to adjacent Central and Southern Israel.

The world must prohibit without delay the use of any weapon that contains uranium components... these are certainly not conventional. So far only Belgium has had the courage to stand firm against these evil weapons.

Out of all the theatres of war Iraq must take centre stage. This country has been blasted so heavily with uranium based weapons that one could not even contemplate its future.

One man with tears in his eyes accused the West of taking away the "Genetics" of his country.

• Can we the public even think of the implications that have now fallen upon this proud country that was once the birthplace of civilization?

• How can we all, as responsible citizens, just continue to allow our governments to get away with this mass murder?

Just take a moment and look at the statistics coming out of Iraq and then decide for yourself if, DU/EU weapons are safe?

Of course you can take the expert advice of the Nigel Lamb's of this world or just look at factual figures and the coincidence of increase illnesses immediately after such attacks. The level of cancers in children became so high that USAID and an American NGO called Project Hope decided that a specialist children's hospital had to be built in Basra.

Child mortality rates were very high with 150 out of 1,000 children dying before reaching the age of five.

The incidence of childhood cancer was found to be eight to 10 times more common than in the West, and cancer rates in southern Iraq were even higher than the National average. With such high statistics it was obvious that a children's hospital with a special focus on pediatric oncology should be built in Basra.

Doesn't it appear hypocritical that US/UK forces created this major problem as a result of the extensive use of DU weaponry in Southern Iraq and then turn this self induced disaster into a huge PR exercise by showing that they really care?

This huge "Basra Children's Hospital Project" all comes under the watchful eye of the US Corps of Engineers. The project was funded through multiple sources, including the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund; Project HOPE; and the Spanish government through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Needless to say the project was given to that notorious US Company Bechtel.

Occasionally we see a glimmer of hope in the fight to bring justice to the many thousands of victims. As we already know Italian troops became victim to DU during their duties in the Balkans. One such case shows that despite all the stress and pressure individuals can make a difference.

Here is such a story of the courage and determination as told by Francesco Iannuzzelli, Peacelink, Italy.

In memory of Stefano Melone
Stefano Melone began his service in the Italian army in 1977.

 

For many years he had been deployed to a whole host of missions abroad. He had been in Lebanon, Albania, Somalia, ex-Yugoslavia and Kosovo. He was a helicopter pilot but he was also assigned to NBC troops.

Suddenly, in February 2000, he was diagnosed with cancer (Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma of the bone, lung and pleura). In August 2000 a military commission acknowledged the link between his illness and the military service abroad, so he applied for a pension. However, after many surgical operations, he died on 8th November 2001 in Milan, at the age of 40.

Since then, his wife has been engaged in a battle to obtain compensation from the Ministry of Defense, together with many other soldiers and families in similar situations. Before dying, Stefano had asked his wife to do this, so that their children and all the other families could safeguard a future in spite of the terrible pain and loss.

To date, 25 Italian soldiers have died of lymphoma, cancer or leukemia, and 260 are currently ill, after their missions abroad. Many of these missions took place in countries where depleted uranium has been used, including Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq.

After three reports and many mistakes, a commission nominated by the Ministry of Defense, has eventually acknowledged an increase in lymphoma among soldiers assigned to missions in the Balkans.

In spite of that, the Italian Ministry of Defense refuses to give compensation to their families, let alone to admit that depleted uranium has a role in these cases. Hardly any information is given to soldiers currently on missions abroad about the risks they're facing, and whoever complains about this lack of information is treated as a traitor and marginalized.

It's too expensive and difficult to obtain medical tests and therapies for this kind of health problems. Only few soldiers or families have the courage to stand up and ask for compensation after illness or death.

Paola Melone, Stefano's wife, has been very active during all these years. She has finally won her battle. On the 26th of June, in Rome, the magistrates of a local court have sentenced that the Ministry of Defense must pay 500.000 Euros in compensation to Stefano Melone's family.

For the families that have been struggling all these years for their rights, this is a major achievement. Veterans associations, some peace organizations, and a few MPs have expressed their appreciation of this sentence, as it brings some light of justice in the darkness created by the military on the issue of depleted uranium.

Another promising report came from Anes Alic (Oct 2007), a senior correspondent for ISN Security Watch in Southeastern Europe. In this report Anes revealed that an increase of the number of Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans during the 1990s who are falling seriously ill due to depleted uranium exposure is causing a public outrage in Italy, as the government downplays the extent of the problem, widely referred to as "Balkan Syndrome."

It was interesting to note that the Italian government passed a decree allocating €170 million (US$245 million) in compensation for military personnel who have contracted diseases during their service - some 28,000 of them in Balkan missions alone.

It was also interesting that some time ago an independent enquiry was set up in the UK which called on the Ministry of Defense to admit the existence of Gulf War syndrome and set aside millions of pounds to compensate sick veterans.

Lord Lloyd of Berwick, the former law lord heading the inquiry, said it was time for defense staff to stop "assuming blithely that everyone else was wrong" and start restoring the trust and confidence of the Gulf War veterans, who felt "let down and rejected".

The Government had already missed one opportunity to begin building bridges by refusing to take part in the anonymously funded inquiry, he added.

While stopping short of blaming the MoD for sending the forces into a "very toxic environment", Lord Lloyd said:

"We are not in the business of establishing blame... Whether they are culpable in a wider sense; it is a matter for you to make up your own minds after reading the report."

It was also interesting to note the comment made by Ian Townsend, secretary general of the Royal British Legion, said:

"We asked for an independent public inquiry. The government denied us that".

It is obvious in conclusion that all the authorities and governments listed in all my previous articles are guilty of a major conspiracy to cover up, especially those governments who form part of NATO.

At least Italy has gone part of the way to heal the wound but the remainder remain stubborn to the core!

Prevailing winds continue to transport these toxic aerosols to every corner of the globe and as we have seen Europe takes a significant amount of fallout from the Middle East. When one studies the wind currents it is also easy to see how these aerosols also enter the US via the polar region. One could assume that almost half of the planets are currently breathing the bi products of these weapons. You will find little of this written in the media as most are controlled from higher authority.

It is only the public who have the ability to object to this outrageous crime. It is the public that must keep up this pressure until such time as these weapons have been totally prohibited. To the many War Vets and innocent civilians around the world I ask you all to remain strong and to keep up your fight for truth and justice.

To those that have created this evil act of slow genocide against the populations of the world I remind you that your day will come. To those countries who manufacture and use these weapons, in particular the United States of American, the United Kingdom, NATO and the IDF I remind you that one day they will be prohibited.

Finally we come to those many governments, departments and organizations that must be held responsible for allowing this deception to continue for decades.

For their gross neglect in standing up for what they were supposed to safeguard and who were assigned to represent the peoples of the world - to protect them - to care for their health and their environment namely:

• The United Nations (UN)

• United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)

• The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

• World Health Organization (WHO)

• The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

• The Governments of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• The respective:

  • Departments of Defence/Military

  • The Nuclear Industry

  • The Pharmaceutical Industry

• all those Medical Experts and Institutions who accepted that DU was safe.

I guess one must also add,

• the World Bank (WB)

• the International Monetary Fund (IMF),

...to this list, not because it is has any connection to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) but because of the suffering they have caused around the world by Weapons of Mass Deception and Weapons of Mass Dependency.

Shame on you all.