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May
10 / 11, 2003
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May
12, 2003
These WMD are Right
in Front of Their Noses
America's Dirty
Bombs
By DAVE LINDORFF
The Pentagon has announced plans to send several
thousand specialists into Iraq to join the search for those "weapons
of mass destruction" of Saddam Hussein's--remember the ones
that Iraq was supposedly brimming over with, and which were the
stated reason for America's invasion? But while it is stepping
up that effort, the Pentagon says it has no intention to do anything
about the consequences of America's own "dirty bomb"
campaign against Iraq. Although the U.S. and Britain reportedly
dropped as much as 2000 tons of depleted uranium weapons on Iraq,
including in the center of densely populated Baghdad, a Pentagon
spokesman last month told the BBC that it has "no plans
to do a DU clean-up in Iraq."
Nor is the U.S. allowing inspectors from
the U.N. environmental Program into Iraq to look for signs of
DU contamination. It seems that just as the U.S. government doesn't
want U.N. weapons inspectors to come into Iraq where they might
undermine any U.S. claims to have found evidence of Saddam's
WMDs, they don't want any U.N. environmental inspectors to come
in and find evidence of U.S. use of a weapon that the U.N. has
condemned as a weapon of mass destruction.
If U.N. estimates of the quantity of
depleted uranium ordinance used in the current war in Iraq are
correct, it would mean six times as much of the super-toxic and
carcinogenic substance was used this time as in 1991, and already
there are disturbing reports of dramatically higher incidences
of cancer and birth defects in Southern Iraq following the 1991
war. But at least in that war, virtually all the DU ammo was
used against Iraqi armor out in the desert. This time, bunker
busting bombs and anti-tank weapons were used in Iraqi cities,
including Baghdad, putting in jeopardy tens or hundreds of thousands
of civilians  who might come in contact
with the radioactive dust from those explosions. Of course, U.S.
troops, now playing the role of an occupying army in those bombed
cities, are also at risk. Many veterans of the last Iraq war
suspect that the notorious "Gulf War Syndrome" that
many came home with was the result of their having breathed in
or injested uranium dust from the weapons used in that war.
The U.S. has been firing off "dirty
bombs" in the form of depleted uranium (DU) weapons now
since the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. Depleted uranium, a radioactive
metal that is part of the waste stream from nuclear weapons,
turns out to be a highly effective armor-piercing material. 1.7
times as dense as lead, it also has the unusual property of self-sharpening:
as a rod of the stuff slams into a sheet of steel or a wall of
reinforced concrete, instead of mushrooming into a flat, broad
projectile that then is slowed or stopped by the obstacle, uranium
sheds its exterior layers and becomes sharper as it is propelled
by momentum deeper and deeper into its target. Uranium is also
highly flammable at the kinds of high temperature generated by
a high-velocity collision, and so it incinerates whatever target
it hits.
In the 1991 Gulf War, depleted uranium
was used extensively in two types of weapons--the 120 mm anti-tank
shells fired by Abrams tanks and other anti-tank cannons, and
the 30 mm anti-armor guns on the A-10 Warthog ground attack jets.
An estimated 300 tons of the stuff was fired off in the Iraqi
and Kuwaiti desert during that war. In Kosovo, the same weapons
were used, this time reportedly a total of about 12 tons, mostly
in the form of small 30 mm projectiles fired by aircraft.
In Afghanistan, in addition to those
two kinds of shells, the Pentagon introduced a third category
of uranium weapon--the so-called bunker-busting bomb--a depleted
uranium "smart bomb" or missile that can burrow deep
into the ground or through thick concrete walls to hit heavily
shielded shelters or cave hideouts. The Petagon has not released
information about how much depleted uranium was used in weapons
in Afghanistan, but estimates have ranged from several hundred
tons to as much as 1000 tons--and this was in conflict that was
tiny compared to the likely war in Iraq.
Critics of depleted uranium weapons--and
these run the gamut from the U.N. World Health Organization to
Gulf War veterans groups--note that the new use of uranium bunker
buster bombs raises the danger of radioactive contamination dramatically,
because of where such bombs get used.
For the most part, anti-tank weapons,
at least to date, have been used where tanks are generally deployed,
which is out in the open, where population density is low. Although
when a depleted uranium round explodes, the uranium is incinerated,
becoming a dangerous aerosol of minute inhalable particles of
uranium oxide, out in the desert the risks are relatively low
of many people becoming contaminated. Absent a wind, most of
that radioactive residue settles within 50-100 yards of the target.
Even so, there are reports from both
the Basra area of Southern Iraq, where use of depleted uranium
shells by British and U.S. forces in 1991 was heavy, and in Afghanistan,
of higher than anticipated cancer rates and birth defects. There
is also some suspicion that at least some of the cases of what
has become known as Gulf War Syndrome among returned U.S. Gulf
War veterans is the result of their having inhaled the residue
of uranium weapons. Researchers from a British non-profit organization,
the Uranium
Medical Research Center, for example, claim that during an
investigation of bombed areas in Kabul and especially Jalalabad,
Afghanistan, they encountered widespread evidence of illnesses
and birth defects which they said were consistent with uranium
poisoning and radioactive contamination. They also reported finding
elevated levels of uranium in the vicinity. They called their
findings "shocking". Similar findings have been claimed
in the area around southern Iraq where uranium anti-tank weapons
were widely used.
But these reports of dirty bomb aftereffects
could be dwarfed once reports start coming in of the effects
of DU contamination in urban areas of Iraq. For one thing, the
amount of uranium vaporized in an explosion of one bunker busting
bomb would be vastly greater than any anti-tank shell. There
are, for example, only about three kilograms of uranium in 120mm
anti-tank round.
But the DU explosive charges in the guided
bomb systems used in Afghanistan and now Iraq (for example Raytheon's
Bunker Buster - GBU-28) reportedly can weigh as much as one and
a half metric tons. Besides, U.S. troops, which had to fight
their way into Baghdad and other heavily fortified Iraqi cities,
made use of their uranium anti-tank weapons there too, not just
out in the desert approaches to urban centers.
The notion of Baghdad, a city of five
million, being dusted with uranium oxide, is grim, as it will
likely produce widespread injuries and death, particularly among
children, who are closer to the ground and who routinely play
in the dirt.
No wonder the U.S. government is so anxious
to keep U.N. environmental experts at bay. The risks of uranium
weapons to soldiers and civilians is a topic of some controversy,
even among critics, though no one except the Pentagon and NATO
disputes that it is a health threat.
Indeed, the Royal Society, whose studies
the Pentagon spokesman cited in saying that fears of DU health
threats have been debunked since 1991, pointedly disagreed, saying
that in the society's view, DU poses both short and long-term
risks in Iraq.
A government study prepared for Congress
in the mid 1990s offered the following assessment of the dangers
of the radioactive weapons: "As much as 70 percent of a
DU penetrator can be aerosolized when it strikes a tank. Aerosols
containing DU oxides may contaminate the area downwind. DU fragments
may also contaminate the soil around the struck vehicle."
It adds that there are many paths by which the resulting particles
may enter the body - by inhalation, ingestion, or through open
wounds. The report then states, "If DU enters the body,
it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences.
The risks associated with DU in the body are both chemical and
radiological."
Once inside the lungs or kidneys, uranium
particles tend to stay, causing illnesses such as lung cancer
and kidney disease that may take decades to show up. According
to Dr. J. W. Gofman, a leading expert and critic of low-level
radiation risks, particles of uranium smaller than 5 micron in
diameter can become permanently trapped in the lungs. By one
estimate, a trapped, single uranium oxide particle of this size
could expose the adjacent lung tissue to approximately 1,360
rem per year--about 8,000 times the annual radiation dosage considered
safe by federal regulations for whole body exposure.
Uranium, which besides being carcinogenic
is also highly toxic chemically (like lead or mercury), also
concentrates in the kidneys and reproductive organs if ingested
orally. Even Dan Fahey, of the Persian Gulf War Veterans Resource
Center, a Navy veteran who has criticized some anti-war organizations'
charges concerning the dangers of uranium weapons, says that
they were "probably a contributor to Gulf War Syndrome"
among returning U.S. Gulf War veterans. Although he debunks as
"propaganda and science fiction," a report by the Uranium
Medical Research Center, a U.K.-based organization which claims
to have found uranium contamination and signs of radiation-sickness
and radiation-induced birth defects in people who live around
suspected uranium weapon targets in Kabul and Jalalabad, Afghanistan,
Fahey himself is critical of the U.S. military's ever-expanding
use of these weapons. In one article he wrote on the subject,
he quotes a 1990 Pentagon memo on the health risks of exploded
uranium ordinance which concludes that, in order to avoid criticism
of the weapons' battlefield use, "we should keep this sensitive
issue at mind when after action reports are written."
His conclusion, "The military's
view is that unless you can prove something is dangerous, we'll
keep using it. My view is that given the known health concerns
about depleted uranium weapons, unless you can prove it's safe,don't
use it."
There is no question about whether or
not the US and British are using uranium weapons in the current
war against Iraq. Robert Fisk quoted a U.S. general on the eve
of battle as saying, "We have already begun to unwrap our
depleted uranium anti-tank shells." (In the 1991 Gulf War,
one in seven Iraqi tanks destroyed by the U.S. was hit by a uranium
projectile. This time, the percentage of Iraq's 1800 tanks hit
by uranium weapons was clearly far higher. As for the more serious
use of uranium-tipped missiles and bombs in urban settings, the
best evidence that they were used is that the Pentagon, absent
rules that limit its behavior, uses whatever it has in its arsenal
that the generals think works best--and clearly uranium-tipped
weapons outperform any alternative in terms of their ability
to penetrate armor and other heavy shielding. According to Pentagon
studies, uranium projectiles are at least 10 percent more effective
at penetrating shielded bunkers and armor than the next-best
alternative--tungsten clad weapons. That alone was a powerful
incentive to use them.
The Center for Defense Information reports
that the patents for America's bunker-busting bombs include both
tungsten and uranium-cladded versions, making it clear that these
weapons exist in the U.S. military arsenal.
Given the Pentagon's public stance that
uranium weapons pose no appreciable health risk, there is no
reason to believe that these dangerous weapons of mass destruction
were not used. Moreover, given the controversy surrounding DU,
it seems likely that if the Pentagon had decided not to use DU
weapons inside Iraqi cities, it would have trumpeted that fact.
No such disavowal was made.
Civilians in the future "liberated"
Iraq will likely be paying the price for years--maybe generations--to
come. Meanwhile, after they're through watching their president
play soldier on an aircraft carrier, American veterans of the
Iraq war might want to consider the fate of those soldiers whom
the Pentagon sent to participate in early nuclear weapons tests.
Fifty years later, after most of those soldier/guinea pigs have
died, many of them from suspicious cancers, the government is
finally admitting that they received far larger radiation doses
than it ever was willing to acknowledge.
Dave Lindorff
is the author of Killing
Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
A collection of Lindorff's stories can be found here: http://www.nwuphilly.org/dave.html
Yesterday's
Features
Alexander
Cockburn
Rosenthal Faces the Music in Key
Med Marijuana Case
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Labor in the Dawn of Empire
Annie
C. Higgins
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Website
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