unFairford: The Talk

On Saturday 19th July, as an alternative to the celebration of our military prowess down the road a ways, Damacio Lopez (introduced as the man that needs no introduction), a leading expert on the subject of Depleted Uranium, gave a talk at Fairford Community Centre. Over the last twenty years, he has travelled the world to discuss the issues; America, England, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Palestine, Russia, etc. He began by saying that in Belgium they prefer to call the format ‘a debate’ but he made it clear that it was not his intention to force-feed us facts and figures and avenues of blame. Instead it was one of the most informal talks I’ve been to on the subject of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Mr Lopez himself was open, energetic and commanding of the audience. There were maybe thirty of us in attendance –a somewhat reduced figure in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of wide-eyed spectators down the road. So while others watched the delivery systems for these weapons of mass destruction in operation (rip-roaring across the otherwise tranquil beauty of the Cotswolds, often necessitating extended pauses in the talk) a small group of us gathered to learn more about the reality of these weapons.
I will not revise his full CV here. Suffice to say, Damacio Lopez, from Socorro, New Mexico has been working for many years to raise awareness of the development and use by Western governments (or otherwise) of morally questionable weaponry. An ex-USAF pilot, author of the book, Friendly Fire: The Link between Depleted Uranium Munitions and Human Health Risks; he is co-author of Uranium Battlefields Home and Abroad: Depleted Uranium Use by the US department of Defence. He has participated in various UN panels on DU (Depleted Uranium) and is now the Executive Director of the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST). Mr Lopez’s interest was probably first piqued when, in 1986, he organised local residents in the Socorro region to investigate nearby explosive testing and mining of Uranium and DU weaponry. His actions resulted in the UN inviting him to serve as a consultant to the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights.
Damacio Lopez has spent the last eleven months touring America, meeting with a good cross-section of society. His mission has been to try and educate the American public of the sometimes-hidden aspects of the US government’s actions and (lack of) morality. He has been talking with groups (whose numbers ranged from six concerned locals to twenty thousand anti-war protesters) across the States and explaining to them that Depleted Uranium is no more than reconstituted nuclear waste. He estimates that as little as 20% of the members of anti-war groups he spoke to were aware that their government used such weapons (either in tests at home or military action abroad), from which we can easily estimate that the percentage of the general public who knew was as little as 10%. “We have been deceived and we are furious,” the Americans at his talks told him after listening to what Mr Lopez had to say. They also sent a message with him to us in the UK. It’s a simple message– “Please do not give up on us.” The obvious inference being, ‘we are not all like Bush’.
With similarities I find striking to the way we are treated in the UK, the American people have been subjected to unashamed propaganda. The accuracy of the numbers of Americans who are pro/anti-war is highly debatable and subject to wild exaggeration and propagandist distortion (by both sides of the argument). One example Mr Lopez gave us was a pre-war rally he attended in Albuquerque, a city of roughly 1½ million residents –that much is beyond dispute. He estimated the number of those marching for peace at around 20,000. However, the authorities reported the official figure at 2,000. To anyone who went on the February 15th march in London (and other demonstrations), this distortion of figures will not come as a surprise, rather it is expected –the highest figure I heard for Feb 15th from anti-war people was around 2,000,000 while the lowest, being the police estimate, was just 200,000. Mr Lopez estimates that the truest figure on the sentiment of the American public was that 65% of Americans were against this most recent war in the Gulf. Somewhat out of line with official polls.
Last December (2002) Damacio Lopez was invited (after accidentally volunteering) to go to Iraq with a Japanese delegation to investigate the effects of radiation in Iraq. Among the Japanese contingent were experts on the effects of radiation. Japan has a surplus of experts in this field –they have the greatest wealth of victims to study after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (by the US at the end of WW2). The Japanese delegation were making a documentary and asked if they could film Mr Lopez’s investigation. Having agreed, they travelled with him across Iraq from Baghdad to Basra to the DMZ –which the US/UK military jocularly refer to as ‘The Highway to Death’. They found traces on the battlefield of Plutonium, Americium, Neptunium, etc. in bullets. Not Depleted Uranium. Not just ‘tank-busting shells’ and ‘bunker-busting bombs’ but bullets. (i.e. DU is only the tip of the iceberg-lie.) They visited what hospitals remain in Iraq (pitiably few) and visited Leukaemia wards to speak to the victims and the doctors who try in vain to treat them. The experts were all in full agreement of one fact that the US government still denies, that all of the birth defects and abnormalities were a direct result of radiation poisoning. They have no doubt on that issue. (Perhaps this is what we mean by ‘Liberation’). Although he didn’t dwell on it, Mr Lopez realised he was contaminated on returning from his visit. He says he doesn’t know how long he’s got left but that he’s ‘making the most of it [his life]’. He didn’t elaborate, didn’t wallow in self-pity, moved swiftly on.
It’s perhaps interesting to note that from the period between 1991 (the first attack on Iraq) and 2003 (the remix) it was illegal for American citizens to go to Iraq to study the effects of radiation on the region and people. Breaking this congressional edict was punishable with a million dollar fine and/or a prison term. When Mr Lopez returned from Iraq he dared the authorities to arrest and charge him –that would have prompted a full-scale investigation into the reasons for his trip, the effects of radiation on Iraqi civilians, etc. Not surprisingly, Mr Lopez was never arrested. Also, there is an unconstitutional motion currently before congress that, if passed, would make it illegal for any American abroad to bad-mouth US government policies.
A couple of months ago the US began full-scale testing of their latest toy –a new five kiloton warhead. It has been given an eighteen month period of testing (which, coincidently or not, ends one month after the next US presidential election). The question posed by Mr Lopez: Why? The answer: to bomb more countries. Otherwise why would they be developing this bomb? (Weapons are not designed willy-nilly but rather to fit a specific purpose.) This ‘mini-nuke’ is one third the size of the bomb they used on Hiroshima, from which 100,000 people died in the direct blast, a further 20-30% again died from the immediate fallout and then countless other innocent Japanese civilians continue to suffer the effects of radiation. In a country such as Japan where birth-defects are entirely shameful (on top of the malignant health issues), this a continuing legacy of an unprosecuted action some fifty years ago. (The Hiroshima War Memorial says: ‘Rest In Peace for the mistake will not happen again.’ Is this just another totally meaningless promise or do we intend to ensure it’s truthfulness?)
Why would we need a five kiloton bomb? What could happen that would require an escalation of current munitions to this stage? Maybe the justification will be that it’s a Weapon of Mass Protection. Purportedly this will be a weapon fired into the ground to burn up chemical weapons before they can be deployed. Perhaps a laudable claim –if we can believe it. According to the US Department of Defence, the heavy particles released on detonation are ‘so heavy they’ll just fall out of the sky’. After twelve years of study the US DoD concluded that ‘the fallout does not hurt people’. I’d like to see them tell that to Japan.
In Damacio Lopez’s hometown of Socorro, more than half of the community have cancer. “Most people there look like me –they’re brown.” Oppression of the Mexican community has been rampant since the American War with Mexico when the US invaded and annexed a large portion of Mexico. Nothing much changes. Local miners used to go down the mine-shaft and, using explosives, would break up uranium deposits and collect them with their bare hands. This led, obviously in my opinion, to soaring rates of illness and premature deaths. After a lengthy legal battle, the US government accepted there was a case for compensation and agreed to pay out $100,000 in compensation to the widows whose husbands died in the mines, on one condition –that they could prove they were ‘legally’ married to their spouse. This has caused great upset in the community. Most locals, when they marry, do not go to a church or a court-house, they go to the local medicine man and so their marriages were easily written off as not legally recognised. How convenient. This has meant that one legally recognised widow has received the pay-off while her neighbour who was not ‘legally’ married but whose husband nevertheless also died as a result of the mining, received nothing. This has led to social disparity and jealous rivalry.
In all the countries of the world, it is illegal to release noxious substances into the environment, especially those with radioactive components. The emission of any substances even 100 times less radioactive than DU is illegal, in your own country. Interesting then, that war should somehow change that logic and breach those seemingly expedient safe-guards. It seems the age-old adage is still firmly adhered to –all is fair in love and war.
“There is a window of opportunity for a moratorium before they use the mini-nuke.”
What Mr Lopez is suggesting is nothing new but perhaps the timing is right. Similar to the international convention banning land-mines, he proposes an international moratorium on nuclear weapons which would ban all use and development of nuclear weaponry until a full and comprehensive study is carried out into the ill-effects and by-products of their use.
While in Belgium recently, Mr Lopez spoke to Belgian ministers. Notably he asked the Belgian Special Advisor to the Prime Minister (who has held the post for over four years and should, one would think, be well-versed in the subject) whether or not Belgium possesses these weapons. The answer, a nervous, twitchy, ‘I don’t know’. Another minister he asked, said, ‘I can’t tell you’. When Mr Lopez met up with Belgian citizens and shared the answers (or lack of) he had received, they were appalled and began a letter-writing campaign to find out the truth, demanding that their government ‘come clean’.
In England, we don’t have to ask that question. We know our government possesses and uses these radioactive munitions –they actually seem proud of the fact. So we have to ask different questions of our ‘political superiors’. For example; What types of weapons do we possess that use DU? How much DU do they use, as per single firing? What dangers to they pose to the general public? Are they tested in the UK? If not, where are they tested? How much DU is used in the tests? Which companies produce these weapons and how much do they charge? Does any country other than the UK test weapons on English soil? Where are these tests carried out? Are we in breach of any international laws in regards to design, development or use of these weapons? Is public opinion taken into account when the decision is made to use these weapons?
That is the over-riding idea in all that Mr Lopez said. Whether or not we agree with the existence of these weapons, we are owed detailed answers to these and any other legitimate questions we might pose to the powers that be. It’s up to us, the people, to ensure our governments act in accordance with our wishes and intentions. It’s not enough to say, as Tony bLair frequently tells us, ‘Trust me’.
Before launching air-strikes on Iraq in February, George ‘I-stole-the-presidency’ Bush said, "Throughout the Twentieth Century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built armies and arsenals and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world. In each case, their ambitions of cruelty and murder had no limit. In each case, the ambitions of Hitlerism, militarism and communism were defeated by the will of free peoples by the strength of great alliances and by the might of the United States of America." Read that any way you want to but I know where the WMD are –USAF Fairford.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Lopez again for taking the time to talk to us. I hope you find the information he relayed as horrifying as I did.
For further information, please see:www.IDUST.net.