Depleted Uranium (aka Death Unlimited)

[chodofu]

There is a lot of doom saying in that table of contents, I am just beginning to read 'there ain't no buck stopping anywhere' but before I get in too deep, is there positive advice in this magazine or is it all bitch and moan (opposite, or political - haha, fallout of shock and awe)?

Chou

[dearpeter]

Can't resist. Here's a quote:

CONOCLAST: What do you think is the significance of Busby

[dearpeter]

before I get in too deep, is there positive advice in this magazine or is it all bitch and moan ...?

It seems to be a lot of interviews with well-qualified people.

Among those interviewed, in the order they appear in this feature, were:

[chodofu]

NSFRS - Not Safe For Reading while Stoned ,-)

I don't know any of those people, but I trust their creditials are in order. This has me seriously depressed now. It is truly scary.

Quoting Mr. Rokke -
"I was born back in the time when Harry Truman said the buck stops here. Well, there ain

[dearpeter]

Talk about balance. (joke) Get this:


Former U.N. Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter Discusses DU Weaponry

[chodofu]

He quoting himself? You have me a bit confused here.DU is bad ok, thats been established. American generals are willing to use it, ok also the point of many of the stories in the Iconclast. This is not balance yet.

[TainanCowboy]

A quote from Scott Ritter?
Might as well use WikiWacki as a sole source.
DU use has been going on for approx. 25 years as far as I am aware of. So assigning the blame to the current leaders just reveals the political slant. Jimmy Carter was US Pres when I first ecame aware of these rounds.
What are the half-lifes of the materiala involved? Some questions have to be addressed
before its hair-tearing out time.
Pardon me if I chalk this one up to political agenda masquareding as social conscience until more specific scientific results are brought to the table.

And before you toss this off as just another of my "Republican right-wingnut" counters,
I had multiple exposures to 'Agent Orange.' Thankfully I have had nothing occur, but have seen its effects on fellow troops who had the same or even less exposure. I have also seen the reticience of both Governments, the scientific community and the manufacturers to fully release the study results of the effects of items such as this.
But for now, DU is just the next "cause du jure" of the radical fringe.
Maybe this will change, maybe not. Lets do the science.
And I have also fired DU rounds - they work.

BTW, I think its an interesting interview. Good post.

added post:
http://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q746.html

[dearpeter]

The news reports are finally starting to surface in the wake of the Busby report. Typing 'depleted uranium' into Google News now gets a whole page of results for just the last few days. That's the best ever. Usually the first page of results goes way back. The scandal may have finally broken. Is it too early for champagne?

I just read something that made me take heart in this lengthy report on the breaking scandal.

Other than anonymous British government officials denying that Iraq was the source of the depleted uranium measured at Aldermaston by AWE, and some unnamed 'establishment scientists' blaming it on local sources or natural uranium in the Iraq environment, there is no one, as of this writing, willing to lend their name or office to refuting this damning evidence reported by Dr. Busby.

It's the last sentence I like. Just as no one likes to admit that DU could be an actual, existing, nightmarish problem, no one also wants to be the person to go down in history as protecting the evil demon.

In case anyone's interested, here are my FURL bookmarks for DU.

[dearpeter]

And here's a petition you can sign:

[dearpeter]

I just found a critique of the conspicuous absence of DU in media coverage. It's by Fairness And Accuracy in Reporting (F.A.I.R.), a well respected group. And it was printed nearly three years ago. It's just as valid today.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2639

excerpt:

As explained in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (11/12/02)--one of the few U.S. outlets to seriously investigate DU--questions about its safety are particularly important because the uranium dust created by DU weapons "can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain."

Yet the words "depleted uranium" have not been uttered once on ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News or NBC Nightly News since the beginning of the year, according to a May 22 search of the Nexis database.

The three major networks' other national news shows didn't do much better. ABC's Nightline (2/18/03) and CBS's The Early Show (4/16/03) both aired reports about Gulf War Syndrome in which DU was mentioned as one of many possible causes of the illness. Apart from that, the networks' only other mention of DU in Iraq came when CBS and NBC aired a live Pentagon briefing (3/26/03) during which Canadian and French reporters happened to ask about DU's impact on civilians.