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"We are living through another Hiroshima," Iraqi doctor says
By Sherwood Ross
Created Mar 24 2008 - 8:41am
The U.S., Great Britain and Israel are turning portions of the Middle East
into a slice of radioactive hell. They are achieving this by firing what
they call "depleted uranium" (DU) ammunition but which is, in fact,
radioactive ammunition and it is perhaps the deadliest kind of tactical ammo
ever devised in the warped mind of man.
There's a ton of data about this on the Internet for the skeptics: from
sources such as the 1999 report of the International Atomic Energy
Commission to oncologist members of England's Royal Society of Physicians to
U.S. Veterans Administration hospital nuclear medicine doctors to officials
at the Basra maternity and pediatric hospital to reporter Scott Peterson of
the Christian Science Monitor. Peterson used a Geiger counter in August,
2003 to find radiation readings between 1,000 and 1,900 times normal where
bunker buster bombs and munitions had exploded near Baghdad. After all, a
typical bunker bomb is said to contain more than a ton of depleted uranium.
For a concise overview on radioactive warfare, read "DU And The Liberation
of Iraq" by Christian Scherrer, a researcher at the Hiroshima Peace
Institute, published on Znet on April 13, 2003. Scherrer states: "Based on
the report of the 48th meeting issued by the UN Committee dealing with
effects of Atomic radiation on 20th April 1999, noting the rapid increase in
mortality caused by DU between 1991 and 1997, the IAEA document predicted
the death of half a million Iraqis, noting that...'some 700-800 tons of
depleted uranium was used in bombing the military zones south of Iraq. Such
a quantity has a radiation effect, sufficient to cause 500,000 cases which
may lead to death."
Scherrer writes, "In 1991 the DU ammunition was mainly used against Iraqi
tanks in the desert near Basra, while in the present war DU is being used
all over Iraq, even in densely populated areas including the heart of
Baghdad, Mosul, Tikrit and other cities." He adds that, based on IAEA
estimates and his previous research, "the death toll may surpass a million
deaths over the next few years, with more to follow!"
Scherrer notes, incidentally, the UN's Human Rights Commission back in 1996
declared DU a weapon of mass destruction(WMD) and that those who use it are
guilty of a crime against humanity. Among its users: the first President
Bush, President Bill Clinton, who irradiated the Balkans, and the current
occupant of the White House.
Now let's hear it from Iraqi doctors: Oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali of Basra
Hospital and Professor Husam al-Jarmokly of Baghdad University "showed a
rapidly increasing death toll in Iraq since 1991 due to cancer and leukemia
caused by U.S. radiological warfare," Scherrer writes, based on their
presentation of December 1, 2002 at the Peace Memorial Hall in Hiroshima.
Al-Ali, who is also a member of England's Royal Society of Physicians, is
quoted in Feb. 5, 2001, "CounterPunch" as stating, "The desert dust carries
death. Our studies indicate that more than 40% of the population around
Basra will get cancer. We are living through another Hiroshima." (Basra is a
city of 1.7 million. Does that mean 680,000 people will be stricken? That
toll alone would be more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki's casualties.)
The same article also reported since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in
Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent and, similarly, "The leukemia rate
in Sarajevo, pummeled by American bombs in 1996, has tripled in the last
five years" and "NATO and UN peacekeepers in the region are also coming down
with cancer."
Dr. Zenad Mohammed, employed in the maternity department of the Basra
teaching hospital, said in the three-months beginning in August, 1998, 10
babies were born with no heads, eight with abnormally large heads and six
with deformed limbs, according to a report on World Socialist Web Site of
September 8, 1999. And the British Guardian newspaper reported Basra
maternity reported cancer cases shot up from 80 in 1990 to 380 in 1997.
Reporter Phil Gardner quotes Dr. Basma Al Asam, a gynecologist, at Al Manoon
hospital, Baghdad, stating: "I've been watching this for seven years now and
it's increasing. We're not just seeing babies born with congenital
abnormalities, but very late spontaneous abortions because of congenital
defects. In the past we used to see, maybe, one a month. Now it is two or
three cases per day." (Two to three cases a day, h-m-m-m, does that equal
about 1,000 a year at this one hospital?)
And from American doctors: Colonel Asaf Durakovic, formerly chief of nuclear
medicine at the VA hospital in Wilmington, Del., said he found uranium
isotopes in the bodies of Persian Gulf War veterans. The New York Times
reported on January 29, 2001, Dr. Durakovic said he found "depleted uranium,
including uranium 236, in 62 percent of the sick gulf war veterans he
examined. He believes that particles lodged in their bodies and may be the
cause of their illness." Once inhaled, Dr. Durakovic noted, "uranium can get
into the bloodstream, be carried to bone, lymph nodes, lungs or kidneys,
lodge there, and cause damage when it emits low-level radiation over a long
period," the Times reported. The Times article also called attention to the
cancer deaths of 24 European soldiers that served as peacekeepers in the
Balkans "and the illnesses reported by many others."
And from a U.S. researcher: Roberto Gwiazda, of the environmental toxicology
department at the University of California Santa Cruz, was the lead
researcher examining returned Gulf War veterans that had radioactive
shrapnel wounds. The university's "City On A Hill Press" newspaper quotes
him as saying, "Of those with radioactive shrapnel wounds, all had
significant levels of uranium in their urine seven to nine years after the
explosion. Of those who only inhaled the incendiary uranium, a statistically
significant number also had high uranium levels."
And from U.S. veterans: Tom Cassidy, of the 1st Cavalry Division who saw
service in Iraq in 2003-05: "After the first gulf war, the level of
radiation was 300 times what is considered normal. In this invasion we used
even more DU bullets. The effects there are horrible," he told the UCSC
paper. Added Dennis Kyne, from the U.S. Army's 18th Airborne division and
Desert Storm veteran and who suffers from an "undiagnosed illness": "The
scientists call it cell disruption, and they don't know why it's happening
to veterans, but it's really radiation sickness, and it's because the DU is
all over."
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Sherwood Ross
Created Mar 24 2008 - 8:41am
The U.S., Great Britain and Israel are turning portions of the Middle East
into a slice of radioactive hell. They are achieving this by firing what
they call "depleted uranium" (DU) ammunition but which is, in fact,
radioactive ammunition and it is perhaps the deadliest kind of tactical ammo
ever devised in the warped mind of man.
There's a ton of data about this on the Internet for the skeptics: from
sources such as the 1999 report of the International Atomic Energy
Commission to oncologist members of England's Royal Society of Physicians to
U.S. Veterans Administration hospital nuclear medicine doctors to officials
at the Basra maternity and pediatric hospital to reporter Scott Peterson of
the Christian Science Monitor. Peterson used a Geiger counter in August,
2003 to find radiation readings between 1,000 and 1,900 times normal where
bunker buster bombs and munitions had exploded near Baghdad. After all, a
typical bunker bomb is said to contain more than a ton of depleted uranium.
For a concise overview on radioactive warfare, read "DU And The Liberation
of Iraq" by Christian Scherrer, a researcher at the Hiroshima Peace
Institute, published on Znet on April 13, 2003. Scherrer states: "Based on
the report of the 48th meeting issued by the UN Committee dealing with
effects of Atomic radiation on 20th April 1999, noting the rapid increase in
mortality caused by DU between 1991 and 1997, the IAEA document predicted
the death of half a million Iraqis, noting that...'some 700-800 tons of
depleted uranium was used in bombing the military zones south of Iraq. Such
a quantity has a radiation effect, sufficient to cause 500,000 cases which
may lead to death."
Scherrer writes, "In 1991 the DU ammunition was mainly used against Iraqi
tanks in the desert near Basra, while in the present war DU is being used
all over Iraq, even in densely populated areas including the heart of
Baghdad, Mosul, Tikrit and other cities." He adds that, based on IAEA
estimates and his previous research, "the death toll may surpass a million
deaths over the next few years, with more to follow!"
Scherrer notes, incidentally, the UN's Human Rights Commission back in 1996
declared DU a weapon of mass destruction(WMD) and that those who use it are
guilty of a crime against humanity. Among its users: the first President
Bush, President Bill Clinton, who irradiated the Balkans, and the current
occupant of the White House.
Now let's hear it from Iraqi doctors: Oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali of Basra
Hospital and Professor Husam al-Jarmokly of Baghdad University "showed a
rapidly increasing death toll in Iraq since 1991 due to cancer and leukemia
caused by U.S. radiological warfare," Scherrer writes, based on their
presentation of December 1, 2002 at the Peace Memorial Hall in Hiroshima.
Al-Ali, who is also a member of England's Royal Society of Physicians, is
quoted in Feb. 5, 2001, "CounterPunch" as stating, "The desert dust carries
death. Our studies indicate that more than 40% of the population around
Basra will get cancer. We are living through another Hiroshima." (Basra is a
city of 1.7 million. Does that mean 680,000 people will be stricken? That
toll alone would be more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki's casualties.)
The same article also reported since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in
Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent and, similarly, "The leukemia rate
in Sarajevo, pummeled by American bombs in 1996, has tripled in the last
five years" and "NATO and UN peacekeepers in the region are also coming down
with cancer."
Dr. Zenad Mohammed, employed in the maternity department of the Basra
teaching hospital, said in the three-months beginning in August, 1998, 10
babies were born with no heads, eight with abnormally large heads and six
with deformed limbs, according to a report on World Socialist Web Site of
September 8, 1999. And the British Guardian newspaper reported Basra
maternity reported cancer cases shot up from 80 in 1990 to 380 in 1997.
Reporter Phil Gardner quotes Dr. Basma Al Asam, a gynecologist, at Al Manoon
hospital, Baghdad, stating: "I've been watching this for seven years now and
it's increasing. We're not just seeing babies born with congenital
abnormalities, but very late spontaneous abortions because of congenital
defects. In the past we used to see, maybe, one a month. Now it is two or
three cases per day." (Two to three cases a day, h-m-m-m, does that equal
about 1,000 a year at this one hospital?)
And from American doctors: Colonel Asaf Durakovic, formerly chief of nuclear
medicine at the VA hospital in Wilmington, Del., said he found uranium
isotopes in the bodies of Persian Gulf War veterans. The New York Times
reported on January 29, 2001, Dr. Durakovic said he found "depleted uranium,
including uranium 236, in 62 percent of the sick gulf war veterans he
examined. He believes that particles lodged in their bodies and may be the
cause of their illness." Once inhaled, Dr. Durakovic noted, "uranium can get
into the bloodstream, be carried to bone, lymph nodes, lungs or kidneys,
lodge there, and cause damage when it emits low-level radiation over a long
period," the Times reported. The Times article also called attention to the
cancer deaths of 24 European soldiers that served as peacekeepers in the
Balkans "and the illnesses reported by many others."
And from a U.S. researcher: Roberto Gwiazda, of the environmental toxicology
department at the University of California Santa Cruz, was the lead
researcher examining returned Gulf War veterans that had radioactive
shrapnel wounds. The university's "City On A Hill Press" newspaper quotes
him as saying, "Of those with radioactive shrapnel wounds, all had
significant levels of uranium in their urine seven to nine years after the
explosion. Of those who only inhaled the incendiary uranium, a statistically
significant number also had high uranium levels."
And from U.S. veterans: Tom Cassidy, of the 1st Cavalry Division who saw
service in Iraq in 2003-05: "After the first gulf war, the level of
radiation was 300 times what is considered normal. In this invasion we used
even more DU bullets. The effects there are horrible," he told the UCSC
paper. Added Dennis Kyne, from the U.S. Army's 18th Airborne division and
Desert Storm veteran and who suffers from an "undiagnosed illness": "The
scientists call it cell disruption, and they don't know why it's happening
to veterans, but it's really radiation sickness, and it's because the DU is
all over."
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
