Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 09:37:16 -0400
From: et@nucnews.net
Subject: Death By Slow Burn - How America Nukes Its Own Troops
By Amy Worthington - The Idaho Observer
Last Updated Aug 13, 2003, Sierra Times
http://www.sierratimes.com/03/05/02/article_io.htm
On March 30, an AP photo featured an American pro-war activist holding
a
sign: "Nuke the evil scum, it worked in 1945!" That's exactly what
George Bush has done. America's mega-billion dollar war in Iraq
has been
indeed a NUCLEAR WAR.
Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted
uranium (DU) weapons, a "liberation" gift that will keep on giving.
Depleted uranium is a component of toxic nuclear waste, usually
stored
at secure sites. Handlers need radiation protection gear.
Over a decade ago, war-makers decided to incorporate this lethal
waste
into much of the Pentagon's weaponry. Navy ships carrying Phalanx
rapid
fire guns are capable of firing thousands of DU rounds per minute.(1)
Tomahawk missiles launched from U.S. ships and subs are DU-tipped.(2)
The M1 Abrams tanks are armored with DU.(3)
These and
British Challenger II tanks are tightly packed with DU shells, which
continually
irradiate troops in or near them.(4)
The A-10 "tank buster" aircraft fires DU shells
at machines and people on the battlefield.(5)
DU munitions are classified by a United Nations resolution as illegal
weapons of mass destruction. Their use breaches all international
laws,
treaties and conventions forbidding poisoned weapons calculated
to cause
unnecessary suffering.
Ironically, support for our troops will extend well beyond the war
in
Iraq. Americans will be supporting Gulf War II veterans for years
as
they slowly and painfully succumb to radiation poisoning. U.S and
British troops deployed to the area are the walking dead. Humans
and
animals, friends and foes in the fallout zone are destined to a
long
downhill spiral of chronic illness and disability. Kidney dysfunction,
lung damage, bloody stools, extreme fatigue, joint pain, unsteady
gait,
memory loss and rashes and, ultimately, cancer and premature death
await
those exposed to DU.
Award-winning journalist Will Thomas wrote: "As the last Gulf conflict
so savagely demonstrated, GI immune systems reeling from multiple
doses
of experimental vaccines offer little defense against further exposure
to chemical weapons, industrial toxins, stress, caffeine, insect
repellent and radiation leftover from the last war. This is a war
even
the victors will lose."(6)
When a DU shell is fired, it ignites upon impact. Uranium, plus traces
of plutonium and americium, vaporize into tiny, ceramic particles
of
radioactive dust. Once inhaled, uranium oxides lodge in the body
and
emit radiation indefinitely. A single particle of DU lodged in a
lymph
node can devastate the entire immune system according to British
radiation expert Roger Coghill.(7)
The Royal Society of England published data showing that battlefield
soldiers who inhale or swallow high levels of DU can suffer kidney
failure within days.(8) Any soldier
now in Iraq who has not inhaled
lethal radioactive dust is not breathing. In the first two weeks
of
combat, 700 Tomahawks, at a cost of $1.3 million each, blasted Iraqi
real estate into radioactive mushroom clouds.(9)
Millions of DU tank
rounds liter the terrain. Cleanup is impossible because there is
no
place on the planet to put so much contaminated debris.
Bush Sr.'s Gulf War I was also a nuclear war. 320 tons of depleted
uranium were used against Iraq in 1991.(10)
A 1998 report by the U.S.
Agency for Toxic Substances confirms that inhaling DU causes symptoms
identical to those claimed by many sick vets with Gulf War Syndrome.(11)
The Gulf War Veterans Association reports that at least 300,000
Gulf War
I vets have now developed incapacitating illnesses.(12)
To date, 209,000
vets have filed claims for disability benefits based on
service-connected injuries and illnesses from combat in that war.(13)
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a professor of nuclear medicine at Georgetown
University, is a former army medical expert. He told nuclear scientists
in Paris last year that tens of thousands of sick British and American
soldiers are now dying from radiation they encountered during Gulf
War
I. He found that 62 percent of sick vets tested have uranium isotopes
in
their organs, bones, brains and urine.(14) Laboratories
in Switzerland
and Finland corroborated his findings.
In other studies, some sick vets were found to be expressing uranium
in
even their semen. Their sexual partners often complained of a burning
sensation during intercourse, followed by their own debilitating
illnesses.(15)
Nothing compares to the astronomical cancer rates and birth defects
suffered by the Iraqi people who have endured vicious nuclear
chastisement for years.(16) U.S. air attacks
against Iraq since 1993
have undoubtedly employed nuclear munitions. Pictures of grotesquely
deformed Iraqi infants born since 1991 are overwhelming.(17)
Like those
born to Gulf War I vets, many babies born to troops now in Iraq
will
also be afflicted with hideous deformities, neurological damage
and/or
blood and respiratory disorders.(18)
As an Army health physicist, Dr. Doug Rokke was dispatched to the
Middle
East to salvage DU-contaminated tanks after Gulf War I. His Geiger
counters revealed that the war zones of Iraq and Kuwait were
contaminated with up to 300 millirems an hour in beta and gamma
radiation plus thousands to millions of counts per minute in alpha
radiation. Rokke recently told the media: "The whole area is still
trashed. It is hotter than heck over there still. This stuff doesn't
go
away."(19)
DU remains "hot" for 4.5 billion years. Radiation expert Dr. Helen
Caldicott confirms that the dust-laden winds of DU-contaminated
war
zones "will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of time."(20)
The murderous dust storms which ensnared coalition troops during
the
first few days of the current invasion are sure to have significant
health consequences.
Rokke and his cleanup team were issued only flimsy dust masks for
their
dangerous work. Of the 100 people on Rokke's decontamination team,
30
have already "dropped dead." Rokke himself is ill with radiation
damage
to lungs and kidneys. He has brain lesions, skin pustules, chronic
fatigue, continual wheezing and painful fibromyalgia. Rokke warns
that
anyone exposed to DU should have adequate respiratory protection
and
special coveralls to protect their clothing because, he says, you
can't
get uranium particles off your clothing.
The U.S. military insists that DU on the battlefield is not a problem.
Colonel James Naughton of the U.S. Army Material Command recently
told
the BBC that complaints about DU "had no medical basis."(21)
The
military's own documents belie this. A 1993 Pentagon document warned
that "when soldiers inhale or ingest DU dust they incur a potential
increase in cancer risk."(22) A U.S. Army training
manual requires
anyone who comes within 25 meters of DU-contaminated equipment to
wear
respiratory and skin protection.(23) The U.S.
Army Environmental Policy
Institute admitted: "If DU enters the body, it has the potential
to
generate significant medical consequences."(24)
The Institute also
stated that, if the troops were to realize what they had been exposed
to, "the financial implications of long-term disability payments
and
healthcare costs would be excessive."(25) For
pragmatic reasons, DOD
chooses to lie and deny.
Dr. Rokke confirms that the Pentagon lies about DU dangers and is
criminally negligent for neglecting medical attention needed by
DU-contaminated vets. He predicts that the numbers of American troops
to
be sickened by DU from Gulf War II will be staggering.(26)
As they
gradually sicken and suffer a slow burn to their graves, the Pentagon
will, as it did after Gulf War I, deny that their misery and death
is a
result of their tour in Iraq.
Dr. Rokke's candor has cost him his career. Likewise, Dr. Durakovic's
radiation studies on Gulf War I vets were not popular with U.S.
officials. Dr. Durakovic was reportedly told his life was in danger
if
he continued his research. He left the U.S. to continue his research
abroad.(27)
Naive young coalition soldiers now in Iraq are likely unaware of
how
deadly their battlefield environment is. Gulf War I troops were
kept in
ignorance. Soldiers handled DU fragments and some wore these lethal
nuggets around their necks. A DU projectile emits more radiation
in five
hours than allowed in an entire year under civilian radiation exposure
standards. "We didn't know any better," Kris Kornkven told Nation
magazine. "We didn't find out until long after we were home that
there
even was such a thing as DU."(28)
George Bush's ongoing war in Afghanistan is also a nuclear war. Shortly
after 9-11, the U.S. announced it would stockpile tactical nuclear
weapons including small neutron bombs, nuclear mines and shells
suited
to commando warfare in Afghanistan.(29) In late
September, 2001, Bush
and Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed that the U.S. would
use
tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan while Putin would employ
nuclear
weapons against the Chechnyans.(30)
Describing the Pentagon's B-61-11 burrowing nuke bomb, George Smith
writes in the Village Voice: "Built ram tough with a heavy metal
casing
for smashing through the earth and concrete, the B-61 explodes with
the
force of an estimated 340,000 tons of TNT. It is lots of bang for
the
buck, literally two apocalypse bombs in one, a boosted plutonium
firecracker called the primary and a heavy hydrogen secondary for
that
good old-fashioned H-bomb fireball."(31)
Drought-stricken Afghanistan's underground water supply is now
contaminated by these nuclear weapons.(32) Experts
with the Uranium
Medical Research Center report that urine samples of Afghanis show
the
highest level of uranium ever recorded in a civilian population.
Afghani
soldiers and civilians are reported to have died after suffering
intractable vomiting, severe respiratory problems, internal bleeding
and
other symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning. Dead birds still
perched in trees are found partially melted with blood oozing from
their
mouths.(33)
Afghanistan's new president, Hamid Karzai, is a puppet installed
by
Washington. Under the protection of American soldiers, Karzai's
regime
is setting a new record for opium production. Both UN and U.S. reports
confirm that the huge Afghani opium harvest of 2002 makes Afghanistan
the world's leading opium producer.(34) Thanks
to nuclear weapons,
Afghanistan is now safe for the Bush-Cheney narcotics industry.(35)
ABC
News asserts that keeping the "peace" in Afghanistan will require
decades of allied occupation.(36) For years to
come, "peacekeepers" will
be eating, drinking and breathing the "hot" carcinogenic pollution
they
have helped the Pentagon inflict upon that nation for organized
crime.
As governor of Arkansas during the Iran-Contra era, Bill Clinton
laundered $multi-millions in cocaine profits for then vice-president
George Bush Sr.(37) As a partner in the Bush
family's notorious crime
machine, President Clinton committed U.S. troops to NATO's campaign
in
the Balkans, a prime heroin production and trans-shipment area.
DOD's
campaign to control and reorganize the drug trade there for the
Bush
mafia was yet another nuclear project.
For years, the U.S. and NATO fired DU missiles, bullets and shells
across the Balkans, nuking the peoples of Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
As
DU munitions were slammed into chemical plants, the environment
became
hideously toxic, also endangering the peoples of Albania, Macedonia,
Greece, Italy, Austria and Hungary. By 1999, UN investigators reported
that an estimated 12 tons of DU had caused irreparable damage to
the
Yugoslavian environment, with agriculture, livestock and air water,
and
public health all profoundly damaged.(38)
Scientists confirm that citizens of the Balkans are excreting uranium
in
their urine.(39) In 2001, a Yugoslavian pathologist
reported that hundreds
of Bosnians have died of cancer from NATO's DU bombardment.(40)
Many
NATO peacekeepers in the Balkans now suffer ill health. Their leukemias,
cancers and other maladies are dubbed the "Balkans Syndrome." Richard
Coghill predicts that DU weapons used in Balkans campaign will result
in
at least 10,000 cases of fatal cancer.(41)
U.S. citizens at home are also paying a heavy price for criminal
militarism gone mad. DOD is a pollution monster. The General Accounting
Office (GAO) found 9,181 dangerous military sites in USA that will
require $billions to rehabilitate. The GAO reports that DOD has
been
both slothful and deceitful in its clean-up obligations.(42)
The
Pentagon is now pressing Congress to exempt it from all environmental
laws so that it may pollute and poison free from liability.(43)
The Navy uses prime fishing grounds off the coast of Washington state
to
test fire DU ammunition. In January, Washington State Rep. Jim McDermott
chastised the Navy: "On one hand you have required soldiers to have
DU
safety training and to wear protective gear when handling DU...and
submarines must stay clear of DU-contaminated waters. These policies
indicate there is cause for concern....On the other hand the Department
of Defense has repeatedly denied that DU poses any danger whatsoever.
There has been no remorse about leaving tons of DU equipment in
the soil
in foreign countries, and there appears to be no remorse about leaving
it in the waters of your own country."(44)
DU has been used in military practice maneuvers in Indiana, Florida,
New
Mexico, Massachusetts, Maryland and Puerto Rico. After the Navy
tested
DU weaponry on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, one third of
the
island's population developed serious illness. Many people show
high
levels of uranium in their bodies. Hundreds have filed a class action
suit against the Navy for $100 million, claiming DU contamination
has
caused widespread cancers.(45)
The Navy's Fallon Naval Air Station near Fallon, Nevada, is a quagmire
of 26 toxic waste sites. It is also a target practice zone for DU
bombs
and missiles. Area residents report bizarre illnesses, including
17
children who have contracted leukemia within five years. A survey
of
groundwater in the Fallon area showed nearly half of area wells
are
contaminated with radioactive materials.(46)
The materials for DU weaponry have been processed mainly at three
nuclear plants in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, where workers handling
uranium contaminated with plutonium have suffered for decades with
cancers and debilitating maladies similar to Gulf War Syndrome.(47)
Emboldened by power-grabbing successes made possible by his
administration's devious 9-11 project, President Bush asserts that
the
U.S. has the right to attack any nation it deems a potential threat.
He
told West Point in 2002, "If we wait for threats to fully materialize,
we will have waited too long."(48) Thus, it is
certain that Bush-Cheney
future pre-emptive nuclear wars are lined up like idling jets on
a
runway. Both Cheney's Halliburton Corp. and the Bush family's Carlyle
Group are profiteers in U.S. defense contracts, so endless war is
just
good business.(49)
The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon will create special
nuclear weapons for use on North Korea's underground nuclear
facilities.(50) Next August, U.S. war makers
will meet to consolidate
plans for a new generation of "mini," "micro" and "tiny" nuclear
bombs
and bunker busters. These will be added to the U.S. arsenal perhaps
for
use against non-nuclear third-world nations such as Iran, Syria,
Lebanon.(51)
The solution? Americans must stop electing ruthless criminals to
rule
this nation. We must convince fellow citizens that villains like
Saddam
Hussein are made in the U.S. as rationale for endless corporate
war
profits. Saddam was placed in power by the CIA.(52)
For years U.S.
government agencies, under auspices of George Bush Sr., supplied
him
with chemical and biological weapons.(53) Our
national nuclear
laboratories, along with Unisys, Dupont and Hewlett-Packard, sold
Saddam
materials for his nuclear program.(54) Dick Cheney
was CEO of
Halliburton in the late 90s when its subsidiaries signed $73 million
in
new contracts to further supply Saddam.(55) The
wicked villain of Iraq
was nurtured for decades as a cash-cow by U.S. military-industrial
piranhas.
If America truly supports its troops, it must stop sending them into
nuclear holocaust for the enrichment of thugs. Time is running out.
If
the DU-maniacs at the Pentagon and their coven of nuclear arms peddlers
are not harnessed, America will have no able-bodied fighting forces
left. All people of the earth will become grossly ill, hideously
deformed and short- lived. We must succeed in the critical imperative
to
face reality and act decisively. Should we fail, there will be no
place
to hide from Bush-Cheney's merciless nuclear orgies yet to come
or from
the inevitable nuclear retaliation these orgies will surely breed.
Endnotes
1."DOD Launches Depleted Uranium Training,"
Linda Kozaryn, American
Forces Press Service, 8-13-99.
2."Nukes of the Gulf War,"John Shirley,
Zess@aol.com.
See this article
in archives at www.gulfwarvets.com.
3. BBC News, "US To Use Depleted Uranium," March
18, 2003; U.S. General
Accounting Office, Operation Desert Storm: "Early Performance Assessment
of Bradley and Abrams," 1-2-92.
4."Nukes of the Gulf War," op. cit.
5. Ibid.
6. "Invading Hiroshima," William Thomas, 2-4-2003,
www.willthomas.net
and http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/DU-Hiroshima.html
7. "US Shells Leave Lethal Legacy," Toronto
Star, July 31, 1999; also
"Radiation Tests for Peacekeepers in the Balkans Exposed to Depleted
Uranium," www.telegraph.co.uk, 12-31-02.
8. "Depleted Uranium May Stop Kidneys
In Days," Rob Edwards, New
Scientist.com, 3-12-02; also "Uranium Weapons Too Hot to Handle," Rob
Edwards, New Scientist.co.uk, 6-9-99.
9. "Navy Seeks Cash for More Tomahawks," David
Rennie in Washington,
Telegraph Group Limited, 1-4-03, news.telegraph.co.uk.
10. "Going Nuclear in Iraq--DU Cancers Mount
Daily," Ramzi Kysia,
CounterPunch.org, 12-31-01.
11."Depleted Uranium Symptoms Match US Report
As Fears Spread," Peter
Beaumont, The Observer (UK) 1-14-01, www.guardianlimited.co.uk.
12. "Gulf War Illnesses Affect 300,000 Vets,"
Ellen Tomson, Pioneer
Press, www.pioneerplanet.com. See also American Gulf War Veterans
Association at www.gulfwarvets.com.
13. "2 of Every 5 Gulf War Vets Are On Disability:
209,000 Make VA
Claims," World Net Daily, 1-28-03, WorldNetDaily.com.
14. "Research on Sick Gulf Vets Revisited, "New York
Times, 1-29-01;
"Tests Show Gulf War Victims Have Uranium Poisoning," Jonathon
Carr-Brown and Martin Meissonnier, The Sunday Times (UK) 9-3-02.
15. "Catastrophe: Ill Gulf Vets Contaminated
Partners With DU," The
Halifax Herald Limited, Clare Mellor, 2-09-01. This article is available
in archives at www.rense.com.
du-diagnosis.html
16. "Iraqi Cancer, Birth Defects Blamed on
US Depleted Uranium," Seattle
Post- Intelligencer, 11-12-02; "US Depleted Uranium Yields Chamber
of
Horrors in Southern Iraq, Andy Kershaw, The Independent (London) 12-4-01.
17. "The Environmental and Human Health Impacts
of the Gulf War Region
with Special References to Iraq," Ross Mirkarimi, The Arms Control
Research Centre, May 1992. See also Gulf War Syndrome Birth Defects
in
Iraq at www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/extremedeformities.html.
18. "The
Tiny Victims of Desert Storm, Has Our Country Abandoned Them?,"
Life Magazine, November 1995; "Birth Defects Killing Gulf War Babies,"
Los Angeles Times, 11-14-94; "Depleted Uranium, The Lingering Poison,"
Alex Kirby, BBC News Online, 6-7-99.
19. "Depleted Uranium, A Killer Disaster,"
Travis Dunn, Disaster
News.net, 12-29-02.
20. San Francisco Chronicle, 10-10-02.
21. "US To Use Depleted Uranium," BBC News, 3-18-03.
22. "Depleted Uranium Symptoms Match US Report As
Fears Spread," Peter
Beaumont, The Observer (UK) 1-14-01.
23. "Iraqi Cancer, Birth Defects Blamed on US Depleted
Uranium," Seattle
Post- Intelligencer, 11-12-02.
24. "US To Use Depleted Uranium," BBC News, 3-18-03.
25. US Army Environmental Policy Institute: Health
and Environmental
Consequences of Depleted Uranium in the U.S. Army, Technical Report,
June 1995.
26. "Pentagon Depleted Uranium No Health Risk," Dr.
Doug Rokke, 3-15-03;
also "The Terrible, Tragic Toll of Depleted Uranium," Address by Dr.
Rokke before congressional leaders in Washington, D.C.,12-30-02; also
"Gulf War Casualties," Dr. Doug Rokke, www.traprockpeace.org.
9-30-02.
27."Tests Show Gulf War Victims Have Uranium Poisoning,"
Sunday Times
(UK), Jonathon Carr-Brown and Martin Meissonnier, 9-3-00.
28. "The Pentagon's Radioactive Bullet: An Investigative
Report," Bill
Mesler, The Nation, 5-28-99,
see www.thenation.com/issue/961021/1021mesl.htm.
29. "Tactical Nukes Deployed In Afghanistan," World
Net Daily, 10-7-01.
30. Ibid.
31. "The B-61 Bomb,The Burrowing Nuke" George Smith,VillageVoice.com
12-29-02.; also "Bunker-busting US Tactical Nuclear Bombs, Nowhere
to
Hide," Kennedy Grey, Wired.com, 10-9-01.
32."Perpetual Death From America," Mohammed Daud
Miraki, Afghan-American
Interviews, 2-24-03; also "Dying of Thirst," Fred Pearce, New Scientist,
11-17-2001.
33. Ibid.
34. "Afghanistan Displaces Myanmar as Top Heroin Producer,"
Agence
France-Presse, 3-01-03. This article is at www.copvcia.com.;also
"Opium
Trade Flourishing In the `New Afghanistan,'" Reuters, 3-3-03.
35. "The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire," Michael C.
Ruppert, Nexus Magazine,
February-March 2000; The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the
Global Drug Trade, Alfred W. McCoy, Lawrence Hill & Co., revised
edition
due May 2003; Drugging of America, Rodney Stich, Diablo Western Press,
1999; "Blood for Oil, Drugs for Arms," Bob Djurdjevic, Truth In Media,
April 2000, www.truthinmedia.org.
36. ABC News, February 27, 2003
37. Compromised, Clinton Bush and the CIA, Terry Reed
and John Cummings,
S.P.I. Books, 1994; The Clinton Chronicles and The Mena Cover-up,
Citizens for Honest Government, 1996; "The Crimes of Mena, Grey Money,"
Ozark Gazette, 1995 (see www.copvcia.com.)
38. "Damage to Yugoslav Environment is Immense, Says
a UN Report," Bob
Djurdjevic, 7-4-99, truthinmedia.org. This report was submitted to
the
UN Security Council on June 9, 1999; also, "New Depleted Uranium Study
Shows Clear Damage," BBC News,8-28-99; also "NATO Issued Warning About
Toxic Ammo," Associated Press, 01-08-01.
39. CounterPunch.org,
12-28-01.
40. "Hundreds Died of Cancer After DU Bombing--Doctor,"
Reuters, 1-13-01.
41."Depleted Uranium Threatens Balkan Cancer Epidemic,"
BBC News, 7-30-99.
42. "Many Defense Sites Still Hazardous," Associated
Press, 9-24-02;
also Old US Weapons Called Hidden Danger, Los Angeles Times, 11-25-02.
43. "Pentagon Seeks Freedom to Pollute Land, Air and
Sea," Andrew Gumbel
in L.A., 3-13-03, Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.
44. "Radioactive DU Ammo Is Tested in Fish Areas,"
Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, 1-11-03; Letter from Rep. McDermott to Department
of
the Navy: see "Navy Fired DU Rounds Into Waters Off Coast of
Washington," 1-20-03, rense.com.
45."Cancer Rates Soar From US Military Use of DU
On `Enchanted Island,'"
www.telegraph.co.uk, 2-5-01; also "Navy Shells With Depleted Uranium
Fired in Puerto Rico," Fox News Online, 5-28-99.
46. "The Fallon, NV Cancer Cluster And a US Navy Bombing,"
Jeffrey St.
Clair, CounterPunch.org,
8-10-02.
47. "DU Shells Are Made of A Potentially Lethal Cocktail
of Nuclear
Waste," Jonathon Carr-Brown, www.sunday-times.co.uk,
1-22-01.
48. "Preventative War Sets Perilous Precedent," Helen
Thomas, Hearst
Newspapers, 3-20-03.
49. PIGS at the Trough, Arriana Huffington, Random
House, 2003 (New York
Times best seller.); also "The Best Enemies Money Can Buy, From Hitler
to Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden Insider Connections and the Bush
Family's Partnership With Killers of Americans;" Mike Ruppert, From
the
Wilderness,10-10-01; also "Bush Sr.'s Carlyle Group Gets Fat on War
and
Conflict," Jamie Doward, The Observer (UK), 3-25-03; also "Halliburton
Wins Contract for Iraq Oil Firefighting, Reuters, 3-7-03; also "Cashing
In-Fortunes in Profits Await Bush Circle After Iraq War, Andrew Gumbel,
The Independent (London) 9-15-02; also "War Could Be Big Business for
Halliburton," Reuters, 3-23-03.
50. "Pentagon Seeks a Nuclear Digger," Washington
Post, March 10, 2003.
51. "Remember: Bush Planned Iraq War Before Taking
Office," Neil Mackay,
The Sunday Herald (UK) 3-27-03; also "US Mini-Nukes Alarm Scientists,"
The Guardian (UK) 4-18-01; also "US Nuclear First-Strike Plan--It Keeps
Getting Scarier, Jeffrey Steinberg, Executive Intelligence Review,
2-24-03.
52. Wall Street Journal, 8-16-90: The CIA supported
the Baath Party and
installed Hussein as Iraqi dictator in 1968.
53. "United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their
Impact on the
Health of Persian Gulf War Veterans," Senate Committee on Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs, 1992, 1994; "U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq
Buildup," Washington Post, 12-30-02.
54. "US Government, 24 US Corps Illegally Helped Iraq
Build Its WMD,"
Hugh Williamson in Berlin, Financial Times, 12-19-02; "Full List of
US
Weapons Suppliers To Iraq," Anu de Monterice, coachanu@earthlink.net,
12-19-02.
55. Huffington, op. cit.
Amy Worthington is a reporter for The Idaho Observer
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Gulf-war syndrome
The
fog of war Aug 21st 2003 From The Economist
As casualties from the war in Iraq mount, a battle is still raging
over the
causes of Gulf-war-related illnesses
WAR is not a healthy business. Since hostilities began in March, more
than 330
American and British soldiers have died in Iraq. All such losses are
regrettable, but two deaths in particular are a puzzle. They were among
18
servicemen who have developed severe pneumonia in the past six months,
part of
a wider but milder outbreak that has affected another 74 American soldiers.
Pneumonia is no stranger to army life, so these 90-odd cases are not
surprising. What is unusual is the seriousness of the 18 cases, says
Greg Gray,
an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa. This mystery pneumonia
has put
healthy warriors on breathing machines. And although pneumonia can
be
infectious, there is no sign that soldiers are spreading it to each
other;
indeed, the severe cases are found in units deployed as far apart as
Iraq,
Kuwait, Qatar, Djibouti and Uzbekistan.
American army medical teams are trying to track down the cause of this
outbreak. Patients have been given questionnaires to see if they share
any
medical history or subtle physiological features. Researchers from
the Centres
for Disease Control and Prevention are working with the army on blood
and
sputum tests to screen victims for a range of bacteria, viruses, fungi
and
parasites, as well as signs of auto-immune abnormalities.
Commentary
"The fog of war"
Explaining
Gulf-war syndrome May 18th 2000
Iraq, United States
Health, War in Iraq, Wars
The Gulf War Veteran Resource Pages, America's Centers for Disease Control
and the Division of Epidemiology at Southwestern Medical Centre publish
information on the topic.
The patients do not share a common occupation and tests seem to have
eliminated
microbial suspects such as the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and
Legionnaires' disease, as well as the SARS virus and Hantavirus. One
interesting finding, says Dr Gray, is that roughly half the severe
pneumonia
cases have elevated levels of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell
normally
associated with fungal or parasitic infections. Army officials believe
that
pathogens, or other environmental factors, are more likely causes than
biological or chemical weapons.
Despite the mystery, rooting out the cause of these pneumonias will
be easier
than unravelling the epidemiological enigma of the 1991 Iraq war: Gulf-war
syndrome (GWS). GWS refers to an odd assortment of symptoms—joint pain,
fatigue, headache, memory and sleep problems—reported by thousands
of Gulf-war
veterans in several countries. Although many cases have been explained
by post-
traumatic stress disorder, roughly a fifth remain undiagnosed.
As Simon Wessely, a researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry in London,
points
out, there is no question that the symptoms of GWS are genuine. The
problem is
that—despite over a decade of research in many countries and more than
$200m
spent in America alone—most experts are hard-pressed to come up with
a clear
definition of a unique syndrome that can explain them. Or a particular
cause to
account for them—be it vaccines against biological agents, nerve-gas
antidotes
or depleted uranium from shell casings.
Certainly, some well-defined diseases have cropped up. Ronald Horner,
a
researcher at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and
Stroke in
Maryland, found that 1991 Gulf-war veterans have twice the risk of
developing
amylotrophic lateral sclerosis, an extremely rare and fatal neuro-degenerative
condition, compared with soldiers outside the region. GWS, though,
is far less
clear-cut than this.
One answer may be found in the work of Craig Hyams, at the United States
Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, DC. He has looked at military
illnesses through history and found similar complaints as far back
as the
American civil war. Might GWS be just a modern-day version of the traditional
impact of war?
Robert Haley, a researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Centre in Dallas, thinks not. He reckons that GWS is a defined physiological
disorder caused by exposure to chemical weapons. Dr Haley's research,
using
magnetic resonance spectroscopy, has shown biochemical differences
in parts of
the brain called the basal ganglia and brainstem. He argues these are
a sign of
damage varying according to the type of trouble experienced by veterans,
be it
memory loss or body pain. Dr Haley's research has also shown that sick
and well
Gulf-war veterans have different levels of a key blood enzyme called
para-
oxonase. He contends that this may make particular soldiers more vulnerable
to
the effects of some nasty chemicals.
Many researchers, however, question Dr Haley's work. In part, this is
because
his tests were performed on only 43 servicemen (23 of whom were ill).
This is a
rather small study group, and further work is now under way to replicate
these
studies in larger groups of soldiers. Researchers at several army and
navy
medical centres, the Institute of Medicine and the General Accounting
Office
are also investigating exposure to chemical weapons. Of particular
interest is
a place called Khamisiyah, an Iraqi munitions dump blown up by American
soldiers in 1991 and later found to include rockets loaded with sarin,
a deadly
chemical. How much sarin was released, how far it spread, how many
soldiers
were exposed and what sort of medical problems they have encountered
are all
matters of debate.
Although many scientists and defence officials on both sides of the
Atlantic
dispute the very existence of GWS, allied forces in the recent Iraqi
war did
err on the safe side. Britain, for example, changed its vaccination
schedule
for soldiers, giving more jabs before troops were deployed rather than
in the
field. The use of the whooping-cough vaccine was also eliminated. This
was used
in the first Gulf war to boost the action of anthrax vaccine. It has
been
suggested that this combination of jabs may be linked to some symptoms
of GWS.
In addition, “combat stress teams”, including social workers and psychologists,
have been sent out with the troops to help them deal with the physical
and
mental pressures of the conflict.
The biggest change for both forces was better information management.
One of
the greatest obstacles to solving the puzzle of GWS has been a lack
of reliable
data. This time round, both armies have tried to improve the way they
brief
soldiers on health risks, and have kept medical records up-to-date.
Health
assessments have already begun on those who have returned.
Environmental surveillance technicians have also been sent to Iraq,
with
portable kits to test encampments for chemical contaminants. And soil,
air and
water samples have been sent back for analysis. There is also a network
of
medics carrying portable handheld computers at the front line, and
doctors with
laptops in field hospitals. This information is analysed using software
which
automatically detects unusual patterns of illness.
At the very least, these measures will help epidemiologists to work
out the
cause of the pneumonia outbreak. They should be of use in picking up
emerging
medical problems, including symptoms associated with GWS. Dr Hyams
has no doubt
that this year's conflict, like those before it, will throw up some
baffling
illnesses, given the “horrific and varied exposures” of war. No matter
who or
what the enemy is, forewarned is forearmed.
Subject: Re: [DU-WATCH] Gulf war syndrome
- the fog of war
Date: Fri, 22
Aug 2003 09:55:42 +0800
From: Max Whisson
<symbiont@bigpond.com>
Reply-To: du-watch@yahoogroups.com
To:
<du-watch@yahoogroups.com>
"The fog of war": endlessly
elaborate
obfuscation of the Gulf War
Syndrome
This piece from the Economist on the "mysterious" illnesses in people
returning from Iraq is yet another example of the endlessly elaborate
obfuscation of the Gulf War Syndrome. Extensive investigations conducted
at
great expense by many experts are detailed. There is just one omission:
there is no record of any investigation which could reveal depleted
uranium
in the bodies of those affected!
To be specific, there is no record of the measurement of radioactivity
in
sputum, blood, or tissues. DU emits short range alpha particles
and the
daughter elements emit short range beta particles. This radioactivity
is
extremely damaging when inside body cells but is hard to detect.
It has a
very short range (most less than 20 microns) and the radioactivity
is
emitted at a very slow rate, so that sensitive detection methods
are needed.
The most appropriate method is probably autoradiography with a long
exposure
time (eg 3 months). So special techniques are needed to detect DU
in the
body. This does not mean however that such techniques are complicated
or
difficult. They are very easy for many laboratories. They are not
done
simply because to search for DU in people is very actively suppressed.
In
this way the consequences of the criminal distribution of aerosolised
DU can
continue to be presented as a "mystery".
And this focus on victims of Gulf War Syndrome is a further obfuscation.
All
the people of the invaded territories are at much greater risk.
Their high
cancer rates and the high rates of foetal abnormalities are also
actively
suppressed. The incarceration of DR. HUDA AMMASH in April by US
military
authorities in Baghdad is almost certainly aimed at suppressing
her
scientific findings on war related illness in Iraq. It is difficult
to not
to come to a similar conclusion about the purpose of explosion under
the
office of the head of the UN in Baghdad this week. Among a wide
range of
activities to help the Iraqi people recover, the UN was investigating
the
effects of widespread radioactivity.
Max Whisson |