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Showing posts with label Depleted Uranium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Depleted Uranium. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Honor Vets by Learning About Depleted Uranium
The rest of the world knows about the health effects of the Depleted Uranium weaponry we use. Only Americans are kept in the dark.
*****************************************
As Europe mourns in Verdun today for those lost in "The War to End All Wars", World War I, we could look to another moment in European history to shed light on the most aggressively silenced story of the Bush administration.
In late 2000 and January 2001, reports were exploding across Europe about the rise in cancer amongst NATO soldiers who had served in the "peacekeeping missions" in Bosnia and Kosovo. The effects of the depleted uranium in the U.S. and U.K. weapons could not be ignored.
But history shows that the United Nations and the World Health Organization could be intimidated. The report from the WHO – that detailed how the DU vaporized upon impact into tiny particles that were breathed in, or consumed through the mouth or entered through open wounds, where the irradiating bits attacked cells all the way through the body, causing mutations along the way – was shelved under pressure from the U.S.
Even now, the major U.S. news organizations do not touch the subject, though the international press cannot ignore it. Even last month, a Middle Eastern Reuters reporter discussed the health damages because of the contaminated environment with Iraqi Environment Minister Nermeen Othman,
And The Tehran Times further endangers their country by continuing to report on the problem, calling it a war crime.
And across the internet, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Roger Helbig seeks to intimidate anyone who dares to bring up the subject.
But we evolve, and the United Nations First Committee has overwhelmingly passed a resolution , on October 31st, calling for "relevant UN agencies, in this case the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to update and complete their research into the possible health and environmental impact of the use of uranium weapons by 2010." The only countries that voted against it were the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and France.
Meanwhile, to help the reader get to the point, I've put together the following. Although the facts, for the most part, do not contain links, there is a list of the references at the end.
Ten Essential Facts:
1. Depleted uranium, the nuclear waste of uranium enrichment, is not actually "depleted" of radiation; 99.3% of it is Uranium238, which still emits radioactive alpha particles at the rate 12,400/second, with an estimated half life of 4.5 billion years.
2. Depleted uranium is plentiful - there are 7 pounds remaining for every pound of enriched uranium - and requires expensive and often politically-contentious hazardous waste storage.
3. Depleted uranium is less of a problem for the nuclear industry when it is cheaply passed on to U.S. weapons manufacturers for warheads, penetrators, bunker-busters, missiles, armor and other ammunition used by the U.S. military in the Middle East and elsewhere, and sold to other countries and political factions.
4. Depleted uranium is "pyrophoric", which makes it uniquely effective at piercing hard targets, because upon impact, it immediately burns, vaporizing the majority of its bulk and leaving a hard, thin, sharpened tip - and large amounts of radioactive particles suspended in the atmosphere.
5. Depleted uranium weaponry was first used in the U.S. bombing of Iraq in 1991, under President George H. W. Bush and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.
6. Depleted uranium weaponry was later used by President Bill Clinton in the NATO "peace-keeping" bombing missions in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia. By January 2001, as the 2nd President Bush and Dick Cheney were moving in to the White House, there was a furor in Europe over the news of an alarming increase in leukemia and other cancers amongst the NATO troops who'd served in the Balkans.
7. The World Health Organization suppressed a November 2001 report on the health hazards of depleted uranium by Dr. Keith Baverstock, Head of the WHO's Radiation Protection Division and his team, commissioned by the United Nations. Baverstock's report, "Radiological Toxicity of Depleted Uranium", detailed the significant danger of airborne vaporized depleted uranium particles, already considerably more prevalent in Iraq than the Balkans due to the difference in military tactics, because they are taken into the body by inhaling and ingesting, and then their size and solubility determines how quickly they move through the respiratory, circulatory and gastrointestinal systems, attacking and poisoning from within as they travel, and where the damages occur. In addition, the report warns that the particles tend to settle in the soft tissue of the testes, and may cause mutations in sperm. In 2004 Dr. Baverstock, no longer at the WHO, released the report through Rob Edwards at Scotland's Sunday Herald.
8. The George W. Bush/Dick Cheney administration twisted the meaning of the failure of the World Health Organization to produce evidence of depleted uranium's health hazards, turning it into evidence that there was no link between exposure to depleted uranium and the increases in cancer in Europe and Iraq; instead, as presented in the January 20, 2003 report by the new Office of Global Communications, ironically titled Apparatus of Lies: Saddam's Disinformation and Propaganda 1990 - 2003, the depleted uranium uproar was only an exploitation of fear and suffering. Two months later, Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz-Rice began to "Shock and Awe" Baghdad by again dropping tons of depleted uranium bombs on densely populated areas.
9. On March 27, 2003, significant increases in depleted uranium particles in the atmosphere were detected by the air sampler filter systems of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at 8 different sites near Aldermaston Berkshire, Great Britain, and continued at 4-5 times the previous norm until the end of April 2003, after the Coalition forces declared the war over. This information only came to light in a report on January 6, 2006 by Dr. Chris Busby, due to his diligent fight for access to the data through Britain's Freedom of Information law.
10. We have a new, intelligent President, who is willing to listen. It is up to us to bring this to his attention. THIS IS HOW WE CAN HONOR VETERANS.
***************************************
VALUABLE REFERENCES:
Campaign Against Depleted Uranium. http://www.cadu.org.uk/ Founded by one of the great long-time scientist/activists, Dr. Rosalie Bertell.
International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) is probably the best of the best all-in-one place http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/.
Department of Defense description of self-sharpening depleted uranium: click here
Dr. Keith Baverstock's November 2001 report, suppressed by the World Health Organization:http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/DU-Radiological-Toxicity-WHO5nov01.htm
Rob Edwards article on Baverstock: http://www.robedwards.com/2004/02/who_suppressed_.html
Karen Parker, a Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Lawyer: http://www.webcom.com/hrin/parker.html Scroll down on the page and you'll find her documents on DU.
January 2003 White House Report - Apparatus of Lies: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ogc/apparatus/suffering.html
January 2006 Chris Busby report: click here
***********************************************
COMMENTS FROM THE OPEDNEWS POST
From "editnetwork":
***
From "editnetwork":
***
***
From "editnetwork":
***
***
From Me (BBT):
***
From Me (BBT):
P.S.
*****************************************
As Europe mourns in Verdun today for those lost in "The War to End All Wars", World War I, we could look to another moment in European history to shed light on the most aggressively silenced story of the Bush administration.
In late 2000 and January 2001, reports were exploding across Europe about the rise in cancer amongst NATO soldiers who had served in the "peacekeeping missions" in Bosnia and Kosovo. The effects of the depleted uranium in the U.S. and U.K. weapons could not be ignored.
But history shows that the United Nations and the World Health Organization could be intimidated. The report from the WHO – that detailed how the DU vaporized upon impact into tiny particles that were breathed in, or consumed through the mouth or entered through open wounds, where the irradiating bits attacked cells all the way through the body, causing mutations along the way – was shelved under pressure from the U.S.
Even now, the major U.S. news organizations do not touch the subject, though the international press cannot ignore it. Even last month, a Middle Eastern Reuters reporter discussed the health damages because of the contaminated environment with Iraqi Environment Minister Nermeen Othman,
"When we talk about it, people may think we are overreacting. But in fact the environmental catastrophe that we inherited in Iraq is even worse than it sounds."
And The Tehran Times further endangers their country by continuing to report on the problem, calling it a war crime.
And across the internet, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Roger Helbig seeks to intimidate anyone who dares to bring up the subject.
But we evolve, and the United Nations First Committee has overwhelmingly passed a resolution , on October 31st, calling for "relevant UN agencies, in this case the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to update and complete their research into the possible health and environmental impact of the use of uranium weapons by 2010." The only countries that voted against it were the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and France.
Meanwhile, to help the reader get to the point, I've put together the following. Although the facts, for the most part, do not contain links, there is a list of the references at the end.
Ten Essential Facts:
1. Depleted uranium, the nuclear waste of uranium enrichment, is not actually "depleted" of radiation; 99.3% of it is Uranium238, which still emits radioactive alpha particles at the rate 12,400/second, with an estimated half life of 4.5 billion years.
2. Depleted uranium is plentiful - there are 7 pounds remaining for every pound of enriched uranium - and requires expensive and often politically-contentious hazardous waste storage.
3. Depleted uranium is less of a problem for the nuclear industry when it is cheaply passed on to U.S. weapons manufacturers for warheads, penetrators, bunker-busters, missiles, armor and other ammunition used by the U.S. military in the Middle East and elsewhere, and sold to other countries and political factions.
4. Depleted uranium is "pyrophoric", which makes it uniquely effective at piercing hard targets, because upon impact, it immediately burns, vaporizing the majority of its bulk and leaving a hard, thin, sharpened tip - and large amounts of radioactive particles suspended in the atmosphere.
5. Depleted uranium weaponry was first used in the U.S. bombing of Iraq in 1991, under President George H. W. Bush and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.
6. Depleted uranium weaponry was later used by President Bill Clinton in the NATO "peace-keeping" bombing missions in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia. By January 2001, as the 2nd President Bush and Dick Cheney were moving in to the White House, there was a furor in Europe over the news of an alarming increase in leukemia and other cancers amongst the NATO troops who'd served in the Balkans.
7. The World Health Organization suppressed a November 2001 report on the health hazards of depleted uranium by Dr. Keith Baverstock, Head of the WHO's Radiation Protection Division and his team, commissioned by the United Nations. Baverstock's report, "Radiological Toxicity of Depleted Uranium", detailed the significant danger of airborne vaporized depleted uranium particles, already considerably more prevalent in Iraq than the Balkans due to the difference in military tactics, because they are taken into the body by inhaling and ingesting, and then their size and solubility determines how quickly they move through the respiratory, circulatory and gastrointestinal systems, attacking and poisoning from within as they travel, and where the damages occur. In addition, the report warns that the particles tend to settle in the soft tissue of the testes, and may cause mutations in sperm. In 2004 Dr. Baverstock, no longer at the WHO, released the report through Rob Edwards at Scotland's Sunday Herald.
8. The George W. Bush/Dick Cheney administration twisted the meaning of the failure of the World Health Organization to produce evidence of depleted uranium's health hazards, turning it into evidence that there was no link between exposure to depleted uranium and the increases in cancer in Europe and Iraq; instead, as presented in the January 20, 2003 report by the new Office of Global Communications, ironically titled Apparatus of Lies: Saddam's Disinformation and Propaganda 1990 - 2003, the depleted uranium uproar was only an exploitation of fear and suffering. Two months later, Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz-Rice began to "Shock and Awe" Baghdad by again dropping tons of depleted uranium bombs on densely populated areas.
9. On March 27, 2003, significant increases in depleted uranium particles in the atmosphere were detected by the air sampler filter systems of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at 8 different sites near Aldermaston Berkshire, Great Britain, and continued at 4-5 times the previous norm until the end of April 2003, after the Coalition forces declared the war over. This information only came to light in a report on January 6, 2006 by Dr. Chris Busby, due to his diligent fight for access to the data through Britain's Freedom of Information law.
10. We have a new, intelligent President, who is willing to listen. It is up to us to bring this to his attention. THIS IS HOW WE CAN HONOR VETERANS.
***************************************
VALUABLE REFERENCES:
Campaign Against Depleted Uranium. http://www.cadu.org.uk/ Founded by one of the great long-time scientist/activists, Dr. Rosalie Bertell.
International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) is probably the best of the best all-in-one place http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/.
Department of Defense description of self-sharpening depleted uranium: click here
Dr. Keith Baverstock's November 2001 report, suppressed by the World Health Organization:http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/DU-Radiological-Toxicity-WHO5nov01.htm
Rob Edwards article on Baverstock: http://www.robedwards.com/2004/02/who_suppressed_.html
Karen Parker, a Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Lawyer: http://www.webcom.com/hrin/parker.html Scroll down on the page and you'll find her documents on DU.
January 2003 White House Report - Apparatus of Lies: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ogc/apparatus/suffering.html
January 2006 Chris Busby report: click here
***********************************************
COMMENTS FROM THE OPEDNEWS POST
From "editnetwork":
"Traces of uranium" found at bombed Syrian plant
My first thought at seeing that headline was: "depleted uranium."
It's truly a crime that our outgoing administration somehow is escaping all accountability as it waltzes out the door. They are getting away with this horror of irradiating a population in Iraq that posed no threat to us and had been systematically weakened by ten years of sanctions, supposedly directed against their leaders. Now the displaced truly have no home to which to return, no water to safely drink, etc., because of lingering radiation. (Of course our civilian contractors supply safe water, etc., to the occupying "warfighters.")
All this lasting destruction thanks to us. Some legacy. I have no reason to doubt that the arms we give or "sell" to Israel are just as "advanced" and were used against the Syrian installation they destroyed and probably stand ready for use anywhere else in the region they decide to strike. Hence the "traces of uranium" which scientists will no doubt find a way to construe as evidence that the Syrian plant was bent on nefarious (nuclear) ends.
I may be proud to live in a free country, but I am not repeat not proud of the mark the U.S. is making on this planet and the ruin we are wreaking in the lives of countless humans and uncounted ecosystems.
***
From "editnetwork":
Note to Barbara -- requesting clarification
In your first listed point of information:
'Depleted uranium, the nuclear waste of uranium enrichment, is not actually "depleted" of radiation; 99.3% of it is Uranium238, which still emits radioactive alpha particles at the rate 12,400/second, with an estimated half life of 4.5 billion years.'
For "12,400/second" to be meaningful, it should be per given unit of mass (weight): for example, alpha particles 12,400/second/kg or whatever. I am unable to find the factor and hope your research will turn it up.
In fact, that "per weight" factor will turn out to be rather high, because with such a long half-life the radiation is fairly low-level. This in NO way diminishes the hazard of exposure to this material or the criminality of its continued use in weapons, whether against civilian or military populations.
Thank you -- the editor person
***
From Me (BBT):Dr. Rosalie Bertell
Here is the article full of excellent information by Dr. Rosalie Bertell written for the May 1999 Hague Peace Conference, entitled "Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium" from which I got those specific statistics: http://www.ccnr.org/du_hague.html.
The point is that the public is fooled by the term "depleted", which generally means "empty", which seems to indicate that it is harmless.
Similarly, the term "low-level radiation" results in another misconception. I am not a scientist, but I do understand that 12,400 emissions per second indicates a great deal of blasting. It turns out that the term "low-level" refers to the size of the distance the emission travels, not the power of the blast.
While I may be able to stand a few feet away from a chunk of depleted uranium and not be affected by it, because the emissions don't reach me, if instead there is a particle of it in my body, the cells that are next to that particle that is working its way through the gastrointestinal or respiratory system, for example, are being constantly bombarded, and change as a result.
For the universe of my body, there is nothing low-level about the experience.
Thank you for asking for more clarification. I hope this helps.
***
From "editnetwork":
Thank you for clarifying
The article for which you posted a link helped enormously, and I hope everyone reads it.
The portion that clarified the statistic for me is this paragraph:
"Natural uranium in soil is about 1 to 3 parts per million, whereas in uranium ore it is about 1,000 times more concentrated, reaching about 0.05 to 0.2 percent of the total weight. Depleted uranium concentrate is almost 100 percent uranium. More than 99 percent of both natural and depleted uranium consists of the isotope U-238. One gram of pure U-238 has a specific activity of 12.4 kBq, which means there are 12,400 atomic transformations every second, each of which releases an energetic alpha particle. Uranium 238 has a half life of 4.51 E+9 (or 4.51 times 10 to the 9th power, equivalent to 4,510,000,000 years)."
So the emission rate is 12,400 per second per gram of U-238, much more than I realized. And even though they are low-energy (velocity) alpha particles (helium nuclei, two protons with two neutrons), they are massive and do considerable subatomic damage when they do strike -- as do ingested particles of this material, no matter how small.
Especially enlightening was the section a bit later in the article was the treatment of decay products, one kind after another decaying into further radioactive isotopes. The final resting stage of this process is atoms of lead, which noboty wants in their system.
Thanks again for raising this terribly important issue.
***
From Me (BBT):My Thanks for Your Follow Through
It is that concern to really know what's being said, so you, too, can consider its meaning and what you can do about it, that encourages me.
More important, it creates the public dialogue which is so profoundly called for, so we can put an end to the use of depleted uranium in weaponry.
Thank you.
***
From Me (BBT):
Writing about DU
I should mention that I first learned about depleted uranium on Memorial Day 2005. It took me more than a year and a half to dare to post anything anywhere about it, but during that time I gathered a ton of articles and reports, so when I did finally say something, I could back it up.
Some people who write about Depleted Uranium are so frustrated (understandably) that they let their need to be heard outshine the facts, and those who want this embarrassing and potentially expensive liability silenced are ready and willing to jump on that weakness.
I've been pleased that my presentation of the essentials has been reviewed and confirmed by two of the top experts in the field. Phew.
It is a sad tale, but it must be faced.
***
From Me (BBT):
P.S.
I noticed that this article has been picked up and posted on a blog.
When I visited the blog, there he was, that retired Lt. Col. Roger Helbig I mentioned in the article, to criticize the blogger for posting "lies about depleted uranium", saying that no one ever reads the referenced reports.
So, I wonder, did Helbig actually read the article? Does he actually criticize an article that points out that he may show up to criticize it?
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Let All the Whores Be Revealed
Today Rob Kall of OpEd News, responding to the reported bidding war between Penthouse and Hustler for access to the prostitute in the Spitzer sting, wrote: Spitzer's Whore Should Not Make A Nickel...
I commented:
Neither should the other Whores. . .
Like the mainstream media that looked the other way when John Conyers, Jr. was holding hearings in December 2004 in Ohio (and sooooo many other times). . .
Like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Tucker Carlson, etc. -- who knowingly distort information to gain favor with the rich and powerful. . .
Like Colin Powell, who was informed by military analysts prior to his United Nations speech that the aluminum tubes were NOT for uranium processing . . .
Like Condoleeza Rice, who -- I can't even begin to list her frightening incompetence, lies, and defensive obfuscations as both National Security Advisor and Secretary of State -- but there was an eery window into her pscyhe when in 2004 New York Magazine reported that at a Washington social event Miss Rice tripped on her words, referring to GWB as "my husb--" before finding the term "President Bush" - this from a woman who has never had an occasion to use the term "my husband". . .
Like every White House appointee who got the job because of ties to industry, Karl Rove, and/or the neoconservatives. . .
Like the Christian Right, who believe they are above Christ's message of compassion and the Golden Rule. . .
Like "Christians United for Israel" -- the lobbyist group founded by Pastor John Hagee (who recently endorsed McCain), which strongly supports Israel's attacks on Hamas, Lebanon and urges attacks on Iran -- while praying for the Rapture/Armageddon, which coincidentally brings the wiping out of the Jewish people. . .
Like the arms manufacturers, who know about the carcinogenic, chemically poisonous vaporized depleted uranium they have let loose . . .
Like all the other Deciders who choose pollution and wealth over the survival of their own progeny -- I mean, really, what can Dick and Lynne Cheney, and their daughter Elizabeth (a chip off the old Vader) and her husband Philip Perry, be telling the grandkids? Just how big are they making that underground safehouse?
Still, even more important than the whores. . .
THE PIMPS.
While it is extraordinarily pitiful to watch yet another man lose everything over the need to get unauthorized, immature, cheating, naughty sex (rather than evolve into an honest meaningful responsible compassionate sexual relationship with his spouse)...
It is also obvious that powerful wealthy interests found Spitzer to be a very testy problem. In addition to Bush and the mortgage bankers, there's also Shell Oil/Giuliani/Broadwater, Roger Stone, and probably many more.
As the truth creeps out, we may end up thanking Spitzer for his weakness, because the light will shine on so many more Pimps and Whores who have been parading as legitimate entities and people, and give us the chance to clean up our system of democracy.
I commented:
Neither should the other Whores. . .
Like the mainstream media that looked the other way when John Conyers, Jr. was holding hearings in December 2004 in Ohio (and sooooo many other times). . .
Like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Tucker Carlson, etc. -- who knowingly distort information to gain favor with the rich and powerful. . .
Like Colin Powell, who was informed by military analysts prior to his United Nations speech that the aluminum tubes were NOT for uranium processing . . .
Like Condoleeza Rice, who -- I can't even begin to list her frightening incompetence, lies, and defensive obfuscations as both National Security Advisor and Secretary of State -- but there was an eery window into her pscyhe when in 2004 New York Magazine reported that at a Washington social event Miss Rice tripped on her words, referring to GWB as "my husb--" before finding the term "President Bush" - this from a woman who has never had an occasion to use the term "my husband". . .
Like every White House appointee who got the job because of ties to industry, Karl Rove, and/or the neoconservatives. . .
Like the Christian Right, who believe they are above Christ's message of compassion and the Golden Rule. . .
Like "Christians United for Israel" -- the lobbyist group founded by Pastor John Hagee (who recently endorsed McCain), which strongly supports Israel's attacks on Hamas, Lebanon and urges attacks on Iran -- while praying for the Rapture/Armageddon, which coincidentally brings the wiping out of the Jewish people. . .
Like the arms manufacturers, who know about the carcinogenic, chemically poisonous vaporized depleted uranium they have let loose . . .
Like all the other Deciders who choose pollution and wealth over the survival of their own progeny -- I mean, really, what can Dick and Lynne Cheney, and their daughter Elizabeth (a chip off the old Vader) and her husband Philip Perry, be telling the grandkids? Just how big are they making that underground safehouse?
Still, even more important than the whores. . .
THE PIMPS.
While it is extraordinarily pitiful to watch yet another man lose everything over the need to get unauthorized, immature, cheating, naughty sex (rather than evolve into an honest meaningful responsible compassionate sexual relationship with his spouse)...
It is also obvious that powerful wealthy interests found Spitzer to be a very testy problem. In addition to Bush and the mortgage bankers, there's also Shell Oil/Giuliani/Broadwater, Roger Stone, and probably many more.
As the truth creeps out, we may end up thanking Spitzer for his weakness, because the light will shine on so many more Pimps and Whores who have been parading as legitimate entities and people, and give us the chance to clean up our system of democracy.
Friday, March 07, 2008
They Don't Want to Tell You
Neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times has reported on the Government Accountability Office's report, released last week, on the decision in 2003 by the Department of Defense to stop efforts to notify the tens of thousands of military and civilian personnel who were subjected unknowingly to chemical and biological testing in the 1960's and 70's.
Essentially, the GAO found that the Bush/Rumsfeld Defense Department wasn't interested in following up on this task, which would have eventually included providing medical benefits, etc.
So much for "supporting the troops."
It is no wonder, then, that the issue of the medical effects of the vaporized depleted uranium that we are exploding throughout the Middle East is avoided at all costs.
But why is the media so compliant with this obfuscation?
Essentially, the GAO found that the Bush/Rumsfeld Defense Department wasn't interested in following up on this task, which would have eventually included providing medical benefits, etc.
So much for "supporting the troops."
It is no wonder, then, that the issue of the medical effects of the vaporized depleted uranium that we are exploding throughout the Middle East is avoided at all costs.
But why is the media so compliant with this obfuscation?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
A New Truth on Super Tuesday
I intend to KNOW MORE about Barack Obama. I am ready to be impressed, enthused and involved.
I am also ready to bang my pots and pans in the streets, and to write intelligent, fact-based articles and commentaries to help inform both voters and Barack.
I am also determined to make sure that our votes are counted, so that, for the first time since 1996, the United States is led by a properly elected President.
While I would love to have a woman president, I strongly feel that Hillary Clinton is not the woman for the job. She is very intelligent and capable, but her heightened authority and experience come from her proximity to her husband. Unfortunately, that also means that she has a legacy to protect -- a legacy which includes NAFTA and the use of depleted uranium weaponry in Kosovo/Bosnia. She cannot move us forward when she is in debt to her husband and his tragic mistakes.
I choose Barack Obama. Join me and together we can learn, express ourselves and hold him to his word, and celebrate the evolution of the best aspirations and deeds of our representative democracy.
And so it begins. . .
Dear New-Obama-Friends-Seeking-to-Inform-Obama
(In the Belief that Obama is Willing to Learn and Be Responsible)
I am not a scientist. But I am a reader -- and scientists have consistently reported, for years, that depleted uranium weaponry is leaving vaporized particles in the atmosphere that are causing multiple cancers and birth defects.
I'm providing two important reading selections.
The first is an article I posted in November that explains the weapons, the uranium, its effects, the efforts to keep the terrible truth away from us, and the report required by Congressman Jim McDermott's amendment to the 2006 Defense Spending Bill.
The second read is that long-awaited report, quietly released last week.
The truth is out.
Now what do we do?
I suggest we make sure Barack Obama is aware of this.
It will help if the public knows.
Barbara Bellows-TerraNova
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
The 2008 "Know More" Mission
In the spirit of "Less is More". . .
Get Votes Counted,
Stop Depleted Uranium,
Impeach/Indict.
Votes Counted, Stop DU, Impeach/Indict
Stop DU, Impeach/Indict, Votes Counted
Impeach/Indict, Votes Counted, Stop DU
Know them, do them, spread the word.
Get Votes Counted,
Stop Depleted Uranium,
Impeach/Indict.
Votes Counted, Stop DU, Impeach/Indict
Stop DU, Impeach/Indict, Votes Counted
Impeach/Indict, Votes Counted, Stop DU
Know them, do them, spread the word.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Mothers Who Know Speak Out
At the recent October 2007 General Conference of the LDS Church, the Church's new Relief Society President, Julie B. Beck, spoke to the women of the Church, and her words have since spurred a world of reactions, comments and blogs as to the role of Mormon Mothers.
She praised the mothers who, on Sundays. . .
Much attention has been spent on her defining Mothers as:
Today, KUER's "RadioWest" brought together noted LDS women to discuss the reactions to Mrs. Beck's definitions and invited listeners to call and write in, or to enter comments at the KUER blog under the heading Mormon Women and Priorities.
I had already submitted my comment when I went to the exact text of her talk and discovered it was titled "Mothers Who Know". How funny, because my point is that Mothers need to Know More and to engage accordingly.
Here is my response to her statement and the discussion I heard today:
I'm not Mormon, but I am a mother, and the advice Julie Beck gave out means something to every woman, for we all are trying to create the environment and role models that will serve our children -- and ourselves, so we can be the best, healthiest, happiest Mothers/Wives/Sisters/Daughters possible. For how can a home be nurturing if the Mother is not healthy and capable of being happy? So, I, too, must comment.
There are many areas discussed on today's RadioWest that I could agree with, disagree with, add to -- but the most important concept missing in Julie Beck's advice is our responsibility as Mothers to make sure the world we release our children into has a healthy future.
Turn off the media? No! Just learn to select carefully, to seek excellence, to become well informed. The tendency of nice, compliant women to let the men take care of the business of the world has lead us to the brink of World War III. Am I exaggerating? No. This is the threat that Mr. Bush stated last week.
Our noble Motherly "nurturing" is useless if we do not question leaders who would have our children kill others, and risk being killed -- or worse yet -- permanently mentally and physically damaged.
It is an extraordinarily sad circumstance that the home state of the LDS Church, which teaches the importance of nurturing family and living one's spiritual beliefs so thoroughly -- has the reputation of being the most "red" state in the country and has thus supported Bush and Cheney fully, as if they are these authority figures are worthy of the same kind of trust given authorities of the Church.
What a terrible mistake.
What a foolish forfeit of the future.
These two men, and those they have brought to power, have lied to us, have cheated us, have polluted our resources, have destroyed laws that protect us, have used weaponry that releases radiation in a country we are supposed to be helping as well as on our own people and then lied to avoid liability.
They have turned the United States into the ultimate bully, and they have taken the deaths of 3,000 and turned it into a most un-Christian, un-democratic retribution that has brought the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people who cannot escape the hell their world has become.
This unnecessary, costly, disastrous war they have taken us into will continue on and on, for these men also have financial ties to all the contractors, but especially the weapons makers, who arm all sides, one way or another.
That is what happens when Mothers believe it is their job to withdraw from "politics" and the busy world outside so they have time to obsess on perfect hair, ironed clothes and spotless houses for their children.
Mothers who pay attention and want to know the truth behind the propaganda do not quietly allow these things to happen -- not to their children -- not to our children -- and not to any other mothers' children.
She praised the mothers who, on Sundays. . .
". . .bring daughters in clean and ironed dresses with hair brushed to perfection; their sons wear white shirts and ties and have missionary haircuts."
Much attention has been spent on her defining Mothers as:
". . .nurturers. This is their special assignment and role under the plan of happiness. . . Another word for nurturing is homemaking. Homemaking includes cooking, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping an orderly home. Home is where women have the most power and influence; therefore, Latter-day Saint women should be the best homemakers in the world. . . Nurturing requires organization, patience, love, and work. Helping growth occur through nurturing is truly a powerful and influential role bestowed on women."
Today, KUER's "RadioWest" brought together noted LDS women to discuss the reactions to Mrs. Beck's definitions and invited listeners to call and write in, or to enter comments at the KUER blog under the heading Mormon Women and Priorities.
I had already submitted my comment when I went to the exact text of her talk and discovered it was titled "Mothers Who Know". How funny, because my point is that Mothers need to Know More and to engage accordingly.
Here is my response to her statement and the discussion I heard today:
I'm not Mormon, but I am a mother, and the advice Julie Beck gave out means something to every woman, for we all are trying to create the environment and role models that will serve our children -- and ourselves, so we can be the best, healthiest, happiest Mothers/Wives/Sisters/Daughters possible. For how can a home be nurturing if the Mother is not healthy and capable of being happy? So, I, too, must comment.
There are many areas discussed on today's RadioWest that I could agree with, disagree with, add to -- but the most important concept missing in Julie Beck's advice is our responsibility as Mothers to make sure the world we release our children into has a healthy future.
Turn off the media? No! Just learn to select carefully, to seek excellence, to become well informed. The tendency of nice, compliant women to let the men take care of the business of the world has lead us to the brink of World War III. Am I exaggerating? No. This is the threat that Mr. Bush stated last week.
Our noble Motherly "nurturing" is useless if we do not question leaders who would have our children kill others, and risk being killed -- or worse yet -- permanently mentally and physically damaged.
It is an extraordinarily sad circumstance that the home state of the LDS Church, which teaches the importance of nurturing family and living one's spiritual beliefs so thoroughly -- has the reputation of being the most "red" state in the country and has thus supported Bush and Cheney fully, as if they are these authority figures are worthy of the same kind of trust given authorities of the Church.
What a terrible mistake.
What a foolish forfeit of the future.
These two men, and those they have brought to power, have lied to us, have cheated us, have polluted our resources, have destroyed laws that protect us, have used weaponry that releases radiation in a country we are supposed to be helping as well as on our own people and then lied to avoid liability.
They have turned the United States into the ultimate bully, and they have taken the deaths of 3,000 and turned it into a most un-Christian, un-democratic retribution that has brought the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people who cannot escape the hell their world has become.
This unnecessary, costly, disastrous war they have taken us into will continue on and on, for these men also have financial ties to all the contractors, but especially the weapons makers, who arm all sides, one way or another.
That is what happens when Mothers believe it is their job to withdraw from "politics" and the busy world outside so they have time to obsess on perfect hair, ironed clothes and spotless houses for their children.
Mothers who pay attention and want to know the truth behind the propaganda do not quietly allow these things to happen -- not to their children -- not to our children -- and not to any other mothers' children.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
"Would you vote for Hillary", RadioWest asks
In response to RadioWest with Carl Bernstein discussing his biography of Hillary Clinton:
“Would you vote for Hillary?”
There was a time when I would have voted for Hillary for President, beyond a doubt, and if she becomes the Democratic nominee, then I still will. Whatever her flaws, I still find her to be very intelligent, capable, compassionate and wise, with honorable motives -- all qualities that have been sorely missing in the present administration.
However, the problem lies in her husband's legacy. Will she be able to move forward and act objectively, without the need to protect and/or defend the parts of his policies that, in retrospect, have not worked or have had negative, even dangerous, unintended consequences.
Most notably, there is the use of depleted uranium in U.S. military weapons. It didn't start with Bill Clinton. On the contrary, it began with Bush/Cheney, only it was George H.W. Bush and Dick Cheney as Defense Secretary, who first bombed Iraq on January 17, 1991, using penetrators made effective by the extremely hard heavy metal, which would burst into flames and sharpen on contact with its target, leaving tiny radiating particles in the air, and eventually making their way into the water and land, there in Iraq, as well as travelling upon the currents of the great dust storms that Iraq is famous for. The radiation, called "low-level", is no less intense or damaging for being "low-level" -- it just means that the range of the constantly emitting bursts is small, but once particles enter the body, by inhalation, the mouth or through an open wound, that emission range is perfect for attacking nearby cells as the particles work their way through. The kinds of cancers that occur depend on the size and solubility of the particles, and where they get stuck along the way. Doctors in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the greatest increases in leukemia, and cancers of the liver and lungs, as well as the previously rare occurence of multiple separate cancers. With the sanctions against Iraq in the 90's, treatment was almost impossible, and losses were great.
Then, under President Clinton, there was the crisis in Kosovo and Bosnia, and NATO moved in, armed with U.S. and British weapons. In January 2001, the NATO countries exploded with stories of cancers suffered by the troops who had served in the former Yugoslavia, and demanded an investigation. The United Nations sent a team from the Environmental division and the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the Pentagon squashed scientific evidence linking DU and medical effects. It was years later that those who were still paying attention learned that Dr. Keith Baverstock of the WHO, their best expert in radiation, filed a report in 2001 acknowledging enormously harmful effects, but, under pressure from the U.S., it was shelved.
Even more horrible, then, is the fact that the U.S. military, no longer capable of pretending to be unaware of the effects, still uses depleted uranium in its missiles, penetrators, shields, tanks, and more. Yet few in Congress are courageous enough to try to introduce and support legislation to stop its use or even seek testing for every soldier who serves in the Gulf. Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Kucinich (D-OH) have been leaders in this effort. But even Democrats have been reluctant to take this on, even though the greatest use by far has been ordered by the two versions of Bush/Cheney, in 1991 and from 2003 to the present, because in between the Bushes is Bill Clinton, their most successful President since FDR.
I don't know that Senator Hillary Clinton would be willing to face these truths and stop what so many in the rest of the world recognize as the kind of long-term, boundary-less destruction that qualifies as a war crime. It is the ultimate torture -- to watch your loved ones, especially those who are most vulnerable -- your children, suffer through cancers and birth defects.
We need a leader who will end this.
And we need citizens who will demand to know what the candidates will do about it.
“Would you vote for Hillary?”
There was a time when I would have voted for Hillary for President, beyond a doubt, and if she becomes the Democratic nominee, then I still will. Whatever her flaws, I still find her to be very intelligent, capable, compassionate and wise, with honorable motives -- all qualities that have been sorely missing in the present administration.
However, the problem lies in her husband's legacy. Will she be able to move forward and act objectively, without the need to protect and/or defend the parts of his policies that, in retrospect, have not worked or have had negative, even dangerous, unintended consequences.
Most notably, there is the use of depleted uranium in U.S. military weapons. It didn't start with Bill Clinton. On the contrary, it began with Bush/Cheney, only it was George H.W. Bush and Dick Cheney as Defense Secretary, who first bombed Iraq on January 17, 1991, using penetrators made effective by the extremely hard heavy metal, which would burst into flames and sharpen on contact with its target, leaving tiny radiating particles in the air, and eventually making their way into the water and land, there in Iraq, as well as travelling upon the currents of the great dust storms that Iraq is famous for. The radiation, called "low-level", is no less intense or damaging for being "low-level" -- it just means that the range of the constantly emitting bursts is small, but once particles enter the body, by inhalation, the mouth or through an open wound, that emission range is perfect for attacking nearby cells as the particles work their way through. The kinds of cancers that occur depend on the size and solubility of the particles, and where they get stuck along the way. Doctors in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the greatest increases in leukemia, and cancers of the liver and lungs, as well as the previously rare occurence of multiple separate cancers. With the sanctions against Iraq in the 90's, treatment was almost impossible, and losses were great.
Then, under President Clinton, there was the crisis in Kosovo and Bosnia, and NATO moved in, armed with U.S. and British weapons. In January 2001, the NATO countries exploded with stories of cancers suffered by the troops who had served in the former Yugoslavia, and demanded an investigation. The United Nations sent a team from the Environmental division and the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the Pentagon squashed scientific evidence linking DU and medical effects. It was years later that those who were still paying attention learned that Dr. Keith Baverstock of the WHO, their best expert in radiation, filed a report in 2001 acknowledging enormously harmful effects, but, under pressure from the U.S., it was shelved.
Even more horrible, then, is the fact that the U.S. military, no longer capable of pretending to be unaware of the effects, still uses depleted uranium in its missiles, penetrators, shields, tanks, and more. Yet few in Congress are courageous enough to try to introduce and support legislation to stop its use or even seek testing for every soldier who serves in the Gulf. Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Kucinich (D-OH) have been leaders in this effort. But even Democrats have been reluctant to take this on, even though the greatest use by far has been ordered by the two versions of Bush/Cheney, in 1991 and from 2003 to the present, because in between the Bushes is Bill Clinton, their most successful President since FDR.
I don't know that Senator Hillary Clinton would be willing to face these truths and stop what so many in the rest of the world recognize as the kind of long-term, boundary-less destruction that qualifies as a war crime. It is the ultimate torture -- to watch your loved ones, especially those who are most vulnerable -- your children, suffer through cancers and birth defects.
We need a leader who will end this.
And we need citizens who will demand to know what the candidates will do about it.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
A Question for Carl Bernstein on KUER's RadioWest
Carl Bernstein appeared on KUER's RadioWest with Doug Fabrizio today. He is the author of the book on Hillary Clinton, A Woman in Charge.
And the question is:
Will Hillary Clinton be willing to tackle the atrocity of depleted uranium in our current weapons -- which would mean she'd have to acknowledge her husband's culpability in this? He continued what the first Bush & his Defense Secretary Dick Cheney started in 1991 in Iraq, when he bombed Kosovo & Bosnia, and Bush2/Cheney have continued to use them despite news in January 2001 that our European NATO allies were coming up with unusually high numbers of cancers, especially leukemia.
Hillary seems to be the least likely Democrat to stop the use of depleted uranium by the U.S. military.
And the question is:
Will Hillary Clinton be willing to tackle the atrocity of depleted uranium in our current weapons -- which would mean she'd have to acknowledge her husband's culpability in this? He continued what the first Bush & his Defense Secretary Dick Cheney started in 1991 in Iraq, when he bombed Kosovo & Bosnia, and Bush2/Cheney have continued to use them despite news in January 2001 that our European NATO allies were coming up with unusually high numbers of cancers, especially leukemia.
Hillary seems to be the least likely Democrat to stop the use of depleted uranium by the U.S. military.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Depleted Uranium Still in the VA Closet
Is there perhaps another reason for the VA Secretary James Nicholson to get out before it's too late?
Perhaps so.
For two years I've been researching Depleted Uranium, in waves, as time allows, interrupted by such other urgencies as Diebold and the Bush adminstration's usurping of public safety by controlling EPA and OSHA testing and findings under the guise of Homeland Security.
Some central concepts to know about DU:
It goes back to Bush/Cheney. January 1991, Bush Sr. and his Defense Secretary Dick Cheney blasted Iraq with hundreds of tons of Depleted Uranium weaponry.
Depleted Uranium is used because when it strikes, the friction causes it to instantly burn and sharpen, leaving radioactive particles. These particles hang in the air until moved by air or water.
They are available to be inhaled, ingested through food, water, or simple hand-to-mouth exposure, or they can enter a body by landing on an open wound.
Depending on their size and solubility, they may lodge in the nooks and crannies of the brain, the lungs, the bones, the colon, the liver - blasting nearby cells with "low-level" radiation [Note: Low-level does not mean less deadly, it means the range of the the attack is very small - but perfect for whacking the hell out of the local DNA in a human body).
If the particles are small and soluble they may just move swiftly to the kidneys, where the chemical poisoning may end the suffering quickly.
And these particles are predicted to continue to radiate for hundreds of millions of years, contaminating the water and food chains, carried by wind for hundreds of miles (Iraq has some of the greatest wind/dust storms in the world), causing birth defects and suffering for innocent people for generations to come.
(This is why international human rights attorney Karen Parker calls it a war crime and helped a initial report come before a UN Human Rights subcommittee in 2003. Funny how that whole division seemed to suddenly collapse and was further dashed by the formidably nasty neoconservative John Bolton.)
In January 2001, while Cheney was engaged in finding the best lobbyists to fill the Cabinet, news from Europe was bursting with almost hysteria, as the NATO forces that had been a part of the "peace-keeping" missions in the former Yugoslavia were suffering cancer at an alarming rate, with the blame going to the depleted uranium weaponry used by the United States and the UK.
In response to the concerns of the NATO allies, the United Nations assigned its World Health Organization to investigate. If they had then allowed the world to see the report of their senior radiation expert, Dr. Keith Baverstock, the use of DU weaponry could have been stopped. But the report was shelved, presumably under political pressure. Baverstock has since retired and is working elsewhere to get the word out.
Yes, by the way, that was Bill Clinton in charge during the US bombing of Bosnia and Kosovo.
Which is why Hillary should not be elected. She has a legacy to protect.
Which may also be why the Democrats have failed to jump on this.
Because there is a problem of liability. The greatest class action suit in history. And there have always been people who knew this, and squashed it.
So those who speak up about the effects of DU are shot down quickly. The frustration of trying to raise the issue for almost two decades has left some exhausted and cynical. Careers have been destroyed, scientists discredited, articles pulled, journalists stopped. Some activists have turned on each other.
Regardless of all that, the DU is still radiating.
Saddam Hussain tried to get the world to hear the effects it has had on Iraq, especially when sanctions kept hospitals unable to treat the increase in cancer, especially among the most vulnerable, the children.
Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has decried the hypocrisy of the US using DU weapons while taking the world to the brink of another impossibly horrific war over Iran's uranium projects.
Much of the rest of the world knows what has been done in our name.
But we don't. And we don't know why they are all so crazy mad.
Ron Paul was right in the Republican debate. Too bad he didn't go all the way and say what exactly we'd been bombing Iraq with. Not only did Bush 1 and Cheney break their word to the Saudis about staying only long enough to get Iraq out of Kuwait -- they poisoned the entire Middle East for the rest of time.
Oh, well. At least somebody's making money on it, right?
Okay, hopefully, this might inspire a bit of Googling. And sharing.
And if you Google, you just might run into this article, pointing out that Nicholson's predecessor, Anthony Principi, also left rather abruptly and some suspected that increased reported on DU influenced his decision.
Perhaps so.
For two years I've been researching Depleted Uranium, in waves, as time allows, interrupted by such other urgencies as Diebold and the Bush adminstration's usurping of public safety by controlling EPA and OSHA testing and findings under the guise of Homeland Security.
Some central concepts to know about DU:
It goes back to Bush/Cheney. January 1991, Bush Sr. and his Defense Secretary Dick Cheney blasted Iraq with hundreds of tons of Depleted Uranium weaponry.
Depleted Uranium is used because when it strikes, the friction causes it to instantly burn and sharpen, leaving radioactive particles. These particles hang in the air until moved by air or water.
They are available to be inhaled, ingested through food, water, or simple hand-to-mouth exposure, or they can enter a body by landing on an open wound.
Depending on their size and solubility, they may lodge in the nooks and crannies of the brain, the lungs, the bones, the colon, the liver - blasting nearby cells with "low-level" radiation [Note: Low-level does not mean less deadly, it means the range of the the attack is very small - but perfect for whacking the hell out of the local DNA in a human body).
If the particles are small and soluble they may just move swiftly to the kidneys, where the chemical poisoning may end the suffering quickly.
And these particles are predicted to continue to radiate for hundreds of millions of years, contaminating the water and food chains, carried by wind for hundreds of miles (Iraq has some of the greatest wind/dust storms in the world), causing birth defects and suffering for innocent people for generations to come.
(This is why international human rights attorney Karen Parker calls it a war crime and helped a initial report come before a UN Human Rights subcommittee in 2003. Funny how that whole division seemed to suddenly collapse and was further dashed by the formidably nasty neoconservative John Bolton.)
In January 2001, while Cheney was engaged in finding the best lobbyists to fill the Cabinet, news from Europe was bursting with almost hysteria, as the NATO forces that had been a part of the "peace-keeping" missions in the former Yugoslavia were suffering cancer at an alarming rate, with the blame going to the depleted uranium weaponry used by the United States and the UK.
In response to the concerns of the NATO allies, the United Nations assigned its World Health Organization to investigate. If they had then allowed the world to see the report of their senior radiation expert, Dr. Keith Baverstock, the use of DU weaponry could have been stopped. But the report was shelved, presumably under political pressure. Baverstock has since retired and is working elsewhere to get the word out.
Yes, by the way, that was Bill Clinton in charge during the US bombing of Bosnia and Kosovo.
Which is why Hillary should not be elected. She has a legacy to protect.
Which may also be why the Democrats have failed to jump on this.
Because there is a problem of liability. The greatest class action suit in history. And there have always been people who knew this, and squashed it.
So those who speak up about the effects of DU are shot down quickly. The frustration of trying to raise the issue for almost two decades has left some exhausted and cynical. Careers have been destroyed, scientists discredited, articles pulled, journalists stopped. Some activists have turned on each other.
Regardless of all that, the DU is still radiating.
Saddam Hussain tried to get the world to hear the effects it has had on Iraq, especially when sanctions kept hospitals unable to treat the increase in cancer, especially among the most vulnerable, the children.
Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has decried the hypocrisy of the US using DU weapons while taking the world to the brink of another impossibly horrific war over Iran's uranium projects.
Much of the rest of the world knows what has been done in our name.
But we don't. And we don't know why they are all so crazy mad.
Ron Paul was right in the Republican debate. Too bad he didn't go all the way and say what exactly we'd been bombing Iraq with. Not only did Bush 1 and Cheney break their word to the Saudis about staying only long enough to get Iraq out of Kuwait -- they poisoned the entire Middle East for the rest of time.
Oh, well. At least somebody's making money on it, right?
Okay, hopefully, this might inspire a bit of Googling. And sharing.
And if you Google, you just might run into this article, pointing out that Nicholson's predecessor, Anthony Principi, also left rather abruptly and some suspected that increased reported on DU influenced his decision.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
My Testimony at Divine Strake Hearing*, Salt Lake City Capitol
Hello:
My name is Barbara Bellows-TerraNova.
Thank you, Governor Huntsman. The writer, Theodore Roszak said that the world will be saved not by liberals [though I am one] but by Republicans who stand up and say: This isn't what we mean.
In August 2004, the Sierra Club put out a report called , which was updated after Hurricane Katrina. In looking at it, what we find Deception and Pollution at Ground Zerois that, of course, the Inspector General of the EPA came forward and said, We were told we had to change the wording, so that Wall Street could reopen.
It's now actually policy. The Department of Homeland Security has developed something called “optimization”, and according to “optimization”, well, health risk information is withheld, or put into the context of other social and commercial objectives and needs. It happened again after Katrina, when they used the opportunity to lower the standards for a variety of employment and trucking regulations. They just lower the standards at any excuse. And the EPA and OSHA no longer have any say in it, because they are now within the Department of Homeland Security.
Earlier, the young lady said something about starting a nuclear warfare again. It has already started.
In 1991, January 17th, Bush/Cheney – but that was the former president and Cheney as Defense Department head – began the nuclear war when they dropped tons and tons of depleted uranium on top of Iraq, and left that country a debacle. 500,000 children had died in Iraq from 1991 to the next U.S. invastion.
News started to come to light about depleted uranium in January 2001, as the new Bush/Cheney were getting ready to take over the White House. The reports in Europe were saying that NATO forces, who had been involved in Kosovo, were coming out with an immense amount of leukemia and cancers. The news was very large in the international press. We didn't particularly hear about it here.
The World Health Organization sent people to investigate, including Dr. Keith Baverstock, who was the head of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, the lead radiation scientist at the World Health Organization. He brought forward an article that said that there was far more health risks than were ever known about depleted uranium. The United States put pressure on the World Health Organization, and his report was shelved.
I say this because you have to understand the pattern.
We have slanted information -- like we're told it's "low level". That does not mean weaker. It means a smaller circle. Which means when it gets in your body, the small circle of radiation makes it hit all of the cells around it. That's why they found an enormous amount of people who are coming out with multiple cancers in the body, which is something doctors had never seen before.
So “low level” does not mean safer. Never believe that it does.
“Depleted” uranium does not mean empty. I don't know why the word “depleted” was chosen, but 99.03 percent of depleted uranium is exactly like uranium – and is exactly like the enhanced uranium that is the basis of nuclear warfare.
Unfortunately, people in the Middle East know that we've been using nuclear warfare on them for a very long time. They do find a bit of hypocrisy here.
The bunker busters that they are saying they want to test here, they pierce the earth because they have depleted uranium at the tip. DU works because, as it strikes, it suddenly vaporizes, and sharpens.
The vaporized particles remain in the air. That's what we breathe in, and that's what causes our cancers.
Unfortunately, depleted uranium also can affect the mantle of the earth. This is a very frightening concept, when we look at the tsunamis, when we look at the humongous earthquakes that shattered Afghanistan a couple of years ago.
They are continuing, and geologists are shocked about patterns that they have never before seen.
There was a Doctor Y.K.J. Yeung Sik Yuen, who presented a report to the UN Subcommittee on Human Rights Protection – from the section they just tore apart at the United Nations. That panel. Dr. Yuen presented the report, which included information about DU's effect on health, the environment, earthquakes, and its use as being a war crime -- in 2002. Then Bush/Cheney decided it would be a good idea to put the bully John Bolton in as U.S. Ambassador to the UN to shut the whole thing down.
It is important to understand that the Neoconservative movement is based on the teachings of Leo Strauss, who taught that it is best to keep people in place by creating “Noble Lies” about huge enemies that we must constantly fear. Use religion and patriotism to keep them in line, and always perpetuate warfare.
Lastly, I would like to know if anyone can help us find out who in our leadership has stock in what corporations.
I do believe that the former President Bush has stock in The Carlyle Group from his speaking engagements, stock that has grown substantially with the wars. I do believe his son, the "Decider", would be in line to inherit his portion. (This is why Bush fought so hard to get rid of what he called the “death tax”.)
It is important to understand that there are people that want this fighting to go on beyond logic. This is not what we want, and it is unconscionable that the world and its people sacrifice for the cruel few to profit.
I encourage you to go to the Huffington Post website. Yesterday's article about Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of Dick Cheney, shows that she is both a major stockholder in Lockheed Martin, and is working on putting together the intelligence and plans to attack Iran, just like those in the Office of Special Plans did for Iraq.
We have to know this stuff. We have to talk about it. This is not the United States that we want.
Finally, the name “Divine Strake” does not strike me as “funny” when we now have a president who believes in the Rapture.
Thank you.
*Edited for clarity.
My name is Barbara Bellows-TerraNova.
Thank you, Governor Huntsman. The writer, Theodore Roszak said that the world will be saved not by liberals [though I am one] but by Republicans who stand up and say: This isn't what we mean.
In August 2004, the Sierra Club put out a report called , which was updated after Hurricane Katrina. In looking at it, what we find Deception and Pollution at Ground Zerois that, of course, the Inspector General of the EPA came forward and said, We were told we had to change the wording, so that Wall Street could reopen.
It's now actually policy. The Department of Homeland Security has developed something called “optimization”, and according to “optimization”, well, health risk information is withheld, or put into the context of other social and commercial objectives and needs. It happened again after Katrina, when they used the opportunity to lower the standards for a variety of employment and trucking regulations. They just lower the standards at any excuse. And the EPA and OSHA no longer have any say in it, because they are now within the Department of Homeland Security.
Earlier, the young lady said something about starting a nuclear warfare again. It has already started.
In 1991, January 17th, Bush/Cheney – but that was the former president and Cheney as Defense Department head – began the nuclear war when they dropped tons and tons of depleted uranium on top of Iraq, and left that country a debacle. 500,000 children had died in Iraq from 1991 to the next U.S. invastion.
News started to come to light about depleted uranium in January 2001, as the new Bush/Cheney were getting ready to take over the White House. The reports in Europe were saying that NATO forces, who had been involved in Kosovo, were coming out with an immense amount of leukemia and cancers. The news was very large in the international press. We didn't particularly hear about it here.
The World Health Organization sent people to investigate, including Dr. Keith Baverstock, who was the head of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, the lead radiation scientist at the World Health Organization. He brought forward an article that said that there was far more health risks than were ever known about depleted uranium. The United States put pressure on the World Health Organization, and his report was shelved.
I say this because you have to understand the pattern.
We have slanted information -- like we're told it's "low level". That does not mean weaker. It means a smaller circle. Which means when it gets in your body, the small circle of radiation makes it hit all of the cells around it. That's why they found an enormous amount of people who are coming out with multiple cancers in the body, which is something doctors had never seen before.
So “low level” does not mean safer. Never believe that it does.
“Depleted” uranium does not mean empty. I don't know why the word “depleted” was chosen, but 99.03 percent of depleted uranium is exactly like uranium – and is exactly like the enhanced uranium that is the basis of nuclear warfare.
Unfortunately, people in the Middle East know that we've been using nuclear warfare on them for a very long time. They do find a bit of hypocrisy here.
The bunker busters that they are saying they want to test here, they pierce the earth because they have depleted uranium at the tip. DU works because, as it strikes, it suddenly vaporizes, and sharpens.
The vaporized particles remain in the air. That's what we breathe in, and that's what causes our cancers.
Unfortunately, depleted uranium also can affect the mantle of the earth. This is a very frightening concept, when we look at the tsunamis, when we look at the humongous earthquakes that shattered Afghanistan a couple of years ago.
They are continuing, and geologists are shocked about patterns that they have never before seen.
There was a Doctor Y.K.J. Yeung Sik Yuen, who presented a report to the UN Subcommittee on Human Rights Protection – from the section they just tore apart at the United Nations. That panel. Dr. Yuen presented the report, which included information about DU's effect on health, the environment, earthquakes, and its use as being a war crime -- in 2002. Then Bush/Cheney decided it would be a good idea to put the bully John Bolton in as U.S. Ambassador to the UN to shut the whole thing down.
It is important to understand that the Neoconservative movement is based on the teachings of Leo Strauss, who taught that it is best to keep people in place by creating “Noble Lies” about huge enemies that we must constantly fear. Use religion and patriotism to keep them in line, and always perpetuate warfare.
Lastly, I would like to know if anyone can help us find out who in our leadership has stock in what corporations.
I do believe that the former President Bush has stock in The Carlyle Group from his speaking engagements, stock that has grown substantially with the wars. I do believe his son, the "Decider", would be in line to inherit his portion. (This is why Bush fought so hard to get rid of what he called the “death tax”.)
It is important to understand that there are people that want this fighting to go on beyond logic. This is not what we want, and it is unconscionable that the world and its people sacrifice for the cruel few to profit.
I encourage you to go to the Huffington Post website. Yesterday's article about Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of Dick Cheney, shows that she is both a major stockholder in Lockheed Martin, and is working on putting together the intelligence and plans to attack Iran, just like those in the Office of Special Plans did for Iraq.
We have to know this stuff. We have to talk about it. This is not the United States that we want.
Finally, the name “Divine Strake” does not strike me as “funny” when we now have a president who believes in the Rapture.
Thank you.
*Edited for clarity.
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