© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com, 10 gennaio
Somebody's lying about depleted uranium
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21279
Jon E. Dougherty

Soldiers from European Union nations are now beginning to experience what tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers experienced after the 1991 Persian Gulf War -- a mysterious "syndrome" that is causing illnesses and cancers.

Last week EU and U.N. officials reported that many European peacekeepers have "come down with" leukemia and other sicknesses after serving time in Kosovo, following the NATO-led 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia.

In the 78 days of that campaign, NATO warplanes dropped tons of munitions loaded with depleted uranium -- a great tank-busting metal but one that leads to the release of radioactivity, weapons experts have said. That radioactivity is released in small clouds after the munitions explode.

Over the weekend a team of U.N. environmental scientists examined 11 of the 112 sites that NATO said were bombed using depleted uranium shells. Other sources have said peacekeepers have been stationed in and around these areas; some of them are now sick.

While I rarely put much stock in U.N. "commissions" and scientists, there is other evidence to suggest they may be onto something here.

After the Persian Gulf War, a "Gulf War Syndrome" began to manifest itself in hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. and British soldiers. Though the Pentagon brushed off these incidents -- only to weakly admit years later that something was causing some illness -- many of these vets were also in contact with Iraqi armor, vehicles, buildings and other targets that had been bombed using depleted uranium shells.

Since then, children of Gulf War vets have been born disfigured. U.S. vets -- like their EU counterparts -- have gotten leukemia and other cancers; some of them have been "sick" off and on since the war.

Coincidence? No such thing in military-political policy matters.

Despite the evidence, the Pentagon and NATO officials -- who depend on U.S. military forces to make the alliance work -- have repeatedly denied what nuclear scientists have known since the 1950s: that short- or long-term contact with radiation in various doses can and does lead to cancer, birth defects and even death.

Domestic industries have also long known of the health hazards posed by radiation exposure. The next time you're in the hospital for an x-ray, see if the technician doesn't cover up with a lead apron before he shoots the picture. This is done because techs know about the damaging effects of radiation poisoning.

Everybody knows -- except the Pentagon.

Indeed, during the Cold War Americans were bombarded with information about radiation exposure.

How many times were we told that the most dangerous side effect of nuclear war isn't so much the initial catastrophic damage at ground zero, but, indeed, the fallout of radiation that will be present in the air, ground and water for decades after an ICBM explodes?

Since when did this hard-and-fast rule of nuclear science cease to apply?

The same thing, albeit on a much smaller scale, is obviously happening in Kosovo, just as it obviously happened in the Gulf.

In Kosovo, officials report that, although some of the sites examined were bombed nearly two years ago, many sites still are radioactive.

Weapons experts say nothing beats the destructive power of a depleted uranium shell. Fair enough -- but if we're going to kill our soldiers (and the surrounding civilian population) after a conflict, do we have a moral obligation to stop using such ammunition?

Considering that the Pentagon has required that all U.S. small arms ammunition can no longer be made of lead for "environmental" reasons; considering the campaign to clean up leftover land mines; and especially considering the effort to reduce the arsenals of nuclear weapons all over the world; I'd say yeah, we have a moral obligation to end the use of depleted uranium munitions.

Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed."