Depleted Uranium Scandal Explodes

[astonamous]

<snip>

The Preventive Psychiatry Newsletter has written to its subscribers telling them that the real reason the former Veterans Affairs Secretary, Anthony Principi, recently resigned was because he has been involved in a massive scandal covering up the fact that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the use of depleted uranium, according to the SF Bay View.

<snip>

Principi, under the order of the Bush Administration, had been allegedly covering up the disastrous results of using depleted uranium since 2000. However, with so many soldiers having serious health problems it has become impossible to keep secret.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20870

A poisonous legacy indeed...for generations of our troops and for the world.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Other link

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=8018

[astonamous]

3. Thank you.

I had this link from a long time ago...

Warning, very graphic.

http://www.bushflash.com/pl_hi.html

and then there is this...

http://www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml

I know that none of this comes as a surprise to those of us that have been paying attention and to those that suffer from the so called 'syndrome'.

It's like the sign on my car that say, "Supporting the troops is more than a magnetic ribbon on your SUV". And to think of all the budget cuts for Veterans medical benefits.

[bananas]

8. I think this is the original

From the url, I would guess it's dated 01-26-2005

http://www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml

Heads roll at Veterans Administration

Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal blamed

by Bob Nichols
Project Censored Award Winner

Considering the tons of depleted uranium used by the U.S., the Iraq war can truly be called a nuclear war.

Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War.

Writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter No. 169, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, “The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.”

<snip>

[jjanpundt]

12. The pictures of the deformities caused by DU are nearly

identical to the deformities caused by the radiation from the Chernobyl disaster. HBO recently aired a documentary on the children of the Ukraine and Belorus. The deformities are mind boggling and they're increasing.

Whoever came of with the idea of using depleted uranium in weapons (and all the people that worked on the project) should be hauled before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.

[sam sarrha]

35. a sleezy deal to "Dump" Nuclear Waste in undeveloped countries

at extreeme cost to the inhabitants and to the American Taxpayers

[arendt]

2. I worry about DepUr, but can we trust facts, figures from uruknet?

The numbers are mind-blowing.

500,000+ Iraq War 1 verterans on disability?
Almost the entire force?

Is this really true?

I am skeptical, but willing to be shown more evidence
from more sources.

arendt

[astonamous]

4. The numbers are a little shocking. My step-brother would be one.

The only way this becomes a scandal is if it hits the MSM.

[serryjw]

5. Try this!

quote........
Terry Jemison of the Department of Veterans Affairs reported this week to the American Free Press that “Gulf-era veterans” now on medical disability since 1991 number 518,739, with only 7,035 reported wounded in Iraq in that same 14-year period.

This week the American Free Press dropped a “dirty bomb” on the Pentagon by reporting that eight out of 20 men who served in one unit in the 2003 U.S. military offensive in Iraq now have malignancies. That means that 40 percent of the soldiers in that unit have developed malignancies in just 16 months.

end quote.....

http://www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml
Take whatever our gov't says and DOUBLE IT! How long did it take our gov't to acknowlege Agent Orange?

[Karenina]

13. And remember that the GW1 soldiers

were there for only about 6 months or so...

[serryjw]

21. Unfortunately, It doesn't take long

It could take a couple years when they come back to start seeing the effect of this shit

[Karenina]

23. Forget YEARS, dearest Sjw...

The psychic violence the kids have been subjected to will be the first manifestation.

[serryjw]

26. Agreed with

psychic violence, but if they were just exposed to DU in battle it may show up slowly over years. My guess very conveniently it will be mis-diagnosed at VA.

[mom cat]

22. I just read the article at the link that you posted and want to throw up!

This is the most damning articles that I have yet read on DU.

[mattclearing]

6. Duh. n/t

[Katherine Brengle]

7. Bah I hate what this country is becoming...

That's about it...

[seemslikeadream]

9. - More than 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died Wed Jan-07-04

Please remember - More than 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died
According to the Department of Defense,by 1999, the military revealed

As many as 100,000 U.S. troops were exposed to repeated low-levels of chemical warfare agents, including sarin, cyclosarin, and mustard gases;

More that 250,000 received the investigational new drug pyridostigmine bromide (PB pills the Pentagon"cannot rule out as linked to Gulf War illnesses;

150,000 received the hotly debated anthrax vaccine

436,000 entered into or lived for months within ares contaminated by more than 315 tons of depleted uranium radioactive toxic waste possibly laced with trace amounts of highly radioactive Plutonium and Neptunium, almost all without any awareness, training, protective equipment, or medical evaluations; and

Hundreds of thousands lived outdoors for months near more that 700 burning oil well fires belching fumes and particulate matter without any protective equipment.

Each of these exposures took place while troops were either engaged in combat, serving in a war zone, or stationed in the volatile region for a number of months.

www.ngwrc.org

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=991636#992845

Pentagon Fails To Learn From Gulf War Illness
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=60401


More than 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died. - Daddy's war - Tue Apr-06-04
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as of March 1, 2001

- 696,661 U.S. troops served in the Gulf War between August 2, 1990 and July 31, 1991 -- these are considered "Gulf War Conflict" veterans by the VA;

- Of the 696,628, 504,047 are separated from service and eligible for benefits through the VA;

- As of December 1999, more than 263,000 sought medical care at the VA;

- Of the 504,047 eligible veterans, 185,780 (36%) filed claims against the VA for service-related medical disabilities;

- Of the 171,878 VA claims actually processed, 149,094 (80%) were approved in part (note -- most claims are made up of multiple issues, if any one issue is granted, VA considers it approved);

- Of the 504,047 eligible for VA benefits, 149,094 (29%) are now considered disabled by the VA eleven since the start of the Gulf War; and

- Another 13,902 claims against the VA still pending.

- More than 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died.

- Conflict veterans are 51% more likely to have their claims denied than "theater" veterans (those who served in the Gulf since August 1, 1991)

http://www.ngwrc.org/Issues.cfm?NewsTopicID=29

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1354741

[leeroysphitz]

11. pyridostigmine bromide. I never trusted that stuff...

We were ORDERED to take these pills. I always hid mine under the tongue and spat it out...
I even kept a package of them so as to one day find out just what I had been ordered to swallow.
I never followed up on that, still have the pack tho...

[phusion]

15. OK...

It is horrible that almost 10,000 gulf war vets have died. But, that figure (9,600) out of the 696,000 total GW vets is only about 1.4%. So over a 10 year period, the mortality rate has only been 1.4%? That doesn't sound too bad and probably matches what the non-GW vet mortality rate is. Also, they don't give causes, do they? So this could be anything...

[seemslikeadream]

17. That was two years ago

Did you notice how many they reported that were sick? I'm sure the number has risen.

New info here
http://www.ngwrc.org/index.cfm?&Page=Module&ModuleID=13

[OutsidetheBox]

10. Depleted Uranium = The Iraqi Holocaust

The Killing Fields is an excellent article regarding the Middle East, Iraq and Depleted Uranium. It's a great read and highly recommended for those wishing to better understand DU. If it ever gets covered by the MSM it will rock this slumbering nation and the world.

-- snip --

The Killing Fields will in the next few decades take the life of tens of thousands, certainly, millions, perhaps. Yet it will not only be Iraqis made to suffer the consequences of America’s invisible yet devastating nuclear war upon Iraq. Already, 11,000 American soldiers, veterans of the first Gulf War, have died thanks to Gulf War Syndrome, cancer and disease. Over 350,000 veterans, out of 700,000 who served, have asked for serious disability, most of these veterans being in their late twenties and early thirties, in the prime of their lives, cleared as healthy before the war in military conducted medical physicals. Depleted Uranium is the most likely culprit, as many more get diagnosed with terminal diseases and illnesses every year. Many veterans of Gulf War One and now the Iraq/Bush War have themselves been giving birth to deformed and defective children, much like their Iraqi counterparts.

Depleted Uranium, it seems, does not discriminate nor does it need a passport to infect human beings. It has been imported into America by our returning soldiers, a great percentage of which most likely have remnants of depleted uranium buried deep inside them. How many American veterans of Gulf War One and the Iraq/Bush War will in the next few decades succumb to cancer or destroyed immune systems? How many of their children will be born like those in Iraq, unable to live more than a few days or months because their bodies are infested with DU, their appearance no longer presenting the appearance of a human child?

It is estimated that 40,000 to 80,000 more veterans will die in the next twenty to thirty years as the effects of DU run their course. How many more will produce offspring with genetic birth defects, gross mutations of fetuses, miscarriages and stillborns? So much for Bush’s hypocritical culture of life. How many of our soldiers and veterans are dead men and women walking, waiting out a cruel game of DU lottery, hoping their bodies were spared the poison now rampant in Iraq? How many will have their lives altered, never to regain normalcy, never able to bear children, always to wonder if they will be next to fall. The Killing Fields of Iraq do not discriminate and they do not stop at the border. They do not bother with uniform colors or the crossing of oceans. They are the deadly consequence of criminality and indifference, of greed and emphasis on the bottom line. Sadly, the nuclear silence now deafening in Iraq will alter the course of Iraqi history, not to mention the lives of thousands of Americans veterans who, after a year or perhaps five of living normal lives, will begin feeling the damage DU is doing to their body.

The Depleted Uranium Holocaust is but the next stage in America’s indifference to the Arab world, an indifference that has lasted decades, with the US concerned only for the Middle East’s vast yet dwindling oil wealth, not its human capital nor its interest in freedom, democracy or human rights. In a twisted form of karma, DU has returned the favor to thousands of American soldiers, returning its deadly poison back to the same nation that created it, penetrating the porous skin and bodies of soldiers once occupying Iraq, now a land devastated with the invisible radiation of American DU ordnance. It has attached itself to our soldiers, in time to haunt their health and their families, possibly becoming manifest in the deformities of American babies.

Read the rest at:
http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/2006/01/killing-fields-ghosts-of-walking-dead.html

[newyawker99]

29. Hi Outsidethebox!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[donsu]

14. kicking for justice - kicking for mothers of toxic newborns

the bushmilhousegang cannot get away with this crime

[bloom]

16. It's good if this is getting more exposure

A remember a "scientist" trying to convince me that DU was depleted as so it didn't cause harm.

Seems like it's been one of those issues that has suffered the "Fog" effect - the pretension that nobody knows what's going on.

[RazzleDazzle]

24. Oh, there are a number of people who flock to these discussions

here on DU and try to convince us all that DU is no big deal. They can sound quite convincing with all their scientific-sounding mumbojumbo, but in my heart I know the truth.

[SidDithers]

25. Yeah, you gotta watch out for that scientific-sounding....

mumbojumbo. Especially when it's actually based in science.

Sid

[RazzleDazzle]

28. Well, the anti-global warming people say their position is science-

based as well. Is it?

It's the same with the people who claim DU is not a menace -- except, of course, as a heavy metal.

Go ahead and believe them if you want. I believe the hundreds of thousands who are suffering on several different continents now. I believe the scientist ex-military colonel who was tasked with studying this for the military but is himself now dying.

Believe whoever you want, Sid. If you want to think, believe, claim that there is NO science that is "bad" science, used for nefarious purposes, used to obfuscate and lie about reality, you go right ahead. I happen to be smarter than that, even if I am not myself a vaunted, deified scientist (and thank God for that).

[SidDithers]

33. Here's what the science has shown...

DU is a heavy metal, and like other heavy metals, has toxicological properties which are very nasty.

DU as a material is virtually stable radioactively. A hunk of DU in your hand is less dangerous than just about anything else in you house.

When DU, as used in weapons, explodes, it creates dust. That dust, breathed into your lungs is very very bad for you. It is toxic, and, because you no longer have a layer of skin to protect you from alpha decay, it also causes damage radiologically.

DU is bad stuff and should not be used in weapons. Some militaries have discontinued its use and are instead using tungsten for armor piercing weapons.

Here's where the Chicken Little's of the anti-DU brigade do themselves a disservice. By claiming that the war in Iraq is equivalent to 400,000 Hiroshima bombs or by claiming that Iraq and Afghanistan will be a radioactive wasteland for 4.5 billion years, they are making sensational claims without realizing just how ridiculous those claims are. There's your real scientific mumbojumbo. By misusing science in such a hysterical fashion, it becomes easy to dismiss the argument entirely - that DU shouldn't be used in weapons - an argument that I HAPPEN TO AGREE WITH.

The stuff is bad enough, and there is enough real evidence of why it is bad, that you don't have to make shit up to further your cause.

You can believe everything you read on the internet, but half of what you see has been warped by someone with an agenda. Science shouldn't have an agenda.

Sid

[lostexpectation]

36. well said sid

sid right

think du think heavy metal not just radioactive

[Mnemosyne]

43. This is a good assessment about the heavy metal aspect Sid, but

why insult those trying to get the word out about the deadly seriousness of this war crime to the world?

They/we are not chicken littles. They/we are speaking the truth. DU does have a half-life of billions of years. It doesn't mean that no one will live there anymore than it meant that no one would live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki ever again. Life goes on and people live where they have always lived. Where else would they go? The repercussions will be felt for innumerable generations in Iraq, Afghanistan and here.

As far as having agendas goes they/we are trying to put an end to a horrific war crime, that is an agenda as it well should be to each and every one of us in this country, in this world. No one should have a problem with that. How is anything being made up? All of the effects, the half-life, etc. are the truth. The heavy metal effects are just as heinous and will endure many generations also, exaggerations not required in either case.

In hope of peace,
V

[Mnemosyne]

31. I've got some links for you.

You sound so smug Sid.

Here's a link that will back up your "science". I'm sure they have been well paid for it.
http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jan/24-107572.html


And here is one with descriptions by actual doctors and pictures of reality and nightmares. Fuck your science. Many are still honest, but too often now they are bought and paid. People aren't stupid.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/extremedeformities.html

Cause and effect Sid, connect the dots.

[OutsidetheBox]

18. kicked for truth...n/t

[astonamous]

19. Thank you to every one for the links.

Just one more issue that needs attention again.

Trudy

[Coexist]

20. this is so sad. eom.

[Oilwellian]

27. Another old, but good source

http://www.all-natural.com/riley.html

[fed-up]

30. Here's report on current stats Iraq/Afghanistan NYDailyNews/Democracy Now

http://www.democracynow.org/static/Vets.shtml

VET'S ILLS MOUNTING FAST
Published on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 by the New York Daily News

By Juan Gonzalez

NEARLY 120,000 veterans - more than one of every four who served in Iraq and Afghanistan - have already sought treatment at Veterans Health Administration hospitals for a wide range of illnesses, according to an internal study the VHA completed late last year.

More than 30% of those sick veterans are afflicted with some type of mental disorder, mostly posttraumatic stress and depression.

An additional 35,000 - more than 29% of the total - were diagnosed with "ill-defined conditions," according to the study, which was prepared in October by VHA epidemiologist Dr. Han Kang but has yet to be publicly released.

"Those numbers are way higher than during the Persian Gulf War for 'ill-defined' symptoms," said one Department of Veterans Affairs official who asked not to be identified....

[LunaC]

38. The U.N. considers DU a WMD

I honestly don't know why no one is jumping up and down with their hair on fire to stop its use.

The coalition forces, notably the American and British, had used depleted uranium-based munitions, which were prohibited throughout the world, and contravened the United Nations Convention on Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/Symbol/7afeec7003489bb7802567550045e27a?Opendocument


The Geneva Report on Depleted Uranium:
From the 55th Session of the Sub-Commission on The Promotion and Protection of Human Rights held in Geneva, Switzerland, on August 4, 2003

DU weaponry was used in a number of situations, in spite of convincing evidence that it could not be used without violating humanitarian law. In particular, from the information he has studied, it is clear to the author that these weapons must necessarily be considered banned as causing superfluous injury or undue suffering, or because of a real threat to the environment. These weapons could also be viewed as poisonous. The author also noted a number of ongoing or planned studies on DU weaponry as well as the growing international action in civil society against them, including calls for a moratorium on their use by a number of States and several intergovernmental organizations.

-snip-

33. As stated in the first paper, all the weapons under consideration, including weapons containing DU, can be considered prohibited because they are WIE, WSI and WUS. Additionally, nuclear weapons, weapons containing depleted uranium or other "radiological" weapons necessarily cause impermissible damage to the environment.

34. The author is, of course, aware of the continuing controversy over DU weapons, fuelled by what the author considers cavalier disregard, if not deception, on the part of the developers and users of these weapons regarding their effects. While the author is not in a position to evaluate the many scientific studies of these weapons, it is impossible to ignore the findings of credible medical research. On that ground alone, DU weapons should not be used pending further study. Furthermore, The United States Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) figures on deaths of veterans who served in the First Gulf War (over 8,000), coupled with an equally startling disability rate (206,861 of 696,778 veterans on paid disability), is sufficient to indicate that something is seriously amiss.

-snip-

38. The main legal conclusion reached by the author is that all the weapons under review in his two papers should be considered banned, whether or not there is a specific treaty banning them. Weapons which are the subject of a specific treaty should also be considered universally banned for all States, regardless of whether a State is a signatory. States that have employed any of these weapons should assume their duties relative to compensation, clean up and warning.

http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=110

[Hubert Flottz]

32. Depleted Uranium Ammo = Dirty Bombs

They all knew it! Bush will play like he didn't know about this too.

[sam sarrha]

34. negligent homicide. here is a gut wrenching--LINK--about Depleted Uranium,

Google...--depleted uranium extreme birth defects-- THIS IS HORRID HEART WRENCHING STUFF>> If you are not strong dont go there.. but is real and forever

[lostexpectation]

37. anything more on Anthony Principi resignation?

[in_cog_ni_to]

39. Iraq and Afghanistan's Agent Orange.

They tried to cover that up too. Our poor Veterans. Their own country has ruined their lives. *sigh*

[astonamous]

41. We'll be living with this for generations to come. So sad. n/t

[CountAllVotes]

40. kick!

Please sign the petition to ban depleted uranium forever!

Link: http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=ePetitions&op=more_info&ePetitionId=3

Thank you!

CountAllVotes

:dem: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[phoebe]

42. there's been some talk of expunged service records to cover up the

real numbers. Literally, members who have served and are sick, awaiting either treatment or compensation, are being told that they neither enlisted nor served.

- thank GHW Bush for the inception of DU in war..

on edit, the European landmass has apparently had DU wafting over it since Desert Storm..