Uranium in Your Koolaid

Ewa Jasiewicz, Occupation Watch
Occupied Basra

DU - What is it?

Depleted Uranium is a highly toxic heavy metal derived from nuclear bomb
and fuel waste. It's heavy weight and pyrophoric qualities cause it to
burn-melt like a blowtorch through steel when a DU coated/loaded
penetrator, self-sharpening by nature, strikes a hard target. It's mainly
used to incinerate battle tanks, and on contact pulverizes into
breathable aerosol-like dust that can travel 26 miles and remains
radioactive for 4.5 billion years.

Despite the name "Depleted" Uranium, DU has 60% the radioactivity of
natural uranium, which is pure uranium, and all uranium whether
"natural", "depleted" or "enriched" is a chemical and radiological toxic
substance emitting alpha, beta and gamma particles, all of which have a
destructive effect on the cellular make-up of the human body, ie they
attack the human body at the most essential, primary and vital levels.

Imagine the effect of DU weapons on tanks and compare it to that of the
after-drift and settlement into water systems, soil, vegetation, and the
animal/human body. The energy of a single alpha particle, never mind the
gamma, the heaviest penetrating rays known to science - is more than the
amount required to damage important macromolecules (the glue that holds
us together) such as DNA, RNA, enzymes and proteins. It does this by
breaking molecular bonds and chemical reactions, which alter or destroy
the shape, organization and function of these essential life sustaining
molecules. DU particles have the capacity to penetrate, corrode, crack
and break down the building bricks of human life within the body, through
generating cancer. It can kill, slowly and undetectably at first, with
the effects of DU invisible for the first 4 years of exposure.

According to Dr Durakovic, a former US army colonel and current professor
of medicine, in the course of one year, 1 milligram of uranium emits 390
million alpha particles, 780 million beta particles and associated gamma
rays. This is over one billion high-energy, ionizing, radioactive
particles and rays which can produce extensive biological damage
biological warfare fought out across the inner terrains of the human
body: attacking the ovaries, lungs, lymph nodes, kidneys, breast, blood,
bones, brain, stomach and fetuses. There are over 1000 different cancer
types known to medical science. Cancer means mutated cells. The body's
immune system kicks in to combat the cancerous cells and in doing so
begins to attack the whole body. White blood cells do the fighting.
They're designed to attack any foreign cells, or any foreign object
entering the body, be it viruses, mutated cells or even organs such as
mismatched transplanted kidneys. As cancer spreads through the body, the
immune system strategy is to try to defeat it. Cancer cells divide
rapidly, overtake other cells and can spread faster than the immune
system can react. Death envelops when cancerous cells reach a critical
mass in the body, attacking and multiplying through mutating every cell
around them.

An estimated 300-800 TONS of DU were pounded into Iraq during the 1990
Gulf war.

Lab Rat Nation

DU emerged in the 70s as the USs Cold War weapon of choice cheap,
abundant and devastatingly effective in busting new top-line Soviet tanks
- US manufacturers had found a captive market and a sustainable enemy.

DU is the modern tyrant's multipurpose must, indispensable for
armor-piercing bullets, casing for bombs, shielding on tanks, counter
weights and ground penetrators on missiles, Cluster Bomb fragments that
penetrate armor and anti-personnel mines.

The destructive effects of DU have been known to scientists, military
strategists and politicians for over 60 years.

A 1943 U.S. War Department proposed the 'Use of Radioactive Materials as
a Military Weapon', defining it as:

1) a terrain contaminating material, the radioactive product of which
would be spread on the ground and would affect personnel.
2) As a gas warfare instrument, the material would be ground into
particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a
ground-fired projectile, land vehicle, or aerial bombs

The US government began experimenting on and poisoning its own subjects
long before its military and economic warfare experiments ignited Iraq's
already internal and external war savaged environment. Research by
Damacio Lopez, Executive Director, International Depleted Uranium Study
Team (IDUST) features a 1994 Interim Report of the Advisory Committee on
Human Radiation Experiments which described intentional releases of
radioactive materials into populated areas prior to 1963 as "Experiments
involving intentional environmental releases of radiation that

(A) were designed to test human health effects of ionizing radiation; or
(B) were designed to test the extent of human exposure to ionizing
radiation.

These releases were generally related to radiation warfare tests, the
gathering of intelligence, and the development of instruments. Four such
tests were conducted at Los Alamos, New Mexico, however the Department Of
Energy reports that the number of such tests approximates 250.

The majority of DU shot in the 1990 Kuwait/US war and in this US/UK war
was concentrated on Basra and Baghdad respectively. 1000 to 2000 metric
tons are estimated to have been used by US and to a lesser extent British
forces, in the 2003 Gulf War. (Figure from Dr Jawad Al Ali)

Sitting in Basra's Talimi Teaching Hospital Dr Jawad Al Ali, a renowned
cancer specialist, talks measuredly about his research into the affects
of DU and cancer cases in Iraq's radioactive governorate of Basra.

'The rate of cancer here has multiplied 15 times since the last Gulf war.
In 2002 we had 644 deaths from cancer in Basra. We have approximately 123
patients per 100,000 of the population. (Basra's is Iraq's second largest
city with an estimated population of 2-3 million). People living near the
nuclear reactors are affected the worst, but overall, its estimated that
1000-2000 tons of Depleted Uranium were inside Iraqi cities and in west
Basra and between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. A10 planes were dropping it,
and Apaches. Abu Khaseeb, North Rumeilla, and the airport were
particularly hard hit. The results of the DU used in this war will not
be seen for another 4-5 years - the incubation period for cancer'.

The staff of Talimi hospital theselves have not escaped the DU seep. 13
doctors and nurses at Talimi have contracted cancer since 1990 - Breast,
testicular and lymphoma. And in terms of US aggression, in 1990 the
hospital itself was the target of a US missile strike which saw its
intensive care unit crushed by shells and rockets, killing four patients
and burying a specialist doctor alive under a collapsed ceiling.

'Workers smelting old tanks and vehicles in Khor Zubier are known to have
contracted leukemia' Tells me Dr Jawad. Hardly suprising, keening over a
hot radioactivity accelerating poisonous metal slop, breathing in
re-energized particles of depleted uranium all day. But, it's scrap
metal, it sells on the market and it brings in the cash to feed families
in a country staggering under 70% unemployment. Pity those particular
workers are unlikely to ever see their children grow up.

'DU is the cause of these cancers but its difficult to prove', explains
Dr Jawad. 'Our patients attest to the fact that cancer rates are
skyrocketing. There is three times more DU in the air than is present
naturally. Water and food are the key contaminated sources, and also the
're-suspension of particles' - i.e the re-release of DU into the air
through strong winds or the digging up of DU.'

'In Gurna we have found cancer clusters, a director of a school plus two
teachers are suffering from Luekemia there. We know of one person, Doug
Rokke, an American, who was decontaminating tanks. He received 5000 times
the proper dose of DU. He now has slurred speech and dizziness, no cancer
as yet, but, he has been affected'.

Indeed, Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium
project, former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville
University and onetime US army colonel, was recruited by the US
department of defense to handle the post-first- Gulf war depleted uranium
desert clean-up. He told Sunday Herald reporters last March, 'A nation's
military personnel cannot willfully contaminate any other nation, cause
harm to persons and the environment and then ignore the consequences of
their actions. To do so is a crime against humanity. We must do what is
right for the citizens of the world: ban DU.'

Dr Jawad goes on to describe the threat of DU to the most vulnerable
sector of society. 'Children in particular are susceptible to DU
poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is
being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft
tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the
most, however, cancer of the lymphoma, which can develop anywhere on the
body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.'

'Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen
before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For
example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2
cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer
was developing in his other kidney he had three different cancer
types'. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58
families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a
general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with
cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering
from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer'.

Dr Jawad looks exhausted. He slowly toys with his pen. 'The occupation
forces should have protected the stores near the nuclear reactor in
Baghdad, in Twaitha.' The case was well documented by Greenpeace in May.
Post regime fall, impoverished, mostly squatter families were using
barrels meant for toxic nuclear waste to store water for washing, cooking
and drinking. 'They should have known to protect the place but they can
now say, 'people stole the barrels, its their fault and they spread the
radioactive materials'. They will be held responsible for DU
contamination, not the forces. And I think they did this on purpose, this
is my opinion, just my opinion'. It makes sense. In April last year, the
Pentagon announced that the US government had no intention of conducting
a post war clean up of DU, believing that that there was no evidence for
long-term affects of DU. The 200,000 US soldiers suffering from mystery
fatigue, memory loss, and chronic muscle and joint pain aka Gulf War
Syndrome, not being evidence enough on their own soil, and the eyeless
children, multiple cancer bearing and leukemia fighting victims filling
hospital wards in Basra and Baghdad and other war-scarred Iraqi cities,
are too not evidence enough to seriously confront the effects of the
radioactive killer.

For Dr Jawad, the constant cancer cases (many of which go unreported he
stresses) are a spiraling emergency which needs to be investigated
promptly, efficiently and accurately soon. 'For the past 13 years we were
unable to test people properly, we didn't have sufficient or appropriate
equipment. WHO teams were banned from visiting us and the US took away
parts for our MRE machines and our computer systems, saying that they
could be used for making weapons of mass destruction. We really need
special sensitive tissue testing equipment, but under the sanctions, this
was unavailable. And it's not just lack of equipment, we need physicists
and specialist doctors, people who can help conduct tests and do
analysis. A woman from Britain came to visit me and said that doctors
from The Royal College of Physicians would be coming to conduct studies.
But noone has come. We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam
before the war. When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me
of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people
have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for
their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we were
accused of being Saddam supporters.'

Dr Jawad and his patients have suffered acutely from the kill of the
ecocidal tons of nuclear weapons deployed in the last two gulf wars. The
killing continues. War casualties continue to be hospitalized, expire,
and pile up in the graveyards of Basra. Some of the alive are slowly
dying already, from the first breath of heavily radiated air breathed
after The Fall. Others are set to bring deformed babies into the world,
with crownless skulls or fused fingers, while whole families watch
listlessly as taut bed-bound members reel from the violence of the poison
in their veins, in their flesh.

There are weapons of mass destruction everywhere in Iraq. They were made
in America, bombed over here, and lie left vitiating in the dessert,
beside highways, in demolished homes, rubble buildings; a fine murder
dust on the breeze, upon the water, inside the roasting tissues of a
chicken on a spit in the street, inside the bodies of bone-eating cancer
bearing children, or inside the wombs of women sick with dizziness just
pregnancy or poisoning? Their birth-days can only tell. But one thing is
certain in occupied Iraq circa 2004, the UK and US governments are guilty
of deploying in effect, biological warfare against the Iraqi civilian
population. And the killing continues. The killing continues.

Resources

Countries using DU or contaminated by DU according to Damacio Lopez,
Executive Director, International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST):
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Czech
Republic, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Israel, Iraq, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Panama, Pakistan, Poland,
Puerto Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey,
Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Yugoslavia.

 http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/du-weapon.htm - The Use of the Radioactive
Material Depleted Uranium U-238 (DU) as a Military Weapon - By Damacio
Lopez, Executive Director, International Depleted Uranium Study Team
(IDUST)

 http://www.afghandufund.org/dubasics1.htm - Basics about Uranium and
Depleted Uranium (DU) and Its Impact on Human Health by Dr. Durakovic

 http://www.merip.org/mer/mer215/215_peterson.html - Middle East Report:
Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq - Scott Peterson

 http://www.google.co.uk/search?
q=cache:eRonjt3Mw24J:www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/pdf/duiq03.pdf+2003+depleted+uranium+basra&hl=en&start=9&ie=UTF-8
assessment of Depleted Uranium Use in the 2003 Iraq War by 1991 Gulf
War veteran Dan Fahey

 http://www.peacelink.it/tematiche/disarmo/u238/documenti/marouf_du.html -
The Environmental and Health Effects of Deployment of Depleted Uranium
During 1991 by US and UK Armies in Iraq DR B.A Marouf
 http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0305/030507.htm - US Forces' Use of Depleted
Uranium is Illegal - by Neil Mackay

 http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/dissgw.html#USREJIQC L - Current
Issues - Depleted Uranium Weapons in the Gulf Wars (1991, 2003)