http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=10745

Last week, the U.S. military placed an order for $38 million in depleted uranium 
rounds, bringing the total amount of the order from a West-Virginia Based 
company to $77 million for fiscal year 2006.

The new order was placed with Alliant Techsystems for 120-mm ammunition. Once 
the new deal is completed, the company will have produced 35,000 rounds for the 
U.S. army. In a statement, the company making the deadly weapon said: "Its 
state-of-the-art composite sabot, propellant, and penetrator technologies give 
it outstanding accuracy and lethality."

The Pentagon uses depleted uranium in its rounds because it says that it is 
extremely effective in penetrating heavy armor. But critics of these 
controversial munitions believe that inhaling the radioactive dust left by the 
highly combustible weapon causes cancer and birth defects.

Depleted uranium remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years. The byproduct of 
manufacturing nuclear weapons or reactors contaminate water and soil.
It also poses a more serious threat when it is inhaled and absorbed into the 
human body. Studies show that DU can remain in human organs for years.

    * Gulf War 

According to an editorial on The Guardian, the depleted uranium (DU) used in the 
first Gulf War led to a significant increase in the levels of childhood 
leukaemia and birth defects in Iraq.

In 1991, the U.S. and its allies blasted a number of tanks, armored personnel 
carriers and other military vehicles with armor-piercing shells made of depleted 
uranium -- the first time such deadly weapons had been used in warfare -- as the 
Iraqi soldiers retreated from Kuwait. Now, almost 15 years after the end of the 
Gulf War, the highway where the tanks were blasted remains a radioactive toxic 
wasteland, some experts even call it the "Highway of Death.”

An article on The Seattle Post-Intelligencer states that “many researchers 
outside Iraq, and several U.S. veterans organizations, agree; they also suspect 
depleted uranium of playing a role in Gulf War Syndrome, the still-unexplained 
malady that has plagued hundreds of thousands of Gulf War veterans."

In the “Highway of Death” in Iraq, radiation levels register 1,000 times normal 
background radiation levels. Tedd Weymann, deputy head of the Uranium Medical 
Research Centre (UMRC), said: “At one point the readings were so high that an 
alarm on one of my instruments went off telling me to get back. Yet despite 
these alarmingly high levels of radiation children play on the tanks or close 
by.'

    * Iraq War 

The exact amount of DU used during the 2003 Iraq war hasn’t been revealed, but 
some experts estimate it was more than a thousand tons used in more than 51 
sites across the country. An Iraqi tank destroyed by the U.S. weapon in Basra, 
where UK forces are stationed, registered 2,500 times normal background 
radiation. In the surrounding area, researchers recorded radioactivity levels 20 
times higher than normal.

In 2003, Human Rights Watch said that hundreds of “preventable” civilian deaths 
in Iraq have been caused by the use of cluster bombs by U.S. and UK occupation 
forces. Experts also called for the water and milk being used by Iraqi civilians 
in Basra, where more than 1 million people live, to be monitored after analysis 
of biological and soil samples from area found 'the highest number, highest 
levels and highest concentrations of radioactive source points' in the Basra 
suburb of Abu Khasib, the centre of the fiercest battles between British troops 
and Saddam loyalists.

British Professor Brian Spratt, who head a Royal Society working group on the 
hazards of DU, said: “British and U.S. forces need to acknowledge that DU is a 
potential hazard and make inroads into tackling it by being open about where and 
how much has been deployed. Fragments of DU penetrators are potentially 
hazardous, and should be removed, and areas of contamination around impact sites 
identified. Impact sites in residential areas should be a particular priority. 
Long-term monitoring of water and milk to detect any increase in uranium levels 
should also be introduced in Iraq.”

The U.S. and its allies committed another war crime in Fallujah, which witnessed 
a bloody offensive in 2004. Residents, mainly civilians, were subject to 
bombardment by napalm, depleted uranium shells, phosphorus bombs (a weapon that 
is illegal if used against civilians). The use of such banned weapons makes the 
U.S. responsible for the same crimes that the toppled Iraqi President Saddam 
Hussein is accused of.

    * “Crime against humanity” 

The U.S. military acknowledges the deadly impacts of depleted uranium in a 
training manual, which requires anyone who come within 25 meters of any 
DU-contaminated equipment to wear respiratory and skin protection, warning that 
“contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption”.

Dr. Doug Rokke, a Vietnam and Gulf War combat veteran, is an outspoken opponent 
of the use of DU munitions. "DU is the stuff of nightmares," he said. “Verified 
adverse health effects from personal experience, physicians and from personal 
reports from individuals with known DU exposures include reactive airway 
disease, neurological abnormalities, kidney stones and chronic kidney pain, 
rashes, vision degradation and night vision losses, lymphoma, various forms of 
skin and organ cancer, neuropsychological disorders, uranium in semen, sexual 
dysfunction and birth defects in offspring… This whole thing is a crime against 
God and humanity."

In addition to Iraq, DU munitions were used in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia in 
1999. In the same year, a UN sub-commission considered DU hazardous enough to 
call for an initiative banning its use worldwide. The initiative has remained in 
committee, primarily blocked by the U.S., according to Karen Parker, a lawyer 
with the International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project, which 
has consultative status at the United Nations.

“Since 1991, numerous U.S. Department of Defense reports have said that the 
consequences of DU were unknown," Rokke said. "That is a lie. We warned them in 
1991 after the Gulf War, but because of liability issues, they continue to 
ignore the problem."

"Their arrogance is beyond comprehension," he said. "We have spread radioactive 
waste all over the place and refused medical treatment to people“.

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=10745

Deadly Legacy (Flash)
http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html

Alan

"Nemesis, winged one that tips the scales of life,
dark-eyed goddess, daughter of Justice,
you restrain the futile pride of mortals with your unyielding bridle and,
hating hurtful vanity, destroy black envy: below your wheel,
always moving but leaving no trace, the fortune of man turns.

Unseen, you come at once to defeat arrogance;
by your hand you gauge the span of life, and, frowning,
you scrutinise the thoughts of men, you always hold the balance.
Be merciful, hallowed judge, winged Nemesis, life's force.                       

We honour you, Nemesis, immortal goddess,                                        
 
victory incarnate with wings unfurled, faultless,                                
sharing the throne of Justice; you resent human vanity 
and banish men to Tartarus below"

Nemesis Peace Centre

http://www.veloceraptor.free-online.co.uk/protector.html

Abuse of Women and Children

http://theoriginalfirebird.blogspot.com/

Nemesis News

http://lordcerneabbas.blogspot.com/

The Fight For Freedom

http://lordcerneabbastoo.blogspot.com/

We are all irradiated by exposure to natural radiation through our food and 
just living

What extra dose/risk is attributable to DU compared to say exposure to 
Radon?

Your views please


"Alan"  wrote in message 
news:memo.20060304080338.556A@veloceraptor.free-online.co.uk...
> http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=10745
>
> Last week, the U.S. military placed an order for $38 million in depleted 
> uranium
> rounds, bringing the total amount of the order from a West-Virginia Based
> company to $77 million for fiscal year 2006.
>
> The new order was placed with Alliant Techsystems for 120-mm ammunition. 
> Once
> the new deal is completed, the company will have produced 35,000 rounds 
> for the
> U.S. army. In a statement, the company making the deadly weapon said: "Its
> state-of-the-art composite sabot, propellant, and penetrator technologies 
> give
> it outstanding accuracy and lethality."
>
> The Pentagon uses depleted uranium in its rounds because it says that it 
> is
> extremely effective in penetrating heavy armor. But critics of these
> controversial munitions believe that inhaling the radioactive dust left by 
> the
> highly combustible weapon causes cancer and birth defects.
>
> Depleted uranium remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years. The byproduct 
> of
> manufacturing nuclear weapons or reactors contaminate water and soil.
> It also poses a more serious threat when it is inhaled and absorbed into 
> the
> human body. Studies show that DU can remain in human organs for years.
>
>    * Gulf War
>
> According to an editorial on The Guardian, the depleted uranium (DU) used 
> in the
> first Gulf War led to a significant increase in the levels of childhood
> leukaemia and birth defects in Iraq.
>
> In 1991, the U.S. and its allies blasted a number of tanks, armored 
> personnel
> carriers and other military vehicles with armor-piercing shells made of 
> depleted
> uranium -- the first time such deadly weapons had been used in warfare --  
> as the
> Iraqi soldiers retreated from Kuwait. Now, almost 15 years after the end 
> of the
> Gulf War, the highway where the tanks were blasted remains a radioactive 
> toxic
> wasteland, some experts even call it the "Highway of Death."
>
> An article on The Seattle Post-Intelligencer states that "many researchers
> outside Iraq, and several U.S. veterans organizations, agree; they also 
> suspect
> depleted uranium of playing a role in Gulf War Syndrome, the 
> still-unexplained
> malady that has plagued hundreds of thousands of Gulf War veterans."
>
> In the "Highway of Death" in Iraq, radiation levels register 1,000 times 
> normal
> background radiation levels. Tedd Weymann, deputy head of the Uranium 
> Medical
> Research Centre (UMRC), said: "At one point the readings were so high that 
> an
> alarm on one of my instruments went off telling me to get back. Yet 
> despite
> these alarmingly high levels of radiation children play on the tanks or 
> close
> by.'
>
>    * Iraq War
>
> The exact amount of DU used during the 2003 Iraq war hasn't been revealed, 
> but
> some experts estimate it was more than a thousand tons used in more than 
> 51
> sites across the country. An Iraqi tank destroyed by the U.S. weapon in 
> Basra,
> where UK forces are stationed, registered 2,500 times normal background
> radiation. In the surrounding area, researchers recorded radioactivity 
> levels 20
> times higher than normal.
>
> In 2003, Human Rights Watch said that hundreds of "preventable" civilian 
> deaths
> in Iraq have been caused by the use of cluster bombs by U.S. and UK 
> occupation
> forces. Experts also called for the water and milk being used by Iraqi 
> civilians
> in Basra, where more than 1 million people live, to be monitored after 
> analysis
> of biological and soil samples from area found 'the highest number, 
> highest
> levels and highest concentrations of radioactive source points' in the 
> Basra
> suburb of Abu Khasib, the centre of the fiercest battles between British 
> troops
> and Saddam loyalists.
>
> British Professor Brian Spratt, who head a Royal Society working group on 
> the
> hazards of DU, said: "British and U.S. forces need to acknowledge that DU 
> is a
> potential hazard and make inroads into tackling it by being open about 
> where and
> how much has been deployed. Fragments of DU penetrators are potentially
> hazardous, and should be removed, and areas of contamination around impact 
> sites
> identified. Impact sites in residential areas should be a particular 
> priority.
> Long-term monitoring of water and milk to detect any increase in uranium 
> levels
> should also be introduced in Iraq."
>
> The U.S. and its allies committed another war crime in Fallujah, which 
> witnessed
> a bloody offensive in 2004. Residents, mainly civilians, were subject to
> bombardment by napalm, depleted uranium shells, phosphorus bombs (a weapon 
> that
> is illegal if used against civilians). The use of such banned weapons 
> makes the
> U.S. responsible for the same crimes that the toppled Iraqi President 
> Saddam
> Hussein is accused of.
>
>    * "Crime against humanity"
>
> The U.S. military acknowledges the deadly impacts of depleted uranium in a
> training manual, which requires anyone who come within 25 meters of any
> DU-contaminated equipment to wear respiratory and skin protection, warning 
> that
> "contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption".
>
> Dr. Doug Rokke, a Vietnam and Gulf War combat veteran, is an outspoken 
> opponent
> of the use of DU munitions. "DU is the stuff of nightmares," he said. 
> "Verified
> adverse health effects from personal experience, physicians and from 
> personal
> reports from individuals with known DU exposures include reactive airway
> disease, neurological abnormalities, kidney stones and chronic kidney 
> pain,
> rashes, vision degradation and night vision losses, lymphoma, various 
> forms of
> skin and organ cancer, neuropsychological disorders, uranium in semen, 
> sexual
> dysfunction and birth defects in offspring. This whole thing is a crime 
> against
> God and humanity."
>
> In addition to Iraq, DU munitions were used in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia 
> in
> 1999. In the same year, a UN sub-commission considered DU hazardous enough 
> to
> call for an initiative banning its use worldwide. The initiative has 
> remained in
> committee, primarily blocked by the U.S., according to Karen Parker, a 
> lawyer
> with the International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project, 
> which
> has consultative status at the United Nations.
>
> "Since 1991, numerous U.S. Department of Defense reports have said that 
> the
> consequences of DU were unknown," Rokke said. "That is a lie. We warned 
> them in
> 1991 after the Gulf War, but because of liability issues, they continue to
> ignore the problem."
>
> "Their arrogance is beyond comprehension," he said. "We have spread 
> radioactive
> waste all over the place and refused medical treatment to people".
>
> http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=10745
>
> Deadly Legacy (Flash)
> http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html
>
> Alan
>
> "Nemesis, winged one that tips the scales of life,
> dark-eyed goddess, daughter of Justice,
> you restrain the futile pride of mortals with your unyielding bridle and,
> hating hurtful vanity, destroy black envy: below your wheel,
> always moving but leaving no trace, the fortune of man turns.
>
> Unseen, you come at once to defeat arrogance;
> by your hand you gauge the span of life, and, frowning,
> you scrutinise the thoughts of men, you always hold the balance.
> Be merciful, hallowed judge, winged Nemesis, life's force.
>
> We honour you, Nemesis, immortal goddess,
>
> victory incarnate with wings unfurled, faultless,
> sharing the throne of Justice; you resent human vanity
> and banish men to Tartarus below"
>
> Nemesis Peace Centre
>
> http://www.veloceraptor.free-online.co.uk/protector.html
>
> Abuse of Women and Children
>
> http://theoriginalfirebird.blogspot.com/
>
> Nemesis News
>
> http://lordcerneabbas.blogspot.com/
>
> The Fight For Freedom
>
> http://lordcerneabbastoo.blogspot.com/
>