Depleted Uranium Weapons Used in Lebanon

September 14, 2006

by Joe Miller

............................

Earlier today on a national listserv I received a message with a link to a powerful (and very graphic) video on the effects of, and need to ban, depleted uranium (DU) weapons. While for some inexplicable reason the use of DU in Afghanistan is excluded in the video, in all other aspects, the video is accurate -- although it is impossible to conclusively say that the massive individual deformities and injuries depicted are a function of DU as opposed to fire and all the other toxic exposures that occur in war. That said, here's the link to the video:

http://www.bushflash.com/pl_hi.html

Evidence Points to DU Bomb Use

There is strong evidence that Israel used US supplied bunker buster bombs with DU warheads against targets in Lebanon. These assertions appear in a July 24 letter by Dr. Doug Rokke, former Director of the US Army Depleted Uranium Project, and are consistent with a July 22 report in the New York Times about the US rushing such weapons to Israel, and a August 21 report in the The Daily Star in Lebanon that a crater caused by an Israeli bomb in Khiam contained "a high degree of unidentified radioactive materials."

http://gulfwarvets.com/du_unacceptable.htm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072206Z.shtml
http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=4534

DU Weapons Are Persistent Health and Evironmental Threats

As the video indicates, the half-life of depleted uranium is 4.5 billion years! The effects of depleted uranium aren't just limited to the civilians, military personnel, future generations, and non-human organisms that occupy the areas and countries in which DU weapons were used. The effects of very small particles of DU are pernicious, because such particles can travel thousands of miles in the wind, and once inhaled or ingested, can create adverse health effects in individuals dramatically removed in space and time from the original fighting. For basic information on these issues, see the following article by Dr. Keith Baverstock. For additional information, see the section entitled "Threats Associated With Very Small Particles of DU" in the selected resources on DU and uranium weapons at the end of this article.

http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=180

DU Weapons Are Dirty Bombs

The governments of the United States, Britain, Israel, and other countries should certainly be concerned about the use of radiological "dirty bombs" by terrorists. This same concern, however, should be extended to the weapons that we and they use, because DU and uranium weapons are basically radiological "dirty bombs."

People Are Unprotected

One would think that given the significant radiation exposures that would result from a "dirty bomb" terrorist attack and the attention focused on the possibility of such attacks, that our government would have developed stringent cleanup standards should such an attack occur. Think again. A January Associated Press story reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cleanup standards for a "dirty bomb" terrorist attack "would in some cases be far less rigorous than what is required for Superfund sites, nuclear power plants and nuclear waste dumps." Similarly, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service notes that DHS guidelines for responding to a dirty bomb "permit doses to the public equivalent to tens of thousands of chest X-rays without requiring intervention and cleanup."

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9599
http://www.nirs.org/press/01-04-2006/1

DU Weapons Are Illegal

The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) notes that "the use of uranium weapons is illegal under international humanitarian, human rights and environmental law." The United Nations Human Rights Sub-Committee has condemned them, like nuclear, chemical and cluster munitions, as: "weapons of indiscriminate destruction, with long-term consequences for the environment, human health and life, causing civilian suffering for years after the cessation of hostilities." Such weapons, as stated by Karen Parker, violate all "existing rules and principles of binding humanitarian (armed conflict) law." They must be banned and abolished.

http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=199
http://www.nukewatch.com/du/20030930bthm.html

Joseph Miller
Dept. of Psychology
51 Madeleva
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556

Office Phone:
574 284-4532 (4534)
Fax:
574 284-4716

Additional Resources: Depleted Uranium (DU) and Uranium Weapons

Health, Environmental, Legal Threats

DU: Weapon of Mass Destruction (Extensive resources & links; 
frequently updated)
http://www.nukewatch.com/du/index.html
http://www.nukewatch.com/du/links.html
http://www.nukewatch.com/du/bibliography.html
	
Traprock Peace Center - Depleted Uranium (Extensive resources & links;
frequently updated)
http://www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium_hamburg03.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium.html
	
International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) (Extensive resources 
& links; frequently updated)
http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/index.php
	
The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children (Video)
http://www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium_children.html
	
British Veteran Kenny Duncan First To Win War Pension Tribunal 
(Duncan in above video)
http://www.traprockpeace.org/schott_12feb04.html
	
The US and UK Deploy New Uranium Weapons Contaminating Iraq's Environment, 
Civilians and the Coalition's Own Troops  (Tedd Weyman & Dr. Axel Gerdes in 
above video)
http://www.traprockpeace.org/tedd_weyman_10aug04.html
	
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Newsletter -- Science
for Democratic Action, Volume 13, Number 2 (June 2005): Risks of Depleted 
Uranium Waste / Uranium Health Risks.
http://www.ieer.org/sdafiles/index.html
	
Physicians for Social Responsibility -- DU: Health and the Public Health 
Issues Arising from the Use of Depleted Uranium Munitions (Oct., 2005)
http://www.psr.org/documents/psr_doc_0/program_4/DU_Report.pdf
	
Project Censored 2005 � Story # 4
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/4.html
	
The War Against Ourselves:  An Interview with Doug Rokke
http://yesmagazine.com/25environmentandhealth/rokke.html
http://alternet.org/envirohealth/15300/
	
Radioactive Wounds of War By Dave Lindorff, In These Times
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082605A.shtml
	
US Dirty Bombs: Radioactive Shells Spiked with Plutonium By John LaForge
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0709-07.htm
	
Weapon of Mass Deception By Frida Berrigan, In These Times
http://www.alternet.org/story/16272
	
Remains of Toxic Bullets Litter Iraq By Scott Peterson, CS Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0515/p01s02-woiq.htm

Threats Associated With Very Small Particles of DU

 
Uranium Weapons: Presentation by Dr. Keith Baverstock (July, 2005)
http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=180
	
WHO 'Suppressed' Scientific Study Into Depleted Uranium Cancer Fears in Iraq
http://www.sundayherald.com/40096
	
Letter to Congressman McDermott: Declassified 1943 memo to General L. R. 
Groves � A Blueprint for Depleted Uranium By Leuren Moret
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Leuren-Moret-Gen-Groves21feb03.htm
	
Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War By Leuren Moret, World 
Affairs � The Journal of International Issues
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm
	
Depleted Uranium:  Dirty Bombs, Dirty Missiles, Dirty Bullets By Leuren Moret
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/4/5878
http://www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml
	
Explaining How Depleted Uranium Is Killing Civilians, Soldiers, Land: Nano 
Particles Pinpointed
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/explaining_how.html
	
Asia's Wind-Borne Pollution A Hazardous Export to U.S.  (Documents the 
distance small particles travel)
http://www.ban.org/ban_news/asias_wind.html

St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN

SJVGreens

Depleted Uranium Weapons Used in Lebanon