(A version of this article has been published on OpEdNew.com at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Fukushima-Hotspots-in-the-by-Steve-Beckow-110403-78.html)
I apologize to my readers for my felt need to communicate the humanitarian disaster being staged in the Libyan desert by NATO troops using depleted-uranium weaponry.
Having heard that DU weapons are being used by NATO to take out Mouammar Gaddafi’s tanks, I cannot and will not remain silent.
I am reminded of why Afghanis have come to hate their American “rescuers” with a loathing not reserved for Russian invaders.
When their babies were born deformed, the Afghani population woke up to the damage caused by depleted uranium.
Here is Jooma Khan of Laghman Province, who realized why his grandson was born deformed and what this meant for his future and the future of his country.
While Jooma does not name depleted uranium as the source of the scourge, he does know he is the victim of an “invisible genocide brought on us by America.”
“After the Americans destroyed our village and killed many of us, we also lost our houses and have nothing to eat. However, we would have endured these miseries and even accepted them, if the Americans had not sentenced us all to death.
“When I saw my deformed grandson, I realized that my hopes of the future have vanished for good, different from the hopelessness of the Russian barbarism, even though at that time I lost my older son Shafiqullah.
“This time, however, I know we are part of the invisible genocide brought on us by America, a silent death from which I know we will not escape.” (1)
If I were to mount photos of deformed babies, you would rise up in revulsion. If you have the stomach for viewing photos of DU’s impact on children, google the subject or go here: https://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Silent-Genocide25mar04.htm But I warn you that the subject is very, very disturbing.
In the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1991, Steve Fetter and Frank Von Hippel from the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC), Washington DC, reported on extensive research by ‘Field’ teams of the UMRC in Afghanistan. The testimony of fathers and mothers is horrifying and explains to us why Afghanis hate us more than the Taliban:
“What else do the Americans want? They killed us. They turned our new-borns into horrific deformations. And they turned our farm lands into grave-yards, and destroyed our homes. On top of all this their planes fly over and spray us with bullets. We have nothing to lose. We will fight them the same way we fought the previous invader.” (2)
Let’s consider what happened in the war of redemption that the allies fought in Yugoslavia. There too they used depleted-uranium weapons and turned the Bosnian landscape into a graveyard. Reports Michel Chossudovsky:
“The bombing of Yugoslavia is best described as a ‘low intensity nuclear war’ using toxic radioactive shells and missiles. Amply documented, the radioactive fall-out potentially puts millions of people at risk throughout the Balkans.
“In March 1999, NATO launched the air raids invoking broad humanitarian principles and ideals. NATO had ‘come to the rescue’ of ethnic Albanian Kosovars on the grounds they were being massacred by Serb forces. The forensic reports by the FBI and Europol confirm that the massacres did not occur. In a cruel irony, Albanian Kosovar civilians are among the main victims of DU radiation. (3)
Consider the future of the village of Hadzici as that of each Libyan village where depleted uranium will spread on the winds in Libya:
“The village is empty, the cemetery full. Soon there will be no more room for the dead. Among refugee families who moved to Bratunac from Hadzici [in the outskirts of Sarajevo] there is a hardly a household not cloaked in mourning. On them are fresh wreaths, some with flowers that have not yet wilted.
“On the crosses the years of death 1998, 1999, 2000 and the grave of a 20 year-old woman at the end of the rows. She died a few days ago. No one could even imagine that in only one or two years the part of the cemetery set aside for civilians would be doubly full.
“It happens often that one of the natives of Hadzici will suddenly die. Or they will go to see the doctor in Belgrade and when they come back their relatives will tell us that they are dying of cancer. Chief doctor Slavica Jovanovic conducted an investigation and proved that in 1998 the mortality rate far exceeded the birth rate. She showed that it wasn’t just a question of fate but something far more serious.
“Zoran Stankovic, the renowned pathologist from the Military Medical Academy (VMA) determined that over 200 of his patients from this area died of cancer, most probably due to the effects of depleted uranium in dropped NATO bombs five years ago. But someone quickly silenced the public and everything was hushed up.
“‘You see, our cemetery is full of fresh graves while the people from Vinca [Nuclear Institute] claim that uranium isn’t dangerous. What other kind of evidence do you need if people are dying?’
The refugees from Hadzici arrived in Bratunac in a sizeable number. There were almost 5,000 of them. There were 1,000 just in the collective centers. Now, says Zelenovic, ‘there are about 600 of them left. And they certainly had nowhere else to go’. Someone dies of cancer every third day; there is no more room in the cemeteries.” (4)
DU weapons are favored for the ease with which the projectiles slice through thick metal and the devastation caused when they explode inside a tank.
Each Libyan tank destroyed by NATO forces using depleted-uranium weapons has become a radioactive hotspot in the Libyan desert with the same power to kill as Fukushima radioactivity. The future of the nation of Libya will be the same as that of Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of DU usage.
Footnotes
(1) Jooma Khan of Laghman province, March 2003 in Leuren Moret, “Depleted Uranium: the Trojan Horse of Nuclear War,” World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, 1 July 2004, downloaded from https://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm, 26 Aug. 2007.
(2) Sayed Gharib at Tora Bora from Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, “Silent WMDs – Effects of Depleted Uranium,” International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), New Delhi, 29 Feb., 1-2 March 2004, downloaded from https://traprockpeace.org/bhagwat_du_29feb04.pdf, 12 Sept. 2007.
(3) Michel Chossudovsky, “Low Intensity Nuclear War,” Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, 2001, downloaded from https://www.jacksonprogressive.com/issues/kosovo/chossudovsky_lowintensity.html, 26 Aug. 2007.
(4) Loc. cit.