Mounting alarm over US use of depleted uranium arms in Libya

[JohnyCanuck]

The US has refused to rule out the use of DU shells in Libya, though it claims not to have fired any so far.

“I don’t want to speculate on what may or may not be used in the future,” the US air force spokeswoman, Paula Kurtz, said yesterday.

The US admitted using A-10 tankbuster aircraft designed to destroy armoured cars and tanks, and which are capable of firing 3,900 armour-piercing DU-tipped shells per minute.

Kurtz insisted that the A-10s had not been loaded with DU ammunition. “Weapons with depleted uranium have not been used in Libya,” she said.

But critics say that the US has sometimes been economical with the truth about the use of DU weapons. “We continue to seek a cast-iron guarantee that depleted uranium has not been used and will not be used in Libya,” said Kate Hudson, the general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. “The US has a long history of only admitting to deploying this radioactive material months or years after it has been used.”

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/mounting-alarm-over-us-use-of-depleted-uranium-arms-in-libya-1.1094257

[Vincardog]

1. the US has sometimes been economical with the truth PERIOD

[Godhumor]

2. Whole lot of words to say the US isn't using DU (But maybe they will at some point) n/t

[Hydra]

3. But we're also not torturing...

...except when we are.

[Godhumor]

4. DU leaves tell-tale signs when used--it really has not been

As pointed out in the OP the worry is that A-10s, the first that can have a DU payload (DU is a harder material and helps with tank busting), will begin being loaded with the substance. That question won't really be answered until it becomes clearer what missions A-10s undertake.

[Hydra]

6. Perhaps not

But we aren't in a position to know, just like the torture and domestic spying, which is why I used that analogy. They also say it's up to them if they want to use it later.

Every place we occupy seems to have a ton of DU left over when the initial mess is sorted out. I know the ammo has certain advantages, but like the cluster bombs and white phosphorus, I'm always left wondering if we just use these things because we can, and not because we need to.

[JohnyCanuck]

13. DU ammo is one easy way for the "civilian" nuclear energy program

to get the rid of a waste product from the processing of uranium into nuclear fuel. They would otherwise have to store and take care of it in one way or another. So why not give it to the MIC to turn into bombs, bullets and shells, and then the military can store it and dispose of it (mostly in other people's countries) with minimal or no safety precautions.

[GKirk]

5. Who's mounting the alarm?

...I know I would be alarmed if a DU tipped round was being fired at me, but on the other hand I'd be alarmed no matter what type of round was being shot at me.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[liberal life]

8. better late than never but what about Iraq??

The poor Iraqis have had millions of tons of that crap dumped on their nation. A huge percentage of people are dying from horrible cancers, and children being born with just unbearable problems. Iraqis no longer ask if it is a boy or a girl when a baby is born, but is it okay?

There are all kinds of pictures on the net of what DU is doing to the babies...just horrible. I can't even look at them but if someone else wants to-google it. I had my nurse friend take a look at them, and she who did not believe me previously, was horrified!

And here everyone is so worried about the nuke plants blowing their crap all over the world, do you think depleted uranium just stays on the soil on which it is dumped? That nice sandy desert just keeps all the soil in place eh?

They have measured high levels of DU in the air in the UK. This is not good at all.

"The Sunday Times Online, February 19, 2006, reported on a shocking scientific study authored by British scientists Dr. Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan: "Did the use of Uranium weapons in Gulf War 2 result in contamination of Europe? Evidence from the measurements of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK". The highest levels of depleted uranium ever measured in the atmosphere in Britain, were transported on air currents from the Middle East and Central Asia; of special significance were those from the Tora Bora bombing in Afghanistan in 2001, and the "Shock & Awe" bombing during Gulf War II in Iraq in 2003. Out of concern for the public, the official British government air monitoring facility, known as the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), at Aldermaston was established years ago, to measure radioactive emissions from British nuclear power plants and atomic weapons facilities.

The British government facility (AWE) was taken over 3 years ago by Halliburton, which refused at first to release air monitoring data, as required by law, to Dr. Busby. An international expert on low level radiation, Busby serves as an official advisor on several British government committees, and co-authored an independent report on low level radiation with 45 scientists, the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR), for the European Parliament. He was able to get Aldermaston air monitoring data from Halliburton /AWE by filing a Freedom of Information request using a new British law which became effective January 1, 2005; but the data for 2003 was missing. He obtained the 2003 data from the Defence Procurement Agency.

The fact that the air monitoring data was circulated by Halliburton/AWE to the Defence Procurement Agency, implies that it was considered to be relevant, and that Dr. Busby was stonewalled because Halliburton/AWE clearly recognized that it was a serious enough matter to justify a government interpretation of the results, and official decisions had to be made about what the data would show and its political implications for the military. In a similar circumstance, in 1992, Major Doug Rokke, the Director of the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Cleanup Project after Gulf War I, was ordered by a U.S. Army General officer to write a no-bid contract "Depleted Uranium, Contaminated Equipment, and Facilities Recovery Plan Outline" for the procedures for cleaning up Kuwait, including depleted uranium, for Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton. The contract/proposal was passed through Madeleine Albright, the Secretary of State, to the Emirate of Kuwait, who considered the terms and then hired KBR for the cleanup. "



http://fucorporatemedia.com/

[liberal life]

9. sorry, I didn't mean to be a thread killer

please keep kicking this important topic...carry on....

[EFerrari]

11. I'm having a Falluja flashback.

The same process. Watchdog groups kept questioning, our government ignored or denied. Partisans dismissed the possibility. And we all now know the results.

[dipsydoodle]

10. K & R

I think this comes under "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" given what may arrive from Japan is at least an unsolicited gift. There is of course no malice aforethought from Japan which is more than can be said of the malicious use of DU shells.

[liberal life]

12. and another

:kick:


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