Below is the latest article by Dr. Robert Anderson on Depleted Urainium. Some of the links and references within contain some pretty disturbing information and images. If this sort of this makes you queezy.... suck it up and take a look anyway. This stuff is pure f**king evil and the first step in stopping the madness is for each and every one of us to open our eyes.
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Adding to the horrors of the
current offensive into Lebanon, with Afghanistan close to anarchy and Iraq
drifting into civil war, Bush is now rushing depleted uranium (DU) bombs to
Israel. This supports their
colossal act of homicide and will increase further global contamination by
radioactive DU particles.
Laser guided GBU-28 bunker
penetration bombs and much of the tank ammunition, such as M829 A1 shells, have
DU penetrators built into them. What is even more galling is the likelihood that Rakon NZ probably
manufactured the software to guide these obscene weapons.[i] Although UN reports have stated
that the use of the DU weapons is in violation of numerous laws and UN
conventions, its use continues. As
Dr Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's DU project, said, "We must do what
is right for the citizens of the world - ban DU."
The silence of most of the media is
deafening over this increasing menace to our global atmosphere. Thousands of
horrendous genetic deformities in Kosovar, Afghan and Iraqi children - both
immediately apparent and left as a future legacy - are virtually ignored. And increasing numbers of US war
veterans find they are also now having deformed and mentally damaged
children.[ii] All this despite Pentagon assurances
that DU is harmless.[iii] The dangers of radiation damage
from both nuclear plants and weaponry have been well documented since the first
nuclear power plants began operation.[iv] Gagged from getting their message out to
the public, scientists resorted to writing books, like Professor Ernest
Sternglass's Secret Fallout.[v] The millions of kilograms of
depleted uranium in storage are a by-product of plants that produce enriched
uranium. What better way to use it
up than in weapons? Almost twice as
dense as lead, with pyrophoric properties, DU burns its way through the toughest
armour plate like a warm knife through butter. Converting its kinetic energy to heat,
it burns at 3000oC to 5000oC. At these temperatures, the depleted
uranium vaporises to form an ultra-fine ceramic dust [vi] which
rises into the atmosphere and eventually into the troposphere. These particles hitch a ride to wherever
the winds carry them. Like the
debris from Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, the particles drift as a poisonous
radioactive gas to fall with rain and snow onto whichever country they settle
over. Thousands of kilograms of DU
penetrators were vaporised in the Balkans, Afghanistan, both Gulf Wars and now
in Lebanon, thus adding to the toxic load our atmosphere must carry. Thanks to US efforts, the Iraqi and
Afghan population is now free to live in a radioactive homeland. When will this madness stop? For years,
we have fought to maintain a test ban treaty after scientists discovered the
inevitable increases in neonatal deaths and early childhood deformities [vii] which
followed nuclear tests. Constant denials and cover-ups are
made by the nuclear industry which maintains spurious "safety levels." Many renowned independent scientists
have pointed out that there is no "safe level" of radiation. [viii] While ingested uranium can be excreted
from the human body, inhaled particles cannot. When inhaled, it settles into the lowest
parts of the human lung to irradiate the surrounding tissue for ever. [ix] Cancer can be triggered by just one
alpha particle. One gram of uranium
- the size of a full stop in this sentence - emits 12,000 alpha particles per
second into the surrounding tissues. Once inhaled, depleted-uranium particles irradiate the internal organs
and do irreparable damage. DU-related genetic damage is happening to
people of the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Courageous scientists - e.g.
Professors George Wald and Ernest Sternglass, and many others - help keep alive
the debate on the health effects of low-level radiation, a debate that the
military, the nuclear power industry and indentured scientists have tried to
bury. Without media coverage, how
are the public to know that their world and that of their children and
grandchildren [x] is
inexorably being poisoned by radioactive weapons? According to the United Nations, an estimated 50,000 deformed
children [xi] have
been born to veterans who were directly sprayed with Agent Orange or exposed
through contaminated food and water. How many more must we accept from DU contamination? One study of Gulf War veterans
found that 67% of their children, conceived after they returned from war, were
born with severe illnesses, missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory problems
and fused fingers. [xii] Scientist, Dr Rosalie Bertell,
maintains: "Desert Storm veterans,
along with the people of Iraq and Kuwait, are victims of one of the latest
military experiments on human beings. I believe that the ignorance was culpable and
criminal."
Rather than being ashamed that a
local magazine, [xiii] Uncensored, was more willing than they to publish the truth,
major media outlets deluded themselves into believing that the story need not be
covered. It was "old news." The average New Zealander knows nothing
about depleted uranium, any that do most likely saw reports on DU's remarkable
armour-piercing abilities. Its
deadly long-term effects on people and the environment were never
mentioned. Why should oligarchs
such as Tony Blair and George Bush continue to ruin Earth's environment? Even Britain's Peers have requested that
Blair be stripped of his power to go to war without vote. [xiv] Must we now bear witness to even
more childhood cancers and deformities, in Lebanese children? Israel's onslaught in Lebanon to cripple
Hizbollah has so far claimed 355 lives, mostly women and children, and this
figure increases daily.
As Albert Einstein said: "The world is a dangerous place, not
because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do
nothing." Isn't it time our media
spoke out for all our sakes? Dr Robert G
Anderson Member Union of Concerned
Scientists Bio
Robert has taught physics and
nuclear medicine for two decades at tertiary level and is now spending time
publishing books and articles on the environment and social responsibility. His
immediate concern is that the use of depleted uranium weapons must cease if we
are to avoid increasing global contamination.
References:
[i] Government bombs out over Rakon., 15
June 06: The government's green light to Rakon' export of military grade
oscillators sets a dangerous precedent. www.greens.org.nz/campaigns/peace/ [ii] Congenital defects in Iraqi
children and those of US Gulf War veterans are identical, http://home.clara.net/heureka/gaia/du.htm [iii] Pentagon Hides DU Dangers to Deny
Medical Care to Vets, www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_syndrome.html [iv] Lea, D.E., 1962 Actions of radiations on living cells. London Cambridge University
Press. [v] Sternglass E.J. Secret Fallout, McGraw-Hill Book
Company [vi] These particles are approaching a gas
and pass through the finest filters
available. [vii] Sternglass E.J. June 1969 Can the
infants survive?Bulletin of the Atomic scientists 25:26 also
Sternglass E.J. June 1963 Cancer: relation
of prenatal radiation to development of the disease in childhood. Science 140:1102-1104. [viii] Medical Consequences of Depleted
Uranium. Dr H Caldicott., www.stopnato.org.uk/du-watch/caldicott/medico.htm [ix] DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years - it's there forever. [x] Silent Genocide Depleted Uranium (DU)
www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Silent-Genocide25mar04.htm [xi] US Vets Join Vietnamese Agent Orange
Victims,www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122005G.shtml [xii]http://www.stop-du.org/ [xiii] Uncensored http://uncensored.co.nz/ [xiv]www.forbes.com/finance/feeds/afx/2006/07/27/afx2908798.html
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