DU INFO BULLETIN NO 55


DU NEWS

1) U.S Dirty Bombs Radioactive Gene Busting Munitions Spiked with Plutonium
2) Microwave Weapons May Be Ready For Iraq
3) Fallon's Fallen: Is the US Navy Killing Children in Nevada?

VETERANS NEWS

4) Come Clean on Tests
5) Depleted uranium causing illness
6) Veterans warn of Gulf War syndrome risk
7) IRAQ: WAR CRIMES EXPOSED AS US THREATENS TO REPEAT ERROR
PRAVDA (RUSSIA)


(a great new document)
U.S. Dirty Bombs Radioactive Gene Busting Munitions Spiked with Plutonium
by John M. Laforge
Centre for Research on Globalisation Centre de recherche sur la mondialisation August 2002
"Plutonium is a fuel that is toxic beyond human experience. It is demonstrably carcinogenic to animals in microgram quantities [one millionth of a gram]. The lung cancer risk is unknown to orders of magnitude. Present plutonium standards are certainly irrelevant." - Dr. Donald P. Geesaman, health physicist, formerly of Lawrence Livermore Lab The Bush White House fooled most of the world's press with its unverified claims of intercepting a "dirty bomb" attack against the U.S. On its front page, USA Today barked: "US: 'Dirty Bomb' Plot Foiled." Newspapers everywhere explained breathlessly what radioactive materials could do if dispersed in populated areas. As Alex Cockburn reports in The Nation, when the story faced some mild scrutiny, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz backed away from the propaganda saying, "I don't think there was actually a plot beyond some fairly loose talk." Meanwhile, the real-time, worldwide use by the United States of radiological dirty bombs has moved well beyond the plotting and shooting stage, and has begun to produce dire consequences. Toxic, radioactive uranium-238 -- so-called depleted uranium -- used in munitions, missiles and tank armor may be responsible for deadly health consequences among U.S. and allied troops and populations in bombed areas, and has probably caused permanent radioactive contamination of large parts of Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and perhaps Afghanistan. Depleted uranium "penetrators" as they are called burn on impact and up to 70 percent of the DU is released (aerosolized) as toxic and radioactive dust that can be inhaled and ingested and later trapped in the lungs or kidneys.
 http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/LAF208A.html



Microwave Weapons May Be Ready For Iraq
By David A. Fulghum/ Aviation Week & Space Technology
06-Aug-2002 9:37 AM U.S. EDT

An attack on Iraq is expected to see the first use of high-power
microwave weapons that produce a split-second spike of energy powerful
enough to damage electronic components and scramble computer memories.

They are designed, at least initially, for use from cruise missiles and
unmanned aircraft. Adding a directed-energy weapon to an unmanned combat
vehicle "is the ideal mode," said a British aerospace official. Britain
also is well advanced in the technology.
"There's no risk to a pilot, there's a greater degree of accuracy [in
hitting the target], and it doesn't rely on scattering flechettes that
murder half the population of the country you are attacking.

Everybody wants that capability. There are those who say we could
demonstrate it today," he said with a smile.
THE COMBINATION OF unmanned vehicles and HPM (high-power microwave)
weapons also provides a way to attack the toughest targets in any foe's
arsenal, said Gen. John Jumper, U.S. Air Force chief of staff.
"If you combine directed energy with the UCAVs of the type we have
today, you have a combination that uses stealth to go into [heavily
defended territory and HPM to] tell the SA-10 that it's a Maytag washer
on the rinse cycle rather than a missile about to shoot somebody down,"
Jumper said.
 http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/autonomy_samples/autonomysuggest/autosuggest.jsp?docid=120701&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aviationnow.com%2Favnow%2Fnews%2Fchannel_awst.jsp%3Fview%3Dstory%26id%3Dnews%2Faw080524.xml



Fallon's Fallen: Is the US Navy Killing Children in Nevada?
by Jeffrey St. Clair
August 7, 2002
Last June, Adam Jernee died from acute lymphocytic leukemia, a remorselessly fast-moving cancer of the blood. He was 8-years old and had fought the cancer for more than two years of his short life. Adam and his father lived in Fallon, Nevada. This small ranching town of 8,000 people in the Carson Desert 50 miles east of Reno may have the highest per capita rate of childhood leukemia in the nation. The children of Fallon are more than 100 times more likely to be stricken with leukemia then children elsewhere in country. Last week, another Fallon child was diagnosed with leukemia. That makes 17 kids from Fallon who have been contracted leukemia since 1997. Adam is the second child to have died within the past year. In September, Stephanie Sands succumbed to the cancer after battling it for two years. She was 21. Cancer isn't the only problem. Kids and adults in Fallon and surrounding Churchill County are coming down with a myriad of other rare diseases, such as Myelodysplastic Syndrome and aplastic anemia. These diseases also relentlessly attack the bone marrow. The kinds of cancers and other illnesses that have cropped up in the Fallon area are almost certainly caused by some kind of exposure to toxic chemicals. The source of that poison almost certainly sits a few miles outside the town of Fallon--somewhere on the 240,000-acre Fallon Naval Air Station, one of the Navy's largest bombing ranges, and home of the Top Gun fighter pilot training school. But good luck to getting the Navy to take responsibility or even look very hard to find out what the problem might be. Years have passed and the Navy has done next to nothing, except deny culpability and try bully anyone who demands answers from naval brass. Apparently the Navy doesn't even care if the cancers are killing children of its own officers. The Navy has known about high levels of cancer among the children of Fallon workers and Navy officers since at least 1991; yet, the Pentagon has done little except try to conceal information on levels of pollution at the base and to stiff-arm investigators.
 http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair0807.html




VETERAN NEWS
Come Clean on Tests
Monday, August 19, 2002

The Pentagon has a scandalous record of covering up harm to U.S. soldiers and civilians caused by weapons testing. It is no wonder, then, that veterans are anxious to learn information about secret chemical and biological weapons tests conducted in the 1960s and 1970s that may have injured them. The best way for the Defense Department to dispel fear and mistrust is to disclose as much information about these tests as soon as possible.
After months of prodding, the Defense Department disclosed in May that it had tested nerve gas and chemical and biological agents on U.S. military ships and their crews in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the 1960s. The Department of Veterans Affairs subsequently notified 622 veterans of possible risks to their health that could have resulted.
Now Pentagon investigators have announced that they have found the names of 109 other tests from the same period conducted by the Deseret Test Center at Dugway. Little else has been disclosed beyond that 52 of 109 tests were canceled, 45 were completed and 12 may or may not have occurred. So far, the Pentagon has given the VA the names of 2,800 former servicemen who played a role in the tests and may need medical attention. There undoubtedly will be more veterans identified, according to a Pentagon spokesman.
No information has been provided about whether chemicals, germs, nerve gas or simulants were used. Investigators will examine records at Dugway to find out more.
It is outrageous that decades after soldiers may have been exposed unwittingly to these weapons, they probably are unaware of the threats to their health, or if they are suspicious, have been denied the information they need to seek medical help from the VA and damages from the government they served. The Pentagon must make good on its promise to disclose as much information as possible as soon as it can be developed and contact soldiers who may have been affected. Anything less will be a betrayal of those who served their country.
 http://www.sltrib.com/08192002/opinion/762969.htm




Depleted uranium causing illness
By Nic Fleming & Mark Townsend
The Observer
11th August 2002

LONDON: Children of British soldiers who fought in
wars where depleted uranium ammunition was used are at
greater risk of suffering genetic diseases passed on
by their fathers, new research reveals.

Veterans of the conflicts in the Gulf, Bosnia and
Kosovo have been found to have up to 14 times the
usual level of chromosome abnormalities in their
genes. That has raised fears they will pass cancers
and genetic illnesses to their offspring. The study is
the first to analyse chromosome deformation in
soldiers.

British MP Paul Tyler, a member of the Royal British
Legion Gulf War Syndrome working group, said it would
be 'outrageous' if the findings were ignored by the UK
Government. "High levels of genetic damage do not
occur naturally. It increases the probability of
cancer, deformed babies and other genetic conditions
significantly," said Professor Albrecht Schott, a
German biochemist who coordinated the research.
 http://www.observer.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,772633,00.html



Veterans warn of Gulf War syndrome risk
By Brendan Nicholson
Political Correspondent
August 18 2002

More than a decade after the Gulf War, sick veterans of that conflict don't
want Australian troops sent back there to fight a war that might involve
chemical weapons.
The chairman of the steering committee of the Australian Gulf War Veterans
Association, David Watts, told The Sunday Age he did not want to see other
young service personnel suffer.
"I think it's very irresponsible of the government to start talking about
sending people over for another go when they haven't really looked after
the people who went in the first place," Mr Watts said.
Mr Watts said many Gulf War veterans felt that they'd been abandoned since
returning to civilian life. Of the 1865 who served in the Gulf, a
significant proportion suffered health problems, he said.

They were awaiting the results of a comprehensive health study being
carried out by staff at Monash University which they hoped would reveal
whether their illness was related to service in the Gulf.
The research team is expected to report to the government later this year.
More than 300 Gulf War veterans have claimed disability pensions or other
financial benefits as a result of illness believed to be related to their
service.
Mr Watts was a 21-year-old able seaman aboard the destroyer HMAS Brisbane
when he was sent to the Gulf in 1991. He was discharged in 1997. He said:
"A lot of guys are sick from their service there.
"They are much worse off for doing their bit for the country. That's got to
change."

Hundreds of thousands of Gulf veterans from the forces of the United
States-led coalition countries fear they have been left with a collection
of illnesses that has become known as Gulf War syndrome, with symptoms
including severe headaches, nausea, muscular pain, joint swelling,
depression and memory loss. Other common ailments include chronic
diarrhoea, lethargy, skin irritations and digestive problems.
Some believe the illnesses may have been caused by the injections given to
ward off chemical weapons. One drug used was pyridostigmine bromide which
was designed to reduce the effects of chemical warfare agents on the
nervous system.
Veterans may also have been exposed to depleted uranium, a byproduct of the
uranium-enrichment process. It is only slightly radioactive and is used in
armour and anti-tank shells because it is extremely dense - nearly twice as
heavy as lead - which gives it a greater striking power.
As a toxic heavy metal, depleted uranium may cause kidney problems and can
be swallowed or inhaled as particles are dispersed by fires or when shells
hit armour plating.
This story was found at:
 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/17/1029114031047.html

IRAQ: WAR CRIMES EXPOSED AS US THREATENS TO REPEAT ERROR
PRAVDA (RUSSIA)

11:01 2002-08-06


The constant denials that DU weapon deployment posed health problems and
claims that Gulf War syndrome and Balkans syndrome are nothing other than
hypochondria are part of a callous cover-up by nations who deployed these
weapons, perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The deployment of DU weapons is a breach of the Geneva Convention, which
stipulates that theatres of war are not left contaminated after the conflict
has ceased. Such is not the case with DU weapons. As the USA unilaterally
and arrogantly prepares a crusade against Iraq, the case of DU deployment is
reopened, with new and fresh evidence.

The official position of NATO and the US and British military authorities
was peremptory: the claims that DU caused illness were unfounded. However,
an independent study in Britain has shown that Gulf War veterans had almost
twice the incidence of bone marrow and lymphatic cancers as a similarly-aged
control group of the same size (19 cases to 11). The study was carried out
by a team from three London hospitals (St. Guy's, St. Thomas' and King's).
Of the 53,200 British troops involved in the Gulf War, 213 died through
cancer-related diseases, 100 committed suicide, 329 died through accidents.
Six were murdered and a staggering 5,000 reported unfit to work through
illness. One in six (17%) claims to have some of the Gulf War syndrome
symptoms, namely headaches, lack of concentration, aching limbs and fatigue.

It is true that Gulf War combatants were inoculated with multiple
vaccinations against biological agents, raising the point that many cases of
Gulf War syndrome are in fact not reactions to DU, but reactions against
inoculation programmes. That there is a case to be investigated, there is no
doubt. There have been abnormal levels of cancer reported in Gulf War
veterans in the USA, UK, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Italy and
Belgium.
 http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/08/06/33892.html


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