Depleted uranium: a strange way to protect Libyan civilians

David Wilson
Stop the War CoalitionMarch 28, 2011

“[uranium tipped missiles] fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way… I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.” Marion Falk, chemical physicist (retd), Lawrence Livermore Lab, California, USA

In the first 24 hours of the Libyan attack, US B-2s dropped forty-five 2,000-pound bombs. These massive bombs, along with the Cruise missiles launched from British and French planes and ships, all contained depleted uranium (DU) warheads.

DU is the waste product from the process of enriching uranium ore. It is used in nuclear weapons and reactors. Because it is a very heavy substance, 1.7 times denser than lead, it is highly valued by the military for its ability to punch through armored vehicles and buildings. When a weapon made with a DU tip strikes a solid object like the side of a tank, it goes straight through it, then erupts in a burning cloud of vapor. The vapor settles as dust, which is not only poisonous, but also radioactive.

An impacting DU missile burns at 10,000 degrees C. When it strikes a target, 30% fragments into shrapnel. The remaining 70% vaporises into three highly-toxic oxides, including uranium oxide. This black dust remains suspended in the air and, according to wind and weather, can travel over great distances. If you think Iraq and Libya are far away, remember that radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales.

Particles less than 5 microns in diameter are easily inhaled and may remain in the lungs or other organs for years. Internalized DU can cause kidney damage, cancers of the lung and bone, skin disorders, neurocognitive disorders, chromosome damage, immune deficiency syndromes and rare kidney and bowel diseases. Pregnant women exposed to DU may give birth to infants with genetic defects. Once the dust has vaporised, don’t expect the problem to go away soon. As an alpha particle emitter, DU has a half life of 4.5 billion years.

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In the ‘shock and awe’ attack on Iraq, more than 1,500 bombs and missiles were dropped on Baghdad alone. Seymour Hersh has claimed that the US Third Marine Aircraft Wing alone dropped more than “five hundred thousand tons of ordnance”. All of it DU-tipped.

Al Jazeera reported that invading US forces fired two hundred tons of radioactive material into buildings, homes, streets and gardens of Baghdad. A reporter from the Christian Science Monitor took a Geiger counter to parts of the city that had been subjected to heavy shelling by US troops. He found radiation levels 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal in residential areas. With its population of 26 million, the US dropped a one-ton bomb for every 52 Iraqi citizens or 40 pounds of explosives per person.

William Hague has said that we are in Libya ” to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas”.You don’t have to look far for who and what are being ‘protected’.

In that first 24 hours the ‘Allies’ ‘expended’ £100 million on DU-tipped ordnance. The European Union’s arms control report said member states issued licences in 2009 for the sale of £293.2 million worth of weapons and weapons systems to Libya. Britain issued arms firms licences for the sale of £21.7 million worth of weaponry to Libya and were also paid by Colonel Gadaffi to send the SAS to train his 32nd Brigade.

For the next 4.5 billion years, I’ll bet that William Hague will not be holidaying in North Africa.

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1. Huggles Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 5:18 am
   “Depleted uranium: a strange way to protect Libyan civilians”
   how else is the US going to get rid of nuclear waste? The military industrial complex even tried to get rid of DU by suggesting that it ought to be used as ballast for ships and aircraft!
   In North Yorkshire we say, “Where there is muck, there is brass” and DU is the worst kind of muck and there are people who want make a killing from it.
   Wrabbit2000 Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 5:36 am

   Huggles, on this one we are 110% on the same side for. I really had my doubts about how legitimate the whole issue might be or how harmful to health it could be, but one thing really changed that for me. Fallujah, Iraq was one of the most hotly contested cities of the entire war in open, prolonged non-stop combat. Studies that have been done since that confirm what stories like this would suggest you’d find. Elevated radiation, health issues that weren’t common previously, and birth defects. I cannot understand ANY legitimate use for this stuff outside of very limited use for penetrating tank shells (how many tank battles do we get in these days??) and perhaps the deep earth penetrating ordinance.

   It should be criminal (literally) that these rounds even exist outside of VERY VERY limited uses like what I said above. It’s far too long now to continue to claim ignorance. People should go to prison for this even being an issue in Libya.

   Philippe Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 6:04 am

   I suppose Japan could find ways to lessen their burden with such materials by selling it to munitions makers or just starting their own war. There’s probably no accounting for the all the DU shells used in Iraq and Afghanistan, but you can bet after years of war, those countries are completely contaminated. Be interesting to keep an eye on cancer rates in these countries and see how hire they soar.
   wiggins Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 12:20 pm

   Well Huggles, they got rid of their aluminium waste by putting it in our tap water (flouride – nice name) and telling us it was good for our teeth.
   Do you understand the extremes these twats will go to to make a brass farthing?
   BR549 Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 1:42 pm

   If can see Camilla and Charles discussing this very topic over high tea,

   Camilla: “Charles, we really must do something about that Muslim vermin down there in the middle east.

   Charles: “Camilla, don’t be a twit. I’ve told you countless times that Tony and George, and now this strange looking Obama fellow, have said they’ve had a plan to deal with “this problem” all along. They’re just going to simply eradicate them from our oil fields as they would common rodents. So don’t worry your little mind, my dear. Poopsie has everything under control.”
   kebcreation Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 4:58 pm

   What will we do when there’s no place left to put all the (nuclear)garbage garbage garbage? Well Pete Seegar there is your answer and it is unimaginable.
2. Matzo Man Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 5:33 am
   Well, we all know they got rid of tons of depleted uranium (DU) off of Somali coast (that’s organized crime for you). If you don’t know about it, read up on it!
   DU does not just affect Iraqis. It DOES affect our guys too!
   www notinkansas us/du_2 html#Secret
   Using DU in warfare is a war crime. It never goes away; if they shoot your house with it then it will be worth zero and you will not be able to live there any more unless you want to live with DU residue forever.
   Huggles Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 7:40 am

   It is not just DU that they are dumping off the coast of Somalia, it is also toxic chemical waste from Europe such as dioxin. In in the 1990s, when elders from Somalia went to the Italian government to ask them to stop their waste disposal companies from dumping toxic waste they bid for in Europe, the minister at the time whose name I do not remember, said it was a mafioso problem and that nothing could be done.

   Now you understand why the fishermen have stopped fishing. They also need to feed their families so they have become pirates. People don’t do bad things for the sake of it unless they are psychos or on drugs.

   Matzo Man Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 12:59 pm

   Thanks for pointing this out. I knew that about the pirates and why they became pirates. It is criminal of the MSM to not tell everyone the real story. I learned about it from AJ’s foreign sources.

   Wrabbit2000 Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 2:54 pm

   That is a fascinating bleeding heart, liberal way of viewing some very vicious and ruthless criminals off the coast of Somalia, Huggles. It may true that nations have dumped waste off the horn of Africa…although it sounds incredibly stupid that close to land as it’d just come on shore somewhere and blow the scam eventually. There are millions of square miles of empty ocean without dumping off a coast line.

   Let’s assume you are right… Somalia has been a total wasteland of crime and Anarchy since well before the Black Hawk Down events everyone is surely familiar with.

   It must make you feel much better to decide in your mind that they are actually poor, suffering Fisherman, tragically displaced from their life’s work and forced into a life of crime and terror on the high seas to feed 50 little mouths back home.

   Well I don’t buy it and your statement that “” People don’t do bad things for the sake of it unless they are psychos or on drugs. “” Is so incredibly naive and fanciful as to leave me in shock. I thought you’d been around a bit more than that. That is about the attitude I’d expect from a child in grade school, or an adult who has spent life VERY VERY sheltered from the real world.

   You cry for your pirates…..I’ll keep actively writing letters encouraging their prosecution under laws which allow execution in a U.S. Federal Prison. One day, perhaps a Congressman or Senator I write to will actually get the hint. I seriously doubt it though.
3. Thus Saith The Lord Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 5:53 am
   The tribulation started to pick up with the Gulf Oil Disaster, which by the way, is not over by any stretch of the imagination. There will be a huge methane explosion that causes a tsunami that will wipe out the entire Gulf coast, along with a couple of nuke plants.
   The meltdown that is going on in Japan is just another installment of the Great Tribulation.
   Read the prophecies of Linda Newkirk at Prophecies.org
   Glen Reply:
   March 28th, 2011 at 9:33 pm

   MORON.

   You delusional prophet wannabes will always be proven WRONG.

   Reality is your worst enemy.
4. daniyel Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 5:59 am
   While I have been aware of the horrors of DU for some time, the reports that radiation levels in areas of Bagdad are now reading from 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal is astonishing.
   That’s higher than what they have admitted to for the most part thusfar in Japan.
   No doubt about it the use of DU by Coalition Military Forces is just another twisted part of the United Nations Agenda 21 Depopulation program. To see the powers that be open a new Theatre of Warfare under the pre-text of “humanitarian concerns” using DU in North Africa, while Fukushima continues to meltdown is an UN-godly action agianst humanity. It’s just a well timed distraction away from the seriousness of the on-going nuclear crisis in Japan.
   Agenda 21 believes that too many people are alive on Planet Earth Today. DU is an abominable combination of the use of “Hard Kill” and “Soft Kill” weapons, and UN-less you are a part of their inner circle, we are all a target of these weapons of mass-depopulation…that includes you too G.I. Joe!
5. MahaKali Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 6:19 am
   The idiocy of our military is beyond belief. This (DU, Chemclouds, HAARP, GMO foods, etc) isn’t one side fighting another, it is planetary destruction. Who benefits?
6. JosieWales Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 6:27 am
   ‘if my sons didn’t want to have wars there would be no wars’ ~old lady Rothschild~
   We only really need one more war, the one that ends in the annihilation of the Rothschild clan – Men, Women and Children.
   Rothschilds are inbred satanists that marry their first cousins to consolidate their power…
   …http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/the_rothschild_bloodline.htm
7. worldtruthorg Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 6:33 am
   any one who uses es du is a psychopathic murderer! period !
8. worldtruthorg Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 6:36 am
   with out a doubt all the world leaders are the real satan loving terrorists and the news they own
9. worldtruthorg Says:
   March 28th, 2011 at 6:37 am
   where you pope speak up chickin shit
10. NoMoBaama Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 7:09 am
    “A prominent US international human-rights lawyer, Karen Parker, says there are four rules derived from humanitarian laws and conventions regarding weapons:
    * weapons may only be used against legal enemy military targets and must not have an adverse effect elsewhere (the territorial rule)
    * weapons can only be used for the duration of an armed conflict and must not be used or continue to act afterwards (the temporal rule)
    * weapons may not be unduly inhumane (the “humaneness” rule). The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 speak of “unnecessary suffering” and “superfluous injury” in this regard
    * weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the natural environment (the “environmental” rule).”
    “Illegal weapons
    “DU weaponry fails all four tests,” Parker told Aljazeera.net. First, DU cannot be limited to legal military targets. Second, it cannot be “turned off” when the war is over but keeps killing.
    Third, DU can kill through painful conditions such as cancers and organ damage and can also cause birth defects such as facial deformities and missing limbs.
    Lastly, DU cannot be used without unduly damaging the natural environment.
    “In my view, use of DU weaponry violates the grave breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions,” says Parker. “And so its use constitutes a war crime, or crime against humanity.”
    Parker and others took the DU issue before the UN in 1995, and in 1996, the UN Human Rights Commission described DU munitions as weapons of mass destruction that should be banned.Illegal weapons
    “DU weaponry fails all four tests,” Parker told Aljazeera.net. First, DU cannot be limited to legal military targets. Second, it cannot be “turned off” when the war is over but keeps killing.
    Third, DU can kill through painful conditions such as cancers and organ damage and can also cause birth defects such as facial deformities and missing limbs.
    Lastly, DU cannot be used without unduly damaging the natural environment.
    “In my view, use of DU weaponry violates the grave breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions,” says Parker. “And so its use constitutes a war crime, or crime against humanity.”
    Parker and others took the DU issue before the UN in 1995, and in 1996, the UN Human Rights Commission described DU munitions as weapons of mass destruction that should be banned.”
    Can anyone doubt that the people deciding to use these weapons (against humanity) are unceasingly evil? And like the fallout from Japan’s reactors, DU dust knows no boundaries.
11. Terri Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 7:59 am
    can anyone tell me if these tips were used in the ’70s, my husband was an ordinance man in the navy at that time, loading these things on air craft? Also, does DU leach from the tips?
    Captain Ron Reply:
    March 28th, 2011 at 8:57 am

    DU was intruduced in the beginning of 1990′ as a munitions for the US Military. Russia had been developng Tank Armor since to 70′s, so in order for the US Military to combat Russias “Ballistic Tank Armor”…DU was born. Now the s h i t is evrywhere. I guess they figured why let a good thing go to waste huh?

    Terri Reply:
    March 28th, 2011 at 9:06 am

    Thank You!
12. Billo Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 8:34 am
    So we are attacking with nuclear weapons. This is so awful it makes me sick.
    Wrabbit2000 Reply:
    March 28th, 2011 at 11:33 am

    I wouldn’t call it nuclear weapons as much as the worst form of chemical weapon imaginable. As I and others have noted, this crap was never meant to be fired from weapons of all sizes all over the battlefield. Terrible thing.
13. unconquered Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 9:13 am
    Special delivery for Ann Coulter.
14. Haw Haw Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 9:56 am
    Yeah that lovely DU and I laugh my head off when I see them so called rebels dancing all over tanks a APC’s cheering, they aint gonna be so happy when they get cancer and their women are giving birth to freaks…lets see how they like the west after their oil is gone and all they have left are mutant kids and half the population snuffing it with cancer…I laugh my head off.
15. casual observer Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 9:58 am
    The excuse used for DU in bullets has been it’s penetrative quality due to hardness, which hardly can be applied in case of explosive warheads (bombs), leaving with the true intent of DU use – as a radiological weapon, which in all likelehood has also been the real reason in the case of non-explosive munitions (bullets), a war crime. Considering that the cabal puts an industrial waste ( fluoride) into your tap water and toothpaste , dumping DU waste on outskirts of the empire is not surprising.
16. revealerofsecrets Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
    Oh my god they Killed kenny YOU BASTARDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17. Ellis Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
    Now you come to mention it I was not suprised when I read it but I did manage 1.2s
    ( 1200 miliseconds ) of doubt.
18. DoWn To ThE JeWs Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
    “rodrick usher”
    Look here you old hag.Maybe if your cataract filled eyes were able to see.You wouldv’e noticed that i did respond to you, you alzheimer’s disease filled old fool.I think you and your kid gloves are a damn joke you jewish loving, holocaust sympathizing,son of a gassed woman fool.Now im warning you,stay in your place “pops”.Go put your dentures in a cup and think long and hard about what i said.This is only the beginning!
    DTTJ out
19. hockie Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 11:24 pm
    Treason would come more to mind for all United States Military Officers who are participating in this unconstitutional Kinetic Military Action which is just another name for War Crimes.
    All commissioned officers in the United States military must make the following oath of office when they are appointed in the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps:
    Whereas: “I, _____ (state your name), having been appointed an officer in the (branch) of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.” (DA Form 71, 1 August 1959, for officers.)
    One will notice the Oath does not mention obedience to the President/ Commander-in-Chief. In other words all unlawful orders are not to be carried out which is so stated in the MCJ and especially Orders by a Foreign Entity by passing the whole of Congress.
    Of course this is nothing short of Treason and the allege President along with all Military Officers must now stand Trial on the Charge…
    Treason: A breach of allegiance to one’s government, usually committed through levying war against such government or by giving aid or comfort to the enemy. The offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance; or of betraying the state into the hands of a foreign power, Treason consists of two elements: adherence to the enemy, and rendering him aid and comfort. Cramer v U.S., U.S.N.Y., 325 U.S. I, 65 S.Ct. 918, 9327 89 L.Ed. 1441. See 18 U.S.C.A. s/s 2381. A person can be convicted of treason only on the testimony of two witnesses, or confession in open court. Art. III, Section 3, US Constitution.
    Black’s Law Dictionary 6th ed.
    Then the use of depleted uranium is in its self a War Crime under Public International Law as well as the UN (which means nothing).
    According to a August 2002 report by the UN sub commission, laws which are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing ‘poison or poisoned weapons’ and ‘arms, projectiles or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering’. All of these laws are designed to spare civilians from unwarranted suffering in armed conflicts.
    Although the enlisted personnel take an Oath to both the Constitution of the United States and the President the same rules for not obeying unlawful orders still stand.
    I have to interject this. I seem to add to my post as I type but I think this is relative as where we are at this time in our history, for those in the know, all Oaths of Office for our Military always swore allegiance to The United States of America and the President until
    2 July 1862 then it was changed to The United States this is very disturbing for the United States is a Corporation located in Washington DC, Whereas The United States of America is the [50] states United, just something to ponder.
    Maybe Obama should be Commander in Mischief.
    It really doesn’t matter after WWII all Military actions of the US Military have been UN sanction if not controlled, and our servicemen and women [including me many years ago] should have been wearing UN Blue with the Blue and White flag leading the way.
    “Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”
    Henry Kissinger, as quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: Nice to know what they think of the American soldier and I’m sure Henry was being nice compared to what the ‘Powers’ think.
    This present action; just so happens that the Powers to Be are more out in the open, pressing for their One World Government, in your face what are you gonn’a do about it ‘American’. They are calling us/US out are WE gonn’a raise to the occasion? 1776.
20. RosePink Says:
    March 28th, 2011 at 11:44 pm
    I don’t understand this. It must have negative effects on our friends the Israelis, the only democrats in the Middle East? Why would Uncle Sam hurt them?