Thread: Depleted uranium: a strange way to protect Libyan civilians

Depleted uranium: a strange way to protect Libyan civilians

by David Wilson
Global Research, March 27, 2011
Stop the War Coalition - 2011-03-26

"[uranium tipped missiles] fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way... I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people." Marion Falk, chemical physicist (retd), Lawrence Livermore Lab, California, USA

In the first 24 hours of the Libyan attack, US B-2s dropped forty-five 2,000-pound bombs. These massive bombs, along with the Cruise missiles launched from British and French planes and ships, all contained depleted uranium (DU) warheads.

DU is the waste product from the process of enriching uranium ore. It is used in nuclear weapons and reactors. Because it is a very heavy substance, 1.7 times denser than lead, it is highly valued by the military for its ability to punch through armored vehicles and buildings. When a weapon made with a DU tip strikes a solid object like the side of a tank, it goes straight through it, then erupts in a burning cloud of vapor. The vapor settles as dust, which is not only poisonous, but also radioactive.

An impacting DU missile burns at 10,000 degrees C. When it strikes a target, 30% fragments into shrapnel. The remaining 70% vaporises into three highly-toxic oxides, including uranium oxide. This black dust remains suspended in the air and, according to wind and weather, can travel over great distances. If you think Iraq and Libya are far away, remember that radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales.

Particles less than 5 microns in diameter are easily inhaled and may remain in the lungs or other organs for years. Internalized DU can cause kidney damage, cancers of the lung and bone, skin disorders, neurocognitive disorders, chromosome damage, immune deficiency syndromes and rare kidney and bowel diseases. Pregnant women exposed to DU may give birth to infants with genetic defects. Once the dust has vaporised, don't expect the problem to go away soon. As an alpha particle emitter, DU has a half life of 4.5 billion years.

In the 'shock and awe' attack on Iraq, more than 1,500 bombs and missiles were dropped on Baghdad alone. Seymour Hersh has claimed that the US Third Marine Aircraft Wing alone dropped more than "five hundred thousand tons of ordnance". All of it DU-tipped.

Al Jazeera reported that invading US forces fired two hundred tons of radioactive material into buildings, homes, streets and gardens of Baghdad. A reporter from the Christian Science Monitor took a Geiger counter to parts of the city that had been subjected to heavy shelling by US troops. He found radiation levels 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal in residential areas. With its population of 26 million, the US dropped a one-ton bomb for every 52 Iraqi citizens or 40 pounds of explosives per person.

William Hague has said that we are in Libya " to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas".You don't have to look far for who and what are being 'protected'.

In that first 24 hours the 'Allies' 'expended' £100 million on DU-tipped ordnance. The European Union's arms control report said member states issued licences in 2009 for the sale of £293.2 million worth of weapons and weapons systems to Libya. Britain issued arms firms licences for the sale of £21.7 million worth of weaponry to Libya and were also paid by Colonel Gadaffi to send the SAS to train his 32nd Brigade.

For the next 4.5 billion years, I'll bet that William Hague will not be holidaying in North Africa.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=23985

The Al Qaeda Connection: Who are we Helping in Libya? Here are Some Answers.



Global Research, March 27, 2011
Fabius Maximus

Global Research Editor's Note

The following press excerpts by the Fabius Mazimus website provide information on the nature of the Libyan opposition, including its links to Al Qaeda.

Summary: This post looks at some of what little public information we have about the Libyan rebels. It’s not encouraging, and forms a weird foundation for our interventionists dreams about Libya.

Contents

Who are the rebels? – Libya’s Opposition Leadership Comes into Focus, Stratfor, 20 March 2011
Confident guessing: “A Libyan Fight for Democracy, or a Civil War?“, New York Times, 21 March 2011
A cautionary note: “Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda linksâ€

Iraq War Crimes: Birth Defects and Miscarriages in Fallujah

by Prof. Paola Manduca
Global Research, March 26, 2011
newweapons.org

Increase in time of birth defects and miscarriages in Fallujah since 2003 and its association with toxic metals load in the population and in newborns and children with birth defects and their families

We have published today on the Newweapons web site ( www.Newweapons.org ) a full scientific investigation on the birth defects increase in Fallujah.

Unusually high frequency of birth defects and miscarriages was observed over the years following 2003, with gradual increase since then and with birth defects frequencies not decreasing up to November 2010.

For 2010, medical sources in Fallujah reported to us 14.7% of birth defects. This is about 10 folds higher compared to the frequencies in the same families in the years 1991-2001. Also miscarriage rates have increase considerably over the time from 2003.

The modalities of the presentation of the birth defects in 56 families studied and in their immediate kin (1256 people) indicates that genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, post-mutational, but potentially transmissible to the progeny, may be responsible of the events.

The finding suggest that continuing environmental contamination due to war associated and long lasting contaminants, like teratogenic metals, could be determining the reproductive damage.

The high rate of birth defects is associated with an increase in the hair the hair of children and adults of metals components of weaponry used in the recent wars in Iraq, but also in Lebanon and Gaza and Afghanistan. The study presented here can be seminal also for the decreased reproductive health in these countries.

From the analysis of metals in hair of 43 children with birth defects and 103 their parents, and of 11 healthy newborns and 16 their parents is shown that metal contamination is diffuse in the whole population of the town of Falluhja and is present already in newborn children hair.

The authors report that absolute levels of teratogenic and carcinogenic contaminants (Vanadium, Cobalt, Molybden, Uranium and Lead) were significantly higher in Iraqi than in controls from other areas, with Lead levels in children with birth defects and Uranium in their parents higher respectively than that in other newborns or parents of normal Falluhja children.

The composite metal load might be a major factor in the increase in time of events that lead to birth defects and miscarriages registered in the last years.

Notes:

Notwithstanding the attention upon pre-enquiry for this science manuscript from various scientific Journals, including prestigious ones, there have been political and other pressures that suggested to choose press modality of publication. The Iraqi authors retired their assent to publish in scientific Journals, blocking de factu an already done submission to Lancet.

This pressure was achieved by the use of unproper methods of intimidation first and then under the claim of disagreement in results with those of other undisclosed reports. We believe that this was a political action with modalities outside those customary in science, and for aims that elude acquisition of knowledge of facts and open confrontation through collaboration or through publication of studies.

We identify as final aim of these studies the need to contribute to develop tools to improve the reproductive health of the populations of victims of long-term effects of war and all the studies done will contribute to this aim.

We chose therefore to send to press this contribute to future scientific memory and for what we consider to be the best information of all parties involved in the long term damages in all the countries interested.

The work is presented in the name of only one of the contributing authors, to save the other consenting authors from the treats we received.

The author that is presenting the report is responsible for the project design and coordinated the research, received the release of the clinical data and hair samples from the General Hospital of Falluhja and that of the analytical data from an internationally certified laboratory.

We strongly hope that more studies will be done and published on this matter, that eventual scientific differences in results will be dealt by preliminary honest confrontation among the scientists, doing the next useful steps to find truth and eventual mistakes, or be done openly after data publication.

We are issuing a call for independent research in the field to international Institutions and the wide scientific community.

Authors’ contributions to the study

Two medical doctors in the general hospital of Fallujah were responsible for the registration and collection of data and patients consent, for the clinical diagnosis and for the collection of hair samples.

Two analytical chemistry professors in Italy were responsible for the procedures of preparation and analysis of hair samples.

A medical doctor was responsible for the statistical analysis of the data, their rationalization and contributed with the corresponding tables and to the writing of the manuscript.

Paola Manduca designed the experiments, prepared the historical registration protocol, coordinated the work, wrote the manuscript, prepared the figures and tables, and was responsible for the interpretation of the data.

Paola Manduca, Geneticist and Professor at the University of Genoa, Italy, coordinator of The Newweapons research group

March 25, 2011

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=23977