Afghans to Probe Whether U.S. Used Depleted Uranium
KABUL - The Afghan government plans to investigate whether the United States used depleted uranium during its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and if it might be linked to malformed babies born afterwards.
Parts of Afghanistan, particularly the mountainous region of Tora Bora in the east — the suspected hideout of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden — came under heavy U.S. bombing in late 2001 when the Taliban regime was ousted.
Depleted uranium is a heavy metal used in some weapons that can pierce armour. It has small levels of radioactivity associated with it.
Cases of malformed babies delivered in the heavily bombed Afghan areas have come to light, Faizullah Kakar, Afghan deputy public health minister for technical affairs said on Saturday, citing an unnamed U.S. expert.
Kakar told Reuters the Afghan government planned to investigate the matter.
“We have decided to do a study to see what is going on. We will take samples of soil, rocks, water in different areas where the war had taken place in the past and look in the same area to see if there is an excess of malformed babies,” Kakar said.
“It’s then that we can tell you what is going on. But until then it is still speculation,” he said.
“In Afghanistan, we have so many problems with nutritional deficiency, like folic acid. So it’s difficult to tell if it’s due to depleted uranium or due to some nutritional problems or some other genetic issues,” he said.
Asked if the United States had told Afghanistan if depleted uranium was used during the war, Kakar said: “They have not told us that they have used it, but my source said it was used.”
Kakar said he would like to see the study done as soon as possible, but the Afghan government, which largely relies on Western aid and troops, needed to find ways of funding it.
© 2008 Reuters
Please, please follow through on this. If the Afghans can prove it, then we’ll begin to know the scale of damage in Iraq. Since the war in Bosnia, depleted uranium has been used in US armaments - google “depleted uranium.” There are now over 1 million citations; a few years ago, there were practically none.
As soon as the above article came out, the Afghan Health Ministry denied the investigation. Wow! talk about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
Will the effort by Afghan scientists be squelched? Watch carefully. Just like Agent Orange in Vietnam, the US government steadfastly denies the existence of the horrible poisons it uses, and allows its veterans to go undiagnosed and untreated. Google “Doug Rokke.”
S I C K doesn’t not describe it, D E A D predicts one’s future, … … …
I believe that Doug Rokke worked on depleted uranium from the first attack on Iraq in 1991. Some believe that this is the source of the :”Gulf War Syndrome” that has killed so many GIs and caused them to have deformed children. Leukemia and birth defects skyrocketed in Iraq after 1991.
It was used in Yugoslavia, also, with the same effects.
I didn’t think that the US had ever denied using it in Afghanistan. But it figures.
Every civilian, and every soldier, and every contract worker, and every diplomat in the country where DU is used, is under a declining health and/or death sentence.
Clearly, if this is understood who would volunteer for military service?
Pride in the deaths and sufferings of others seems to have become a Bush Cheney trademark. Even though they do it in the light of day our religious, moral, and ethical leadership remains mostly silent, or even supportive. I have come to expect the moral emptiness. Today I spent the day helping the Earth Mother, a small but positive effort. Here is where I can make a difference, and so I do.
Ironically, Agent Orange & Depleted Uranium both developed out of the same weapons program…or should I say pervertedly or tragically? Sadistically works, too.
The first link is a two minute read, the second one is a long one, but it explains all any need to ever know about DU.
It is not just Iraq, Afganastan, Kosovo where DU has been used, thousands of tons have been expended on firing and bombing ranges in the United States, 29 other countries military uses it. It blows in the wind and if you or any of your family inhale any, even a microscopic speck, you will eventually have cancer.
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du_blowinginthewind.htm
http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/background.htm
It is difficult to believe the US did not use DU in Afghanistan. The A-10 is an airplane built around a 30mm anti-tank gun that fires DU munitions.
” Doom n Gloom April 20th, 2008 7:50 pm
Pride in the deaths and sufferings of others seems to have become a Bush Cheney trademark.”
Did, and long enough ago.
After all, it’s been quite clear for quite a while that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan have sovereign govts, that they’re in need to obey the invaders, …. And Doug Rokke and Leuren Moret, among others, have been reporting on the DU poison for many years now.
Some things have been stated by some members of the govt in Iraq, but without being in conformance with the will or plans of the invader superpower. The Shiite judge presiding over the trial of Saddam Hussein et al up to September of I believe the same year Saddam was put to death was replaced because he was actually favourable towards Saddam Hussein, accepting much of his defence. And it’s common sense that this replacement happened only because the invader superpower’s rein holders weren’t going to put up with any judges ruling unfavourably for the USA’s ruling elites.
Nonetheless, this DU case in Afghanistan is very interesting. There’s surely no way that the invader boss will permit the Afghan govt to perform this DU-deformities study, but I still hope the study is conducted and in fully honesty.
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” PaulMagillSmith April 20th, 2008 10:28 pm
Ironically, Agent Orange & Depleted Uranium both developed out of the same weapons program…or should I say pervertedly or tragically? Sadistically works, too.”
Sure, all three work or are fitting.
Fiendishly also works; as in demon kinds of fiends. After all, Bush et al are so evil, supremely so for human capabilities, as in committing the supreme international crime and multiple times simultaneously, supremely wicked; like opening the “Gates of Hell” over Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other areas. That kind of fiendishness.
The Military Government here in Hawaii insisted for years that DU was NEVER used at any of the multitude of military bases and training areas here. It was illegal! and Forbidden!
Now they are buy cleaning up Schofield [sp?] on Oahu, and the training area here on the Big Island - while claiming that the contamination dates back to the Vietnam era and that it hasn’t been used since - And of course, it was used only rarely then, as it wasn’t supposed to be used here at all.
They also maintain that pigs fly, and elephants dance: but somehow the videos only show government spokespeople reciting the latest lie.
I’d imagine the people in Afghanistan will wind up doing the same thing we’ve resorted to: hand held radiation meters with novices doing the testing. Of course, the data all goes to the military labs, so who knows what the results really are.
Isn’t it strange that no matter what the problem may be, the official line is always that nothing was done, and if it was, it was harmless: The Bible Tells Us So!
My four kids told fewer lies in their entire teenage years [and they were notorious hell raisers] the the local military bosses put out in a month…
~XNTRK~ have you ever heard of Linda Faye Kroll, a nurse in Hawaii who has been fightig the government there about DU?
If you know of her, do yu know what has happened to her? This is a link of her website, but she never posts anymore or sends E-mails.
Http://protecthawaii
Reduced radioactivity (=depleted) uranium is a toxic metal, in the same metal toxicity category as lead and mercury. Most of the birth defects would be caused by its inherent toxicity. The other big toxicity issue would be Gulf War Syndrome. Uranium never leaves the body, and will bind with cholinesterase in the human brain, causing vast numbers of neurons and muscle cells to fire out of control for hours, exhausting the body, leading to flu-like symptoms in mild to moderate attacks.
The call on cancers would be split between DU’s inherent radioactivity and its metal toxicity, which suppresses the human immune system and allows cancer to get a foothold.
Just focusing people’s medical conceptions of what’s going on. It’s not just any old radiation.
DU is Death Universal, eternal, invisible, and most criminal.
Seeing that eyes are wide-open, your interestis present, here is an article I saved to post:
‘Bunker buster bombs containing depleted uranium warheads used by Israel against civilian targets in Lebanon’ by Dr. Doug Rokke Global Research, November 6, 2006 http://shrinkster.com/x61
He provides these further links at the bottom:
http://www.traprockpeace.org/twomemos.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3_ques.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/du_dtic_wakayama_Aug2002.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/karen_parker_du_illegality.pdf
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html
http://cryptome.org/dhs010306.txt
Next to all-out, thermal nuclear with thousands of warheads igniting the Earth nearly unimaginably; DU is the greatest threat of all, and since its use is continuous, it is has been the most deadly insidious monstrosity ever unleashed by mankind on mother Earth, and perhaps will be.
To much emphasis is placed on the suffering of the vets alone. This is a global issue, and not just a military one.
It is a shame that the deformed babies have not been put toward at antiwar events. I wrote a letter to Code Pink on requesting that, and they left it posted for all to read, but I don’t think any of the vets or relatives ever did that.
An in-depth article by the seminal teacher on DU is Lauren Moret. This article will answer more questions than a thousand post could raise.:
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm
Graphic videos can be found online, as well as the LIFE magazine special edition of November 1995: http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.html
So any shocked response from the pentagon, or government official is disingenuous, and reminds us of enduring lines of Claude Rains in Casablanca, “I’m shocked, I’m shocked to see gambling is going on in here!” - to Humphrey Bogart. A perfect example of incredulous duplicity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_A4Skusro
I think in these discussions we should start calling it ‘partially’ depleted uranium since it still retains 40% of its radioactive content. Has anyone realized it has the potential to kill all life forms on this planet down to the level of microbes, and since it can mutate DNA some life forms never seen before (or that we might not WANT to see). And don’t just think the strange mutated life forms will only be coming out of the Middle-East region. High altitude winds can carry it around the globe in about two weeks, and wherever particles land they will be around for about 4.5 Billion years constantly & continually emmitting their poisonous radiation. It can also be & has been transferred through the semen of returning GIs to their wives & girlfriends causing mutations in children born after they return. Where is the outrage over this MIC/nuclear power plant (they give it to the military for almost nothing so they avoid disposal costs) radioactive pollution? The military & our government stick to the ‘deny, deny, deny’ propaganda, and a complicit MSM doesn’t cover this important vital issue the way they should. Looks like Henry Kissenger will get his wish. In a statement he made years ago he stated depopulation of up to two billion people worldwide should be the number one issue for US foreign policy (especially in the mid-east so vital natural resources could be secured…read oil). How monsterous is that? Even more heinous is the fact it being done now; a slow invisible death sentence for millions of the living & the yet to be born. It is an extermination that could make the holocaust look like a tea party by comparison, and must cease NOW!
“Depleted uranium is a heavy metal used in some weapons that can pierce armour. It has small levels of radioactivity associated with it.”
Damn I hate Reuters… they’re such the misinformation specialists. Talk about understatements… a DU round hits it’s target with such force that the round itself vaporizes and become a fine mist-like dust which is spread throughout the environment. DU is a weapon of mass destruction and is widely used by NATO forces.
Dr. Asaf Durakovic was with the Veterans Administration and was forced of the system for his findings on Gulf War I vets who had radiation sickness and tested postive for DU.
He later did testing on Afghans who were found to be contaminated with DU.
Afghans’ Uranium Levels Spark Alert
by Alex Kirby, 2003
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0523-11.htm
If enough DU is released via war crimes, some experts think it just might alter the human genome of the entire planet !
Keep a good heart, the worst is yet to come !
From: http://www.freedomtocare.org/page95.htm
The following letter was submitted to the United States department of Veterans Affairs by former Army doctor Asaf Durakovic:
February 11th, 1997
Dear President Clinton:
I am bringing to your attention the conspiracy against the Veterans of the United States.
In the Persian Gulf War some veterans were exposed to radioactive contamination with Depleted Uranium. I personally served in the Operation Desert Shield as a Unit Commander of 531 Army Medical Detachment. After the war I was in charge of Nuclear Medicine Service at Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wilmington, Delaware. A group of uranium contaminated US Veterans were referred to my attention as an expert in nuclear contamination. I properly referred them for the diagnostic tests to different Institutions dealing with transuranium elements. All of the records have been lost in this Hospital and in referring Institutions. Only a small part of information was recorded in Presidential Advisory Committee report on Gulf War Illnesses. Recently I received an order by the Chief of Staff of this Institution to start the veterans examinations again since all of the records have been lost.
Today I was informed in writing that my job was terminated as a reduction in force. I have been at this position for over eight years with an outstanding job performance and I am convinced with certainty that my elimination from the job is a direct result of my involvement in the management of Gulf War Veterans and discrimination for raising nuclear safety issues.
The lost records, lost laboratory specimens and retaliations which are well documented point to no less than conspiracy to terminate my efforts of proper management of Gulf War Veterans. I am sure that you will have an interest in this matter for the benefit of the veterans of The United States of America.
Most respectfully
(signed)
Asaf Durakovic, M.D., D.V.M., M.Sc., Ph.D., F.A.C.P
Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
Chief, Nuclear Medicine Service, VAMC Wilmington
Colonel, U.S. Army Medical Corps (R)