Depleted Uranium, Thirty-Ninth Edition

Greetings to all Email Update Members,

Will wonders never cease?

On April 17, 2006 I received a telephone call from the office of my senator, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia acknowledging receipt of my
email urging him to co-sponsor the DU bill.  This call was from a senior aide but was most interesting.  

I was informed that the DU bill is tied up in committee in the House, has not made it to the Senate but he will strongly recommend that the
Senator co-sponsor the bill.  That was after I told him about our affiliate recently being in Bahrain and testing people there and finding a very high percentage were DU positive.

I also advised him to dig deep to learn more about the Gulf War Syndrome, the Bosnia Syndrome and the current developing Iraqi Freedom Syndrome.
Most of that seemed to get his attention, especially the part that he might be DU positive too.  They know I am a conservative and why I do not support
Bush/Cheney.

I want to thank those members of the list that have signed the petition http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=ePetitions&op=more_info&ePetitionId=3&show_signers=1&min=0#shownOrNotSigners 
That list grew by over 100 yesterday and most of the people are on the email update list.

Yes, I signed it and never ask anyone to sign something that I will not sign on to.

One of the more recent additions to the email list sent the following four items.  Americans and many foreigners are starting to see the picture and
what has to be done.

The following excerpt is from a book, and like Eve not staying away from the Forbidden Fruit there are such people that would not let the paint dry. 
That is especially true of politicians and Big Defense contractors.

"No one would be that stu-"
Susan stopped. Of course someone would be that stupid. Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch
in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying "End-of-the-world Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH", the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.

Terry Pratchett: Thief of Time

What type of environmental group would touch on the horrors of DU and then abandon the subject?  In my opinion one that cannot see a way to generate massive donations on that subject.  

The Natural Resources Defense Council ran the following article.  We contacted them in November, December and January and not a single return
telephone call about doing something about DU.  Over time I have become convinced that it is yet another creature of MK Ultra to keep Americans
divided into camps.  One look at their board of trustees can find several Neocons or direct ties to Neocons that could not care less about the environment.  http://www.nrdc.org/about/board.asp  They have proven that in DC on a daily basis since they got into positions to effect policy.

LETHAL WEAPONS
The Remains of War

During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, American and British troops fired more than 860,000 rounds of ammunition tipped with depleted uranium (DU),
a highly toxic by-product of the uranium-enrichment process used to make nuclear weapons and nuclear-reactor fuel. Operation Desert Storm
marked the first time that DU weapons had been used so extensively in combat, and U.S. military leaders were more than pleased with the results.
While conventional munitions tend to blunt on impact, bullets and shells made from DU, which is 1.7 times denser than lead, actually become sharper
as they bore through armor plating. "DU gave us a huge advantage over their tanks," said Army Colonel James Naughton at a March 2003 Pentagon
press briefing.

The U.S. military used about 320 tons of DU in the first Gulf War. In the most recent Iraqi conflict, British and U.S. troops fired 1,000 to 2,000
tons of DU munitions from Abrams tanks, Apache attack helicopters, A-10 tank-buster planes, and other war machines. U.S. troops previously
used DU weapons in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. Much of the depleted uranium is still there, in the form of dust and munitions fragments.

Now a growing body of evidence suggests that DU weapons remain deadly long after the shooting stops. On impact, DU munitions produce a
quick-burning, finely grained powder that can enter the body through shrapnel wounds or inhalation. The United Nations Environment Programme
announced in March that it had found DU contamination in Bosnian soil and groundwater. In mid-April, the Royal Society, Britain's premier scientific
institution, said that some soldiers may suffer from "kidney damage and an increased risk of lung cancer," depending on their levels of DU exposure.
Children who play on former battlefields are especially at risk, warned the society. The British findings prompted the U.K. Ministry of Defense to offer urine tests to its veterans returning from Iraq to check for DU levels. But the U.S. Department of Defense has no plans to implement a comprehensive
DU-testing program for its soldiers, and has also refused to remove DU-contaminated fragments from Iraq and other former battle sites. To defend
what they call their "silver bullet," Department of Defense spokesmen contend that their own study, performed on 90 veterans exposed to high levels
of DU during the first Gulf War, detected no adverse health effects. However, the group studied constitutes only a fraction of the approximately 900
vets who were exposed to high levels of DU, and even those studied are not entirely healthy: One developed a bone tumor; another has lymphoma.

Meanwhile, U.S. companies, such as Alliant Techsystems, a subsidiary of Honeywell Systems, and Primex Technologies, a subsidiary of General
Dynamics, continue to step up their production of DU weapons. Munitions manufacturers in France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Pakistan have
followed suit, while Israel and Thailand are also amassing smaller stocks of DU weapons.

For the last decade, Dan Fahey, a Navy veteran and weapons expert who served in the 1991 Gulf War, has been pressuring the Department of Defense
to acknowledge that not nearly enough is known about the long-term hazards of DU. His persistence, and that of others, may finally be paying off.
The U.N. Environment Programme has recommended that DU's effects be studied in Iraq as soon as it's feasible. And seven members of Congress
recently introduced a bill mandating the study of DU's environmental and health effects wherever the substance has been deployed by the U.S. military.
-- Steve Hawley

http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/03sum/briefings.asp

They can do all of their Robert Redford ads and promo pieces, but the bottom line is that they will not take a stand on what might be one of the most
serious issues on environmental pollution and detriment to human life.  Thinking back, it is a well known fact that air and surface testing of nuclear weapons caused massive amounts of nuclear fall out across the United States and those same environmental groups have never taken a hard line on that either.

Sure, they have the 100 or so demonstrators show up to protest a nuclear power plant or nuclear test, but the ongoing, non-stop, focused efforts are
either not there or are few and far between.

DU is a serious and deadly environmental pollutant and the environmental groups do not touch it with a ten-foot pole. Why?  Because of politics and such stances would hurt their fund raising efforts.

That is how our national capital works folks.  Even when the battle lines are clear cut, many will not take a stance because it would ruffle certain feathers
and their fund raising would come under attack.  They are more worried about their annual intake of dollars than they are the annual results of their efforts. 
It is more about their jobs than their effectiveness at those jobs.  There is no benchmark except dollars and like a bureaucracy - job performance is a minor factor.

There is a dear price to pay for standing up for the truth, especially a truth that runs contrary to the policies of our government and the Wealthy Elite and corporate interests those policies were sought by for implementation.

In a way, it is like being more concerned about the photo op than the subject matter of the photo.  It is a tool of policy that is closely tied to commerce and getting results for government and certain corporate interests than it is about protecting the environment or human lives.

The United Nations has been tracking the DU problem but for some reason they rarely do much even though their own UN peace keeping personnel
are getting sick from DU exposure.  Over the weekend I watched Hotel Rwanda.  It was noteworthy that the UN peace keepers there could stand guard but not shoot.  Close to 1 million people slaughtered (literally) and the UN was observing, watching as the genocide was in full swing.

 A Google search just on UK web sites brings up interesting articles:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=depleted+uranium&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGi
including:

US forces' use of depleted uranium weapons is 'illegal'

'Cancer appears to have increased between seven and 10 times and deformities between four and six times,' according to the UN subcommission.

The Pentagon has admitted that 320 metric tons of DU were left on the battlefield after the first Gulf war, although Russian military experts say
1000 metric tons is a more accurate figure.

In 1991, the Allies fired 944,000 DU rounds or some 2700 tons of DU tipped bombs. A UK Atomic Energy Authority report said that some
500,000 people would die before the end of this century, due to radioactive debris left in the desert.

The use of DU has also led to birth defects in the children of Allied veterans and is believed to be the cause of the 'worrying number of anophthalmos
cases -- babies born without eyes' in Iraq. Only one in 50 million births should be anophthalmic, yet one Baghdad hospital had eight cases in just two years. Seven of the fathers had been exposed to American DU anti-tank rounds in 1991. There have also been cases of Iraqi babies born without the crowns
of their skulls, a deformity also linked to DU shelling.

A study of Gulf war veterans showed that 67% had children with severe illnesses, missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory problems and fused fingers.

Rokke told the Sunday Herald: 'A nation's military personnel cannot willfully contaminate any other nation, cause harm to persons and the environment
and then ignore the consequences of their actions.

'To do so is a crime against humanity.' 
http://www.sundayherald.com/32522

Soldiers are instruments of policy so the use of the weapons is not soldier driven; it is driven by the politicians and the Big Defense contractors that
make lots of money making the US military the world’s foremost killing machine.  Said another way, the crime against humanity does not originate with the soldiers; it originates with the government and those industries that stand to gain the most from the War Racket.

It is not hard to find information about DU but what is hard to find are cohesive efforts to achieve results, those mainly being putting a stop to the use
of those weapons, addressing the health consequences and cleaning up the mess that has been made.  In a way, the DU efforts of many are like the
New Age Movements that were intentionally done in cloning fashion under the CIA MK Ultra program so the groups would spend more time arguing or disagreeing over form than focusing on substance.  

That is how one puts progress at a standstill.

As one of the readers pointed out, the DU weapons have already been banned so why pursue another ban?  We are finding many Americans do not
know what DU is or that there is a problem in using banned weapons or that they have been banned.  For a nation that likes to puff its chest out and
talk of rule of law, the United States is one of the worst nations in violating international law as Washington, DC sees fit.  The UK is just as guilty
since they like to pound targets with DU weapons and then ignore the problems there and at home with their soldiers too.

As a corporate type, I expect returns for my time, energy and investment so my focus is on results rather than how many articles or radio shows or
speaking engagements I can arrange.  I do not want to discuss the problem; I want to discuss the solutions.

We have Traprock Peace, www.BanDepletedUranium.org , www.gulfvetsurvey.org  and CADU just to mention a few and what is missing is those groups working together on the problem to affect a solution.  There seem to be no conservative groups working on this matter except us so maybe we can start
a trend.  True Conservatives like clean air, clean water and good health too.

Every time I send out an email update and show you a new link I get many emails from certain quarters about what bad folks they are and I
should not spread their message.  

Welcome to CADU

The Campaign Against Depleted Uranium (CADU) was launched in 1999 to focus specifically on trying to achieve a global ban on the manufacture,
testing, and use of depleted uranium weapons.

We also have a strong interest in identifying the extent of its civilian use and achieving as much limitation of this as possible.

Please take a moment to sign the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapon's online petition by clicking on the image below, we currently have
in excess of 190,000 signatures worldwide - make yours count too. http://www.cadu.org.uk/

In a note to his fellow conspirators on New Year's Eve 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "The ultimate question for a responsible person to ask is
not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation is to live."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4906502.stm


I don't know the effective, moral or enlightened way to respond under these conditions, but 'omnicide' is a not good addition to the
resume of Homo S. Sapiens
.  [comment by the sender of these four items]

The evidence is overwhelming that DU is deadly, harmful to your health and the practice of using those weapons should be stopped.  That is a proverbial
bottom line with me.  There does not need to be another article or speech on the nature of the problem except to educate those that do not know yet there is a problem.

That is why we are focusing on the DU Detoxification Centers and bringing together the medical, scientific and capital resources necessary to affect
a solution.  Many of the soldiers do not have the time remaining to discuss the matter to death for they are truly facing life threatening problems.  Some
of our soldiers do not have even 30 days before the effects go past the point of no return so time is a commodity they do not have.  At a very minimum
they are facing degraded health to the point they can no longer have productive lives and every second, hour, day is precious and possibly the difference. 
One of the least understood phrases in the English language is time is of essence.  That phrase usually makes most people slow down when they need
to grasp the concept and move in a timely manner.

The biggest propaganda machine ever assembled is the combination of our intelligence agencies, the media and the US government.  To fight that machine
will take tens of millions of people that are on the same page and driving home the same message.

Enough is enough and it stops now.  Yes, time is of essence.

In the last six pages of the book I wrote, One-Way Ticket to Crawford, Texas, I provided a quote from a movie about one of our most famous
generals as to what is wrong with Imperialistic goals and agendas such as has been put forth by Bush – Cheney and those that preceded them:

"For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came
trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors
rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."
Gen. George C. Patton

It is in subjugation, humiliation and harm to the living and unborn that the heart of a terrorist is born.  When all avenues of addressing a just grievance are blocked, when all hope is denied, there will be problems.  When hope is denied hate takes it place.

That is why I maintain that Financial Terrorists, those that have a greed that cannot be sated, are the root cause of all other forms of terrorism.

Because of 9-11 the United States has been out being the premier terrorists on the face of this planet.  The results of what our government has
done purportedly in our name and defense is leaving behind a legacy that makes 9-11 pale in comparison.  Do the math – what our government
has done makes 9-11 pale in comparison.

We either put a stop to the insanity or we will suffer the consequences of blow back.

Best regards,

Karl W B Schwarz