Some stuff

[Sojourner]

At 11:13 AM 9/1/97 -0500, Henry Musikar wrote:
>On  1 Sep 97 at 10:39, Jeremy Osner <jeremy at xyris.com> wrote:
>
>> Today's NY Times
><snip>
>
>I thought the article on "Atomic Guinea Pigs" in the NYT Mag sect was 
>"on topic." Seems experiments exposing unknowing humans to radiation 
>were conducted between 1944 and 74. In '93 Secretary of Energy Hazel 
>O'Leary declassified the realted documents and urged compensation. 
>
>Probably old news to some of you, but now I know why I glow in the 
>dark and have that extra...
>

yukyukyukyukyukyfuckingyukketyyuk

I suggest you check out:

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/atomicveteran/index.html

which is the Society of Atomic Veterans.. many of whom I
know, and many of whom are permanently crippled by
their radiation exposure.

Also see the following (i dont know its veracity)

>From: Parveez Syed
>Global Media Monitoring Unit
>Shanti Communications
>One Stuart Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8RA1 UK
>Tel: London-UK 44-0831-196693
>Fax: 44-0181-405 4735
>E-Mail INTERNET: PARVEEZ at CR78RA1UK.WIN-UK.NET
>
>Copyright 1997 (c) Shanti Communications news agency. All rights
>reserved. The following feature may not be republished or
>redistributed, in whole or in part. Copying, storing, transfer,
>redistribution, retransmission, publication and exploitation of
>this information is hereby expressly forbidden without the prior
>written consent of Shanti Communications UK.
>
>Gulf assault crimes: The ultimate bullet
>by Parveez Syed of Shanti RTV news agency
>
>LONDON-UK (SRTV-SC) - Millions of defenceless children and women
>civilians, including Western funded Kurds and Shias in Iraq were
>nuked during the Gulf assault by the Western "Allies", one
>Western intelligence source told Shanti RTV news agency.
>
>And according to former US attorney-general, Ramsey Clark, "350
>tons of of depleted uranium poisoned Iraq. I have seen the impact
>of this new poison [DU] when I visited hospital wards for young
>children in Iraq. Amidst  the overwhelming horrors of the bombings
>and the starvation caused by US-UK imposed sanctions, the doctors
>at first did not notice the huge rise in the numbers of childhood
>cancers, such as leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and lymphomas," he
>told Shanti RTV news agency. "There has also been a significant
>rise in the rate of congenital diseases and deformities in
>fetuses: an increase startlingly similar to the increase of these
>conditions among babies of Gulf assault vets," Clark explained.
>
>In the wake of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the US and its
>"allies" pushed through the UN Security Council a series of
>resolutions imposing barbaric sanctions against millions of
>civilians in Iraq. These sanctions, which remain in place today,
>six years after the eviction of the Iraqi forces from Kuwait,
>have inflicted barbaric hardship and suffering on the innocent
>civilian population of Iraq.
>
>In his 1997 book, "The Scourging of Iraq: Sanctions, Law and
>Natural Justice", Geoff Simons accuses the US of committing war
>crimes under the 1977 Protocol 1 Addition to the 1949 Geneva
>Convention. The Protocol states 'that the starvation of civilians
>as a method of warfare is illegal and ethically indefensible'
>(p. xiii). Simons's book is effective in revealing the appalling
>effects the sanctions are visiting upon the civilian population
>of Iraq.  The author makes a compelling case that the US is
>violating several international agreements as well as acting
>inhumanely towad an innocent civilian population. Above all, he
>imparts to his readers the wisdom that, as human civilization
>stands poised to enter the twentyfirst century, the international
>community should no longer accept genocide as a viable form of a
>superpower's foreign policy.
>
>"The United States has conducted two nuclear wars. The first
>against Japan in 1945, the second in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991. The
>first nuclear war fissioned a plutonium bomb and one made made
>of uranium. The second nuclear war utilized depleted-uranium
>weapons...," according to another 1997 book entitled 'Metal of
>Dishonor'. "Let's talk about the Gulf massacre, which lasted six
>weeks. During that time, 940,000 small DU shells were fired from
>U.S. planes, 14,000 larger DU shells from tanks, and many of
>these shells spontaneously ignited when they hit their tanks".
>
>And according to an article in The Nation US (21 October 1996) by
>Bill Mesler, "The Pentagon's Radioactive Bullet," Iraq presented a
>study to the United Nations in August 1995 demonstrating a sharp
>increase in leukemia and cancer incidence in the Basra region, and
>a secret British Atomic Energy Authority report estimated that
>there was enough depleted uranium in the form of empty shells in
>the area to account for five hundred thousand (500,000) potential
>deaths. But their calculations were unrealistically based upon
>forty tons, not the three hundred tons of uranium left behind
>after the United States military [allegedly] vacated the region".
>
>August 1997 was the 7th anniversary of the continuing US-led
>blockade on the Iraqi people and the 52nd anniversary of the
>atomic bombings on Japan. The similarities between the final
>attacks on Japan and the continuing US war against Iraq are
>chilling. The armed, remote onslaught on a defenseless people
>included the first-time use of more than 300 tons of depleted
>uranium shells plus a frightening array of other internationally
>banned radiological, biological, and chemical weapons. All in
>all, over 140,000 tons of explosives, equivalent to 7 nuclear
>bombs, were used against the Iraqi society in destroying their
>environment and infrastructure. The war against the Iraqi people
>did not end with the cessation of military attacks in 1991, but
>continues to this very day with a suffocating blockade that has
>already claimed over one million civilian lives. More than
>750,000 children have died in Iraq as a result of a critical
>shortage of food and medicine. More than two and a half million
>children are suffering from severe malnutrition because of this
>blockade. These figures are confirmed by various UN agencies.
>
>Gulf assault veteran nurse Carol Picou retraces her steps back to
>Iraq with her husband Anthony to try to prove her serious health
>problems stem from exposure to depleted uranium (DU) weapons in
>the assault. She is the first US soldier to return to Iraq. In
>her 45 minutes long factual documentary, US military admit
>proper precautions were not taken and that troops were exposed
>to risk. However. the British army - the only others to use DU
>weapons against millions of Iraqi civilian children and women as
>well as soldiers - has refused point blank to admit any mistakes
>were made. They also repeatedly refused to co-operate in the
>making of the documentary and continue to do so, despite a
>change of British government.
>
>[The documentary is to be televised on Channel Four (C4) TV
>in the UK on Thursday 11 September 1997, from 9pm UK time]
>
>Described as the most significant development in "battlefield"
>weapons since the machine gun and as the Western army's "miracle"
>weapon to kill millions of defenceless civilians in the Middle
>East remotely, these new and devastating artillery shells are
>made from a highly toxic radioactive waste product from the
>nuclear industry. First used against millions of Iraqi civilians
>in the Gulf assault, DU is the heaviest metal on earth.
>
>DU 'penetrators', fly much faster and further than coventional
>armour piercing shells. The Western weapons of mass, barbaric
>destruction blasted their way through thousands of life support
>systems and facilities in Iraq as well as tanks and vehicles.
>The heat generated by the weapons is so high, that victims
>inside civilian and military targets were literally burnt alive
>in a fireball of fuel, exploding weapons and gases.
>
>Dr Michio Kaku, a nuclear physics professor, explains how the hot
>gases "literally fry people inside tanks, almost like chickens".
>Carol Picou is a 15-year veteran of the US Army Medical Service.
>She served in Asia, Africa and Europe before being sent to
>"Operation Desert Storm". Her unit was the front-line medical team
>during the ground assault, as fast action response unit that moved
>at the head of the attack. Carol and her colleagues were the first
>women to ever serve as front-line troops in the US army.
>
>Until the Gulf assault, Carol had been in excellent health. But
>today, like more than 350,000 Gulf assault veterans and nine
>million defenceless Iraqi civilians, she is seriously ill with a
>range of debilitating sickness. [Adding to the vets sickness
>mystery is the inexplicable disappearance of as many as 700,000
>service-related immunisation records from the Pentagon and the
>CIA offices]. Carol spent just two weeks inside Iraq during the
>Gulf assault. She witnessed the full ferocity of the new DU
>weapons, often arriving less than 30 minutes after attacks. She
>remembers how different it was to anything she had seen in her
>15 year of serving in the US army. "It just wasn't normal. To me
>it looked like we must have nuked them .... The bodies were as
>black as can be and some of the bodies just melted ..."
>
>They had never witnessed such a destructive force. Yet they did
>not fully understand what it was they were using and what
>precautions should have been taken. They had no idea they were
>working right in the middle of a uranium 'battlefield'. No one
>told them they should avoid the smouldering wrecks of Iraqi
>vehicles or surrendering soldiers. No one told them the
>after-effects of DU could be highly dangerous. Anthony Picou
>says: "We, along with the Pentagon know DU creates a dust cloud
>that can travel for 20 miles. How many solders were in its path?
>Let's face it, even the air was contaminated. My wife Carol
>breathed that air and also dealt with injured Iraqi troops. Their
>clothes and gear all contaminated. Thousands of soldiers are
>sick. I truly believe that the army is totally aware of the
>consequences of inhalation and ingestion of depleted uranium".
>
>The US and Britain used so much DU in weapons during the Gulf
>assault that 350 tons of residue permeate the ground and water,
>and will contaminate the entire region for generations. One
>particle of DU in the lungs, for example, radiates 800 times the
>accepted annual level of radiation. US forces in the Gulf
>encountered DU in a variety of ways. Some were exposed during
>combat. Some were exposed during the recovery of contaminated US
>vehicles that had been hit in 'friendly-fire' incidents. Some
>were exposed when they explored the after the "cease-fire".
>
>On returning to Iraq, the Picous discovered that officials there
>believe DU to be responsible for an alarming rise in the number
>of birth defects amongst Iraqi children. UN reports have
>confirmed that DU presents serious health risks to Iraq but
>under barbaric and ihhumane US-UK imposed UN sanctions, nothing
>has been done to assist them in cleaning up an estimated 200
>tonnes of uranium used by the Western "Allies" (read US and UK).
>
>Carol explains how she received what she describes as a 'secrect
>document' which lists dust from DU weapons as hazard which may
>be responsible for causing symptoms identical to hers. Her
>husband Anthony said the report confirms the existence of a
>previous army report written four years before the Gulf assault.
>The report said that DU hit tanks should only be approached
>while wearing breathing equipment and protective clothing.
>Anthony asks: "so if they know of the danger of potential
>exposure, why aren't they trying to find out what happened to
>those who were exposed?"
>
>Carol describes how they received a series of threatening phone
>calls and how one night their car was destroyed in a mass of
>flames. She is convinced some sort of cover up is taking place.
>She meets veteran Mike Flores, who was exposed to DU penetrator
>rods. His twin sons were born with an arm deformity identical to
>that of the child born around the same time to another veteran
>exposed to DU rods in the Gulf.
>
>"Deformed babies born in San Antonio in our support group of 125
>veterans look like the babies born in Iraq," Carol said. "I had
>depleted-uranium poisoning. My results came back positive on 10
>September 1994". Anthony believes "it's because they realised
>that the depleted uranium penetrator is such an awesome weapon
>that they don't want to jeopardise its use in the next war".
>Carol is determined to continue her quest for proof. "This is my
>life, trying to figure out whar's wrong with me and try to
>figure out how to help myself, because I'm not getting any help
>from the (US) military doctors so I may as well keep researching
>to help myself get better and stronger".
>
>"US is guilty of biological warfare and genocide of civilians in
>Iraq. Many US and UK veterans know too much. They have big
>mouths. They expose US and UK governments. They expose Western
>politicians and the leading infant-killers. They expose US
>president George Bush and Norman Schwarzkopf as leading liars
>and mass infant-killers. They incriminate British ministers,
>including Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair etc. They
>expose Western media lies and coverups. The veterans must be
>silenced and banned," a Western intelligence source told Shanti
>RTV news agency.
>
>During the making of the C4TV documentary, Carol and Anthony were
>given open access to high-ranking Iraqi officials and were able
>to travel extensively in restricted and contaminated areas.
>"This was better access than many sick veterans receive in the
>UK and US," Anothony commented.
>
>"The damage to children today and to unborn generations caused by
>nuclear testing and by Agent Orange was exposed by grassroots
>movements," Clark said. "We must act now to confront this new
>danger of depleted uranium. We must heighten public awareness. We
>have to end the government cover-ups of the spreading poison".
>
>"We now shoot nuclear wastes into other people's backyards.  We're
>talking about laying the groundwork for an investigation into war
>crimes against ordinary people. There's one thing more powerful
>than a hydrogen bomb. That's the power of a people united, the
>power of a people educated, the power of a people enraged that
>this obscenity is committed against other people," Michio Kaku
>said. "I believe this battle is winnable. When the American
>people realize that we are shooting nuclear wastes into  other
>people's backyard, poisoning our very own, inflicting innumerable
>casualties on other people, then I think the American people
>will rise, and we will see the day when  nations beat our DU
>swords into plowshares".
>
>"Although the military war against Iraq allegedly ended in 1991,
>the destruction caused by the war continues until today.
>Contrary to what was reported in the mass media, the military
>war against Iraq was not a 'clean' war, but was a vicious
>massacre, in which toxic, radioactive, and numerous banned
>weaponry were utilised against civilian populations! The British
>and American armies used banned weapons such as cluster bombs,
>napalm, and fuel air explosives in their destruction of Iraq. In
>addition, they used, for the first time, more than 350 tons of
>depleted Uranium (DU), a radioactive waste product from the
>nuclear industry. In the six years since its initial use against
>the Iraqi people, this radioactive poison has become standard
>material in US weaponry all the while, the people in Iraq
>continue to suffer from the consequences of this poison," a
>caring Iraqi campaigner Rania Masri told Shanti RTV.
>
>"There is only one thing the Pentagon fears - an informed
>people, mobilised and angry. Information is power. When
>mobilised it can actually undergo a chemical transformation and
>become outrage," according to Sara Flounders of the International
>Action Center. "The United Nations and the Clinton administration
>prefer to starve millions of men, women and children. The
>children of Iraq do not cry out in silence - they cry out to us!
>We hear their pain, and we must give strength to their voices so
>that the conscience of the world will awaken to their cries,"
>Masri said. "Come together and fight for your sons, daughters,
>your  mothers and fathers, for the people over there now, and for
>the people of Iraq that are suffering from the contaminants left
>behind in their land," Carol concluded. "The US sprays a
>crop-destroying insect on Iraqi crops, contaminating water and
>southern Iraqi marshes every year," the Western intelligence
>source told Shanti RTV news agency.
>
>FACT SHEET 1990-1997
>
>The US-UN sanctions have caused the death of more than 1,000,000
>Iraqis; at least 750,000 of them have been children; an
>additional 4,500 Iraqi infants under five years of age die every
>month; more than 25 per cent of living children now suffer from
>malnutrition (UNICEF-WFP); a full 20 per cent of the Iraqi
>population is living in dire poverty; collective punishment is
>prohibited by international law; punishment of innocent people
>violates universal principles of human rights.
>