Originally posted by Army
Sri, great link to a terribly biased site! Beautiful! I notice Ms Moret has zero education or work experience in the nuclear field (her bio, not my
words) yet calls herself an "expert".
Very well... we'll gather some expert opinions.
DU...the first word IS "depleted". Natural uranium puts out over 15,000 alpha particles per second....oops, another ignorant statement proven
wrongl.
Damacio Lopez - Research Director for International Depleted Uranium Study Team
"...They take U-235, the enriched uranium that has been extracted through the gaseous diffusion process, and send it to nuclear power plants to make
nuclear fuel rods or to weapons laboratories to make nuclear weapons. The remainder of the natural uranium is a large amount. Only one half of one
percent was taken out of the boxcar in the form of the uranium isotope U-235. The rest is called depleted uranium. Well, it is not depleted of
uranium, obviously that is a misnomer. What it is depleted of, to some degree, is its radioactivity. But it is not depleted of its entire
radioactivity. Therefore the depleted uranium is more than half as radioactive as it was when it was in its purest state as natural uranium
(yellow-cake). This is very important to remember. The radioactivity is not minuscule."
Note... THE RADIOACTIVITY IS NOT MINUSCULE.
Dr. Hari Sharma - Head of the Radio-chemistry and Isotope Division at the Atomic Energy Establishment in Trombay, India
"...Previous speakers have already described the radioactive properties of DU and, of course, it emits energetic alpha particles. In short DU, or
uranium, falls under the category of radioactive materials. This is a reality. All I care is that radioactivity should be treated with the care and
respect it deserves, so that it will not hurt us. [] If you disperse it in the environment, one way or the other it will harm people."
Note: IT WILL HARM PEOPLE
There have been NO CREDIBLE studies of radiation backgrounds in Iraq..the country has been essentially closed to anyone since 1991. If you can produce
such a study, from a non-biased, non-political, non-agenda group, I'd like to read it.
Remains of toxic bullets litter Iraq - By Scott Peterson
"...Ms. Hamid's stand is just four paces away from a burnt-out Iraqi tank, destroyed by - and contaminated with - controversial American
depleted-uranium (DU) bullets. Local children play "throughout the day" on the tank, Hamid says, and on another one across the road. No one has
warned the vendor in the faded, threadbare black gown to keep the toxic and radioactive dust off her produce. The children haven't been told not to
play with the radioactive debris. They gather around as a Geiger counter carried by a visiting reporter starts singing when it nears a DU bullet
fragment no bigger than a pencil eraser. It registers nearly 1,000 times normal background radiation levels on the digital readout."
Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium
By LARRY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER FOREIGN DESK EDITOR
"Studies show it can remain in human organs for years.[]The U.S. Army acknowledges the hazards in a training manual, in which it requires that anyone
who comes within 25 meters of any DU-contaminated equipment or terrain wear respiratory and skin protection, and states that "contamination will make
food and water unsafe for consumption."
There has been NO link to weapon systems in Iraq, and birth defects. If you can produce such a study, from a non-biased, non-political,
non-agenda group, I'd like to read it.
First... take a look at some of these photos of recent iraqi babies:
www.web-light.nl...
then from the sanfrancisco chronicle
Iraq links cancers to uranium weapons - Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, January 13, 2003
"Iraq has experienced a dramatic increase in child cancers, leukemia and birth defects in recent years. Wisam, Iraqi medical authorities and growing
numbers of American activists cast blame on the U.S. weapons containing depleted uranium that were used in the 1991 Gulf War and in the 1998 missile
attacks on Baghdad and other major cities."
Democracy Now
Thursday, September 30th, 2004
Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium in Iraq Born with Deformities
"In early September 2003, Army National Guard Spec. Gerard Darren Matthew was sent home from Iraq, stricken by a sudden illness. One side of
Matthew's face would swell up each morning. He had constant migraine headaches, blurred vision, blackouts and a burning sensation whenever he
urinated.The Army transferred him to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for further tests, but doctors there could not explain what was
wrong. Shortly after his return, his wife, Janice, became pregnant. On June 29, she gave birth to a baby girl, Victoria Claudette. The baby was
missing three fingers and most of her right hand."
There is nothing illegal about DU projectiles...nothing. There are no Hague Accords signed, no protocols agreed to, no Geneva conventions mention it.
Being depleted of dangerous levels of radiation, they have been deemed safe by all countries...evidence of most first world countries using
them.
US Forces' Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons is 'Illegal' - by Neil Mackay
"According to a August 2002 report by the UN subcommission, laws which are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the
Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing 'poison or poisoned weapons'
and 'arms, projectiles or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering'. All of these laws are designed to spare civilians from unwarranted
suffering in armed conflicts."
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www.mindfully.org...
Four reasons why using depleted uranium weapons violates the UN Convention on Human Rights:
LEGALITY TEST FOR WEAPONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
TEMPORAL TEST – Weapons must not continue to act after the battle is over.
ENVIRONMENTAL TEST – Weapons must not be unduly harmful to the environment.
TERRITORIAL TEST – Weapons must not act off of the battlefield.
HUMANENESS TEST – Weapons must not kill or wound inhumanly.
[edit on 14-9-2005 by Sri Oracle]
[edit on 14-9-2005 by Sri Oracle]