Heads roll at Veterans Administration (Depleated Uraniun)

[mom cat]

Heads roll at Veterans Administration
Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal blamed

by Bob Nichols

Project Censored Award Winner


Considering the tons of depleted uranium used by the U.S., the Iraq war can truly be called a nuclear war.
Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War.

Writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter No. 169, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, “The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.”

Bernklau continued, “This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.”

He added, “Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

Snip

“The long-term effects have revealed that DU (uranium oxide) is a virtual death sentence,” stated Berklau.

Read the rest at:
http://www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml

[cyberpj]

1. See this video for facts on Depleted Uranium and it's effects:

http://www.blackeyedsundays.com/video/poisonous.html

[mom cat]

5. They also have a link to an anti-DU petition:

http://www.cadu.org.uk/
Please add your name.

[indepat]

2. How many more of our troops and the Iraqi have been given a virtual death

sentence from the use of DU? Were we the losers standing trial on the world stage for what we have done in Iraq, one can only wonder who would be getting what sentences by an international tribunal. :shrug:

[mom cat]

6. I bet we all have some suggestions for deserving candidates.

Thrie punnishment should have to be to change the diapers of DU babies for the rest of their lives.

[FloridaPat]

3. And think what they've done to the Iraq civilians too.

A whole country like that. And their children. I heard US soldiers coming back are starting to have deformed babies. But Iraq is a democracy!

[mom cat]

7. See the vid mentioned in reply #1. It gives some startling info.

[Dr.Phool]

4. The Nation did an in-depth investigative story on this almost 10 years ago

And the Pentagon and VA have been stonewalling it ever since.

You can find it at www.thenation.com. Search for "The Pentagons Radioactive Bullet". Shocking.

[mom cat]

8. Thanks for the info. Here is the link:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/19961021/19961021mesler
We have known about the dangers for so long. I hope that this latest VA shakeup will crack this loose.

[OneBlueSky]

9. yet another impeachable offense . . .

using weapons of mass destruction -- and on our own troops! . . .

[mom cat]

10. He irradiated his own people!

He must be tried on war crimes along with all of his administration.

[Buck Turgidson]

11. DU --- depleted uranium -- Democratic Underground

Hmm. Curious coincidence.

[tavalon]

17. I have a friend who mentioned that to me about a year ago

He says every time I say DU (and I say DU this and DU that a lot of the time) he thinks depleted uranium. Interesting. One is very, very good and one is very, very bad.

[soothsayer]

12. And they were in and out in GW1. Now they're stuck there (as of

course are the poor Iraqis).

Our soldiers (and the Iraqis) are cooked!

[Clara T]

13. Rec'd n/t

[bonito]

14. I wonder about the heat related casualty facts also n/t

[Jim__]

15. This is the government betraying its own military.

This is just plain stupid. Any short term benefits from DU weapons are clearly outweighed by the cost to the soldiers. Is anyone in our government capable of thinking through a problem?

[mom cat]

29. They do not care, PERIOD.

They will just hire mercenaries and tax us more! Until we get some leaders with guts enough to challenge the Pentagon, we are all sitting ducks.

[progressoid]

16. "325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability"

Astounding...

[Marleyb]

18. This is a war crime! This is GENOCIDE!

These sick bastards cannot even tell the troops of the dangers so they come home and have deformed babies, mental health problems etc. with no support from the veterans hospitals because they deny it is happening.

Besides that, depleted uranium has been spread all over Iraq. We have ruined their land forever. When a baby is born in Iraq they do not ask 'is it a boy or a girl?' They ask 'is it okay?'. Babies are being born with their organs outside of their bodies and worse. It is sick! The pictures are horrible.

They have known about the effects since 1943 according to Doug Rokke, army specialist in charge of DU cleanup. He was eventually fired for speaking the truth.

This alone is worthy of sending the entire Bush Administration to the Hague for war crimes.

[mom cat]

30. It is a very bad war crime...one of the worst: DU has a half life of

4.5 billion years. That means that in 4.5 billion years, this stuff will be only half as strong. It is now lose, blowing in the wind. This is genocide in Iraq, and wherever the winds blow from there.

[Peace Patriot]

19. Wow! I didn't know that the cause of "Gulf War Syndrome" had been

identified, and that it was/is depleted uranium. Thanks for the post!

It really makes you wonder about this monster we've had on our backs since the end of WW II--the military/industrial complex. They complain about not enough cannon fodder for Iraq, then poison half the troops--for some pork-barrel, war profiteering reason. And they are completely without oversight now, under the Bush junta, and quickly getting more privatized, at the cost of billions of unaccountable dollars (not to mention unaccountable activities).

It's one more reason that the Corporate Rulers took away our right to vote, with these new privatized electronic voting systems, and their 'trade secret,' proprietary programming code with virtually no audit/recount controls. I figured it was our latent power as a sovereign people to regulate and even dismantle the US-based global corporate predators who are oppressing everybody in the world and killing the planet. We could de-corporatize them, and seize their assets for the public good, if we put our minds to it. We have that (latent) sovereign power. And the rebellion in Seattle in 1999 (50,000 people in the streets shutting down the WTO) may have alerted them to the threat of an ever more conscious American electorate. Next thing we know, electronic voting with "trade secret" software.

But now I'm thinking there is a double whammy here. It's not just global corporate piracy; it's this humongous deformity, the military budget. Billions and billions and billions of dollars poured into defense systems that somehow didn't work on 9/11 (couldn't even defend the Pentagon), now being supplemented with billions and billions and billions more for an entirely manufactured, optional war.

When was the last time these people actually DEFENDED us? They failed to do so on 9/11. And they were AWOL during Katrina. Vietnam* was also a hogfest, and totally unnecessary: upwards of 2 million people slaughtered for nothing. They weren't even all that 'communist'--much more into self-determination and independence.

Korea? Possibly justified, in the context of treaties and geo-politics of the time. (It was a UN peacekeeping mission.) But they were most certainly testing out "land war in Asia" systems there, and were soon messing with Vietnam over the UN-sponsored elections (which Ho Chi Minh would have won). The war on Nicaragua was plainly illegal (violated a direct order of Congress), and people went to jail for it (who are now back running things).

Gulf War I? Only a thin veneer of legitimacy; at bottom, an unjustified, imperial war (probably part of a long term plan--the "Project for a New American Century"--to soften up Iraq for the later kill).

So, somewhere around 1950, they stopped being a "defense" establishment, and began being a machine for inventing more wars. A self-feeding monster that MUST have war, and that now has its claws and poisonous suckers into at least half the Democratic Party leadership and of course IS the Republican Party and its Bush Cartel masters. And since "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," it is now eating its own with depleted uranium. The monster has gone mad.

The military-INDUSTRIAL complex. The industrial part now outsourced to points east and south. New name: Military-global corporate predator complex. I think they're even outsourcing some of the vote tabulation.

They are fully aware that this is an end game--a last mop-up of our resources, a final looting. And they really couldn't have people voting about it. We are much too well-informed (contrary to the "sheeple" meme here at DU), much too conscious, much too peace-loving and justice-loving, and much too into our soldiers as human beings and citizens of the Republic, with certain inalienable rights. They are not cannon fodder to US.

_________________

*Note: The 10% rate for long term disability/death of Vietnam vets (as opposed to past wars 5%) was likely ALSO due to global corporate predator war profiteering--in Agent Orange, in that case.

[mom cat]

25. Outstanding reply. I hope everyone reads this.

Thanks. This is truly a monstorus war crime and I hope that it recieves the attention it deserves.

[many a good man]

32. "When was the last time these people actually DEFENDED us?"

That's the question I wish all Americans would ponder deeply. Thanks for the great post.

[mopinko]

20. way to support the troops. will this finally foment a mutiny?

i keep hoping that the military with throw off the parasites. it is the only way i can see for this nightmare to end.
but then, i don't suppose it will take much of an army to steal the oil once all the people of the middle east are poisoned.

[mom cat]

31. We should be using this info in all anti-recruiting drives!

[Gregorian]

21. Dr. Helen Coldicott has been speaking up on this for years now.

I vividly remember about a year after the Criminal stole office (sorry), I was in my pickup truck in the middle of a field on my farm. Suddenly I heard Coldicott doint a talk on depleted Uranium. She spoke of the Coke bottle shaped objects that lured Iraqi children to keep them as toys. And the Iraqi deformities. I remember standing by my truck door for an hour, not even moving, just listening in horror and shock and sadness.

They knew this too. They knew it all. I'm more worried about what will happen after George is gone, then what is happening now while he's here.

[mom cat]

26. I think that I heard the same chilling talk. Here are some links I found

when I googled "Caldicott, depleted Uranium:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=caldicott%2c+depleated+uranium&fr=ieas


Did you mean: caldicott, depleted uranium
WEB RESULTS
Is The Pentagon Giving Our Soldiers Cancer?
Is The Pentagon Giving Our Soldiers Cancer? by Hillary Johnson. Rolling Stone; October 2, 2003. U.S. military might relies on depleted uranium, which incinerates tanks on impact. ... now packed with depleted uranium -- radioactive waste left over ... a target, depleted uranium actually sharpens itself like ... comprehension," says Helen Caldicott, a pediatrician who has ...feedthefish.org/blog/materials/johnson.html - 36k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block
US rejects Iraq depleated uranium clean-up : SF Indymedia
... US rejects Iraq depleated uranium clean-up. by US War Crimes Must Stop Monday April 14, 2003 ... Dr. Helen Caldicott, the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's ...sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1600357_comment.php - 66k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block
How America Nukes Its Own Troops What Support Our Troops' Really Means
... Radiation expert Dr. Helen Caldicott confirms that the dust-laden winds of DU-contaminated war zones will ... That's why it's called DEpleated Uranium. The way you find the exploded ...www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1006213/posts - 55k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block
United for Peace and Justice: United for Peace Events
United for Peace is an online resource and national campaign that brings together a broad range of organizations throughout the United States to help coordinate our work against a U.S. war on Iraq. ... W/ Alice Walker, Vandana Shiva, Janeane Garofalo, Dr Helen Caldicott, Granny D, Susan ...iticwebarchives.ssrc.org/United for Peace/www.unitedforpeace.org/... - 525k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block
Perth Independent Media Center
... brother told me twas 4 years. Helen caldicott mentioned 2 years if all the coal power ... in reactors they will produce " depleated " uranium artillary rounds that produce radioactive ...perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=12861 - 47k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block
airamerica : Messages : 43-72 of 597
airamerica: Air America - A place for fans of the Air America tv series ... nuclear warrior Dr. Helen Caldicott. Caldicot. http://pacifica.org/ Flashpoints ... US media censor uranium weapons stories-Repost ... Crusade,Movment,Memo?,Depleated?,LabelNews,We the ...tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/airamerica/messages/43 - 41k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block
Motorcycle Message Board - Motorcycle USA
Connect with other motorcycle riders at Motorcycle USA's message boards. ... MOABs, cluster bombs, and depleated uranium would be sufficient ...forum.motorcycle-usa.com/pr.aspx?f=20&m=126020 - 225k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block
Buy Uranium Books online - selected, recommended and reviewed
... pure U-238, called depleted uranium or "DU". To be considered to be 'depleated', the U-235 isotope concentration has ... by: Helen Caldicott, Michio Kaku, Jay Gould, Ramsey Clark ...www.buybookonline.net/u/ur/uranium.html - More from this site - Save - Block
http://www.wfu.edu/users/lacyjp/Aff-Shirley_Day_Two-Final.txt
inflation threatens Russian economy- Daily Time 11/21/04 2. size of gas fields irrelevant- they will be undercut by producers- Babineck 04 3. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iran will undercut Russia- same cite 4.www.wfu.edu/users/lacyjp/Aff-Shirley_Day_Two-Final.txt - More from this site - Save - Block

In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the ones already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.

[ktlyon]

22. and I heard they were planning to us DU in building materials

Don't forget that the military was suppose to do baseline tests on all troops before so after exposure measurements could be taken and compared. This administration failed to follow the law on this and decided not to test.

This not solution for nuclear waste.

[bobbieinok]

23. 1st heard abt DU from Malloy when he was at WLS; he said

DU used in bombing Serbs, one of the many reasons he was against that 'military action'.........some NATO countries had soldiers claiming DU poisoning

Malloy or callers also said there were plans to use DU in metals in kitchen appliances b/c DU hardens the metal

[mom cat]

27. It is when it explodes and atomizes that it is most dangerous, however,

I certainly do not want one in my kitchen. Do you have any links to that plan?

[bobbieinok]

33. just remember talk on Malloy's WLS show

[yurbud]

24. I used to tell students who didn't know what to do to join military

until depleted uranium.

They could be doing a safe job, never here a bullet fired at them in anger, and come home with all their limbs, only to be progressively crippled, have deformed kids, and die an early death.

All so the oil companies could profit from every last drop of oil pumped out of the Middle East.

[mom cat]

28. Well, as Babs might say:

"They were poor anyway."( as she did after Katrina, while discussing the evaccues in Houston). Most enlisties are poor and the administration obviously does not care what happens to them.

[Clara T]

34. Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

Depleted Uranium:
The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War

LEUREN MORET / World Affairs – The Journal of International Issues 1jul04

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Since 1991, the United States has staged four wars using depleted uranium weaponry, illegal under all international treaties, conventions and agreements, as well as under the US military law. The continued use of this illegal radioactive weaponry, which has already contaminated vast regions with low level radiation and will contaminate other parts of the world over time, is indeed a world affair and an international issue. The deeper purpose is revealed by comparing regions now contaminated with depleted uranium — from Egypt, the Middle East, Central Asia and the northern half of India — to the US geostrategic imperatives described in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 1997 book The Grand Chessboard. 

Fig. 1: Brzezinski’s map of the Eurasian Chessboard



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.

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.

After forming microscopic and submicroscopic 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.

http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm



Warhead weights include explosives (~20%) and casing. Dense metal ballast or liners (suspected to be DU) estimated to be 50-75% of warhead weight - necessary to double the density of previous versions. AUP = Advanced penetrators. S/CH = Shaped Charge. BR = BROACH Multiple Warhead System (S/CH+AUP). P = older 'heavy metal' penetrators. © Dai Williams 2002



"Military Men Are Just Dumb, 
 Stupid, Animals To Be Used
 As Pawns In Foreign Policy"
         — Henry Kissinger

[MasonJar]

35. What about the Iraqis who will be living with this war crime for a

1000 years?

[Clara T]

36. kick