> > Subject: Time to question US weapons of
> > indiscriminate effect
> > Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 13:10:14 +0100
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear Weekend programmes and WATO team
> >
> > Please can you ask the Pentagon to explain why and
> > how many Daisy cutters, fragmentation bombs and
> > suspected uranium weapons it has used in the last
> > week in the region around now in the outskirts of
> > Baghdad? And please can you ask the UK Government
> > whether it condones the use of Daisy cutters in
> > populated areas with large numbers of civilians?
> >
> > I have been investigating US guided weapons as an
> > independent researcher for 2 years. My primary
> > concern are the 23 suspected uranium weapon systems.
> > But my investigations include similar weapons like
> > thermobaric bombs, daisy cutters etc.
> >
> > Full weapons identification requires inspection on
> > site by trained and independent weapons analysts.
> > This must be a high priority for the UN.
> > Ex-military personnel, HALO or similar demining
> > organisations may help. Serving military personnel
> > will simply lie about more advanced, prototype or
> > illegal weapons.
> >
> > Less trained observers can partly narrow down
> > suspected weapon systems from descriptions of their
> > explosions and from injuries on victims.
> >
> > The following reports were received yesterday via
> > CASI (the Cambridge University based Campaign
> > Against Sanctions in Iraq) forwarded this report
> > from two Belgian Doctors in Baghdad.
> >
> > Partial answers to their questions are as
> > follows(colours are my highlighting of relevant
> > text):
> >
> > Incident 1:
> > is a clusterbomb description. These are already
> > recognised as weapons of indiscriminate effect by
> > the media.
> >
> > Incident 2:
> > 3 April, Al Sqifal, near Hilla 'The bodies were al
> > carbonized, terribly mutilated, torn into
> > pieces,....One wonders what a criminal weapon of
> > massdestruction could have caused these horrors.
> > Nobody had heard the sound of an explosion; on the
> > bodies no traces of shrapnel were found. A
> > journalist spoke of a heat-weapon with liquid cupper
> > or something like that..
> >
> > The reference to a heat weapon with liquid copper
> > sounds like a misquote of someone describing an anti
> > tank weapon with a shaped charge warhead. (HEAT
> > also stands for High Explosive AntiTank weapons).
> > Shaped charge warheads use a focussed explosive
> > blast with a copper (or uranium) core that is melted
> > by the blast and travels at very high velocity to
> > cut through armour plating. "Heat" in the context
> > may also be describing the obvious effects of an
> > incendiary weapon.
> >
> > If the weapon was fired from the check point (ground
> > to ground) it must have been an anti-tank missile
> > e.g. JAVELIN which uses a tandem shaped charge
> > warhead. Recently purchased by UK forces I question
> > whether JAVELIN warheads use a depleted uranium core
> > like the prototype that DERA and the MOD made and
> > tested in 1999 (refer MOD website). This would
> > produce a far higher temperature (5000 degrees)
> > blast than copper and may account for the
> > characteristic severe burns on
> > victims."Carbonisation" was typical of uranium
> > weapon victims on the highway of death in 1991.
> > Shaped charge weapons do not create shrapnel - they
> > work by projecting a lance of burning molten metal,
> > almost a plasma, into the target.
> >
> > Similar effects would have been caused by the larger
> > Hellfire or Maverick missiles though these are fired
> > by planes or helicopters, not referred to in this
> > report.
> >
> > QUESTION: What weapon was used by US forces in this
> > incident? Did it contain a Uranium warhead?
> >
> > Incident 3:
> > "Colette saw from her hotel room, just behind the
> > mosque in this neighborhood, two enormous fireballs
> > coming down."
> > The only weapons that match this description are the
> > BLU-82 Daisy Cutter bombs. Developed in Vietnam for
> > clearing jungle into runways they created immense
> > pressure (1000 lbs / sq inch) over a large area -
> > lethal from 300 to 900 metres.
> >  http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/blu-82.htm
> >
> > They literally mash and burn any human beings under
> > the blast area causing extensive internal injuries,
> > severe burns but no shrapnel wounds from the high
> > pressure blast. Rather like high-blast napalm in
> > effect but the bombs are 10-20 times larger.
> >
> > =====
> >
> > The two doctors providing these reports are in
> > Baghdad. Dirk, their contact in Belgium, is on
> > 0032-6833 9670.
> >
> > A reliable UK contact is Joanne Baker in Bristol who
> > knows Collette. Jo is on 0117-902 6534.
> >
> > ===
> >
> > Incident 4
> > - is from a separate report from BBC reporter Adam
> > Mynot yesterday (5 April) described civilian
> > casualties with severe burns near Nasiriyah. "The
> > Phosphorus turned the inside of his house white
> > hot". This is the first reference I have heard to
> > Phosphorus weapons in the current war.
> >
> > A more likely alternative may have been a guided
> > bomb with a uranium warhead e.g. GBU 31 or 32 (for
> > increased penetration and incendiary effects). UK
> > researchers located US patents for upgrading the
> > 2000 lb BLU-109/B hard target warhead (used in the
> > GBU-15, 24, 27 and 31 guided bombs) with a choice of
> > tungsten or depleted uranium. See Appendix 2 of my
> > summary "Hazards of Uranium weapons in Afghanistan
> > and Iraq", October 2002 at
> >  http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/u23.htm and extracts at
> >  http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/pdfs/USpats.pdf
> >
> > These mini (just under 1 ton) bunker busters were
> > used extensively in the earlier Baghdad bombing.
> > The explosions with intense fireballs at ground
> > level and incandescent metal in their explosion
> > plumes are highly suspected of using uranium
> > warheads.
> >
> > The existence and use of guided bombs and missiles
> > with uranium warheads is vigorously denied by the UK
> > MOD saying that the Pentagon have assured them that
> > such weapons don't exist. I don't trust either
> > statement. In addition to causing horrific burns on
> > casualties near the fireball such weapons are likely
> > to be causing hundreds, possibly up to 1500, tons of
> > uranium oxide contamination in target regions of
> > Iraq, especially in and around Baghdad.
> >
> >
> > ==
> >
> > It is really important that media reports question
> > what kinds of weapons are being used by US (and UK)
> > forces - especially when large numbers of casualties
> > or fatalities are seen with unusual injuries e.g.
> > the fire and blast effects described in the
> > incidents above.
> >
> > The civilian casualties cause most obvious outrage.
> > But there are very few questions about, or reports
> > of, the forms of mutilation and death inflicted on
> > Iraqi troops. It is customary in times of war to
> > demonise the enemy. But much of the Iraqi army are
> > conscripts..
> >
> > Injuries to every involved in war - civilians and
> > troops of all sides - are very serious issues.
> > After World War 2 there was sufficient horror for
> > consensus about the Geneva Conventions. The US
> > Military and arms industry have shown supreme
> > contempt for international humanitarian law ever
> > WW2.
> >
> > If this war shows one thing it is the need for the
> > World to start to get control over the barbarity of
> > the US military industrial context. Criticisms of
> > Saddam Hussein's record of atrocities fade into
> > history as they are eclipsed by the industrialised
> > killing that US Forces have spent billions of
> > dollars perfecting.
> >
> > A new War Crimes Tribunal will be needed in Iraq as
> > soon as hostilities cease - to inspect the targets
> > and casualties of US weapon systems throughout Iraq.
> > This will of course require a dramatic awakening of
> > the UK Government and Conservative Opposition from
> > the "war-trance" spell cast on them by Pentagon
> > propaganda.
> >
> > There will be one mighty reckoning to follow soon
> > for the US and UK Governments (if and) when
> > independent international observers are allowed into
> > Iraq.
> >
> >
> > Dai Williams
> > Woking, Surrey
> >  eosuk@btinternet.com
> > 01483-222017 07808-502785
> >
> > ======= original message ===========
> > Dirk Adriaensens
> > wrote:
> >
> > From: "Dirk Adriaensens"
> > To:
> > Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 19:52:31 +0200
> > Subject: [casi] reports Belgian medical team, from
> > Baghdad
> >
> >
> > [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email
> > ]
> >
> > Dear list,
> >
> > here are two more reports from the 2 Belgian
> > doctors who are still in baghdad. Tomorrow,
> > saturday, Medical Aid for the Third World, in
> > cooperation with SOS Iraq, will send 2 more medical
> > doctors to Baghdad to reinforce their medical team.
> > We think it is very important that impartial reports
> > of "non-embedded" sources keep reminding us about
> > the horrors of this war. This war is particularly
> > "dirty", and many innocent civilians die. And the
> > lies keep coming. Remember that independent
> > journalist are being harrassed, locked up, tortured
> > and even killed by "friendly fire". A Belgian
> > TV-journalist, who is in the south of Iraq, has
> > described the hostilities of British troups against
> > him yesterday in the 8 o'clock news. Disgraceful.
> > Now the US/UK-aggressors are using new types of
> > bombs and ammunition. Can anyone tell me more about
> > this type of bombs, which Geert describes in the
> > first report? It has something to do with liquid
> > copper or something. Horrible. Why doesn't the BBC
> > report about this? Surely they must have access to
> > these places, have knowledge about these incidents,
> > because these regions are under US/UK control, they
> > say. To me and others all around the world, the BBC
> > has lost all its credibility. They can't be trusted
> > anymore. They have proven to be a part of the US/UK
> > war-machine. Masks have fallen. Shame on them.
> > Greetings.
> > Dirk Adriaensens.
> > www.irak.be
> >
> >
>
 http://www.irak.be/ned/missies/medicalMissionColetteGeert/two_belgian_doctor
s_in_baghdad.htm
> > About the horrors of war, 100 km south of Baghdad
> >
> > Bert de Belder april 4 2003
> >
> > [INCIDENT 1 ] "I have two awful stories to tell",
> > Geert immediately starts when I get him on the line.
> > "Today we drove to Hilla, a small town near Babylon
> > that was heavily bombed yesterday. One poor district
> > was hit by 20 to 25 bombs. The hospital of Hilla
> > received in the next half an hour 150 seriously
> > injured patients. Dr. Mahmoud Al-Mukhtar said that
> > the wounds were caused by clusterbombs. These are
> > bombs that explode into many small bombs that again
> > explode individually and cause enormous damage.
> > Clusterbombs are banned by the International Laws on
> > War, but Bush completely disregards these! In the
> > hospital I have seen very many abrading situations.
> > A family of eleven persons, of whom six are dead. A
> > father who is left with one child; his wife and two
> > sons are dead. Small children with amputated limbs."
> >
> > [INCIDENT 2 ] "My second story is even more
> > horrible", warns Geert. "About a bus with civilians
> > that was fired upon. Not the one in Najaf, which
> > reached the news everywhere, but a case that
> > according to me has not yet been covered by western
> > media. Three days ago, In Al Sqifal, near Hilla, a
> > passenger bus was fired upon from an American
> > checkpoint, with ghastly results. According to
> > witnesses the bus stopped on time and had, on orders
> > of the American Military, turned back. Dr. Saad
> > El-Fadoui, a 52 years old surgeon who still has
> > studied in Scotland, was immediately on the place of
> > incident from the hospital in Hilla. When he told me
> > what he had seen there, he again became very
> > emotional, three days after it had happened. 'The
> > bodies were al carbonized, terribly mutilated, torn
> > into pieces, he sighs. 'In and around the bus I saw
> > dismembered heads, brains and intestines,..' One
> > wonders what a criminal weapon of massdestruction
> > could have caused these horrors. Nobody had heard
> > the sound of an explosion; on the bodies no traces
> > of shrapnel were found. A journalist spoke of a
> > heat-weapon with liquid cupper or something like
> > that.. Can the Americans be really that cruel? Dr.
> > Saad El-Fadoui asked us repeatedly to do everything
> > to help stop this horrible war of aggression.
> >
> > [INCIDENT 3] Geert understands me poorly when I
> > say something, the line is not always clear. "We are
> > momentarily without electricity", he explains.
> > "Large blocks in Baghdad are without electricity,
> > last night the bombardment was very severe. Colette
> > (Geert's college-doctor Dr. Collete Moulaert) saw
> > from her hotel room, just behind the mosque in this
> > neighborhood, two enormous fireballs coming down. I
> > think that these are containerbombs of about 7-8
> > tons each that cause enormous vibrations. "I am
> > shivering of the cold", Collete said, but this was
> > the vibration caused by the bomb explosion.
> >
> >
>
> __________________________________________________