Depleted Uranium: Read about the substance behind talk! (Fwd)

["glr" <glr_y@iol.it>]

From Ramsey Clark

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Wed, 10 Jan 2001 13:03:37 +0100
To:             	office@globalreflexion.org
From:           	Herman de Tollenaere <hermantl@stad.dsl.nl>
Subject:        	Fwd: Depleted Uranium: Read about the substance behind the
 	headlines

>From: iacenter@iacenter.org
>To: "Yugoslavia list" <iacenter@iacenter.org>
>Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 19:15:26 -0500
>Subject: Depleted Uranium: Read about the substance behind the headlines
>
>International Action Center
>39 West 14th St., #206, NY, NY 10011
>212-633-6646  Fax: 212-633-2889
>iacenter@iacenter.org
>www.iacenter.org
>Ramsey Clark, Chairperson
>
>January 9, 2001
>
>For Immediate release
>Press Contact: Deirdre Sinnott
>212-633-6646
>
>WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM?
>READ METAL OF DISHONOR TO SEE
>WHAT IS BEHIND THE HEADLINES
>
>The breaking news in Europe of troops from Italy, Belgium, Spain and
>Portugal who served in the Balkans dying of leukemia has reawakened
>interest in the dangers posed by depleted-uranium weapons.
>
>In April 1999, the International Action Center published the second
>edition of a book of essays and lectures on depleted uranium. Its title
>is Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium. The first edition had been
>published in 1997.
>
>The Peoples Video Network, in collaboration with the IAC, produced a
>50-minute-long video with the same title, Metal of Dishonor, that was
>favorably reviewed at film festivals in Italy.
>
>Both the book and the video can be ordered online at:
>http://www.leftbooks.com/online-store/scstore/c-Depleted_Uranium.html
>
>In addition to exposing the deadly duplicity of the Department of
>Defense, the book documents the genocide of Native Americans and
>Iraqis by military radiation, the connection between depleted uranium
>and Gulf War Syndrome, the underestimated dangers from low-level
>radiation, the legal ramifications of DU Production and Use, and the
>growing movement against DU.  (Table of Contents below)
>
>The Pentagon used DU weapons in Iraq in 1991, in Bosnia in 1995 and
>in Yugoslavia-especially in Kosovo-in 1999 in large enough amounts to
>have a significant impact on the environment. Besides endangering
>occupation troops it of course is a major environmental threat to the
>population of those regions.
>
>Of the 697,000 US troops who served in the Gulf, some 130,000 have
>reported medical problems ranging from respiratory, liver and kidney
>dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, low blood pressure, and
>birth defects among their newborn children.
>
>During the Gulf War, munitions and armor made with Depleted Uranium
>were used for the first time in combat history. Over 940,000 30-
>millimeter uranium tipped bullets and "more than 14,000 large caliber
>DU rounds were consumed during Operation Desert Storm/Desert
>Shield." (U.S. AEPI Report 1994) These largely untested weapons
>were used indiscriminately throughout the siege of Iraq with no concern
>for the health and environmental consequences of their use. Between
>300 and 800 tons of DU bullets are now scattered on the ground in Iraq
>and Kuwait.
>
>The Pentagon now admits to having fired over 18,000 DU shells in
>Bosnia and over 31,000 such shells in Kosovo.
>
>Up to 70% of the depleted uranium within these weapons aerosolizes
>on impact and as radioactive dust it is easily ingested. As a result,
>hundreds of thousands of people, both victims of war and combat
>soldiers, have suffered the effects of exposure to these highly toxic,
>radioactive weapons.
>
>WHAT IS DU?
>
>DU is a waste product of the process that produces enriched uranium
>for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. Much like natural
>uranium, it is both toxic and radioactive. Over a billion pounds of DU
>exists in the United States and must be safely stored or disposed of
>by the Department of Energy. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years, DU's
>radioactivity effectively lasts forever.
>
>DU is so abundant the government gives it away to arms
>manufacturers. Because it is extremely dense--1.7 times as dense as
>lead--when turned into a metal DU can be used to make a shell that
>easily penetrates steel. In addition it is pyrophoric--that is, when it
>strikes steel, heat from the friction causes it to burn.
>
>When DU burns, it spews tiny particles of poisonous and radioactive
>uranium oxide in aerosol form, which can then travel for miles in the
>wind. Humans can ingest or inhale the small particles. Even one
>particle, when lodged in a vital organ--which is most likely to happen
>from inhalation-- can cause illnesses from headaches to cancer.
>
>The Pentagon tested DU shells at various sites around the U.S. and
>used it in combat for the first time against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf
>War. It was very effective in destroying Iraqi tanks, as well as their
>occupants and anyone in the area. At least 600,000 pounds of DU and
>uranium dust was left around Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by U.S.
>and British forces during that war.
>
>Although the U.S. government and military continue to minimize the
>environmental and health dangers from depleted- uranium weapons,
>even they have to admit these dangers exist.
>
>DU is also considered at least a contributing cause to the 130,000
>reported cases of "Gulf War Syndrome." The chronic symptoms of this
>ailment range from sharp increases in cancers to memory loss,
>chronic pain, fatigue and birth defects in veterans' children.
>
>Dr. Mona Kammas is a professor of pathology at Baghdad University
>and director of a study of the environmental impact of U.S. aggression
>against Iraq. At the Gijon symposium, she reported on a paper that
>showed an almost five-fold increase in cancers, a more than three-fold
>increase in spontaneous abortions, and a nearly three-fold increase in
>congenital anomalies in a study group of those exposed to combat.
>
>The paper also reported on environmental damage due to the
>Pentagon's destruction of the water-supply and sanitation systems and
>the destruction of oil refineries and factories that used toxic chemicals
>in the production process.
>
>Iraqi researchers believe that the different relative frequency of various
>types of cancer now as compared with before 1990 in the Basra region
>was a significant indication of a major change, and that this pattern
>continuing long after the war indicated that DU's impact was long-
>lasting.
>
>Besides the contents listed below, the second edition of Metal of
>Dishonor has chapters reporting on a study from Iraq and from Bosnia,
>and a new chapter by Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a physicist and medical
>doctor who examined U.S. troops hit by DU "friendly fire."
>
>Both the book and the video can be ordered online at:
>http://www.leftbooks.com/online-store/scstore/c-Depleted_Uranium.html
>
>Contents
>What Government Documents Admit and What the Government is
>Telling Us
>Preface (full text)
>Acknowledgments
>Biographies of the Authors (full text)
>Section I: Introduction and Call to Action Against DU
>1. The Struggle for an Independent Inquiry (full text)
>By Sara Flounders, Organizer--International Action Center
>2. Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons (excerpt)
>By Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark
>3. A New Kind of Nuclear War (excerpt)
>By Dr. Helen Caldicott, Founder, Physicians for Social Responsibility
>4. International Appeal to Ban DU (full text)
>Section II: How DU Weapons Harmed Gulf War Veterans
>5. Collateral Damage: How U.S. Troops Were Exposed (excerpt)
>By Dan Fahey, Gulf War Syndrome activist researching DU use in the
>Gulf region
>6. Living With Gulf War Syndrome (excerpt)
>By Carole Picou, Veteran of Medical Unit on the Iraqi Front
>7. Another Human Experiment (exerpt)
>By Dolores Lymburner, National Organizer of the Depleted Uranium
>Citizens' Network
>Section III: The Politics of War and the Pentagon's Coverup
>8. A Tale of Two Syndromes: Vietnam and Gulf War (excerpt)
>By John Catalinotto, former organizer, American Servicemen's Union
>9. Military and Media Collaborate in Coverup of DU (excerpt)
>By Lenora Foerstal, N. American Coordinator, Women for Mutual
>Security; editor, Creating Surplus Population: the Effect of Military and
>Corporate Policies on Indigenous Peoples
>10. Burying the Past, Protecting DU Weapons for Future Wars
>(excerpt)
>By Tod Ensign, attorney; Director, Citizen Soldier
>11. 'National Security' Kept Atomic Veteran's Suffering a Secret
>(excerpt)
>By Pat Broudy, Legislative Director, National Associaion of Atomic
>Veterans and National Associaiton of Atomic Survivors
>12. A Bizarre Recycling Program--the Arrogance of Power (excerpt)
>By Alice Slater, President, Global Resource Action Center for the
>Environment
>Section IV: Indigenous Peoples Victimized by Military Radiation
>13. Uranium Development on Indian Land (excerpt)
>By Manuel Pino, Environmental Activist
>14. Uranium, the Pentagon and the Navajo people (excerpt)
>By Anna Rondon, Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum
>15. Nuclear Testing, Government Secrecy and the Marshall Islanders
>(excerpt)
>By Glen Alcalay, anthropologist; National Committee for Radiation
>Victims
>16. Declaration of the Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit (excerpt)
>Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 5-8, 1996
>Section V: What Risks from Low-Level Radiation?
>17. Depleted Uranium: Huge Quantities of Dangerous Waste (excerpt)
>By Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, CUNY
>18. Nuclear Testing, Power Plants and a Breast Cancer Epidemic
>(excerpt)
>By Dr. Jay M. Gould, author, The Enemy Within
>19.Nine-Legged Frogs, Gulf War Syndrome, and Chernobyl Studies
>(excerpt)
>By Dr. Rosalie Bertell, GNSH, Founding Member/President,
>International Institute of Concern for Public Health; Editor in Chief,
>International Perspectives in Public Health.
>20. DU Spread and Contamination of Gulf War Veterans and Others
>(excerpt)
>By Leonard A. Dietz, physicist, charter member, American Society for
>Mass Spectrometry.
>Section VI: Environmental Cost of Gulf War to Iraquis and Others
>21. Gravesites: Environmental Ruin in Iraq (excerpt)
>By Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz, anthropologist; journalist, WBAI-NY
>22. DU Shells Make the Desert Glow (excerpt)
>By Dr. Eric Hoskins, Medical Coordinator, Harvard Study Team's
>surveys of health and welfare in postwar Iraq
>23. How DU Shell Residues Poison Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
>(excerpt)
>By Prof. Dr. Siegwart-Horst Guenther, Founder/President, Austrian
>Yellow Cross International
>24. Note From Permanent Mission of Iraq to UN Center for Human
>Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, May 21, 1996 (full text)
>25. U.S. First to Target Nuclear Reactor (excerpt)
>By Suzy T. Kane,Women's International League for Peace and
>Freedom; author, The Hidden History of the Persian Gulf War
>Section VII: Can a Legal Battle be Waged to Ban DU?
>26. The Role of Physicians in the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
>(excerpt)
>By Dr. Victor Sidel, Co-president, International Physicians for the 
>Prevention
>of Nuclear War; co-editor, War and Public Health
>27. UN Subcommission on Human Rights Votes Ban on DU (excerpt)
>By Philippa Winkler, attorney; Project Director, Hidden Casualties, The
>Environmental, Health and Political Consequences of the Persian Gulf War
>28. Depleted Uranium and International Law (excerpt)
>By Alyn Ware, Executive Director, Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy
>Appendices
>Appendix I: Government Documents on DU (under construction)
>Appendix II: Ordnance Containing DU (under construction)
>Appendix III: Locations Involving DU Research, Testing and Storage
>(under construction)
>Appendix IV: Report from LAKA Foundation, Netherlands (under
>construction)
>Appendix V: DU Around the World (under construction)
>Appendix VI: International Action Center (full text)
>Appendix VII: Organizations and Resources (full text)
>--30--
>
>International Action Center
>39 West 14th Street, Room 206
>New York, NY 10011
>email: iacenter@iacenter.org
>web: http://www.iacenter.org
>CHECK OUT SITE
>    http://www.mumia2000.org
>phone: 212 633-6646
>fax:   212 633-2889
>*To make a tax-deductible donation,
>go to
>   http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org


Met vriendelijke groet/Best wishes,
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Herman de Tollenaere
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My Internet site on Asian history and "new" religions:

http://homes.dsl.nl/~hermantl/

See also SIMPOS, information on occult tendencies' impact on society:

http://www.stelling.nl/simpos/simpoeng.htm
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