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The Greatest Crime of Historic Time
by Victor Connor
V.Connor@insightbb.com
http://www.resist.com.au/comments/c1072.asp
The greatest crime against humanity in all historic time has now been
committed by the United States government. It dwarfs Joseph Stalin's killing
of 7,000,000 Ukrainians in the 1930s and Adolph Hitler's killing of
6,000,000 Jewish people in the 1940s. This crime will cause the premature
deaths of TENS of MILLIONS of people and will give a horribly debilitating
disease to TENS of MILLIONS more. It is indiscriminate mass murder -
genocide. My statements may be dramatic, but they are absolutely true.
Since October of 2001, the United States military has used approximately
3,000 tons of depleted uranium munitions against people in Afghanistan and
Iraq. This will soon cause the serious health problems to include
respiratory disease, kidney problems, rashes, birth defects, and the number
of cancers of those people to jump to over 500,000 people each year. How do
I know this? Because the United States military used 375 tons of depleted
uranium munitions against Iraq in 1991 and the cancer rate in children
measured in Iraqi hospitals rose from 32,000 per year in 1990 to 130,000 in
1997. According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official reports,
U.S. casualties from Gulf War 1 now exceed 180,000 and already over 30,000
are now disabled from Gulf War 2. We've now used eight times what we did in
1991 and radiation has long been known to cause cancer. This is well known
by our federal government.
In a document dated October 30, 1943 and declassified June 5, 1974, three
major scientists (Drs. James Conant, A. H. Compton, and H. C. Urey) wrote to
Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, who was the head of the atom bomb
project, concerning "Radioactive materials as a military weapon." In that
document they stated:
"As a gas warfare instrument the material would be ground into particles of
microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a ground-fired
projectile, land vehicles, or aerial bombs. In this form it would be inhaled
by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the
material is extremely small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a
gram accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known
methods of treatment for such a casualty"
Proponents of depleted uranium weaponry will state that depleted uranium is
only half as radioactive as normal uranium, which is true. This would mean
that it would take TWO millionths of a gram accumulating in a person's body
to be fatal according to Conant, Compton and Urey. Unfortunately, it isn't
known exactly how much uranium ore would be sufficient to cause death over a
short period of time, but we do know it caused the cancer deaths of workers
during the two years the Manhattan Project existed in making our first three
atomic bombs. Since then, scientists have learned a lot more about the
debilitating effects to animals exposed to higher than normal radiation
levels.
In fact, increased cancer rates downwind of American nuclear power plants
are well documented, even though not well reported. Nuclear power plants in
the United States release small amounts of radioactive gases on a daily or
weekly basis. Compared to the depleted uranium usage in Iraq and
Afghanistan, these are extremely small amounts, but the communities that
live within fifty miles of the normal downwind area from these nuclear power
plants have higher rates of cancer. One particularly telling fact is where
nuclear reactors have been shut down for a few years and then restarted. The
cancer rate among infants and young children who were born after the
shutdown quickly fell to national averages, before rising again after the
reactors were restarted.
It takes about eight tons of regular uranium ore to make one ton of enriched
uranium to be used in nuclear power plants. This leaves seven tons of
depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is composed primarily of three isotopes
of uranium; it is 99.8% of U-238, 0.2% of U-235 and 0.0008% of U-234;
collectively one microgram of it will constantly emit about 120 alpha
particles every day for millions of years. One alpha particle has enough
energy to disrupt the genetic information in the nucleus of a cell, but when
this happens hundreds of local cells are affected by the instability of the
zapped cell.
To get a better understanding how radiation affects a human body, think of
it this way. We live in a dynamic universe. We are constantly bombarded with
radiation from outer space, even though we are far from the sun and other
stars. There are trace amounts of uranium and radon among other naturally
decaying elements throughout the surface of the Earth. Collectively, these
sources affect all of the cells in our body, but it is a question of the
rate of impact on our cells. On average each cell in a body is hit about one
to two times a year from a natural source of radiation. Compare that with
one millionth of a gram of depleted uranium ingested into a body - this will
hit thousands of cells every day. In terms of the rate of increase, this
means that many of the cells that are nearby depleted uranium particles are
being zapped at a rate that is 100,000 times more than normal. This will
either kill the cells or cause massive genetic defects.
The mechanism for this crime against humanity is as follows. A depleted
uranium projectile smashes into a vehicle or building.
For example, each Abrams tank round contains about 10 pounds of solid
depleted uranium while each 30 mm round fired by the A10 Warthog has about
3/4 pound of solid depleted uranium. After the collision, about half of the
projectile is turned into powder 10 microns (ten one millionths of a meter)
or smaller. A human hair is normally between 60 and 100 microns thick and
that proverbial millionth of a gram of depleted uranium would fill a cube 37
microns on each side. This dust now blows wherever the wind takes it. We
have already found depleted uranium in Iraq twenty five miles from an impact
site. This radioactive dust blows in cities, in parks, on crops, in the
rivers, and everywhere. They can be breathed in or ingested from food and
drink. Particles on the order of 2.5 microns are perfect for implanting
themselves in our lungs. A small number of these would be like smoking over
ten packs of cigarettes every day forever and children one, two and five
years old are getting this into their lungs.
If we used 375 tons of depleted uranium in the first Gulf War, think how the
people of Iraq and Afghanistan will feel and be affected now that we used
3,000 tons of depleted uranium against them. And its terrible effects will
be there forever.
Although many Americans believe that we are making life better for Iraqis
because we removed a brutal dictator and are giving them democracy, Hussein
averaged a few thousand tortures and murders per year (and they were highly
directed at his political dissidents), whereas we will soon be causing the
deaths and terribly debilitating diseases of hundreds of thousands of people
per year and these deaths will include babies and infants (Hussein seldom
purposefully ever hurt the very young).
What we are doing is indiscriminate genocide of the Muslim people in the
Middle East. The wind blows in all directions and Iran, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Pakistan, Syria and Turkmenistan are all Muslim countries and are on
Iraq's and Afghanistan's borders.
Does it make sense to destroy Iraq in order to save it?
Is this the will of the compassionate Christian or the politically
responsible Republican or Democrat? Is our federal government doing a good
thing? Not being a Christian or a Republican or a Democrat, I don't
understand it. Even though I'm not a Christian, Muslim or Jew, I still
believe that you are good people, but as terribly uninformed as I was a few
months ago.
You may ask: why are we doing this. The answer seems clear to me.
Corporations are the driving force behind our federal government. They have
taken control of the executive branch of the federal government which has
eclipsed the legislative and judicial branches. The executive branch is no
longer responsive or accountable to the will of the people, and is out of
control. They are highly affected by corporate lobbyists and take their
direction from corporations because money talks.
The defense industry lobbyists want the federal government's supply of
depleted uranium. Since the nuclear power industry has found no acceptable
way to safely dispose of the leftover radioactive materials they produce,
there are over 900,000 tons of depleted uranium still lying around waiting
to be made into military weapons because it has no other commercial use and
it makes big profits for the defense industries in not having to produce it
themselves. These big profits can then be used to make large donations to
federal politicians who follow corporate directives. It's a vicious and
deadly cycle.
Now I know many people are caught up in the eternal debate of who's better,
Democrat or Republican, when in fact they are just two sides of the same
coin. The reality is that both parties are controlled at higher levels and
many things that are problems to society are huge money-makers to the above
partisan forces. Depleted uranium is one such problem. While many Americans
are misdirected, people in the Middle East are dying and will soon start to
die unnecessarily by the hundreds of thousands each year and for as long as
they live in those regions. And what's even worse is that as long as we keep
using depleted uranium weapons, we will be permanently polluting more and
more of the Earth.
Don't think that this depleted uranium won't affect us here in the United
States. 30,000 returning soldiers have depleted uranium in their urine. This
means that many of them will have it in their semen and genetic damage and
birth defects will start to skyrocket here at home. This is a Pandora's Box
that is still open. Do you have the personal integrity and humanity to shut
it?
It is still not too late. U.S. Army and the Department of Defense have
regulations and orders in place that mandate medical care for all DU
casualties and require thorough environmental clean up of all DU
contamination
(
http://www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3_ques.html ), but our
nation's military leaders and President Bush simply refuse to comply with
these legal requirements. This makes sense from a business point of view,
because ultimately corporations would lose too many profits.
Christians, would Jesus want us to keep polluting the Middle East with
deadly radioactive waste?
Abraham Lincoln said, "To sin by silence when they should protest makes
cowards of men." In the case of being silent about depleted uranium, we
would also be accomplices to murder.
Criticism of the government is not incompatible with good citizenship; it is
a prerequisite. For some reason, many people believe that criticism of the
government is unpatriotic, when in fact it is the most important
responsibility of a patriotic citizen and is the very first change that our
founding fathers made when amending our Constitution.
Note: This article has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Doug Rokke. Doug is
the former head of the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project, who replied the
following: Vic: This is excellent~! I did some minor editing.
thank you Doug Rokke
Vic Connor has a B.S. in Physics, M.S. in Electrical and Computer
Engineering, and was accepted to do doctoral work in three different
subjects: physics, computer science and mathematics. Professionally, he
worked at the Endicott, NY IBM engineering lab as a design engineer and
software programmer and later as a systems engineer at a sales branch. He
also worked as an assistant professor of Applied Computer Science at
Illinois State University.
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