from the San Francisco Bay View
November 13, 2005
Across the plains of Kansas, destroyed, radioactive Abrams tanks,
perched on railroad flatcars, rolled towards an uncertain future. Only
one thing was certain. They would be radioactive forever. This would be
their everlasting death mask. The Pentagon deceptively calls it
"depleted uranium."
The Abrams tanks are constructed with a
layer of radioactive uranium metal plates. The big tanks fire a giant
uranium dart at 2,100 mph, much faster than an F-16 fighter aircraft,
mach III to airplane pilots and very, very fast to the rest of us.
American
taxpayers paid to ship the tanks to Iraq and to return them for
disposal or re-building in the United States. The tanks are 12 feet
wide and weigh a stout 70 tons, or 140,000 pounds.
The enduring
vigorous stupidity of the U.S. military pretends that radiation is one
of those things that if you can't see it, it can't hurt you. They are
thoroughly delusional, of course. A National Academy of Sciences report
released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe level of radiation.
Any radiation is bad.
From America to Iraq and back, these giant
radioactive hulks can only sicken and kill Americans. On top of the
sheer, unrelenting stupidity of playing with radiation with
unsuspecting soldiers, now the neo-con government is involving everyday
Americans in their radiation madness
The Pentagon can't even
follow simple radiation hazard mitigation instructions. Their own rules
and regulations have the force of law throughout the world. Yet they
are ignored in the United States.
Dr. Doug Rokke
Dr.
Doug Rokke is the Pentagon's former director of the U.S. Army Depleted
Uranium Project. When contacted on Oct. 22, he viewed Chris Bayruh's
photographs and made this statement about the radioactive tanks in
Kansas: "The radioactive damaged Abrams tanks that were left unsecured
on a Kansas railroad track are a perfect example of exactly how not to
ship damaged radioactive equipment and how not to protect our Army's
Abrams tanks from possible sabotage and compromise of classified battle
systems."
On Oct. 10, prior to the discovery of the radioactive
tanks, Dr. Rokke made the following statement. It is eerily predictive
of what would happen in Kansas three days later. "U.S. Department of
Defense officials continue to deny that there are any adverse health
and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing
and/or use of uranium munitions to avoid liability for the willful and
illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material - depleted uranium."
Dr.
Rokke continued, "They [the U.S. military] arrogantly refuse to comply
with their own regulations, orders and directives that require United
States Department of Defense officials to provide prompt and effective
medical care to all exposed individuals." (See Note 1 below.)
"They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive contamination of equipment as required by Army regulations." (See Note 2.)
"Specifically, they are required (see Note 3) to accomplish four things:
1) Military personnel must 'identify, segregate, isolate, secure and label all RCE' (radiologically contaminated equipment).
2) 'Procedures to minimize the spread of radioactivity will be implemented as soon as possible.'
3)
'Radioactive material and waste will not be locally disposed of through
burial, submersion, incineration, destruction in place, or abandonment'
and
4) 'All equipment, to include captured or combat RCE, will be surveyed, packaged, retrograded, decontaminated and released.'
"The
past and current use of uranium weapons, the release of radioactive
components in destroyed U.S. and foreign military equipment, and
releases of industrial, medical and research facility radioactive
materials have resulted in unacceptable exposures."
Dr. Rokke
added, "Therefore, decontamination must be completed as required by
U.S. Army Regulation 700-48 and should include releases of all
radioactive materials resulting from military operations.
"The
extent of adverse health and environmental effects of uranium weapons
contamination is not limited to combat zones but includes facilities
and sites where uranium weapons were manufactured or tested, including
Vieques, Puerto Rico, Colonie, New York, and Jefferson Proving Grounds,
Indiana.
"Therefore, medical care must be provided by the United
States Department of Defense officials to all individuals affected by
the manufacturing, testing and/or use of uranium munitions. Thorough
environmental remediation also must be completed without further delay.
"I
am amazed," exclaimed Dr. Rokke, "that 14 years after I was asked to
clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War I and almost 10 years since
I finished the depleted uranium project, United States Department of
Defense officials and many others still attempt to justify uranium
munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements.
"But beyond
the ignored mandatory actions, the willful dispersal of tons of solid
radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions
just does not even pass the common sense test.
"Finally,
continued compliance with the infamous March 1991 Los Alamos Memorandum
(see Note 5) that was issued to ensure continued use of uranium
munitions cannot be justified.
"In conclusion," Dr. Rokke urged,
"the president of the United States, George W. Bush, and the prime
minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, must acknowledge and accept
responsibility for willful use of illegal uranium munitions - their own
"dirty bombs" - resulting in adverse health and environmental effects."
"President Bush and Prime Minister Blair also should order: 1) medical care for all casualties,
2) thorough environmental remediation,
3)
immediate cessation of retaliation against all of us who demand
compliance with medical care and environmental remediation requirements,
4) and ban the future use of depleted uranium munitions," Dr. Rokke concluded.
A little old lady in tennis shoes
Leuren
Moret is a world famous scientist and radiation specialist who formerly
worked at the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, where she became
a whistleblower in 1991. She has spoken out about the danger of uranium
munitions to humanity in more than 42 countries.
Moret has
appeared in four documentaries about uranium munitions (depleted
uranium). "Beyond Treason" debuted in August 2005 and won the Grand
Festival Award at the Berkeley Film Festival. The newest film, "Blowin'
in the Wind," was nominated during its debut the first week of November
in Australia for an Academy Award.
Moret was an expert witness
at the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan and serves as an
adviser and expert witness in court cases regarding radiation exposure.
Her statement, made Oct. 24, about the dead tanks in Kansas follows:
"Sally
Devlin, a little old lady in tennis shoes, went to a public meeting
several years ago, held by the Air Force in Pahrump, Nevada. Two
officers told the citizens of the town that the Air Force would be
moving 80 old target practice tanks and tons of old depleted uranium
munitions through their town.
"The radioactive bullets had been
picked up off the Nellis gunnery ranges by order of the state of Nevada
and were being transported to the Nevada Test Site [a nuclear weapons
test site] to be buried as radioactive waste.
"When Mrs. Devlin
politely asked them how they would prevent the residents of the town
from being contaminated by the radioactive dust on the tanks and
bullets, the officers said, 'We're wrapping them in Saran Wrap.' She
told them that would be unacceptable and stopped the Air Force dead in
their tracks," Moret concluded.
Whether it is Saran Wrap in
Nevada or nothing at all in Kansas, the Pentagon just doesn't get it
when it comes to uranium radiation dispersing weapons. It is way past
time to take all their nuclear weapons and uranium munitions away from
them and send them home to get real jobs. They are clearly incapable of
protecting this country from all dangers, including those created by
our own U.S. military.
The U.S. military shows so little regard
for Americans in Kansas, one wonders what on earth they have done to
Iraq. The U.S. military has distributed an estimated 8 million pounds
of weaponized ceramic uranium oxide gas, aerosols and dust on a
practically defenseless little country of 26 million people (see Note
6), according to an estimate by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey
Clark.
What is this lethal radioactive weapon supposed to do?
Why was it used? Ceramic uranium oxide gas is a genocidal weapon, for
God's sake. It persists in the environment forever. In Leuren Moret's
pithy words, "The Iraqis are uranium meat."
The politicians,
Pentagon staff, generals, commanding officers and others responsible
for this war crime must be arrested, tried, convicted and appropriately
punished for their crimes against humanity.
There is another explanation
Another
explanation is that the U.S. Army and other branches of the military
are far from stupid. They are, in fact, the most lethal and carefully
planned military in the history of the world. The extensive use of
weaponized uranium oxide gas, aerosols and dust is not an accident or
an oversight. They did it on purpose.
If this is true, they
purposely used a genocidal weapon over at least a 15-year period. No,
this is not a callous mistake of empire; it is a calculated act of
genocide to weaken the oil- and gas-rich countries of Central Asia,
including Iraq. Take your choice: they are either stupid or genocidal
monsters.
A British group has estimated the weaponized ceramic
uranium oxide will account for an additional 25 million cancers in Iraq
in the next several years. There are only 26 million Iraqis to start
with, minus the nearly 1.7 million killed by war or sanctions since
1991, plus some live births.
A National Academy of Sciences
report released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe level of
radiation. The committee dismissed the idea that any radiation could be
harmless or beneficial.
The radioactive tanks in Kansas and Iraq
are the same. They are placed there at great expense by the senior
American political and military leadership, with premeditated malice.
The bottom line purpose of a 140,000-pound radioactive tank is to kill
people.
Uranium munitions a war crime
Dennis
Kyne, noted speaker and writer, is a former drill instructor (DI) and a
15-year veteran of the Army as well as a Gulf War vet (see
www.denniskyne.com). Kyne makes a point of how "hot" or radioactive the
tanks in Kansas would be if they were hit by "friendly fire" to get
beat up so much. They could be contaminated with as much as 30,000
times background radiation. That is what uranium munitions do to a
tank, bunker or building.
Karen Parker, a prominent U.S.
international human rights lawyer, says there are four rules derived
from humanitarian laws and conventions regarding weapons:
1.
Weapons may only be used against legal enemy military targets and must
not have an adverse effect elsewhere (the territorial rule).
2.
Weapons can only be used for the duration of an armed conflict and must
not be used or continue to act afterwards (the temporal rule).
3.
Weapons may not be unduly inhumane (the "humaneness" rule). The Hague
Conventions of 1899 and 1907 speak of "unnecessary suffering" and
"superfluous injury" in this regard.
4. Weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the natural environment (the "environmental" rule).
"DU
weaponry fails all four tests," Parker states. "First, DU cannot be
limited to legal military targets. Second, it cannot be 'turned off'
when the war is over but keeps killing.
"Third, DU can kill
through painful conditions such as cancers and organ damage and can
also cause birth defects, such as facial deformities and missing limbs.
Lastly, DU cannot be used without unduly damaging the natural
environment.
"In my view, use of DU weaponry violates the grave
breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions," Parker concluded, "and so
its use constitutes a war crime, or crime against humanity."
Notes
1.
"Medical Management of Unusual Depleted Uranium Casualties," DOD,
Pentagon, 10/14/93, "Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed to
Depleted Uranium (DU)," Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Command,
4/29/04, and section 2-5 of AR 700-48 .
2. AR 700- 48:
"Management of Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or
Radioactive Commodities," Headquarters, Department of the Army,
Washington, D.C., September 2002, and U.S. Army Technical Bulletin TB
9-1300-278: "Guidelines For Safe Response To Handling, Storage, and
Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank Munitions or Armor Which
Contain Depleted Uranium," Headquarters, Department of the Army,
Washington, D.C., July 1996, http://traprockpeace.org/du_pam_700-48.pdf.
3. Section 2-4 of United States Army Regulation 700-48 dated Sept. 16, 2002, specifies these requirements.
4. IAW Technical Bulletin 9-1300-278, DA PAM 700-48. Maximum exposure limits are specified in Appendix F.
5. http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc1.html
6. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark's estimate, http://www.covertactionquarterly.org/demonize.html
Copyright Bob Nichols. Copying permitted if you credit the source and
leave everything intact, including notes. Bob Nichols is a Project
Censored Award winner and lives in California. He formerly lived in
Oklahoma. He is a contributor to OnLineJournal.com, AxisofLogic.com,
DissidentVoice.com and other online publications and is a correspondent
for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. Nichols is a former employee
of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. He can be reached by email at bob.bobnichols@gmail.com.
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