DU INFO BULLETIN NO 57

New Research
1) Hazards of Uranium Weapons in War on Iraq – Dai Williamns (New!!)

Veteran News
2) Weapons Tied to Genetic Damage & Leukemia

3) VA Data Confirms Massive Delayed Gulf War I Casualties


4) Gulf War Casualties By Dr. Doug Rokke
5) Attack on Iraq would expose soldiers to depleted uranium

6) Gulf War syndrome study absolves chemical weapons



7) Mystery sickness creates new battles (fantastic study!!)

8) Gulf veterans leery of another war
U.S. hasn't updated chemical warfare equipment, they say

Books/CD’s
9) 'THE FIRE THIS TIME' – by Grant Wakefield

Related News:
10) Campaigner wins legal case





New Research

Hazards of Uranium weapons in the proposed war on Iraq
Updating Depleted Uranium weapons 2001-2002, Mystery metal nightmare in Afghanistan, Jan 2002
Dai Williams, Independent researcher
22 September, 2002

Summary
Most public debate about US war plans for Iraq has been led by US allegations about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction justifying "regime change" by military action. UK and other governments appear caught up in the group think of the Bush Administration's "War on Terrorism". Group think involves self-justifying logic that generates an illusion of morality, demands unquestioning conformity, accepts dangerously high risk strategies and demonises enemies and dissenters (1). It explained strategic errors that led to the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
In time of war vital combat and aftermath data that may alter public perception, government decisions or arms procurement is classified, concealed or distorted on the pretext of state security. It is vital to separate facts from propaganda about terrorist threats and Iraqi or allied weapons. Since September 11th US and UK Government agendas have excluded any debate about the weapon systems used by US and allied forces (2). Their potentially devastating effects on the Iraqi population and allied ground forces may far exceed hazards from weapons that Iraq may have developed.
Most of the guided weapons that will be used in new air attacks on Iraq - smart bombs and cruise missiles - will be the same as those used in Afghanistan (3). No independent assessment has been made of post-war health & environmental conditions there. It is feared that these weapons have already started widespread and irreversible health problems for civilians and troops - a potential Afghan War Syndrome.
Most of these "hard target" guided weapons contain a mystery and highly secret "dense metal"- over twice the density of steel and pyrophoric, creating intense heat inside their targets. The only metal that meets both requirements is Uranium, depleted or non-depleted.
 http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/u23.htm

Veteran News

Weapons Tied to Genetic Damage & Leukemia
By John LaForge, Nukewatch Staff
© Nukewatch Pathfinder, Fall 2002
Children of British soldiers who served in wars where depleted uranium (DU) ammunition was used are at greater risk of suffering genetic diseases passed on by their fathers, new research reveals.
DU is toxic, radioactive waste uranium-238 that is given away free to arms merchants who turn it into armor-piercing shells, then turn around and sell the munitions to the military. Toxic to the liver and kidneys and radioactive for 4.5 billion years, DU has been linked to increases in cancer and birth abnormalities in Iraq since the U.S. and Britain bombed the country with over 350 tons of the material in 1991.
As London’s Observer and Guardian papers reported in August, UK veterans of wars in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia and Kosovo have been found to have up to 14 times the usual level of chromosome abnormalities in their genes. This has raised fears they will pass cancers and genetic illnesses to their offspring. British MP Paul Tyler 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.
Even after the disclosure that DU weapons are generally contaminated with highly radioactive plutonium, americium and other fission products, U.S., British and NATO officials still insist that exposure to DU weapons could not have caused the cancer deaths of 24 European peacekeepers. "We consider the tests neither well thought-out nor scientifically sound," a British military official told the Guardian.
Relatives of the dead soldiers are worried that leukemia and other cancers were caused by the victims’ exposure to DU while on duty in Bosnia. The U.S. and UK used at least three tons of DU in their bombardment of Bosnia in 1994 and 1995. The UN Environment Program reported in March that, surprisingly, DU particles were "still in the air two years after the conflict’s end," according to the Sept. 2 New York Times.
A Pentagon survey of 21,000 veterans last year showed that those who served in the Persian Gulf in 1991 were two to three times more likely to report birth defects in their children.
DU in Blood of Iraqi Leukemia Sufferers
The Iraq Daily reported Aug. 12, that after estimating the amount of depleted uranium in blood samples among several Iraqi leukemia patients, researchers concluded that the disease’s incidence increased noticeably in the southern provinces due to the heavy presence of DU.
Blood samples were collected from patients in southern Iraqi provinces, where the U.S. and UK left over 350 tons of expended DU munitions in their 1991 bombardment. The ‘control’ samples were collected from Baghdad, where the bombing left far less DU contamination.
Scientists S.M. Al-Jubouri, H.H. Jawad and M.F.Sultan, conducted the study.
One Thousand Tons of DU in Afghanistan?
British researcher Dai Williams reports that as many as 21 different weapon systems used by the U.S. in bombing Afghanistan contain a mystery "dense metal" needed to double the penetration of older models.
Unlike its admissions in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo, the Pentagon has refused to confirm the use of DU in Afghanistan. But if the mystery metal turns out to be DU, Williams believes that between 500 and 1,000 tons of DU may have been used.
So-called bunker busters, which are known as GBU 28s and GBU 37s, weigh about 1.5 tons and between 50 and 70% of the warhead weight has to be this high-density metal, says Williams. "So you’re talking about, potentially, for each bunker buster bomb over a ton of uranium waste being burnt up and then spread around in the area," Williams told Asia Pacific Features in July.
_______________________________
Web  http://www.nukewatch.com





VA Data Confirms Massive Delayed Gulf War I Casualties

The National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Coalition announces its analysis
of the latest Department of Veterans Affairs Release of Data entitled “May
2002 Gulf War Veterans Information System” in this point paper presentation.
(The actual DVA report can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlink here.)
The data released is startling in the numbers of Gulf War casualties twelve
years after Operation Desert Storm. The analysis leads to a call for urgent
action as our troops again are deploying to the Persian Gulf Region.
 http://home.att.net/~vetcenter/va-stats.htm

(A full critical analysis of the report can be obtained from Denise Nichols, a Gulf War veteran and retired U.S. Air Force Reserve major, is Vice
Chairman of the National Vietnam Veteran and Gulf War Veterans Coalition. She
can be reached at  DSNurse@aol.com


Attack on Iraq would expose soldiers to depleted uranium

By Scott Taylor ON TARGET
----------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, September 30, 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited
----------------------------------------------------------------
A SENIOR Iraqi medical official warns that any U.S.-led
military action against Iraq will have to confront "the
hidden killer" as well as Saddam Hussein's forces.

"If they wish to launch Gulf War II, they had better be
prepared to lose many of their soldiers to Gulf War Syndrome
II," says Mona Al Jibowei, dean of the science faculty at
Baghdad University.

"The allied soldiers went home after being exposed to
depleted uranium for only a short period of time. Iraq has
lived with its devastating effects for the past 12 years."

Since the end of the Gulf War, tens of thousands of allied
veterans have developed debilitating illnesses and have
qualified to collect medical pensions. Despite the fact these
ex-service members have been compensated for their
disabilities, officials say there is no scientific proof
their illness is linked to service in the Persian Gulf or
exposure to depleted uranium.

"Although depleted uranium itself contains only low levels of
radiation, once tiny aerosol particles are breathed in and
become lodged in the lymph nodes, this radiation continues to
attack the immune system and to alter reproductive
chromosomes," Al Jibowei said. "This is why it creates such
diverse results in different individuals."

Al Jibowei is on the executive committee of a special Iraqi
research project to monitor the health hazard created by
depleted uranium. A specialist in toxicology and pathology,
the British-educated Al Jibowei has spent a lot of time since
the Gulf War liaising with a number of international experts.

"This is entirely new science," said Al Jibowei. "The Gulf
War was the first time that (such) munitions were used on an
actual battlefield, and no one at the time had any idea what
effect they would have on the body."

By analysing the available case information, the Iraqi
researchers realized that the epicentre for effects is around
Basra, in southern Iraq.
 http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2002/09/30/fCanada.html


Gulf War Casualties
By Dr. Doug Rokke
Traprock Peace Center > www.traprockpeace.org 9-30-2
The upcoming battle Gulf War II will result in casualties that include:
* killed in action
* wounded in action
* killed in accidents and additional casualties that do not show up until after the completion of hostilities.
During the Gulf War between 1990 and 1991 the United States military incurred: 467 individuals wounded in action, 148 killed in battle, and 145 killed in other than battle (i.e. accidents). Therefore, the total number of US Gulf War casualties was 760 at the time of redeployment. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs' Veterans Benefit Administration Office of Performance Analysis and Integrity Data and Information Services Gulf War Veterans Information System report that was just published (May 2002) states that as of May 2002: 696,778 individuals had served during the Gulf War with 572,833 individuals now eligible for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits to include lifetime medical care, financial compensation, and a lifetime pension. The difference of 123,945 individuals includes Desert Storm veterans who are still on active duty, who already received a disability rating directly from the military, and those who are ineligible for benefits for various reasons.
>  http://traprockpeace.org/gulfcasualties.html


Gulf War syndrome study absolves chemical weapons
09/25/02
ANDY DWORKIN
Oregon researchers published a study Tuesday indicating that soldiers who may have encountered small amounts of chemical weapons during the 1991 Gulf War do not seem to be sicker than other veterans of that war with Iraq.




But troops who served anywhere in the Middle East during the war do seem to have more chronic illnesses than U.S. soldiers who served outside the Persian Gulf region in 1991.
Since low-level chemical weapon exposure does not seem to be the cause of Gulf War syndrome, the source of those health complaints remains "an open question," said Peter Spencer, one of the researchers and an expert on toxic substances at Oregon Health and Science University.
"It's believed the Gulf War syndrome has a significant stress component," Spencer said, contributing to problems such as depression and heart disease. "That's consistent with the data we have."
The study also indicates that chemical weapons incinerators, such as one the U.S. Army is preparing to start up at Umatilla, should not release enough nerve agent in their exhaust gas to cause long-term health problems, Spencer said. Army officials have designed the incinerator to destroy at least 99.99 percent of the chemical weapons they feed in, he said. While that means a small fraction will escape, the design "appears to be protective for community health," said Spencer, who advises an Army incinerator in Arkansas.
Spencer said that does not mean the facilities are completely safe. The biggest worry is that an accident might happen when forklift operators load chemical rockets and carry them to the incinerator, he said.
"If something goes wrong in that stage, it could be a dramatic outcome," Spencer said. Only "personnel who are in pristine condition" should do that work, he said.
Survey of veterans To conduct the study, which appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Spencer and his colleagues at OHSU's Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology surveyed hundreds of veterans from Oregon, Washington, California, Georgia and North Carolina. They asked what diseases their doctors had diagnosed in roughly seven years after the Gulf War ended.
More than 500 of the veterans who responded were not deployed to the Persian Gulf during the war, while 1,263 served in the region. Over half of those soldiers served within 30 miles of the Khamisiyah weapons depot in southeastern Iraq in March 1991, when U.S. troops blew up the compound. At the time, the troops did not realize that munitions at the site included stacks of rockets armed with the nerve poisons sarin and cyclosarin, a fact Iraqi officials later revealed.
The U.S. Department of Defense says that detectors never showed chemical weapons were present before the demolition, and that no people nearby reported symptoms of exposure to chemical weapons. The department estimates that roughly 100,000 troops were in an area where they "possibly were exposed to low levels of nerve agent" not destroyed in the blasts. But department officials say that "the exposures the forces possibly received would have been below those expected to cause acute health effects . . . or long-term effects."
 http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/front_page/1032954942321611.xml

Mystery sickness creates new battles
Web posted Sunday, September 15, 2002
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Augusta Chronicle tracked down 102 of the 166 men and women who served with Augusta's 1148th Transportation Company during the Persian Gulf War and looked at what has happened to its members and their families since, and what could happen if U.S. forces return to the gulf
By Mike Wynn and Johnny Edwards
Staff Writers
On May 3, 1991, Carolyn Dixon hung a red, white and blue wreath on her front door and decorated her front lawn with yellow ribbons and a welcome-home banner.
Her husband, Aaron Dixon, had been away for seven months, hauling fuel through the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq during the Persian Gulf War.
After a long flight home, he and the rest of the Army National Guard 1148th Transportation Company rode in buses from Bush Field to Fort Gordon, where a cheering crowd awaited them.
As Mrs. Dixon drove her husband home, she knew right away that something had changed about him. He barely spoke. He seemed solemn, disconnected and sedate.
 http://augustachronicle.com/stories/091502/met_gulf_war1.shtml





Gulf veterans leery of another war
U.S. hasn't updated chemical warfare equipment, they say

By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News
September 21, 2002

If President Bush is counting on veterans of the last Persian Gulf War
tosupport a new one, he might be counting wrong.
Many Gulf War veterans are casting a wary eye on the administration's
plans
and reasons for another war against Iraq.
There's no shortage of patriotism among the vets. They recognize Saddam
Hussein as the dangerous tyrant they drove out of Kuwait 11 years ago.

Some support action to oust him and finish the job left undone in 1991.
But many vets doubt the administration's arguments that Saddam poses an
imminent threat to the United States that is worth American lives.
Some say policymakers are underestimating Saddam's ability to complicate
any campaign against him, a mistake that caused tens of thousands of
American casualties in the first Gulf War. Many say the military has not updated
equipment to protect troops from chemical and biological weapons that
caused such havoc after the first conflict.
This time, the vets expect prolonged, bloody guerrilla warfare in the
streets of Baghdad and the renewed use of chemical and biological
weapons. They do not want to see their successors pulled into an unexpectedly
costly war.
 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_1430552,00.htm




Books/CD
(Grant Wakefields amazing audio CD of news clips, interviews and background music is finally out, and not to be missed, powerful and emotional, just listening to it would bring the most hardened and seasoned activist to tears – utterly brilliant – davey - pandora project)

'THE FIRE THIS TIME' audio CD will finally be released on October 7th on HIDDEN ART RECORDS. The release is a double CD, with instrumentals and bonus tracks on disc 2. The official web site is now posted at www.firethistime.org Catalogue number for shop ordering (if necessary) is HIART 11 Secure on-line purchase can be made directly at: www.thefirethistime.com or by visiting the official site and linking from there. Given the current climate, as George W. Bush gears up to attack Iraq yet again, the album needs your support. So I would appreciate it enormously if you would forward this message and/or the links to as many people as you can. Thank you, Grant Wakefield.


Related News

A peace campaigner who has been camping opposite the Houses of Parliament since June 2001 has won the right to stay on, despite an attempt to evict him.
Brian Haw, 53, from Redditch, Worcestershire, is protesting about economic sanctions against Iraq and the Anglo-American bombing of the country.
Westminster Council tried to win an injunction against him on Tuesday, claiming his banners and placards were obstructing the highway.
But a High Court judge refused to grant it.
Lawful rights
Mr Justice Gray ruled the obstruction was not "unreasonable".
He said Mr Haw's right to exercise his right to freedom of speech was a signficant factor he had considered in reaching his decision.
He said Mr Haw's case was that he was using the highway in a "lawful and reasonable manner to exercise his rights of freedom of expression and assembly".
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2299007.stm

www.pandoraproject.org Send info to DU Information List Postmessage: pandora.project@bigfoot.com About the Pandora DU information list: The Pandora DU Information List is a means to connect with various organisations and individuals who are interested, researching or campaigning on the issue of Depleted uranium. The list will be distributed weekly, and will include various snippets of information etc, provided by those in the anti-du movement, with contact addresses to receive more detailed data or the complete documents being reviewed. Your involvement is needed. To make this Network successful, then we are going to need the input of all those working in the anti-DU field, journalists, activists, researchers and veterans. So please send us your reports and documents to  pandora.project@bigfoot.com Also as we want to send this to as many groups as possible then please send any suggestions of email contacts etc. How to subscribe and unsubscribe to this letter To subscribe: Everyone is welcome to subscribe to this free newsletter. Send an email to  pandora-project-subscribe@yahoogroups.com