JFC - Depleted Uranium

First cluster bombs.  Now depleted uranium munitions.  

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it would for the first time send [depleted uranium] ammunition as part of a new package of aid for Kyiv worth up to $175 million.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier accused the U.K. of sending “weapons with a nuclear component,” even though the U.S. has insisted that the munitions — while made with a byproduct of uranium enrichment — do not pose a radioactive threat.

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The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, however, has said depleted uranium rounds still come with health risks should civilians come into contact with their dust.

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The armor-piercing rounds are expected to be highly effective against Russian tanks, a reality that Moscow is not happy with.

And the Russian embassy in Washington called the plan “an indicator of inhumanity.”

  The Hill

Although Russia has zero room to talk about inhumanity and war crimes, no one should be happy with this shit, which could have been avoided if the West had given Ukraine the jets and other weapons they asked for in the beginning.

The known hellacious health effects from the indiscriminate use of DU weapons in Iraq in 2003 apparently has not been a deterrent.  The US "vowed" not to use DU in Syria in 2017, but did anyway.  Even the VA offers benefits to US troops from exposure to DU. 

How have we not outlawed these things yet?  Are we incapable of evolving?

Deny, deny, admit

Same old story from the US military/government decade after decade. White phosphorus, depleted uranium, torture, you name it. If it's a war crime, we're there. And sooner or later - whenever the American public seems okay with it - we'll admit it.

Despite vowing not to use depleted uranium (DU) weapons in its military action in Syria, the U.S. government has now admitted that it has fired thousands of the deadly rounds into Syrian territory. As Foreign Policy Magazine reports:

“U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Maj. Josh Jacques told Airwars and Foreign Policy that 5,265 armor-piercing 30 mm rounds containing depleted uranium (DU) were shot from Air Force A-10 fixed-wing aircraft on Nov. 16 and Nov. 22, 2015, destroying about 350 vehicles in the country’s eastern desert.”

Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman John Moore said in 2015 that:

“U.S. and coalition aircraft have not been and will not be using depleted uranium munitions in Iraq or Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve.” Now we know that is not true.

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We should remember that the United States is engaged in military activities in Syria in violation of international and U.S. law. There is no Congressional authorization for U.S. military action against ISIS in Syria and the United Nations has not authorized military force in violation of Syria’s sovereignty either.

The innocent citizens of Syria will be forced to endure increased risks of cancer, birth defects, and other disease related to exposure to radioactive materials. Depleted uranium is the byproduct of the enrichment of uranium to fuel nuclear power plants and has a half-life in the hundreds of millions of years. Damage to Syrian territory will thus continue long after anyone involved in current hostilities is dead.

  The AntiMedia

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Speaking of NATO and of Banned Weapons

An international legal team is preparing a lawsuit against NATO over the alliance’s alleged use of depleted uranium munitions during its bombing of Yugoslavia. These have allegedly caused a rise in cancer-related illnesses across the region over the years.

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"In Serbia, 33,000 people fall sick because of this every year. That is one child every day," he claimed.

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"The use of banned weapons" by the US-led military alliance in the Balkans "was a violation of all the international conventions and rules that protect people" from such kind of weapons, the lawyer claimed, adding that NATO also used depleted uranium in Iraq in 1991.

  RT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

America Is Great Because America Is Good ™

March 3, 2015

The Pentagon has announced that depleted uranium (DU) munitions have not, and will not, be used by US aircraft in the conflict against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The policy U-turn contrasts with statements made over previous months, where Pentagon officials claimed that DU would be used if needed; the decision reflects a growing stigmatisation of the controversial weapons.

  International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons

21 October 2016

The US has finally confirmed that it has fired DU ammunition [in] Syria. [...] US Central Command (CENTCOM) has acknowledged that DU was fired on two dates - the 18 and 23 November 2015. Between the strikes on the two dates, 5,100 rounds of 30mm DU ammunition were used by A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. This equates to 1,524kg of DU.

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The US has long been conscious of the stigmatisation of the use of DU weapons. As far back as 1991 the US military were advised that: “...fielding and combat activities [with DU] present the potential for adverse international reaction.” It was therefore predictable that Russian state media quickly highlighted news that DU had been used in Syria, with Russia’s embassies in Paris, Ottawa and London tweeting the news, as Russia sought to draw attention away from its own conduct in the conflict.

  International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons

Stigma. International disapproval. Is that all?

Fallujah, Iraq - Contamination from Depleted Uranium (DU) munitions and other military-related pollution is suspected of causing a sharp rises in congenital birth defects, cancer cases, and other illnesses throughout much of Iraq.

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During 2004, the US military carried out two massive military sieges of the city of Fallujah, using large quantities of DU ammunition, as well as white phosphorous.

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Many prominent doctors and scientists contend that DU contamination is also connected to the recent emergence of diseases that were not previously seen in Iraq, such as new illnesses in the kidney, lungs, and liver, as well as total immune system collapse. DU contamination may also be connected to the steep rise in leukaemia, renal, and anaemia cases, especially among children, being reported throughout many Iraqi governorates.

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Doctors in Fallujah are continuing to witness the aforementioned steep rise in severe congenital birth defects, including children being born with two heads, children born with only one eye, multiple tumours, disfiguring facial and body deformities, and complex nervous system problems.

Today in Fallujah, residents are reporting to Al Jazeera that many families are too scared to have children, as an alarming number of women are experiencing consecutive miscarriages and deaths with critically deformed and ill newborns.

  Alternet

And what does the US military say about health risks from DU? Let's have a look at its fact sheet.

Depleted uranium is a heavy metal that is also slightly radioactive. Heavy metals (uranium, lead, tungsten, etc.) have chemical toxicity properties that, in high doses, can cause adverse health effects. Depleted uranium that remains outside the body can not harm you.

A common misconception is that radiation is depleted uranium's primary hazard. This is not the case under most battlefield exposure scenarios. Depleted uranium is approximately 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium. Depleted uranium emits alpha and beta particles, and gamma rays. Alpha particles, the primary radiation type produced by depleted uranium, are blocked by skin, while beta particles are blocked by the boots and battle dress utility uniform (BDUs) typically worn by service members. While gamma rays are a form of highly-penetrating energy , the amount of gamma radiation emitted by depleted uranium is very low.

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Taken into the body via metal fragments or dust-like particles, depleted uranium may pose a long-term health hazard to personnel if the amount is large. However, the amount which remains in the body depends on a number of factors, including the amount inhaled or ingested, the particle size and the ability of the particles to dissolve in body fluids.

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The health effects of uranium have been studied extensively for over 50 years. In September 1999 the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry published a Toxicological Profile for Uranium, an update to the original profile published in May 1989. While natural and depleted uranium are considered chemically toxic, they are not considered a radiation hazard.

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The environmental effects of depleted uranium have been studied comprehensively by a wide range of governmental and non-governmental bodies both before and after the Gulf War. Burn tests and other evaluations performed under simulated battlefield conditions indicated that the health risks associated with the battlefield use of depleted uranium were minimal and even those could be reduced even more by simple, field-expedient measures, especially, avoidance of depleted uranium-contaminated vehicles and sites. During and after the Gulf War, personnel awareness of the hazards posed by battlefield depleted uranium contamination was generally low. As a result, many personnel did not practice field-expedient measures that would have prevented or mitigated possible exposures.

The two main areas that were not adequately addressed before the Gulf War were:

The medical implications of embedded fragments and
Exposure estimates for friendly fire incidents, recovery activities, and incidental contact scenarios.

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Because of gaps in data pertaining to uranium oxide dust levels inside DU-struck vehicles, exposure estimates for personnel inside DU-struck vehicles at the time of impact, or immediately afterwards, were based on conservative assumptions. These estimates for this highest exposed group indicated that medical follow-up was warranted. [...] Aside from the problems associated with their traumatic injuries, to date, this follow-up program has attributed no illness or other harmful effects in the evaluated veterans to DU.

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Civilians and soldiers are strongly discouraged from recovering souvenirs from the battlefield or climbing on or around damaged equipment.

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Depleted uranium emits alpha and beta particles, and gamma rays. Alpha particles, the primary radiation type produced by depleted uranium, are blocked by skin, while beta particles are blocked by the boots and battle dress utility uniform (BDUs) typically worn by service members.

  US Military Fact Sheet on Depleted Uranium

Iraqi children and pregnant women should be wearing battle dress utility uniforms. Their own fault.

That one sentence about civilians and soldiers being "strongly discouraged" from messing with anything that's been hit with DU munitions is the only reference to civilians in the entire fact sheet.

We have weapons of mass destruction, and we're not afraid to use them.

Hey, Freedom Isn't Free

For the first time the location of several sites where [US-led forces in Iraq] fired some 10,000 depleted uranium rounds were released by the Dutch Defense Ministry, and published in a study by Dutch peace group PAX.

Most of the DU rounds fired by the US-led coalition were in heavily populated areas, the group says.

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Wim Zwijnenburg, the author of the report, said the US Air Force knew of the consequences of using DU ammunition.

“The use of DU against these targets questions the adherence of coalition forces to their own principles and guidelines. They should be held accountable for the consequences,” Zwijnenburg said, citing a 1975 memo from the Air Force Office of the Judge Advocate that restricted the use of such ammunition.

“Use of this munition solely against personnel is prohibited if alternative weapons are available,” the memo said, because of “unnecessary suffering and poison.”

  RT

Meanwhile, in Recently Liberated Iraq...

A manhunt is under way for hundreds of inmates, including four high-ranking al-Qaeda members, who escaped two Iraqi prisons following deadly attacks.

Fifty-six people were killed in Sunday's attacks on Taji prison, north of Baghdad, and the Abu Ghraib facility, west of the Iraqi capital.

The dead include 26 members of the security forces and 20 inmates. Ten of the attackers also died.

  alJzeera

The digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is leading an unlikely and broad coalition of 19 groups to sue the National Security Agency on account of its surveillance program that collects the telephone records of American citizens.

  Mashable

And here’s your weapons of mass destruction:

Cancer is more common than flu in the Iraqi city of Najaf, about 160 km south of Baghdad, one local doctor told RT. After the start of the war rates of leukemia and birth defects “rose dramatically” due to use of depleted uranium by the US military.

“Every single residential street that we’ve visited in several neighborhoods, we found multiple cases of families whose children were ill, families who had lost children who had to bury children, families who had many relatives who were suffering from cancer,” RT correspondent Lucy Kafanov said.

Dr. Chris Busby has researched the effects of depleted uranium in detail. He says the only source of uranium in Iraq was the use by the American-led forces of uranium weapons.

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Another report, funded by the Norwegian government, has recently found that depleted uranium was used against civilian targets in populated areas in Iraq, in 2003. It emphasizes a lack of transparency by coalition forces over the use of depleted uranium, but also describes one incident in Najaf where a Bradley armored fighting vehicle fired 305 depleted uranium rounds in a single engagement.

  RT