----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 5:54
PM
Subject: [Futurework] DU in Iraq
Yet one more aspect of modern war--where you don't want to
send your children, or anyone else's, is reported below by
Christian Monitor/Yellow Times.
Designers, manufacturers, and troops deploying DU are
inflicting toxic radiation upon life in Iraq, and their own
country's
troops. Egregious enhancement of weaponry for a fairly defenceless
people is not only further cowardly, it is self-defeating once the
cancers set in. But it's profitable, and a great way to get rid of
U.S. toxic waste! To be sure, Dubya is a hero for even
setting
foot in the region of his own machinations.
Just how will the U.S. attract anyone to this wasteland?
The clean up, which of course the U.S. would like to pass off
onto
the U.N., is likely to be centred around the oil fields, if at all.
War is now about rich cowards engaging in genocide, on both sides.
Only the time line of full effect for either side will be
different.
Natalia Kuzmyn
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
News from the Front: Tons of Depleted Uranium
Polluting
Iraq
Printed on Monday, December 01, 2003 @ 23:20:33 CST (
)
Report by
YellowTimes.org
NewsFromtheFront.org
WASHINGTON (NFTF.org) -- U.S.
forces
unleashed at least 75 tons of
toxic
depleted uranium on Iraq during the war, reports the
Christian
Science Monitor.
An unnamed U.S. Central Command spokesman disclosed
to
the Monitor last week that coalition forces fired 300,000
bullets
coated with armored-piercing depleted uranium (DU)
during
the war.
“The normal combat mix for these 30-mm rounds is five
DU
bullets to 1 -- a mix that would have left about 75 tons of
DU
in Iraq,” wrote correspondent Scott Peterson.
Peterson measured four sites around Baghdad struck
with
depleted uranium munitions and found high levels
of
radioactive contamination, but few warnings to this
effect
issued among the populace at large.
While the Pentagon maintains that spent weapons
coated
with the low-level, radioactive nuclear-waste are
relatively
harmless, Peterson notes that U.S. soldiers have taken
it
among themselves to print leaflets or post signs warning of
DU
contamination.
"After we shoot something with DU, we're not supposed to
go
around it, due to the fact that it could cause cancer," said
one
sergeant requesting anonymity.
On a group of abandoned burnt-out U.S. munitions
supply
trucks, Peterson saw signs U.S. troops put up warning
in
Arabic, “Danger -- Get away from this area.” A local
vendor
said that soldiers in masks warned him and others to
keep
away from the site.
These were the only warnings Peterson found. He wrote
that
despite the military’s attempts to bulldoze the
surrounding
topsoil, the Geiger counter readings on remaining piles
of
radioactive DU dust registered at hundreds of times
the
average, and a DU dart from a 120 mm tank shell
emitted
radiation over 1,300 times normal.
Two other sites visited were randomly selected Iraqi
armored
vehicles destroyed with DU bullets. The remains of these
tanks
sit near a produce vendor on the outskirts of Baghdad,
and
have become popular playthings for children; the
Geiger
counter reading from “a DU bullet fragment no bigger than
a
pencil eraser” near one child registered 1,000 times normal.
There were no warnings posted informing the populace of
the
radioactive emissions coming from the tanks.
"Radioactive? Oh, really?" was the response of a
former
director general of the ministry, when Peterson presented
a
Geiger counter registering emissions of 1,900 times
normal
from spent DU-coated bullets amongst the grounds at
the
Ministry of Planning.
"Yesterday, more than 1,000 employees came here, and
they
didn't know anything about it," he said. "We have started
to
not believe what the American government says. What I
know
is that the occupiers should clean up and take care of
the
country they invaded."
YellowTimes.org correspondent Lisa Ashkenaz Croke drafted
this
report.
