Depleted Uranium: Sword That May Slay Its Wielder [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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From:           	Rick Rozoff <R_ROZOFF@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject:        	Depleted Uranium: Sword That May Slay Its Wielder [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Date sent:      	Mon, 17 Feb 2003 22:33:55 -0800 (PST)
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http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030217/COGULF/TPComment/TopStories

Globe And Mail (Canada)
February 17, 2003

The weapon we gave Iraq
Scott Taylor*



Depleted uranium maims and kills, say Iraqi
scientists. Our soldiers think so, too, and fear
they'll be exposed again, warns military analyst

-To press for an international study of those regions
in Iraq most affected by DU weapons, Mr. Simion's
Paris-based organization has joined forces with
British, U.S. and Canadian gulf war veterans. Canadian
activist Louise Richard, a former field hospital nurse
now suffering from an array of illnesses, says she
cannot believe that it has come to this: looking to
the Iraqis for help. "But after years of being
stonewalled and treated like collateral damage by our
Defence Department, we have little choice."



Since U.S. President George W. Bush put Saddam Hussein
on notice that the "game is over," a countdown to a
military intervention in Iraq appears to have begun.
This prospect has heightened concerns from the allied
veterans of the last war in the Persian Gulf, many of
whom still suffer from serious health problems that
they believe resulted from exposure to depleted
uranium.

A senior Iraqi medical official warns that any
U.S.-led military action against Iraq will face this
threat. "If they wish to launch Gulf War II, they had
better be prepared to lose many of their soldiers to
Gulf War Syndrome II," said Dr. Mona al-Jibowei, dean
of the science faculty at Baghdad University. "The
allied soldiers went home after being exposed to
depleted uranium. Iraq has lived with its devastating
effects for the past 12 years."

Since the end of the gulf war, tens of thousands of
allied veterans have developed debilitating illnesses.
These ex-service members have been compensated by
Washington and other allied governments, yet U.K. and
U.S. officials say there is no scientific proof their
illnesses are linked to service in the Persian Gulf or
exposure to depleted uranium.

Depleted uranium is the waste byproduct of nuclear
reactors. In the 1980s, U.S. researchers recognized
that the material's density gave it tremendous
armour-piercing potential. Not only can shells coated
with depleted uranium punch through layers of hardened
steel, they ignite on impact, creating a fiery burst
of radioactive particles inside an enemy armoured
vehicle. It is this "aerosol" that most experts
believe causes the variety of long-term health
problems associated with gulf war syndrome.

A former paratrooper and representative for the French
gulf war veterans association, Norbert Simion served
with the French division that swept into Iraq in
Operation Desert Storm. He and his comrades engaged
and destroyed an Iraqi armoured force outside the
desert village of As-Salman. As a result, French and
Iraqi soldiers alike were exposed to the depleted
uranium aerosol created by the exploding tank shells.

"When our troops first began developing strange
illnesses, our military doctors told us it was all in
our heads," said Mr. Simion. Last April, Mr. Simion
and a delegation of allied gulf war veterans visited
old battle sites in an effort to initiate co-operation
between Western journalists and Iraqi health officials
on the effects of depleted uranium. "As the casualty
figures rise and independent scientists continue
revealing the dangers of DU, the French government
keeps telling us there is no proof."

Depleted uranium itself contains only low levels of
radiation. But once tiny aerosol particles are
breathed in and become lodged in the lymph nodes,
their radiation can attack the immune system and
affect reproduction.

A British-educated toxicologist, Dr. al-Jibowei is on
the executive committee of a special Iraqi research
project to monitor the health hazards associated with
depleted uranium and has discussed DU with other
international experts. "The gulf war was the first
time that depleted uranium munitions were used on an
actual battlefield," she says. "No one at the time had
any idea what effect they would have on the body."

To press for an international study of those regions
in Iraq most affected by DU weapons, Mr. Simion's
Paris-based organization has joined forces with
British, U.S. and Canadian gulf war veterans. Canadian
activist Louise Richard, a former field hospital nurse
now suffering from an array of illnesses, says she
cannot believe that it has come to this: looking to
the Iraqis for help. "But after years of being
stonewalled and treated like collateral damage by our
Defence Department, we have little choice."

Iraqi researchers say that the epicentre ("Ground
Zero") for DU effects is around the city of Basra, in
southern Iraq. It was here, in 1991, that U.S. and
coalition jets ravaged the retreating Iraqi army,
leaving behind the smoldering hulks of thousands of
vehicles. The U.S. and British air forces expended an
estimated 300 tonnes of depleted-uranium ammunition in
and around this area; it has since been dubbed the
"Highway of Death."

The preponderance of birth defects among children born
in the Basra region over the past decade defies
explanation. Birth-deformity cases in other parts of
Iraq are often traced to Basra. Geneticist Selma
Taher, part of an Iraqi research team studying this
phenomenon, discovered that three babies born with a
similar congenital anomaly in the village of Dholuiya,
about 700 kilometers from Basra, were fathered by men
who served in the same regiment on the Highway of
Death.

Should U.S.-led forces again invade Iraq, and should
Canadians join them (something that has not been ruled
out by Defence Minister John McCallum), they would
probably move from Kuwait straight up the Highway of
Death to Basra. The aerosol from the
depleted-uranium-coated shells has long since
dissipated from the hulks of Iraqi vehicles along the
road. But Iraqi scientists believe the particles
remain in the desert sands. Uranium possesses a
radioactive half-life of 200 million years; it would
still pose a serious risk.

Despite increasing evidence linking DU to degenerative
health disorders, the British and U.S. militaries
steadfastly refuse to suspend their use of such
weapons. On Aug. 16, 2002, at the annual UN Human
Rights Convention, a motion was tabled to ban the use
of depleted-uranium munitions until a full-scale
medical survey could be conducted. The only two
countries to vote against the motion were Britain and
the United States.

"If the Americans do attack us, they will inherit a
hostile environment of radioactive toxicity," said Dr.
al-Jibowei. "They will face the same tragedy that Iraq
is already suffering. Everyone will end up buried in
Iraq."


*A former soldier, Scott Taylor is the editor of
Esprit de Corps magazine. He covered the 1991 gulf war
as a correspondent. He has just returned from Baghdad.







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